ArtLab Sessions has released four new videos featuring Blackwater Choir, Georgia Mountain Stringband, Colin Gilmore Band, and Waits & Co. Check them out here:
King Dude fun facts
Have y’all listened to King Dude? I’ll admit it, his music was a little spooky to me at first. His shit can’t be described as anything other than sinister. His voice is so low, so croaky, that it evokes this spiritual presence, and listening to it makes me feel like I should create witchcraft. Even just from looking at his album cover – a portrait of himself in sort of a vampire-like form: straight-faced, with a foggy background and a skull of an animal lying next to him – it is seriously dark (like, in a totally satanic way).
But after talking to King Dude, whose real name is TJ Cowgill, he’s really not that scary after all. Here are some fun facts about this artist to put you at ease (just in case you were too scared to see his October 10th show at the Jinx):
1. Last time he was in Savannah, about fifteen years ago, he crashed with some of the guys from Kylesa, and discovered his distaste for palmetto bugs, and even more than that – the spiders that eat palmetto bugs.
2. He is quite the fashionista – he has his own clothing company called Actual Pain, selling everything from tops to socks. Right now, he says he is too busy to put men’s jeans back into production, but that might change in 2016 (just in case you were interested).
3. When he seldom DJs, he doesn’t like doing it. He says it’s because he can’t please everyone in the crowd when he jumps between Harry Nilsson and Migos tracks, but also, he thinks playing his own music is way more fun.
Listen to King Dude’s newest album Songs of Flesh & Blood, in the Key of Light below – and buy a ticket for his Savannah show on 10/10 at The Jinx before it sells out.
Larry Jack’s Magical Music Tour – 10/01/15 – 10/06/15
Hey guys,
It looks like this will be more good music this weekend at a variety of venues around downtown. The biggest show for the week will be Thursday’s show at the Lucas, Blues Trinity: A Tribute To The Three Kings. It appears similar to the format of last year’s excellent The Band Tribute Show at the Lucas, with many local artists rotating through various songs. This show promises to be an exciting, unique evening of electric blues. By the way, the 3 Kings are BB, Freddie, and Albert. If you didn’t know that, you probably need to go to the show.
Friday has several good choices for music, but I would recommend trying to make it for at least a bit of People’s Blues Of Richmond at the Social Club, I don’t think you will be sorry. Saturday has several good choices also. I am most looking forward to seeing Eric Sommer at the Sentient Bean (my runner-up for best show of the week). If you haven’t seen him before, do yourself a favor and catch some of his hard-edge blues and excellent guitar playing. If you have never seen a show at the Bean, they have excellent acoustics. And they can now sell beer. As always, I hope to see some of you around downtown this weekend. And if you like the music, remember to drop a couple of bucks in the bucket, I know the musicians really appreciate it.
Thursday 1st
Blues Trinity: A Tribute To The 3 Kings – Lucas Theater ($21, 7:30)
Meadows Ever Bleeding (Swedish indie folk duo) – Sentient Bean (8p, $5 donation)
Eric Britt (Sav’h singer-songwriter) – Molly MacPherson’s
Pigeons Playing Ping Pong (Baltimore psychedelic funk) – Barrelhouse South
Friday 2nd
Clouds & Satellites ( Sav’h rock), Hypnotics (Sav’h garage rock) – Jinx ($5)
Magenta Sunshine (Ashville indie-folk-soul) – Barrelhouse South
Orange Constant (Statesboro jam-rock) – Molly MacPherson’s
People’s Blues Of Richmond (Richmond heavy pschedelia) – Congress Street Social Club
Saturday 3rd
Eric Sommer (TX blues) – Sentient Bean (8p)
AJ Croce – Dollhouse Studios (8p, $25/35)
BBXF (Sav’h hard rock) – Molly MacPherson’s
Crazy Man Crazy (Sav’h rockabilly) – Jinx
Rachael Shaner (Sav’h singer-songwriter) – Barrelhouse South
Royal Noise – Congress Street Social Club
Tuesday 6th
City Hotel (Sav’h bluegrass) – Wyld Dock Bar
Ray Lundy (Bottles & Cans frontman) – Foxy Loxy Cafe (7p)
Statts Fest 2015 – more photos
I should know better at this point. Every year, probably due to being around so many caring, giving, and unselfish people, coupled with the unprotected hugs, hand shaking, and conversations, I catch a nasty case of the feels at Statts Fest. Every damn year.
When I walked into The lvet Elvis Lounge Jinx at 4:30 to find a (probably contagious) healthy crowd of friends, familiar faces, and positive attitudes, I immediately felt the first symptoms grab me…stupid smile on my face?…Check…Open wallet?…Check. Ughh. Sure enough, here come the feels. What to do, what to do? Well, a bottomless (not literally, that would just be dumb) cup of cold PBR seemed like a reasonable place to start. Every year.
Yeah, it was all there again. The amazing group of volunteers. Feels. The funky, cool, and sometimes-just-weird donated art and silent auction items. More feels. The communal feeling. Yep, feels again. Jason Statts himself, looking well and surrounded by friends. Mega feels. The whole damn shebang. And, oh yeah, the music.
This year’s lineup was, as usual, stellar and a testament to just how rich and diverse our little Savannah scene is currently. Maybe it was just another symptom of the feels, but, man, I swear every single act on stage that night sounded just a little better than usual. From Joe Nelson opening the day through to the final notes of Black Tusk….warm and fuzzy sensations. It wasn’t the PBR. See you next year.
Triathalon releases single, announces 2nd album
Stereogum premiered Triathalon’s new single “Slip’n” last week. Check it out:
The single is from the forthcoming sophomore album Nothing Bothers Me, which will be released on on Broken Circles on 11/13. Preorder here on vinyl, CD, or cassette.
Also, you can now order Triathalon’s first full-length, Lo-Tide, on vinyl too. Give it a listen:
Statts Fest featured great sets from 8 excellent Savannah bands – photos
The 2015 Statts Fest featured eight strong Savannah-based bands — and they all brought everything they have to The Jinx last week.
Statts Fest is of course organized by Friends of Statts every year in support of our friend Jason Statts, who was paralyzed in a random, senseless shooting in 2008. Jason faces some daunting challenges, but he lives at home and lives a rich life of friends, family, art, and music.
Statts Fest is obviously first and foremost a fundraiser and community gathering, but over the years it has also become one of the best one-day showcases of Savannah bands that you’ll find.
The day started with James Pittman and Joe Nelson performing old time music, and then came The Magic Rocks, Bottles & Cans, Damon and the Shitkickers, COEDS, Hotplate, Bear Fight!, and Black Tusk. I don’t seem to have gotten any photos of Jason last Saturday, and I certainly didn’t spend any time taking crowd portraits — I kept my attention on the stage. Some of the bands don’t really do much on stage, so one shot is about the same as the next, but I took a lot of a few other bands — like COEDS and Black Tusk — who have especially energetic stage shows, and I’ve decided to make this a very, very photo-heavy post. So it might take a second to load.
Bradford Lee Folk & The Bluegrass Playboys with Uncommon Collective at Trinity Sanctuary Concerts – photos
Another barn-burner of a show was put on at Trinity Sanctuary Concerts featuring Bradford Lee Folk & The Bluegrass Playboys with special guests Uncommon Collective. Not only did they tear the roof off of Trinity, but they also turned out to be some of the most humble, and easy-going performers that we’ve worked with yet. Bradford and his gang of pickers will be performing one more local show, tonight (9-25) at Tybee Island Social Club. If you’re a fan of stringband music, or just want an evening of real-deal musicianship I highly suggest you catch their gig this evening.
As in most posts that I make concerning this music series I’ll say again that if you haven’t yet been to one of the concerts in this historic ‘venue’ you’re missing out on our city’s best listening room, and some very special shows. The next scheduled performance is the return of the quarterly Thursday Night Opry coming up on November 19th. The lineup will be posted soon.
A variety of different images and some behind-the scenes photos can be viewed on Trinity Sanctuary Concerts. Here are a few shots from last night with more after the jump.
Bradford Lee Folk & The Bluegrass Playboys
Uncommon Collective
Baroness announces fall tour, will play Savannah on 12/12
Baroness announced a fall tour today, which begins on November 27 in Columbus, Ohio, and ends on December 20 in New York.
Baroness will play The Jinx on Decemeber 12 — it will be the band’s first hometown show in several years. Baroness came of age in Savannah, but frontman John Dyer Baizley moved to Philadelphia a number of years ago.
The band’s new album Purple will be officially released on December 18.
Tickets for The Jinx show are just $15 (plus about $2.50 in Ticketfly service charges). They will sell out, so click on through and get yours now.
ATTENTION! ATTENTION! THE JINX IS SOOOO HAPPY TO ANNOUNCE ONE NIGHT ONLY….BARONESS RETURNS TO THE JINX!!! GET YOUR TICKETS HERE!!! GET THEM NOW BECAUSE ONCE THEY ARE GONE THEY ARE GONE!
Posted by The Jinx 912 on Thursday, September 24, 2015
And here’s the official video for the new track “Chlorine & Wine”:
One of Tom’s shots of Baroness from our archives:
Diarrhea Planet, Burns Like Fire at The Jinx – photos
I’m not saying you’re dumb if you didn’t come out to The Jinx last Thursday to see Nashville’s four guitar army, the entirely over-the-top-but-somehow-it-works Diarrhea Planet, but you certainly could be making better decisions. After witnessing them stun a packed room at the 2015 edition of the Savannah Stopover, it was a no brainer for me. Super tight, hooky as hell, slightly ridiculous, hypnotic, and just plain old joyous guitar worship/heroics were in full effect once again. Seriously, it’s more than a little hard to believe it wasn’t shoulder to shoulder in The Jinx.
Athens’ Burns Like Fire was an inspired choice to open, too. I definitely remember liking them the last time I saw them, but I heard a lot more Hot Water Music in their tunes this outing, and that alone is enough to win me over. Great vocal interplay, energy and songwriting. All in all, a fantastic night of guitar rock.
Bill and I both got tons of pictures, as both bands were photogenic and energetic on top of sounding great. Hit the jump for lots more.
Diarrhea Planet
Burns Like Fire
Creepoid and their label Collect Records struggle with unwanted controversy
This classy, heartfelt post from Creepoid’s Facebook page pretty much says it all:
Yesterday, along with thousands of others, we learned about the actions of a man named Martin Shkreli, who recently…
Posted by creepoid on Tuesday, September 22, 2015
It’s clear from Noisey’s interview with Collect Records’ Geoff Rickly, that the label didn’t know of Shkreli’s business history, beyond the fact that he had money to invest with few if any strings attached, and was blindsided by Shkreli’s decision to raise the cost of the vital drug Daraprim by 5,000-plus percent. Shkreli has now said that he will lower the price, but he has NOT said what the new price would be.
There’s no way of seeing how this will play out from here, but I don’t know how Collect could survive if it doesn’t sever all ties with Shkreli.
Here at hissing lawns, we’re just hoping that Creepoid — a fucking great band — can weather this controversy and keep bringing the music to the people, wherever they are. We loved their latest record Cemetery Highrise Slum, and we love that Savannah for a number of months became the band’s home.
Ross Fish: The Pelican Curse
Ross Fish on his creative approach and new project, The Pelican Curse
Picture it: There’s a sailor, identified maybe by his sailor’s hat or his white-striped shirt, standing on a salt-licked beach. We see his back; he’s gazing oceanward. The sun in the foreground is frozen on the precipice of setting. The sky is cloudless, a watercolor of oranges and pinks and dashes of purple. The scene is lit, almost bright, though darkness is lurking. Waves crash from blue to white — their movement a perfect loop. Above, in the distance, a flock of pelicans soars static across the scene.
One of these birds, our sailor hopes, is his wife, who, long ago by magic misunderstood, morphed into a wandering pelican. He stands and watches, praying for one to fly his way, to perch by his side, to be his wife again. Our sailor — as he does every day — looks to the clouds and shouts: “I dwell; where hath my love flown to?”
This image, imagine it perhaps as a repeating film clip or an acrylic in motion, is the ethos behind Ross Fish’s latest musical project: The Pelican Curse, a reel-to-reel, 9-track ambient album produced on modular synths, released through Bridgetown Records.
I went over to Ross’s house the other night to make dinner and talk music, to hear his story and pick apart his creative approach. We sat on his new couch and Courtney, his girlfriend and roommate, sat alongside. A painting of hers — a self portrait in many shades of blue — stood behind us, watching.
Savannah music community rallies for Statts Fest on 9/19
On 9/19, some of Savannah’s leading bands and most dedicated members of the local music community will gather for the 6th Annual Statts Fest in support of Jason Statts, who in 2008 was “shot point blank in the neck and suffered irreparable damage to his spinal column.” (Click here for more background at Friends of Statts.)
Check out the impressive band lineup:
- Joe Nelson & James Pittman – 4pm
- The Magic Rocks – 5pm
- Bottles & Cans – 6pm
- Damon and the Shitkickers – 7pm
- COEDS – 9pm
- Hotplate – 10pm
- Bear Fight! – 11pm
- Black Tusk – midnight
Doors at 3pm
$20 cash/charge
Silent Auction from 3pm-9pm
(payment and pickup from 930pm-midnight)
Joe Nelson, who kicks off the day, has been a staple of the Savannah scene for decades; Black Tusk, the final band, will be playing only their second hometown gig since Corey Barhorst took over for Athon, who died almost a year ago.
The silent auction includes an impressive list of art, jewelry, certificates for various events and services — check out the list on the Facebook event page.
As I noted in a preview to last year’s amazing daylong party, these annual gatherings are first and foremost a way to help Jason with medical expenses, but they have also become important rallying points for the Savannah music community. hissing lawns is honored to be among the event’s many sponsors.
For more information, check out Decibel Magazine’s Strength Beyond Strength: The Jason Statts Story, the Stattsfest preview in Connect Savannah, and the Do Savannah preview.