Blog Topic: Flagpole Premieres

Homedrone: Flagpole Premieres: Tunabunny, 'Airless Spaces' Video

By Gabe Vodicka | November 5, 2014 2:43pm

Eccentric and prolific local rock group Tunabunny is reportedly prepping yet another new LP, titled PCP Presents Alice in Wonderland Jr., the follow-up to March's weird and lovely Kingdom Technology. But while they're at it, they're still churning out visual accompaniments to tracks from the last release.

Today, we're happy to premiere one such project, the video for Kingdom Technology's ethereal opening track, "Airless Spaces." The clip, which features a first-person journey through a strip mall, is as formless and yet arresting as the band's music.

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Homedrone: Flagpole Premieres: Powerkompany, 'Mermaid (Sunlight)' Video

By Gabe Vodicka | October 30, 2014 12:11pm

Local hubby-and-wife electro-pop duo Powerkompany haven't released a proper album since dropping the bold and moody I Am More Than This in May 2013, but that doesn't mean the pair haven't stayed busy touring, writing, recording and, most recently, making music videos.

This summer, they released a lovely clip for I Am More Than This' "Lost," and today Flagpole is happy to premiere the comparatively creepy video (Halloween, y'all!) for that record's closer, "Mermaid (Sunlight)".

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Homedrone: Flagpole Premieres: Scooterbabe, 'Know That I Don't Want You'

By Gabe Vodicka | October 23, 2014 12:13pm

Photo Credit: Anna Pence

Though it has played steadily around town for the last couple years and gained a respectable local fanbase in the process, indie-pop trio Scooterbabe has but one EP to its name, a self-titled, five-track effort released last November.

Now, the band is set to drop the follow-up, again in EP form. The new one is titled[email protected] (yes, that is the name of the damn thing) and is out Oct. 28 digitally and in the near future on cassette via Pizza Tomb.

The four-song record finds the band honing the C86-inspired sound it has put forth since the beginning. For fans of noisy, navel-gazing jangle-pop, it's a must-listen. Flagpole's Gordon Lamb is blunt in his assessment: "No one in Athens has played well-crafted, distortion-free pop of this type and caliber in a very long time."

More below.

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Homedrone: Flagpole Premieres: Hand Sand Hands, 'Pores' Video

By Gabe Vodicka | October 22, 2014 11:01am

We've been fans of local experimental rhythmsmith Jonathan Miller and his Hand Sand Hands project since Miller emigrated from the Twin Cities to Athens in 2012. Attendees at this summer's Flagpole Athens Music Awards got a taste of HSH's upcoming album, Good Luck With That, which now has a release date: Nov. 11, when you can grab the album on cassette via Arrowhawk and digitally via Autumn + Colour.

The album—there's the cover art above—features contributions from bassist Taylor Chmura and drummer Chase Merritt (both of Little Gold), who lend the music a live, full-band feel, though it loses none of HSH's sample-based strangeness.

Below, check out a video for "Pores," the record's strong lead single, filmed by the increasingly in-demand Dominar, LTD.

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Homedrone: Flagpole Premieres: Musickland, a Documentary About Rocker-Turned-Farmer Adam Musick

By Gabe Vodicka | October 16, 2014 11:22am

Adam Musick

Last February, we hipped you to an in-progress documentary called Musickland, centered on rocker-turned-hog-farmer Adam Musick, the former frontman of Athens rock band Southern Bitch. Now, Flagpole is thrilled to premiere the finished project, courtesy of student filmmakers Cameron Bargerstock and Jacob Rosdail.

The 34-minute film is an incisive portrait of a very particular internal battle. It captures Adam Musick and his wife and former bandmate Wendy as they live, work and contemplate the series of events that led them from the 40 Watt stage to a farm in rural Virginia. It also documents Adam's slow but steady—and still ongoing—return to music.

Stream Musickland below:

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Homedrone: Flagpole Premieres: Mark Rogers & Mary Byrne, I Line My Days Along Your Weight

By Gabe Vodicka | October 10, 2014 11:15am

Photo Credit: Shervin Lainez

Mark Rogers and Mary Byrne call New York City home these days, but the pair cut their musical teeth in Georgia—Rogers with new-folk standouts Myssouri and Byrne with eclectic rockers Hot Young Priest. The album Rogers and Byrne have just crafted as a duo, I Line My Days Along Your Weight, should establish the pair as one of the most vital acts in folk music right now.

Recorded in Brooklyn and set for release next Tuesday, Oct. 14 via Important, I Line My Days Along Your Weight is a striking set of sparse, evocative tunes filled with rich instrumentation—"baritone acoustic, tricone resonator, golden-era flat top, space-age lap steel guitar, upright piano and hundred-year-old mandolin," per the press release—that is unassuming even as it devastates.

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Homedrone: Flagpole Premieres: Old Smokey, 'Vacant Lot' Video

By Gabe Vodicka | August 26, 2014 2:52pm

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:

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Homedrone: Flagpole Premieres: Juna Announces New Album, Releases 'On Patience' Video

By Gabe Vodicka | August 25, 2014 3:44pm

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":

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Homedrone: Flagpole Premieres: Dog Daze Festival Compilation

By Gabe Vodicka | August 21, 2014 11:45am

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.

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Homedrone: Flagpole Premieres! Don Chambers: 'Grow Back Into the Ground' Video

By Gabe Vodicka | July 25, 2014 10:55am

Photo Credit: Jason Thrasher

After releasing a quiet and meditative solo album, 2013's A Sudden Loss of Elevation, local songwriter Don Chambers assembled a crack backing group and got weird. Disquietude, out earlier this year, was an unwieldy collection of textured folk tunes, industrial noise pieces and other back-room experimentations.

As a whole, it sounded a bit like a mind slowly unraveling, and the video for "Grow Back Into the Ground," which you can stream below, doesn't do much to restore confidence in Chambers' psychic fortitude. The stark, creepy clip matches up nicely with the song's haunted folk vibe.

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