Optical Atlas

This is just a reminder that the deadline for voting in the Flagpole Athens Music Awards is today, so if you haven’t voted for your favorite Athens bands yet, get yer votes in now.

The 63 Crayons have an exclusive track, “Heal Us” (an extended version of Spoils for Survivors‘ “Save Us”), on the upcoming compilation Death Before Distemper 2: Revenge of the Iron Ferret.  The album is released on CD and vinyl June 9th on DC Recordings.  You can pre-order it here.

Meanwhile, you can still buy both of the band’s albums (which are wonderful) through their MySpace.

Elf Power has announced their upcoming touring-related intentions for the year in a blog post at MySpace. In addition to playing a number of summer festivals (listed below), they will be hitting the East Coast and Midwest in July with Ham1. Their upcoming collaboration with Vic Chesnutt now has a name–Dark Developments–and they will be touring with Chesnutt through Europe and the U.S., as well. So expect more to be added to the list of confirmed dates below.

Elf Power – Upcoming Dates

06.20.08 Athens, GA @ Georgia Theatre (Athfest)
07.08.08 Wilmington, NC @ Soapbox
07.09.08 Richmond, VA @ Alley Katz
07.10.08 Washington, DC @ Rock and Roll Hotel
07.11.08 New York, NY @ Cake Shop
07.12.08 Camden, CT @ Space
07.15.08 Pittsburgh, PA @ Brillobox
07.16.08 Lexington, KY @ Al’s Bar
07.17.08 Indianapolis, IN @ Radio Radio
07.19.08 Chicago, IL @ Union Park (Pitchfork Music Festival)
07.26.08 Macon, GA @ Braggjam Festival
07.31.08 Emmaboda, Sweden @ Emmaboda Festival
08.02.08 Manchester, England @ New Century House (A Day at the Races Festival)
08.30.08 Ashevilla, NC @ Grey Eagle

Finally, our friends at Cable & Tweed have posted a number of 2007 Athens Popfest recordings, including sets by Marbles, The New Sound of Numbers, and Pipes You See, Pipes You Don’t. You can download them here.

The Fifth Annual Athens Popfest lineup has been announced (well, mostly – there are still 16 more bands to be named), and in addition to featuring the long-awaited return of The Music Tapes (news which Merge Records broke a few weeks ago), Roky Erickson & the Explosives, featuring Thirteenth Floor Elevators‘ legendary frontman, will also be playing, as well as many Elephant 6-related bands such as Circulatory System, Elf Power, Thee American Revolution, Casper & the Cookies, Great Lakes, Andy from Denver, and more. Here’s the list as it stands right now:

Roky Erickson & The Explosives, The Music Tapes, Elf Power, Dark Meat, Boyracer, The Apes, Bunnygrunt, Thee American Revolution, Circulatory System, My Teenage Stride, The Faintest Ideas, We Versus the Shark, Casper & the Cookies, Cryptacize, Ruby Isle, The Great Lakes, Fishboy, Cars Can Be Blue, Love Letter Band, Andy From Denver, The Buddy System, The Smittens, Big Fresh, Supercluster, The Coathangers, The Selmanaires, Spring Tigers, Dead Confederate, Violet Vector & the Lovely Lovelies, Velcro Stars, Red Pony Clock, the Lolligags, Secret History, Judi Chicago, Hot Pants Romance, Nana Grizol, The Sterns, Thrushes, Laminated Cat, Fat Planet, The Ocelots, The Besties, Twin Tigers, The Afternoon Naps, Boy Genius, the Hotwalls, Amo Joy!, Oh Sanders, That’s My Daughter, Little Birds, A Faulty Chromosome, Panda Riot, Patience Please, Railcars, Tendaberry, One Happy Island, The Hat Company, The Young Untold, Bad Animal, Oh Fortuna, Good Graces, Night Driving in Small Towns, Umbrella Tree, Noisycrane, Bob Hay & the Jolly Beggars, Allison Weiss, Whistling School for Boys

Festival passes are on sale here. The festival will be held the third week in August in Athens, Georgia.

In this episode of New York Noise, The Ladybug Transistor’s Gary Olson leads the film crew on a house tour through legendary Marlborough Farms, including the studio and the sweatshop, where an unpaid Australian worker is glimpsed packing up merchandise. (The house tour is in the last couple minutes of the episode; skip to the end, as Tim Bisley would say.)

Chris over at Things Chris Recorded has posted two Dark Meat shows, both performed in the same day in different Texas towns (Dallas and Denton, actually).  You can download them as an MP3 or a FLAC file over at Chris’ blog.

Sorry about the lack of postings this week.  I usually post from work, and our internet connection has been spotty this week; and at night I’ve been working long hours on a top-secret writing project which has nothing to do with E6.  (I’m taking a break to see Indiana Jones tonight, thankfully.)  But as soon as Popfest makes their big 2008 announcement (hopefully by tomorrow), I’ll have their full schedule reprinted here.

The last (for now) installment of WGSU’s The Elephant 6 Show is now available for download here. DJ Becky tells us that she fully intends to bring the show back in the fall.

The Optical Atlas streaming jukebox has been updated with 10 more tracks for your enjoyment, including new music from The Music Tapes, Miles Kurosky, and Elf Power.