Redeye - Rawk and roll out August 10 2005

I got satellite TV recently, and after watching commercials for only a few days, I realize that Burger King and I share even more than my insatiable need to have it my way. The fast food chain’s chicken fingers promotion features a fowl — some say foul — band, and who doesn’t love Coq Roq. While I think Burger King has backed off its innuendo-laced campaign, I pinkie-swear to never to cover the scene half-cocked. So let’s talk live music this week.</
On Thurs., Aug. 4, I received a call from Word Productions’ Patrick Hill (booking agent for the Earl) that my presence was commanded for a bill featuring the Close and Snowden. For sassy strut-muffins the Close it was a homecoming gig after five weeks on the road, and the band’s tightly wound steady-heaving cemented its deserved acclaimed status. For knotty, lock-groove layering Snowden it was a showcase of drenching quivers, as Tim Owen — labelhead from Wilmington, Del.’s emolicious Jade Tree Records — was in attendance.</
Neither was my reason to attend, however. It was Theresa from the Close’s birthday, and I had been asked to strip to my boxers and socks and accompany a man in a rabbit suit on stage to deliver her a birthday cake. What a tawdry existence.</
On Fri., Aug. 5, it was up to Athens to catch locals at the yearly celebration of promotions group Team Clermont. I ran in to an esteemed indie figurehead and Atlanta’s quintessential college rocker, Marc “MF” Crifasi, who later shared his thoughts on the evening:</
“Tenement Halls was in fine form delivering a less reverby version of the Rock*A*Teens for the band’s first performance in Athens, and the crowd of many college radio promoters and indie-label types was receptive considering the album on Merge Records isn’t out until Aug. 23. Tennessee’s De Novo Dahl [at the Earl Aug. 26] was next, and the band’s blend of pop and dance funk was popular, but its matching prison pajamas made it appear as a band unsure of its talent and needing a gimmick. And friends tell me I saw Phosphorescent — all 20 of them.”</
Come Saturday night, I was back in Atlanta, checking out the psychedelic Tourette’s syndrome of Brian Jonestown Massacre (read more about it in CL’s Aug. 18 issue). Crifasi, meanwhile, was still near Athens, reliving the Elephant 6 collective’s heyday on the Orange Twin compound five miles in the woods, where a reunited Olivia Tremor Control took requests for Beatles-esque pop in an intimate amphitheatre carved in a hill. There was definitely no dicking around on the local music scene this weekend if you wanted to catch the hottness.</
RedEye celebrates going out and going off. Send comments to redeye@creativeloafing.com, but hand-scrawled hate mail is preferred.