Friday, May 23, 2008
HOOTS AND HELLMOUTH
These four guys came all the way from Philadelphia to the Melting Point, by way of other cities, of course. The next morning we met up downtown and the guys decided they wanted to play in front of Five Star Day because they always eat there when they play Athens. We love Five Star Day so of course we agreed. Despite battling the sounds of trucks on downtown Athens' busiest street, the song came through clear and the guys' harmonies caught more than one bystander off guard.
http://www.myspace.com/hootshellmouth
For their last song, they said they wanted to play under a tree. I think we were imagining the base of a big oak tree, but they made a b line straight for a giant magnolia on UGA's campus, which felt more like being in a jungle than under a tree.
Monday, May 19, 2008
ALLISON WEISS
What better way to spend a beautiful, breezy, stormy sunday afternoon in Athens, Ga, then to hang out with Allison Weiss at the site of the original famous 40 Watt Club?
The mysterious gentleman who let us up showed us the wire from the original 40 watt bulb hanging from the ceiling-it was too dark to catch on camera. If you listen carefully you can hear him tell us about the paintings by members of Pylon on the walls. It was a great setting for this particular song, we all agreed.
We'd wanted to shoot in front of our favorite downtown mid-day hang out, Walker's Pub, for a while and decided to get Allison and her brother for the day and make them walk and play through a bunch of strangers. The Vampire Weekend riffs in the beginning made for an unintended homage to Mr. Moon and his Vampire Weekend work on La Blogotheque.
Wuxtry Records. A legend. We'd tried to shoot on the patio above OK Coffee and next to a local comics store when the manager of the comics store not only told us to leave but acted like a strung-out prick about it. He sneered "good luck shooting in the rain" and we mumbled some words about how we'd have to buy our Manga somewhere else after this incident. So let this be a public statement on the world wide interweb: the guy working at the comic book store above ok coffee is an asshole. Luckily the guy working at Wuxtry welcomed us in with open arms and we were able to add the wonderful local record store to our Soundies set list. Thanks again for being so cool, man.
The last stop of the day before heading to Amici's for pizza and conversation, I don't think any more explanation is needed.
Sunday, April 20, 2008
Fresh from their show at Farm 255 the night before, Jeff and Wallace of Drakkar Sauna only had one condition for the soundie-they wanted to sing close together, four-part harmony with Paige and Claire Campbell. After wandering around the streets outside of Hot Corner for a while, we decided to give the Co-op grocery a try. The quartet's effortless four part harmony caught us all off guard. Old friends and tourmates sing well together. Check the guys out and don't miss them when they play your town.
http://www.myspace.com/drakkansasaun
http://www.drakkarsauna.com/
After shooting in the co-op, we decided it'd be fun to do the next song in the middle of a residential road with light to moderate traffic. It was fun, and we ran into Nick Canada(formerly of Dark Meat).
Sunday, April 6, 2008
No 3: The Corduroy Road
It had been raining for days and we'd been dancing around different dates with the band for close to a month. We knew we just needed to get out there, find some semi-shelter, and see what happened. The old warehouse next to PigPen studios worked pretty well and the rain drops complimented Drew and Dylan's song nicely. It was a song we'd heard them play in clubs around town, but the surroundings gave it a slightly different charm.
We liked the idea of the guys standing on top of a box car, but none of the boxcars had roofs and nobody wanted to walk around on a mound of wet sand for the duration of the song. In the end we still were able to use the box car, and the guys' energy gave the soundie more life than we could have hoped for in such a seemingly restricted space.
This area directly next door to Pigpen Studios was irresistible.
Saturday, March 22, 2008
No 2 (Part 1): Nate Nelson - A Sing Song Fashion
The second day of spring and a Good Friday indeed. Nate and the guys met us up at Dudley Park just as the "golden hour" was rolling around. We had originally intended on shooting on top of the old train tressel, but we were running out of daylight amidst a few other hold ups. Nate's girlfriend Gia and her seeing eye dog in training kept us all entertained.
http://www.myspace.com/natenelson
http://natenelsonmusic.com/default.htm
Monday, March 3, 2008
No 1: Ted Franklin - Orphan Heart
No1: Ted Franklin
Orphan Heart
Uploaded by eikonproductions
Ted had never met David, the cellist, before this particular night and Jake was in the other room absent-mindedly playing his mandolin when we called him in at the last minute to play on the song. It's a song that had never been heard outside of Union band practice and it definitely called for an intimate, if not cramped, atmosphere. The fire helped too, although Jake's polyester shirt proved a bit uncomfortable for him toward the end.
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