Threats & Promises

Music News And Gossip

originally published October 11, 2006

Pull out your scarves but keep wearing your shorts, because even if your neck gets cold this week, your legs will stay warm running around to catch all the action. Training schedule begins below…

Last Chance For, Like, A Month: If you want to see Phosphorescent before main man Matthew Houck takes his act to the United Kingdom and Europe for a while, then get your butt down to the Caledonia Lounge this Friday, Oct. 13. The show also includes Tara Jane O'Neil, Theo Angell and Stereo Campbell. Houck's been holed up at home recording songs for his next album, and after this show won't perform again locally until Nov. 30, and that’s a long time to wait for something you really want. Like this.

Dubalicious: Local reggae group Dubconscious has inked a deal with Nashville’s Progressive Global Agency (which has worked with both R.E.M. and Widespread Panic) to handle its booking. This move will, no doubt, help propel the already popular band in to the stratosphere. That is, of course, if the group doesn’t start resting on its laurels and drop the whole ball. Little chance of that happening right now, though, as the band will spend December and January in the studio with engineer John Keane to record its next album. The final local Dubconscious show of this year takes place Friday, Oct. 13 at the Georgia Theatre and will feature saxophonist Adrian Crutchfield, who just joined the band. A portion of the night's proceeds will benefit the Healing Arts Centre and there is to be information available from the organization www.SaveDarfur.org, which raises awareness about the ongoing genocide in that area. So don’t be spilling your beer on the table or anything.

Saturday Looks Good To Me: Just wanted to give a quick heads up to those folks wanting to know when the hell rising local act Mandy Jane & The Jaws of Life is playing again? Well, honcho, it’s Saturday, Oct. 14 at the Flicker Theatre & Bar. Yep, and Amanda Jane will play solo before the whole Jaws of Life deal. Two days earlier, however, you should head down to Flicker to catch Paul Thomas when he plays with Altruizine. I swear, Altruizine makes experimental (yeah, I hate that term, also) music sound fresh again. Just go dig ‘em at 8:30 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 12.

Live Music, Live Art, All Nuçi: The UGA Music Business Program will host a benefit show for Nuçi’s Space on Friday, Oct. 13 and the lineup looks to be as talented as the night's program itself looks ambitious. Musical performers are the Rand Lines Quartet and Guadalajara, who will play “cool jazz and spicy salsa,” respectively. Also on the bill are local artists Micha McCool and Elyse Blackshear. McCool will be showing visual art and Blackshear will display some of her art as well, in addition to performing a live painting. When the piece is done, it will go up for auction after the last musical performance. Very cool idea. All this takes place at Nuçi’s Space and all proceeds benefit the space. For more information please contact Kelly Nettles at kellyan@uga.edu or Molly Dean at molly.dean@grammy.com.

New Album Coming Soon: Athens-based songwriter and performer Chris Henderson announced last week that his newest album is busy being mastered by Dave Collins, who has done large amounts of work with the artist-strong A&M Records. Henderson’s music reminds me, very gratifyingly, of both The Band and Randy Newman, and his presence in Athens adds to the creative flavor of our town. His next local gig is at Borders on Sunday, Oct. 15. It’s free, but starts at 4 p.m., so don’t show up at midnight and don’t show up drunk. Otherwise, yes, by all means, go. Until then, feast on the samples over at www.myspace.com/christopherhenderson.

Sharks Be Swimming: Okay, how about we use a bunch of fish allusions here? Local rock band We Versus the Shark is not dead in the water, even though it's been below the surface for a while. They members schooled up last week and began recording a brand-new four-song EP. In order to chum the waters a little bit, they’re going to play at a local secretly-named house venue on Friday, Oct. 13 - details at www.myspace.com/weversustheshark - but will head upstream to hit the CMJ festival in New York in November, before coming back downstream to hook listeners at the Caledonia on Thursday, Nov. 16 alongside Cinemechanica and So Many Dynamos. After some consideration, I think I’d like to apologize for everything I just said.

Now That’s The Damn Spirit!: After months of being waylaid by surgery and other delays, local pop group 63 Crayons made a fabulous re-entry into the Athens music scene and now has its sights set solidly forward! (Alliteration like whoa!). Anyway, the band wants to release the new album, but wants to do so on its own. So, in order to gauge how many the members should shell out the bucks for, they kind of need to get a loose idea of how many people want it. Would you be interested in pre-ordering the new album? If so, then tell them! For around $10, you can pre-order the CD, and the band guarantees that those who do will receive some extra stuff, too. Oh, by the way, you don’t even have to pre-order it right now. The band just wants to know if you’d be interested in that. So let ‘em know over at www.myspace.com/63crayons. Check out some new material while you’re over there, too.

Bloody: Here's a quick note to let you all know that Bloodkin guy Daniel Hutchens has a new solo album out this week. Called Love Songs For Losers, the album is being released by Los Angeles-based label Autumn Tone Records. Love Songs is the label's second release; its first was a re-issue of Hutchens' acoustic album Lesser. The label is owned and operated by Justin Gage, who also writes the music blog An Aquarium Drunkard (aquariumdrunk.blogspot.com). For more info, hit up www.autumntone.com or www.myspace.com/danielhutchens.Just a Tidbit For Now: The folks in popular local band Sleepy Horses pretty much define the term “working musicians,” and they'll release their much-anticipated album on Friday, Nov. 17 at Tasty World. The band has announced that it's even flying some folks in from West Texas to play in a small “West Texas Orchestra,” but for right now that’s neither here nor there since it’s so far off in the future. Check this space for updates, etc. Just wanted to let y’all know that something’s going on.

And that’s all for this week but there’s more to come next week. Be sure to keep your news coming in and always mention either Threats & Promises or my name in the subject line of all emails. Gimme some lovin’ via email to music@flagpole.com, voicemail at 706-549-9523, ext. 203, or by post at P.O. Box 1027, Athens, GA 30603.

Gordon Lamb