We’re pleased to co-sponsor a free show featuring two of Atlanta’s finest “unknown” singer-songwriters: Alex Brenner and Kim Ware.

You might know Alex as the author of many of our record reviews, but when he’s not writing for us or fighting crime, he writes and performs as Swing Set. He’s been working on his third release under the moniker while performing the songs on stage as part of the newly formed trio. He’s stepped up his game since he turned in the cowboy boots for converse. Friday night you’ll get to see Alex alone and acoustic, but don’t think for a second that he won’t rock when he asks, “Do remember / when I was the lead singer / you were the mic stand / and we stood real close?”

Later that evening, the face of The Good Graces, Kim Ware, will take the stage to lead us through her own trio’s take on what we all used to call indie rock. Kim is the author of some of our favorite lyrical turns including almost every line of “I Miss the 90s”. She’ll make you smile, laugh out loud and rock a little too.

Swing Set and The Good Graces will be joined by Micheal C. Smith and Jupiter Watts.

Unmentioned above is the fact that Kim is also the founder of Eskimo Kiss Records. Copies of their brand new, 10 year anniversary, 25 song compilation, Let’s Do Art and Be Best Friends, will be available at the show for a modest $5. Bring some extra change to tip the wait staff and hit the merch table.

Listen: The Good Graces – I Miss the 90s

Listen: Swing Set – When Your Heart Stops Working

Photo by Maigh Houlihan

Fool

Still we can’t help but recommend that you come out to see The Good Graces at The Mint Gallery, for the easy sum of $2.

Listen: The Good Graces – Bad Driver

One of the joys of live music is finding those bands you will never hear on the radio, never see on the rack at Best Buy (please tell us you don’t buy music there), or see on television (we think).  Most people make music out of love.  That doesn’t mean it’s sappy Journey-esque ballad crap.  That means they have a compulsion to create.

These folks may have day jobs, night jobs, infrequent jobs, whatever.  But they don’t make their living by playing music and more often than not realize that they never will.  You can view this as sad, but that is only the case if they sell the piano or put the guitar under the bed.  If they keep on making music, playing shows, letting those creative energies escape their personal space, then it really is a happy thing.  More often than not, those are the artists we really love.  Every tune may not be perfect, but every single note is sincere.  It’s for that very reason that no matter where you live, you need to discover local music.  That’s also why local is in our name (sorta).  It’s what we love and one of the reasons we pound this keyboard every night.

We really don’t know a darn thing about The Good Graces other than the fact that they will be playing at Twain’s on October 22.  We went to their MySpace page (and you can too – click here), became the third person to listen to “Bad Driver”, and laughed out load when they used the (made-up?) word “jackassery.”  ”I Miss the Nineties” and “Yo No Puedo Hablar Español” are pretty funny too.  There’s plenty of talent in this minimalist folk trio even if it’s the sort of thing you might expect in a Craig Ferguson skit (we’re not sure if he does skits because we’ve never watched it, but we have heard of the show and know it’s on really late when we’re usually hacking at this keyboard).  Anyway, give yourself a chance to discover (and enjoy) something that you might not find anywhere else.  Check out The Good Graces at Twain’s.