Atlanta Music Guide

Win a Prize Pack from The New Mastersounds, Playing Smith's Olde Bar November 13

We've got a special treat for one lucky person who buys their tickets in advance at Ticket Alternative for Leeds funksters The New Mastersounds' show at Smith's Olde Bar on November 13. When you buy your tickets, you will be entered to win a prize pack full of goodies, including:

- New Mastersounds T-Shirt (available in medium ladies' and large men's)
- New Mastersounds Plug & Play CD
- Two Tickets to any upcoming Smith's Olde Bar show

These lads have a smooth yet sharp sound, sure to take you right back to the glory years at Stax. Check them out and buy your tickets now!

Win Tickets White Lies, Opening for Kings of Leon at Philips Arena!

English rockers White Lies are on tour with mamoth stadium fillers Kings of Leon, and they're bring the show to Philips Arena October 9. And they're giving away tickets to the show! All you have to do is visit their competition page at http://www.lp33.tv/whiteliestickets. Good luck!

CD Review: Pride Parade -- Dose

Pride Parade

Dose

By Beverly Bryan      

Pride Parade’s Dose is an enjoyable, if not beautiful, mess. If you love Nirvana, late-’80s SST bands and hate having to take your music seriously you will love it. Something about its extremely unfocused nature makes the album impossible to take seriously. Raw, intense, stoned and utterly pointless, this is the album playing in the background of every no-parents rock 'n' roll party of television and film for the past three decades. In that there are few real songs on this album, mostly just noodling and thrashing around and an assortment of thrilling riffs, it’s sort of heavy prog; the grungy track “Keep It Tight,” which does just that is a notable exception. Essentially, if Pride Parade was a dude, he would get laid a lot but few of his partners would consider him relationship material, and that would probably suit him most of the time. There is a possibly sensitive moment in “Chump Change” but it’s hard to tell because the lyrics are completely unintelligible. It must be sensitive though, because it’s a total buzzkill.

Nearly all the other songs are fun in that talking-to-overexcited-drunk-people kind of way (listening while actually drunk and high would feel redundant.) And from the slip-shod hardcore fun of “If You See Her, Say Hello” to the morass of shrieking and sweating comprising the rest of the album the sheer variety of Pride Parade’s fun is impressive. Yup, no doubt about it, Dose is full of party. It’s just that you might not respect it in the morning.

CD Review: Jer Coons -- Speak; Plays Eddie's Attic October 20

Jer Coons
Speak

By Al Kaufman

Jer Coons missed his chance at becoming a national star when he slept through his audition for American Idol. But who knows how far he would have gone? After all, people with actual talent and songwriting skills don't generally win on that show.

Jer Coons, at the tender age of 20, has plenty of talent. With a clear, sharp voice, and an equally sharp pen, Coons will be around a lot longer than most Idol contestants.

CD Review: Drivin’ N’ Cryin’ -- Great American Bubble Factory

 

Drivin’ N’ Cryin’

Great American Bubble Factory

Vintage Earth Music

By Scott Roberts

Revered veteran Atlanta band Drivin’ N’ Cryin’ have always suffered from a split personality disorder. Their songs run the gamut from loud, anthemic arena rock to hushed, contemplative, country-tinged, front-porch sing-alongs. On their first CD in 12 years, Great American Bubble Factory, DNC are, happily, still flaunting their musical schizophrenia and have put together a collection of staunchly American songs that stand boldly and proudly with their best work.

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

By Scott Roberts; photos by Sue Volkert

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

CD Review: The Ettes -- Do You Want Power

The Ettes

Do You Want Power

Take Root

By Beverly Bryan

The Ettes’ lovely minimalist name has come to signify lovely minimalist rock. There’s always been a touch of the blues and a lot of grit in their rock n’ roll and on Do You Want Power it has been produced to a high sheen. Not glassy, but there is a shine. Coco Hames’ full-throated vocals sound as hard and bright as brushed steel and her guitar sounds crisp whether it’s rumbling or crying. Strangely, the cleaner sound actually makes their stylish and stripped-down sound more affecting than on their earlier albums. But this album was produced by the incomparable Greg Cartwright of Reigning Sound and The Oblivians, so such voodoo is no surprise.

CD Review: Ciao My Shining Star -- The Songs of Mark Mulcahy

Various Arists
Ciao My Shining Star: The Songs of Mark Mulcahy
Mezzotint

By Eileen Tilson

Thom Yorke described Mark Mulcahy’s voice as the most beautiful he has ever heard, and Nick Hornby reflected that Mulcahy’s music was “only ever going to find its audience through word of mouth and recommendations by the like-minded.” To the average music listener the name Mark Mulcahy might ring a bell as the guy who sang “Hey Sandy” from the TV show The Adventures of Pete and Pete, but to musical visionaries, Mulcahy is one of the greatest songwriters of our time, and on Ciao My Shining Star, these like-minded musicians have banded together to take care of one their own.

CD Review: Islands -- Vapours; Playing Lenny's with WHY? October 31 & The Masquerade with The Happy Mondays and Psychedelic Furs at The Masquerade October 2

Islands

Vapours

Anti-

By Chris Homer

Islands' third album Vapours marks a reunion for frontman Nick Diamond and collaborator Jamie Thompson, who has returned to the group after departing following the release of 2006’s Return to the Sea. Vapours showcases Diamond and Thompson’s work as collaborators. The album is packed with catchy synthesizer melodies and dance-inducing drum machines, like the New Wave-style synths on opener “Switched On” and the powerful beats of “No You Don’t.”

Q&A with Those Darlins -- Playing The Loft with Dr. Dog September 29

By Eileen Tilson

First off, congratulations on your success, there is such an incredible buzz about Those Darlins right now! How do you feel about all your recent success, such as being one of the "powerful female bands" in the Oprah magazine? That's huge!

Thank you... We feel very grateful to have been so fortunate so far, and we are ready for more. We are going to continue to keep working our asses off and I hope people continue to keep paying attention. Bring it on Oprah!

I heard someone refer to Those Darlins as the female version of the Kings of Leon, how do you feel about that, and do you agree?

I just killed myself.

Y'all are known for your great live shows; What's the wildest and craziest thing that has ever happened at one of your shows?

We threw a propane tank at an old lady with a broken hip.

I love the fact that you are such a young bunch of rebels, where does your inspiration come from?

Brainstorming.

What's life on the road with y'all like? Describe a day in the life of Those Darlins.

Wake up, get out of bed drag a comb across my head find my way downstairs and drink a cup of whiskey and looking up, I notice I am late find my coat and grab my hat make the bus in seconds flat find my way upstairs and have a smoke and somebody speaks and I go into a dream.

What should we looking forward to from Those Darlins?

Sex tapes.

Those Darlins play with Dr. Dog tomorrow night, September 29 at The Loft. Tickets are available at Ticket Alternative.

Last but not least, if Those Darlins were a drink, what would be the ingredients?

Kelley is Vodka, Nikki is Awesome, and I am Awful mix it together and you got yourself an appletini.