for

forfans
fansof
ofmusic
music&&those
thosewho whomake makeit it
Issue 11 • FREE • athensblur.com

PRIDE PARADE • KINGS OF CONVENIENCE•

DAVID MEAD • HOLY GHOST TENT REVIVAL
• CLIPSE • WHY? • ROYAL BANGS • MASS
SOLO REVOLT & MORE!!!

PATRON brand new

Hardly a flower, ten

SAINTS years in Brand New are

anything but gentle

volcanO choir
Channeling the best

OF of The Badger State

fiery furnaces
How to subvert
the expectation of

POP
for their sixth album, tegan and sara
find faith in — and out of — love
unexpectedness

A royal pain
Will a new piece of
legislation kill
radio as we know it?

happy happy birthday to you >>

 PATRON
SAINTS
OF
POP
38

For their sixth album, Tegan and Sara find faith in — and out of — love.
story by Natalie David photo by Pamela Littky

Volcano revamping
choir my choir
Channelling the very best Fiery Furnaces on how to
of “The Badger State” subvert the expectation of
unexpectedness
by Alec Wooden 28 by Adam Clair 30
every daisy Royal PaiNS
has its thorn? A new piece of legislation
promises the performing
Hardly a flower, ten years in artist new royalty rights.
Brand New are anything but But will it kill radio as we
gentle know it?
by Natalie David 32 by Sarah McCarty 42
celebrating Open Late
a decade Conan’s got The Tonight
Happy Happy Birthday To Show. Leno’s got his own
Me Records is still big on show, too. But is America
friendship, imagination and being entertained?
ingenuity
by Ed Morales 46 by DeMarco Williams 54
ATHENS BLUR MAGAZINE 3
 13 music
c OLUMNS
EDITOR’S PLAYLIST: 7
Ten Tunes Worth Noting
THE FIRST WORD: 8
Remembering Nebraska
WORTH A THOUSAND: 64

14
Who says you need words?

19 16 spotlights:
11 Thao and the Get Down Stay Down
David Mead
10
11
21
Why? 12
Pride Parade 13
Kings of Convenience 14
Royal Bangs 16
Efren 17
Clipse 19
Mass Solo Revolt 20
Holy Ghost Tent Revival 21

a LSO:
20 EAR CANDY:
Album Reviews
THIS DAY IN MUSIC HISTORY
22

26

35 17
TEN QUESTIONS WITH: 35
Drivin’ n’ Cryin’

m usician’s corner
MUSICIAN’S GEAR GUIDE 49
Life’s too short to own bad gear

22
Regional Report: 51

60
Jacksonville, Fla.

49 a RTS &
e NTERTAINMENT
upcoming on the screen 52

c oncert shots 60

52 The Month in Photos

ATHENS BLUR MAGAZINE 5
 BLUR FROM THE EDITOR
DEAR READERS , The Athens Blur Magazine
My fame on the airwaves was pretty short lived. When I was in college, I freaked out
(literally, almost drove my Jeep into a ditch) after hearing one of my band’s songs on
P.O. Box 7117
the radio for the first time. The second time was almost as cool. The third time...okay, I
don’t think there was a third time.
Athens, Ga 30604
The point of the story isn’t to relive musical glory days. Rather, the point is that each Main Office (706) 353-7799
time the broadcasting station was Bulldog 100.1 FM (103.7 on the dial at that point).
For that reason, it will always have a special place in my heart.
Sales (706) 207-9091
I’m sad to know the Bulldog is gone — but even more sad (and dumbfounded,
frankly) over what has taken its place, Top 40 Hits station “Power 100.1.” Did we need Executive Editor
a Top 40 station to call our own? Not really. Athens picks up Atlanta joints like STAR Alec Wooden
94, 95.5 The Beat...the list goes on. alec@athensblur.com
By and large, I just don’t buy the fact that we’re that much of a Top 40 town. Pop-
ular music isn’t shunned, nor should it be. But we’re a rock town. Indie-rock, pop- Director of Sales
rock, punk-rock, post-rock, alt-rock, hard-rock, whatever. There was something special, Stephen Simmons
something nice, in hearing that catchphrase — “World Class Rock.” stephen@athensblur.com
Let’s call a spade a spade. Did I listen to Bulldog very much? No, not very much.
Classic rock isn’t really my daily bread and butter. But that’s the point — even lacking Account Executives
Jen Allen
my favorite artists in their playlists, Bulldog still had something for me, as it did for all.
jen@athensblur.com
I listened in the mornings when afforded the chance, the local music shows whenever I Adrienne Klein
could — I never went out of my way to turn the Bulldog off or question why someone adrienne@athensblur.com
else had it on. No doubt, I won’t say the same about “Power.” Cole Taylor
Something feels like we’ve lost a close friend, a local staple, a dependable (regardless cole@athensblur.com
of whether or not their playlists were your bag) voice in the community, swallowed into
a big, stinking corporate mess. Design
That said, I have no real reason to wish ill will towards Cox for the decision to re-for- Lauren Mullins, Carlye Norton,
mat Bulldog, other than selfish personal ones (but those are the most fun, aren’t they?). Allison Weiss, Alec Wooden
If this move will keep the most employees in the workforce, then hey, more power (no
Editorial Interns
pun intended) to them.
Marie Baginski,
But as time goes on, I think we’ll all find that this ain’t no power (pun fully intend- Kristen Callihan, Jessica Cole
ed) to the people.
Contributing Editors
Matt Conner, Jon Ross

Contributing Writers
Adam Clair, Amanda Cuda,
Matt Conner, Natalie David,
Alec Wooden Matt Fink, Jennifer Gibson,
Executive Editor Tiffani Harcrow, Sarah McCarty,
Ed Morales, Phil Pyle,
Ned Rauch, Ingrid Sibley,
Dylan Solise, DeMarco Williams

editor’s playlist Contributing Photographers

Alyssa De Hayes, Stefen Eberhard,
make sure these tunes get on your playlist Wes Elkin, Justin Evans, Sandra Gallardo,
Alex Gibbs, Will Gravlee, Daniel Peiken
“Husks and Shells” “The Hobo Girl”
Volcano Choir Fruit Bats
For general comments and inquiries:
editorial@athensblur.com
“I Want You To Keep Everything” “These Are My Twisted Words”
These United States Radiohead For advertising opportunities:
sales@athensblur.com
“Surprise Hotel” “January Twenty Something”
Fools Gold Why? The Athens Blur Magazine issue 11, copyright©2009
By The Athens Blur Magazine, INC. The Athens Blur Magazine is
an eight issue/year music and variety publication, proud to be
“Don’t Haunt This Place” “Calypso Gold” based in the “Classic City” of Athens, Ga. All rights reserved. No
part of this publication may be reproduced in whole or part in
The Rural Alberta Advantage Princeton any way by any means unless written permission is received from
the publisher. Published monthly except for each summer issue
in the United States of America and distributed free of charge
(limit one copy per reader, each subsequent copy is distributed
at a charge of $4.95). Postmaster send address changes to The
Athens Blur Magazine, P.O. Box 7117 Athens, Ga. 30604
ON THE COVER: Tegan & Sara. Photo: Pamela Littky

ATHENS BLUR MAGAZINE 7

 MUSIC
BLUR THE FIRST WORD
Reason to believe
27 Years later, springsteen’s Nebraska still shines a light
Twenty-seven years ago Bruce Springsteen
released the most daring, revolutionary and
rock ’n’ roll record of his career and, perhaps,
of the era. He did it without drums, bass,
saxophone or pretty back-up singers and
recorded it in his bedroom on a four-track
tape machine. Then he went and named it
Nebraska.
It’s simple, it’s spare, it’s honest and it’s
haunting, and to hand it into the record
company, at a time when synths and New
Wave ruled, took more balls than his peers
would have even dared to muster. You think
Jackson Browne could have pulled that off?
In today’s scene, Jack White has made a
career out of zigging when people thought
he’d zag. Nebraska out-zigs White by a mile,
and it’s no novelty act. It’s painfully real.
In 1982, Springsteen was at the cusp of
international superstardom. Born in the USA
was two years away, but Springsteen had
already established himself as the greatest
American rock performer. The River, which
came out in 1980, produced his first top-
ten hit, “Hungry Heart.” He’d toured the
country’s arenas, but hadn’t yet graduated to
stadiums, and supernova status was anything
but certain.
In the decade that had passed since the
release of his first record, he’d consistently
moved toward his rock side and away from
his folk side, filling his songs with sharp,
chiming electric guitars, pianos and organ
riffs, explosive drums and sax. Whereas
acoustic guitars defined the sound of
1973’s Greetings From Asbury Park, NJ, they
appeared on subsequent records only to color
a song or two.
Meanwhile, the '80s were becoming,
well, the '80s. War between Iran and Iraq,
Russians in Afghanistan, Central America
a violent mess. Reagan was elected on a
promise of a new morning in America that,
to Springsteen’s ears, sounded like a con.
And so he retreats to a rented Jersey
farmhouse with an acoustic guitar, a
tape recorder and a bunch of Flannery
O’Connor stories. Out comes a record
about serial killers, organized crime, envy,
social stratification, a cop-killer, brotherly
love, corruption, Vietnam, desperation, duty,
emasculation, pride, cars, love, family and —
all in one song — a dead dog, a dead man, a
baptism and a runaway bride.
8 ATHENS BLUR MAGAZINE
Ned Rauch
Over the course of
Nebraska’ s 40 minutes
are 14 deaths, including a
death-row execution,
four run-ins of one kind or
another with the police, two
courtroom scenes, a fist fight
and a fatal explosion.
Over the course of Nebraska’s 40 minutes
are 14 deaths, including a death-row
execution (another character, sentenced
to life in prison, asks the judge, instead, to
“put me on that execution line,”), four run-
ins of one kind or another with the police,
two courtroom scenes, a fist fight and a fatal
explosion.
Much of Nebraska is about life’s unforgiving
side and the authority patrolling it — and
whether you face it or run away from it. The
word “sir” appears nine times; “road” appears
seven times; “car” and “highway” both appear
six times. This is not a record about romance.
The word “love” shows up just three times on
the whole record. The first time, the narrator
admits that his “love may be cold.” The other
two times come at the end of the record, in
the same line. “Mary Lou loved Johnny with
a love mean and true.” Past tense. That love’s
on ice, too.
One cut, sort of, qualifies as a love song:
“Open All Night.” But it’s less an ode to
Wanda, the narrator’s girlfriend, whom he
met at Bob’s Big Boy, than it is to his car.
Springsteen sings the lyrics to this one
five times faster than anything else on the
record, and it’s the one tune on which we
hear an electric guitar. It, too, is running fast.
There’s a frantic, fleeting freedom here. It’s
the feeling you get when you know where
you’re going and why. You’re in control, and
control is a rare thing for the characters on
this record.
And yet Springsteen is in total control of it.
ReignSold.com
He played and sang every note on it, adding
bits of harmonica, mandolin, glockenspiel
and organ here and there, fleshing out these
skeletal songs just enough to give them life.
He tried the tunes with the rest of the band,
but heard none of the angst and pain in the
new arrangements.
Springsteen, like the people on the record,
would be alone on this one and, in some
ways, barely there. The reverb on his voice
creates a sense of distance and detachment.
While his face appeared on the cover of his
last four records, Nebraska’s cover shot is just
a road cutting through the prairie beneath a
heavy sky. The record came out, went gold,
but Springsteen didn’t tour behind it. He
OK’d a video for “Atlantic City” but isn’t in
it — just black-and-white shots of a beat-up
gambling town.
Somehow, in the midst of all that darkness,
Springsteen shines a little light. It’s dim, but
it’s there in the refrain of “Atlantic City”
(“Maybe everything that dies someday
comes back.”) and in the title of the last cut,
“Reason to Believe.” The song doesn’t offer
any reasons at all, but it finds Springsteen
marveling at the ability of people who’ve
lost it all to endure. “At the end of every
hard-earned day, people find some reason to
believe,” he sings.
And that’s what makes Nebraska not just
gutsy but strong: it finds hope in the hardest
of times.
 
Ned P. Rauch lives in New York City and
writes for www.tendollarradioshow.com and
plays guitar in the band Frankenpine.

MUSIC SPOTLIGHTS
getting down
WITH THE GET DOWN, STAY DOWN
On a day of unyielding
Georgia rain, Thao Nguyen is in
the beguiling San Francisco. “I’m
from right outside D.C., so the
pace is a little bit more intense
there. And people are a little
more quick to react,” says the
Virginia native, who fell for San
Francisco while volunteering
at a homeless shelter under a
college grant. Nowadays, she
gives of herself in a different way,
by pouring her heart into her
music. The cover of her second
full-length release with The Get
Down Stay Down, Know Better
Learn Faster, represents this
visually with Thao removing a
blindfold to witness a dripping
heart-shaped piñata:
 
Thao Nguyen: It’s me sort of
tongue-in-cheek beating [my
own] heart. But it’s a party
atmosphere and there’s people
watching and exaggeratedly
enthusiastic. I guess the
conception of it is more the
idea of being somewhat self-
destructive and then writing
songs about it and having people
celebrate that. But I don’t mean it
to be that cynical or dark. Mostly
we wanted a high-energy record,
but also, the content is very sad,
to me at least. And so that does
sort of [become] the paradox.
We wanted to juxtapose both
those ideas.
 
Athens Blur Magazine: What
would you consider to be the theme
of the whole album?
TN: I would say a lot of
the album is about the end
of a relationship. It’s sort of
the audit of what did and did
not happen. There’s obviously
whatever emotions are involved
in the breakup. There’s a sort of
underriding current of frenzied
hopelessness.
I think the title track is one
of the more meaningful songs
to me — “Know Better Learn
Faster.” ‘Because you can’t, that
would be what I found out. That
by the time you know you should
have, it’s too late. And how can
10 ATHENS BLUR MAGAZINE
MUSIC SPOTLIGHTS
Triumph and tragedy
david mead’s latest is personal and profound
It’s hard to believe David
Mead is in a good place. After all, DAVID
the longtime singer/songwriter MEAD
just emerged from a divorce, his
producer hates his new album title WHO’S WHO
and he scrapped the first batch David Mead
of songs for Almost and Always
because they were too depressing FORMED
to release.  Yet one listen to the 1998 in Nashville, Tenn.
updated version of Almost reveals
Mead at his absolute best. It’s the LABEL
oft-seen beauty-from-tragedy Cheap Lullaby
that marks the 14-song collection
and finds the lonesome tenor
LATEST RELEASE
Almost and Always (2009)
both triumphant and defeated.
As Mead describes it, the ON THE WEB
trials became a prime place for www.davidmead.com
inspiration to take root.
“Of course, this is just my
perspective, obviously, because
“[ Jones] understands a lot of
a lot of people deal with this
things that bring a listener joy,”
differently,” Mead says, “but no
Mead says. “It's not like he can't
matter how you come out of the
THAO WITH THE GET have a couple or three songs that
relationship part of all of this,
are really dark or even an entire
DOWN, STAY DOWN it's impossible to avoid a lot of
record of that, but you have to
courtesy thao & TGDSD
dynamic and a lot of change.
do that really well. Maybe he just
you? It’s sort of frustrating and keys and everything. And then That's just going to be inherent.
WHO’S WHO wasn't impressed with my version
funny, but it’s not funny. Too we’re gonna have some cello That's usually a pretty good time
Thao Nguyen (vocals, gui- of it.”
little, too late, or something tar, banjo), Adam Thomp- guests as well.   for the creative process to happen.
Once the original tunes were
along those lines. son (bass, keys, guitar, We’re excited to go to Atlanta. If you get too comfortable, there's
shelved, fresh material began
  vocals), Willis Thompson I think we’re playing The Earl? less inspiration to do anything.”
to emerge with Mead’s new
AB: Who all was playing on (drums, percussion, vocals)   Of course, it takes time to lick
songwriting partner, Bill DeMain.
“Know Better Learn Faster”? AB: Yeah, it’s November 9th I your wounds and find the proper
Instead of producing the intensely
TN: The band and myself. And FORMED think. headspace to even compose a
2005 in Richmond, Va. personal songs from before, the
Eric Earley of Blitzen Trapper TN: Sure, yeah! I don’t know song. For Mead, the time didn’t
co-writers allowed the songs to
does some slide guitar. And then the dates. last as long as it could have for
LABEL become universal in nature.
Andrew Bird graciously made   others. 
Kill Rock Stars “I went back to this group of
a guest appearance…that really AB: How do you think this “I was fortunate,” Mead
songs that Bill DeMain and I
high pitch almost inhuman but LATEST RELEASE album has progressed from We explains. “I had a really shitty time
had written. The focus turned out
beautiful note that you hear in Know Better Learn Faster Brave Bee Stings And All? of it for about six months or so,
to be strangely prophetic, but a
the end is him whistling. And (2009) TN: There’s a lot more and then some lights started to courtesy david mead
lot of them were torch songs to
we were all in the studio, and emotional straightforwardness come on. I had some very good
nobody, and I felt like they, in a
we were like scared when he did ON THE WEB and I think this album has a lot help in processing the emotional “ We’re all at the point where we’ve done enough art roundabout way, described the
that. Amazing! www.thaomusic.com more energy from us and from side of that, so I wrote several for art’s sake. It’s just not really that interesting unless situation in a better way than
  me in particular. A lot more of batches of songs. I wrote one set
there’s some sort of participatory, interactive element the ugly songs that I had written.
AB: What’s the meaning behind my energy than the last record of songs that was supposed to be
  to it.” Well, they weren't ugly, but they
the song “The Give”? and I think a lot of that is over Almost and Always that turned out
AB: Do you have horns in your were intense. They were pretty
TN: Oh, that song, yeah. the last year and a half, however pretty dark. I was fortunate to get
live shows? jagged. There was no perspective
That’s the song about the end of long we’ve been on tour, we’ve some advice that it might not be — David Mead —
TN: We will for this upcoming on the feeling at the point that
a different relationship. But it’s become more comfortable with a very listenable record to make,
tour for this record. But normally they were written.”
written from the perspective of a ourselves as a band. I think so I didn't.” listen to,” Mead says with a laugh. that we're trying to tailor-make
we don’t. We’ve been a trio for   It’s there in the tension that
father addressing the daughter. what we’ve found is we like a That advice came courtesy of “We're all at the point where we've music to find some larger audience
the most part. But you know. Mead’s Almost and Always exists
  more high-energy show. And I friend and producer Brad Jones. done enough art for art's sake. It's — but music, to me, is made to be
It’s mostly financial — how big as a relatable compendium of
AB: Does it feel personal or is it wanted that same energy to be The counsel may seem harsh, but just not really that interesting listened to. I stopped playing in
your band can be when you’re weathered songs with enough of
more general? represented on the record. That Mead acknowledges it was dead- unless there's some sort of my bedroom a long time ago.”
on the road. But thankfully for Mead’s personal fingerprints for
TN: Oh no. It’s incredibly was our hope. We’ll see how on.  participatory, interactive element In the end, it was Jones’
this tour we have the Portland one to appreciate both the art and
personal. I only said ‘a father and much of it got to the album. “He didn't want me to put out to it. So when we make records experience and expertise that
Cello Project opening. One of the artist involved.
a daughter’ to disguise it, but it’s an album, especially with his name together, we're very conscious of allowed Mead to trust his
their members will be our multi-  
very personal. on it, that would be difficult to an audience —  not in the sense judgment.
instrumentalist playing horn and — Ingrid Sibley        — Matt Conner
ATHENS BLUR MAGAZINE 11

MUSIC SPOTLIGHTS
A WOLF ON THE PROWL
WHY?’S FRONTMAN WILL NEVER STOP SEARCHING FOR HIS BEST WORK
It’s Yoni Wolf ’s unequaled
blend of honesty and artistry that’s
accelerated his hip-hop collective,
Why?, to the front of critical hip-
hop lists everywhere. Last year’s
Alopecia delivered one of the year’s
most celebrated hip-hop releases
and placed the Berkeley unit on
the map for many new fans. Now,
Eskimo Snow provides a quick
record to capitalize on a still-
buzzing fan base.
The turnaround time is as
startling as the music inside, but
that comes as no surprise when
considering the two projects
are “sister albums,” as Wolf calls
them. “We recorded Eskimo Snow
at the same time as Alopecia, and
they were split up according to
the sounds and the ideas behind
the songs. But they come from
the same sessions.”
Originally, Wolf says Eskimo
Snow was scheduled first, but
some internal misgivings on his
part forced the band to consider
Alopecia instead.
“I set that material aside for
a second because I didn't know
what it needed,” he explains. “It
wasn't done, but I didn't know
12 ATHENS BLUR MAGAZINE
why. I knew the type of work that
Alopecia needed on it, so I decided
to pick that one up to finish it
first. We ended up recording some
more songs for Alopecia and then
that came out in 2008.”
“It wasn't about songs or
anything on the surface. It was a
tonal thing, I think. I had gone
down to Nashville and mixed it
with my friend Mark Nevers. He
has this distinct sound that he’s
done with artists like Silver Jews
and Bonnie Prince Billy, and I
thought this record has that sound
or a kinship with those types of
artists. So I wanted to go to the
source to mix with Mark.”
While pleased with Nevers'
work, Wolf explains that
something still tugged at him
about the project. There wasn’t a
cohesion with Why?’s previous
work, and more detail work was to
be done. The question remained:
What exactly was needed?
“Coming away from that
experience and listening to the
material, I couldn't help but feel
that it didn't sound like a Why?
record,” says Wolf. “It sounded
super-raw and under-produced,
if that's even a word. I wanted
it to sound natural, but it almost
sounded too natural. So we went
in and psyched it out a bit —
just enough so it had a different
flavor to it. We didn't want to
go overboard and make it into
an Animal Collective record or
something like that.”
Wolf ’s insistence toward
excellence and willingness
to admit mistakes keeps this
longtime musician focused and
sharp. As Wolf notes, it’s usually
the difficult choices that are the
ones worth making.
“Sometimes you have to be
honest with yourself and admit
when it's not working like it
should be,” says Wolf. “You have
to admit what needs to change
for it to maintain its integrity
as a project. Sometimes that's a
bitch and it takes a whole lot of
reworking. I didn't want to mix
Eskimo Snow all over again, but I
had to be honest with myself at
some point and say, 'You know,
it's just not done. It needs a lot
more work to it,' and we just had
to do it.”
“I believe there’s more at
PHOTO: JACOB HAND
WHY?
WHO’S WHO
Yoni Wolf, Josiah Wolf,
Austin Brown, Doug McDi-
armid
FORMED
1997 in Berkeley, Calif.
LABEL
Anticon
LATEST RELEASE
Eskimo Snow (2009)
ON THE WEB
www.myspace.com/
whyanticon
stake with each new project,” he
continues. “I'm harder on myself
with each new record and feel
that it has to be more and more
of what it's supposed to be. When
I first made a tape in ’97 or so,
it was just anything goes. It was
done because there's an hour and
a half of material to go on it and
that's all you thought. As time has
gone on, I've been able to hone my
editing skills and critical listening
skills, so I'm harder on things
than I've ever been in a way. That's
a good thing I think.”
 
— Matt Conner
TAKING PRIDE
ATHENS BAND LIKES TO MESS WITH EXPECTATIONS
Andrew Prater has a dream.  It’s
a mischievous dream – indicative
of his deep desire to “fuck with
people’s minds.”  The dream
centers on Pride Parade, the
bracing hard rock band for which
Prater is vocalist and guitarist, and
the band’s somewhat whimsical
name. In his dream, the band and
its moniker play a role in changing
narrow minds and bringing about
universal understanding. Well,
kind of.
“I want some homophobic
asshole to have to tell his friends
he saw a badass band last night
called Pride Parade,” Prater says.
Actually, the group’s powerful,
unrelenting music doesn’t quite
mesh with its sunny, upbeat
name. So maybe homophobes
aren’t the only demographic that
Prater and his band mates enjoy
messing with.
The band released its latest
album Dose on September 30 and,
like previous releases Descendants
and the EP V, it was self-released.
The Athens-based band —
which also includes guitarists
Allen Owens and BJ Bracewell,
bassist Bubba McDonald and
drummer Aaron Sims – has been
performing together for about
two years, and it certainly seems
to have evolved in that time. In
fact, Prater says, he originally
envisioned the band “as some
kind of Neil Young type thing.  WHO’S WHO
More country type stuff.”  But
those early concepts are nowhere
to be found on the band’s latest
project. Dose is undeniably rock
‘n roll, with elements of punk and
other genres thrown in.
Prater acknowledges the
big difference between how he
originally saw the band and
its current style. He says Pride
Parade’s sound changed and
developed the longer the band
worked together as musicians and
songwriters. In the beginning, he
said, the band didn’t collaborate as
much on songwriting. Once that
changed, the sound and energy of
their music changed right along
with it.
“As we kept playing together
and writing songs together we got
more and more dark and twisted,”
Prater says. The result was “a
lot of anxiety music  — manic
depression's a bitch;  Hell is real.”
All that darkness is influenced
a great deal by life experience,
which Prater says doesn’t, in and
of itself, make the band unique
PRIDE
PARADE
Andrew Prater (vocals),
Allen Owens (guitar), BJ
Bracewell (guitar), Bubba
McDonald (bass), and
Aaron Sims (drums)
FORMED
2007 in Athens, GA
LABEL
No label
LATEST RELEASE
Dose (2009)
ON THE WEB
www.myspace.com/pride-
parade69
among rock artists.
“I'm inspired by the same
things anybody else is inspired by
— happiness, depression, social
anxiety disorder, binge drinking,
life, the world, [the idea that] pills
are fun sometimes,” Prater says .
  As far as being influenced by the
work of other artists, Prater says
he and his band mates grew up
in the mid '90s, and, of course,
MUSIC SPOTLIGHTS
photo: SARA BLUM
listened to the grunge rock that
was bursting onto the scene at
that time. But, in general, their
tastes are eclectic. Prater says
everyone in the band is interested
in different types of music. His
own tastes are particularly diverse
and have more to do with an
interest in quality than a loyalty
to any particular genre. “I've been
listening to The Temptations
a lot lately, [as well as] Willie
Nelson,” he says. “Anybody
who writes a good song.”
  Right now, the band is busy
touring to promote the new
release. As far as the future is
concerned, Prater says he isn’t
really sure what it holds, though
he’s eager to keep working with his
fellow Pride Parade musicians.
“The ultimate goal is to write,
record and play as much music
as we possibly can before we
start hating each other and quit,”
Prater quips.
In reality, the likelihood of the
band devolving into a hatefest is
pretty small.
“We’re pretty good friends,”
Prater says. “Best friends, actually.
We’ll see.” 
 
— Amanda Cuda
ATHENS BLUR MAGAZINE 13
MUSIC SPOTLIGHTS
DARE TO DEPEND
TOGETHER, KINGS OF CONVENIENCE LEARN TO BE INDEPENDENT
It’s the tail end of a long press
day for Kings of Convenience’s
Erland Øye. On the other end of
the line, it’s a rainy day in New
York City, and the Norwegian
red head’s sore throat is just
another sign of the anticipation
behind his duo’s latest album,
Declaration of Dependence.
Alongside Eirik Bøe, Øye
has been earning so-called
quiet music a whole new respect
since 1999, creating intricate,
delicate and rhythmical tunes
with just two men and their
guitars. Together again for
its third album, Declaration of
Dependence continues the Kings
of Convenience's crusade for
all things delicate, mixing a
stripped down sound with a
bossa nova soul to complement
its trademark harmonic vocal
bliss.
Answering questions about
the new disc, Øye speaks in
purposefully slow, thoughtful
responses, but can’t help but
launch himself into a long-
winded discussion about
dependence, and why it might
not deserve the bad rep pop
culture has conjured for it.  But now, through the making of this album, there was no
“Well, if you are independent,
it also means that you are
completely free. You have lots
of options. The Western world
now, you have so many options
that a lot of people are going
crazy,” he explains. “And if you
are dependent on something,
you can face the world from
that wall.”
But Øye’s musical relationship
with Bøe is far less based on
dependence than it once was. So
when they reconvened for album
number three, their partnership
required an altogether different
reason to remain intact: because
they wanted it to.
“Back in the day, when I was
really dependent on Eirik and
he was really dependent on me,
it was much easier because, well,
we needed each other,” says
Øye. “And when you don’t need
somebody, well, then you have
to constantly decide if you want
14 ATHENS BLUR MAGAZINE
PHOTO: ASE HOLTE
“When we started out doing this thing, I was really
dependent on Eirik because he had a good voice, and I didn’t
yet. And he was dependent on me because he didn’t really have
any kind of idea of how to bring his music out of the bedroom
longer this thing that we depended on each other anymore,
and that made it much more difficult.”
— Erland Øye, Kings of Convenience —
to do it or not, if you want to be
with this person.”
Their declaration of
dependence, then, is the decision
to stick together. Always a
50/50 partnership, their divided
lines of responsibility have now
blurred, creating both more
options, and greater difficulty
for the duo.
“When we started out
doing this thing, I was really
dependent on Eirik because he
had a good voice, and I didn’t
yet. But together we sang really
well. And he was dependent
on me because he didn’t really
have any kind of idea of how
to bring his music out of the
bedroom,” says Øye. “But now,
through the making of this
album, there was no longer this
thing that we depended on each
other anymore, and that made it
much more difficult.”
“We have to discuss
everything,” explains Øye, citing
decisions from who should play
the nylon guitar to who should
helm lead vocals or take the high
harmonies, since both men are
now capable of all three. “So it
was a lot more choices. Choices,
choices, choices.”
On top of the new decisions
to be made, Øye and Bøe
aren’t exactly known for their
cordiality while in the studio.
However, Øye admits that the
scathing constructive criticism
T H E G E O RG I A B A R
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CONVENIENCE
WHO’S WHO
$2
mondays
OFF
PITCHERS
tuesdays
EVERY MONDAY!
Erland Øye (vocals, guitar),
Eirik Bøe (vocals, guitar) $4
all day
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EVERY TUESDAY!
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WEDNESDAYS!
LABEL
Astralwerks/Virgin/EMI
Our MLB
Package
The Secret to
the Universe
LATEST RELEASE
Declaration of Dependence
(2009)
ON THE WEB
Athens, Georgia
www.kingsofconvenience.
com
come check out our expanded
helps push their music to its retail & distribution facility
THE GEORGIA BAR
best, even if it causes battles
159 W. Clayton St. 195 Paradise Blvd. * Athens, Ga. * 30607
between the two songwriters.
“We’re not very respectful (706) 546-9884
with the other’s ideas, so there’s
a lot of ‘That sucks. That’s ok.
That’s good. That sucks. This
part could be something. That,
that’s boring,’” Øye says. “So
you kind of have to fight for
your ideas.”
Ultimately, the rigorous
writing process for Kings of
Convenience, one seemingly
based on near-perfectionism,
is one well suited to the band’s
acoustic, guitar-and-vocals-
only sound. And Øye says he
is drawn to that sound because
there are no studio tricks to hide
imperfections or songwriting
mishaps.
“I like the idea of stripping
down to the bone and getting
rid of unnecessary stuff. It’s
like when you cover with just
a guitar a very produced song.
And the song is so good that it
doesn’t really matter; it’s very
good with just one guitar,” he
says. “The songs have to be
really good. The words have to
be really good if you do it on
just guitars.”
And, from these Kings, that’s
something you can depend on.
— Natalie B. David

MUSIC SPOTLIGHTS
marching to its own beep
READY TO WORK, ROYAL BANGS IS POISED FOR A BREAKTHROUGH
You’ve heard them, this new
barrage of bands paying homage
to the late ’70s and early ’80s,
playing their “wanna sport the
keytar” synthesizer pop/rock.
Not naming any names (Empire
of the Sun, Passion Pit), these
bands are finding fresh fans
even while their sound stays in
the past. It’s as if Marty McFly
took them back to 1981 and
decided to ditch them there.
So it’s no wonder Ryan Schaefer,
the singer/keyboardist/beat maker
of Knoxville, Tenn.’s Royal Bangs,
sounds weary discussing those
“influences” he keeps hearing
about when others try to define
his band. Even when, it turns
out, some of those descriptions
come from a familiar face.
“I know what the press says
about us, with the ’70s influence,
and maybe that comes from me
too, and maybe I misspoke,”
Schaefer says, laughing. “But I’m
not interested in throwback rock.
We want to make something new.
I feel, especially right now, there’s
a lot of music I can’t get behind.
It’s music that sets itself square in
the middle of a musical idiom that
16 ATHENS BLUR MAGAZINE
but with other bands.  Fast-
forward a few years, and with a
name change and the addition
of Stratton, the genesis was set
for the home-recorded We Breed
Champions (2006). Champions is
a collection of relentless drums,
eclectic clicks and bouncy
beats, but at first the trio never
expected the album to go much
beyond the Knoxville borders.
“The whole reason we recorded
that album is because we thought
the band wasn’t going to be
around anymore,” Schaefer says.
“I was moving, so a lot of that was
just documenting those songs.”
Schaefer moved to France —
“soaking up 90 percent beer and
writing new shit,” he says —
while Rusk was using the Bangs’
MySpace page to get anyone he
could to listen to Champions. And
then one day, while sitting in class
at the University of Tennessee,
Rusk got an e-mail response from
courtesy the royal bangs
Carney. He wanted the demo.
started and ended. I don’t know The 2008 re-release of
how you sustain a career making ROYAL BANGS Champions, an epic 2 a.m.
records that sound like records Bonnaroo performance and an
that have already been made.” added legion of critical acclaim
WHO’S WHO
To combat this time warp, Ryan Schaefer (keyboard, later, the band sits atop a
Schaefer and his four bandmates vocals, beats), Chris Rusk precipice of uncharted territory.
offer up Let It Beep, a crisp (drums), Brandon Biondo Embarking on -a fall tour
collection of up-tempo tunes (guitar), Henry Gibson with Drummer (Carney’s side
and electronic flourishes you’d (bass guitar) and Sam project), the Bangs’ roster (with
never hear in a 1980s musical Stratton (guitar) the addition of bassist Henry
movie montage. Released in Gibson and guitarist Brandon
mid-September, Let It Beep is FORMED Biondo) has with it a new level
2005 in Knoxville, Tenn.
the Bangs’ sophomore album on of expectations.  Expectations
Audio Eagle Records (the label it intends to sustain.
LABEL
run by Patrick Carney of The Audio Eagle Records “We’re slowly making the
Black Keys) and is generating transition into doing this full
a steady level of enthusiasm. LATEST RELEASE time, and it’s exciting, but nerve-
“The way we did this album Let it Beep (2009) racking,” Schaefer says. “All we
was always the way we wanted want to do is work. The only
to do it, with all the extra pulses, ON THE WEB thing we told our booking agent
extra instrumentation and www.royalbangs.com was we don’t want any days off.
percussion,” Schaefer says. “This Every day we can play a show, we
record, to me, is catching up on should. A lot of people I know
one part luck, one part patience
some ground. With the exception like having days off every now
for Royal Bangs. Schaefer and
of one or two songs, all songs and again, but we want to play
drummer Chris Rusk formed the
were recently written; they all go music. Why spend another day
band while attending high school
together. There were one or two in a city where we can spend
in suburban Knoxville under the
older songs that were good songs, money we don’t have? That
name Suburban Urchins. The duo
and the recording came out really doesn’t interest me. I’d rather
wrote “really shitty songs. It was
well, but it just made the album play a show. I’d rather work.”
a wreck,” Schaefer remembers. E: Ya, I’m gonna see if Mac can
drag. They didn’t seem to fit.”  
Guitarist Sam Stratton kicked
Finding its place to fit has been — Ed Morales
around the same high school,
taking the family name
but the name isn’t the point
How do you promote an artist
who wants to remain anonymous?
Well, okay...the mastermind
behind Efren doesn’t want to
remain anonymous, he just wants
you to not really care who he is
or, more importantly, who he has
been. The thing is, you know this
guy...but at the end of the day,
does it matter? All he asks is that
you close your eyes and listen...
Athens Blur Magazine: You've
gone to some pretty good lengths
to not attach proper names to this
project,particularly your own.Why?
Efren: I needed a moniker to
get away from my name and the
preconceptions that it brings,
being my jazz history and what
not. It frees me to do whatever
the hell I want. Two shows from
now or when this article comes
out, people are going to see my
face whenever I’m playing but,
you listen to the album and its so
totally different. It’s so far
from anything anyone’s
seen me play in Athens.
People were like…shocked.
ABM: They were expecting...
E: Jazzy, funk stuff or whatever.
And ya know, I just got so burnt
out playing jazz. I mean, this is
my roots — Bob Dylan, blues
singers, living out in the country.
ABM: It is an interesting
name. What's behind that?
E: So um, my wife Jenn, her
family name is Leon. Her father,
Efren Manuel Leon, better
known by Ben - he really didn’t
go by Efren but, that was his
name. He had passed away, and I
wrote most of these songs during
a Lortab experiment at a funeral.
ABM: There’s something to be said,
especially now in the last decade or
so when so much has been put in to
production and this perfect mass
production, track-by-track pristine
production. Yet you did this whole
thing on a little laptop, right?
get a big promo on me for doing
this on a crappy G-4 (laughs).
But I was more connected to the
music than like sterile, perfect
pro tools with the beautiful pre-
amps and all this stuff that make
it sound so pristine. Like a few
people have said before, it's like
sitting on the corner of nowhere.
Or like, it’s something you want
to sit out in a field and listen to
by yourself and drink freakin’
whisky and ginger, sittin’ in
my yard. You listen to that shit
and it’s like raw, pure emotion.
There’s some bells and whistles,
and I’d say there’s probably less
on mine. I played acoustic guitar
and congas on one song, and
everything else is done with
body parts, beat boxing and
making samples. I’m known
as an electric guitar player, I’m
known as a shredder. There are
two guitar solos on this album
and they are so filtered out they
sound like background noise. So
this was my way to reconnect
with my audience.
ABM: Any specific examples of
how it lends itself to the listener in
the final product?
E: Montana Scare is a song that
started it all, really. My wife
went out and took care of her
artwork by Adam O’day
EFREN
WHO’S WHO
some play strings, some
sing, some hit drums, and/
or some use slides
FORMED
2009 in Athens, Ga.
LABEL
independent
LATEST RELEASE
Thunder & Moan (2009)
ON THE WEB
www.reverbnation.com/
efrenrock, www.efrenrock.
blogspot.com
dad for like five weeks and I
had the house to myself. Woke
up at the crack of dawn on my
day off, its storming like shit.
When you listen to the song in
the headphones you can hear
the rain pouring down. [On
another song] you can hear my
son crying in the background.
My wife and son are watching
cartoons in the other room
and I was just laying scratch
MUSIC SPOTLIGHTS
tracks down which I ended up
keeping. You can hear all this
weird shit in the background.
ABM: From a promotional
standpoint, particularly online,
Efren has been unavoidable.
E: Everyone I work with is a
musician and I’ve been telling
them, “Ya’ll if we all blog about
each other’s music, we all do
reviews of each others’ shows;
that’s more press, more hits,
more traffic, more everything.”
I haven’t made a phone call, I
have printed a piece of paper,
but I mean it’s been all internet;
just blasting bloggers, too. It’s all
about this stuff like, if you put it
out there, it’s going to happen.
And you can do anything
by setting your intention or
whatever.  I put it out there and
try to be good to people who can
help me — more importantly
the fans — and lead them down
the road to find that shit. I’ve hit
up MySpace, Twitter, Facebook,
and all these big venues to get the
name out and people take notice.
I’ve put the work in — and it’s
really not that much work.
ABM:  That’s got to be cool though.
You've been playing music through
this entire rise of the digital age,
really.
E:  I’ve read some crazy articles,
like the gate-keepers in the
music industry are gone. I mean,
that is no longer there. Say I
put together this big business
package — send it to Mac
about this. And like, get that
shit on the front page of iTunes
music store and what the fuck is
next? Ya know, it’s like I had a
buddy who got the front page
of iTunes music store and sold
like five-digit figures for two
weeks. And, that’s a part of my
plan. Let’s get this album done
and get a nice music package
together and send it off to them
and who knows what happens.
I’ve never really done it this
way. It’s all new to all of us.
— Alec Wooden
ATHENS BLUR MAGAZINE 17
 MUSIC SPOTLIGHTS
glorious bastards
hate them for content? Try loving the dedication and grind
How does the old saying go?
If it ain’t broke, don’t remix it?
A similar premise would apply
here. If you’re a part of a beloved
musical crew like brothers Gene
and Terrence Thornton are,
and you’ve worked marvelously
during  the past seven years
with one production team, why
on earth would you think of
switching gears?
You wouldn’t … unless, of
course, your insanely loyal
followers asked for a change.
“It was more so a fan request,”
explains Terrence, who goes by
Pusha T to everyone outside of
his childhood home in Virginia.
“Fans wanted to hear it, and we
went to the guys that we liked
at the time, so we’re giving the
fans what they’ve been asking
for. I’m proud of how good the
songs came out with the new
producers. First time stepping
outside of the box from The
Neptunes. Those songs are hot.”
  Gene (actually, it’s Malice
if you see him on the streets)
elaborates on the new direction:
“Yeah it’s a couple other
producers on the project. We got
DJ Khalil and Chin —  they’re
known for a few things back
with Kanye and 50, I’m not for courtesy clipse
certain. I wouldn’t quote that one.
Nah, but definitely you can 'cuz Clipse are just in a better space that we put out on our off time.”
I seen all the 50 plaques at his CLIPSE mentally now. Gone are the Amazingly, the brothers have
crib. Sean & LV from American jiving days with Jive Records. The also kept busy with Play Cloths,
Gangster notoriety [produced WHO’S WHO present situation at Columbia has their own fashion line (“Four
too]. Then The Neptunes came Gene Thornton aka Malice been a lot less strenuous, giving seasons with four sellouts,” Gene
in and cleaned up.” (MC), Terrence Thornton the bar-munching brothers more boasts). Gene has even found
The cavalcade of producers aka Pusha T (MC) time to concentrate on lyrics and the time to pen a book, Wretched,
gives Til the Casket Drops, the choruses as opposed to lawsuits Pitiful, Poor, Blind and Naked,
Clipse’s anticipated third album, FORMED and contract breaches. which is planned for a January
an innovative sound folks still 1993 in Virginia Beach, Va. “I think we’ve become very release. So, damn right Til the
obsessing over the classic Lord accustomed to the business side Casket Drops has a different feel
LABEL
Willin’ and near-spotless Hell Re-Up/Columbia/Star Trak of things,” Gene says, “especially than the Clipse’s past stuff. Most
Hath No Fury won’t recognize with all the label setbacks — of the clouds hovering over the
right off hand. Gone are some of LATEST RELEASE if you can call them that. I crew have evaporated.
the melancholy percussion and Til The Casket Drops (2009) count everything as a plus. We “Life is good,” Gene concludes.
somber strings. Replacing them learned how to take things upon “We have nothing to complain
are a '70s feel (“Kinda Like a Big ON THE WEB ourselves and don’t just sit back about. Got God. Got my health.
Deal”) and a more chill, sonic www.myspace.com/clipse and wait for the label to motivate We out here. Me and my brother
breeze (“I’m Good”). Don’t get it or move out, to move with the we together on the road. Out here
us wrong. There’s still dopeboy ones, too. swiftness that they should or doing shows. It’s rough out there,
drama and lavish tales of excess; This change of pace is mostly the diligence that they should. so things could be a lot worse.”
it’s just that those stories are credited to maturity and a change Hence the [We Got It For Cheap]
peppered with less-aggressive in tax bracket. But honestly, the mixtape series. That’s all work —DeMarco Williams

ATHENS BLUR MAGAZINE 19


MUSIC SPOTLIGHTS
alone, together
THE TRANSITION FROM PERSONAL PROJECT TO GROUP EFFORT
There’s an old saying I just
made up that goes, “No good
mules  around, you’ll have to
haul your own cart to town,”
and as  with most mule and
cart related aphorisms, the
adage resonates deeply  within
the music community.
See Martin Brummeler.
Referred to locally as one of the
most talented Athens  musicians
of whom you’ve probably never
heard, Brummeler once sat
atop  his towering mountain
of pop songs and guitar hooks
searching high and low for a band
of kindred spirits to bring his
personal brand of early indie rock
to the masses. After years spent
casting around for a suitable band
to no avail, Brummeler decided
to just go solo, and last year, he
released Easy Mark  under the
name Mass Solo Revolt. With
all music and  lyrics penned by
Brummeler himself, the record
garnered widespread  critical
acclaim, even landing a feature
on National Public Radio. But,
alas, the single life grew tiresome.
Brummeler stepped down from
20 ATHENS BLUR MAGAZINE
his solitary,  craggy peak this
year to record a new album
with a new band  of old friends.
Bend In Time marks not only a
departure from the  frontman’s
solo, mountain-sitting ways,
but also a shift  from the pop
sounds of Easy Mark.  I recently
sat down with Brummeler and
long-time friend and bassist  Jim
Frye to discuss the band’s
evolution  that its paradoxical
name  so aptly describes  as well
as the problems associated with
being  seasoned musicians in a
perpetually young college town.
Athens Blur Magazine: I was
reading another interview where
you said you’d been searching for
a band for a while, that it hadn’t
come  together and so you just did
it on your own. Do you feel  this is
the realized Mass Solo Revolt?
Martin Brummeler: I don’t think
there’s ever a fully-realized Mass
Solo Revolt … But yeah, I’m
very happy. I’ve been in a band
with  Jim since ’94 or something,
on and off, so to be playing with
Jim is huge. The thing about
COURTESY MASS SOLO REVOLT
MASS SOLO
REVOLT
WHO’S WHO
Martin Brummeler (gui-
tar, vocals, keys), Jim Frye
(bass), Dave Harrison (gui-
tar, keys), Russell Sherman
(drums)
FORMED
2005 in Athens, GA
LABEL
Independent
LATEST RELEASE
Bend In Time (2009)
ON THE WEB
www.myspace.com/mass-
solorevolt
Mass Solo Revolt is that it doesn’t
have any rules to  it. When I
write songs, before I bring them
to the group, they’re  all me,
and they usually sound like a
character. They’re very  different,
and I threaten all the time to put
out something and not  censor
myself and go totally off on that.
ABM: When it’s more of a group
project, do you ever feel a need
to adjust how personal the songs are?
Brummeler: It was weird because
we  actually changed guitarists in
the middle of making this record.
With the guitarist that started
with us, he had a couple of really
awesome musical song ideas, and
I felt a little bit weird just saying,
‘OK, awesome, now it’s my song,
and I’m going to do what I want
with it.’ You know? But I got over
it quicker than he  did. I even
forget, now, who came up with
the idea originally. But  yeah, I
guess I do think differently.  and laughed and cried.  This spirit
Jim Frye: I don’t think that you
do, as far as the music is always
the music. And your lyrics — he
doesn’t censor it in that way.  It
comes out as is when it comes out.
ABM: Athens is a perpetually young
town —
Brummeler: And we’re not
young.
ABM: Well, that’s what I’m
wondering. There are these
really  well-defined niches in the
Athens music scene, and there aren’t
a lot  of “adult” bands in town.
Brummeler: Yeah, I know. Really,
this is one of the things; when
I’m in the mood, I’ll drive around
and feel sorry for myself because I
don’t think we’ve ever, no matter
what age we were, really fit in to
where we lived. We do feel old
in Athens. I don’t even  worry
about it because I’m going to be
probably 50 years old and  still
trying to make records. It’s just
what I do. You can’t worry about
it. I don’t care. I’ve reached a
certain point when you just don’t
care. I’ve been here for almost 10
years, so I wasn’t that old when I
moved here, but I didn’t fit in then
either. ... Now, it’s hard to believe
how young some of these bands
are. Realizing that when I was
in what I would consider a real
band — not like a teeny band —
when I was really in a real band,
they were, like, 12. That makes me
feel old. It makes me worry — I
don’t know if worry is the word —
but realize that they’re never going
to really identify with me, they’re
never going to quite understand.
— Tiffani Harcrow
it’s a family affair
holy ghost tent revival finds inspiration in collaboration
What is it that makes a family? 
Sure, it means sharing a bloodline,
but family is not just something
we are born into.  It is equally
of our own making, of people
that we invite into our lives.  It
includes those with whom we
share our experiences, our loves,
our fears, our triumphs and our
defeats- those with whom we
have drank and danced and sang
of family is what connects the
members of Greensboro, NC’s
Holy Ghost Tent Revival to each
other and to their audience. 
The six-piece band boasts
a lineup that includes guitar,
banjo, bass, drums, trombone
and keys.  The instrumentation
and arrangements bring to
mind a varied confluence of
musical styles.  One hears strains
of Dixieland jazz, ragtime,
country and bluegrass, but the
songwriting and presentation are
thoroughly modern.  They sing
about steamboats one moment
and break into a spirited Beatles
cover the next.  This embrace of
different styles combines with
a passionate stage presence
and leads to some captivating
performances of a unique brand
of shambling indie-Americana.
HGTR shows are not merely
attended but also experienced.  necessity of performance. We’re all of the mind that there
“Three of us were theater majors
so we understand the necessity
of performance,” says keyboard
player Mike O’Malley.  “We’re
all of the mind that there has
to be a visual accompaniment
to the music.”  This attention to
performance is what separates
the band from other like-minded
musicians in the Southeast.  The
band push each other to summon
forth every available reserve of
energy.  They sweat and sing and
scream and stomp until the last
note has fallen to silence.  As
such, a HGTR show is just as
much a physical manifestation
of the emotion behind the music
as it is about recreating the songs
themselves.  At its best, the
band careens along picking up
momentum, pushing the limits
“Three of us were theater majors so we understand the
has to be a visual accompaniment to the music.”
— Mike O’Malley, Holy Ghost Tent Revival —
of pace and energy and the crowd
follows right with them, creating
a communal frenzy that blurs
the line between performer and
audience.
In September, the band will
release a new EP titled Family.  potential.  The solution was to
The songs were recorded live with
a minimal amount of takes,and the
spontaneity and energy created
in this environment imbues the
tracks with a ragged veracity.  all very playful,” says O’Malley.  or in a club packed with fans,
Family is loose and comfortable
like an old frayed couch, which
perfectly complements a batch
of songs that at one point held
an uncertain future.  These
COURTESY HOLY GHOST TENT REVIVAL
were songs that the band had
been working on but had not
completely polished.  They had
fallen out of rotation within
the band’s live sets, leaving the
band unsure of how to tap their
turn to their extended family of
musicians for help. “The idea was
to get all our friends together
and see what happened.  It was
With a relaxed approach and the
perspective gained by allowing
others to contribute, the songs
found freedom and a home.  —Dylan Solise
The EP features the Lonely
MUSIC SPOTLIGHTS
HOLY GHOST
TENT REVIVAL
WHO’S WHO
Stephen Murray (banjo,
guitar), Matt Martin (gui-
tar, banjo), Hank Widmer
(trombone, euphonium),
Mike O’Malley (keys), PJ
Leslie (bass), Ross Mon-
tsinger (drums)
FORMED
2006 in Greensboro, NC
LABEL
Goodship Records
LATEST RELEASE
Family (2009)
ON THE WEB
www.holyghosttentreviv-
al.com
Hot Starving Street Band, a
troupe of N.C. musicians that
includes members of groups
such as Lost in the Trees, the
Never and House of Fools. 
These friends shared their time
and talent and broadened the
palate of a band with an already
expansive sound.  The result is an
album with an undeniably joyous
feel.  The song “Alcohol” is a
tribute to the glories and agonies
of intoxication that mirrors a
night on the town.  It begins with
a mellow swagger, progresses
to a roiling ebullience and ends
with a staggering, hiccupping
goodnight. The track “Goodbye
or Goodnight” featuring vocals
from rapper Tab-One, shows
that the band is not afraid to
push its boundaries to include
even a seemingly disparate genre
like hip-hop. It works because
everyone is having such a good
time.  And that is what the band
is all about.  Whether it’s in the
studio with a dozen friends,
Holy Ghost Tent Revival draws
strength from family.
ATHENS BLUR MAGAZINE 21
 ear candy Mount Eerie
Wind’s Poem

Advertised in advance as
Phil Elverum’s foray into black
metal, Wind’s Poem was figured
to be a harsh departure from
The Inner Banks Mount Eerie’s most recent spate
Songs From Disko Bay of eerily quiet releases. But, in
keeping with most of his body
Cool is an overused word, and I'm as guilty as anyone when it comes to usage. I'll drop the word in of work, Wind’s Poem is actually
conversation with the effect of an Altoid — trying to freshen an otherwise ordinary moment. So when more Neil Young than Xasthur,
I describe Songs From Disko Bay, the sophomore effort by Brooklyn's The Inner Banks (married couple as its emphasis on heavy
Caroline Schultz and David Gould accompanied instrumentally by a dozen others), as a “cool” album, it's guitar feedback and roaring distortion never gets in the way of a
not meant to be a trite assessment because I have nothing better to write. But then again, maybe I don't gentle turn of phrase and stark melody. That said, here Elverum
— I'm really on the fence here. clearly favors building texture over flexing his traditional singer-
The opening track, “Lemon Tree,” stirs this indecision. Galvanized by Schultz's angelic voice (a modern- songwriter muscles, as these songs are wrapped in wet sonic wool
day Julee Cruise if there ever was one), the music itself limps along at a tepid pace, an indifferent observer and layered in thick clouds of fuzz, from the windowpane rattling
to Schultz's soaring lyrics. Midway through, the song becomes a lingering instrumental with the feel of a shards of guitar in “The Hidden Stone” to the reverb-drenched
forfeit. “Pyramids” has the same disinterest (dare I say coolness), pulled solely by Schultz's dreamy cords. organ drones of “Through the Trees.” The mood is dark if not exactly
But as the music gets much better, with Gould boasting a host of inventive arrangements, Schultz becomes far too commonplace. threatening, a smoldering landscape where ominously corroded
“Tournament of Waves” and “Big Bang” are celebrations of sound — playful pianos, glockenspiels and violins — while Schultz, once the wow blasts of static-laden percussion lead to meditative keyboard
factor, becomes mundane after six songs of the same cadence and vocal structure. They seem aware of this, as subtle yet strong instrumentals movements, only to be swallowed up by the morass again. The
“Blame” and “Coda (Lemon Tree)” close the album. spirit of Young (particularly his work with Crazy Horse) hangs
“Disko Bay” is a dichotomy — when one part flourishes, the other fades, and this tug-o-war fractures an album full of promise. And hey, heavy in the album’s musty air, pronounced in the soft harmonies
that's cool.  and reflective echoes of “Stone’s Ode” and the drifting, dirge-like
Or not. guitar tones of “Summons.” No doubt, all those heavy textures add
— Ed Morales up to a more massive sounding album, as there’s nothing in his
catalog aside from the Microphones’ landmark The Glow, Pt. 2 that
Lou Barlow compares to the monolithic hugeness of the textures he pieces
Goodnight Unknown together here. Those clamoring for a sequel should look no further.
— Matt Fink
Lou Barlow’s playing it fast and loose the second time ‘round. And the music’s all the better for it.
For the uninitiated, Barlow’s one of this generation’s under-the-radar pioneers. A founding member Boo Ray
of Dinosaur Jr., Sebadoh and Folk Implosion, Barlow’s lo-fi techniques grated counter-culturally and Bad News Travels Fast
paved the way for many a future sound. His previous solo foray, 2005’s Emoh, ripped up his rock roots and
soaked them in acoustic glory – giving us perhaps our most tender look at Barlow the man. Boo Ray's Bad News Travels
Goodnight Unknown finds Barlow harder to pin down, because he’s much more musically interesting. Fast is like a book on tape you'd
“Gravitate” stomps a slightly distorted, Caribbean feel with a dreary accordion and industrial percussion like to pop in and never take out
filling out the rest. “Sharing” arrests from the outset with a straightforward Killers-vibe, while the title — a most agreeable companion
track provides the most plodding two minutes in indie rock. for most any situation. Much like
The acoustic guitar returns for “Faith in Your Heartbeat” and “Too Much Freedom,” the latter a Great the songwriter himself, these
Lake Swimmers’ confession of sorts that perfectly moves the album forward in tone and instrumentation. As Goodnight Unknown closes with songs are well-travelled and bear
the militant crash of “Don’t Apologize” and driving acoustics of “One Note Tone,” it’s clear Barlow’s not a torchbearer found in music’s past, the lofty weight of the southern
but a hero to look to for in its future as well. songwriter genre with great
 — Matt Conner class and ease. At work here is a
combination of West coast glimmer, Nashville knowledge and the
free-loving grit of the southern blues. The Colin Linden (“O Brother
Lingo
Where Art Thou?”) co-penned “Bad News Travels Fast” is not just
Through The Scattered Trees
the perfect foot-stomping title track, but a perfect summation of
everything you need to know about this record's namesake in the
If the guys in Lingo were 10, 15, 20 year veterans of jam-rock, this album would be largely overlooked,
future. Bad news, good news, it doesn't matter — the news about
categorized as a solid collection, but nothing necessarily worth writing home about (oh, the perils of
Boo Ray is spreading quickly. Don't miss out.
southern blues/jam rock). But they’re not. The ages in the band read 22, 20, 20 and 20 — though from the
— Alec Wooden
music you would never know it. The execution is passable, though it’s not the highlight of the record —
that distinction belongs to the arranging and songwriting, two of the most oft-overlooked pillars of this
genre. Particularly on the middle stretch of the record (third track “You’re Lost” to sixth track “Agents”
showcases the best of the best here), with songs ranging from true southern ballads to damn-near brit What’s in your top 20
for 2009?
riff-rock, all expertly written and tastefully played. This stuff is rooted in a particular time a place, no doubt
(read: four 20-year-olds in Michigan aren’t going to make this record), which is a big selling point of the
band. They can, and likely will, find a nice home in the southern states if they stick to the pedigree which
they seem to understand quite well: sing when you need to, play when you need to, and don’t choke the chicken (that’s Southern for “don’t Athens Blur is collecting reader data on your Top
overdo it,” right?) Only one song on Trees breaks the 7:00 mark, which is a big deal for a “jam” band. Not overcooked but full of substance, 20 albums of 2009. Review, rank ‘em and submit to
keep an eye out for Lingo in the calendar year to come. editorial@athensblur.com by November 1!
—Alec Wooden (albums MUST be ranked #1-#20, and include a
one sentence reason for your choice at #1!)
22 ATHENS BLUR MAGAZINE
MUSIC ALBUM REVIEWS

No Age
Losing Feeling EP
 
There’s a wave of excitement that accompanies the oncoming layers of No Age’s latest EP, Losing
Feeling. The stunning guitar work, ambient distortion, solid percussion and indie rock flavors slowly
scroll forward a la the  “Star Wars” intro until the familiar sounds from Nouns engulfs the listener
fully with the lead-out title track.
Sub Pop’s darling duo deserves every ounce of attention it's received thus far — from its obnoxious
debut (five different EPs released on five different labels with each covering a different letter of the
band’s name — all dropping on the same day) to the heralded LP Nouns. Now, Losing Feeling only
continues the journey it's begun, adding a couple unique elements to tide us over until the next
release.
The aforementioned Losing Feeling conjures The Walkmen at their best, but it’s “Genie” that stands
out for its faux acoustic core. The song finds beauty within No Age’s typical distortion and heart within its sometimes cold, calculated layers.
“Aim at the Airport” and “You’re a Target” close out Losing Feeling, with the former a fairly forgettable instrumental that’s simply a
complex outro from “Genie” and a soothing way into “Target.” It’s here on the last track that Randy Randall and Dean Allen Spunt find
their adrenaline rush, make their mark and leave the listener absolutely panting for more.

—Matt Conner

Abby Parks Yoko Ono Plastic Ono Band

The Homeplace Between My Head and Sky

Give it up for Abby Parks, an artful
writer and guitarist with a voice that
could very well part the sea of kudzu
leading out of Jacksonville, Ala. With
her latest CD,  The Homeplace, Abby
doesn’t hang her hat on just one peg
but shows this is indeed  her  album
musically, vocally and lyrically—quite
the trifecta, and she scores on all
points.
Abby’s a storyteller, often throwing
in a dash of melancholy, which puts
Homeplace in company with one of my
most oft-played CDs, All About Eve’s
Scarlet and Other Stories, but with a
twist of American Gothic.
Standouts on Homeplace include the
opening title track, an upbeat recount
of exploring an abandoned house
that’s rumored to hide a treasure, and
“Chantilly,” an acoustic ballad that
showcases her mesmerizing vocals and
intricate guitar work — both of which
she controls with affecting precision.
The rest of this album ebbs and
flows with engaging, moody melodies,
though she hits on some themes
and metaphors that might raise an
eyebrow, as in “Caves.” Then again, two
semesters of English Lit flew over my
head, too, so apparently poetic aptitude
isn’t my strong suit. But nobody will
mistake Miss Parks for being part of
the uninspired brood of coffeehouse
acoustic acts. Her blend of musicality
gives that relaxing sense of something
familiar, but she's original enough to
make you wonder where the next song
will take you.
— Phil Pyle
David Nail I’m About to Come Alive
What makes a country artist these days?
Apparently, good looks, a pair of jeans, a
t-shirt and a pouty “lone wolf” cover photo
will do the trick. To hell with talent and
originality. Even the title track is a Train
cover that sounds exactly like the original
(one of my peeves — what’s the point?!)
Nail has a good voice, but it’s nothing you
haven’t heard before.
Individually, the songs hold their own,
but collectively, it’s a one-note woe-fest
about lost love or leaving a small town
or both. The standout is “Mississippi,” an
ode to its musically historical namesake
and one worth downloading. “Red Light”
has rightfully garnered some airplay, but
after sitting through all 11 songs a few
times, it finally hit me — this album has
no balls! Not a single foot-stomping, beer-
spilling “Girl, get in my truck!” anthem.
No fiddles or finger-picking solos that
country fans have come to expect. In fact,
Mr. Nail doesn’t even play guitar! And he
only [co] wrote four songs. But hey, he’s a
handsome guy, so I’m sure his female fan
base will keep him around, just like they
have another almost-talent, Taylor Swift.
—Phil Pyle
Arguably the most widely ridiculed
musician in the history of popular music, her
name shorthand for everything pretentious
and unlistenable, Yoko Ono has experienced
a remarkable rehabilitation over the past
decade. Long celebrated in the avant garde
underground for the very qualities that
made most listeners despise her, a new
generation of indie rockers came together in
2007 on Yes, I’m a Witch, providing backing
tracks to vintage Ono vocals and proving
just how ingenious and imaginative her best
pop songs actually were. As if rejuvenated
by the experience, Ono now revives the
Plastic Ono Band, the act that she co-lead
with John Lennon after the Beatles’ demise,
substituting son Sean for his late father. The
result is startling, a rollicking return to her
most spirited and immediate '70s work, from
the scorched earth freakout of “Waiting for
the D Train” to the free form funk of “Ask
the Elephant!” and the richly textured
freak-folk of “Healing.” Having largely
worked in the dance sub-genre since her last
full-length, 2001’s hit-or-miss Blueprint for
Sunrise, here the 76-year-old Ono sounds
genuinely invigorated to be playing with a
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live rock band, unleashing her infamous
vocal ululations as if she were Ornette
Coleman blowing his sax and maintaining
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a high level of energy as the album drifts
through synth-pop, piano ballads and
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psychedelic riff-rock. As always, there are a
number of new agey platitudes and cringe-
worthy truisms about peace, clean water
and love, but even those eccentricities add
depth to a thoroughly enjoyable whole, the
sort of album that even her haters should *New members only. Free trial valid in the 50 United States only, and cannot be combined with any other offer. Limit one per household. First-time customers only. Internet access and valid payment
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—Matt Fink

24 ATHENS BLUR MAGAZINE

MUSIC THIS DAY IN MUSIC HISTORY
November
1 2 3 4
1993 – Public Enemy’s Flavor
Flav is arrested for allegedly
trying to shoot another
man in a dispute over a
woman. He is later charged
with attempted murder and
reckless endangerment.
1994 - Nirvana’s “MTV
Unplugged” performance is
released as “MTV Unplugged
in New York.”
1974 – Becoming the first
Beatle to attempt a national
solo tour, George Harrison
hits the road for the first time
in eight years.
2003 - Sean ‘P. Diddy’ Combs
raises $2 million dollars for
charity by running in the
New York City Marathon,
finishing in 4 hours, 14
minutes and 54 seconds.
1957 – Jerry Lee Lewis
releases “Great Balls of Fire”
on Sun Records.
1995 - Hootie and the
Blowfish and Bob Dylan reach
an out of court settlement in
a lawsuit over the group’s use
of Dylan’s lyrics in their song
“Only Want To Be With You.”
26 ATHENS BLUR MAGAZINE
5 6 7 8
1977 - Ozzy Osbourne
quits Black Sabbath.
He would rejoin after a
few weeks before later
quitting again.
1998 - Liam Gallagher
of Oasis is arrested on
charges of attacking
a photographer
and damaging his
equipment.
1973 - Gram Parsons’
manager Phil Kaufman
is fined $300 for
stealing Parsons’ body
shortly after his death.
Kaufman claimed that
it was Parson’s wish to
be cremated.
1975 - The Sex Pistols
makes its live debut at
St. Martin’s School of
Art in London.
1978 – Boston (the band)
performs its first show in
Boston (the city).
1998 – Amazon.com forms
“Advantage For Music,” a
tool for unsigned artists and
independent labels to sell
music online.
MUSIC THIS DAY IN MUSIC HISTORY
1978 - Echo & the Bunnymen makes its
debut in Liverpool at Eric’s Club. 1980 - Don Henley is arrested after
paramedics treat a nude sixteen
1974 - ABBA begins its first tour of Europe, year-old girl for drug intoxication 1964 - Willie Nelson makes his
2003 – Augusta, Ga., officials announce
the first tour outside of Sweden. at his Los Angeles home. Henley is Grand Ole Opry debut.
plans to construct a statue of James
Brown and rename a music festival in charged with unlawful possession of
2003 – At 21 years old, Britney Spears marijuana, cocaine and Quaaludes and 1979 - Ringo Starr’s Los
his honor.
becomes the youngest person ever to receive contributing to the delinquency of a Angeles home burns down.
a star on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame. minor.
1960 – On his 13th birthday, Gregg
Allman receives a guitar.
1957 - The Miles Davis Quintet debuts
2001 - The musical “Lady Diana - A 1978 - The film version of “Sgt. Pepper’s at New York City’s Carnegie Hall.
Smile Charms the World” opens in Lonely Hearts Club Band” opens. In the film,
Germany. The Bee Gees, Peter Frampton and Billy 1982 – Japan (the British rock band)
Preston all make their acting debuts. announces its break up.
1965 - Velvet Underground makes its
debut at a high school dance in New 1998 - Kmart launches Music Favorites, an
Jersey. online music store.
1972 – The Allman Brothers’ Berry Oakley
is killed in a motorcycle wreck at age 24.
9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30
1991 - Randy Jackson is
1991 - Eric Carr of KISS 1961 - The Everly
1991 - Frank Zappa sentenced to one month in
1970 - The Doors make its last dies of cancer at age 41. Brothers are sworn
is diagnosed with jail for violating probation
appearance with Jim Morrison. Carr joined the group into the Marine Corps
prostate cancer related to charges of beating
in 1982 as Peter Criss’ Reserves.
his wife the year before.
1987 - Sly Stone is arrested for replacement.
nonpayment of child support when 1966 - The Jimi Hendrix
1967 – The first 1994 - David Crosby gets a
he arrives for his “comeback” concert 1991 - Freddie Mercury Experience makes its
issue of Rolling liver transplant.
in L.A. of Queen dies at age 45 London debut at the Bag
Stone hits stands
of complications from O’ Nails Club.
with John Lennon 1987 - U2 opens for itself by
AIDS. 1969 - The “Save Rave
on the cover. pretending to be a country-
1986 - Metallica performs its first 1976 - Queen’s “Somebody ‘69” benefit concert,
concert with Jason Newstead. rock group called The Dalton
1998 - Rick James 1889 - The first jukebox To Love” is released. thrown to aid the youth
Brothers during a Los Angeles culture magazine
is hospitalized is debuted in at The
2005 – “Guitar Hero” is released in concert. “Rave,” takes place in
after suffering Palais Royale Saloon in 1997 – Singer Bjork is
North America. San Francisco. admitted to an Icelandic London.
a stroke when 1995 - The Rolling Stones
a blood vessel hospital with a high fever.
become the first act to 1988 – LL Cool J
ruptured in his 1973 - Jerry Lee Lewis, Jr. is 1998 - Donald Bohana is The resulting diagnosis of a
broadcast a concert via the performs the first rap
neck a week before killed in a highway accident in sentenced to 15 years to kidney infection forces her
Internet.
in Denver. Mississippi. life in prison for her role to cancel most remaining
in the drowning death tour dates.
1997 - The musical “The Lion of Delores “DeeDee”
1979 - Chuck Berry is released
King” opens. from a California prison after Jackson — Tito Jackson’s 1968 - The Who releases its
ex-wife. first concert record, “The
doing time for income tax
Who Sell Out.”
evasion.
1900 – American 1956 – Legendary big
1990 - Milli Vanilli is stripped 1995 - Sammy Hagar and
composer Aaron band leader Tommy
of its Grammy because other model Kari Karte tie the
Copland is born. Dorsey dies.
singers had lent their voices knot.
1990 - The Who’s Pete to the “Girl You Know It’s True” 1999 – Boy band
album.
Townshend confesses sensation 98 Degrees Hey! You! Ya, you! The one reading this! Be
to Newsweek that he performs and sells sure to check back in the next issue, out
is bisexual. some exclusive band December 1, for a special “all-decade” music
merchandise on the history selection, featuring only the best from
Home Shopping 2000-2009. You’ll be amazed at what you’ve
Network. forgotten!
ATHENS BLUR MAGAZINE 27
 method allowed for loads of creative freedom,
but also required a mammoth leap of faith
from both parties.
“I think where challenges could arise,
obviously, is if you pour your heart and soul
into some song and send it off to someone,
and they come back and put something on it
that you can’t stand,” laughs Rosenau. “That’s
obviously a gigantic issue. But in this situation
with our kind of friendship, there was just
always a total confidence about that what we
were going to get back we were going to love.”
When the collective finally, well, collected
last year, the sessions were informal, meant
simply to see what, if anything, could be
harvested from the digitally-sown seeds of the
last two years.
“Nobody knew how many songs we had
started,” laughs Rosenau. “[ Justin] felt that it
was a good idea just to kind of have everyone
in one place and have the goal just being to
kind of aggregate everything we had and just
see if there were holes or weak spots or stuff
that we didn’t like or liked — just see what
the last three, or however many, years had
produced. On a Friday night, we just sat there
and listened to everything and drank and had
a shit ton of fun and everyone shot out ideas.  perhaps they don’t sound anything like either
For the rest of the weekend we literally —
it was very weird, man — we set up I think
PHoto: cameron wittig
three different stations in this house that all
had computers and speakers and headphones
and stuff. Everyone just kind of went and did
their thing in little small sub-groups. People
would take breaks and go help other people
out. It just ended up being this total party but
this total insanely productive weekend. But it
needed a period at the end of the sentence for
those specific songs. Otherwise we could’ve
worked on them forever, because there was no
real goal.
The “period” on the weekend was a simple
and stark realization that, no matter what such
a notion might mean, this group was a band
— and the band had a special collection of
music. Next step? A name.
“It was John Miller, the drummer,” he says
of the party guilty for the Volcano Choir
moniker. “I think ‘volcano’ had been stuck in [a
rejected name], and he just ended up putting
them together. It was just a total instant like,
‘Yep, that’s what it is.’ So that’s what we ended
up with.”
When two established bands — with each
its own established vibe, sound and history —
form a new entity, there tends to be a host of
landmines for which the group must be wary.
They sound too much like band A, and don’t
attract the fans of band B (or vice versa). Or
and, while maybe grabbing some new ears,
alienate both established fan bases altogether.
Rosenau knows all this — and doesn’t seem
remotely concerned about walking the walk.
“The Volcano Choir record kind of spans
the spectrum of everything the Bees has done.
We’ve been kind of working more recently with
a super rock, American minimalist idea. There’s
definitely some of that in there, but there’s also
some less bombastic stuff, the more spelled-
out stuff,” he says of the record’s appeal. “And I
think Bon Iver fans will like it because it really
does have Justin all over the place. I personally
don’t understand how you can’t love every note
that comes out of that guy’s mouth — I’m in
love with it. And everyone seems to be really
into what he’s been doing, and they should be.
That said, I don’t think that the record’s not
accessible or inaccessible in any way, but it’s
definitely not For Emma.”
The fact is, Unmap isn’t easy. It doesn’t come
to the listener. Rather, it must be sought —
spun once, spun again and taken at face value
to be appreciated. It is, as they say, a working
man’s collection.
“I prefer that over ‘acceptable,’” insists
Rosenau with a chuckle. “Both Justin and
the other people involved have done more
‘inaccessible’ stuff than this, so to us this is a
pretty nice accessible record. But at the same
time we also operate in the real world and
understand that people will be approaching
this from different places. Hopefully people
will give it a bunch of passes and end up on the
other side, that it’s something more than they
started with. I hope that’s how it works.” B

Their Neck of the Woods

Volcano Choir channels the best of The Badger State
by ALEC WOODEN
 
The age old debate finally has its definitive
answer: if a bunch of musicians cut a record in
the forest, does anyone hear it?
Yes. As long as it’s winter, the woods are in
Wisconsin and Justin Vernon (Bon Iver) is
involved.
Vernon first channeled the magic of those
Wisconsin woods in winter of 2007, recording
his smash breakthrough (as Bon Iver) For
Emma, Forever Ago — an album that earned
him countless accolades and nearly overnight
mainstream fame. So when he teamed with
fellow-Wisconsinites Collections of Colonies
of Bees to form Volcano Choir, where else
would the group assemble to record its debut
collection?
“It was definitely born and bred here,” says
longtime Bees’ guitarist Chris Rosenau of
his native state. “I think that there’s different
regional — not to stereotype anything —
peculiarities or something like that, you know
what I mean? It’s just derived from the people
who are living there and you know, everything
from social norms to the environment to the
weather.  Obviously in the middle of winter
in northern Wisconsin it’s getting pretty cold
outside, as opposed to L.A. So [debut album
Unmap] is definitely one of the sounds of
northern and southern Wisconsin.”
The project made too much sense from the
get go: Collections of Colonies of Bees has
been around for over a decade and boasts a loyal
following, particularly in the upper Midwest,
while Vernon (as Bon Iver) seems to have
covered a decade’s worth of turf in less than
two years since Emma. The whole lot met as far
back as 2005, when Bees toured with Vernon’s
then-main focus, DeYarmond Edison. The
groups stayed in touch and, sometime around
2007, began informally collaborating through
the musical equivalent of a long distance
relationship — generation Y’s version of tape
sharing, sending files back and forth through
cyberspace, working on tracks after shows or
from home bases on touring breaks.
“I had some songs that I had actually just
kind of been playing around with as a kind of
scaffolding, architecture for what I thought
would be really interesting for a kind of stark,
vocal idea,” says Rosenau. “So we ended up
sending [Vernon] some of those because he
wasn’t really working on any specific project or
anything at that point. We were just like, ‘Hey,
play with these and send ‘em back, and we’ll
see what you’re doing’.”
The combination of the band seems like a
no-brainer — one an instrumental band, one
a now-acclaimed “chamber-folk” singer, both
slightly off the beaten path. Rosenau insists,
however, that the songwriting was far more
than just Vernon’s lyrics + CCB’s tunes =
Volcano Choir’s songs.
“Because we’re an instrumental band and
Justin is a singer, I think everyone assumes that
we wrote these songs and sent them to him,
and he would say, ‘Okay, I’ll finish the song.’
But that’s totally not how 80 percent of this
went,” explains Rosenau. “We were just super
interested in what we could add and how we
could flesh every idea out, trying to challenge
each other to see what everyone else would do
with it.”
Faceless interaction in this building block

28 ATHENS BLUR MAGAZINE


Revamping My Choir
Fiery Furnaces on how to subvert the expectation of unexpectedness
by ADAM CLAIR


The Fiery Furnaces have a reputation
for quirkiness. Through a career that has
thus far seen the release of records like
the conceptually globetrotting Blueberry
Boat, the backmask-laden Bitter Tea, the
geriatrically narrated Rehearsing My Choir
and Remember, the “live” album cobbled
together from countless shows over the
course of three years, maybe that reputation
is deserved.
But when everyone begins to expect the
unexpected — and looking at the “deaf
descriptions,” fan-written reviews of the
Furnaces’ newest record written before any
fans had heard the album, that’s what no
small number of people expected from I’m
Going Away — what’s a band to do?
If you’re the Fiery Furnaces, you
release a record this summer that, since
actually hearing it, listeners have called
straightforward, generic or boring,
30 ATHENS BLUR MAGAZINE
depending on their level of acrimony.
At least one half of the Furnaces calls it
“casual,” a decidedly new style for a band
who has dabbled in a lot of them.
“We can’t make the same record every
time,” Matthew Friedberger says. “That
would be cheating.”
So each time the Furnaces make a record
— and I’m Going Away is the band’s eighth
— they have to do something new, which is
of course dependent almost solely on what
they’ve already done. Nearly a decade of
quirkiness cleared the path, important to
both the band and to its listeners.
“We wouldn’t have felt free to make
this record if we hadn’t set up people’s
expectations with the records we’ve made
in the past,” the male Friedberger says. “To
people who have never heard the band, this
will sound very conventional, and that’s
good and bad. But for people who know
the band, hopefully, it’ll be funny, both
amusing and a little bit queer.”
courtesy fiery furnaces
courtesy fiery furnaces
It’s easy to label a band like the Fiery
Furnaces as simply “different for the sake
of being different.” It’s also a bit unfair.
While Friedberger is intent on keeping
things interesting superficially, he’s also
driven by making sure there’s some depth,
too. It’s just that this time, the band wanted
to let the listeners do some of the work.
“We wanted this record to be
unelaborated, to make people have to do
the work themselves,” he says. “They have
to elaborate it themselves in their own
imaginations. A lot of people prefer that.”
This, it seems, is the key to the Fiery
Furnaces modus operandi: challenging
listeners in a way that ultimately rewards
them.
In the past, it has been records that were
sonically dense and lyrically prolix. On
I’m Going Away, it has been by offering
much sparser arrangements and letting —
or forcing — listeners to fill in the blanks
themselves.
And the band is elaborating on it as well, releasing a pair of albums rearranging the Most Wanted
songs from its latest record. Friedberger says the reasons for this are many.
For one, the band rearranges its songs for live performances anyway. So this time, they
figured they would record them too, into two records, each with half the songs arranged
in Athens.
by Matthew and the other half by his sister Eleanor, so that in total each will have redone
the entire album.
Further, prior to the album’s release, the Fiery Furnaces asked its fans to write reviews
of the record without having heard it. So while the new versions of the songs on I’m Going
Away will not be copies of what pre-reviewers expected to hear, Friedberger says he felt
compelled to match the effort his fans put into their reviews by releasing alternate versions
of the same record. He owes them, after all.
“You play a show and if it’s pop music in any way,” he says, “you have some obligation in
some way to be more egalitarian, more democratic.”
This sense of indebtedness to its listeners seems to drive a lot of what the Fiery Furnaces
do. After asking fans to review its last record (albeit before even hearing it), the band is
asking fans to actually perform the next one, a so-called “silent record” that will be released
in the spring. The band will offer sheet music as well as all kinds of other peripheral
instructions and guides for performance. Again, Friedberger has an explanation.
“Since before the Beatles, part of the rock model is that the composer and the performer
is the same person,” he says. “So it’s fun to play with the opposite, where there’s a gap
between the perspective and aim and expectations of the person writing it and the people
who are going to perform it, whether they’re trying to enact the songwriter’s vision or just
use it as a way to express whatever they want to express or the talents that they have.”
Again, he has more.
“The second thing is the idea that since a band can’t sell audio anymore, we’re not going
to provide it,” he says. “We don’t mean to be complaining about that, but records have
become much less an important part of the way musicians make a living.
“The third thing is because shows are so important to rock bands now, more important
than the records, you have an obligation to do something different with these shows.
You have to find different ways to have gatherings of fans and of your band being more
interesting. Fans can make recordings of Silent Record and that would be fine, too, but
the idea is to focus on the opportunity to have shows, to bring people together because
they’re fans of the band, to have the band drop out and have the shows just be about the
audience.”
If you’re keeping score at home, that’s a fan-reviewed album I’m Going Away and a fan-
performed album Silent Record. What comes next is, naturally, a fan-written album.
At shows during the past year or two, the Fiery Furnaces asked members of the audience
to pass to the stage whatever bits of trash they might have in their pockets: movie tickets,
dry cleaning stubs, fast food receipts, whatever. The band’s goal is to turn these bits of
prosaic ephemera into an album, not just from gleaning lyrics from the text but also
from turning serial numbers and account balances into chord progressions and rhythm
patterns.
The aptly titled Democ-Rock — an album by the people, for the people — should be out
in the summer. The band has 15 or 16 songs ready and hasn’t ruled out adding more, but
Friedberger insists he isn’t just outsourcing.
“It’s not fair to make the fans of the band actually write the songs and send them to you,
making them work,” he says “It has to be automatic or inattentive writing on their part.”
Not that he’s afraid to challenge people, not even at the risk of alienating them.
“As a rock band, you have to change,” Friedberger says. “You have to be more willing to
displease the people who like you than to please them. You have to make things that people
want to come to, as opposed to things that go to people and give them the equivalent of
a backrub and say ‘please love me.’ There’s a difference between setting up an expectation
and trying to fulfill it and setting up an expectation and then having it be a little surprise.
The pleasure comes from the surprise, as opposed to the fulfillment of the expectation.”
This, Friedberger says, is the drama of being a fan, hoping the band sticks to what drew
you to them but changes enough to avoid getting stale. He was mum on what other plans
the band has — though it definitely has other plans — but he was clear that despite all the
territory the Fiery Furnaces have covered in their career so far, they’re constantly looking
for new ground to cover.
“Unless you’re a band like the Ramones and you just have this one thing that you do and
you have to get the message out, it’s traditional to change,” Friedberger says. “That’s what
would be sincere, that you would try something a little different each time. If you didn’t,
that would be strange.” B

Every Daisy Has Its Thorn?
Hardly a flower, ten years in Brand New are anything but gentle.
by Natalie B. David
 
The members of Brand New have come a
long way from their pop-punk beginnings,
but, when you think about it, a decade is a
pretty long time. Since banding together in
2000, Brand New has never been afraid to
evolve, and their latest disc, Daisy, again finds
the band exploring new stylistic terrain.
On the phone from his home in Long
Island, NY, drummer Brian Lane sounds
pleased with his band’s latest dark odyssey but
candidly admits it may not be as immediately
accessible as the band’s earlier output. “It’s
definitely one of those records that takes a
while to sink in,” he says, “for sure.”   “Everything comes back there, so this time
But his band is far less worried about this
album’s reception than they were for any of
the three that came before it. These days it’s
all about making fellow band members Jesse
Lacey, Garrett Tierney and Vincent Accardi
proud.  Sapone’s comfortable hands. “We just went
“At this point I don’t think that we’re
32 ATHENS BLUR MAGAZINE
trying to prove anything to anyone except for
ourselves. We always want to please the other
three people in the band, no matter what,”
says Lane. “And that’s what always ends up
happening.”   recording process,” and it’s easily understood
Daisy, the band’s fourth album and second
for major label Interscope, was recorded with
long-time collaborator, producer, engineer
and unofficial fourth member Mike Sapone.
A homecoming of sorts, although the band
returned to Sapone’s Long Island basement
studio for at least one song on every album,
it was the first time since their 2001 debut
Your Favorite Weapon that they worked with
Sapone for an entire album cycle.
around we just decided to start it there and
finish it there,” says Lane explaining that for
2007’s The Devil and God Are Raging Inside
Me, the band burned through two or three
producers before returning the project to
straight for it because we already knew,
PHoto: alexa lambros
because last time we made the mistakes.”  early material, Brand New has uncovered a new-found outlook on
A smoother experience this time around,
Lane describes the recording of Daisy as
“a lot more comfortable than any other
why: for one, the album was recorded in the
band’s hometown, and two, because working
with Sapone rather than an outsider meant
working with a producer who is as integral a
part of Brand New as Lane, Lacey, Tierney
or Accardi.
“He doesn’t only get sounds and stuff. He
writes with us also. He comes up with ideas
for vocals or ideas for drums, or anything
along those lines,” explains Lane of the band’s
relationship with Sapone, which extends
back even to Lane, Lacey and Tierny’s band
prior to Brand New, called The Rookie Lot.
“He’s someone that no matter what is a part
of Brand New. He’s a member of Brand New,
almost the same as all of us. He just doesn’t
go on tour with us.”
The title of the new disc may be the
innocuous Daisy, but this flower has thorns and burrs aplenty. Brand
New has never been exactly what you would call a “happy” band with
a catalog’s worth of Holden Caulfield-inspired melodrama, emo
loneliness and breakup angst making up their repertoire, and Daisy,
too, follows its well-traveled path of dark catharsis. If its preceding
album was the sound of the devil and God duking it out, then Daisy
is undoubtedly the sound of the former’s victory.
Adding to the gloom, mixed in amongst searing guitars, analogies
to being broken down cars and metaphors of being burned alive are
archival sounding clips of a Baptist minister recorded in the 1960s.
Pulled from tapes Lacey found at an estate sale, the snippets of
sermons and hymns incorporates a definite sense of creepiness to the
overwhelmingly bleak affair.
However, unlike many bands that have lengthy tales of woe to
precede its darkest discs, the enveloping blackness on Daisy is just as
inexplicable to the guys who created it.
“It’s interesting because the last record we were all in darker places
than we were during this record. The last record we had a lot of things
to sort out internally and externally, and this time wasn’t like that at
all,” says Lane. “A lot of death wasn’t surrounding us like last time
and we weren’t away from home and we didn’t go through living in
other places.”
He continues, “None of us can probably really explain why it was
darker, it just turned out that way.”
One option, though Lane seems skeptical, is that lead guitarist
Accardi took a larger role in the songwriting for Daisy than for
previous albums. Always an integral part of the Brand New writing
team, this time around he took more turns at bat, writing lyrics
and lending his harsh scream to lead vocal duties more often, most
notably on the scathing, blistering album opener “Vices.”
Composition-wise, Daisy also stays truer to the sound of Brand
New’s live performance. Whereas in the past, songs were written in-
studio and figured out live afterward, for Daisy, the band worked
backwards, thinking through how the songs would be played live first
and recorded them accordingly.
“A lot of our songs evolve after we record them and play them on
stage anyway, so this time around it was more like, ‘This is what I
would do on stage so we might as well record it that way’,” explains
Lane. “And I think a lot of the songs translated to what they are
because of that.”
Sneaking back into the band’s live set, too, are some tunes from
the group’s peppier beginnings. Known in the past for shunning their
their back catalog. Easily understandable that as grown men with
houses and responsibilities it would be hard to revisit and relate to
songs moping about teenage heartbreak, Lane admits that the band
is, in fact, more comfortable with their fan-favored beginnings than
ever before.
“It took us all time to come to grips with what we did. It took us
all time to be just like, it’s okay that we did that because that was 10
years ago,” says Lane. “And I think we’re all a lot more comfortable
now looking back on it, being like, you know what? That was good
for the time that it was, so it’s okay to play those songs, or it’s okay to
listen to them and go ‘Ah, that one part is really cool,’ you know?”
For a band that has evolved with each new release, from the pop-
punk of their debut to the emo leanings of 2003’s Deja Entendu and
the moody rock that emerged on Devil and God, Lane explains that,
more than anything intentional, it all stems from the band members
simply getting better with age.
“You change as a musician as you grow up,” Lane remarks. “Your
influences usually change. This band has been going on for 10 years.
I definitely don’t listen to the same things that I listened to 10 years
ago, and I’d imagine that happens to a lot of people.
“Things happen that way just because we change as people, and
that’s really the bottom line.”  B
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ten Drivin’n’
QUESTIONS: Cryin’
by Jennifer Gibson photo by ruth letiman
Athens Blur Magazine (ABM): First thing's first:
Drivin’ n’ Cryin’ hasn’t released a full-length
record of new material since 1997. What took
so long?   Tree one day, and we were looking at bubbles, and it said, “Made in
Kevn Kinney (KK): Well, we didn’t think anybody was really
waiting. I’d been making solo records, everybody kind of went
their own way for a while. I had a band with Dave [V. Johnson] the
drummer. I wanted to try some different things. I just really didn’t
feel like it was ready until we all had some presence in it. I really
wanted to do it right. I really wanted to have a publicist. I wanted to
have some sort of machine behind it. It just took a while for interest
to be definite and to see that it’s a big deal, because it’s a big deal to
do this. I want to treat it with the proper amount of respect. I don’t
want to just keep churning records out just to do it. So this fellow in
Atlanta says, “Hey, man, we’d love to help you pay for a record. We
want to go full bore on it. We want to hire a publicist and hire a real
company to distribute it.” I was like, “OK cool.” I didn’t just want to
pay for it myself. I could do that. I could pay for it myself. We could
make a cover and we could let it trickle out there and sell it at shows,
but I didn’t want to do that. I wanted to wait until we had some sort
of support system in place.
 
ABM: The title of your new record is The Great
American Bubble Factory. What exactly is
that?
KK: It’s the starting point of a conversation I had with somebody
about factories and corporations in America not making things in
America. If you can remember back when Wal-Mart first started, it
was a really big proponent of being American made, back when Sam
Walton was running it. When he passed away it became a Chinese
clearing house, basically. I took my granddaughter to the Dollar
China.” And I thought, “Wow, these bubbles came a long way. 'Made
in China.' Why can’t they make these in Dalton, Ga.?” So it’s just a
conversation about how it’s obviously cheaper to make automobiles
and televisions across seas, and maybe the technology over there
for what they do will make it more economical for us to own things
like that, but what about garments? The millworks, the garment
factories of the South. I was talking to some buddies, and I said I’d
pay an extra $15 or $20 for a shirt to be made in South Carolina of
South Carolina-made cotton. It’s about, you know, bringing back
some place to work in this country besides just Googling and doing
the best we can to sell our services. There’s got to be more to do
than just bartending, or singing songs on stage. There’s got to be
something.
 
ABM: You’ve said that this record is “the
perfect crescendo to a long 20-plus year
career of Drivin’ n’ Cryin’. I think we’ve found
the true essence of what we started to build
back in 1985.” What is it about this record that
gives you that feeling?
KK: It goes back to what we were doing. The musical styles are
back to what we know, some hard rock mixed with traditional
Americana. We had a couple in the '80s and '90s that I think were
self-help kind of records, I guess like armchair psychology, end of
ATHENS BLUR MAGAZINE 35
 “we didn’t think anybody
was really waiting!”
the bar psychology. Our records Scarred But
Smarter, Whisper Tames the Lion, Mystery
Road, Fly Me Courageous, those are all topics
of conversation. And it was good rock n’ roll,
good songs, had a cool melody to it but then
it said something inside it that might bring
up some conversation or feelings. That was
kind of a tradition we had. We hadn’t made
a record in 12 years. Right after we finished
the last record we regrouped and I made a
solo record, Broken Hearts and Auto Parts,
with this band. It takes a while for a band
to become a real band instead of just my
side band because I’m the singer and main
songwriter. For it to be a real record you have
to be a real band. Dave, Mac [Carter], Tim
[Nielsen] and me, we’ve all been through
seven or eight years of playing together and
getting to know each other to where it’s
not the Kevn Kinney backing band — it’s a
true band where everybody has a say so and
everybody has some great ideas. That’s kind
of what I meant.
 
ABM: You’ve mentioned before that
you started the demos for the new
record on September 10, 2001. Aside
from putting off recording for a
while longer, how did that affect
the final product, if at all?
KK: It just made us not want to put it out.
It made us reevaluate what we were doing.
See, when I write and I sing, when I come
to your town, I’m coming to Greenville or
I’m coming to Athens, and I get there at
three or four in the afternoon, and I wander
around and I get dinner and I do things,
and what happens in that time affects
what happens in the show. We never do the
same show. I’ll go to record stores, look at
posters, see what kind of bands you like or
I talk to people I meet in coffee shops. In
saying that, there are times when it’s really
hard … I don’t like to write topical music,
you know? I don’t like to write specifically
about a certain issue because in 20 years no
one’s really going to get it. And right then,
there was the build up to the war and those
things. I made a solo record in that era, after
[Hurricane] Katrina, but I didn’t mention
Katrina specifically and I didn’t mention
“we never do
the same show”
36 ATHENS BLUR MAGAZINE
Kevn Kinney on DNC's 12 year recording absence
the Gulf War. It’s hard for me to have all
these feelings around. I thought that the
hierarchy of our government was pretty, I
don’t know, oppressive. I’m not really sure.
I didn’t really want to write about it until it
was over, and then write about it frankly. I
just wasn’t ready. A song like “I Stand Tall,”
it’s a great song. I didn’t write it. Personally
I stand tall, but I would hate it if anybody
understood that as a right to go to war.
 
ABM: Another record of yours,
Whisper Tames the Lion, has some
notoriety, too. It was the lowest
charting debut on the top 200
charts when it was released in
1988, actually knocking Dark Side
of the Moon off the charts for the
first time since its release. That’s
a great story to have. What does it
feel like to topple Pink Floyd?
KK: Well, we’re trying to let people know,
let people drink it in and know. It felt pretty
good. Mac’s a huge Pink Floyd fan, so he
doesn’t take it well. I think he would not
bring it up with Roger Waters if he ever met
him. But hey man, if you’re going to make
just one small impact on the world, the one
little thing Whisper Tames the Lion did was
humble Pink Floyd. But then they came back
on the charts and I don’t think we’ve been
back on since. So if you can look at the charts,
how many weeks has it been on the charts
now, that’s how long it’s been since I’ve been
on the charts. So if it says they’ve been on
the charts now for 500 weeks or something,
that’s how long it’s been since I’ve been there.
 
ABM: Back in 1985, before your
triumph over Pink Floyd, you said,
“We are a band that’s like your
record collection.” How so, and
have you held true to that?
KK: Yeah. When I was a kid, I had a lot of 45
singles, and I would sit there and play some
Rolling Stones, or Motown, or some John
Denver thing, or “The Wreck of the Edmund
Fitzgerald,” something like that, you know?
And I’d kind of make this little set-list up,
make mix tapes and stuff. I want my records
to be like mix tapes. I’m influenced by all
Kevn Kinney on dnc’s touring philosophy
these things in America, I write all these
different types of songs, so it was like “what
if I write a country song, or country pop
song, or 70s country song or a hard rock
song?” Let’s see what happens if we put
them on the same record. When people are
like, “There are a lot of different styles going
on on that record,” I’m like, “Well, it’s kind
of like a record collection.”
 
ABM: Speaking of different styles
of music, “Don’t You Know That I
Know That You Know” is a great
song. Not a huge rocker, but
infectious. It’s been stuck in my
head since I first heard it. What’s
the inspiration behind it?
KK: The inspiration behind it is, well, there’s
a group I thought had written a song about
me at one time, and I was like, “Well, that
kind of sucks.” It kind of hurt me. I thought
they were talking about me in a song, maybe.
I don’t know. But then again, what it must
be like for girls or guys to date musicians and
then they wind up with songs about them.
They have to go see them and they’re like,
“That song's about me!” There’s this friend
of mine who has a record, his name’s Bobby
Bare Jr. He has a record out and at the very
end of the record it says, “And don’t call me
no more, blah blah blah, and don’t write no
more songs about me!” And I thought how
I’ve never dated a musician before, or a talk
show host, or a comedian, but I thought it
must suck to date them and then break up
with them and wind up in their routine. And
it’s kind of about that. I don’t remember
which record it is. I do know they made him
take it off on some versions. I’d be too afraid
to [put it on a record]. I’m married now, but
I dated very strong willed women, so I can’t
imagine what they would do.
 
ABM: You don’t seem to be a band
that’s full of drama or full of
themselves, but this is a really
good, thoughtful rock record.
How have you remained a real solid
band for 20 years without giving in
to the dark side? Or have you?
KK: I think we probably went to the dark
side and back when nobody was watching, back in the early 90s. We
just struggled with having a limited amount of fame for a year. We
were on MTV for a week or so. I think that taught us a lot about
what our main objective was and why we were doing this. It makes
you evaluate the importance of what it is you want to do, and how
popular do you have to be until you’re satisfied. Here’s what I was
like: my friend Col. Bruce Hampton, he’s one of my best friends,
he’s like, “You just did not look comfortable.” And I really was not
comfortable being even remotely famous. The thing is, I’m not
trying to be your favorite band, and you don’t have to come see
every show I do, but here’s what I would love: if you’re the kind
of person who goes to see 30 shows a year, please come see one of
mine. If you’re the kind of person who buys 30 records a year, please
just try one of mine out. That’s kind of my mantra, because I’m just
doing what I do. I’m not trying to compete with anybody but myself.
I’m trying to write the best stuff I can write and have fun with it.
My band’s records are a conversation between band members. Mac
writes his own guitar parts, Dave comes up with his drum parts and
Tim comes up with the harmonies and bass parts and all that. I’m
really proud to be in this band. I think we’re in a place now where
we’re a true brotherhood and we’re really good friends and we dine
together and have fun together and we stop at Wal-Mart on the road
and nobody gets in fights and nobody’s screaming at anybody, and
all those things that happened to bands in the past. We’re like, “Let’s
not do that. Let’s let life be life.” We all have kids now, we all have
obligations. That’s where the screaming and yelling can come in, but
let’s not make music part of that. Let’s make music be the fun part.
Let’s not be so serious. We’re not going to change the world. It’s just
a little bit of a distraction for someone, and we can do it well. You can
just kind of tell your story, and I think people will buy it. Well, buy it
as in, “I think they‘re trying to be pretty true to their essence. That’s
cool.” But we’re not putting on any airs. I looked really stupid when
I tried to do that. I looked really horrible. Trust me, I tried. Luckily,
I’m surrounded by really honest friends who were like, “Dude, what
the hell was that?” But that doesn’t answer your question, does it?
That rant.
 
ABM: At the end of the day, what is your favorite record
you’ve made, and why?
KK: I don’t know how to answer that. I’m supposed to say my new
record. It’s the one I’ve been listening to the most now, and I like it.
But I’ll tell you I think the best solo record is Broken Hearts and Auto
Parts, and I think this new one is the best sounding Drivin’ n’ Cryin’
record. It’s got the best sound to it. I really love “Detroit City,” and I
really love the song “Let Me Down” that Mac does, and I love “Don’t
You Know …” I love “Train Wreck.” I love the whole thing. Yeah, this
is my favorite one of the Drivin’ n’ Cryin’ records, and Broken Hearts
and Auto Parts is my favorite solo record. But that doesn’t answer
your question. My records are like my children! They get pissed off
at me when I start picking sides. They come into my dreams and ask,
“What about me?” and I’m like, “Hey, I like you, I like you. I do!” I’m
a little afraid to answer that.
 
ABM: Finally, I want to know: I saw a posting on your
Web site announcing, “Looks like we have some friends
in the Georgia General Assembly,” but the link to the
story was broken. It sounds ominous. Any weird story
behind that?
KK: Our friend that was in the assembly is not in the assembly any
more. He retired to raise his kids. He’s a juvenile court judge now in
Ringgold. We were a big supporter of his; he’s a big supporter of us
and there was another fellow from Atlanta, too. But that’s why we
had that linked up there. But that was a while ago. Sorry. No story
there. B
 ‘‘ People

PATRON are so
afraid
to write

SAINTS torch
songs
or love

OF FOR THEIR
SIXTH ALBUM,
songs
...and I
hate that

POPby
Natalie B. David
TEGAN AND SARA
FIND FAITH IN
– AND OUT –
OF LOVE.
because I
love love
songs.
photo: pamela littky

J ust like with her music, it’s difficult not to be

carried away by Sara Quin’s catchy efferves-
cence. Calling from L.A., she says it feels like
she’s on vacation. In reality, it’s the middle of
day-two of a weeklong press-capade behind
Tegan and Sara’s sixth album, entitled Sainthood,
and Murphy’s Law is in full effect.
She speaks fast, her demeanor almost
hummingbird-like, mixing thoughtful insights
with quirky quips and unabashed honesty. But
first, due to technical difficulties, she’s saddled
with a headset.
“Just imagine it for a moment. It’s not as
seamless as Britney’s, for example. That’s more
skin toned, matched to her hair,” she laughs.
“This is more Janet Jackson, Rhythm Nation
over here.”
Imagining the petite, raven-haired rocker
sporting a pop diva’s mic is certainly a stretch.
Tegan and Sara are responsible for some of this
decade’s best indie pop tunes, but overdone pop
stars? They’re definitely anything but.
Calgary, Alberta natives Sara and her identical
twin sister Tegan have earned a following by
crafting genuine songs about falling in and out
of love and everything in between, all combined
with perfectly catchy melodies and indelible,
delectable hooks. What began as two 14-year-
olds writing songs and playing talent shows has
turned into a bona fide musical career that most
up-and-comers would envy. Signed by certified
rock legend Neil Young in the duo’s home
country to his Vapor music label in 1999, Tegan
and Sara have since seen their tunes covered by
a surprising variety of revered acts, including
Ryan Adams, Alkaline Trio, Amanda Palmer and
The White Stripes, who recorded the duo’s 2004
single “Walking With a Ghost” for their own
2005 EP of the same name.
All in all, it’s not a bad resume for a band
whose bread and butter is the much decried love
song. With a title lifted from the lyrics of the
Leonard Cohen song “Came So Far For Beauty,”
Sainthood centers around an “obsession with
romantic ideals.” In short, it’s 13 tracks about
love and the crazy things we do to get it.
Although both Tegan and Sara, who typically
write their songs separately, have covered matters
of the heart more often in their songwriting
than not, Sainthood tackles the subject from a
new perspective. For the first time in her adult
life, Sara found herself ready to write an album
and was completely unattached, a romantic free
agent.
“Since I was 14, which was when I began
songwriting, I’ve been engaged in some form
of a relationship, whether it was the breakup of
one, or the dissection of one from within,” she
explains. “I’ve obviously fully written about that
and deconstructed that process and that experi-
ence and I was suddenly, like, really single.”
“And I wasn’t just writing about my own
pursuits at getting out of a relationship and
getting back into one,” she continues. “I was also
thinking about what am I even looking for? And
what do I even really want?”
Unafraid of the stigma that comes along
with fessing up to penning love songs, Tegan
and Sara’s willingness to be upfront about the
nature of their songs is a refreshing and welcome
change from most indie rock bands, who tend
to regard the L-word like a specially branded
hipster repellant.
“Oh my god! I know! It’s like an epidemic in
indie rock music,” Sara enthusiastically inter-
rupts. “People are so afraid to write torch songs
or love songs because it’s seen as embarrassing
or being overdone, and I hate that because I love
love songs.”
As with the throngs of us who have belted
our hearts out to a sappy serenade at one time
or another (c’mon, admit it), in her single status,
Sara found herself longing to hear genuine love
songs in all of their over-the-top glory. Pushing
rock and indie rock out of her personal listening

38 ATHENS BLUR MAGAZINE ATHENS BLUR MAGAZINE 39

 ‘‘
tegan
you would hold in your hand, a piece of art if
you will, and that the experience wouldn’t be the
same thing for a free download or a digital PDF
of the thing. It actually is something that you
could put in a room or on your bookshelf and it
would be really substantial.”
With Sara tied up doing A&R for indie buzz
band An Horse, the project was conceived and
spearheaded by Tegan, but ultimately became a
collective project. Choosing to self-publish, the

For some
books became a team effort between Tegan and
Sara, their management and close friends, with
everyone taking turns writing, copyediting and

reason, if
finessing the minutiae of publishing.
“We all learned a ton about publishing and
shipping and the differences between copyright

a woman or
and publishing in the written world and the
music world,” says Sara of the experience. “I
mean, we’re geeks. We basically decided that this

an indie rock
was fascinating and we really sort of immersed
ourselves in it.”
The three books chronicle the past year in the

band sings
lives of Tegan and Sara: “ON” and “AT” similarly
document a U.S. tour from October 2008 and an
Australian tour from January 2009 with photos,

about love or
essays and journals written by tour mates and
repertoire, although not apparent on Sainthood,
members of the band, amongst other goodies.
she began to almost exclusively listen to the
The middle book, “IN,” captures a songwrit-
sounds of Motown, old French records and hip

gets a bit too

ing experiment that took place in New Orleans
hop acts like The-Dream.
last November. Like fellow identical-twin sister
“I wanted to hear people singing like they
act The Watson Twins, Tegan and Sara both
were — broken hearted and crying,” says Sara,

emo about love,

contribute songs to their albums, but never
citing a specific childhood rediscovery. “All of
collaborated.
a sudden I started listening to Patsy Cline like
Until now.
I would die without it. And every song is a love

it’s sort of
Spawned from a conversation with a musician
song. Every Supremes song is a love song. Every
friend undergoing a rather difficult recording
hip hop song is a love song. And I started to feel
process, Sara looked back at her own songwrit-
like, you know what? There is nothing embar-

assigned a
ing past, realizing that it had been years since
rassing about wanting to sing your heart out
she had felt intimidated or challenged by the
about your heart.”
creative process having rarely strayed from her
It’s true, the love song has been maligned as

lesser value
solo ways.
the ultimate rock ‘n’ roll cliché. A subject both
“It occurred to me that the scariest thing I
accepted and expected in mainstream circles, in
could do was put myself in a room with anyone
other genres, especially in indie rock, wearing

than if you
and write; it didn’t have to just be Tegan,” she
your heart on your sleeve in flashing, neon lights
is often considered an ultimate taboo. Sure, most
bands do it — they just don’t talk about it.
“For some reason, if a woman or an indie rock
band sings about love or gets a bit too emo about
love,” she says, “it’s sort of assigned a lesser value
than if you sing cryptically about love in this
way that is seen as more heroic or more stoic or
something like that.”
Tegan and Sara’s offbeat-yet-user-friendly
take on love has certainly resonated with a wide-
ranging flock of music fans. As a special treat
to please Tegan and Sara devotees, the duo also
created a three book boxed series to accompany
Sainthood. The project, entitled “ON, IN, AT” was
created as an alternative to a more video-cen-
tric endeavor (the duo has two DVDs — 2006’s
touring documentary “It’s Not Fun, Don’t Do
It” and 2007’s “The Con — The Movie”), and a
way for the sisters Quin to offer fans an experi-
‘‘
sing cryptically
about love in
this way that
is seen as
more heroic.
clarifies. “I realized that I had gone about 10
(CONTINUED ON PG. 56)

sara

ence that, quite simply, wouldn’t fit on a circular,

4.72-inch piece of plastic.
“With music now, having the actual tactile
experience of unwrapping a CD, for a lot of people,
is gone and it may never come back,” explains
Sara, “and there was this idea that we would still
be able to give an actual product, something that

40 ATHENS BLUR MAGAZINE

 w  

Evolution of a Medium: The story of radio’s survival and continued fight

By Sarah A. McCarty

S
itting in an office surrounded by gold and platinum RIAA Sales Awards,

PAIN
Sitting in an office surrounded
thanking by gold
radio for selling and platinum
millions and millions RIAA Sales Awards
of recordings of artists,
thanking radio for selling millions and millions of recordings of artists, Kevin
Kevin Steele, program manager for Athens radio station Magic 102.1 sends
an e-mail explaining why he thinks the current actions of those same record
Steele, program
companies and manager
their artistsfor
who Athens radio gratitude
once showed station Magic
are now102.1 sendstheanradio
threatening
email correspondence
industry explaining
– an industry with a dynamic why he full
history thinks theandcurrent
of ups downs. actions of those
same record
Nearlycompanies
one-hundredand yearstheir
sinceartists who
the first once
U.S. showed
licensed gratitude
commercial are now
broadcasting
station hit the airwaves, proposed legislation that calls for radio stations to pay performing
threatening thechange
artists could radiotheindustry – an
face of the industry
industry once with
again.a dynamic history full of ups
and downs.
“Now that we’re in the digital age, all those years of support from radio stations don’t
seem to matter anymore,” Steele said of the players on the other side of the line who
support what he calls the “potentially detrimental legislation.”
Nearly In one hundred years since the first U.S. licensed commercial
February, Representative John Conyers, (D-MI) introduced HR 848 Performance
broadcasting
Rights Act intostation hit thewhich
Congress, airwaves, proposed
would require radiolegislation
stations to paythat callswhen
artists for they
radio
stations to pay performing artists could change the face of the industry once
play their music.
House resolution 848 again. According to opencongress.org, the Performance Rights Act and the similar S. 379

performing “Now
in the Senate, would amend federal copyright law to grant performers of sound recordings
equal rights to compensation from terrestrial broadcasters. For broadcast stations with
that we’reofinless the than
digital age, all those years of support from public radio

rights act
gross revenues $1.25 million and for noncommercial, broadcast
stations don’t seem to matter anymore,” Steele said of the players on the fee
stations such as University of Georgia’s WUOG, the act would establish a flat annual
in lieu of payment of royalties. An exemption from royalty payments would be granted
other
forside of theofline whoservices
support what he calls usesthe “potentially detrimental
is looking out
broadcasts religious and for incidental of musical sound recordings.
legislation.”
Although the act has been considered by committee and recommended to be considered
by the House, it has not yet been put to a vote. If the bill does eventually get passed,
for the artist. some say it could have serious effects on radio stations throughout the country, which is
In February,
causing a lotRepresentative
of controversy andJohn pittingConyers,
people like(D-MI) introduced
Steele against HR 848 and
many organizations
Performance Rights Act into Congress, which would require radio stations to
but does it have famous recording
pay artists when
Backing
artists.
thethey
proposedplaylegislation
their music.
are several organizations, politicians and recording
artists including the Recording Industry Association of America, the American Federation
the potential to of Television and Radio Artists, the American Association of Independent Music,
According to opencongress.org,
Academy, Georgia the PerformanceHank Rights
JohnsonAct and and the

shut down
The Recording representative the musicFIRST
similar S. 379
coalition in the by
supported Senate,
a widewould
range of amend federal
performers suchcopyright law to grant
as Bruce Springsteen, Dave
performers of sound recordings equal rights to compensation from terrestrial
Matthews Band, Jay-Z, Andrea Bocelli and Amy Grant.

the airwaves?
In a press release, Rep. Johnson, like many supporters of the performance royalties,
broadcasters. Foranbroadcast
said it is merely stations
act of fairness. Radiowith gross
stations revenues
currently of less
pay writers thanroyalties,
of songs $1.25
million andperformers.
for noncommercial,
“This bill is notpublic broadcast stationsThesuch
realityasisUniversity

This is the
but not an attack on broadcasters. that artists
of Georgia’s
get paid forWUOG,
the use of the theiract would
music on allestablish a flat annual
other platforms, such as thefeeInternet,
in lieu satellite,
of
and cable, but they do not get any compensation when their work is played over AM and
payment of royalties. An exemption from royalty payments would be granted

story of
FM radio stations,” Johnson says.
for broadcasts
In the sameof religious services and(Fairness
sense, the musicFIRST for incidental
in Radio uses of musical
Starting sound
Today) coalition
recordings.
says on its website it is “committed to making sure everyone, from up-and-coming artists
to our favorites from years-ago, is guaranteed Fair Pay for Air Play.”
Although the act has been considered by committee and recommended to
radio’s fight
In committee hearings before the 111th Congress, Billy Corgan of The Smashing
be considered by theonHouse,
Pumpkins testified behalf ofitmusicFIRST
has not yetand beensaid,put to aa big
“I am vote.fan If
of the
radio, bill
anddoes
am
eventually get passed,
very interested some say
in its continued it could
health have serious
and well-being. effects
Terrestrial onhas
radio radio stations
helped me

for survival throughout

people like an
redresses
the country, which is causing a lot of controversy and pitting
to discover many of the artists that became influential to my life and artistic pursuits. I
by no means see them as the bad guy. The change to the law we are here to discuss only
Steele against
outmoded, many
unfair organizations
practice that favors oneandparticipant’s
famous recording artists.
needs over another.
This legislation is simply a form of restoration to artists long overdue.” Corgan went on
Backing thehow
to explain proposed legislation
many performers aresongs
on hit several organizations,
may not be big name artistspoliticians
who can andprofit
by sarah A. from tours and the sale of merchandise and they deserve compensation in the form of
recording
royalties.artists including the Recording Industry Association of America,
mccarty the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, the American
Association of Independent Music, The Recording Academy, Georgia
representative Hank Johnson and the musicFirst coalition supported
continuedby a wide
range of performers such as Bruce Springsteen, Dave Matthews Band, Jay Z,
42 ATHENS BLUR MAGAZINE Andrea Bocelli and Amy Grant. ATHENS BLUR MAGAZINE 43

On the other hand, those opposed
to the Performance Rights Act, including
outspoken organization Cox Media Group
that owns Magic 102.1, say that it threatens
the industry and claim it is not fair
compensation but actually a tax for airing
free music.
Many people in the radio industry
refute the argument that it is only fair to
pay for the use of songs the artists perform
because the airplay received is beneficial
to the artists. Some radio supporters recall
the infamous Payola scandals, saying record
companies depend on airplay so much
they once reportedly bribed and paid disc
jockeys to broadcast the songs of their
artists to promote the music. National
Association of Broadcasters Executive Vice
President Dennis Wharton touted airplay
of songs in a press release when he wrote,
“Every week, radio airplay reaches 235
44 ATHENS BLUR MAGAZINE
Kevin Steele sits in his office at Cox Radio. photo: Wes Elkin
million Americans, promoting both new
and legacy artists and generating more than
a billion dollars in CD and download sales
for record labels annually.”
Though recording companies and
many performers say that while it is still
important, traditional radio broadcasts of
their music is not as significant as it once
was. During his testimony, Corgan said,
“If the performance of a song has value
to a particular terrestrial radio station
in its airing, I believe it is only right to
compensate those performers who have
created this work. If a station plays a song,
both the author and the performer should
be paid. These particular performances must
have value to the stations or they wouldn’t
be playing them.”
However, Steele says the royalties
would put many stations in danger. “All
radio stations pay publishing companies
“A
millio
mon riters anwd o
millions of dollars each year in royalty
fees; monies that are distributed to the
songwriters and owners of the music.  The
performance tax would be an added fee that
many broadcasters can’t afford to pay,”  he
said. “Therefore, many music formatted
stations will either go to syndicated talk
formats or just go dark.”
Some supporters say the fees won’t
force any stations to close, but Steele
disagrees. “These added fees will no doubt
bring many independent broadcasters
to their knees, virtually shutting down
many local and community oriented radio
stations,” he said.
While Magic is a larger station, Steele
said he did believe if the legislation passes,
many of the community services provided
by the Cox stations would be greatly
affected by the added cost.
Tony Kidd, vice president/market
manager of programming at 95.5 “The composers of music to get their fair share During this Golden Age, non-musical
Beat,” another Cox Radio station in the since they cannot earn with performing shows were more popular than live and
Atlanta/Athens market, agreed that the bill or promoting, which is how the system recorded music. Most families would
could cause changes. “In the case of 955 currently works today.  gather around the radio and tune into to
The Beat, it’s difficult to tell the exact effect Others opposed to the performance their favorite programs from one of the
because we don’t know what the fees would royalties include the Free Radio Alliance, first radio comedy series “Amos ‘n Andy” to
be. However, some adjustment would need Greater Media, Inc., National Association the CBS drama “Suspense” to the old-time
to be made including playing less music of Broadcasters, College Broadcasters, Inc. radio detective show “The New Adventures
during some time periods.  In some cases for and a few state broadcasting associations. of Sherlock Holmes.” Some faithfully
smaller stations in smaller markets, I have Georgia congressman Paul Broun, who listened to the big soap operas, which are
heard from several owners and operators represents the 10th district that includes now synonymous with daytime television
that any increase in expenses would put Athens, also opposes the proposed but actually began as serial broadcast on
them out of business,” Kidd said. legislation. According to govtrack.us Broun radio with soap manufactures as sponsors
When asked to give the perspective joined more than 240 politicians who co- and producers. One of the most famous
of a non-commercial, independent station, sponsored the Supporting the Local Radio of these soaps is “Guiding Light,” which
Rock 100.7 FM General Manager Xavier Freedom Act that opposes the Performance launched on radio in 1937, but eventually
Elkins said further fees would obviously Rights Act, but he could not be reached for moved to television in 1952 — a sign of the
be taxing on any organization like 100.7 response. changing times and upcoming trouble for
particularly because it is already non-profit. While the outcome of this proposal radio.
Steele supported the claim saying, “Even could cause drastic changes to radio, it’s not With the advent of television, and
though the House amended the legislation the first time controversy, technology and later cable, people began watching shows
to protect smaller, non-commercial culture have altered the medium. instead of listening to shows, and radio had
broadcasters by creating a sliding scale fee, Commercial radio first hit the scene to devise a plan to stay relevant.
many of these stations will still not be able in the 1920s when it became licensed and “As audiences shifted to television,
to afford any increase in royalty fees.” picked up advertisers and sponsors along radio had to really change its format,”
While many debate the fairness of with original content. said Ann Hollifield, Ph.D., Head of the
the issue, Elkins brought into question the From the 1920s until the 1950s radio Department of Telecommunications
relevancy of royalties.“The notion of an artist- had its heyday. During this Golden Age at the University
oriented royalty fee seems  a  bit  outdated of Radio stations produced a variety of
given that the  economic  engine of the broadcasts including
music industry has shifted gears.  In music's
heyday, artists toured to
m p a n ies
promote
i s h i n g co y fees;
pay publ n r oyalt
e
ta t ion s
h y e ar i
to t h
l l ra dio s
o l l a rs eac
r i b u t ed s ic . 
f d is t hem u
s t
ns o
h a w t are d
n e r
fee th
s o f t at man
y
i e
de d
pay.
oul d b e a na d
rd o to
sonegrw c e tax t a f f
n’ ations wi l l eri t he
form a n
r s c a rk.”
The p
d c te
as rmatted ats or just
st go da
br oa
usic fo
m
lk for
many myndicated t
a
s
go to of Georgia. In
the beginning, most stations went to a
m u s i c strictly music format, with some news and
programs, serial soap operas, sports talk programs, but there was a lot of
albums mysteries, dramas, comedy shows and overlap as more and more stations came on
(the music was the product).  news. Although music was not the primary the scene, according to Hollifield.  “As TV
Now, artists distribute  music in order product in early radio, some record became a more powerful competitor, radio
to  drive demand for their  tours (the live companies reportedly feared the medium really reinvented itself in the late 1960s and
performance is the product). It won't be at the onset as competition providing early 70s to a format-type in very narrow
long before most music is free, or nearly a free product while others saw it as a niches such as top 40, classical and jazz
free anyway,” Elkins said. Large touring acts means for promotion of music. A court stations as opposed to just general mixes of
will still make the big bucks, which makes ruling eventually granted copyright owners music,” Hollifield said. She said when cable
the idea of royalties seem disconnected compensation and the American Society TV entered the game and there was
and trivial by comparison, according to of Composers, Authors and Publishers
Elkins. He said he sees fees as a method for (ASCAP) began collecting licensing fees. (continued ON PG. 57)
ATHENS BLUR MAGAZINE 45
 afternoon naps * bearsuit * boyracer* bunnygrunt *
HAPPY HAPPY
cars can be blue * casper & the cookies * elekibass *
eux autres * fishboy * forever * hotpants romance *
keith john adamsBIRTHDAY
* lolligags * TO YOUeggs * marshmal-
lovely
low coast * oh ok * patience please * red pony clock
* smittens * sourpatch * superions * titans of filth *
tunabunny * velcro stars * afternoon naps * bearsuit
* boyracer* bunnygrunt * cars can be blue * casper &
the cookies * elekibass * eux autres * fishboy * forev-
er * hotpants romance * keith john adams * lolligags
Mike turner’s little label is big on
* lovely eggs * marshmallow coast *andoh ok * patience
friendships, imagination
please * redingenuity as it reaches the 10 year mark
pony clock * smittens * sourpatch * su-
by ed morales
perions * titans of filth * tunabunny * velcro stars
I
t’s an August night in Athens’ Caledonia Lounge
and Holly Ross, lead singer/guitarist of UK’s
Lovely Eggs, is holding court atop the dimly-
lit stage. With a drum mallet in one hand and
a PBR in the other, she watches fellow bandmate
(and husband) David Blackwell set an unstable, rust-
colored floor tom aside the front monitor.
“This is a song about an amazing guy we know who
draws octopuses and owls,” she says while swigging
the beer, “it’s called ‘Jon Carling’.” And she’s off,
banging the mallet against the tom with all her
might.
“I know an artist and he draws about owls/He
knows about birds/He draws about owls” she croons
46 ATHENS BLUR MAGAZINE
as the crowd, amid their delight, can see what’s
unfolding. With each hit, the tom leg inches closer
and closer and closer to the floor.
There’s trouble ahead.
Standing near the stage is Nate Mitchell, drummer
for Cars Can Be Blue. Just as the tom topples, he
rushes over and holds it steady as Holly keeps
blasting away. Two other people lend a hand, and the
song, lasting less than a minute, is saved.
Mike Turner, the founder of Happy Happy
Birthday to Me records and the man who made this
moment possible, watches a few feet away. He smiles.
Bands helping bands. That’s what this 10 years is
all about.
I
t’s been a wild decade – terrorist attacks and wars, cities an ideal place for us.”
lost to hurricanes, presidential elections decided by courts, Turner encapsulates his mantra on the label’s Web site: “HHBTM
the first African-American head of state – but perhaps the bands help each other out. If you don’t think you can help a fellow
most fascinating aspect of the aughts is the loss of personal labelmate out with booking a show or two for them, or a place to crash
connection. The onset of the Internet, and the electronic tools it for a night while on tour, then this is not the label for you. We all treat
fosters, has made the world flat (as one Pulitzer Prize-winning writer each other like family, and always try to do the best for each other.”
noted) but also distant. Admit it, you have no idea who your neighbors And that means righting fallen toms.
are, even while you glom their wireless. “The thing I like about Mike and Eric and the rest of the HHBTM
So while a 10-year anniversary is but a blip in the realm of time usual gang of idiots is that they take what they do seriously without
(even Donald Trump had a taking themselves seriously,”
marriage that lasted 10 years), said Matt Harnish of
in today’s detached, 24-hour Bunnygrunt. “They realize
news cycle world, it’s a heady that the alternative to doing
achievement. Especially for stuff is not doing stuff and
an independent record label who cares about people
created as a lark by a guy who’s who don’t do stuff? They
job before starting it was have a respect for us but at
running a rather efficient frame the same time Mike has no
shop in the Florida Panhandle. problem punching me in the
“Ten years? I didn’t expect balls if he feels like it. That’s
it at all,” said Turner about the kinda label we wanna
the aluminum anniversary of be on.”
HHBTM. “The first CD was
meant to mark the last issue
I
of my zine Bee’s Knees. The
t’s not just a twee label,
original Happy Happy Birthday OK?
To Me Volume 1 was meant “A lot of people put
to be a joke because there was tags on things because it’s
not going to be a Volume 2. I easier for them to describe,”
thought it would be funny if Turner said. “I did the same
someone really dug it and then thing when I wrote so I
wondered if there’d be a Volume understand when people
2 only to find out there wasn’t.” say ‘Well it’s easier to put
Volume 1 was released in the things in this little category
summer of 1999 and featured or section and describe it
songs by Elf Power, Of Montreal this way’. The label has had
and Marshmallow Coast. The
a wide variety of stuff. I’ve
collection of 15 singles was never really put out a noise
culled from contacts and friends
record or a hip-hop record,
Turner made in the four-years but there’s been enough
previous while working on his other kind of things where
zine, but proved a harbinger it’s not just a twee label. But
as the ’90s came to an end. once you get that tag it’s
Turner not only tapped into hard to get rid of.”
a sound people sought but a The twee moniker will
musical aesthetic defining what happen on a label with
his venture was to become. bands named The Smittens,
And now, a decade later, the Afternoon Naps and The
one-off “joke” has grown to an Lolligags, but a closer look
industrious enterprise. HHBTM at the catalogue shows
claims more than 100 albums, elements of Americana,
a stable of bands of various MIKE TURNER POSES AT WUXTRY RECORDS, HIS OTHER ATHENS LOVE 1960s power pop and
musical genres, an annual five- photo: wes elkin psychedelic-folk reminiscent
day festival featuring 80-100 of Elephant 6.
bands from all over the world,
“The first CD I put out was by the artist Birddog, which was more
and a belief that taking chances and cherishing a personal, homemade Americana,” Turner said. “The record had Elliott Smith on it, Paul K
feel can not only attract a fan base, but grow one as well. from Paul K and the Weathermen, Edith Frost, Glenn Kotche from
“Everyone I’ve met associated with HHBTM have been really nice Wilco, so the first actual artist CD that I put out was Americana music.
and genuinely enthusiastic about our band and the other bands on The second one was The Visitations with Davey Wrathgabar, who I
the label,” said Tom DeChristofaro, whose band Afternoon Naps knew because of the E6 connection, so I really got into that scene.
is a recent addition to the HHBTM family. “He’s actually releasing Then the Gwens were kind of another sub E6 affiliate band . . . and
our debut, and as with all the current releases, Mike has pre-order then as things went on I had an Ashley Park record, which is more ’60s
specials the early bird fans can order and in return they get something pop.
special with the album. We pitched him the idea of wrapping it in a
silkscreened pillowcase and he loved it. Little things like that make it continued
ATHENS BLUR MAGAZINE 47
 musici
CO
gear guide
“There’s a time from 2002 to 2003 where all the things that came dance music, and by the third year it’s Mountain Goats, Deerhoof and
out were Americana,” Turner continued. “It wasn’t Elephant 6, it
wasn’t pop, it was very much roots oriented acoustic music — folky
Apples in Stereo. None of the people fit the twee pop thing, but to a
rock audience, it’s very much a twee festival. To an indie pop or twee RNER
an
’
’60s based. And right after that there may have been more like
psychedelic pop stuff, which led to the twee pop.”
pop element, this is a rock festival, which is really frustrating because
I like a lot of stuff. But you can’t change the way people think about it
or write about it so you just have to let it go.”
s
And it was at the time of more twee when Turner, living in Panama
City, Fla. decided to take a chance

T
on creating a music festival — 400 he music business as it is
miles away in Athens. Set to play nowadays, sometimes having
at Tasty World and the 40 Watt
Club, Popfest 2004 saw the 50 or
a label doesn’t make much sense. Fender Sub-Lime Bass Fuzz Pedal
For this reason, Turner takes a
so bands (including Sunshine Fix nontraditional approach in who The Fender Sub-Lime Bass Fuzz Pedal resurrects classic Fender fuzz tone from the 1960s
and the Rosebuds) play four days he chooses to work with, and once and ’70s—a distinctively dirty sound that fueled a thousand garage bands and put buzz-saw bass
and nights in early August. they’re onboard, how he markets and tone beneath everything from Bowie-esque glam to the most snarling punk. In short, it’s the re-
Turner moved to town just in introduces them to the world. turn of an epic rock sound.
time for the festival’s festivities. “It’s always up in the air,” he said. Added to the signal path between your bass and your speakers, the Sub-Lime Bass Fuzz Pedal gives you
“I thought, you know what, “If someone doesn’t like how it easily dialed-in classic Fender fuzz ranging from the barest hint of buzz to an all-out seismic roar. A ma-
I’m just going to put together a goes, they’re free to go. There’s no jor modern touch is that the tone can be tailored by setting the crossover frequency wherever you want the ef-
festival,” Turner said, laughing. real signing on, there’s no contract. fect to happen—low-frequency fuzz, high-frequency fuzz and anything in between—without sacrificing all-
“I’d been visiting Athens and I fell Sometimes I wish there were — important low-end muscle and fundamental bass tone.
in love with it . . . I made friends there’s been times where I wish
with people who were putting I would have had that because at
out records at that time. So I just least the interest of the label would
moved up here and put together a
festival with no real job. The first
be protected. But at the same time Monster Turbine PRO High Performance In-Ear Speakers
at times it’s good there weren’t
year of the festival was a success contracts signed. It’s so easy for Whether you’re a professional audio engineer or a demanding audiophile, attaining perfect sound reproduction
in that it went off.” bands to do it on their own anyway, doesn’t matter a little—it’s all that matters. That’s why Monster brings you a higher level music listening expe-
With Eric Hernandez at sometimes I don’t even know where rience with Turbine Pro professional in-ear speakers. Turbine Pros were engineered to deliver bass so deep, it’s
his side as the festival’s stage the label exists at some point.” like a subwoofer in your ears, plus reproduce the clarity, detail and dynamic range of
manager (he also does artwork for When the label started, he added the finest studio monitors or audiophile reference loudspeakers.
the label), Turner knew he had a musicians and bands he met while Turbine Pro reproduces all genres of music with incredible musicality and accuracy: Whether
good idea, but with several kinks putting together Bee’s Knees — it’s the deep rhythm sounds of hip hop, the intimacy of a jazz trio, or the thunderous power of
to work out. Birddog, Visitations, Kingsauce. But a full-scale orchestra. You’ll rediscover your favorite music, hearing things that you didn’t even
“I learned everything not to now Turner — aside from getting know were there.
do, then it was trying to fix that a healthy host of letters and MP3s
and make back the money that via e-mails (which he promptly
was lost,” Turner said. “It was deletes) — brings bands into the fold
frustrating at the end because it
really wasn’t local.”
after being impressed with their live
show, following recommendations
Roland BA-330 Portable Digital PA System
Undaunted, Turner set sights by friends, or by pure kismet. He
for 2005, moving to the Little The BA-330 is the all-in-one portable PA solution for music venues, worship events, conferences, seminars, business meetings, and much
also leans on Hernandez and his more. The BA-330 has a four-channel configuration, with two channels dedicated for microphones or instruments, and two other channels
Kings bar from Tasty World wife Leslie (who is a member of The
(“moving all that stuff from for standard 1/4” stereo inputs. Each channel has its own independent tone adjustment and effects switching for built-in effects, such as EQ,
Lolligags) to find the best fits. reverb, delay and widening. A Stereo Link function allows for a pair of BA-330s to work in tandem to provide an extra-wide stereo spread.
Tasty World to 40 Watt was a “With Tunabunny I went to see
big hassle,” Turner remembers), Powered by a high performance digital stereo amplifier, the BA-330 features four custom-designed 6.5” stereo speakers and two tweet-
them and was blown away with how ers, positioned for wide stereo dispersion. While the built-in tilt-back stand enables the unit to
and getting a huge boost when unaware of themselves they were,”
Athens’ favorites Pylon and be angled up for better sound monitoring, the BA-330 also can easily be mounted on a speak-
he said. “It was really like they were er stand.
Of Montreal signed on to be playing and doing what was right for
headliners. Later years saw The The Roland BA-330 PA System features a unique Intelligent Anti-Feedback
them and whatever else was going on function previously unavailable in self-contained portable PA sys-
Mountain Goats, Deerhoof, Ted didn’t really matter. Instantly I had
Leo and the Pharmacists and a tems. During use, the BA-330 can automatically detect
to sign them. Then there’s this band potential feedback possibilities and eliminate it imme-
breakthrough performance by Sourpatch. Friends of mine who I
Black Kids etch the festival into diately. This is a huge advantage over manually adjust-
really trust went to see them at San ing volume levels, as it allows performers to place the PA
minds of music bloggers everywhere. Francisco Popfest and said ‘We met this band, they’re so nice, they fit
“We met Mike and the gang when we were asked to play the Athens system behind them and easily hear themselves without
the label, they’ll help bands out with shows they’ll give people a place experiencing feedback.
Popfest,”  DeChristofaro said. “Needless to say the whole Popfest to stay, their music fits in, we know you already love their influences.’
experience was amazing and quite eye-opening.” Designed to deliver high-quality stereo sound for au-
So I got these demos in and one night was listening to it eight or nine diences of up to 80 people, the BA-330 can run on stan-
A rough economy had Turner shut down Popfest for 2009, but he times and I thought, 'yeah I can see this working.'”
plans to return in 2010 with a few new surprises. Surprises to further dard AC Power or eight AA Alkaline or Ni-MH re-
“I booked a show for this band TacocaT which I was really excited chargeable batteries. The switchable output power allows
dispel the twee image. about seeing, and Forever was touring with them,” Turner continued.
“With Popfest there’s a certain community that looks at it as ‘Oh, the user to switch between the maximum power and the
“Though I was excited about TacocaT, when Forever played I was energy-saving Eco modes to preserve battery life. The
this is tender twee pop type stuff,’ but it’s not really,” Turner said. instantly into them, and by the time they got home from their tour I
“Maybe the first year it was indie pop, but it wasn’t specifically twee BA-330 is also amazingly efficient, delivering a sound
sent them an e-mail and said we need to put this out on a real CD and pressure level of 109 dB, comparable to much larger
pop, and there all different kinds of pop. By the second year the
addition of Pylon and Of Montreal moved to more electronic and (continued on page 58) mid-range sound systems.

48 ATHENS BLUR MAGAZINE ATHENS BLUR MAGAZINE 49

 BOSS e-Band JS-8 Audio Player with Guitar Effects Regional
report
The BOSS eBand JS-8 Audio Player with Guitar Effects is the portable audio player designed for guitar-
ists who play and practice at home. eBand is the audio player that combines playback of
full songs, backing tracks, or rhythm loops with high quality BOSS guitar effects and a
built-in stereo speaker system. This all-in-one solution is ideal for guitarists who want
Jacksonville, Fla. By Julie McCollum
to learn songs, solos and riffs, practice new songs outside of band practice, play along established 1832
with any of their own collection of music, or create new songs while jamming with population 807,815
audio tracks. Loading music onto eBand couldn’t be easier, with direct playback notable bands Claude “Butch” Trucks (drummer of the
Allman Brothers Band), Derek Trucks, Pat Boone, Limp Bizkit,
from any standard USB memory stick or SDHC memory card up to 32GB. eBand Lynyrd Skynyrd, Yellowcard, Shinedown, Red Jumpsuit Appara-
also has the ability to import songs from any audio CD using the included utili- tus, J.J. Grey and Mofro
ty software. usEless triviA Michael Jackson donated his elephant, Ali,
Unlike traditional audio players, eBand lets guitarists interact with their to the Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens in 1997.
music by changing the pitch and tempo independently, or using the advanced drive from athens 363 miles
Center Cancel function to remove guitar or vocal parts. eBand comes with Something Extra CD Connection, an independent record
300 backing tracks and rhythm loops which also include pre-programmed store in Jacksonville Beach, has a vast collection of CDs, DVDs
guitar effects. and vinyl, as well as t-shirts and posters (and an online store
Not only can players jam along with eBand, they can record their musical for lazy music lovers). There is also a DJ section upstairs with
ideas as well using the included USB audio interface. Pressing the Record but- thousands of 12-inch singles available to spin, complete with
needles, slip mats and headphones.
ton during a jam-along session will create and save a new audio file with the entire
performance.
your new favorite band
the buzz in jacksonville Saltwater Grass
Saltwater Grass’s organic blend of blues, reggae and a touch of funk
JamHub Silent Rehearsal Studio PreSonus FireStudio Mobile is a product of the members’ diverse backgrounds and their home
base of Jacksonville Beach, Fla. Frontman Rich Hansen was trained at
Finally, a new-generation, studio-quality
bluegrass pickin’ circles, and the Miami-born percussion duo of JP Sal-
FireWire interface that you
vat and Alex Santeiro draws from their roots to produce Afro-Cuban
can use anywhere! The
rhythms. The band’s sound is fleshed out with Ryan Daley on electric
PreSonus FireStudio™
guitar, Austin Johnson on bass and Jeff Hoff bouncing between har-
Mobile combines the
monica and a smooth, muted trumpet.
superior analog-circuit
  The band released its self-titled debut album in March of 2009. A
design and advanced
fixture in the Jacksonville music scene, Saltwater Grass has also per-
platform technology of
formed at Skipper’s Smokehouse in Tampa, The White Room in Miami
their acclaimed FireStudio rack-
and for former President Bill Clinton in Orlando in August 2009. With
mount interfaces with the ability to run on bus power in field
a new album coming out later this year and a growing fan base, Saltwa-
applications. Now you can have en-
ter Grass continues to spread their beach-infused sound throughout
hanced audio performance for mu-
Florida and beyond.
sic recording and creation anywhere
you can lug your laptop!
The FireStudio Mobile is bun- venue profile on the charts
The JamHub™ silent rehearsal studio is a patents pending device that dled with an exceptional software Freebird live top 10 songs played
allows musicians to interconnect their practice devices, such as de- package, featuring PreSonus Stu-
on 97.9 KISSFM
vices with headphone jacks, and create a unique mix for every play- dio One Artist, the amazing new Freebird Live is one of those
er. This allows the band to play more often, in more locations and to DAW software for Mac OS X and unique music venues that can 1. I Gotta Feeling
get better faster. With the SoleMix™ controls on every section and Windows XP and Vista that makes play host to a variety of nation- Black Eyed Peas
every remote, each player is in control of what they hear and, be- producing high-quality projects al, regional and stand-out local 2. Use Somebody
cause the mix and volume is in control, the band gets better faster. easier than ever before. acts. The 700-capacity building Kings of Leon
is located in downtown Jack- 3. Down
sonville Beach, just one block Jay Sean/Lil Wayne
west of the Atlantic Ocean. 4. You Belong With Me
DigiDesign Eleven Rack The venue’s two stories give
concert-goers prime standing
Taylor Swift
5. Battlefield
Digidesign® ElevenRack, a standalone hard- access to both floor and balcony Jordin Sparks
ware unit that combines a hyper-realistic level viewing. 6. Obsessed
guitar amp and effects processor with a high- Dubbed simply “Freebird” by Mariah Carey
quality computer recording audio interface, locals, the venue is owned and 7. Party In The U.S.A.
to create the ultimate recording and perfor- operated by Judy Van Zant, the Miley Cyrus
mance solution for guitar players. Bundled widow of Lynyrd Skynyrd lead 8. Knock You Down
with the industry-standard studio mixing singer Ronnie Van Zant, and Keri Hilson/Kanye West
software Pro Tools LE®, Eleven Rack em- has opened its doors to musi- 9. Sweet Dreams
powers performing or recording guitarists to cians including Gregg Allman, Beyonce
focus on what’s most important — great tone, Willie Nelson, The Black Kids 10. Love Drunk
great recordings and great performances. and The Killers. Boys Like Girls

50 ATHENS BLUR MAGAZINE

 ARTS &ENTERTAINMENT Youth In revolt
(OCTOBER 30) (Miguel Arteta) They say: The awkward but lovable

upcoming on the screen Nick Twisp (Michael Cera) goes to extremes to win the heart of the
girl next door.  He creates an alternate persona named Francois who
is the antithesis of the nerdy Nick – in short, he is a no-rules bad ass.
making sure it’s worth your $9.50 But how far is too far in trying to win the girl?
 
We say: Michael Cera playing an awkward, quirky guy in pursuit of a
cute girl? Never seen that before –  or maybe just in four or five oth-
er movies. But his alter ego Francois does add something new – and
something funny – to the mix.

The Private Lives

of Pippa Lee
(OCTOBER 23) (Rebecca Miller) They say: After her much older hus-
band forces a move to a suburban retirement community, Pippa Lee
(Robin Wright Penn) engages in a period of reflection and finds her-
self heading toward a quiet nervous breakdown. (Read: impending
suicide).
  We say: Drama, drama, drama. Get your tissue box, or your Xanax—
whichever you prefer.

men who
stare at goats 2012
Where the Wild Things Are (NOVEMEBER 6) (Grant Heslov) They say: Journalist Bob Wilton
(NOVEMBER 13) (Roland Emmerich) They say: The end of the world ar-
rives – just as the ancient Mayans predicted – in the year 2012. The
(OCTOBER16) (Spike Jonze) They say: An adaptation of Maurice Sendak’s classic children’s story, where Max (Max Records), a disobedient little (Ewan McGregor) meets Lyn Cassidy (George Clooney), who
Earth’s 6 billion inhabitants are left to battle it out against the apoca-
boy sent to bed without his supper, creates his own world—a forest inhabited by ferocious wild creatures that crown Max as their leader. claims to be a member of a secret “psychic warrior” branch of the
lyptic events that ensue. Volcanic eruptions, massive avalanches and
U.S. military. Based on a story that seems too weird to be true but
tidal waves tear the world apart while John Cusack’s character and his
We say: There are two directions this could go. Good—i.e. “Horton Hears a Who,” or terribly bad—i.e. “The Bridge to Terabithia.” People hoping is, this dark comedy follows Wilton and Cassidy as they embark on
family fight to survive. 
for a little nostalgia are sure to fill the theater’s seats despite the critics. an adventure and delve deeper into this secretive military unit.  
  We say: All this world coming to a horrifying end, everyone run for their
We say: This movie is prime to be a hilarious success with a cast
The that includes George Clooney, Ewan McGregor and Jeff Bridges as
the hippie leader of the “warrior monks.”
lives business is enough to give us nightmares.  This film from the di-
rector of “Independence Day” will delight doomsday and action lovers

Step alike.

father fantastic mr. old

(OCTOBER 16) (Nelson McCor-
mick) They say: Do you know
Fox dogs
who your family is? Michael (NOVEMBER 25) (Wed Anderson) They Say:  (NOVEMBER 25) (Walt Becker) They
(Penn Badgley) returns home Based on a book by Roald Dahl, the animated Say:  Robin Williams and John Tra-
from military school to find his film follows sly Mr. Fox (voice of George Cloo- volta star in a comedy about two
mother happily in love and liv- ney) who steals chickens from his neighbors friends whose lives are flipped up-
ing with her new, skeptically and must protect his family from the men he side down after they learn they

Amelia
too-nice, boyfriend. stole them from. must take care of two 7-year-old
    kids.
We say: Your typical 1987 thriller We Say:  Director Wes Anderson’s unique ad-  
remake. Watching Penn Badgley aptation and previous films (The Darjeeling
(OCTOBER 23) (Mira Nair) They say: A look at the life of legendary American pilot Amelia Earhart, who We Say:  With the generational gap
all hot and bothered by his new Limited, Rushmore) point to a more mature
disappeared while flying over the Pacific Ocean in 1937 in an attempt to make a flight around the bridged with the help of Seth Green
“daddy” won’t take away from animated adventure that will surely satisfy
world. and Justin Long, this PG-rated film
the thrill of the tell-tale story of an older crowd, and will go over the heads of
  should prove to be entertaining for
falling for the wrong — possibly children who are just entertained by a talking
We say: Should be an appealing movie surrounding the mysterious nature of Amelia Earhart's fame. No all ages, though competition will be
evil — guy. fox. steep this holiday season. 

52 ATHENS BLUR MAGAZINE ATHENS BLUR MAGAZINE 53

 Conan O’Brien’s Jay Leno’s
hosting The got his own
Tonight Show. show too.

But is either really showing

America a good time? by DeMarco Williams

T
he numbers don’t lie. Last July,
“The Tonight Show with Jay
Leno” earned about 4.6 million
nightly viewers. This July, “The
Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien” got
history. Yes, its  rival, “Late Show with
David Letterman” is kicking its butt right
now. But no, Conan’s not losing a wink
of sleep over any of it. Remember: the
man had his own show, “Late Night with
Jay
Leno Show” in mid-September.
“Jay staying with the network and going to
“Another [magazine] is coming out next
week.” Maybe so, still, there’s no denying
10 o'clock has made the transition particularly the things said in the magazine about
many O’Briens, Lenos, Jimmy Fallons and
Chelsea Handlers out there, there may
not be enough top-shelf guests to keep
viewers entertained. “There are really only
about 18 people that make a difference,”

easy for both of us.”

about 2.6 million visitors. There could be
any number of factors as to why O’Brien’s
ratings paled in comparison to Leno’s, but
for the sake of conserving editorial space,
we’ll just blame it on growing pains. A new
face in a new place. Hell, numbers like Jay’s
would be hard for anyone to replace.
And it’s with that line of thinking that
Conan O’Brien trudges on. Yes, “The
Tonight Show” is a late-night institution
that has matured into the third longest-
running entertainment program in TV
Conan O’Brien,” successfully run for 2,725
episodes. He knows what he’s doing,
geeeeez.
“Look,“ says the 46-year-old O’Brien,
“there's no denying that the media likes
conflict. It's a better story. But one of the
things that's been really nice is that Jay and
I have always — I mean, really going back
to 1993, when I got started — gotten along
really well. I just saw Jay; we did this up-
front show in New York, and we hung out
in the Town Hall Theatre at rehearsal for a
(Conan O'Brien)
while, just trading stories about guests and
jokes and things like that. We've always
gotten along really well, and he's been very
kind to me about this whole transition. Jay
staying with the network and going to 10
o'clock has made the transition particularly
easy for both of us. Because he's happy, I'm
happy. And, you know, that's actually been
kind of a Godsend.”
At press time, Leno’s mug was gracing
the cover of Time magazine (As if Conan
needed that thrown in his face!). But truth
be told, “It’s not that big a deal,” shrugs
the 59-year-old Leno, who launched “The
Leno revolutionizing broadcast television
are pretty darn bold.
  A 10 o’clock talk show is rather
kooky, right? Can’t knock NBC for trying
whatever it can to get some revenue going.
Plus, as Jay points out, three episodes of
his show cost as much as it does to blow
up one helicopter on the new drama
“Trauma.” Funny he should bring up
disasters. Conan O’Brien doubters feel
one may be hard for the guy to avert. With
so few Brad Pitts and Tom Cruises and so
insists Leno.
 O’Brien still doesn’t seem the least bit
troubled: “I think the guest thing has sort
of been over-blown. I got terrific guests
on “Late Night.” And I was farther down
the totem pole than I am now in terms
of booking, so, I'm not worried about
the guest situation. To me, it's not about
who gets a guest first; it's what you do
with that guest. My chemistry with them
might be different than other people. I
don't think it’s going to be a problem.” B

54 ATHENS BLUR MAGAZINE ATHENS BLUR MAGAZINE 55

 <<PATRON SAINTS OF POP>>
continued from pg. 40
years without stepping outside of my solitary writing process and
invited someone in to collaborate and so I suggested it to Tegan.”
The sisters decided to try it out on neutral territory (Tegan
currently resides in Vancouver, while Sara lives in Montreal) to
negate any creature comforts or distractions and went with New
Orleans. The aim was to keep the sessions as stripped down as
possible, meaning no overdubs, and the songs would be fully
written from scratch, no prewritten sketches allowed, in order for
the sessions to be fully collaborative.
The seven songs written in New Orleans helped to complete the
package of 50 demo songs that were handed over to Chris Walla,
who also co-produced 2007’s The Con and is most well-known as a
guitarist for fellow relationship dissectors Death Cab for Cutie.
Although the New Orleans sessions turned out too incompatible
from the rest of the material that would become Sainthood, during
recording sessions in L.A. Tegan and Sara continued to write
together, albeit in a more natural way. Of Sainthood’s 13 tracks, two
co-writes made the cut, as did three songs co-written by Tegan with
AFI’s Hunter Burgan.
But the collaboration didn’t just end there. On Walla’s sugges-
tion, Sainthood was recorded live in the studio. The assembled band
featured Tegan and Sara on vocals, guitars and keyboards, Walla on
bass, Death Cab’s Jason McGerr on drums, and longtime touring
member Edward “Ted” Gowans also on guitar and keyboards. The
group, Sara says, would play songs multiple times back to back,
record the performances, and then critique what they heard.
“I really enjoyed it and it made me feel, ultimately, more attached
to what Tegan was doing because sometimes she’ll be so into her
own music that I won’t really do much other than a background
vocal or guitar part or something,” she explains. “For the first time I
<<ROYAL PAIN>>
was really a part of arranging her songs and playing some of the core continued from pg. 45
parts, like the main guitar part on ‘The Cure’ was something that I
came up with and played, whereas in the past that was something even more competition for audiences and
that Tegan would have taken the lead on.” advertises, radio moved into micro-niches
More teamwork made for a stronger arsenal of pop tunes, where listeners could choose from country
compiled into one of the year’s best pop albums. Period. And, if rock or classic country instead of just a general
you want to call them out on being a pop band, really, that’s ok country music station.
with them. Not only is the content of current radio
“More and more, I don’t care what people call us. I like pop different than when it began, but so is the
music. I like making pop music. Pop music can be Kelly Clarkson. It business model.
can also be The-Dream. It can be Grizzly Bear if that’s what turns “When radio was first started it was an
your crank,” she illustrates. “I think whatever has a strong melody intensely local media before regulation really
and resonates with a lot of people, that to me is pop music.” came on board,” Hollifield said. Regulation
Creating music that resonates with as many people as possible, brought order to what was chaos resulting
Sara says, is one of her goals. Recalling powerful childhood experi- from overcrowded airwaves. According to
ences at concerts by Bruce Springsteen and Depeche Mode where Hollifield, radio began to expand and changed
the electricity generated by hearing tens of thousands of people from a local model to a new layout with radio
singing along together left all the hair on her arms standing on end, networks providing national programming to
Sara fully admits that she wants to experience that feeling from the local affiliates. Eventually the Federal Radio
stage. Commission was created to control and
“Who the fuck doesn’t want 75,000 people to sing along to the regulate commercial radio, which was replaced
chorus of their song? Who doesn’t want that?” she asks. “Sometimes by the FCC in 1934.
when I’m writing music, I’m not necessarily thinking about what Hollifield said one of the biggest
will be popular or what the audience will like, but there’s definitely changes in radio came at the hands of the
a part of me that’s like ‘Would 70,000 people sing along to this Telecommunications Act of 1996. “While
chorus?’” it was ostensibly designed to allow for
After a few shows in October gracing stages in New York and competition for telephone and cable, it had
L.A, a full U.S. tour looms ahead in February. Although Tegan and the most impact on the radio industry,” she
Sara may not be playing stadiums and arenas just yet, this act of said. One provision in the act lifted a previous
sainthood will only take them closer. B ownership cap on the number of stations
companies could own nationally. One of
the major and most immediate impacts was
to set off an incredible wave of mergers and
acquisitions that resulted in radio industry
becoming one of the most consolidated
industries in the country. While many people
were worried that radio would be controlled
by these companies, Hollifield said the
consolidations were “the saving grace of radios
because in 1996 a large percentage of stations
were in financial trouble.” Once again radio
prevailed and the industry was really strong in
the 1990s and in the early part of this decade.
Now, she says radio is facing financial
challenges again, and some blame it on
a host of emerging technologies. While
technological advances in the early history of
radio like moving from AM to FM improved
the industry in the late 1930s, technological
advances in this century have proven to be
less beneficial. The Internet, ipods, music
downloads and satellite radio provide music
lovers more options — some say better options.
With the launch of satellite radio, terrestrial
radio proved it still had more fight. Using its
local appeal and touting its free broadcasts,
it has been able to fend off threats. While
many terrestrial station managers, including
both Steele and Kidd, say satellite radio has
not really had a major impact, Hollifield said
it would be hard to argue that radio has not
lost audience.
“If you look across all media, with the
additional competition from all the new
players in the market, every media outlet has
suffered a decline in its particular share of the
audience,” she said. “I think radio is facing the
same kind of hurdles that all legacy media are
facing - audiences are being fragmented.”
An ever-growing number of content
choices now provide what academics call
gratification opportunities (to consume
media where and when you want), according
to Hollifield. Traditionally, radio has always
been a much more mobile media, but now
ipods and other forms of technology provide
more mobile music.
She said people’s patterns of media
consumption appear to be undergoing some
changes, but not as much as some people
think. The difference between radio and other
media is that radio’s market share compared
to other media has dropped significantly, and
radio’s advertising share nationally has been
surpassed by online sales.
“The radio industry is really struggling
financially. The revenue is dropping at a really
rapid rate and no industry can sustain that for
long,” Hollifield said. Given the incredible
financial challenges that radio faces right
now, the Performance Rights Act could be
dangerous for the industry. Hollifield said she
could not take a stance on the proposed act
without more information.
Hollifield said executives constantly look
for new business models like all competing
media, but is not sure what the future holds.
She said despite what happens with the
Performance Rights Act, major markets will
be around for a while, but where stations have
been and will be most vulnerable are local,
small markets.
The fact is, radio is tightly woven into the
lives of Americans. Although it may be fading,
the love affair with radio is forever etched in
American culture from Eric Carmen singing
“Turn The Radio Up,” to Kenny Chesney’s
“Road And The Radio” pairing to Regina
Spektor hearing Guns-n-Roses “On the
Radio.” Just as Corgan testified that radio
broadcasts cultivated his musical life, all types
of people throughout the country have an
appreciation for the medium.
While the death of radio has been
predicted many times before and some say the
current tech-savvy culture renders the medium
archaic, it has survived and still offers a much-
needed service to music lovers throughout
the country. As the debate continues over
whether or not it’s fair to offer that service
without paying performers, the question
remains if many stations will prevail over
dwindling revenue income and this possible
new legislation. And if it does prevail, will it
be the same radio loyal listeners are used to,
or could this be another opportunity for radio
to adapt to the perpetually changing world of
music? B
 <<HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY
TO YOU>>
continued from pg. 48
do this right now and it just worked. I like the way they were
working toward what they were doing.”
“It’s been really great getting to know everyone on the label
and getting to know and work with Mike,” said Joel Lopez of
Forever. “Recently, we got to hang out with him again at AthFest
2009 which ended up being such a good time. The label showcase
we played was well attended, air conditioned and ended up being
a really great time. We got to see Tunabunny who were radical
and ended up putting us up for the night in their big beautiful
house just outside of Athens. I read some good material in their
bathroom. We’re also stoked about our friends Sourpatch who will
be putting out a release on HHBTM. Stay tuned, it’s gonna rule.”
Connections. Bands helping bands. See, it’s working.
—
“This is where I find myself to be more of a chump than a record
mogul,” Turner said with a grin. “I’ve got this band called Lovely
Eggs coming over from the UK, and I think, 'You know what,
I’ll make them a bunch of buttons and I’ll mail them to them so
when they start their tour, they’ll have this bag of buttons.' Then
they say ‘Hey can you silkscreen some shirts for us?’ OK, I guess
I can, when you get to Athens you can pick them up. I find myself
making T-shirts, posters — it’s a nonstop thing to where I’m sure
no one in Matador or Merge are in the little details of things.”
The little details. Whether it’s sleeves made of fun foam (Red
Pony Clock), a coloring book based on song lyrics (63 Crayons),
or a specially-designed reference dictionary (Patience Please), the
individuality of the label is what keeps Turner’s business going.
Moving past the 10-year mark, Turner has designs for another 10
years, and has ideas of how to achieve that.
One way is to get more bands on tour — with booking agents.
Right now only longtime HHBTM band Casper & the Cookies has
an agent (although Marshmallow Coast is close to having one as
well), but a band such as Cars Can Be Blue with a booking agent
would break new territory (“they would stay on the road – all year
long. I wish I could get them on a Warped tour because I know the
people who would really dig what they do are probably a bunch of
14 and 15 year old kids,” Turner said).
Another aspect to continued success is having bands in constant
“go mode.”
“I would love to see bands be able to get out and create a fan
base or meet their fan base or discover that fan base and keep the
records in print,” Turner said.
But while Turner would like bands to take more control over
their destiny, he knows part of his destiny is helping them achieve
that goal. For Turner, continuing to be a “record mogul” is staying
connected with the people you work with, and the music you love,
because it makes you a part of something bigger than yourself.
“The beginning of the label was very much me being hands on in
an arts and crafts background of making sleeves and hand-doing
stuff,” he said. “And then it led to manufactured goods, where
everything was done at a processing plant and there was shrink

photography
wrap around everything. But in the last year it’s changed. I looked
at the amount of records we’ve done, and I love these records, but
I’m completely detached from some of them. Sure I put them out,
I was involved with the distribution or manufacturing end, but I’m
not attached to them in that I actually had a hand in helping them
www.alexgibbsphotos.com more than just getting them to the store. So I sat down and said
‘what part of the label did I enjoy?’ And it instantly became I enjoy
alexxgibbs@yahoo.com doing the handmade end. It’s where I want to be.” B

404.310.5039
 concert shots concert shots 1

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The Felice Brothers @ 40 Watt (Laurie Moot) Still Flyin’ @ 40 Watt (Alyssa De Hayes) Crowd Shot, Baller’s Ball @ Athens Arena (Wes Elkin) Greg Holden The Felice Brothers @ 40 Watt (Laurie Moot) Tom Goss @ Little Kings Shuffle Club (Wes Elkin) The Lovely Feathers @ Tasty World Uptown (Alyssa De
@ Melting Point (Stefan Eberhard) Greg Holden @ Melting Point (Stefan Eberhard) Timi Conley @ New Earth Music Hall (Daniel Peiken) Leon Russell @ Melt- Hayes) Sister Hazel @ The Classic Center (Wes Elkin) Workhorses of the Entertainment & Recreational Industry @ 40 Watt (McGinnis Leathers) The Dirk
ing Point (Daniel Peiken) Prefuse 73 @ New Earth Music Hall (Wes Elkin) The Rural Alberta Advantage @ Tasty World Uptown (Alyssa De Hayes) Howell Band @ Ashford Manor (Daniel Peiken) Sister Hazel @ Classic Center (Wes Elkin)

60 ATHENS BLUR MAGAZINE ATHENS BLUR MAGAZINE 61

 concert shots concert shots

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got some
concert shots?
send hi-res
versions to
editorial@
3 4 athensblur.com

5 6

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Amon Tobin @ New Earth Music Hall (Wes Elkin) Pretty Lights (Baller’s Ball) @ New Earth Music Hall (Wes Elkin) Still Small Voice & The Joyful Noise @ 40 T8RTOT @ New Earth Music Hall (Wes Elkin) The Black Hollies @ Caledonia Lounge (Alyssa De Hayes) Missing Cats featuring JoJo Hermann (Widespread Pan-
Watt (Daniel Peiken) Keegan Kell painting during Pretty Lights @ New Earth Music Hall (Wes Elkin) Corey Smith @ Classic Center (Wes Elkin) Constellations ic) @ Melting Point (Alex Gibbs) Missing Cats featuring JoJo Hermann (Widespread Panic) @ Melting Point (Alex Gibbs) Ingrid Michaelson @ Melting Point (Wes
@ Tasty World Uptown (Daniel Peiken) Elkin) Ingrid Michaelson @ Melting Point (Wes Elkin)

62 ATHENS BLUR MAGAZINE ATHENS BLUR MAGAZINE 63

worth a thousand...
A look inside the Georgia Theatre, September 2009. Photo: Justin Evans.