The Athens music is all around

Looking through some of the latest music updates on various music Web sites I frequent, I never have to look to far each day to find an item with an Athens connection.

Image via Wikipedia

- On Paste, there’s news of a 45-minute Of Montreal tour documentary called Of Montreal: Family Nouveau, which follows the band’s winter tour through Europe last year and is set to premiere in Chicago on March 5.

- From Pitchfork comes details of Broken Bells‘ first show, a band featuring Shins lead singer James Mercer and producer Danger Mouse, who before he was Danger Mouse was a student at UGA who would spin at many Athens establishment (and who met up with Cee-Lo after a show at the Georgia Theatre).

During the encore, Mercer and Danger played a cover of Neutral Milk Hotel’s In the Aeroplane Over the Sea, one of the greatest songs from one of the greatest albums to ever come out of Athens. It was shown on YouTube for a short while (taken by some enterprising audience member), but has since been taken down.

Here are some other items I found in through my out box:

- Casper & the Cookies announce its first 2010 tour dates, which has them heading to Florida and Austin, Texas in support of their 2009 album Modern Silence. The band also has a remix track on the new EP by The Superions, which features Fred Schneider of the B-52s. The track, Who Threw That Ham At Me?, is on an EP which came out on HHBTM earlier this week.

- Fabulous Athens artist Madeline is set for a spring tour, which kicks off with CD Release party in at the 40 Watt on March 4. The new EP (called Tour EP), features musicians from Architecture in Helsinki and Mt. Eerie.

- And of course there’s a handful of Athens bands attending SXSW grows every year. So far my list of Athens bands at the annual festival includes: Modern Skirts, The Whigs, Dead Confederate, Drive-By Truckers, Twin Tigers, Venice is Sinking, Fire Suave and James Husband.