Underground Hottlanta: Lid Emba

One of my favourite things about this city is how vibrant the avant-garde/experimental scene is here. There may not be a huge audience flocking to shows, but there are a multitude of extremely talented artists doing their thing. Multi-instrumentalist Sean Moore, aka Lid Emba, is one such champion of music as art. In addition to putting forth some fine material from his own project, Moore is involved with two other great, progressive ATL outfits, Envie and Tenth To The Moon.

After dropping his spectacular Reason Isn't Radar back in 2006, he began working on a The Postal Service-esque long distance collaboration with an equally deep-underground artist from Indiana, Bobcrane. On his myspace, Sean Moore explains the project:

As of the release of We Substitute Radiance, me and Ryan Huber of Bobcrane had yet to be in the same room. Picking each other out of a police lineup could have only been based on intuition; voice recognition might have been possible if our words were cloaked in the tinny sheen of telephone speak.

Our collaboration was catalyzed by a common association with Gavin Frederick's Stickfigure Records and Distro. Ryan is based in Bloomington, IN, and has his own label, Inam Records, which in addition to putting out stuff by Dirac C and others, has been releasing CDRs by Ryan's Vopat, Olekranon, and Bobcrane projects for a few years now. All of these are cool, but his work as Bobcrane particularly caught my ear back in 2007; I dug it's economy, symmetry, and dronescape-meets-boom-box vibe. We got in touch and started working on a few tracks to see how things went. Things sounded good, we were intrigued by the weird feeling of working together without being together, and the project gradually morphed into the collection it became.

To say it wasn't easy would be an understatement. It was kinda primitive, actually. We'd e-mail mp3s back and forth as shit developed, then snailmail completed wav files for the other to augment and accessorize. Despite having different hardware/software setups and being separated by over 500 miles, we somehow managed to construct the six tracks that became Radiance.

I've been jamming We Substitute Radiance really hard as of late. It is what I like to call "A blunt and headphones record". The album envelopes you in a bizzaro world aesthetic that somehow manages to be dark and disturbing yet reassuring at the same time. The opening track, "Toxic Utopia", takes you through a slowly building crescendo that could be a march for some evil, alien army. One of my favourite things about this album is how much imagery the completely instrumental songs lend themselves to. It feels like there is so much detail to the emotions they are expressing, but it never seems too complex to comprehend. We Substitute Radiance's greatest triumphant is that a project so experimental on every level is able to communicate each of the duo's visions to the listener so vividly.

The two pieces following the first track take you down to a chiller, more laid back, yet far from comfortable weirdness. It's hard for me to think of songs so ambient with so much rhythm. I think I would categorize a lot of this stuff as "dance drone". Midway through, "Braille Phantom Braille" breaks down the dub-type groove with an electronic anthem before giving way to an even deeper dive into the abyss. Things go from strange to WTF, just the way I like it. The atmospheric jazz section finally builds to a short reprise of the opening melody.

The momentum returns in the trip-hoppy "Stampeder" as their command of beats remains dazzling. Even the sound-cutout parts at the end of the track have such a tribal velocity to them. The epic 9+ minutes closer, "Flying Undead Overhead", is a truly gorgeous opus that exemplifies everything We Substitute Radiance is about; masterfully expressing the most natural and pure emotions with the most synthetic palette possible.

The more I listen to We Substitute Radiance, the more it becomes one of my favourite albums to come out this year. Here's the first two tracks to wet your appetite:

Lid Emba & Bobcrane : We Substitute Radiance : Toxic Utopia


Lid Emba & Bobcrane : We Substitute Radiance : Bird Brain


As a bonus, here's a video of a live performance from Lid Emba last month:



Lid Emba myspace

Bobcrane myspace

Buy We Substitute Radiance here

Live Review: Stickfigure Distribution January 2008 Showcase

Last week I caught two of the four nights in a row of Stickfigure at The Drunken Unicorn. If you are somehow unfamiliar with Stickfigure, they have been an Atlanta underground music institution since 1992 and consistently put out Atlanta's most interesting independent releases. Wednesday night I got there just in time to catch most of Big Penguin. They were doing the power duo thrash punk thing and it was cool:



Next up was Zandosis. They were a serious noise-jam band beating on weird instruments and using lots of feedback. I thought it was decent, but as much as I like noise, I think it was a little over the top for me.



I had just recently discovered Sorry No Ferrari, so I was excited to catch them again. I'm a sucker for straight-up post-rock instrumental bands, and so far I think they are the best of this sort of thing I've heard in Atlanta. They really rocked out hard for this one:







As many of the folks got drawn into the usual MJQ Wednesday night hipster dance party, Music For People put on a great performance to close out the night.



I returned for the final night on Saturday. First up was Nerdkween, someone who has been on my radar for a long time, but I had never been able to really check out until now. I thought she was really awesome and wish I had looked into her sooner. She does "post modern pop tunes" and they are ever so dazzling. I highly recommend checking her out.



After that it was time for Killick. He was a dude playing some weird 18-string cello/guitar hybrid instrument designed specifically for him to play called the H'arpeggione. He was doing what he described as "Appalachian-Trance-Metal". Very interesting stuff:



After that it was time for The Subliminator. If you don't know him, he does avant-garde spoken word and plays Theremin machines. He is very cool and very unique and if you like music as art, it's mandatory you check him out. As always, he put on a great show:





Envie is a band (or I guess project) that I had been meaning to look into, but never did for some reason. Big mistake, because they were really good. Very interesting art-pop that I thoroughly enjoyed. Sean of Lid Emba was even playing drums. They were probably my favourite discovery of the showcase.











The final act of the night was One Hand Loves The Other. I thought their self-titled debut album was one of the better local releases of last year and had been wanting to see them live for a while. I hadn't realized until seeing them that Mikey from Music For People was in the band. They put on a great show and I'm excited to see what this band does in the future because they are certainly poised to be something special. They will be playing Stickfigure's February Showcase along with Strezo, Sick Figures, and Antic Clay, whom I'm very excited to see, on the 23rd at The Drunken Unicorn, so you should catch that show.









Overall, I thought the Stickfigure January Showcase was pretty awesome. It's great to see so many talented and creative artists in the ATL doing their thing. The event highlighted everything good about the state of music right now in this town and all over the world.

What Up In The ATL?

There are some hott new local releases out this week. First, The Selmanaires's second LP, The Air Salesman, is now available:



Also, Anna Kramer & The Lost Cause's The Rustic Contemporary Sounds of comes out today:



You can stream both albums here. They are are also both doing an in-store performance at Criminal Records at 7pm tonight.

I think this has been available for a while, but I just found out out about it. The newest Slushco EP:



Info and tunes on the Slushco Myspace. Buy it here.

The Black Lips are playing a free show at GSU today at noon:



After kicking ass last Saturday night at our One Year Anniversary Party, This Piano Plays Itself will be on WREK 91.1 FM at 10pm tonight. Don't miss it!

Tonight, there's a show:



Tomorrow night, the Stickfigure 2008 Showcase begins with 4 nights in row at the Drunken Unicorn featuring some of Atlanta's greatest up and coming artists:

Tomorrow night: Music For People, Sorry No Ferrari, Bigpenguin, Zandosis
Thursday night: Entertainment, The Feeding Fingers, Tenth To The Moon, Lid Emba
Friday night: Retconned Cover Band, Fur Elise, Tree Creature, Sailor Winters
Saturday Night: One Hand Loves The Other, Envie, The Subliminator, Killick!, Nerdkween

It's $5 for each night of the showcase, and if you like good music and are not familiar with many of those names, do yourself a favour and hit up atleast one of those, because every night is a killer line-up.

Thursday night at Lenny's is a stellar show with Perestroika, Chopper (ex-Blame Game, Deerhunter), Fag Static, and maybe even The Orphins (90% sure according to the Lenny's site)

Friday night at Lenny's there is this:




Friday night The Whigs are at The Earl and there's also this band called Manchester Orchestra that is rumoured to be from Atlanta at The Loft.

For the hippies, Friday night Perpetual Groove is at The Variety Playhouse, and Saturday night Col. Bruce Hampton is at The Loft and The Machine (Pink Floyd cover band) is at the Variety Playhouse.

For the hipsters, Saturday night Anna Kramer And The Lost Cause and The Selmanaires are having their dual CD release show at The Earl.

What a great week for music in Atlanta!

Photos: Marnie Stern, Celephais, Lid Emba 7-26-07 at The Drunken Unicorn

(click for larger photos)

Lid Emba




Celephais







Marnie Stern

Hot Shows In The A

ATL bands represent hard this week:



Tonight Ohmnpark favourites Untied States are at the Earl for their 7" release party with some out of town bands. Check the new 7" out:



Thursday night the Drunken Unicorn has two acts we love. Get there early to see Lid Emba and stay late to see Marnie Stern thrash with Hella's drummer.



Friday night Lenny's has Deerhunter, Brass Castle, and The NEC and Saturday night they have One Hand Loves The Other and Judi Chicago. Both shows are free, what a bargain!

What The Hell Am I Listening To?!?

Atlanta music:

Slow Motion Crash : Slow Motion Crash


photo by Justin Sonfield

This is my pick for release of the week. Slow Motion Crash took an epistemology of dance-rock and wrote a dissertation. On their debut, self-titled album they combined old songs I've loved with some great new material. Some may think this too derivative, but even in a genre that is becoming increasingly overcrowded, there is something special and unique here that has given me much enjoyment.

• The Last Mistake
• Mirrors And Conflict

Buy Slow Motion Crash Here

Slow Motion Crash Myspace


Lid Emba : Reason Isn't Radar



This is such a fun album for me to listen to because there's something new and crazy every other second. For those who don't remember, Lid Emba does experimental/ ambient/ electronic/ glitch/ noise/ avant-garde/ whatever you call it/ etc music and he does it well. I think there is something about the more organic approach he takes to a style usually embodied by synthetics that makes this album so interesting.

• Resin Rain
• Rib Cage
  

Buy Reason Isn't Radar Here

Lid Emba Myspace


Snowden : Anti-Anti



As you already know, I've jumped on the Snowden bandwagon. I finally purchased Anti-Anti about a month ago and I've been listening to it non-stop. I've jammed this album so hard my truck CD-player literally broke, and now my copy is stuck inside of it. I can't put up anything off of the album until I buy another copy, but i searched around the Internet and I found a couple gems for your listening pleasure:

• Time Of The Season (Zombies cover)
• Anti-Anti (Treasure Fingers remix)
• Black Eyes (Le Castle Vania remix)
  

Buy Anti-Anti Here

Snowden Myspace

A Weekend In The A (featuring Sebadoh, Snowden, From Exile, Tenth To The Moon, Lid Emba)

Last weekend I tried to hit up as many different shows as possible. First, i went and checked out the Snowden and Selmanaires show at Rob's House (Records). Rob's House was just some dude's house in East Atlanta. They had a keg for people to drink and a tiny basement where the bands played to a tightly packed crowd of 30-50. The show time said 3pm, but i got there at 5pm and was still able to catch the end of The Selmanaires set. Snowden played next and rocked the basement out. I really like the idea of taking a typical keg party, adding some great bands and doing it early in the afternoon. Good stuff.


Snowden in Rob's Basement

After hitting some bars up and taking a smoke break at my house to listen to an album or two, i headed to the Earl to catch the Jupiter Watts show. i stayed for an hour and pretty sure i didn't see the Jupiter Watts but was way too drunk at this point to concentrate on doing a good review, so I'll have to come and see them again. I made it back to my neighborhood and hung out with the boys in From Exile late night as they did a mini-acoustic set:





In May, From Exile is going on tour on the east coast and Ohmpark will be taking it on the road with them chronicling this journey. We will have more details on that as soon as the tour is completely booked, but it is going to be a fiasco and I hope our non-ATL readers will come check them out. They just purchased an old prisoner transport van for the trip:



On Sunday i finally got a chance to check out the ISP Space. I have to say that i like it. It is very small, but the concept and the vibe are great. I had no idea who any of the bands playing were before i went, but i was very impressed with two of them. Lid Emba is Sean Moore playing on drum machines, a drum set, and a synth. Really cool ambient, noise, experimental electronic stuff. He closed with a really interesting mash-up/reinterpretation of Black Sabbath's War Pigs, and despite being one of the most over-covered songs of all time, it was still stunning. I got a copy of his debut album, Reason Isn't Radar, and after an initial listen, I really like it.



Next up was Tenth To The Moon. This three piece consisted of two older gentleman on bass and keys, and some crazy kid fronting the band switching around from vocals, to drums, to drum machines. I guess on a broad scale I would call it experimental noise-dance. At one point the vocalist pulls out a huge metal shield that is plugged into the sound system that he beats to death with his drum sticks. Really good music and a very entertaining live show that you should check out.





I finally made my way over to Sebadoh at the Variety Playhouse just in time for Lou and the boys to come on. I'm not very familiar with Sebadoh, but they were really good. An enjoyable relic of the '90s. I have to say I enjoyed seeing Lou Barlow solo or Dinosaur Jr much more, but it was cool to see another manifestation.