Athens, GA: Outside Looking In

Athens, Georgia is well known as a creative hotspot where musicians are constantly forming bands and releasing new projects. A lot of these folks also work at businesses that have been hard hit by the pandemic: clubs, bars, restaurants, etc. Today is Bandcamp Friday, the perfect time to show your support for musicians in Athens and elsewhere.

Athens trio Shehehe just released a new album, Pet Songs, on Say-10 Records. It's a rousing collection of catchy, high energy singalongs guaranteed to raise your spirits and incite your ire (anger IS an energy, y'know). Imagine a half hour of killer tunes that match the exhilaration of "That's How I Escaped My Certain Fate" (a perfect song if ever there was one). The full-throated harmonies, raw riffs, and relentless drums of Shehehe build to crescendo after crescendo. As I listen to Pet Songs, I picture the band members driving toward a cliff like Thelma & Louise, fully immersed in the moment, with no intention of slowing down or swerving away.

One of my favorite bands, Vincas, expanded from a trio to a quartet and released the excellent Phantasma in May. Vincas' music is feverish, possessed, and haunted by death. Think of the Scientists, Gun Club, and the best of the Batcave stuff. Vincas' newest member, Gene Woolfolk, has been doing a lot of home recording as Dream Tent with Erica Strout, singer/guitarist of another awe-inspiring Athenian trio, the mighty Motherfucker.

Immaterial Possession materialized with a lovely self-titled album. If you enjoy hearing male and female voices in harmony, I highly recommend this group as well as Shehehe. Immaterial Possession tends more toward the atmospheric sounds of the Paisley Underground, Mazzy Star, and early Cowboy Junkies (as well as an old Athens favorite of mine, Venice Is Sinking). I'm still getting to know this album, but I'm loving it.

Athens math rock mainstays Maserati raised the bar again with Enter The Mirror in April. We Versus The Shark unexpectedly reunited for Goodbye Guitar, their first record since 2009.  Luke Fields of We Vs. The Shark also plays in Bit Brigade and Double Ferrari. The outstanding musicianship and energy that made WvTS so well loved is captured brilliantly on Goodbye Guitar.

Je Suis France also got back together for Back To The Basics Of Love. JSF drew on its formative influences (Dinosaur Jr, Teenage Fanclub, Pavement and others), and created one of those records where you find a new favorite song every time you put it on. Back To The Basics Of Love might be my album of the summer. Both the JSF and We Vs The Shark albums are on the Ernest Jenning label (as well as Bandcamp). 

June was a big month for new Athens music: Nana Grizol's South Somewhere Else; The Searchin Destroyers' debut album The Misery Hang (which shares the influences of surf rock and Detroit proto punk that made Radio Birdman so addictive); and an outstanding EP by Waltz, a band that was making a name for itself in local clubs before everything shut down. Another promising young band called Fishbug released Inchworm, their full length debut, in April.

Mean Queen has announced a summer release for its new album, Your House Isn’t Haunted, You’re Just Lonely. The Humms will release Vampire Hours in September. There will eventually be a new Monsoooon album called Ghost Party, and a Blunt Bangs album. Keep your eyes and ears open, and open your wallet for a few of these folks if their music moves you! Check the comments for a sampler of these and other Athens bands, and visit Southern Shelter for live performances recorded by the tireless Sloan Simpson.