If ever we were to make an exception to the Atlanta Music Guide, Blue Epic would be that band. Since signing with TVT a couple of years ago, Birmingham Alabama's Blue Epic have been the hardworking, touring act every indie band should strive to be. Last week at the East Andrews Fall Festival, opening for (Better Than Ezra), it was never more evident that the work had paid off. The band's live show absolutely rocks, and in front of a crowd not familiar with their songs, they soon had the full attention of everyone there. Check out the band on myspace.com and listen to the tracks 'Good Morning Paranoia' and 'City Rains' from their forth-coming EP, Good Morning Paranoia and you'll hear what we mean. The band play the Velvet Underground on Friday November 5th before heading out on a couple of dates opening for the Donnas (including the Masquerade 11/21). We've got 2 pairs of tickets and an advance copy of the record to give away. Just email us with your name and number to be entered. The winner will be drawn Thursday 11/4. Also on the bill another unsung Atlanta band starting to create a buzz, The Booze - check them out on myspace.com/booze and Good Friday Experiment . Tickets for the show are on sale now via www.ticketalternative.com

Local rockers Bishop Don will be headlining Woods Entertainment’s Rock Benefit for Cancer Research at Peachtree Tavern on November 6th. Tickets are only $8.00, and the show starts at 7:30pm. Other local bands performing include Pollstick , Kennesaw Bo Band , After Bliss , and Lucas & Band . Proceeds from ‘Rock Benefit’ will go towards Breast Cancer Research. www.woodsentertainment.net

A Fir Ju Well play the EARL on Friday October 29th to coincide with the release their debut full length CD Absolutely A Fir Ju Well . The show starts at 10pm with openers Sea Ray, and The Tom Collins. The Selmanaires will be playing on the sidestage between sets. The CD will be available at the show. www.internationalhits.com

The second in a series of very cool parties takes place this Saturday at Halo Lounge on 6th street. The Devil Stole The Beat: Angels & Sin is free but is by invitation only. The crowd made up of music insiders and hipsters will be treated to DJ sets from Chris Coleman, Lauren McGinnis from Avenge Vegas, James Templeton from Red Letter Agent and Sorted's DJ Iain. To get your invite visit www.thedevilstolethebeat.com

99X announced its annual holiday concert, the 99X Mistle Toe Jam , this morning on the air. The concert is slated to take place December 5th at the Arena at Gwinnett Center and features Velvet Revolver, Jimmy Eat World, Muse, Keane, and The Music. There is currently an early onsale for freeloaders until Friday October 29th. Tickets will go on sale to the general public Saturday October 30th. www.99x.com - Want to go for free?? ... we're looking for some volunteers to help promote the Atlanta Music Guide by getting people to sign up for our newsletter. If you're interested email iain@gotsorted.com

Due to demand, the Pinback show originally scheduled for 10/27 at Vinyl has been moved to the Variety Playhouse. Tickets are on sale for $14 each and are still available through Ticket Alternative, so you can still avoid paying Ticketmasters service charges! .. unless you prefer to pay their $8 service charge!

And The Winners Are... Atlanta partied in style Saturday night at the Velvet Underground for the inaugural Atlanta Music Guide Music Awards. Sponsored by PBR, the award show kicked off with a VIP party followed by an opening set by DJ Jay Harren from 99X's Sunday School. The award show fired up at 9:30pm with presenters including Trances Arc, Jennifer Owen from ASCAP, Jay Harren from 99X, Nick Parsons from 96Rock, renowned vocal coach Jan Smith, Butch Walker, Josh Rifkind from openmicmadness, Shannon Wright and Tammara Gillen from UPN69, and Caren West, Brian Cooley and Colin Cooley from Wicked West PR. Each winner took home a custom designed award (designed by GEO4 Designs). Zack Arias from Used Film, AMG's official photog shot the night and you can check out all the pics here! You'll be able to catch footage of the event on TV on Atlanta Tonight on UPN69 soon - stay tuned to find out when it will air!

The full list of winners: ( click here to view the entire list )

Winners of the 2004 "A Shot at the Cabo Wabo", UNCROWNED are only the second independent band in the history of Hard Rock Cafe to have an instrument added to the HRC permanent memorabilia collection. The unveiling of the instrument will take place on October 30, 2004 at the Hard Rock cafe in Atlanta, GA at 9:00 PM, followed by a Halloween show featuring UNCROWNED.

UPDATE - The Cotton Club, arguably one of Atlanta's best live venues, is closing. We were wrong to previously report that Clear Channel was closing a around 100 similar sized venues around the country. According to Adam Cohen at Clear Channel "CC has decided to discontinue booking the Cotton Club as a major venue and focus our efforts to the Roxy. We have opted to book the bigger Cotton Club shows in the Roxy in a 1/2 capacity set up. Of course, this came after a tremendous amount of thought to both our bottom line as well as the future of the scene in Atlanta. Peter Conlon and Alex Cooley have been developing bands in the Cotton Club for close to 10 years and the only thing that kept them from closing months ago was their decades long dedication to work with new acts at their breaking point." The last show is expected to be Helmet on 11/20. The Cotton Club won the AMGMA for Best Venue - an award, given this news, we think is even more well deserved. We've also learned from Metal-Some Monday's Curtis Clark that Nine Lives Saloon has also closed. All future bookings have been cancelled. We've also heard that the future of the Echo Lounge may be also be in doubt....

They're finally here! Sponsored by Pabst Blue Ribbon Beer - The Atlanta Music Guide Music Awards are heating up - in less than 5 days since the nominees were announced we've had over 2000 votes cast! We've even had bands try and cheat!! To all of you encouraging fans to cheat and how to get around our 1 per email/IP Address rule, and submit multiple votes - we're smarter than the average bear. If you are caught 'stuffing the ballots,' the bad votes will be cleared. As we go into the weekend the races are too close to call - there are only 50 tickets remaining for the award show - order yours now to avoid missing this event or having to pay more at the door!

GIVEAWAY - WIN A PAIR OF TICKETS! Coming to Andrews Upstairs this October - the East Andrews Fall Music Festival! The one day event last year was such a success that this fall's festival will take place over the course of two days, October 23-24. Want to score a free pair of tickets for Sunday courtesy of local Atlantans Y-O-U (going on at 3pm), to see them perform that day along with Blue Epic, Better Than Ezra, and more? All you have to do is visit the Y-O-U website at www.pleaserock.com and let us know what team was playing against the Braves the day the band played at Turner Field. Email the answer to us at info@atlantamusicguide.com, and we'll notify the winner Wednesday October 20th . Good luck! For the full lineup and more details, visit www.andrewsupstairs.com.

Several bands including Jellybone , Low Z , Echovalve , Novocaine & Wastegate will play the Cotton Club on 10/29 as part of a benefit for Childrens Health Care of Atlanta set up by Local Love Loud. Local Love Loud was created by Gogi Randhawa of Atlanta-based hard rock group, Wastegate. The executive committee consists of active members in Atlanta’s music scene including members of Wastegate, Subject 2 Change, Code Atom and Arsis Music Productions. They have already raised $1200 and hope to cut a check to Children's Healthcare of Atlanta for $5000 by Christmas time. Prizes at the event include 2 $50 gift certificates to Black Cat Tattoo, a pair of tickets to the Yellowcard show on Saturday November 13 @ the Tabernacle, An autographed guitar by all perfroming bands, a 30 minute lesson and 3 hours of rehearsal time at This House Rocks Rehearsal studios, and autographed merch from bands like Outkast donated by the Cotton Club.