DIY Nation: WonderRoot

We've focused on a bunch of house parties in this segment thus far, but DIY and its ethos extends far beyond shows in living rooms. I've recently been lucky enough to get involved with a truly awesome organization, WonderRoot. They are a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting the local arts community, and they are bringing a lot to the table:

WonderRoot is an Atlanta-based non-profit arts organization committed to uniting artists and community to inspire positive social change. The objectives are to provide production facilities to Atlanta-based artists, to facilitate arts-based community service programs in the Atlanta area, and to encourage artists to be proactive in engaging their communities through community service work.

The WonderRoot Community Arts Center houses a digital media lab, darkroom, recording studio, ceramics studio, classroom space, and a performance space. WonderRoot members are granted unlimited access to these facilities on a first come first serve basis. The Community Center will also be host to regular arts-based workshops for youth ranging from poetry workshops to music production.

Specifically on the music side of things, a very affordable membership gets you access to a full professional recording studio. The studio itself is really swank. They have just started getting touring musicians who come through town to stop by and cut a track to release on their blog (sort of Atlanta's answer to Daytrotter). I have been helping out interviewing bands and writing blog posts for them, and you can take a look at that, as well as get exclusive tracks from Jukebox The Ghost, The XYZ Affair, and Brownbird here:

WonderRoot Studio

Tomorrow night at The Earl, they are having a WonderRoot benefit featuring Delta Co, Trail By Fire, and Your Uncle Billy Who Went Crazy. Then this Saturday, they are having the official grand opening party of the facility featuring a live performance from Nana Grizol (featuring members of Neutral Milk Hotel) and the Atlanta Sedition Orchestra. I'll be there covering the event, and I highly recommend you come down and check it out. Also, we are about to start throwing shows at the facility's basement, which is a fully functional music venue, starting next month, so stay tuned for that (and of course if you are a band we mention here on Ohmpark, hit us up to schedule a show or a studio session).

WonderRoot website

DIY Nation: Soundlab 84

After returning from my Radiohead roadtrip, I recharged and headed out to Cabbagetown or Reynoldstown (I'm not sure exactly where the line is) for a house party last Saturday night. The party was hosted by the guys from Missile Command, featuring some of Atlanta's most prolific artists and all-around cool dudes. The house was perfectly suited for this sort of thing, with great porches, a front living room converted to a small venue, and plenty of booze to go around. And of course the show was absolutely free. ATL superstars were out and about for this one.

I thoroughly enjoyed all 4 bands on the bill. Everyone there was rocking loud and hard. The cops came at least twice, but must have been pretty cool because the music never stopped. I have not attended a ton of house parties on the east side of town, so its great to see people doing it right outside the college kid infested neighborhood I live in. I got some videos, and while the sound is pretty decent, the lighting was way too dark. But if you want to watch the blurry shadows bringing it hard, I've uploaded them to youtube anyways (think of them as audio recordings):

Missile Command:



Icecaps:





Black Skies:









All The Saints:

DIY Nation: Rob's House Records

Last Saturday I spent my afternoon at Rob's House in East Atlanta. Rob's House Records is an Atlanta music label that puts out 7" vinyl records of ATL bands such as Deerhunter and Black Lips. Some cool articles to read up can be found here, here, and here. Last Saturday they had another of the many free parties that they do. We arrived just in time to grab a beer off of the keg and listen to Bobby And The Soft Spots do a short set in the tiny basement. I'm not the biggest fan of this trend of local bands trying to copycat the Black Lips, because they always seem to come off as a cheap ripoff to me, and this was a particularly uninspired attempt. After that we chilled out with the guys from Elevado and Missile Command and watched some pyromaniac build a huge fire. When the keg died, the other band, The Subsonics, performed. They have apparently been around for a very long time (their first album came out in 1992) and while I had heard of them before this, I really didn't know anything about them. The chick drummer played the entire time standing up, and was pretty good. The frontman just ruled his guitar. They slashed through a ton of short surf-punk-rock jams off one of the largest setlists I've ever seen a band write out. Here's a few videos:







Overall, my second time at Rob's House was very fun again. They know good music, they throw good parties, and they are just another example of how the ATL underground music scene kicks major ass.

Bobby:


Can you spot the superstars?




Subsonics:




Subsonics Myspace

Rob's House Records Myspace

I recommend checking out this one:



Coming soon from Rob's House:

Gentleman Jesse / Joseph Plunket - Split 7"
Baby Shakes - Tell Me Now 10" (heart-shaped)
The Weakends 7"
Demon's Claws - Fucked on Ketamine 7"
Slab City - Friday Nite Boy 7"
Hipshakes - Live at Rob's House 7"
+ represses: Carbonas, Cheveu, SIDS, Fe Fi Fo Fums

If you're going to SXSW, we'll see you here:

DIY Nation: I Can Fly House

As the Web 2.0 and D.I.Y. culture in America continues to grow and flourish, this new series will take a look at certain parts of this phenomenon. House parties are a foundation to any good music scene and Atlanta has plenty of houses hosting such events. Last Wednesday night we went to one in our own neighborhood of Home Park. The show was completely free and they were relying on donations from the crowd to give the bands some money. Attendees drinking either brought beer or went down to the local bar to buy beers between sets like we did. There was a rather large crowd of folks for a Wednesday night show that seemed to be the perfect size for this venue. I discovered two really cool bands. Sorry No Ferrari is a local band that does instrumental post-rock sort of jams:



Sorry No Ferrari : Native American Idiot


Sorry No Ferrari : HRSBRG Demo


The other band that I caught was Charlottesville, Virginia's Worn In Red. They were more on the metal/punk spectrum but had some great jams:



Worn In Red : Moments Without


You can check out future events at I Can Fly House's Myspace page.

Sorry No Ferrari Myspace

Worn In Red Myspace