Propeller Skies

Friday night I stopped in at 10 High to catch JaD. They always draw a good crowd and that evening was no exception, as the venue reached capacity midway through the show.

Previously, I reviewed the CD release party show here on Prizzo Skeezy. Since I am lazy, there will not be a full review of this show. It was excellent, as JaD shows always are. I highly recommend spending ten bucks to see them, it is a bargain at twice the price. The only downside to this show was the lack of motherfucking air conditioning at 10 High, so it was hotter than Texas in August.

For your convenience, the band has posted the following reviews by Volume Magazine and Southern Jam Online on their site. I am sure there are plenty of other reviews floating around, but, as previously mentioned, I am lazy and do not feel like tracking them down.

In related news, Rockets to Ruin rocked pretty hard and kept the crowd occupied. The final band of the night, The Taste, was better than the last time I saw them. However, most of the crowd left anyway. By the way, did I mention that it was fucking hot in 10 High? I think the next show I see there will be in December.

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PHOTO: John Stringer and Thomas Panza of JaD at 10 High in Virginia Highlands, Atlanta, GA. July 23, 2004. Courtesy of d.2263 Photographics. View more JaD photos.

I ended the evening, which by then had run into morning, at 10 High. I was there to see the incendiary rock band Three5Human.

I have caught several Three5Human shows and they are always spectacular. On the off chance that any industry types are reading this, here is the tip of the century - sign them now.

Trina Meade, the lead singer, has possibly the best set of pipes on the Atlanta rock scene. She also has incredible confidence on-stage and a fantastic sense of style. In short, she simply owns the stage.

In contrast, Tomi Martin looks extremely mellow while casually ripping out some of the baddest blues-influenced guitar solos I have ever heard. The rhythm section is equally skilled and provides a solid foundation for Meade and Martin. Drummer Melvin Baldwin’s heavy hitting drumming is awesome and somewhat similar in style to John Skinner of Spy or Sean Moore of the indefinately on hiatus 3d5spd.

Three5Human is the baddest motherfucking band in Atlanta. I highly recommend seeing them.

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PHOTO: Trina Meade of Three5Human at 10 High in Virginia Highlands, Atlanta, GA. July 22, 2004. Courtesy of d.2263 Photographics.

As I was chilling at Smith’s Old Bar and waiting for Red Letter Agent (RLA) to go on, I was unfortunately still sober. This was a most unfortunate condition, because the people next to me were having the most inane conversation ever.

Similar to The Whigs, RLA is a band that has recently been generating a good bit of press. Apparently I am not the only person who has noticed, as the venue was almost full by the time they started playing.

RLA reminds me a bit of Pulp, because their sound is very similar to brit-pop. In contrast to Pulp’s often cynical and bitter lyrics, RLA’s songs are about happiness, love, and beauty. As recurring Propeller Skies readers know, I generally prefer music with plenty of anger, cynicism, and bitterness. However, RLA put on and excellent show. I found myself enjoying the music despite all the peace, love and happiness.

I predict these guys will be huge. My recommendation is to see them now and brag to friends in a few years about watching them at some shitty dive in Atlanta.

Sound quality was excellent and the mix was clear. Whoever was behind the soundboard clearly knows what they are doing.

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PHOTO: James Templeton of Red Letter Agent at Smith’s Old Bar in Midtown, Atlanta, GA. July 22, 2004. Courtesy of d.2263 Photographics.

I started Friday Thursday night [Obviously, Smoove D is not quite awake yet. - Ed.] out at Smith’s Old Bar, which I had never been to before. Amusingly, the bar was full of posers. Here in Atlanta, local music scene posers are easy to spot, since their cans of $4.00 PBR give them away every time. Only a poser would pay more than $2.00 for a tallboy.

The first band I stopped in to see, The Whigs, went on stage soon after my arrival. They have been garnering plenty of buzz lately in local publications, so I was pretty excited to get a chance to see them.

Impressively, they lived up to the hype, playing solid indie rock with a minimal alt-country influence. Additionally, there was a distinct jam-band undercurrent, which is shocking, since they hail from Athens. With more than forty minutes to play, I suspect this band would have opened up and jammed. I thoroughly enjoyed their set and recommend seeing this band. I look forward to catching their next show in town.

The lighting in Smith’s Old Bar was acceptable, falling in the middle between the Drunken Unicorn (worst) and the Cotton Club (best). Sound was excellent, all the instruments and vocals came through clearly in the mix.

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PHOTO: Hank Sullivant of The Whigs at Smith’s Old Bar in Midtown, Atlanta, GA. July 22, 2004. Courtesy of d.2263 Photographics.

I was planning on having a beer or two with Spy after their fantastic show and then heading across town to drink more beer with recurring Propeller Skies character Stacia. 13 Stories put a huge dent in that plan.

After taking a long swig of beer, I turned around and discovered that there were not one, but two blonde hotties on stage. My first thought was, “I’d better get my camera out, because this is going to make the blog.” My second thought was, “I better pound this newly purchased beer, since I need both hands to operate the damn camera.”

After finishing the aforementioned beer and snapping off a few photos, it dawned on me that this band was pretty fucking good.

About the middle of the second or third (by this point in the night, I was not paying all that much attention) song, I thought I heard the singer belt out, “ladies, listen to your pussy.” A few minutes later, she sang it again. Other highlights of the show included Cheri D introducing a song by mentioning it was an instruction manual about stripping for your man. Which was fantastic, but a bit redundant. You had me at pussy.

Enough with the gratuitous googlebaiting references to stripping and pussy. 13 stories plays an infectious brand of upbeat danceable pop. They remind me somewhat of No Doubt, except with a huge dirty south influence. Normally, I would not have stuck around for this type of music, since I tend to like heavier bands with an angry edge to them. However, as previously mentioned, 13 Stories is good.

A highlight of their sound is Cheri D and Cat’s sunny vocal harmonies. They sound every bit as good as the vocal harmonies of the darker and more math rock oriented Black Kites. I recommend checking out 13 stories the next time they play.

As a side note, I picked up a copy of their four song promotional CD on my way out. It has been in my CD player all day.

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PHOTO: Cheri D of 13 Stories at Vinyl in Midtown, Atlanta, GA. Second blonde hottie not pictured. July 9, 2004. Courtesy of d.2263 Photographics.

For the first time in a while, since they have been busy recording, Spy played at Vinyl on Friday night. For those readers who have missed my earlier reviews, Spy is a heavy rock and roll band with a strong progressive rock influence.

After arriving at Vinyl and grabbing a beer, I ran into John Skinner, one of my favorite drummers. His family was there, so he introduced me and we all shot the shit for a while about digital versus film photography.

Soon after Spy took the stage, it became obvious that the Spy Kids were out in force. It was tough to get a good position to photograph, since so many fans were there.

This was a great show, as the band members were clearly fired up to be playing out for the first time in several months. Additionally, they played several new songs that sounded great. I am excited about the previously mentioned album they are recording and cannot wait to get my hands on a copy.

Vinyl is a great venue and one of the nicest places in Atlanta to see local bands. I was happy to see that a good crowd turned out last night. When it first opened, I was a bit concerned that no one would show up and it would close, since bands that regularly packed 10 High were only drawing about ten people to Vinyl.

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PHOTO: Mark Skinner of Spy at Vinyl in Midtown, Atlanta, GA. July 9, 2004. Courtesy of d.2263 Photographics.

As recurring Propeller Skies readers know, I am rather fond of East Atlanta in general, and The Earl in specific. So, I was thrilled to find out that Delta Moon, a band I have been wanting to see for a while, would be playing there.

I arrived at The Earl just as Delta Moon was starting their set. The crowd was a bit sparse, since it was only about 9:40 pm. During their first song, I hung at the bar and drank an ice-cold Rolling Rock. After they had warmed up, I snapped a few pictures and then went back to drinking.

During the first three or four songs, the band played competantly, but without fire. Around the middle of the fourth song, an R.L. Burnsides cover, the band began to loosen up and the guitarists began to jam and open the song up. By the fifth song, they were really ripping shit up, much to the delight of the crowd that had been slowly growing and was quite substantial by then.

This was the first time I managed to catch Delta Moon and I really enjoyed the show. They are basically a blues band with a strong rock influence, which gives them a very modern sound. I highly recommend seeing this band.

Normally, I would spend this paragraph complaining about how awful the mix at The Earl is and how the sound guy is obviously deaf as a post. Surprisingly, this show was mixed amazingly well.

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PHOTO: Gina Leigh of Delta Moon at The Earl in Atlanta, GA. July 8, 2004. Courtesy of d.2263 Photographics.

I stopped by the Cabbagetown Reunion Festival on Saturday afternoon. I am not clear on what the term “reunion” had to do with the festival, as no one was obviously reuniting.

The festival attracted quite a few artistic looking types, along with several musician looking types. Mixed in with the whole indie underground vibe presented by those types were some random rednecks and several Cabbagetown denizens.

The main reason I dropped in on the festival was to see Envie play. Recurring Propeller Skies readers have heard me mention several times that Envie is really fucking awesome, I recommend visiting the “media” section of their site to hear just how excellent they are. Or, catch them next Saturday at the Atlanta Downtown Neighborhood Festival.

The show started off pretty rough, as the sound guy had very limited mixing equipment at his disposal. After the first song, adjustments were made and the band sounded pretty good, although not nearly as good as they sounded a few shows ago at the Echo Lounge.

I really enjoy the tension created between Renee’s extremely precise style on the harp and keyboards and Chris’ looser style on guitar, with Jarred on bass and Kevin on drums anchoring the band. Additionally, there is also a loud and soft dynamic within their songs that works very well.

The highlight of the show occurred during one song that I do not know the name of*, towards the end of the set, when Chris got so caught up in playing that I was sure he was going to fall off his stool.

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* Maybe some day they will get around to releasing a CD and then I will have some idea what the songs are named.
PHOTO: Renee Nelson of Envie at the Cabbagetown Reunion Festival in Atlanta, GA. June 5, 2004. Courtesy of d.2263 Photographics. View more Envie photos.

I went underground (literally) to the Drunken Unicorn to catch the Black Kites. This was my first time at the Drunken Unicorn. It is a fairly small venue, with surprisingly good sound for what is essentially a concrete box. A bit more guitar in the mix would have been nice, as Mike Barnes, the drummer, is inherently quite loud.

I arrived a bit late and missed the first couple of songs. About ten seconds after entering the venue, I ran into recurring Propeller Skies character and Envie guitarist Chris. After chatting with him a bit between songs, I busted out my camera and started taking some pictures. In contrast to the sound, the lighting at the Drunken Unicorn is fucking terrible. There was decent lighting on Joie Hoke, the lead singer. However Michelle Cox was almost completely invisible, since there was no light on her corner of the stage. Michael was also invisible due to lack of lighting and the massive drum kit he was hiding behind. I most likely will not shoot there again.

Enough about lighting. The show was excellent and it was great to see them live after missing their last show at The Earl. To keep things interesting, they played a couple of new songs that are not available on their cd, one of which was really awesome. I thoroughly enjoyed their set and can’t wait to see them again.

There was a good crowd for a Tuesday night, I was expecting maybe five people to show up. In the aforementioned crowd there were no post-ironic hipsters sporting trucker hats.

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PHOTO: Susannah Barnes of the Black Kites at Drunken Unicorn in Atlanta, GA. May 11, 2004. Courtesy of d.2263 Photographics.

I have lived in Atlanta for almost four years now and never once attended Music Midtown. For any of my five readers who are curious about the festival, KC over at ::groove:: has posted an excellent review.

Personally, I am more of an indie rock kind of guy, in case that was not obvious from my sidebar. I try to make Corndogorama at The Earl every year. However, I usually find myself going down a river with the Atlanta Outdoor Club.