On The Road With TPPI/KX Day 4 & 5: (Saturday, Sunday, & Wrap-Up): The Harder You Cry, The Sooner It Will Be Over

Saturday was the only day of tour that the bands had no show, so we headed to a movie theater to catch The Dark Knight as soon as we woke up. It was alright, but that Keith Ledger guy is a terrible actor isn't he? Just kidding. Seriously though, I was pretty sick of the hype already but I doubt anyone could come out of seeing that movie thinking it was bad, so jump on the bandwagon.

We headed out of Lynchburg late in the afternoon and traveled about halfway to our Sunday night destination, crashing for the night at a cheap hotel in the middle-of-nowhere Tennessee. We hung out in the room and watched TV and got a little wasted. The next morning we jumped back on the road and made our way Murfreesboro, Tennessee.





We eventually met up with a local band called Blastoids! who had helped book the show and made our way to the house called "Casa De Juan". I am a big fan of house parties and these guys knew how to do them right. The walls of the living room where the bands played were lined with mattresses to absorb the loud music from blasting through the walls, and then could be used for touring bands like our crew to sleep on after the party. By the time the two bands opening up before our Georgia boys had finished, the party was in full swing and I was really impressed by how many people came out for a house show on a Sunday night. The place was packed.

This Piano Plays Itself:













Kebert Xela:















Blastoids!:



I have to say that Murfreesboro was pretty awesome all and all. The kids there seemed really into the bands and the dudes putting on the show were super cool. If you're a band looking for OTP places to play, I would highly recommend coming here. Also, Blastoids! were ridiculously good, sort of in the whole Animal Collective vein of sound, but something very unique and distinct in their own right. I hope to get them down to Atlanta very soon.

Overall, this trip was one of the most enjoyable I have taken in a long time. It was so great to experience something like this, because it is a very unique and interesting sort of thing to be a part of. I've got an enormous amount of respect for bands touring because of all of the work and struggles and money involved to do it successfully. Everyone in Kebert Xela and This Piano Plays Itself were really nice, fun people in addition to being great musicians, so I want to thank them for allowing me to come along.











NOTE: For any of you ATL bands we mention around here looking to embed a journalist on your tour and get some press, give me a shout out because I'd like to make this an ongoing series.

On The Road With TPPI/KX Day 3 (Friday): A Legendary Homecoming

We started the day with another Cracker Barrel stop, which has become the official breakfast place of the tour. After that is was time to hit the road again. The fact that a touring band spends a majority of their time in their transportation was something I knew before this, but I don't think I fully appreciated that until about this point. Being in such a close proximity to various other humans for an extended period of time, where there is no escape and you have to deal with everyone else's idiosyncrasies, it is an abnormal scenario that can lead to a wide range of outcomes. So far, it has been the perfect conditions for a constantly growing comradery between all involved.

As we were approaching our destination, we were listening to various sing-along sort of songs like Tom Petty hits, Beatles songs, ironically hilarious rap joints, and whatever else while the two bands were jamming again on their percussion toys and the melodica. Riding along the road in a place I had never been before while everyone is singing and laughing and having such a great time, well, it made me wonder how some people can live a normal, 9-5, straight laced sort of life. I mean I just felt so lucky and happy to be savouring this strongly positive experience. I can't recommend going on tour enough.





We arrived in Lynchburg, Virginia in mid-afternoon and hung out at the house we were staying at that night. This was the hometown of Kebert Xela's Chris Howe, and we were greeted as liberators because of it. If you don't know, Lynchburg is the home of the late Jerry Falwell's Liberty University, so there was certainly an aura of the so-called "Culture Wars" in the town, and we were quickly co-opted into the seemingly tight knit counter-culture contingent.

Kebert Xela's historical ties to the town proved to be an asset for the show, as the small coffee shop the bands played in was packed. After two lightly populated shows, it was great to have a respectably larger audience for these guys. This Piano Plays Itself's set had to overcome some technical difficulties, but they showed these Virginia folks how we do it in the A. Kebert Xela were the superstars for this one, commanding an enthusiastic crowd. It was truly a heroes welcome. After the show, we all returned to the house where we were crashing at that hosted a rather large post-show party. Lynchburg is certainly not the sort of place I would ever want to live, but the kids there received us with style and grace, so I've got nothing but love for them.

Enjoy some videos I took from the night:

This Piano Plays Itself:







Keber Xela:

On The Road With TPPI/KX Day 2 (Thursday): Earning Respect One Fan At A Tme

I woke up fairly early Thursday morning after only getting about 4 hours of sleep, but after chilling out with our gracious hosts, we hit up Cracker Barrel and headed to Greenville, NC. The drive across the state of North Carolina would end up taking us close to 8 hours to accomplish. The mood inside was a bit more low key than the first day, with people trading off naps and chilling out with video games or Mad Libs. We hit up a Wal-Mart halfway through and picked up some percussive toys and the two bands had primal drum circle plus melodica jam sessions, often playing along with accompanying music from the ipod.









As we approached the venue, the place looked like a ghost town. The area was made up of old run-down commercial buildings and very little signs of other human beings nearby. We parked and walked up to the door, and found this:



One of the things that interested me most about this trip was seeing what trials and tribulations an unknown touring band has to go through when they are just starting out. With an ever increasing amount of competition, rising gas prices, and a limited amount of venues, it has to be difficult for a band to tour and make an impression on people. I imagined it to be quite a battle to wage to grow fans outside of your own city, and two days into the tour, the challenges became crystal clear.

We contacted "Jeff" and found out the show had been moved to a weird alcohol store in a shopping center called 21 Eleven Beer and Wine. I have never seen a place like this before, carrying very high end microbrew beers only for cheap prices and being pretty much a specialty store that had been hosting other shows as well.



Jeff and the few other locals who came out for this one turned out to be cool dudes, but with a bill completely filled with obscure out-of-towners, there wasn't much in the way of an audience except the other bands. Apparently the Spazzatorium was facing typical problems a DIY venue faces when it is no longer under the radar (think ISP Space, 585, 141, etc). The two bands that opened before our Georgians were two groups steeped in the Minus The Bear school of Hardcore, but Native was pretty good, so if that's your bag, check them out. Both of our bands put on great performances regardless of the circumstances. I am really digging Kebert Xela right now. We finished the night at a cheap hotel watching the ridiculous Batman And Robin movie while partying late into the night.

Both of these bands are damn spectacular and I feel honoured to get to experience the chemistry between these musicians and fun atmosphere on this tour so far. There may not have been many people at the first two shows, but you can't win a fanbase overnight, and these guys are having a great time together earning it the hard way. I'm having lots of technical difficulties as per usual with getting reliable Internet service, but hopefully I'll have much more for you soon.

Kebert Xela:





This Piano Plays Itself:

On The Road With TPPI/KX Day 1 (Wednesday): The Red Velvet Cunt Cake Tour

Wednesday started with me running all around town doing last second errands before getting picked up by This Piano Plays Itself in the van they are borrowing from XO while Say Anything is on the Warped Tour. We headed to Athens to pick up the duo of Kebert Xela, squeezed their gear in the trailer, and headed on the road 7 people deep. The journey to Asheville, NC seemed to fly by due to hilarious yet lewd and offensive conversation and jokes. The mini-tour has been dubbed "The Red Velvet Cunt Cake Tour '08" by the two bands, so you can imagine the dialogue that lead to that. The first day of any road trip is always filled with electric anticipation and excitement, and everyone was hyped up for this.





The Asheville venue, The Rocket Club, was actually in West Asheville, a sparser part of town I had not been to before, but there was a great record shop right nearby that I blew some money in. The place was pretty cool and the sound system was very nice. A few ATL superstars also made the trek up to catch this show and support their crew, so us ATLiens bounced back and forth between a restaurant across the street and the club pregaming before the show.



Our two touring bands were on the bill with a local Asheville band that was playing their last show ever. The band supposedly drew lots of people to their shows, but other than our crew and a few bar regulars, there was very little attendance for this one. The bands were not deterred, though, and both put down some great sets. Kebert Xela are really cool and I highly recommend checking them out. Doug and Chris each play multiple instruments and run everything through various looping devices. I will have some videos from the show up soon, but all of you planning on coming out to Lenny's Monday night are in for a real treat.





This Piano Plays Itself ruled the joint as per usual blasting it out hard. They played a new song from the new album they are currently writing. The fresh material I have heard from them so far is actually a bit different then what is on the self titled EP, but just as impressive. The night ended with some more krunkness, and then an hour and half drive being lost in Asheville trying to find the family member we were staying with. Late in the night we finally arrived to a warm welcome and got a little bit of sleep. Day one was a fun adventure and stay tuned for total coverage.

Ohmpark On The Road

TPPI @ WonderRoot

I'm about to leave with Atlanta's This Piano Plays Itself on their first ever tour. I will be blogging on the road and documenting the short trip across the southeast. Today we are heading to Athens, GA to pick up the other band going on tour with us, Kebert Xela, and then heading to Asheville, NC where they will both be playing tonight. I think this is going to be an interesting experiment so I'm excited. I want to shout out to Earfarm, just because that is where I got the idea for this. For any of our readers at the following cities, come on out and say hi:

This Piano Plays Itself/Kebert Xela Tour Dates:

7/16 - Asheville, NC @ The Rocket Club
7/17 - Greenville, NC @ Spazzatorium Galleria
7/18 - Lynchburg, VA @ Starlight Cafe
7/20 - Murfreesborro, TN @ Casa De Juan
7/21 - Atlanta, GA @ Lenny's
7/25 - Athens, GA @ Caledonia Lounge

Kebert Xela : Exoskeletal Program Failure

This Piano Plays Itself Myspace

Kebert Xela Myspace

Album Review: This Piano Plays Itself

This Piano Plays Itself: This Piano Plays Itself



Local Atlanta's This Piano Plays Itself just released a self-titled EP that takes the listener through an impressive variety of tones. Their "Explosions-in-the-Death-Cab" sound is highlighted by some electronic muscle that stretches their sound out of the worn idea of guitar rock, and although their influences may be somewhat transparent, this self-produced first effort shows huge potential. The opening minute or so of the record, a series of reverb-heavy synth loops, do a great job of setting up the first real song of the record, Day of Symmetry. From there, the record continues to display more guitar than synthy rock, but there are a couple electronic music-esque production tricks thrown in, like on Post Haste the Proletariat Waits and Awake/Asleep. Throwing on the reverb thick on both the guitars and vocals give the shoe-gaze elements of this band's sound an other worldly quality. Having seen the band live a couple times, the record surprised me by accomplishing a more calculated and in the pocket feel alongside their normally raucous and Godspeed!-type spastic parts, exemplified in the closing track of the record, These are Segments of Revolving and Revolting.

The record throws some serious wall of noise guitar bashing in with the peripheral electronic experimentation while not feeling gimmicky, or as if searching for filler. The biggest problems with this record are minor and the same as any other young band: transparent influences and production values. Impressive in its own right, this is a self-produced first recording, which rarely, if ever, turn out this well. This band's thick sound shows huge potential and I am psyched to hear them move forward with more tunes.

This Piano Plays Itself : Day Of Symmetry


This Piano Plays Itself : Post Haste, The Prolitariat Waits


This Piano Plays Itself Myspace

Ohmpark's Guide To Nophest 4&20

The weekend is almost here and I am very excited. Nophest announced a third stage of bands for Sunday April 20th at The Doogallery. For details on that and the full schedule, go to the Nophest website. I'm going to break down the acts that stand out to me and help you discover some new bands from the massive line-up. Click on the band name to listen to some tracks on their myspace or website:

Friday:

7:45pm Lovesick Scientist: A project of Justin Sias (Elevado) that is produced by Brian Slusher (Slushco). With those two top tier ATL musicians involved, it has to be good.



8:30pm R_Garcia: I've just sort of been introduced to Randy Garcia through Nophest, but everything I sees points to him being a pretty badass musician and dude, so I'm ready to catch this one.



9:15pm Missile Command: A band featuring members of Elevado. We got a sneak preview performance of these guys at our one year anniversary party and they rocked out hard so I've been excited to catch the Missile Command again. Here's some tracks to jam:

Level Up


Dark Matter


10:00pm Push Button Action Man: This is an electronic music side project of Zachary Hollback, who has been a part of great Atlanta bands such as I Almost Saw God In The Metro, The Brodie Stove, and Tenth To The Moon. Here's a sweet electro-jam:

Gray Tile


10:45pm Blue Screen Love Scene: Electronic dance pop that sounds really nice.


BSLS

11:30pm Tenth To The Moon: Experimental music that incorporates dance and industrial sounds with lots of insanity. I caught them last year at ISP Space and thought they were extremely entertaining. They are on Stickfigure and it appears that Sean Moore of Lid Emba (who's new release I just listened to and is awesome, more on that soon) is now involved with the project:

Deadbeat Bath




11:30pm A Fight To The Death: If you're looking for some low-key Americana that is really good, checkout this ATLien band.


Saturday:

1:30pm Wonder Root Non-Profit Workshop: Wonder Root is a really cool organization supporting artists in the Atlanta area. I will be going more in depth about them next week, but just realize they kick ass and Ohmpark will be working with them to accomplish some neato things.

3:15pm Capibara: Never heard of this band before, but they have cool influences, and the two songs on their myspace feel like they may have some potential to rock out hard.

5:30pm Mooseknuckle Sandwich: Song names like "I Hate You We Should Fuck" and "Skull Fuck Of Death" are enough to spark my interest in this OTP band from Pensacola, FL. They seem brash and experimental, and I'm always looking for acts like that.



6:15pm Ship To Shore: Atlanta post-rocking trio I was unfamiliar with until now, but they sound really good.

6:15pm Citizen Green: Interesting sounding IDM.

7:00pm Devoradora: Nu-'60s Psych-rock power trio that sound damn good. This is high on my list of bands to catch at Nophest that I've never heard of before.



7:00pm The Subliminator: Atlanta's avant-garde demi-god armed with spoken word and theremins is a required show for anyone who reads this blog and hasn't seen him before. He's a badass and someone who has a special place in this city.



8:30pm Envie: I recently caught Envie for the first time this year at a Stickfigure Distribution show and they were awesome. You can check out a video and pics here. This is one of the best acts at the fest, so don't miss it.



Glass


9:15pm Swank Sinatra: These guys just seem to do unabashed rock 'n' roll that rocks hard.

9:15pm Harmaline: Cool sounding experimental electronic stuff.

10:00pm Nerd Parade: I've been hearing noise about these guys lately and am excited to finally catch them and see what it's all about. Cool sounding indie-pop.

10:45pm Cassavettes: I caught these guys late last year for the first time and became a fan. This one is definitely a can't miss show.




Sunday:

1:45pm Mice In Cars: This is another band high on my list to check out that i haven't before. They do a tasty blend of post-rock and post-punk. This is completely worth getting an early start for.

Our Focus Was So Strange


The Sky Is Drowning


4:00pm The Ohmpark Official Party featuring DJ Douschebag: Sunday night Ohmpark will be partying hard at the 166 Stovall Stage featuring acts such as Flexor81, S.K.I.P.(Orlando, FL), Gift Horse (Athens, GA), Chicken And Pigs, and DJ June Eleven. The show gets started with me spinning a 420 set as DJ Douschebag at 4pm sharp so be there by then for the a-party-calypse.

6:15pm Miles From Pangea: We just did a piece on Miles From Pangea and the other Hijacking Music bands so I am pretty stoked to catch them at Nophest.



7:00pm 13 Day Mission: Another Hijacking Music band I'm excited to catch, you'll notice their EP from last year is currently in my heavy rotation, and you can download the album for free by clicking on it.



8:30pm Sorry No Ferrari: ATL post-rockers that I have really enjoyed both times i caught them live this year. I have some videos here.



10:15pm Batata Doce: Atlanta super group fronted by a Brazillian singer. Seems rather interesting

11:00pm This Piano Plays Itself: They just finished their self-titled debut release and it is simply amazing. This is one of Atlanta's hottest up-and-coming bands and if there is one Nophest act you can't afford to miss, it is these guys. Behold:

Day Of Symmetry

What Up In The ATL?

Sunday I went to The Earl for Dunch and caught The Jupiter Watts doing a really nice, chill performance:





Check out this video of Mastodon in the studio working on their follow up album to 2006's Blood Mountain:



Deerhunter are doing a show in New York this weekend where they will play the new album they are currently recording, Microcastle, in its entirety. I really hope they do the same thing here in the A soon.

The Lasch will be at Lenny's tonight.

Tomorrow night the place to be is The Drunken Unicorn for HEALTH, Club Of Rome, and One Hand Loves The Other.



HEALTH : Triceratops


Club of Rome : Let's Go USA


Thursday night you can catch Colin Meloy (The Decemberists) at The Variety Playhouse or go local and check out The Howlies, The Orphins, and The Hotpipes at The Earl.



The Orphins : Camp Cryotop


Colin Meloy : We Both Go Down Together


Friday night I highly recommend going to the This Piano Plays Itself CD release party at Under The Couch. I can't wait to hear their album.



This Piano Plays Itself : There Are Segments Of Revolving


And Sunday night is the Explosions In The Sky show at The Variety Playhouse. The originally scheduled show is sold out, but they added an afternoon show that same day, so go get your tickets before it sells out too.

There are some cool DIY shows going this week too if you like house parties:

141 Moreland Ave is hosting Pool Party, P. S. Elliot, Bandolier!, it's Elephant's, Wrister Tuesday night.

I Can Fly House is hosting Capsule, Furnace, Fag Static, The Sunglasses Wednesday night.

Nophest Four & Twenty

Nophest is fast becoming one of Atlanta's most interesting and enjoyable festivals. The bi-yearly event taking place April 18th-20th is going to be hitting two venues, ParkGrounds and The Lang Carson Center, for what promises to be the biggest and best Nophest so far. Pine Magazine did an interview with the Nophest crew last year you should check out. I hit last year's 4-20 event and had a great time. Here is the line-up and schedule so far:

Friday 4/18/2008 - Main Stage

7:00pm - 7:30pm Gemini Cricket
7:45pm - 8:15pm Elliot Rubin
8:30pm - 9:00 Vertigo Jones
9:15pm - 9:45pm Extraordinary Contraptions
10:00pm - 10:30pm Hitchcocks
10:45pm - 11:15pm Wighat
11:30pm - 12:00pm A Fight to the Death

Friday 4/18/2008 - 166 Stovall Stage

7:00pm - 7:30pm TBA
7:45pm - 8:15pm TBA
8:30pm - 9:00pm R_Garcia (solo electronic)
9:15pm - 9:45pm Missle Command
10:00pm - 10:30pm Push Button Action Man
10:45pm - 11:15pm Blue Screen Love Scene
11:30pm - 12:00pm 10th to the Moon
12:00pm - 1:00am Tobi Love feat Nisha Bordeaux

Friday 4/18/2008 - Movie Screen

Bruce Lee Double-Feature!

8:00pm Chinese Connection
10:00pm Enter The Dragon

Saturday 4/19/2008 - Main Stage

12:30pm - 1:30pm We Tap the Keg & Say Hello
1:45pm - 2:15pm Eudora June
2:30pm - 3:00pm Intrepid Souls
3:15pm - 3:45pm Capibara
4:00pm - 4:30pm Lovespark
4:45pm -5:15pm Single Channel System
5:30pm - 6:00pm Witt Wisebram
6:15pm - 6:45pm Ship to Shore
7:00pm - 7:30pm Devoradora
7:45pm - 8:15pm The Issues
8:30pm - 9:00pm Envie
9:15pm - 9:45pm Swank Sinatra
10:00pm - 10:30pm Nerd Parade
10:45pm - 11:15pm Cassavetes
11:30pm - 12:00pm Trial by Fire

Saturday 4/19/2008 - 166 Stovall Stage

12:30pm - 1:30pm We Tap the Keg & Say Hello
1:30pm - 2:45pm Wonder Root Non-Profit Workshop
3:00pm - 5:00pm DJ Press Play
5:30pm - 6:00pm Mooseknuckle Sandwich
6:15pm - 6:45pm Citizen Green
7:00pm - 7:30pm Subliminator
7:45pm - 8:15pm The Beatless
8:30pm - 9:00pm S.K.I.P
9:15pm - 9:45pm Logickal
10:00pm - 10:30pm Larvae
10:45pm - 11:15pm Dr. Electroboink
11:30pm - 12:00pm Can Can

Satuday 4/19/2008 - Movie Screen

8:00pm Guitar Hero Battle on the Big Screen!


Sunday 4/20/2008 - Main Stage

12:30pm - 1:30pm We Tap the Keg & Say Hello
1:45pm - 2:15pm Mice in Cars
2:30pm - 3:00pm Hot Grits A Flyin'
3:15pm - 3:45pm Trophy Wives
4:00pm - 4:30pm Redroja
4:45pm -5:15pm Asylum 66
5:30pm - 6:00pm Blanca Noche
6:15pm - 6:45pm Miles From Pangea
7:00pm - 7:30pm 13 Day Mission
7:45pm - 8:15pm Future Funk Collective
8:30pm - 9:00pm Sorry No Ferrari
9:15pm - 10:00pm Judi Chicago
10:15pm - 10:45pm Batada Doce
11:00pm - 11:30pm This Piano Plays Itself

Sunday 4/20/2008 - 166 Stovall Stage

12:30pm - 1:30pm We Tap the Keg and say hello!
1:30pm - 3:45pm Wonder Root Art Workshop
4:00pm - 4:30pm Flexor81
4:45pm -5:15pm TBA
5:30pm - 6:00pm TBA
6:15pm - 6:45pm TBA
7:00pm - 7:30pm TBA
7:45pm - 8:15pm TBA
8:30pm - 9:00pm TBA
9:15pm - 9:45pm TBA
10:00pm - 10:30pm TBA
10:45pm - 11:15pm TBA
11:30pm - 12:00am TBA

Sunday 4/20/2008 - Movie Screen

420 Double Feature!

8:00pm Up in Smoke
10:00pm Still Smokin'


For more info, check out the Nophest website. We'll be there all weekend, so come party with us!

Humpnight Randomnimity

I just wanted to say thanks to Elevado, This Piano Plays Itself, Eric Guenther and Ben Wetzelberger of From Exile, and Missile Command for playing our One Year Anniversary party last weekend and thanks to all of you for coming out. It was truly an epic event. Here's some pics from the night:

Missile Command:



Elevado:



This Piano Plays Itself:





Biggie C video taped almost all of the sets, so expect videos posted soon. Just an extra note, in all of the madness of the DJ Douschebag set, I spilled beer on my laptop, so until I get a new one in a couple of weeks, I'm borrowing computers to blog, so I will be limited a tad bit in my posting.

Tomorrow night you can catch Missile Command at The Earl:



Portishead's new album, Third, is out in April.

Stars will be in Athens, Ga at the Georgia Theater on March 22nd, but is skipping Atlanta.

Tokyo Police Club have also forsaken Atlanta to play in Athens, Ga on April 7th at the 40 Watt. They also have their first full length album out called Elephant Shell.

Lil' Wayne got arrested for having drugs on his tour bus.

Passion Of Weiss had this Chris Rock video up today and I remembered how much I loved it when it came out back in the day:



Yeah Yeah Yeahs are working on a new album.

Liars' Angus Andrew suffered a back injury but it is unclear if this will affect their upcoming tour. Remember they are scheduled to play The Earl with No Age on Valentines Day.

Bradford Cox has posted demos and out-takes from their Fluorescent Grey EP on his blog.

Pine Magazine interviews Matthew Friedberger of The Fiery Furnaces. I can't wait to see them next week.

Blitzen Trapper will be at The Drunken Unicorn March 20th.

Be Your Own Pet have a new album, Get Awkward, out on March 18th.

The Coachella East fest will be called "All Points West Fest".

Scott Weiland is talking Stone Temple Pilots reunion.

Omar Rodriguez-Lopez of The Mars Volta has a new solo album out February 5th called Calibration. TMV's The Bedlam in Goliath comes out Tuesday. I'm about to freak out waiting to hear these.

Tapes 'N Tapes have their second album, Walk It Off, coming out on April 8th.

The Streets have a new album coming out in April.

The guys from Hot Chip have side projects.

Black Moth Super Rainbow will be at The Drunken Unicorn on March 10th.

Midlake are working on a new, "darker" album.

Pelican will be at The Drunken Unicorn on March 12th.

Mike Doughty will be at The Melting Point in Athens, Ga Sunday night.

You want to watch Amy Winehouse smoking crack? ok, sure:



Feist "I Feel It All":



Saul Williams "Sunday Bloody Sunday":



The Mars Volta "Wax Simulacra" on Letterman:

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!

Ohmpark One Year Anniversary Party!

This Saturday night, come join us as we celebrate an entire year of blogging. We have two of our local favourites playing, Elevado and This Piano Plays Itself and a few surprises. The show is free and we're going to have some kegs of beer for you to drink for free too. Also, we're going to be raffling off tons of prizes including a pair of tickets to see Super Furry Animals, The Fiery Furnaces, and Holy Fuck at The Variety Playhouse in a few weeks. There's just no reason to miss this one. See you Saturday!

Underground Hottlanta: This Piano Plays Itself

By now, you know all about the bigger local acts that are blowing the city up, like Deerhunter, Mastodon, Black Lips, Snowden, etc. Well, those superstars aren't the only ITP folks that are churning out the kickass tunes. This new Ohmpark series is going to be all about finding the less known, newer faces that are warrioring the scene. One newer band that is really impressing me and showing a ton of potential is This Piano Plays Itself. After playing a killer set at Home Park Fest (which we will have video up from soon), I got a copy of their "Pre-Demo Demo" and have been jamming it hard lately. They take post-rock and electronica jams and arrange them in more conventional structures that utilize vocals/lyrics and create a really cool hybrid. Give it a listen:

Oh Haste The Proletariat Waits


Awake And Asleep


There Are Segments Of Revolving


All those songs plus more are available on their Myspace page, so go hit them up. I'm excited to see what their finished product is going to be like and expect big things from these guys in 2008.

Home Park Festival 2007

November 3rd, 2007 we will have some of our favourite Atlanta artists for you to see in a beautiful outdoor setting for free. We've worked hard to put together a line-up were very proud of. This year, Home Park Fest will have two stages to maximize the rock. The Jupiter Watts and Slow Motion Crash have each dropped an amazing album this year. This Piano Plays Itself is an upcoming band with Home Park roots. Ohmpark favs Parade returns for their second Home Park Fest appearance. Critically-acclaimed Jamie Radford will bring his special brew of electronic music and hip-hop to the fest. Pool Partiers Club Awesome will bring the awesomeness. Home Park's most badass band, From Exile, will be performing a special acoustic, instrumental set unlike any they have done before. Finally, one of my personal favs, Moorish Idols, will close out the fun filled day. We hope to see you down in our 'hood for this absolutely free fest and tell your friends!