Blog Topic: Q&A

Homedrone: Catching Up With Hobo Johnson at Bonnaroo

By Jessie Goodson | June 18, 2019 4:25pm

Photo Credit: Jessie Goodson

Sunday morning at Bonnaroo, I found myself sitting across from Sacramento-born musician Frank Lopes Jr. as he smoked a cigarette and reflected on his previous couple of days at the festival. Lopes, known musically as Hobo Johnson, along with his band The Lovemakers, got back from an Australia/UK leg of their last tour a couple of months ago, and have been working on completing an album and playing more shows since.

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Homedrone: Matt and Kim's Matt Johnson on His Favorite Band Memories

By Nathan Kerce | February 12, 2019 3:46pm

Photo Credit: Colin Devon Moore

Electronic pop duo Matt and Kim are currently celebrating their 15th anniversary of being a band. Over the past decade and a half, musical and real-life couple Matt Johnson and Kim Schifino have become known for their catchy party tunes, over-the-top live shows and outlandish music videos. (They won an MTV VMA back when that still kind of meant something.) It didn’t take them long to go from writing songs in Matt’s childhood bedroom to playing massive festival stages on a regular basis, and they’ve held onto that position for well over a decade. Attendees of Wednesday’s Georgia Theatre show should expect plenty of singalongs, props and maybe a bit of light nudity.

Ahead of the show, we took a minute to talk with Johnson about his most notable memories from the past 15 years.

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Homedrone: Q&A: The Rock*A*Teens Talk Cabbagetown, a Double Double-Cross and Black Flag

By Chad Radford | September 19, 2018 4:15pm

Photo Credit: Brett Falcon

After 18 years, Atlanta's Rock*A*Teens returned this summer with Sixth House. While the group’s sixth album doesn’t throw any surprise punches, songs such as “Billy Really,” “Lady Macbeth” and “Crystal Skies” rise above the signature haze of reverb and distortion layered over singer and guitarist Chris Lopez’s haunting tales of heartache in the Deep South.

Flagpole caught up with the band's Chris Lopez and T. Ballard Lesemann in advance of their show at the 40 Watt Club this Saturday. This interview has been edited for length.

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Homedrone: Athens Jazz Festival Performers Discuss Their Favorite Jazz Sounds

By Gabe Vodicka | September 19, 2018 10:30am

Laura Coyle and Trey Wright

The Athens Jazz Festival moves to Bishop Park this year, with Saturday's all-day eventfeaturing some of the most prominent names in local jazz. We asked a few of them about the music that inspires their own work.

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Culture Briefs: Chatting About America With Comedian Judah Friedlander, Who Plays the 40 Watt Apr. 10

By Nathan Kerce | April 6, 2018 12:02pm

Comedian Judah Friedlander ("30 Rock," Wet Hot American Summer) is coming to the 40 Watt Club Tuesday, Apr. 10 to promote his fictitious run for president that began in his new Netflix comedy special, America Is the Greatest Country in the United States. We hopped on the phone with Friedlander to discuss his special, comedy in the Trump era and what it means to be a real American.

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Homedrone: Q&A: Athensmusic.net's Jeff Montgomery Talks #Automatic25 Event

By Gabe Vodicka | October 18, 2017 1:30pm

In honor of the 25th-anniversary reissue of R.E.M.'s landmark album Automatic for the People, the 40 Watt Club will host #Automatic25, a listening and viewing party, this Saturday. We caught up with Jeff Montgomery, the proprietor of local-music respository Athensmusic.net and an organizer of Saturday's event who has helped throw a number of R.E.M. listening parties over the years.

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Culture Briefs: Comedian, Actor and Musician Creed Bratton Speaks Ahead of May 8 Foundry Show

By Nathan Kerce | May 5, 2017 11:44am

Photo Credit: Andrew Hreha

Best known for playing an exaggerated version of himself on NBC’s “The Office,” Creed Bratton has a storied history as an American icon. In the late 1960s, Bratton was recruited to be the lead singer and guitarist in folk-rock group The Grass Roots. During his brief time with the band, it released its most enduring single, “Let’s Live for Today." Years later, he began a new career as an actor, taking bit parts in a slew of TV shows and movies before landing the “Office” role and becoming one of the show’s most popular figures. Bratton has also released music under his own name since the early 2000s. His current tour is a unique mix of comedy and music that aims to please fans from every generation.

Ahead of his show at The Foundry Monday, May 8, Flagpole picked Bratton’s brain on his unique dual career, the current state of his live show and what he thinks the future may hold. (Warning: Some his answers may or may not be facetious.)

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Culture Briefs: Q&A With Comedian Jim Breuer, Playing The Foundry May 2

By Nathan Kerce | April 28, 2017 12:43pm

Photo Credit: Greg Pallante

Comedian Jim Breuer has been active for nearly three decades, and shows no signs of slowing down. Anyone raised on copious amounts of Comedy Central will know Breuer for his late-'90s run on "Saturday Night Live," as well as his role in the cult-classic stoner film Half Baked. Breuer’s most potent material, however, is his unique stand-up comedy.

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Homedrone: Q&A With murk daddy flex, Playing ATHICA Tuesday, Apr. 4

By Gabe Vodicka | March 29, 2017 10:30am

Photo Credit: Anna Staddon

After dropping off the radar following 2014’s brilliant Genesis full-length, local psychedelic hip-hop producer murk daddy flex has returned with a triumphant new EP, Bring on the Major Leagues, which he will perform in its entirety Tuesday, Apr. 4 at the Athens Institute for Contemporary Art. Flagpole caught up with the man behind the murk, Terence Chiyezhan, for an interview.

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Homedrone: Q&A: Lee Bains III Talks Trump, Resistance and the Southern Thing

By Dan Mistich | January 25, 2017 2:05pm

Photo Credit: Wes Frazer

Lee Bains III (left) and his band.

There are plenty of progressive, thoughtful bands from the South, but few have the fury of Lee Bains III & the Glory Fires. Following in the tradition of the Drive-By Truckers, who mused about the “duality of the Southern thing,” for the Glory Fires' 2014 release, Dereconstructed, the band brought hellfire and guitars along with meditations on the Civil Rights Movement and how the South is implicated in American history, warts and all.

In anticipation of their follow-up of Dereconstructed (due later this year on Don Giovanni Records), Bains and company bring their ethically infused rock and roll fireworks to the Caledonia Lounge on Thursday, where they’ll be joined by Athens mainstays Five Eight and T. Hardy Morris.

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