Widespread Panic

Happy New Year, y’all. Here’s to a 2011 filled with good music, exciting developments and a renewed sense of whatever sense you want renewed. With that, let’s see what’s happening around the corner…

Strike a Blow: Local Marxist Wyatt Strother (Werewolves) has a Kickstarter campaign going for his Athens Horse Party label in which he’s seeking a rather modest $500 total to procure the label’s own means of production. Specifically, a multi-drive CD duplicator, ink, blank CDs, etc. The goal is to have these items in-house rather than raise funds to pay someone else to manufacture Athens Horse Party releases. Once established, these items will be used to provide super-cheap short runs of CDs for local folks, too. Although the video Strother made to promote the campaign is kind of an eyesore and difficult to get through, his heart is in the right place. Go check it out at www.kickstarter.com by searching for keywords "Athens Horse Party." In other news, Strother will host the official debut of his new project, Wereelk, (self-described as his “alternative black metal/noise/experimental/ambient/hip-hop- soundgasm project) at Go Bar on Friday, Jan. 14. Also on the bill that night are Boston’s doomy metal duo Olde Growth (www.oldegrowth.bandcamp.com) and locals The Fuzzlers.

Happy Holidays: The Elephant 6 Holiday Surprise Tour stop at Whirlyball in Roswell, GA on Feb. 24 is slap sold out, but don’t worry lil’ punter, you can still attend the event when it happens at the 40 Watt on Saturday, Apr. 2. The tour is an all-star event featuring Will Cullen Hart, Bill Doss, Peter Erchick, John Fernandes, Julian Koster, Scott Spillane, Andrew Rieger, Laura Carter, Derek Almstead, Bryan Poole, Theo Hilton, Robbie Cucchiaro and more playing the music of The Olivia Tremor Control, Elf Power, Circulatory System, The Late B.P. Helium, The Gerbils, Nana Grizol, Major Organ and the Adding Machine and Pipes You See, Pipes You Don’t. Advance tickets are $11. As good as this show will be, I still must concur with Flagpole music editor Michelle Gilzenrat, who says, “I guess the surprise is that it’s happening four months after the holidays?” For more information, please see www.40watt.com.

All Up in Your Business: Nuçi’s Space is hosting its first Athens Business Rocks competition whereby local businesses form bands made up of their employees and then compete for fun and in benefit of Nuçi’s Space. This is similar to the bar-band battles that have taken place the past couple of years. The opening rounds take place Feb. 2, 3 & 4 and the final competition is Feb. 19. The deadline to enter your band is Jan. 17. There are a lot of rules for this competition, most of which are OK, but the requirement that bands submit a list of songs (all songs must be covers) they will play ahead of time totally takes away the element of surprise. There is an entry fee, too, ranging from $25–$100, depending on how your band is organized and the size of your business. It’s not really that complicated, though. If you’re interested, please see www.athensbusinessrocks.com and get on it.

First of Three: Future Ape Tapes co-founder Tom(b) Television (AKA Thomas Valadez) has released his first solo recording titled Idiosyncapator. You can download the whole nine-track album for free over at www.futureapetapes.com. The album was recorded throughout last year and is supposed to be a prelude to one additional solo recording by Tom(b) Television to be titled Reincarnator and a new album by Future Ape Tapes proper. Tom(b) will play Jan. 20 at the Flicker Theatre & Bar along with Moths and Nesey Gallons (AKA Anthony Pelkey).

Do This Quickly: Submissions are now being accepted for the 2011 AthFest compilation CD. The organizers of this say that previously unreleased material is preferred but not required. Only Athens bands need bother with this because only Athens bands will be considered for inclusion. Submission forms are available at www.athfest.com. Songs should be on a CD and turned in to the AthFest office at 220 College Ave., 3rd Floor (that’s The Fred Building). The deadline for submissions is Feb. 1.

Evil Walks: Although the night will likely be considerably mellower than shows from the band’s 1970s heyday, Black Oak Arkansas with original singer Jim “Dandy” Mangrum (known far and wide as simply Jim Dandy) will play the Melting Point on Saturday, Jan. 22. Tickets are a reasonable $15 in advance, and the show starts at 9 p.m. Back in the day, Black Oak Arkansas was known for its raunchy presence and hokey “evilness” as much as its boogie rock and Southern roots. So, take your memory and see what happens.

Sold Out: With Spreadheads camping out at the Classic Center box office more than 24 hours before tickets went on sale, it's no surprise that Widespread Panic’s 25th Anniversary shows on Feb. 10 &11 are both sold out. Visit www.widespreadpanic.com for additional tour info. [Michelle Gilzenrat]