Tag: mbus
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Photos + Show Review: Nuçi’s Space Jam
UGA’s MBUS program kicked off their series of Nuçi’s Space Jams last Monday with Cam and his Dam Jam Band and The Dazy Chains. The turnout was amazing and helped get the ball rolling for the program as they continue to throw more shows throughout the semester.
Cam and his Dam Jam Band opened the night with a lively set that dictated the mood for the rest of the event. The band connected with the crowd by gifting them a one-of-a-kind, personal show. They opened with “How You Found Me” and included fun covers such as the crowd favorite, “Ghostbusters” theme song. Their captivating stage presence created an amazing atmosphere that was enjoyed by all.
The Dazy Chains closed out the evening with a special set featuring the entirety of their new album, Electric Sunshine. The small, personal atmosphere of Nuçi’s Space allowed the band to play new songs without pressure from a larger crowd. Given the excitement to be playing their new music for a crowd of local Athens music enthusiasts, the energy in the room was immaculate.
Overall, the night was relaxed and laid back; perfect for a small Monday night show! The MBUS program did an amazing job planning and organizing their first event as it ran smoothly and received great feedback. The next Nuçi’s Space Jam is Monday, October 18th with AD Blanco and Jacob Mallow performing. Tickets are $5 at the door and masks are required. Doors open at 7:00 and the show starts at 8:00.
If you missed the first one, be sure to catch at least one this semester and support the Athens music scene!
Review: The Dazy Chains: “Electric Sunshine”
The Dazy Chains, a relatively new homegrown Athens band, didn’t let the past year and a half stop them from writing, recording, and releasing their debut full-length album Electric Sunshine, which came out Oct 8th at midnight. The album cover, like the contents within the album, is a psychedelic piece of art. It features the iconic steeple located on Oconee Street as an homage to Nuci’s Space, where the album was conceived, recorded, and mastered. On Electric Sunshine, the band travels through and merges multiple genres. Elements of psychedelia, rock, grunge, and funk converge with the distinctive vocalizations of Hannah Meachum to top it off. The end result is a garage rock album with different genres peeking through at select moments – a unique tribute to why making music with your friends matter.
The songs on the record are reflective and self-aware, not afraid to admit personal vulnerabilities or shortcomings. The admissions are curt and to the point. On “Counter-Clockwise,” Hannah passionately sings “you tell me I’m broken / well I don’t give a damn.” In “What You Are,” Hannah dryly admits, “you used me now / I’m not the same.” The admission is simple but there is a punch to the delivery. On “Hypnotize,” the narrator’s internal struggle is evident in the lyrics. With a clever shift in lyrics, the narrator’s perspective changes from being intoxicated with someone to feeling betrayed by them. It’s clever yet raw. These songs show that the band is in touch with their intentions and not afraid to vocalize their emotions.
On their debut album, the Dazy Chains frequently time bends, speeding up and slowing down without warning. On “Flow,” slick and rapid guitar licks and drumbeats transform briskly (yet smoothly) into a slower funkier melody. It’s pretty fun to listen to on the record and I imagine it would be just as cool, if not cooler, live.
This album is a melting pot of genres, and it reminds me of why I enjoy listening to local acts and (yet) unknown bands. Making music one cares about is the most important part. Everyone has something they enjoy and being able to bring that to life is a gift. The size of the audience is the least significant part. Congrats to the Dazy Chains for bringing to life a vision of theirs on their debut.
You can catch their album release show TONIGHT at Smith’s Old Bar in Atlanta with Alien Funk Academy and A.D. Blanco as the supporting acts. Doors are at 8 PM. Or you can catch them at this year’s first Nuci’s Space Jam on Monday.
Electric Sunshine by the Dazy Chains is out now on all streaming platforms.
Review: Hotel Fiction: “Daydrifter”
Athens-based duo Hotel Fiction released their latest single ‘Daydrifter’ last Friday. Like every other song in their catalog, this one was also produced by Tommy Trautwein of We Bought a Zoo Records. Best friends Jade Long and Jessica Thompson are determined to bring a fresh sound to the table with every new track they put out; “Daydrifter” is no exception.
The beginning of “Daydrifter” starts off with bird songs, which was coincidentally–or maybe intentionally?– how their last single “Think Twice” ended. The song instantly sounds like a campfire tune from the bright strum of the guitar to the smooth rhymes of each phrase. Although sonically different than their previous singles, Daydrifter returns to the psychedelic lyrics and imagery that made listeners fall in love with Jade and Jessica in the first place. In their first single, “Astronaut Kids,” Hotel Fiction wanted urgently to escape the growing pains of being 20 by becoming “an astronaut who sails the sea.” And now, two years later, things have come (almost) full. As shapeshifters in “Daydrifter,” the two pronounce that they are ‘sun sailors,’ watching the sky burn. In a similar vein, Hotel Fiction desired to go to the moon and take off into the sky in “Astronaut Kids.” Now, they are still far off in the atmosphere but in a more self-assured tone. This time they are the moon craters, watching the earth turn.
The pair (or rather the trio because I have a hunch that Tommy frequently plays an important role here) have previously shown just how much they enjoy changing their sound midway through a song, either by adding something new or by taking something away. For example, in “Think Twice,” when the first segment of the song ends, they add in a minute and half long instrumental that crescendos and then floats back down. Or like in “Ghost Train,” during the bridge, when the strings drop away momentarily and all you hear is piano chords, an echoey harmony, and Jade’s vocals with a new vocal effect. And on and on… A similar shift is seen in this song. The second half adds in dreamy slides, a little twinkle in the background, and even a whole new narrative in the lyrics. Just like previous songs, the subtle tone change here works beautifully, enough to make a listener want to keep listening (and coming back).
Hotel Fiction’s album comes out next month. And maybe you can catch them in your city during their Fall 2021 tour. “Daydrifter” is available to stream on all platforms.
REVIEW: Mary Margaret Cozart: ‘Emerald City’
There have been times over the past year that I’ve felt like a parked car in the middle of the interstate. The world keeps moving forward, just as fast as before, but I’m stagnant. It’s a feeling I think is common among young adults during the pandemic. Their metamorphosis from child to adult was interrupted to return to childhood bedrooms, yet we are expected to come out of this time unaffected. Mary Margaret Cozart’s debut EP, Emerald City intimately explores this arrested development.
An Atlanta native, Cozart came to Athens, Georgia to study classical guitar and music business at the University of Georgia. Like the rest of us, when UGA’s campus shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic Cozart retreated home. It was here, in the confines of her childhood bedroom that Cozart came full circle, writing songs in the same place she had begun years earlier. Emerald City, Cozart’s debut five-track EP was released today, now available for purchase on Bandcamp and streaming platforms. The EP is intended to “address facets of the pandemic crisis and draw parallels to the Wizard of Oz.”
To be frank, the parallels to the Wizard of Oz are vague at best. Listening to the tracks searching for parallels to the film left me with a headache and questioning my position as a Judy Garland stan. However, once I dropped the search for deeper meaning I found it almost immediately.
Wake up, silly boy, you can’t hide away forever
You know what you’ve got to do
I know you’ve struck out maybe more than the next
But that’s no reason not to pick up where you left.
If I’m a parked car on the interstate, “Like You Should” speaks to the cacophony of honking horns demanding I move. Cozart’s melodic voice seems to address the listener directly, offering both understanding and encouragement to find the strength to reclaim our lives after this forced hiatus.
Fans of Madison Cunningham, Sara Watkins and Faye Webster can find understanding in Cozart’s silvery voice and skilled guitar as we come to terms with who we are and how we’ve changed over the course of the last year. As someone who relies on artists to convey the feelings I am incapable to name, I look forward to seeing what deeply personal, yet universal message Cozart captures next.
Track-By-Track: Humble Plum Talks Debut ‘Seventeen Hours’
Athens, GA-based Humble Plum’s debut album, Seventeen Hours, out now. Humble Plum is composed of Daniel Hardin John Ilardi and Josh Johnston. Ilardi and Johnston are students in UGA’s music business program, affectionately monikered as MBUS, and Hardin graduated the program in 2020. Childhood friends Hardin and Ilardi reconnected at UGA and brought Johnston into their fold.
The album title, Seventeen hours, refers to the 17 hours in which the group wrote, recorded, mixed, and mastered the album. When Hardin first suggested the idea Johnston kindly told him to get some sleep. The next morning, still adamant, Hardin quickly got Johnston and Ilardi on board. “We just wanted to see if we could do it,” said Johnston.
The rules were simple: The album had to be completed in one day and absolutely no thought or planning could take place prior to the day the group had set aside to make this album. The group “didn’t think anyone would listen” to Seventeen Hours, they just made it for the fun of creating music together. The result is joyful chaos. The album feels raw and personal in a completely new way.
We asked Humble Plum to take us through each track on the album and give us further insight into the making of Seventeen Hours.
Check out their track-by-track rundown below, and be sure to queue up the album stream below.
Johnny
Starting with a guitar riff, Hardin penned some lyrics about his friend and bandmate John who “has a really nice car and is always down to jam.” The first song on the album, “Johnny” was written and recorded between 7 a.m and 9 a.m and then forgotten until putting the final album together.
Hey Jere!
Johnston really wanted to make a Jere Morehead diss track and a punk track. Both wishes were met with “Hey Jere!” The track gave current students Ilardi and Johnston an opportunity to air their grievances with the president of UGA on the university’s handling of COVID-19. Lyrics include gems like “I can’t go to the beach, but I can go to a game? Why don’t you learn to spell your own name?”
Is That A Bee?
In a jarring transition from “Hey Jere!”, “Is That A Bee” is a mellow reggae track that questions Jerry Seinfield on why he ended Seinfield and made the Bee Movie. The track’s composition started with an off-beat guitar and reggae drums inspired by Sting’s “Englishman In New York.” Hardin wrote the lyrics in 10 minutes “on pure instinct.”
Rest in P-Bass
A somber addition to the album, “Rest in P-Bass” was a collaborative effort about a bass guitar Johnston sold and missed dearly. The song utilizes a mandocello, which is a baritone mandolin that adds to the tracks depth. The humor in writing a song about a bass with the same level of sincerity as a break-up ballad is not lost on the trio. “There is definitely an element of funny in the sad,” said Johnston. “It’s overly dramatic for sure.”
Intermissionary Funk
“Intermissionary Funk” forgoes lyrics to let the track’s instrumentals shine. The first of two instrumental tracks on the album, “Intermissionary Funk” harkens back to the funk-rock backings popular in the early ’70s. While Hardin’s drums and Johnston’s bass ground the track, the guitar is what makes the track noteworthy. In a unique approach, Hardin, Johnston, and Ilardi took turns playing guitar adding the slightest variety to the tracks uniting riff.
Mother Russia
Johnston lived in Bulgaria for five years, which has become quite the joke among the friends and was the impetus for Johnston to write “Mother Russia.” The instrumentals for the song are “basically the Tetris song” according to Johnston. Interestingly, the theme to Nintendo’s 1989 video game actually started its life as a 19th century Russian folk song “Korobeiniki.” The song was recorded using a 1969 Soviet Union microphone. “It sounds like you’re yelling in a bread line,” says Hardin. Ilardi describes the mics effect as “aggressive” which is why they also used it on the track “Hey Jere!” The song was recorded in one take with Ilardi holding the mic up to Johnston, turning red with suppressed laughter. Hardin calls the track “a glorious tune.”
2nd Best Friend
“We all have that friend we like, but also find them annoying,” said Ilardi when asked about the concept of “2nd Best Friend.” It’s about your back-up friend. The song was inspired by Flight of The Conchords “Most Beautiful Girl in the Room” taking the song’s concept of calling someone “the most beautiful girl,” but qualifying it with “in the room. Humble Plum does something similar by qualifying “best friend” with “2nd” making the track kind of mean, but very relatable.
Thank You Caledonia
“It’s the sad one on the album,” said Hardin in reference to “Thank You Caledonia” Humble Plum’s ode to the iconic Athens music venue. Ironically enough, when the group decided to write about Caledonia, they thought they were going to make another funny song. It is when the group started actually writing the song and reflecting on what the loss of Caledonia meant to them that the song turned into the heart wrenching goodbye heard on the album.
Siri
The guitar for “Siri” was written at 7 a.m and put aside for about 12 hours when the band started building the rest of the song. Hardin developed the drums taking inspiration from Cloudland drummer Karmen Smith. “We wanted a song people could jump to,” said Ilardi, and “Siri” is just that. The track’s title comes from the lyrics which the group wrote using predictive type making the song completely incomprehensible.
The Mighty Oconee
The second instrumental track and final album track is “The Mighty Oconee” a joke because as Johnston explains “the Oconee is anything but mighty.” The track has an Americana vibe produced by the layering of various string instruments including banjo, mandolin, and mandocello.
REVIEW: AthFest 2015 Compilation CD
AthFest, Athens’ seminal music festival, is right around the corner (June 24-28) and with it comes another stellar compilation CD featuring highlights of the jam packed lineup. This year’s was the first ever to be produced by students of UGA’s own Music Business program, and let us to be one of the first to say they did a bang-up job.
The 21 track compilation has a clear theme, one that has naturally marked every AthFest but seems to be even more present this year: summer. Whether it’s the breezy Kokomo noodling of opener “Fools Like These” by Tongues or the lazy Sunday contemplation of WrennPop’s “Laundromat”, each hand-picked track perfectly encapsulates the slowed down pace of an empty campus and the heat of baking Athens asphalt. Even the obligatory Whigs song, “Hit Me”, is one of their substantially mellower tunes. Major kudos goes out to the MBUS kids for this superbly sequenced compilation. Each sampling flows evenly from one to the next, from bouncy pop to quiet, moody bedroom synth dreaminess; as befits any zen summer festival, nothing about this varied representation is misplaced or jarring.
The CD’s assemblers also made wise choices in including some lesser knowns of our local scene – of Montreal is headlining the fest, sure, but they don’t need to do much to get anyone to visit their sets. But for smaller indie bands like The Orkids and Playground Hero – and especially for oft-shafted Athens hip hop artists like Uncle Pizza and Showtime – this exposure ahead of the festival is crucial.
MBUS student and compilation project co-producer Kelsey Kirpich, along with fellow MBUS student Anna Reed, said a team of five students listened to all 150 submissions, eventually narrowing it down to the 21 tracks it features – a tough feat for most, but moreso for a group of music fanatics. “We kept narrowing down the submissions until we had a list we felt was a great representation of the diverse Athens music scene.” Kirpich said, “The Music Business Program at UGA is a community of passionate music lovers, so it made it a really enjoyable process for everyone involved.” MBUS director David Barbe was also an enthusiastic backer of the project, saying he “instantly loved the idea” of having his own students be part of the process. “[It’s] a great opportunity for students to see the nuts and bolts of a music release – selecting artists and material, mastering, manufacturing, promoting and distributing,” he said. With MBUS’ stature growing every year, it makes total sense to get UGA students more involved in AthFest, which more broadly serves the Athens community, one that is made up of so much more than academia and football.
The CD was produced by Russ Hallauer and is out June 18 on Ghostmeat Records (purveyors of the annual AthFest comp for the last 18 years) and available for purchase here or at the merch table on site. As with everything AthFest, it benefits Athfest Educates, so jump on this thing.
Click here to listen to select comp CD tracks!
Club Crawl Info:
After the free outdoor shows, a $30 wristband grants access into more than a dozen Club Crawl venues Friday and Saturday nights, as well as discounts at AthFest affiliated events and into a VIP viewing area to the right of the stage. 40 Watt has a wristband-only show Friday night featuring Thayer Serrano, Cracker and The Whiskey Gentry, and Shehehe, Mind Brains and Warehouse Saturday night. The Georgia Theatre has two nights of wristband-only shows featuring headliners Blank Range and Roadkill Ghost Choir Friday night, and Darnell Boys and Surfer Blood on Saturday night. Other participating venues include Caledonia Lounge, Cine, Flicker Theatre, Go Bar, Hendershot’s, Little Kings Shuffle Club, Live Wire Athens, Lumpkin Street Station, The Foundry, The Globe, and The World Famous. Club Crawl line-up here.