Jose Gonzales - Heartbeats

Mr. Gonzales makes his first ever Atlanta appearace tonight at the Earl with a few other bands. Here's video from a show of his I attended in Echo Park, Los Angeles a few months ago.

the great cee-lo green, lionizing at coachella...their first official show as gnarls barkley.

Good Wood

...In an effort to combat the previous post's obviousness, here's some knowledge---I know y'all have been inundated with Timbaland's latest airwave-assaulters 'SexyBack' and 'Promiscuous Girl.'

Yes, I love those songs as much as most animals that walk upright and have opposable thumbs...

but his sleeper is a song called 'I'll Be Around' featuring the great Cee-Lo. Shit predates Gnarls by a few years, but it's just as hot as the aforementioned... with a taste of that cornpops that can only come from a dude who's partner in crime was named Magoo.

You guys know where and how to get music on your little computrotrons. do it.

Sky Hi Like A Boeing

Well, if you were one of the say 8 or 9 brodawgzzz in the city that couldn't stop by the Fabulous Fox tonite...should I even mention that Sufjan killed it? He rocked a giant bird costume, as did his 18 or so associates, and when he wasn't making ornithology references he was definitely killing the crowd softly with his patented Cole Porter-meets Fairport Convention meets-Sam Beam slow jams.

To switch gears for a sec, mad tons of badass content will appear in the next day or so. It's just that there has been such a whirlwhind of maelstrom-like activity around these parts that I haven't had time to discern, digest, and extrapolate on the shit for y'all.

rest assured there will be interviews with the Gossip, We Are Scientists, Art Brut, and Gomez, as well as some tales of drunk adventures. marinate for a sec though.

Coincidence=Amazingness

I was looking on the inter-web for photos to steal of the Philadelphia band Dr. Dog....when I ran into these pics. It seems the band's nomme de guerre is a popular graffiti tag. The first piece was recently completed by a Japanese lady, while the second one appeared on a brick wall near Hell's Kitchen in Manhattan in the 80s.

Dr. Dog plays Tasty World in Athens on Monday. They're good.

the melodic fury of john fernandes.

Bustin' Makes Me Feel Good

If you didn't have a chance to attend the Blue Ribbon Ball in Athens at the end of summer, you obviously missed out on tons of free PBR, the chance to rock cowboy gear, and attend a great late night dance party featuring music curated by a certain curly-haired blogger....but you also missed Elf Power playing VU and hair-metal covers...aside from that whole Ray Parker Jr. mess.

I got with Laura (moog playa extraordinaire) after their Atlanta show and she recommended their new disc for the winter months. It's called 'Back to the Web,' and to no surprise I like it. Upbeat numbers like 'Come Lie Down With Me' and 'King of Earth' contrast with the cohesive feelings of a band flying through dark Orange Twin tunnels and sunny fields.

If I was trying to hate I would say this record all sounds the same. You know how some records seem to have a theme or mood, while others seem to be a random patchwork of songs that don't seem to go together? (St. Elsewhere and Idlewild seem to come to mind here!)

However, I'm not a hater, I'm a lover, boyee so I would say the best way to listen to this record is all the way through, preferably on an actual record player...while lying on a hardwood floor...with a fine cigar or something in hand...as you sip on tea with the windows open.

So there you go. You got instructions and everything.

my dearly departed, photographed in the city of orange. 

I Miss My Old Bike

Whoever stole this from me in LA---you will get yours, my friend. I promise.

atlanta needs more places where shit like this happens. 

Lenny's Is Dead! Is It Time To Make Oversized Memorial White T's?

Yep, if you haven't talked to any Atlanta hipsters in a couple weeks, the best bar in Atlanta has been shut down by the city due to code violations. This place was one of Atlanta's only real dives, and since the name change (from Dottie's to Lenny's) it's also been the place to catch independent rock and hiphop. Not that the acoustics were good or that the place is actually cool or anything---it's a shithole---but indie rock and hiphop NEEDS to be played in shitholes. And this place was great...the tamborine girl pic comes from a recent Selmanaires/Thee Crucials/Liverhearts show I saw there a month or so ago...as always followed by a late nite dance party.

Here's to the 'new' Lenny's---the old Neutron Bomb illegal punk-rock space near the Cotton Mill lofts. It's near where that lady used to sell all those old bikes a block down from Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church (where my father attends services on Sundays.)

Homework Assignment

for tonite: learn about the Atlanta band Deerhunter. They're brilliant.

be prepared for this kind of wylin. 

Speed Cat

The city of Atlanta was blessed with another Cat Power sighting the other night, and for once the freaking out concerned the audience instead of the previously mentioned performer. Ms. Marshall is becoming quite the professional: i've now seen her play three shows without abruptly leaving the stage, crying a whole ton or turning her back to the crowd for long periods.

Much like her wonderful shows at Arthurfest in Echo Park and Bonnaroo in Tennessee, she was on point at the Variety, rocking a jean jacket and her trademark bangs and playing a beat-up Dan-O. Can't get any better than that.

The old-pro Memphis Rhythm Band seems to be the tonic to Chan's Tanqueray, smoothing out the night instead of the embarassing incidents that come with copious consumption of intoxicating spirits. Go listen to 'Maybe Not' from her 'We Are Free' record if you're not up on her shit.

Big As A Dinosaur

...so all of the votes have been tallied, the Supreme Court has weighed in, and the best show of the summer in Atlanta was Diplo/Cansei Ser Sexy/Bando do Role at the Drunken Unicorn. Wes a.k.a. M.I.A.'s Boyfriend overcame early gear and P.A. problems to absolutely show us why he's the best DJ in the States right now. He had TV on the Radio, Blondie, and Daft Punk recordings going on at once. He had his Technics tables balanced on cases of PBR. He had the sold-out venue at full-on freak-out mode at an early show on a weekday.

If he plays records anywhere within a day's drive, I'm there Phish/Widespread Panic style.