A quartet whose members range from ages 12 to 16, Athens plays rock classics written decades before they were born with a flourish only kids can while also boasting a four-song EP and an early start in the music biz.

Guitarist Beau “Monkey” Anderson, 12, lead singer/guitarist Chase Brown, 14, drummer Zak “Blonde Blur” Smith, 16, and bassist Justin Granados, 15, took the stage Saturday night at the 40 Watt to showcase their skills, shoot a video for its song Animals, and destroy some equipment (or make a valiant attempt to).

Welcome to Athens, open for all ages.

I’m sure some wonder how someone can be such a fan of both bands, but to me they both have several similarities. Both have strong frontmen with distinctive voices; both created a new sound which went on to change the genre which they played in. Before Public Enemy, rap music was rarely political or confrontational (Fresh Prince was not calling for black power), but after there was a big change in what came out of the rap music world. Gangsta rap does not draw a direct line to PE, but it’s too far off.

As for The Pixies, without them there is no grunge, at least no grunge with the popularity it attained. Without Smells Like Teen Spirit, grunge never makes the leaps and bounds it did, and Smells Like Teen Spirit is a Pixies rip off – I didn’t say that, Kurt Cobain did.

So I’m pretty excited about next week, but it has me thinking about other album tours I’d like to see. Years ago I went to see They Might Be Giants play Flood from beginning to end, and that was great fun. I’d love to see R.E.M. do this as well with any of its early albums (though the band never will). How great would it be to see Pearl Jam play 10, or Oasis do What’s the Story.

As I’ve discovered, with patience it can all come true.

So what then can be said about Jimmy Eat World? Perhaps the Arizona foursome – which has been kicking around the alternative emo power pop punk scene for nearly 17 years – skirts the height of all genres, allowing the band the freedom to move along undeterred. Or maybe its years in the business has shown it how to avoid the quick burnout.

Whatever it is, it’s been working, and it’s about to work again.

Jimmy Eat World (consisting of Jim Adkins, Rich Burch, Zach Lind and Tom Linton) is primed for the release of its seventh studio album (named Invented) and a worldwide tour starting this month in Atlanta. Linton, who plays lead guitar, took time out of his busy schedule to discuss the inspiration of photography books, singing on the new album, and how hot weather makes for better musicians.

Thanks for taking time to talk to me today, I know you guys are busy getting ready for the tour and having the album coming out
TP: We’ve been practicing every day and we’re going to add the girl who sings backup vocals on the record. She’s going to come out on tour so we’ve been practicing trying to get ready to show her all the songs.

What can you tell me about Invented, I’ve heard the new song off it, but what is your take on the album.
TP: The last record we did I think we got pretty crazy with production. We were happy with how it turned out, but with this record we tried a more stripped down version. We didn’t go as crazy. When Jim came down to writing lyrics, he took it in a different direction than he’s ever done before. One day we were at practice and he opened up this Cindy Sherman book, she’s a photographer, and he said “Hey guys, you want to know how I came up with each song? I would flip the book to a different page in this book and would write a song based on the expression she had on her face and her surroundings.” I thought that was kind of interesting

That is different. What wasn’t different was working with Mark Trombino again. How did that go? I know it’s been several years since you last worked with him. Was it a get to know you again phase or did you jump right into it?
TP:  We pretty much jumped right into it. We did a Clarity 10-year anniversary tour and he ended up coming to the show and we talked with him for a little bit. It turned out he wasn’t busy when we said we were going to start our record. When we recorded Futures we started with Mark, but when we went into the studio we weren’t ready to start recording and I don’t think he was ready, we had some bad vibes leaving that. But we made up and we’re happy with how this album turned out.

Was there anything he did to direct this album differently than the last two albums?
TP: As far as keeping the record more organic and stripped down, a lot of that came from him. He has tons of ideas – he’s passionate about his ideas and when we’re not into something he does he’s very passionate in explaining it.

It must be nice to have someone around who knows your history.
TP: That’s true

One of the interesting aspects of the album is you’re the lead singer on one of the songs. Has your approach to singing changed since you last sang lead for the band?
TP: You know we never sat around and said “Alright, I’m gonna sing on this record.” Jim will write a song and the band will say “Tom you sing vocals on this one” and sometimes I will and it doesn’t turn out. Then Jim will sing one and it doesn’t turn out and then I’ll sing the song. It all switches.

Is that how it worked on the song you sang on Invented?
TP: Yeah. Jim had a melody idea and some lyrics but he was bogged down with so many other songs. So Zach said “Tom why don’t you give it a shot and see if you can finish it.” I ended up putting lyrics to it and it ended up making the cut.

There’s a lot of give and take among all of you. Has the dynamic of the band changed over the years?
TP: Not really. All of us get along and that’s one of the reasons we’ve been able to stay together for so long is because we get along we’re able to work together

When you have time away from the band do you still hang out together?
TP: We’ll hang out every once in a while. Someone will have a little party, but it depends on what’s going on. But we wind up seeing each other a lot because of practice. We practice all the time.

Is the tour you have coming up, I think it’s 20 dates, a prelude to a bigger tour? You guys are known as road warriors.
TP: We’re coming at it like it’s a big tour, we have these 20 tours and then we’re going to Europe

So you still are putting it all together?
TP: Yeah we’ll probably be touring for the next year, year and a half.

I saw where the band had flirted a bit with leaving the label and maybe putting the album out yourselves. Why did you choose to stay with the label?
TP: We’ve had a pretty good history with Interscope. We’ve become friends with a lot of the people – each city has a person who works the radio stations and we’ve become friends with all of them – and we decided it would be the best thing for us to stay on for this record. We’ll see how it goes – if we want to resign with them or even if they want to resign us (laughs).

What is your take on the music business today, it’s changed quite a bit since you guys started out.
TP: We don’t let it get us down if we’re not selling records. We try to focus on writing the best songs we can and making sure for touring that we’re prepared and have all the best people we can get to do the sound. I think for a lot of bands their main concern is trying to get signed to a label, but these days you could put it out yourself and be successful doing that. It’s pretty crazy right now.

The Internet does make all things possible
TP: I think it’s pretty easy to get your record on iTunes, it’s easy to sell it on Facebook and Myspace

Your band is from Arizona and the band takes pride in that. What is it about where you come from that piques out in your music?
TP: It’s so hot in the summer it’s almost unbearable to go outside. When I was younger starting to play music I would just lock myself in my room and play guitar all day because it was just so hot. When we first started we would practice long hours – we started out a Zach’s parents house practicing during the day and then go to Jim’s parents house. It was something to keep us busy during those hot days.

But they say it’s a dry heat
TP: Yeah, it’s still really hot.

Practice does make perfect
TP: It sure does

What can you attribute to the band’s longevity, aside from staying out of the heat. It’s been almost 20 years now.
TP: Well we get along and that’s a big one. but we have fans that want to hear more music and they keep coming back to our shows. The fact that people are still interested in what we’ve been doing makes all the difference.

It’s fascinating to me when lead singers of successful groups go out and try to be solo artists. I think they often want people to understand their “greatness” without the other guys (or girls) in the band to prop them up. Too often these solo escapades are watered-down versions of what their band sounds like, and it makes you wonder why they didn’t try to take these solo songs to their original band to begin with.

Most likely because the songs are not so good, possibly cast off songs from previous albums.

I gave Paul Banks’ solo album a try. Banks, the lead singer of Interpol, created at alter-ego named Julian Plenti for 2009’s Julian Plenti . . . Is Skyscraper. I do love Interpol so I was willing to give it a try, and after hearing the first single Fun That We Have, I thought Banks might have something.

But aside from Games For Days, a good song highlighted by the lovely Emily Haines in the video, Skyscraper was a disappointment. It meandered midway through and by the end was a big ole mess. Thom Yorke’s solo effort The Eraser left me feeling the same way, and allowed me to understand how important Phil Selway and Jonny Greenwood are to Radiohead. (Selway, by the way, has a solo album of his own out, and usually when other guys in bands make solo records, they are pretty remarkable – see Albert Hammond Jr., whose excellent solo work makes Julian Casablancas’ solo effort sound like amateur hour) .

Usually the solo artists who succeed start that way –Bruce Springsteen, Elton John, Billy Joel, Elvis Costello, Tom Petty, David Bowie. Yes they have backup bands, but we all knew who the real power is. The past has seen Paul McCartney, Robert Plant, Pete Townshend, Mick Jagger, Phil Collins (I don’t know why I added him here, but I did) break from their uber-successful bands for passable solo efforts. But for all their successes, it was never quite great.

I’m not sure what to do with Sting. What separates him (and Eric Clapton, for that matter), is his solo stuff went in another direction than his band. The Police would have never created an album like Dream of the Blue Turtles. Sting is a smart guy, he needed to show everyone he can reinvent himself (something that Madonna can do better than anyone).

What’s my point? It’s great that Brandon Flowers feels he needs to spread his solo wings, but it won’t surprise me at all if he ends up a little humbled.

And he’s the kind of guy who probably needs that too.

Crazy For You, the debut album by lo-fi surf-popsters Best Coast, is a 13-song collection with the coolness of an ocean breeze on an August day. With only one song eclipsing the three-minute mark (at a tidy 3:01), Crazy For You zips by, never once asking the listener to think too hard or tangle with complicated arrangements.
Instead Best Coast multi-instrumentalist Bobb Bruno fills tracks with driving guitar and fuzzy beats while lead singer Bethany Cosentino hopes “her cat could talk”, is “always waiting by the phone”, and just wished “he was my boyfriend.”

This is not to say it’s a vacuous series of lovelorn lyrics. The aforementioned Boyfriend, the album’s lead single, may harp how she wishes he was her guy, but later laments the other girl is indeed prettier, skinnier, and has a college degree. It’s not often a song of yearning admits the other woman may be the better choice.
Summer Mood, Happy, Each and Every Day, When I’m With You – all great songs despite predictable (yet infectious) tempos.

Does it become repetitive? Sure. Have you heard it before? Yep. But none of this keeps you from enjoying what’s been made here. It’s a carefree compilation of one sunny single after another.

What a welcome concept.

Years ago (and I know I’m dating myself here) I had tickets for the Strangeways Here We Come tour. It was rare when any cool band would come to South Florida, but a cool band from the UK was a near impossibility. I was a Smiths fan for years, so when it was confirmed the band was indeed scheduled to appear in South Florida, I got tickets as fast as I could.

The band cancelled. I never knew why, but I had my suspicions.

Years later I read an excellent book by Johnny Rogan called Morrissey & Marr: The Severed Alliance. In it, Rogan writes how Morrissey, when he felt he did enough shows on a particular tour, would scrap the remainder because he wanted to go home. As it turned out, he stopped the tour I planned to see him after the show in Tampa. The next night he was to come to Miami.

Bastard.

I never got to see The Smiths, and I refuse to see Morrissey as a solo artist. Yes I know he sings Smiths songs on his solo tour, but it’s not the same.

Where was I going with this? Oh, right . . .

Saturday night at Caledonia was a reunion show for Bigmouth, a Smiths tribute band which hasn’t played together in years. It was an ending flourish on a night of 80s music at Caledonia, and proved a treat to see some great songs played quite well by the five-man band.

Alex DeVine played the role of Morrissey well, as he understood the first key of a successful tribute band: Sing the songs well but don’t sound exactly like the lead singer you’re mimicking. Trying to sing like Morrissey would sound false (who sounds like him anyway?), and DeVine never attempted to ape the Moz. Instead he sang the songs with depth and clarity, because The Smiths are nothing without the words.

Or the music. The second key to a successful tribute band is playing the music spot on, and the guys behind DeVine were up to the challenge. Peter Keane and Brian Smith teamed up to recreate Johnny Marr’s guitar, while
Benji Barton (bass) and Jeremy Smith (drums) shored up the rhythm section. They had the music down, which is no easy feat.

The third key is song selection, and again the band excelled. Panic, Ask, This Charming Man, A Rush and A Push And the Land is Ours, There is A Light That Never Goes Out – Bigmouth didn’t pick obvious songs and drew from all of the band’s albums. Perhaps the bravest selection of the night was I Know It’s Over, an epic song from The Queen Is Dead. Even DeVine mentioned how challenging that one can be to sing.

So I never got to see The Smiths, but I was able to take in an excellent substitute Saturday, and they gave me something I won’t forget too soon.

Dan Geller and Benji Barton of The Gold Party

I first saw The Gold Party last year at the memorial for Pylon guitarist Randy Bewley. While I didn’t know much about it coming in, when I saw the band take the stage I knew it was another one of those Athens melting pots. Benji Barton (of Boulevard), Dan Geller (I Am The World Trade Center, The Agenda!), Brian Smith (King of Prussia) and Sethen Maleno have separately created some wonderful music in this town.

They are doing the same as a cohesive unit.

Saturday at Caledonia Lounge was the perfect place for an old guy like me to be, as the night featured a set of alternative 1980s covers, a set by a up-and-coming band, capped off by a Smiths tribute band (which I’ll get to in another post). The Gold Party filled the first two slots, and perhaps the most impressive feat of the night was the band’s ability to get the Caledonia crowd dancing about (which anyone who regularly goes to Caledonia can attest is not commonplace).

The opening set of covers was a good mix with nothing too obscure (not that I don’t like obscure, I do), including a pair of songs by OMD (Enola Gay and the ubiquitous If You Leave) and The Cure (Boys Don’t Cry and Just Like Heaven), with selections from New Order (Regret), Pet Shop Boys (West End Girls) and Depeche Mode (Everything Counts).

After a short break, the guys returned for a selection of their own songs, as well as cover or two for good measure (Morrissey’s Suedehead). What’s impressive about The Gold Party’s originals is it keeps a dancy, synth-feel throughout without sounding anachronistic. Some of the originals carry characteristics of the covers the band performed – but don’t come across dated. There’s also bendable feel to their songs. Luxury & Light, one of the band’s best releases, could be fantastic as a dance song, a rock song, a country song, or an acoustic song. They craft good songs – not good dance songs (though they are good for dancing).

Right now the band is working on its debut album with Andy Lemaster of Now It’s Overhead. There is no doubt it will be another fine addition to the long list of great albums to come out of the Classic City.

The now-famous party on April 5, 1980 at an abandoned church in Athens had three bands playing that evening, R.E.M. (which was dubbed Twisted Kites at the show), Men In Trees (who knows about them?) and The Side Effects. Comprised of Paul Butchart, Jimmy Ellison and Kit Swartz, The Side Effects captured the sound and the feel of Athens, writing fun songs that made people want to get up and dance.

A reminder of this has surfaced on YouTube in the form of a 12-minute Super 8 video shot during a Aug. 8, 1980 show at Tyrone’s, a legendary music club which burned down in early 1982. It shows Paul and Kit talking about their music (Paul with his glasses upside down) while clips of their performance and dancing kids are shown throughout. Subheads throughout the video give the viewer added background, and it all makes for a nice reminder about who The Side Effects were.

Of the three, only Paul is still around Athens. Kit lives overseas while Jimmy died of a brain tumor in the early 1980s. But Paul has been a key person in keeping the history of Athens music alive, leading musical history tours around town during AthFest. He also happens to live in a historical place himself, as the front room of his house was were the B52s played its first show, Feb. 14, 1977.

Here’s the video, it’s a blast from the past:

Money to turn the famous trestle (seen on the back of R.E.M.’s debut album Murmur) into a walking trail has been held up until more can be raised to fund it. The Athens-Clarke County is asking voters to extend a 1 percent sales tax to help pay for it. If the sales tax is not extended, it could be the end of the Athens landmark.

The trestle ran into some trouble in 2001 when CSX Transportation started to tear it down to sell for scrap, but R.E.M. fans from around the world (including yours truly) donated money to save it, and the county bought it for $25,000.

But since then the trestle has started to deteriorate and may not be able to be saved. Plans have been started to make a trailhead, and while the trestle is in the plans eventually, it is not in the first phase.

It would be a great thing to keep the trestle around, but I fear the end is soon.

Enjoy:

Mitch Easter

Kevin Dunn

Mitch Easter

Joe Jack Talcum

Hot New Mexicans

Afternoon Naps

Misfortune 500

Rose of Go Sailor

The Wedding Present

The Wedding Present

The Gary

Bambara

Bambara

Eux Autres

Bunnygrunt

Mission of Burma

Mission of Burma

Mission of Burma

The Gary

Laminated Cat

raymilland

raymilland

Oh OK

Bunnygrunt