Optical Atlas

It could be argued that Athens music exists under the shadow of Pylon, one of the most influential bands to define the Athens scene in the late 70’s and early 80’s, the group that R.E.M. once called the best band in America.  Pylon–propulsive, energetic, at times deliriously chaotic–split early, though they periodically reunited, and in recent years seemed poised for a major resurgence.  This coincided with the emergence of lead singer Vanessa Briscoe Hay’s new project Supercluster, which was also significant because it represented a merging between two generations of Athens music, as she began to collaborate with musicians best known for their ties to the Elephant 6 Collective.  Supercluster (which has also featured Pylon’s Randy Bewley, Bill Hay and Bob Hay of Bob Hay & the Jolly Beggars, Hannah Jones of Sound Houses/The New Sound of Numbers, Kay Stanton and Jason NeSmith of Casper & the Cookies, Heather McIntosh of The Instruments, John Fernandes of Circulatory System, and Bill David)  released an EP called Special 5, and began to perform regularly around Athens clubs, with a shifting and ever-expanding lineup.  But all of Athens was shaken with the sudden passing of guitarist Randy Bewley earlier this year.  It’s somewhat heartening, then, to see that Supercluster has endured:  on October 6th, Cloud Recordings will release Waves, the debut full-length by the band, which features Bewley’s last recordings, as well as intriguing new directions as Hay expands her sounds to embrace the talents of the new full Supercluster roster (excepting of Montreal’s B.P. Helium, who joined a mite too late to make this disc).

Waves includes all of the tracks from the earlier limited edition EP, including singalong standouts “Mermaid’s Tale” and “Anyone.”  But what’s most interesting is the truly collaborative spirit of the album.  Hay trades lead vocals with Hannah Jones and Kay Stanton, so if you detect sonic similarities with their projects, it’s no accident.  And Hay, with vocals like Patti Smith and lyrics like David Byrne, maintains a balance between New Wave, punk, and the experimental while appropriating sounds from the Appalachian to the Eastern.  (It should be noted that Supercluster as a whole is gentler than Pylon, but no less subversive.)  E6 fans will recognize a touch of Circulatory System as the cello and clarinet lend the melodies a twisting, serpentine quality.  But every bit of it is playful and fun, from protest songs (”Time to End the War,” “Peace Disco Song”) to the darker and surreal (”Too Many Eights”).  Supercluster no longer feels like an obscure side-project, but a worthy successor to the Pylon legend.  An MP3 is included below.

Waves,
by Supercluster

1. Superhero
2. Peace Disco Song
3. Brave Tree
4. Sunflower Clock
5. River
6. I Got The Answer
7. Mermaid’s Tale
8. Copper Palo
9. The Night I Died
10. Too Many Eights
11. Anyone
12. Time To End The War
13. 316

This week of Montreal descends upon Fashion Week in New York City.  Tomorrow night (Wed. Sep. 16) the band is throwing a party at Santos including “a premiere of new songs, theatrical presentations by the of Montreal crew, and the debut of new fashion by Nina Barnes and artwork by David Barnes.”  Win tickets here.  Friday, September 18th, the band plays at Terminal 5.

Merge Records continues celebrating their 20th anniversary with The Merge Records Companion, a 350-page book collecting cover art and images from every one of their releases.  Includes essays by Merge founders Mac McCaughan and Laura Ballance, and celebrity hand models!  All proceeds go to charities selected by the SCORE! box set curators.  You can pre-order here, with copies shipping on November 3rd.

Sprawling Athens psych-jam collective Dark Meat will finally be releasing their follow-up to their acclaimed debut, Universal Indians, with Truce Opium, a 50-minute, 8-track double LP which continues their exploration into the sweaty and the trippy. This follows up their single, released in August, When the Shelter Came. You can preview a track at You Ain’t No Picasso. Truce Opium is out October 20th on Emergency Umbrella Records.

Garden Gate Records is a relatively new record label founded by Craig Morris (Thee American Revolution) and Marci Schneider (wife of Robert Schneider), with a preference toward the psychedelic.  Their first release was Big Fresh’s album B.F.F., and their second will be Laminated Cat’s debut album, Umbrella Weather.  Which gives me, at long last, a reason to write about one of my favorite underground bands, whom I first saw at Athens PopFest back in 2007, delicately submerging a mid-afternoon performance at Little Kings into a dreamy but startling showcase, with impeccable songwriting gifts and a sound that could have emerged from San Francisco in 1968 or ‘69.  Not much later, I received their first version of Umbrella Weather in the mail, a collection of eight demos which confirmed, to my ears, that the band was the real thing.  How strange but fitting that in 2009 the album should resurface on Garden Gate, now filled out to fourteen songs, and further polished to a phosphorescent sheen, with some assistance by Craig Morris as well as Jason NeSmith (Casper & the Cookies), with cover art by Will Cullen Hart and Bill Doss (The Olivia Tremor Control), and Robert Schneider calling them “the best young psychedelic band in years.”  Laminated Cat has two principal songwriters, Tanner Smith and AJ Griffin, both of whom provide vocals, guitars, and a wild assortment of other sounds; Tanner’s younger twin brothers Camden and Cooper Smith fill out the band on drums and bass, respectively.  On album opener “Sweet Sixteen” all those sounds collide into something compelling and oddly sinister, as Smith sings, “I turned sweet sixteen today/how my mother disappoints me.”  And after the lyrics have tangled themselves up in imagery which seems to come from the same queasy-surreal universe as the films of the Brothers Quay, or perhaps Neutral Milk Hotel, the words and melody are subsumed beneath a cacophany that ultimately resolves itself into the dreamy “Angel, I am Coming Home,” one of their most splendid songs (featured on last year’s compilation album Build Your Army with Potatoes).  To listen to this is like swimming with the mer-people in Jimi Hendrix’s “1983.”  But they quickly prove they can expand into the heavier (”FYBS,” “Kosmoknot,” and the expansive “Red Devils”), into sparkling pop (”The Driving Song,” “Aquamarine”), even dabbling in funk (”Take Me In and Lock the Door”)…albeit the druggiest funk I’ve ever heard.  If you’re a regular to this website, there’s a good chance this collection will hit your sweet spot. 

Note that upcoming releases from Garden Gate include the long-awaited album by Robert Schneider & Craig Morris’ Thee American Revolution, Buddha Electrostorm (Nov.10); as well as Herald,  a previously-unreleased folk-rock LP from 1972 by one of R. Stevie Moore’s first bands, The Goods; and a compilation album which is slated to include tracks from Circulatory System,  The Apples in Stereo, Bill Doss, Martyn Leaper (The Minders), The Deathray Davies, Elekibass, Supercluster, and more.  Umbrella Weather will be released September 29th.  MP3 below:

Umbrella Weather,

by Laminated Cat
1. Sweet Sixteen
2. Angel, I Am Coming Home
3. FYBS
4. Mother Please
5. Red Devils
6. The Driving Song
7. Kosmoknot
8. Say Goodbye to My Ghost
9. Take Me In and Lock the Door
10. Follow Me Around
11. Girl with No Soul Song
12. Aquamarine
13. Celery Eyes
14. Tea for Tigers

Animal’s Animal has taken some fantastic photos from the Circulatory System show in Philadelphia, which you can view here.

In addition, Brian Heater has posted HD video on the Daily Cross Hatch YouTube Channel of the 9/9/09 show in New York, with footage of CS, as well as Will joining Pipes You See, Pipes You Don’t for The Olivia Tremor Control’s “I Have Been Floated.”

The Flat Response has posted Dressy Bessy’s concert at the Outdoor Stage in Denver, CO, on 7/25/09 as part of the 9th Annual Denver Post Underground Music Showcase.  All 16 tracks can be downloaded in MP3 or FLAC:

Dressy Bessy at the Denver Post Underground Music Showcase 7.25.09

In early August, Robert Schneider was one of the guest speakers at MathFest, the Mathematical Association of America’s summer math conference.  If this surprises you, consider that Robert conceived of his own “Non-Pythagorean” musical scale for the Apples in Stereo album New Magnetic Wonder, that he interviewed mathematician Leonard Euhler at the 2007 MathFest, that Robert was interviewed in the February 23rd, 2008 issue of New Scientist, and that in his spare time he’s an undergraduate student in Mathematics at the University of Kentucky.  Above is a photo of Robert talking at this year’s MathFest in Portland, Oregon, and below is a look at his abstract.  Currently Robert is in Australia talking about music, for a change.