Atlanta

Dominick Brady, who's been doing some wonderful Atlanta music scene podcasts as of late, recently interviewed Atlanta underground hip-hop head Dres tha Beatnik for an upcoming story in Art Noveau magazine. Here's an excerpt Brady posted on his blog, DominickBrady.com, in which Dres reveals the defining -- and most embarrassing -- moment of his career:

Philip Frobos pauses when asked if Carnivores, the band in which he sings and plays bass, is a punk band. "You could say we're a punk band," he offers, "but we're a punk band in the way that the Pixies were a punk band, or the way the Replacements, the Minutemen and Pavement were punk bands. The roots are there but we're going somewhere else with them."

To get a handle on where Carnivores (formerly Chainstereo) takes these roots, it requires a psychedelic trek into lo-fi tropicalia, lounge and death-afflicted sound collages that defy easy categorization. Frobos - along with Nathaniel Higgins (guitar), Caitlin Lang (keyboard/vocals) and Tauseef Anam (drums) - splatters songs with a clutter of fuzz and musical inflections that come off busy at first. But every rhythm, melody and yearning voice is placed exactly where it's needed. The spirit of punk is undeniable in its presence, but the experimental bend of the songs is on par with the likes of Animal Collective, Faust and even the harmonic complexities of early Beach Boys records.

From the sad, ethereal pace of "For Griffin" to the bouncy, Brazilian flare of "Heart of Copper" on the band's debut, All Night Dead U.S.A., (due in March on Double Phantom), Carnivores shows genuine enthusiasm for exploring the fringes of fun, exotic music. Drummer Anam studies music at Emory University where he dabbles in everything from Samba to classical. The rest of the group springs from the traditions of homespun DIY. Their strengths and weaknesses provide a counter-balance of chaos and considered songwriting.

For today's interview we call out Dan Scanlan of Zoroaster.

Who are you?
Dan Scanlan, drummer, noise maker for Zoroaster.

Describe yourself in three words.
Pretty Fucking Awesome.

Who -- dead or alive -- would most you like to meet?
Dick Wolf, Creator/ Executive Producer of Law and Order. I'd like to thank him for giving me a reason to spend every second of my spare time on the couch!!

Who would you most like to slap in the face?
Michael Vick.

What song do you wish you had written?
Happy Together by The Turtles....quite possibly the best song ever!

Elvis Costello or Elvis Presley?
Presley!!

LP, CD or MP3?
LP, but really I like 8-tracks, I'm waiting for their resurrection someday.

If you could start one trend, what would it be?
Canceling American Idol... Does that count? Well it should!!

Atlanta psych metal trio Zoroaster has completed its third album, Voice of Saturn, due out on March 10th via the group-run Terminal Doom Records.

Voice of Saturn was recorded at The Living Room with Ed Rawls, and carries Zoroaster's hallucinogenic hybrid of doom-laden metal, drone and dirge to bombastic new places, and even features a guest appearance from Mastodon guitarist Brent Hinds on the song "White Dwarf."

Sometimes Atlanta's new wave of underground hip-hop seems like a motherless child. Or an alien that lost contact with the mothership.

In a galaxy far away from the finger snaps that made Bankhead go pop and the traps that turned T.I. and Young Jeezy into hot commodities, there exists an alternate universe where beats are measured by the blogosphere instead of the bump produced in your trunk.

Over the past year, an emerging underworld (filled with hipster-leaning hoppers, second-generation ATLiens, and otherwise unidentifiable but fly MCs) seemed poised to forsake an authentic Dirty South sound for more of the same cocaine-laced synth lines and recycled computer love à la Kanye West. It became a desperate state of affairs.

But the new compilation The 808 Experiment, Vol. 1 from SMKA Productions proves there's still hope. By bridging the city's slicker, hipster derivative and its indigenous red clay swagger, the album may bring Atlanta's rap legacy back to the future. And a burgeoning scene could get the chance to redefine itself before some random blogger does.

The 808 Experiment features more than 25 MCs, including Gripplyaz, one of the artists on the standout track "Caddys." Once he says with a laugh, "I am not a fucking hipster" for the umpteenth time during a recent telephone interview, it becomes clear not only how frustrated he is with the label but also how much he embodies the sentiment behind the compilation. Grip, like a growing class of local acts, occupies that rare, hard-to-define space within Atlanta's underground between straight-up hood and hipster-hop.

For today's interivew we call out Larkin Grimm.

Who are you?
Larkin Grimm.

Describe yourself in three words.
decadent, compassionate, reptilian.

Who -- dead or alive -- would most you like to meet?
The Prophet Muhammed.  I'd ask him to play drums on a musical tour of the modern Islamic world with me and I'd ask him how it all compares to his original dream.

Who would you most like to slap in the face?
A young Marlene Dietrich.  But first I would tie her to the bench in Marilyn Monroe's crypt, lying in a bed of Joe DiMaggio's roses.

Savannah's blackened metal masters Kyleasa recently finished recording their fourth full-length, due out on Prosthetic Records in '09, and are heading to Japan in Januray. The journey to the land of the rising sun is in support of the Japanese release of their 2006 album, Time Will Fuse Its Worth (Red Cobalt Industries).

Before they leave for Japan Kylesa will play three stateside shows with crust punk legends, Amebix.

This week Criminal Records announced that the store will host a New Year's Day listening party for Animal Collective's forthcoming album, Merriweather Post Pavilion, due Jan. 6th on vinyl and Jan. 20th on CD. The album was recorded at Oxford, Mississippi's Sweet Tea Recording Studio with Atlanta's very own Ben Allen (Gnarls Barkley, All the Saints, Constellations) at the helm and is being released by Domino.