Propeller Skies

Last night, I caught The Woggles at The Earl. There simply is no other band like them. Besides playing awesome tunes, they put on an amazing show. At one point, The Professor jumped off the stage, walked through the crowd, and climbed up on the bar and sang a few verses. Later in the evening the entire band was in the audience playing and dancing with the crowd, exept for Dan Elektro trapped on stage behind his drum kit. I highly recommend catching a Woggles show.

Saturday night, I stopped by The Star Bar to catch The Sudden Rays. I was excited to see them play, as the band includes Chris Hoke and Justin Gray, two members of the late 3d5spd, and Kevin Wallace, one of the best drummers in Atlanta.

Prior to the show, my friend Joie warned me The Sudden Rays were significantly more mainstream than 3d5spd. I was a bit concerned, since listening to a mainstream band would totally shred all my hipster cred.

Once the band started playing, I realized the music was more accessible and less spacey than 3d5spd. However, Hoke has a unique voice and guitar playing style, both of which influence the sound of The Sudden Rays and elevate them above mere mainstream status. In addition, Gray’s solid bass playing and Wallace’s ass kicking drumming combine to form a punishing rhythm session.

The somewhat thin audience was treated to an excellent show. Based on the amount of applause I heard between songs and the high percentage of people paying attention to the show, most people were really into the band. As an aside, more than half of Envie was also in attendance.

In short, The Sudden Rays blew me away. This was a show well worth attending and I highly recommend checking them out.

Saturday, I attended the East Atlanta Strut* in, obviously, East Atlanta. For Propeller Skies readers not familiar with Atlanta, the East Atlanta Strut is basically a standard neighborhood festival complete with artists selling their wares in tents and several bands that play throughout the day. As the festival is in East Atlanta, it attracts an unusually large number of indie rockers, hipsters, and people with a higher than average number of tattoos and piercings.

Between shows I ran into my friend and former colleague Joie, who I have not seen in quite some time. We chatted for a bit and she clued me in that The Sudden Rays would be playing later at the Star Bar.

spy rocks the festival

The reason I went to the East Atlanta Strut, besides to get drunk, was to catch a Spy show. After suffering through the obligatory opening band that sucks, I was thrilled when Spy opened their set with a bitchin’ Sonic Youth cover. They also played my all time favorite Spy song, Break My Mind. Like the last Spy show I went to, I will not be writing a full review of this one, because Andy from Creative Loafing was there. However, I will take a minute to criticize the sound quality. Mark Skinner’s guitar was far too bright and more bass in the mix would have been appreciated.

By the way, all five Propeller Skies readers can hear the awesomeness that is Spy for themselves by following the previous link. I highly recommend catching a Spy show.

uva isn’t exactly charm school

I arrived at the East Atlanta Strut early to catch Charm School, who I had previously heard on the always excellent Album 88 several months ago. After missing several of their shows, I was elated to finally get a chance to see them play.

Charm School consists of four members, two vocalists and guitarists, a bass player, and a drummer. The band plays somewhat sunny pop, which I am not overly fond of. However, Charm school does it well and I enjoyed their show.

They played an all right show, but did not really fire on all cylinders until the last three songs. Additionally, the sound man was not their friend.

I recommend catching a Charm School show. They are worth making a trip to see, and absolutely worth arriving early to catch as an opening act.

notes:

* WARNING: The circa 1996 design of this site may cause seizures. Do not view if you suffer from: epilepsy, migraines, or explosive diarrhea.

Q: What is better than one hot chick with a guitar?

A: Two hot chicks with guitars!

I went to see Tiger! Tiger! at The Earl last Friday evening. The show started off slow, but after the first few songs the band began to loosen up. Towards the end of the show the band invited a special guest musician, identified only as Superfox, to join them. She totally kicked ass on guitar and played flawlessly with the band. I highly recommend catching a Tiger! Tiger! show, they rule.

By the way, if anyone associated with Tiger! Tiger! happens to read this, it sure would be nice if the band had some XXL shirts for sale.

Friday evening, I stopped by Vinyl to catch the Spy show. So did at least 150 other people.

Soon after arriving at Vinyl, I ran into John, the lead singer for the band formerly known as JaD. I ordered a beer and we chilled for a bit. Later, I ran into Mark from Spy and his wife, Shannon. We hung out for a bit and then Spy went on stage.

About halfway into the show, they played a kick ass Sonic Youth cover. I am not fond of covers, since most bands tend to choose boring and obvious songs. However, Spy are not most bands and they usually cover obscure and interesting songs. This show was no exception, as they also played a T Rex cover at the end.

I will not be reviewing the show, because Andy from Creative Loafing was also in attendance and will be reviewing the show in this week’s issue. I highly recommend checking out a Spy show, because they are totally bitchin’.

notes:

PHOTO: Chad of Spy at Vinyl in Midtown, Atlanta, GA. January 7, 2005. Courtesy of d.2263 Photographics.

After reading favorable reviews in Creative Loafing and Stomp and Stammer of a new band named Tiger! Tiger!, I was fired up to go see them. Unfortunately it would be several months before I managed to catch a show. However, last Friday evening I finally did. They fucking rock. The show was most excellent and the band was having a great time. Since I am extremely lazy and they have conveniently posted a few songs on their site, I will not be describing their sound here.

I highly recommend catching a Tiger! Tiger! show. They have earned a coveted place on the Prizzo Skeezy Indie-Rock Sidebar of Fame. When, of course, I get around to adding it.

White people are funny. Especially when they get into a show and decide to start dancing. During the Explosions in the Sky show, some dude next to me that looked like Billy Corgan started doing the White Person Head Nod™. More impressively, the guy standing in front of me seemed to know every guitar line and drum part. And he played air guitar and air drums right along with the band.

The show was all right. Since the place was more packed than I had ever seen it, I was expecting a spectacular show. And maybe an encore.

Today I learned that East Atlanta is over, according to Kebo, of Hushbox fame. Unfortunately, I wasted Saturday night in East Atlanta, since I had not yet received the memo about it being over.

I was in East Atlanta to see the Silent Kids show at The Earl. I first discovered the Silent Kids about a year ago, while surfing the Two Sheds site looking for information on the indefinitely on hiatus 3d5spd.

I arrived early, since The Earl has developed a nasty habit of starting shows on time. I was standing by myself at a table, when an indie-rock hottie approached and asked, “Do you mind if I park here,” despite the fact that there was plenty of space in the mostly empty venue.

I replied, “No,” and went back to thinking about the tasty burger I would be eating after the show.

My pleasant reverie was soon interrupted however, when she inquired, “Are you here to see Explosions in the Sky?”

“Not really, I’m here to see the Silent Kids.”

“What are they like?”

“Psychedelic space rock, they’re good. However, I’ll probably stick around for Explosions in the sky since I’ve heard them on Album 88 and they seem to be pretty big.” We then discussed various indie bands until the Silent Kids finally took the stage.

During the first couple of songs I took some pictures that came out badly. Then I wandered to the back of a reasonable sized crowd and enjoyed the show. This show was not as good as the last one I attended at 10 High. The band never quite seemed to hit its stride, although they did loosen up after the first few songs. Because they were the first band on, they were forced to play a fairly short set and this severely handicapped them.

notes:

PHOTO: Michael Oakley of the Silent Kids at The Earl in East Atlanta, Atlanta, GA. October 2, 2004. Courtesy of d.2263 Photographics.

The final band to play at Vinyl on Saturday night was Copper. As an aside, this was the first show I caught with their new lead guitarist Shawn Lickliter.

I last saw Copper play in January. I also wrote a review of that show. As mentioned in the previous review, every time I have seen them they are better. The first time I saw them play, they were opening for JaD and I was not that impressed. A few months later, I saw them open for Three5Human and they were good enough that I paid attention.

This Atlantis Showcase at Vinyl was awesome. From the beginning, it was clear that the band was really into the show. They moved around the stage with amazing energy and played a great show. Towards the end of the show, they played one of my favorite songs, Miss December, which is off their first album. I highly recommend them and look forward to seeing them again.

Although they hail from Knoxville, TN, they play Atlanta venues often enough to draw a good crowd. Saturday night was no exception, as Vinyl remained packed all evening.

notes:

PHOTO: Keith Wallen of Copper at Vinyl in Midtown, Atlanta, GA. July 24, 2004. Courtesy of d.2263 Photographics. View more Copper photos.

I paid a visit to Vinyl Saturday night to cover the Minamina Goodsong* show. A big shout out to Vinyl for actually aiming the fucking lights in the general vicinity of the performers**, thus making my job possible.

Although I had never seen Minamina Goodsong play, I decided to cover them because there was plenty of buzz. Based on their name, I expected them to be a tree-hugging hippy/indie-rock kind of band.

While I was waiting for them to set up, I noticed my beer was getting low. Since the drums were not set up, I considered getting another beer. After pondering the beer situation a bit more, the drums were still not set up. As I was getting up to get another beer, the screen went up, revealing nothing but a DJ on stage. My first thought was, “what the fuck is this?” The second thought that crossed my mind was, “DJ’s are pretty fucking boring, I can’t shoot this shit.” As the rest of the crew took the stage and began rapping, my third thought was, “damn, these guys are hot.”

As alluded to in the title, the configuration of the crew was three MCs and one DJ. The DJ was spinning actual vinyl and he was fucking awesome. These guys put down solid hip-hop with no gimmicks. They reminded me a bit of the Beastie Boys. Before they got all old, politically correct, and boring.

As anticipated, they drew a good crowd. Surprisingly, the aforementioned crowd included loads of hotties. Unfortunately, most of the hotties were between 18 and 21. I would have felt like a dirty old man if I hit on any of them. Not that there is anything wrong with that, since in this age of Viagra®, Hugh Hefner is a national hero.

This was one of the best showcases I saw during the Atlantis Music Conference. I highly recommend catching one of their shows.

notes:

* Normally, a link would be here. However, their website does not seem to be functional.
** Apparently, this is more difficult than it seems, since only about half the clubs in town have accomplished it.
PHOTO: Unidentified of Minamina Goodsong at Vinyl in Midtown, Atlanta, GA. July 24, 2004. Courtesy of d.2263 Photographics. View more Minamina Goodsong photos.