Sound Menu March 06 2002 Fri
BREAST FEST — A two-day festival featuring breast-cancer benefit concerts, a health fair, a parade and a 5K run/bike ride. Friday’s music kicks off at 6:30 p.m. at Nuci’s Space, featuring Claire and Bain’s Maple Yum-Yum, Calliope Fair, XXX Hardrive and others. Saturday, music runs 3 p.m.-3 a.m. at Tasty World, featuring Marshmallow Coast, the Star Room Boys, Dromedary, the Krush Girls and more. See www.breastfest.org for more info. Nuci’s Space/Athens (Sarig)
CIGAR STORE INDIANS, LOU FORD — Atlanta’s Cigar Store Indians are forever stuck in that mid-’50s moment when a blues-infected strain of country music morphed into rock ‘n’ roll. After two studio releases, the group returns with a live album (recorded at Eddie’s Attic and Smith’s Olde Bar) that attests to the Indians’ ability to pull it off live. Charlotte roots-rock quintet Lou Ford opens. Star Bar (Sarig)
CLEM SNIDE, WILLIAM TOPLEY — Along with Lambchop, Clem Snide is the most subversive act to be carelessly lumped under the alt-country banner. Not only does the band subvert country music’s ingrained cliches, but its perversely catholic musical vocabulary gleefully thumbs its nose at alt-country purism. Opening is British classic-rock/bluesman William Topley. Smith’s Old Bar (Robertson)
DANNY BARNES & THEE OLD CODGERS — The ex-Bad Liver banjoman strums up a storm, blending bluegrass standards with his own rootsy originals, even sneaking in the odd T. Rex cover. Violin and bass goose a sound that can suddenly veer off on jazzy and experimental tangents. Red Light Cafe (Horowitz)
RYE COALITION, HEINOUS BIENFANG — Rugged rhythmic rockers Rye Coalition sand down the edges of their brutal, discordant throb into a hard gem of primal rock ‘n’ roll on their new album, On Top. Opening, Atlanta’s original slop ‘n’ spurt performance-art rockers, Bienfang are famed for their outrageous and clever live shows, each built around a different theme. Think of these gooey, gory guys as a sort of scaled-down version of GWAR, but with lyrics that even terrestrial humans can understand. The Earl (Parker/Nicoll)
JANAH — World That Surrounds You, the first album by local world-fusion jam-folk act Janah, came out two years ago but is finding new life via a re-release on Atlanta’s Rattlesby Records. The band’s tuneful, intricately arranged internationalist vibe is quite remarkable, and like nothing else out there. Aiding this latest push, the band is doing in-store performances at nine area Borders stores, hitting Duluth at 8 p.m. tonight, Marietta at 8 p.m. Saturday, and Athens at 5 p.m. Sunday. Borders Books and Music (Sarig)
CHRISTINE KANE — The Asheville, N.C., singer/songwriter is celebrating the release of her new album, Rain and Mud and Wild and Green. Often compared to the more rustic sides of Rosanne Cash and Mary-Chapin Carpenter, Kane’s interesting variety of subject matter and disarming between-song monologues distance her from both performers.Eddie’s Attic (Smith)
CHRISTOPHER LAWRENCE — One of America’s top trance DJs, Christopher Lawrence favors a consistent, pounding, synth-heavy vibe with tech undertones. Gene Carbonell, meanwhile, provides the builds and breaks of more dramatic progressive sounds. eleven50 (Ware)
LEFTOVER SALMON — While they may label their music “polyethnic Cajun slamgrass,” you could call it O Brother Phish food. With the turnover of half the band’s roster last year, longtime fans could be in for some surprises. But whiz-bang mandolin and banjo solos remain the cornerstone of this jammy Colorado outfit’s rootsy approach. Variety Playhouse (Horowitz)
THE MENDOZA LINE, SUMMER HYMNS — The Mendoza Line established themselves as real contenders with 2000’s We’re All in This Alone. The Athens band’s scratchy melodicism and plangent songwriting recall an Americanized Go-Betweens. Fellow Athens residents the Summer Hymns dabble in Elephant 6-approved back-porch psychedelia, but too often ignore their way with a tune and veer off into self-indulgent noise. Echo Lounge (Robertson)
MIRAGE — Mirage presents another all-star lineup. D.C.’s Scott Henry whips progressive house to a fever pitch. New York’s Micro acid-etches his sets with big beats and techy trance. Orlando, Fla.’s Kimball Collins puts the audience in a trance, while Baby Anne brings funky breaks’ boom and Atlanta’s J-Luv houses you. Tabernacle (Ware)
BOB SCHNEIDER, CONVOY — Consider this double-bill your chance to load up on music from two of the most unjustly ignored albums of last year. Schneider’s Lonelyland finds Sandra Bullock’s former beau impressively co-opting a gamut of styles — from cocktail jazz to singer/songwriter folk to the feisty funk-flavored rock his former band, Ugly Americans, was infamous for. Convoy subsists solely on steady rations of late-’60s/early-’70s vinyl. And while its debut, Black Licorice, may traverse familiar classic rock byways, the San Diego band’s appreciation of the genre’s past successes, and its firm grip on its own considerable songwriting skills, makes a seemingly ordinary formula sound extraordinary. Cotton Club (Rowland)
ANNE SOFIE VON OTTER — Making her long-awaited Atlanta debut after two previous cancellations, Swedish mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie von Otter is joined in recital by longtime accompanist and musical collaborator Bengt Forsberg. Given her penchant for eclectic experimentation (e.g., her recent studio collaboration with Elvis Costello), there’s no telling what she’ll be singing. But if she delves into the Germanic/Scandinavian repertoire of Brahms, Grieg and Korngold, the audience is in for a treat. Nobody does it better. Spivey Hall (Brown)
HANK WILLIAMS JR. — There is no denying that Bocephus is a legend, but his fall from grace on country radio in the late ’80s was due to both his pompous attitude and the changing face of country music. Now he’s back in style with a decent new CD and a lot of attention. Why? Well, country radio is desperate for a boost, and Hank’s rewrite of “America Will Survive” is just the sort of pandering most of the lemmings are looking for. Same crap, different decade. Fox Theatre (J. Kelly)