Authors | Flagpole Magazine | Athens, GA News, Music, Arts, Restaurants

Blog posts by Gabe Vodicka, Editor

Watch a Mind-Melting New Future Ape Tapes Video

Blog: Homedrone

The music of local experimental crew Future Ape Tapes is difficult to categorize but easy to lose your mind to: on the group's new album, Pyramirrormid (from which you can hear some samples here), noise-blasted hip hop beats sit comfortably alongside psychedelic sound collage and damaged electronica.

On Friday, Tiny Mix Tapes premiered the video for "Man With the Eagle Eye," a typically mind-melting track from the new tape, which you can nab at the band's show on the UGA campus Wednesday evening or via Hooker Vision starting Sept. 4.

By Gabe Vodicka | September 2, 2014
Kenny Chesney to Play Georgia Theatre Friday

Blog: Homedrone

In a surprise announcement this morning, the Georgia Theatre revealed that country superstar Kenny Chesney—he of "She Thinks My Tractor's Sexy" renown—will perform a show at the downtown venue Friday at 8 p.m. Posters for the appearance include a logo that reads "CMT Instant Jam," leading to speculation that the concert will be taped for an upcoming television show.

By Gabe Vodicka | August 29, 2014
Uber Starts Athens Service

Blog: In the Loop

A couple weeks back, we reported on rumors that Uber was making a foray into the Athens market. At the time, a company representative would only say Uber was "excited about the possibility," but now comes confirmation from the rideshare service.

Uber announced today it will begin operating in 24 new markets across the country, including Athens, as well as many other college towns: Oxford, MS, Tuscaloosa, AL and Bloomington, IN are all on the list. The additions bring the number of Uber-served cities to 205—or 55 percent of the U.S. population, according to the company:

By Gabe Vodicka | August 28, 2014
UGA Football's Preseason Hype Video Will Make You Weep Like a Baby

Blog: Culture Briefs

Football—particularly college football—comes with a metric ton of baggage. What's happening to these poor players' brains? Why aren't they paid? Are their First Amendment rights being violated, to boot? And why the hell are nonconference SEC schedules soinsubstantial?

But. Forget all that negative stuff for three minutes and watch the warm, beautifully shot, faith-in-humanity-restoring, holy-shit-we're-gonna-win-a-championship-aren't-we 2014 Georgia football hype video below.

By Gabe Vodicka | August 27, 2014
Flagpole Premieres: Old Smokey, 'Vacant Lot' Video

Blog: Homedrone

Avant-folk group Old Smokey released a stunning sleeper of a record, Wester Easter, in April via Cloud. (Read our feature on the band here.) Now, we're happy to premiere the music video for "Vacant Lot," a taut and textural tune from the album.

Says frontman Jim Willingham of the clip, directed by former Flagpole scribe John Britt:

We shot it up in a quarry somewhere between Carlton and Elberton about 45 minutes north of Athens. We also used a location of an amazing vintage/antique/junk market run by our friend in Carlton. Most of the latter half of the video takes place in the owner Jimmy's fantastical sculpture garden.

Watch below:

By Gabe Vodicka | August 26, 2014
Flagpole Premieres: Juna Announces New Album, Releases 'On Patience' Video

Blog: Homedrone

Local band Juna will release a new album, the follow-up to last year'sHeteroglossia (Flagpole review), on Sept. 27 via Cohosh Records. Titled On Courage, the new album contains six tracks of sprawling, churning gloom-rock.

Drummer Sasha Schilbrack-Cole tells Flagpole the new record was recorded by engineer Ben Wills (Family and Friends, Of the Vine) and mastered by Joel Hatstat. That's the cover art above.

In addition to the band's established influences, the album introduces some exciting new flavors to its already complex post-rock mix. Shades of Laughing Stock-era Talk Talk, for instance, show up in the album's contemplative opener, "On Patience."

Below, watch the video for "On Patience":

By Gabe Vodicka | August 25, 2014
Athens Power Rankings for the Week of Aug. 25

Blog: In the Loop

Welcome to Athens Power Rankings. In the spirit of sports rating systems, through painstaking analysis, we rank the top movers and shakers in the Classic City each week. Who's hot? Who's not? Find out below.

By Gabe Vodicka | August 25, 2014
Win Tickets to PARKLIFE, feat. Jake Bugg, The Lone Bellow and More

Blog: Homedrone

Jake Bugg

Over in Atlanta, the one-day music festival PARKLIFE takes over Atlantic Station's Central Park on Sunday, Sept. 7, featuring performances by popular British singer-songwriter Jake Bugg, Brooklyn-based folk-country outfit The Lone Bellow, classic rockers The Wild Feathers, California pop singer LP, indie rockers The Weeks and Atlanta group The Shadowboxers.

By Gabe Vodicka | August 22, 2014
On the Rise: Hear the New EP from Waitress

Blog: Homedrone

If there's a general trend to speak of happening now in Athens music, it's a move towards the raucous, propulsive, atonal guitar music of mid-'90s Dischord, Touch and Go and their ilk. Bands like Pinecones and The Powder Room have done their part to remind us that rock's not dead, man, and now comes yet another no-nonsense local group eager to get your lazy ass back in the pit.

By Gabe Vodicka | August 22, 2014
Video: Patterson Hood Takes the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge

Blog: Homedrone

It has *gulp* reached our shores.

By Gabe Vodicka | August 21, 2014
Flagpole Premieres: Dog Daze Festival Compilation

Blog: Homedrone

This weekend, the Dog Daze Festival returns for a fourth year to the 40 Watt Club. On Friday and Saturday, you can catch a frighteningly good selection of local bands and a couple regional hotshots—as well as a psychedelic light show Friday and DJs both nights—for a mere $5 each evening. (Read our preview here.)

Today, we're pleased to premiere the 2014 Dog Daze Festival Compilation, a free-to-download collection of songs from many of the groups performing at this year's DDF, including Faux Ferocious, Monsoon, DIP, Wild of Night, Timmy and the Tumblers and many others.

By Gabe Vodicka | August 21, 2014
Futurebirds, Jittery Joe's Team Up for 'Baba Java' Blend, EP

Blog: Homedrone

Alt-country band Futurebirds has teamed up with beloved Athens-based coffee roaster Jittery Joe's to release "Baba Java," the first release in what's purported to be a line of "Athens music coffee." The collaboration between the band and the coffeemaker was inspired by a famous local performance, according to the press release:

By Gabe Vodicka | August 20, 2014
New Earth Announces New Management

Blog: Homedrone

Daniel Robertson, formerly of Savannah-based promotions company Live Wire Sounds, will assume the role of general manager at downtown music venue and community space New Earth Athens, the venue announced on its Facebook page this week.

By Gabe Vodicka | August 20, 2014
The Weekly Three: J Mascis, Pallbearer, FKA Twigs

Blog: Homedrone

J Mascis

This week's new finds from the great beyond:

By Gabe Vodicka | August 18, 2014
Members of Futurebirds, The District Attorneys Pay Tribute to Whiskeytown at Green Room Tonight

Blog: Homedrone

If you're a fan of Whiskeytown, the seminal but defunct Ryan Adams-led act from North Carolina, you're not alone amongst your fellow Athenians. Our little town boasts a rather sizeable and influential alternative country contingent; twangy rockers like Drive-By Truckers and, more recently, Futurebirds have even gone on to represent the Classic City on the national scene.

By Gabe Vodicka | August 14, 2014
The Weekly Three: David Kilgour, Lewis, Gobby

Blog: Homedrone

David Kilgour and the Heavy Eights

This week's finds from the great beyond:

By Gabe Vodicka | August 12, 2014
Yes, That's Ruby the RabbitFoot Holding Hands With Macklemore in This Music Video

Blog: Homedrone

Seattle band Fences unveiled a music video for their song "Arrows" yesterday. The tune features Macklemore and Ryan Lewis, which in and of itself is not news, even if we gave a hoot; all those folks have worked together before.

But Athens residents watching the clip were surprised to see a familiar face among the highly stylized, Wes Anderson-like sets and confusing circus imagery. Yes, that's local singer-songwriter Ruby Kendrick—aka Ruby the RabbitFoot—holding hands with Mr. 'More in the still above.

By Gabe Vodicka | August 12, 2014
Sad Dads Launch Best Kickstarter Ever, Promise to Break Up if They Don't Meet Goal

Blog: Homedrone

"We don't have jobs because we're artists. The more unemployed we are, the more artistic we are. But you have jobs. You can help."

Thus begins the desperate plea at the heart of the new Kickstarter campaign from Sad Dads, the enigmatic local band/"supergroup"/performance art spectacle that refuses to quit.

Unless they fail to meet their $500 goal, that is.

By Gabe Vodicka | August 11, 2014
Athens Power Rankings for the Week of Aug. 11

Blog: In the Loop

Welcome to Athens Power Rankings. In the spirit of sports rating systems, through painstaking analysis, we rank the top movers and shakers in the Classic City each week. Who's hot? Who's not? Find out below.

Kyle Kinane

By Gabe Vodicka | August 11, 2014
Live Review: Nine Inch Nails and Soundgarden at Aaron's Amphitheatre

Blog: Homedrone

A friend of mine once told a funny story, a through-the-grapevine anecdote about someone's mom running into a mohawked Trent Reznor at the neighborhood Kroger or whatever and a bashful Rez explaining that the hairdo was "for the kids."

These days, Reznor's fashion choices are honestly pretty MOR for a man who penned the lyric "hard line bad luck fist fuck"—shorts, muscle shirts, the occasional tasteful bit of leather—and his audience is no longer so much "the kids," but rather those kids who grew up with his nihilistic shut-in anti-anthems, kids now pushing 30, 40 years old but still eager to fist-pump along with steadfastly antisocial tunes like "Gave Up."

By Gabe Vodicka | August 9, 2014