It’s time again for the 500 Songs for Kids marathon stand at Smith’s Olde Bar.  The event will start April 29th and run through May 8th with 50 different bands taking the stage every night.  It’s all covers so you will know the songs and can sing along. You may discover a new favorite local act along the way. All proceeds all go to the Songs for Kids Foundation.

Last year, we tried to give you a heads up about what was coming each night.  This year we’re going to leave the daily updates and photos to the good folks at Mixtape Atlanta. Follow the event there.

Please take our word for it though, don’t wait until the last night. Plenty of stars and the very best performances all come out before that.  Here are some bands we don’t want to miss.

Dead Confederate - Night 2, April 30

Oryx and Crake – Night 2, April 30

Today the Moon, Tomorrow the Sun (loved their Smashing Pumpkins last year) – Night 5, May 3

Rebecca Loebe – Night 6, May 4.

South 70 (they killed Led Zep last year, this year it will be Aerosmith) – Night 8, May 6.

Hightide Blues – Night 8, May 6.

Wild Sweet Orange – Night 9, May 7.

Modern Skirts – Night 10, May 8 – Okay, here’s one reason to show up for the last night.  Their cover of Public Enemy’s “Fight the Power” at last year’s event totally sold us on this band and made us go back to their original output with fresh ears and new found interest.

We don’t do this often (probably due to lack of organization and time) but here’s our second “Tonight” post of the day.  If you’re not into the Buckhead scene or it’s just too darn far from wherever you stumble to after your typical night out, then here’s another live music option for Turkey Eve (still don’t got a good link for that phrase) in a different part of town.

Two of our southland favorites are in taking the town tonight in the midst of their usually torrid touring schedules – Hightide Blues and Death on Two Wheels.  We’ve got a real soft spot for bands like these two, who put their faith in mileage, McDonald’s drive-thru, and nightly mic checks to establish a rock n’ roll reputation.  Both have very accessible sounds rooted in the kind of classic 70s rock that still dominates our record collection (mostly ‘cuz we bought them on vinyl real cheap back when records weren’t cool).  Don’t get us wrong, we love the sounds and might just drop into our favorite (is it midtown? is it morningside? how about piedmont ave.?) music venue, Smith’s Olde Bar, to hear them tonight.  If you haven’t seen our previous posts about both these bands (here and here) then check out these two tracks, one from each, and join us in the music room tonight.

MP3: Hightide Blues – Dreamin’ Alone

MP3: Death on Two Wheels – Calling Us All Back Home

Every week Atlanta’s A-List misses at least one or two with our weekly editorial/update. As we are leaning more on cyberspace (remember that phrase?) to spread the word, we’re starting to post stuff only on the blog.

In case you haven’t visited lately check it out at http://atlalist.com. There are pictures, record reviews, book reviews, lots of links, and of course the weekly “week of” rant. Add it as a Favorite. Bookmark it. Subscribe to updates using Blogger, Google, My Yahoo, Bing, etc. Follow us on Twitter. Friend us on Facebook. Check the blog often because these weekday posts are becoming more routine. We can’t get everything right the first time (and often don’t at all) so the magic of the interweb is our friend – and yours too.

It is Memorial Day weekend and we forgot more than one thing. First, a big hooah, hoo-rah, and all aboard (or whatever you Navy guys say) to our men and women in uniform. We’re closer to you than you know. Second, if you’re spending this weekend in our fine city there is much more than an Art Festival going on (but there will be more in another post about the music that will be happening there this weekend too).

Sunday night, a new favorite of more than one A-Lister, Hightide Blues will be at Smith’s Olde Bar. It’s a great way to spend a Sunday night when you don’t have to work on Monday morning.

Then Monday afternoon, when the sun is out and the pretty girls will be in sundresses and the handsome boys will be wearing their flip-flops, the Zac Brown Band will be hosting a picnic at Chastain Park.

Here are tonight’s bands. No links today but you’re going to want to see Bain Mattox, Mister Fernando, Hightide Blues and, of course, A-Lister Rebecca Loebe. If you haven’t been out yet, you only have three more nights to take in this great experience.

Bain Mattox, Heather Luttrell, Andrew’s Polyphonic Social, Attention System, Brandon Perry, Chinua Hawk, Chris Gray Band, Cindi Hall, Dong Man, Fat Chance, Futureshock, Gareth Asher, Hightide Blues, Idiot Slowdown, It’s Elephant’s, Jeff Schuelke, Jeremy Aggers, Juli Vaughn, Kahle Davis And The Nightwatchmen, Kortney Parman, Krissa Quill, Lefty Williams Band, Lexi Street, Libras, Max Oginsky, Michael Magno, Misfortune500, Mister Fernando, My Friend Ian’s Band, Nathan Beaver And Ryan Rockitt, National Grain, Nicole Chillemi, Not From Here, Pearson Perry, Rachel Jennette, Rebecca Loebe, Sarah Mac Band, Scott Downes, Sealions, Shinebox, Sin Pretty, Spencer Durham, Stacey Leigh Plunkett, Stellate, The Judies, The Sounds That Machines Make, Tonio, Ty Reynolds, Vinson Baker, Wesley Cook

Contraction Distraction

For the second time in two weeks the A-List will cover a band with the center syllable contraction. What?! Last week it was Noot d’ Noot, this week it’s Tapes ‘N Tapes and their show tomorrow night at The Earl. But before I get there please allow me to ponder the ‘n in rock n’ roll.

What is that ‘n? We all know it’s short for “and” because after all the phrase originally uttered by Allen Freed was “Rock and Roll” (regardless of what his website says). If you will allow me to get grammatical for a minute, what we did was contract it (sort of like what is happening with economy right now ‘cept it’s less letters ‘stead of less dollars). Huh? A contraction. That’s what you call it when we combine a couple of words into one word or just shorten a longer word (as I did often in the last sentence). There was supposed to be a little tirade here about the origins of certain contractions, like ’twas and ne’er do well, to accommodate lyrical meter contrasted against the formal writing styles which reject the contraction as grammatically incorrect. But given the time of day (to say nothing of day of week, again) you don’t have to endure a second rate English lit paper before getting to the music.

Good Earl Bad Earl

I already mentioned youtube diarists Tapes ‘N Tapes Tuesday night show at the Earl which in a normal week might be the school night highlight of the week. This week, however, it might not even be the best show at The Earl.

Wednesday night, Plants & Animals will be at East Atlanta’s biggest live music venue (that’s The Earl). These Canadian indie rockers are coming off a sold out weekend in New York City with Blitzen Trapper (who will be at the 40 Watt in Athens on Wednesday night but not in Atlanta anytime soon). They will be followed on Thursday night by Tokyo Police Club – a decidedly more rhythmic, garage tinged style of indie than the preceding night’s show.

But the hits keep on coming at The Earl. Friday night Atlanta’s own psychedelic southern garage quartet, Gringo Star will lead a ticket that includes Birmingham’s more jangly Americana tinged Wild Sweet Orange. Both of these bands have been covered in this space before (A-List Archives 9/28/08 and 9/9/08), here’s another chance to see what you missed. And if that wasn’t enough former blogosphere darlings (but aren’t they all?) Annuals will finish a rockin’ week at The Earl on Saturday night.

And If I Don’t Know How to Find Flat Shoals Road?

There are other options if you don’t make it to East Atlanta. Auburn’s melodic country rockers, Hightide Blues, will be at Vinyl on Friday night. Good authority tells me that these boys put it all together quite nicely at a recent show in ole Oxford, Miss. If you’ve got a student id, or a little sister who will let you lend hers for the night, you can get in for five bucks – that’s recession proof. For a little sample of the bargain, check out the video for “I Can’t“.

What to do with Saturday night? Morrisey is at the Variety but gets no link cuz he already sold all his tickets. But tickets to Modest Mouse at the Tabernacle are still available and as always I recommend hitting the box office there and saving yourself about 20% in ticketing fees. If you’re working it out on a budget then traditionalist all-Americana bluegrassers Hackensaw Boys are at Smith’s Olde Bar where cash should be enough to get you in.

Finally, let me note Chad Radfords’ nice cover article in this week’s Creative Loafing – Damn Hipsters. In short, he makes that point that Atlanta refuses to recognize it’s own talent until Pitchfork or some out of town hipster cache machine tells us we should. While I am not on board with all of Chad’s metal love, I do buy his thesis. As Atlantans we need to be discriminating but also supportive. When a quality band is making the rounds locally stay with them, see them three or four times, tell your friends, tell the A-List, spread the word. One such local band who gets mentioned here often (check out this search result) is the Selmanaires. They will be at the 529 (still no real website) in East Atlanta on Saturday night. These guys are good on record – check out last year’s The Air Salesman – and they put it together live too. Go see them. Please let America know that we have something better to offer than John Mayer.

That’s Atlanta’s A-List. Let’s not get killed by ten million pounds of sludge from New York and New Jersey.