Live Review: Asher Roth Aaron’s Amphitheatre @ Lakewood, October 7

By Sam Parvin

Asher Roth, famous for his beer-guzzling, bongalicious tune
“College”, joined the Blink-182 Reunion Tour just a few weeks prior to their
Wednesday show at Lakewood.  And, while
Roth’s style is certainly not punk-rocker like Blink’s, the combination is
complementary. Roth sings about his
“glory days,” as a 20-something (currently) with two years of college under
his belt. His songs are mostly hip-hop, with obvious influences of rock and soul; and the DJ slingin’ tracks
onstage nods to Atlanta’s dance scene.

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Picture Book: Grizzly Bear, Beach House @ Variety Playhouse, October 5

By Matthew Smith

Beach House:

Grizzly Bear:

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Live Review: Hawks, Whores, DD/MM/YYYY, These Arms Are Snakes @ Star Bar, October 1

By Bryan Aiken

As if moving with the cloud of
fall’s first chill, so came the national tour of eccentric indie-rock stalwarts
DD/MM/YYYY and These Arms Are Snakes to Atlanta’s Star Bar. An unlikely pairing
already, if not for the bands’ loose common ground of spastic performance, the
lineup was made even more disparate by its snarling local support: Hawks and
Whores.

Like the burst of a starter pistol,
Hawks began in a fit of sound that would set the aggressive, cacophonous tone
of the evening. The quartet’s classically outrageous punk-smoked rock has
become Atlanta’s preferred infamy of late, stirring due buzz over the
performances that share the sincere irresponsibility of its anti-social sound.
In its short history, Hawks has made a respected art of designed carelessness,
all rusted strings and chugging groove, honing what has become a finely out-of-tuned
craft. But all these observations are nearly eclipsed in the live setting by
the distracting, frothing, Nazi goose-stepping display put on by deranged
vocalist and head hawksman Mike Keenan.

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Live Review: The Rural Alberta Advantage @ Drunken Unicorn, October 2

By Alexandra Edwards

If the
critics peg you as the next big insert-seminal-indie-band-here, is it all
downhill from there?  Is there any way to step out of a shadow you never meant
to get under in the first place?

These were the questions that The Rural
Alberta Advantage were most definitely not contemplating this past Friday night
at the Drunken Unicorn. The band released their debut album Hometowns in
2008 to a veritable avalanche of Neutral Milk Hotel comparisons, most of them
favorable, but nonetheless intimidating. Lesser bands might have let the
comparisons get to them, but not the RAA.  Friday night found them here in
Atlanta for the first time, doing what they do best: forgetting all about the
critics and just playing as hard as they can.

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Vive la France: A Day in the Life of Phoenix

By Eileen Tilson

After hearing “Listzomania,” from French band
Phoenix’s latest album Wolfgang Amadeus, in the new Cadillac commercial,
it is not hard not to realize that this band is poised to be a worldwide
success.  Selling out shows across the country, Phoenix-mania has already taken
hold on America. I followed Phoenix around Atlanta for their sold out show at
the Variety Playhouse, and am happy to report that the soon these four soon to
be megastars are nothing more than polite Frenchmen, who definitely like their
“guac.”

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Live Review: The Minus 5, The Baseball Project, & The Steve Wynn IV @ The 40 Watt, Athens, September 28

By Scott Roberts; photos by Sue
Volkert

Steve Wynn may be the luckiest man
alive. His former band The Dream Syndicate created one of the most enduring and
beloved albums of the 1980s, 1982’s The
Days of Wine and Roses, and Wynn used that as a springboard to a steady,
respectable solo career that began with their demise and has continued to the
present. Last year he formed The Baseball Project, a band that combined his
love for baseball and rock 'n' roll, and they released the CD Volume One: Frozen Ropes and Dying Quails to
stellar reviews and even an appearance on David Letterman. Now that band,
featuring Young Fresh Fellow/Minus 5-er/REM sideman Scott McCaughey, Rock and
Roll Hall of Famer/also Minus 5-er Peter Buck, and Wynn’s lovely
wife/powerhouse drummer Linda Pitmon, is in the middle of a short tour playing
songs from every part of Wynn’s lengthy career (as well as allowing the
49-year-old rocker to lend his underrated guitar skills to several Minus 5
songs and choice covers), a tour that included a stop Monday night at The 40 Watt
in Athens.

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Picture Book: Little Tybee @ The EARL, September 14

By Ben Grad

Live Review: The Constellations, Soulphonics & Ruby Velle @ The EARL, September 10

By Sam Parvin

With The Constellations’ recent signing to Virgin Records, I
anticipated a rather rowdy show at The EARL on Thursday night, and, girl, was I
right! There was not one disengaged body
in the bar – the performers would not stand for such allowances.

Peaking around the corner through the back door to The
EARL’s music room, I was a little surprised that more people weren’t there
yet. After all, the show was slated to
begin at 9, and I graced the scene close to 10:30. But the musings of Ruby Velle were undeniably
strong and drawing in more spectators in each minute’s passing. Ruby’s voice is sultry and strong, sexy yet
fun, and her musical style is difficult to find in the 21^st
century. The six-piece band, complete
with a horns section (two saxophones and a trumpet), evoke sounds of 1960s soul
and funk that is undeniably danceable.
By the end of their set, I was amped up for The Constellations, already
making plans to check out Soulphonics in the near future, and developing a
small woman-crush on Ms. Ruby.

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Live Review: The Brunettes, Throw Me The Statue, Nurses @ The Drunken Unicorn, September 7

By Julia Reidy

I’ve come to really dig the homemade decorations bands have
taken to draping across their equipment for the sake of… what, beauty? Hipster
kitsch? Either way, it’s pretty charming. (I mean, have you ever seen These Are
Powers live?) For Portland,Ore.’s Nurses (pictured above), the knitted
doilies tied to their tables and tables of sampling boards and other electronic
gadgetry might be more geared toward aesthetic continuity, as many of their
press photos have to do with yarn and paper cut-out triangles.

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Live Review: The Fiery Furnaces @ Variety Playhouse, August 21

By Ben Grad

Noted experimental rockers The Fiery Furnaces played the
Variety Playhouse last week with the most basic of basic set-ups: drums and
bass, while Mathew Friedberger lead with guitar and Eleanor Friedberger covered
most of the vocal duties. Keyboard and organ were noticeably absent on
stage; and considering how much I'm Going
Away relies on the two, it left an unusual gap in the expected Fiery
Furnaces sound. Still, it was interesting to realize just how much the Fiery
Furnaces sounded like themselves, even without their signature instruments.

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Live Review: Bowerbirds, Megafaun @ The Earl, August 17

Review and photos by Julia Reidy

If there had been wires running from the instruments
Megafaun (pictured below) and Bowerbirds (three shots, above) played onstage, from their faces and hands to the eyes
and ears of everyone in the crowd, you would’ve seen bursts of green light,
energy snapping and crackling along the lines all night. That’s how electric
the show was. Both acts couldn’t have given more.

Megafaun, up first, just didn’t want to stay plugged in.
Rather than pulling his banjo’s cord out gently, Phil Cook would rip free of
his restraint and bound in one stride to the front of the stage or out into the
audience. All three — Phil, his brother Brad, and drummer Joe Westerlund — walked
around singing joyously among the crowd members. Standouts included “Kaufman’s
Ballad,” “Columns” and “The Fade” as they meshed Americana with noisy electronic feedback and
experimental sound collages. The last song of Megafaun’s all-too-short set was
an unplugged number where they perched at the very front of the stage and sang
straight to the audience, who watched them with awe-struck, upturned faces.

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Live Review: Drive-By Truckers @ Capital Theatre, August 20th

Review and photos by Micah
Mclain

The Drive-By Truckers brought the rock show to the Capital Theatre
in Macon Thursday night. Opener Tift Merritt played a great set, although her
acoustic-leaning alt-country tunes struggled to find the volume necessary to
drown out the loud, rowdy (and borderline rude) crowd that DBT shows have become
known for.

Upon taking the stage, the Truckers used the sold-out show in front
of mostly long-time fans as an opportunity to showcase a few brand new tunes
while dedicating the majority of the set to older tracks from the DBT catalog.
Leading off with Decoration Day rocker "Hell No, I Ain't Happy,"
Patterson Hood and company whipped the crowd into a frenzy with favorites "Marry
Me" and the Mike Cooley-led "Where the Devil Don't Stay."

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Live Review: The Whigs and Vulture Whale @ The Hummingbird, July 31

By
Micah Mclain

During a break from their increasingly regular opening slot
for Kings of Leon, The Whigs stopped by The Hummingbird in Macon for the type of
intimate performance that is quickly becoming a rarity for the Athens' band.
They brought the uniquely named Vulture Whale along to open the show. The
Birmingham, Ala.-based group did an impressive job at quickly engaging the
audience, especially considering the fact that most of the attendees had never
heard of the band before their opening song. Vulture Whale delivered a catchy
blend of southern indie rock and pop in an infectious, entertaining, and quite
often humorous live show. While performing tracks from their two LPs, both of
which are self-titled, the four-piece took full advantage of the opportunity by
admirably preparing the crowd for The Whigs and undoubtedly gaining numerous new
fans in the process.

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Live Review: Dirty Projectors, Atlas Sound @ The EARL, July 17

By Julia Reidy

Dirty Projectors arrived late, during Atlas Sound’s set
on The EARL’s welcoming stage. They’d driven straight to Atlanta from Louisiana,
they told us, and more than one band member was sick. In a gesture of goodwill,
the audience agreed to put out cigarettes for their benefit.

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Picture Book: Cat Power @ The EARL, July 12

Our resident arty photographer Angela M. Scarola took some great shots of the very special, very sold out EARL 10-Year Anniversary Show featuring the lovely Cat Power.