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Julia Holter “World,” from Loud City Song (out Aug. 20)
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What was the most important band of your college years? The one that you held above all others? The one you turned to when you needed it most?
Is it obnoxious that the first artist I thought of was an obscure punk band from Athens called Carrie Nations that only put out one CD and a 7”, but left such a profound mark on my time in college and what that town meant to me? I’ll have to think on it some more.
Circulatory System “plays” WUOG. I have a recording of this show somewhere. (Taken with Instagram)
Old flyer for Col. Knowledge & the Lickety-Splits, Erutrevo and Boulevard. #athens (Taken with Instagram)
Bill Doss, we never talked while I lived in Athens, which is unfortunate because I made a lot of friends with wonderful musicians in my time there… many of them a part of the Elephant 6 collective. In fact, it was around 2004-2005 that you came back around to playing music live around town again, with both the Sunshine Fix and The Olivia Tremor Control. While Athens had certainly undergone a change since most of the original E6 folks moved on — a great DIY punk and folk scene rising in its stead — you must have had some idea of what it meant to kids like me when some of the old crew came back. It wasn’t because the town’s music scene needed a boost, it was because those records were the reason why we moved to Athens.
I still remember the thrill of the messed-up New Orleans-style funeral parade through the 40 Watt as The Olivia Tremor Control took the stage for the first time in I don’t know long — I certainly wasn’t paying attention for the first go-around. Or when the Orange Twin Conservation Community show devolved into doomed-out noise chaos at the end of what I consider one of the greatest concert experiences of my life.
Bill, it’s really too bad we never talked, but you held company with some of the most wildly imaginative and kindest people on Earth, which is why Athens will always be a special place to me. It’s people like you that made it that way. My heart goes out to your friends and family.
If we’re going out / should we bring a map / or should we lose ourselves in meaning?
The Olivia Tremor Control live in concert from Le Poisson Rouge in NYC.
Even though I grew up in Georgia and spent time in Athens (duh), I honestly don’t care about R.E.M.’s break-up announcement today. But I am reminded of the band’s genuinely affecting performance of “All I Have to Do is Dream” that ends Athens, GA - Inside/Out (you can watch the whole thing here), which was really the first time I really fell in love with R.E.M.
It had been five years since I’d seen Matthew when came by the office to perform. Dude had a PBR on his person. You can take the man out of Athens, etc…
Matthew Houck’s voice is most at home at its breaking point. His band, Phosphorescent, specializes in a sort of free-wheeling weariness, with songs and characters that work extremely hard at taking it easy. His is the sort of listlessness that must be earned, and Houck strains to reach notes like a Boy Scout on a merit binge.
By the time Houck and his band reached NPR headquarters for a Tiny Desk Concert, that already ragged voice was on its last legs. Phosphorescent was just a day away from wrapping up months of touring — first in Europe with The National, then a set of gigs across the U.S. — and Houck could barely talk, let alone sing solo for 20 minutes on camera. We quickly hooked him up with as much herbal tea as we could find and coaxed that crooked croon back to life.
The result was Phosphorescent’s essence in bold relief, with Houck just trying to make it to the next song without giving up. When he sang, “I will keep a-singing ‘til I no more can” — during the neo-spiritual “My Dove, My Lamb” — the momentary alignment of song and circumstance was stunning.
THERE IS A NEW OLIVIA TREMOR CONTROL SONG at NPR. YOU ARE FREAKING OUT.
Download Part 5 of 5 | Read the opening salvo | See all mixtapes
1. LONG LEGGED WOMAN “Yours is Mine”
2. MOUSER “Lemonly”
3. GRIPE “History of Violence”
4. THE INSTRUMENTS “Song for Thomas”
5. KILLICK “Piece by Piece (Slayer cover)”
6. COULIER “F— F— F—”
7. FAIRBURN ROYALS “Be My Punk Rock Friend”
8. OF MONTREAL “I Can’t Stop Your Memory”
9. VISITATIONS “Joanne (Live on WUOG)”
10. JIM WILLINGHAM “Liver-Spotted Hand”
11. JAPANCAKES “Soft N EZ”
12. R.E.M. “Pilgrimage”
13. ELF POWER “Will My Feet Still Carry Me Home”
14. THE SUGAR SHAKERS “Geniveve”
15. HARVEY MILK “Get It Up & Get It On”
16. AMERICAN CHEESEBURGER “Southern Snow”
17. CHRISSAKES “Granby”
And thus ends the Athens Night mixtapes. Thanks for indulging this trip down memory lane, plus a few nods to the Georgia town’s current scene. If you missed any, you can download them all here.
Photo: Madeline Adams of the short-lived Sugar Shakers (she’s now just “Madeline”) performs at the 40 Watt circa 2002 (by Lars Gotrich).
Download Part 4 of 5 | Read the opening salvo | See all mixtapes
1. PHOSPHORESCENT “Sunday Morning Coming Down (Live on WUOG)”
2. PACIFIC UV “Static Waves”
3. THE OLIVIA TREMOR CONTROL “Define a Transparent Dream”
4. WELCOME HOME, NEMO “Give U My Lovin’”
5. COL. KNOWLEDGE & THE LICKETY-SPLITS “Comin’ on Fast”
6. THE LATE B.P. HELIUM “The Weeping Soul”
7. SEA OF DOGS “Foreign Streets”
8. THE GOOD SHIP “The Maco Light”
9. DRIP “Disappeared”
10. CINEMECHANICA “The Professor Burns Vegas”
11. JUCIFER “Code Escovedo”
12. SORRY I BROKE YOUR SCEPTRE “Pentiligy”
13. THE ROCK AND ROLL SUMMER “Flavor Beach”
14. THE GERBILS “Glue”
15. HIRO NOODLES “Yellow Light Truck”
16. SMOKEDOG “Reverberation”
17. MAKING PLANETS “Three Steps Shy”
Photo: Fans at what would become Little Kings for Pylon’s “secret” reunion show on August 5, 2004 (by Lars Gotrich).
