The Athens Music Scene

[DudeAsInCool]

Athens Music

What it Does, it Does Well

photo by Cameron Swartz

      There’s a song that the Virginia-based musician Mark Linkous, known better as Sparklehorse, wrote. The song’s called “Happy Man,” and ever since the first time I heard it, it’s ricocheted all through me. There’s nothing complicated to the song - some furious guitar work, incessant drumming, just good rock and roll. But it’s the lyrics of the song that do the trick, as over and over Linkous unleashes the words “All I want is to be a happy man.” Over and over again. The words are simple. They’re to-the-point. They’re effective. And lately, that’s all I’ve really come to want from my music. Given the small-town vibe of Athens, that’s what I’ve come to find almost every night of the week. Effective music. Music that does its job. The artists who create the sounds coming out of this city are constantly exploring music and discovering what they want to do, what they’re best at - and happily, they’re willing to share.

       It’s a sad fact that those of us who’ve been in Athens for years have come to take what we have for granted. But to illustrate Athens better, let’s shift focus an hour’s drive to the west. Atlanta, for all its big-city-of-the-South status, has always been the terrier nipping at the big dogs of the Northeast and the West in terms of national relevance, and that situation has developed some curious circumstances involving musical acts.

       Spend some time in Atlanta bars and clubs and you’ll meet musicians, sure, but few will call themselves “Atlanta musicians.” There’s a palpable gotta-get-out-of-this-city-and-make-it-big mentality that swirls somewhere in the summer humidity. Atlanta’s rockers sneer at their own crowds. The folk singers shyly nod and shuffle home. Atlanta’s hip hop scene, highly regarded as some fabled thug playground by the rest of the country, is virtually invisible on the street. Simply put, most Atlanta musicians can’t wait to get the hell out of Atlanta.

       Athens is different.

       Athens is a town to which musicians can’t wait to move. On any given night, you’ll find musicians who’ve come to Athens from New York, from Louisiana, from Nebraska, from Germany and Yugoslavia and Japan, all because they’d heard this was a good place to be for the music-minded. And when you’ve got such a strong community of artists who put more emphasis on the act of creating music than on the act of creating a reputation. Most Athens artists are at the point where they’ve realized that if they create music - good music, effective music - they won’t have to worry about building a name for themselves, as it comes with the territory. (Now sure - there are some musicians with dreams of rock stardom, with their own arrogant agenda. But these people are aberrations and are not to be trusted as representatives of the Athens music scene.)

       And though Athens musicians seem to uniformly put the music first, that’s not to say that they’re not a hard-working and self-promoting lot. On the contrary: few cities can boast musicians as genuinely dedicated to getting their music heard, to sharing with an audience, as can Athens.

       Take the group Entropy, for instance. Given home in a larger town, this group might’ve found life instead as a bunch of guys who get together every now and then to play a funky kind reggae-influenced music. And that’s what they are. But there’s rarely a week that’ll go by where you won’t see the band’s name plastered or posted around town, and that’s because the relatively small size of Athens allows for a community mind, an intimacy unavailable in many place.

       Athens is a ball of string of a city, wound tighter and more intricately than any other place in the region. You’ll buy your drinks from the guy whose space-rock band blew your mind the night before. You’ll find yourself at the library, checking out books and talking to an incredibly entrepreneurial musician or at the video store talking Star Wars with a record label owner.

       The woman across the street with the funky car? She performs an acoustic set every Wednesday night. The guy who ground your coffee just right? Yeah, his pop band’s playing next week and why don’t you come check them out. Guy over there on the corner rolling the cigarette is one of the most well-respected songwriters around. These people are all around.

       It’s this sense of community that permeates Athens that allows musicians to diversify, to find exactly what they’re best at and to do it. To be effective. There’s none of that “Can we make all these songs a little more like this band to get this song on the radio?” you’ll find in larger markets. While the rest of the country homogenizes and commodifies, Athens bursts in every direction - in one night, you might find the electrifying hip hop of Ishues or eLeMeN.O.P., the German cabaret music of Audition with Max Reinhardt, the out-there experimentation of Paul Thomas, the rock perfection of Elf Power, the crafty blues of Neal Pattman, the roots-rock country of Stewart & Winfield… You get the idea; the list goes on. (And on, and on, and on…)

       And the labels! The record stores! The club owners! But these are other stories (told weekly: pick up a copy of Flagpole, it’s free!). The point is, Athens music is predictable only in its unpredictability. Athens music is no old nag who’s been around the track so long there’s a rut worn in the clay. Athens music is a brash young thing - a colt so living it may bray and snort and buck and bolt at one moment, eat a sugar cube from your lips the next. But regardless of its demeanor or its form and metaphor aside, Athens music - maybe not all of it, but know that there’s at the very least one song, one band out there - will do its job. It will share with you. Move you. Inspire you. And Athens music will do all of that, truth be told, pretty damn effectively.

                   Chris Hassiotis

http://www.fairmountfair.com/flagpole/article.php3?fp=1

[joeyz]

YES! Right on Dude!!!!

[DudeAsInCool]

This should be your thread, JoeyZ. Keep the BK community informed about the differnt types of bands that haunt the AG Scene

[Umma]

Awwe.... I thought this was going to be a thread about rembetica.

:jammin: :jammin: :thumpin: :jammin:

[method77]

I thought it was an article about Athens, Greece

[joeyz]

You got it Dude...I would take more initiative but I am pretty shy about making new threads...I don't want to be the spamanator anymore!

[joeyz]

Method I am an American Greek living in Athens, GA how do you like those apples!

[DudeAsInCool]

lol. Well, it would be quite appropriate in this thread. Spam away... :jammin:

[Umma]

I thought it was an article about Athens, Greece

Too many American place names are stolen from elsewhere. It's confusing.

[DudeAsInCool]

Thats why it says "Athens, GA" - University of GA!

[method77]

Thats why it says "Athens, GA" - University of GA!

you edited that. The real one said Athens. You're trying to make us look like fools but it isn't working! :frog: :frog:

[Umma]

people outside the US dont learn the abbreviations for the individual states at school... so while we may know them out of necessity because you lot assume that you are the hub of the universe.... it might be nice if you could consider the rest of the world occasionally ... :P

[method77]

you tell them Umma!

[DudeAsInCool]

people outside the US dont learn the abbreviations for the individual states at school... so while we may know them out of necessity  because you lot assume that you are the hub of the universe.... it might be nice if  you could consider the rest of the world occasionally ... :P

There's a world outside of West Los Angeles? (Actually, I couldnt spell out Georgia cause it only gives me so many spaces!)

[Umma]

You could have left out the University bit.... Athens, Georgia, US of A (a contributory part of the the earths landmass)

[DudeAsInCool]

huh?

[joeyz]

It's spam time! The first Athens band I am going to mention will be the beatking members' favorite Gabriel Young. These guys are hot ...so if you haven't seen heard them or checked out the site please do so @ Gabriel Young

Quick Bio!

Drawing inspiration from a pool of musicians ranging from Tim Reynolds to Brian McKnight, Peter Gabriel Zorbanos and Kalen Young Nash have crafted a sound that fuses world music, folk, jazz, singer songwriter, pop, and r&b into one cohesive but jam-happy unit. Their combination of soul and technicality make them awesome.

Sample their music right here.

seven days

In that moment

Skies Apart

(the sampler is not representative of their best work but at least you get a good idea of the talet)

Edited April 5, 2004 by joeyz

[Umma]

The sampler was pretty good... :)

Look forward to hearing more.

[joeyz]

I am glad you like it Umma! But the sampler is such a small portion of what they have to offer...their purely instrumental jams are gold! I will try to talk them into posting one instrumental mp3 sometime soon... it'll blow you away!

[joeyz]

The man with magic hands is on the right! The dude wih the killer voc chords in on the left! If you guys are ever in Georgia you have to come hear these guys live ...it's AMAZING!!!!!!!

[Umma]

Yeah... I suppose it's difficult to know what to put up there for download.

Let us know when it's there...

[joeyz]

I'll do it for sure Umma. Thanks again for taking the time to listen to them and lay down some feedback...it's really awesome of you! :strumma:

[Umma]

Hey no problem.... talent merits attention!

Nice Pics too :)

[joeyz]

You're a cool lady Umma!

[joeyz]

If anyone likes Gabriel Young and they have some time to check out their website, then please leave them a note on their message board in the fans section...I am sure they would really appreciate the feedback! Thanks again to anyone who has checked out Gabriel Young!