Alex Vernon.com

I saw some of the best concerts of my life last week. I’m still riding high from them. On Tuesday I saw Toots and The Maytals. This was my second time seeing a show at Earthlink Live and I like the venue. Not as good as the Tabernacle but a decent place. The show was great and since it was reggae there were no drunk rednecks and everyone in the crowd was cool. Thursday I saw Deborah Coleman at Jake’s Toadhouse. This is the fourth time I have seen her and she hasn’t disappointed me yet. If you are into Blues Rock you owe it to yourself to check her out when you have a chance. Saturday I saw Buddy Guy for the first time. That show kicked ass! It’s definitely in my top ten of all time. I know I’ll be seeing him again every chance I get. My life was threatened by a drunk biker on roids at the show. That was pretty funny, weird stuff happens to me a lot but that was a first. In fact that whole night was a Twilight Zone experience. Strange stuff happened at willcall and with two parking attendants. I also got to see a jam session at a party that night, which also kicked ass. The best show of them all was the private concert I had on Sunday. Not telling you any details though.

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Music has always been my favorite drug. It has the ability to change my mood the way no other substance can. Instead of a feeble attempt to explain what I mean I will leave it up to Operation Ivy.

Sound System

Lyrics

This mashup kicks ass! Thanks boing boing!

Baby one more time by Travis.

baby_one_more_Travis.mp3

Last night I was supposed to go see Angry Johnny & The Killbillies but I slept instead. Contrary to popular belief I do have to sleep occasionally. Anyway, even though I missed them I wanted to plug one of their songs. I actually like all the tracks available on their site but this one in particular caught my attention. The song is Put The Gun Down Bobby, it has a different sound than their other tracks and tells a cool story. It’s also nice to have things without a happy ending once in a while. You can download it from their MP3 page located here.

It reminds me a little of my favorite Oysterhead song Wield The Spade. Who is Oysterhead you ask? It is a supergroup comprised of Les Claypool (Primus), Trey Anastasio (Phish) and Stewart Copeland (The Police). They put out one album in 2001 called The Grand Pecking Order (which I highly recommend) and did a small tour. I haven’t heard about them since. The album is worth checking out, definitely not your standard fare music.

Yesterday a coworker walked by while I was listening to music and said “noise”. I guess I’m not that old yet. \m/

It was Rancid in case you were wondering.

The Echo Lounge one of Atlanta’s coolest music venues has recently closed. They were rumors going around for awhile and were proven to be true on January 8th. I always liked seeing shows at the Echo. The sound was always good and they had tons of cool acts there. The low lighting made it hard to take pictures but that’s pretty much every venue. My only gripes were the nonfunctional taps and it wasn’t fun to hangout there but you just went for the music anyway. Hopefully someone will buy it and keep it going, not because I live right up the street from there but that doesn’t hurt.

Here is a Creative Loafing article with more info. Last call for the Echo Lounge

Here are a couple shows I shot at the Echo. Japancakes Cadillac Jones

I finished picking out my January shows today. The list is located on the right side if the page. Sometimes the feed b0rks, so try refreshing your browser if you don’t see it or click on this handy link: Alex sux I originally had five shows picked out but added a couple more today. See, I am slowing down and luckily most are spread out which will make things easier. Now the trick will be to see if I can keep to the schedule and not over do it.

-Alex

Checkout these MP3s it is an ’80s Berkeley punk compilation titled Lest We Forget. The sound quality isn’t great but it’s still a good listen. From boingboing.

Make sure you grab the Cassette Inlay as well.

Also take a look at this collection of 1982-1984 punk rock flyers from Arizona.

http://www.shavedneck.com/

This site also has some MP3s located here.

Photo Copyright Ed Arnaud, 1983/2004 All rights reserved.

-Alex

Last night I saw Michael Glabicki from Rusted Root at Andrews Upstairs. Michael put on an excellent show. It was just him and one out of the five guitars on stage. He had an extremely full sound, I’m glad a braved the crappy weather to go see him. The only downside was the audience, 80-90% of them we’re talking throughout the whole show. Rude motherfuckers, if you want to do that go to the bar across the street. I talked to Michael after the show to let him know not all venues in Atlanta are like that. There are some places that people go to listen to music like Eddie’s Attic and The EARL to name a couple. That was the first time I’ve been to Andrews Upstairs and the sound was good but the crowd and the staff sucked. There was also a small film crew following a couple around. It looked like one of those date shows, thankfully they left after awhile. Anyway if you have a chance check Michael out, good stuff.

-Alex