Atlanta

For today's interview we call out drummer Mathis Hunter of Noot d' Noot and the Selmanaires.

Who are you?
Bimbi, Smoofus, Mathis. Aural Exciter.

Describe yourself in three words.
Seeker, Listener, Glistener

Who -- dead or alive -- would most you like to meet?
Lame Deer or Don Juan Matus. Wouldn't mind learning to shapeshift and fly.

Who would you most like to slap in the face?
Limbaugh is pretty jive, but rather than slap him, I'd like to keep feeding him ham sandwhiches and oxycontin.

What song do you wish you had written?
Too many to count. Right this second, I'm wondering what Chuck D and Flav thought when the Shocklee brothers played them the beat for "Fight The Power."

Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band played a good but not amazing show at the Variety Playhouse Friday night. Good, because it convinced me to buy the new four-song tour LP they were selling in the lobby. Not amazing because out of the songs they played that I was familiar with, I preferred the recorded versions. Not because the live versions were so bad, but because the live setting didn't add much to the Conor Oberst experience.

No longer billed as Bright Eyes, Oberst is enlisting the Mystic Valley Band to make music that's a little less ambitious and not quite as unique. This made for a tight singalong album that played to their strengths as folk rockers with pop sensibilities. Oberst is still the quivering balladeer and the more traditional surroundings are a good match now that he's maturing well into his 20s. He's not the boy genius heir to Dylan (groan) that kind of looks like a girl anymore. Now he's got three guitars in his band, maybe unnecessary for his style of music, but it adds muscle to the sound. That, along with his side burns, declare his status as a grown man playing grown man music, even when he's at his most fragile.

I fell for Oberst's music hard when a friend gave me burned copies of I'm Wide Awake It's Morning and Digital Ash in a Digital Urn, two albums he released on the same day in 2005. On I'm Wide Awake, the traditional folk-rock destination he is presently at was clear. On Digital Ash, he put together an industrial folk exploration that remains the most different yet familiar album I've heard. Both were exciting and honest albums with lyrics and a voice specific to a year in his life, but written and sang in a way that was universal and timeless.

Longtime Atlanta music scene fixture Adam Bruneau has created videos for two songs from Deerhunter's third full-length, Microcastle.

Bruneau has served in the local music community performing as an auxiliary member of dozens of local groups, including a short stint with Deerhunter, the Kiwis and Phonepunk; although it's been a few years since Phonepunk made any appearances... Sadly.

The rabbit-masked, Ramones-esque crooner known as NOBUNNY prefers to conceal his true identity in order to maintain a sense of "fun and secrecy," he says.

He gave birth to his twisted stage persona in a trailer located in the desert about an hour outside of Tucson, Ariz. "I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do with my life," the Bay Area performer explains. "[I wanted to] love what I was doing, while making money. I came up with the idea to be an animal Elvis impersonator.

"There's already fat Elvis, skinny Elvis, extreme Elvis, female Elvis, midget Elvis, etc., so I figured that being a rabbit could fill the gap of novelty Elvises," he says. "I was living in the trailer, practicing my guitar and Elvis stance, and [pretty soon] I started writing my own songs...."

Mastodon guitarist Bill Kelliher (pictured second from left) has been hospitalized in London as of Nov. 3. while embarking on the bands current European Unholy Alliance Chapter 3 tour. Doctors continue monitoring his condition which is said to be improving.

For the time being Mastodon is continuing on as a trio and are hopeful that Kelliher will rejoin the group in time for their headlining tour of Europe which begins Nov 30, in Utrecht, Holland.

If you're one of those people who likes to plan in advance, than you will be happy to know that Of Montreal is playing a New Year's Eve show at the Fabulous 40 Watt in downtown Athens.

So if you just saw their fantastic show at the Tabernacle in Atlanta, and want to see them again, and hopefully not have to endure the hell ride into ironic false hair metal that was Limozeen, this is your ticket.

Some thoughts on the Atlanta show that happened over the weekend...

Of Montreal played to a comfortably crowded house on Saturday night at the Tabernacle. It seems like it was only yesterday that they played the old Eyedrum downtown to all of about eight people. Alas, that was eight years ago, and since then their following has grown exponentially. Icy Demons played a cool, rhythm-heavy set, but my memory of their show is tainted by the travesty that was/is Limozeen. I don't know where these guys came from, but I hope that I never have to endure their shite metal shtick ever again.

I lived through indie rock in the '90s and the one thing that never ever sat well with me was the bloated sense of irony that was such a huge part of the culture. The slacker chic thing really did a number on the collective consciousness of the times that still creeps out from time-to-time in the here and now. Remember when Urge Overkill dressed-up and did that Neil Diamond crap? Pavement's image? Weezer's career? Unfortunately I do too. These days it shows up in horribly mutated outgrowths, like those FreeCreditReport.com commercials where the dipshit slacker guys sing about how badly they screwed up their credit and now they have to work at a seafood restaurant.

 Tom Cheshire is a poet, statesman and whiskey soaked frontman for Atlanta punk band All Night Drug Prowling Wolves.

Who are you?
Tom Cheshire, Singer, dancer, wronger, writer.

Describe yourself in three words.
Rad, appropriate & uncalled for.

Who -- dead or alive -- would most you like to meet?
Charlie Chaplin, good man, comedic genius, did well with the ladies and hung out with communists.

Who would you most like to slap in the face?
Sean Hannity and Greta Van Susteren. I believe the reasons are obvious.

What song (or songs) do you wish you had written?
"Baba O'Riley," "Happy Birthday" & "Garbage Picker" by the Beltones.

For the first installment of Crib Notes' new Roll Call we call out Ben Coleman of the Atlanta electro duo Judi Chicago.

Who are you?
Ben. I'm in a band called Judi Chicago. Pleased to meet you.

Describe yourself in three words.
Mouthy Dancehall Immigrant.

Whom -- dead or alive -- would most you like to meet?
Robert Wyatt, Antonin Artaud, Terry Riley, Sylvester, James Brown, Syd Barrett, Lemmy, The Marx Brothers and Judy Chicago. Preferably all at once, over a good dinner.

Who would you most like to slap in the face?
Rush Limbaugh, Sarah Palin, or any other cretinous faux-patriot bigot-gollum within reach.

What song do you wish you had written?
"Eat Yrself Fitter" by the Fall. "Wind It Up" by the Prodigy. "St. Elmo's Fire" (the Brian Eno song or the John Parr song, you pick). Anything by Underworld. "Loose Booty" by Sly Stone. "Big Time" by Peter Gabriel.

Elvis Costello or Elvis Presley?
Presley. Costello is a little bland for these buds. I'll take Reg Presley over both if I have the choice.

LP, CD or MP3?
LP, if I have a choice, but I'm not making a big deal about it. It's the music that counts, not the medium. However, vinyl remains the best sounding format, and I like big cover art.