threats & promises AthFest Announces First Wave of Acts

PLUS, MORE MUSIC NEWS AND GOSSIP

By Gordon Lamb threatsandpromises@flagpole.com

BACK IN THE HIGH LIFE AGAIN: AthFest Educates’ 2023 AthFest Music & Arts Festival is poised to roar back to its status as the premier musical tourist draw in Athens, as well as its position as the highest visibility event for Athens musicians. For the upcoming event, which takes place June 23–25, the popular club crawl will return and include performances at the Georgia Theatre, 40 Watt Club, Live Wire Athens, Hendershot’s, The Foundry, Ciné, Flicker Theatre & Bar, Nowhere Bar and Paloma Park. On the main stage outside, attendees will be treated to performances by Family and Friends, Linqua Franqa, Bea Porges, Nuclear Tourism, Hunger Anthem, After Hourz Band, Monsoon, BlackNerdNinja, The Bad Ends, Elf Power, Dayroom, Mack2Tone, Chickasaw Mudd Puppies, Klezmer Local 42, Squallé, L.G. The Heart of the City and more. Club crawl wristbands are on sale now for an exceedingly reasonable $20. Actually, considering that most local shows these days are running in the $10 area, this price is basically unbelievably accommodating for nearly all budgets. Find them and more details over at athfest.com.

WATCHING SOME PEOPLE MOVE THEIR MOUTHS: On Friday, Apr. 7, Ciné will host the Athens big screen premiere of The Elephant 6 Recording Co. which is the documentary by director C.B. Stockfleth about, uh, The Elephant 6 Recording Company. There are three screenings scheduled for this night (8:00 p.m., 10:15 p.m. and 10:30 p.m.), and as a special treat, Elf Power will perform a sold out show in the Lab at Ciné immediately following the first screening. John Fernandes and Friends will perform Saturday night, with doors opening at 9 p.m. I assure you that everything I’m telling you about will sell out, so don’t waste time jumping fences. If you miss out on this event, you can catch the Elf Power lineup (i.e. movie and rock show) the very next night 339 miles away in Jacksonville, FL, so, at the bare minimum, let this be your motivation. Both you and I know you’re not going to want to ride the cranberry lifecycle that far. Additional screenings are to be scheduled throughout this weekend, too. Tickets for the film are available at athenscine.com/ movie/the-elephant-6-recording-co. Follow that link, scroll to the bottom of the page to select your desired screening time, and then you make the choice. Tickets to the performances can also be reserved at athenscine.com. For more information on the film itself, please see elephant6movie.com.

I’M SO PRETTY, WE’RE SO PRETTY: Athens rapper Uniqe (yes, pronounced as if it were spelled “unique”) will release his newest project

Pretty Boys Driving Beautiful Cars across all major streaming platforms Friday, Apr. 7. The following week on Friday, Apr. 14, he’ll host a release party at Wonder Bar. Unfortunately, I’ve not yet been able to hear the release, but if it’s anything like his previous releases, you can expect some fairly hyperbolic, but ultimately pretty lighthearted, party-time hip hop. Not like club bangers or anthems or anything, but tunes and rhymes catchy enough to place a bug in your ear. Also appearing on his release show bill are Donny, Blesstheplaya, Goodie, BYV_Trubb and 1dad0kids. Dude is also super into cars and car culture, and told me via email, “I think something important to understanding the album is the love I have for cars and the extensive club that comes with it.” I don’t know. Honestly, this is all my very first introduction to him, and he seems like a nice enough guy. Here’s to the record being solid.

PERFECT SOUND FOREVER: Any of y’all inclined to head out to see the Elephant 6 movie mentioned above would do quite well to check in with Athens musician Jake Brower, whose latest album is an absolute psych-pop smash, even though it’s saddled with the unfortunate title Psychofunky Dancing. The reason I’m bringing this up now is because a fresh cassette version of this album, originally released last September, is coming out May 4 courtesy of Attaboy Tapes. There are too many musical touchstones here to dive too deeply in this space and, further, I don’t want to diminish in any way what Brower’s accomplished here by my comparing it to other folks just yet. Brower mentions in the album notes that this entire record except one song was recorded with the iPhone Garage Band application using a headphone microphone. Preorders are being taken as we speak over at attaboytapes.bandcamp.com/releases. If you’d like to stream the whole album, please head to Brower’s personal release page at jakebrower.bandcamp.com.

ODESSEY AND ORACLE: Immaterial Possession continues to up its own ante. Just when you thought they’d explored every thread of highly intelligent and deeply artful music and filmmaking, they swing back around to blow your mind again. The group’s newest mind bender is the single “Mercy of the Crane Folk,” and the video is a spectacular visual experience that, to my mind, draws on the work of Georges Méliès and other giants of the silent film era. The tune itself is another highly rhythmic and propulsive piece of mid-tempo psychedelia with a tinge of Spaghetti Western-isms. Find this on Apple Music, Spotify and immaterialpossession.bandcamp.com. For the video, just head to YouTube and do a quick search. You’ll find it. f