Category Archives: music

Transmitting a message from We Have Signal

If you missed the October 2nd preview and inaugural episode of APT’s new live music show We Have Signal, you’re in luck. Tonight (10.16) is the first episode to feature never before seen recordings of bands who have played Bottletree.

The show airs two 30 minute segments back to back and so tonight’s first band up will be Chicago melodic princes Pelican at 10 p.m. (which I highly recommend; I could listen to these guys and their seemingly endless number of guitars for hours) and later at 10:30, The Weakerthans (for fans of Ted Leo, Propagandhi and Jets to Brazil).

There are some things the APT crew want you guys to know (after the jump): Continue reading

Counting Crows/Maroon 5 play Birmingham

cc/m5 live!

Terminal music photog Tony Diliberto took one for the team Tuesday night while Whitney was sick. Hey, wait… sounds like Tony got the better deal, by shooting CC/M5 live at Verizon Wireless Music Center in Pelham. He got some amazing shots and had this to say about the live performance:

“This was a great show. I have been a Counting Crows fan since the early 90s. It was especially nice to be 3 feet from them. Maroon 5 played a variety of favorites and the intensity was outstanding.”

Venture on over to Tony’s page on SmugMug to check out the pictures from both bands.

On a musical note…

A few things for those in town for Birmingham’s many festivities this weekend:

Saturday night flyer

Two of Birmingham’s best local bands will be playing an unofficial “after” after-party at Bottletree just as Sidewalk is letting out and the WordCamp crew is looking for some trouble to get into on Saturday night. Do yourself a favor and check out both of these bands’ respective pages (here and here) before the show.
Here’s a handy map of how to get to Bottletree courtesy of their site.

 

Also, for those who helped me usher in the arrival of Birmingham’s newest radio station Live 100.5 FM, here’s an aside: I HEARD INTERPOL ON THE DRIVE INTO WORK TODAY! Kudos to Davi Rossi and the fine programming he put in order today!

 Through the Sparks flyer art by Shawn Avery.

Dead Confederate lives on at Bottletree

Dead Confederate live photo courtesy of George Atkinson

Dead Confederate performs live / George Atkinson

If you weren’t at Bottletree last night for the Dead Confederate/Wax Fang/Twin Tigers show, you missed one of the best shows I’ve ever seen.

Any show that starts off with a girl wearing a Guitar Hero-esque haircut playing bass in a band that’s covering The Cure’s “A Forest” and ends with the headlining band playing in shadows reminiscent of  the “Smells Like Teen Spirit” video is a mighty fine night indeed!

More photos and glorious details after the jump.

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Bright Henry lights up Zydeco tonight

Hey guys! It’s that time again… five questions from yours truly. Who’s this week’s target? Why, one of our favorite blogger/musicians, former Terminal contributor Sam George!

His band Bright Henry is playing Zydeco tonight and therefore, we aim the spotlight in his general direction.

WHITNEY: Bright Henry performances are always so warm and lively. It seems like a collective. How did the idea for all of you guys playing together come about?

SAM: I recently moved here from NYC and was unwilling to be without a band for any kind of a sustained period, so I began to put one together almost immediately. I have this theory about finding musicians: It’s as important for your fellow band members to be folks you’d like to hang out with as it is for them to be musically talented. You ain’t gonna get chemistry without kinship. The way I deal with this is to ask everyone I meet who I enjoy spending time with if they play a musical instrument. My first job here in Birmingham was slingin’ coffee at O’Henry’s in Homewood, and that’s where I met the fellas. It was serendipity really. Matt (guitar) and Barrett (bass) both worked behind the counter with me, and Daniel (drums) was a regular customer. I couldn’t believe I had found such a good group of friends in one place, but there they were. It was gravy that they could all play like the dickens. The band is actually named after the founder of O’Henry’s, Henry Bright. So I guess my incredibly long answer to your question is that we’re warm and lively because we grew together as a group organically before we even knew we were a band. Continue reading

Skybucket’s new sampler is out!

For those that missed our tweet from yesterday, Skybucket Records has released their new sampler for (wait for it…) FREE! That’s right folks, you get a chance to enjoy 93MB of zipped goodness (complete with art if you decide to burn it to CD), with tracks featuring 13ghosts, The Dexateens, Barton Carroll, Through the Sparks, Wes McDonald and more. So what are you waiting for? After you do that, then you can head out and buy all their albums…

Image: CD case art for 2008 Skybucket Sampler. Courtesy of Skybucket Records.

Party at Bottletree. Music always included.

Gil's Mantera's Party Dream - courtesy of MySpace profileTonight at Bottletree: Gil Mantera’s Party Dream!

Any band that I talk to that makes time to mention their undying love for Failure earns an instant fangirl shriek from yours truly (cover you ears, Ultimate Donny!). I had a very very fun phone conversation a few minutes ago and it’s nice to hear from artists who have a genuine love for performing in Birmingham. Hopefully, we’ll make it worthwhile.

Donny also mentioned that they’re “on tour because we don’t have jobs” and that since their last album release was all the way back in 2006, this “is all about fun and playing good music”.  Finally, fans of Zombi are gonna geek out as well because they’re bringing along Tony Paterra as the Party Dream drummer. This guy toured with ISIS — who always perform to a PACKED HOUSE in Birmingham & probably everywhere else — and played for The 1985 as well.

It’s like my iTunes library formed a band. Ridiculous.

Anyway, they take the stage at 10:30 p.m. tonight and it’s only $8. There are two warm-up local hip-hop acts, so zoom on over to The Bottletree’s event page for more info.

Photo: courtesy of MySpace profile

Last weekend in pictures

Here’s a weekend wrap-up courtesy of me and my faithful photographer, George Atkinson.

More photos can be found in George’s Flickr photostream.

The Photonicas show @ Cave9 (9.6.2008):

Jonathan Boyd of the Photonicas - gpatkinson/Flickr
Photo: Jonathan Boyd of the Photonicas. gpatkinson/Flickr.
A couple more after the jump… Continue reading

The Photonicas unleash new EP on the masses

With their EP release show tonight, I knew I had to meet with the members of the Photonicas to see exactly what kind of musical surprises they were about to set free upon us.  This is alot of anticipation on my part from a band who reminds me their first show was a Battle of the Bands at the Hoover Public Library. However, in this rare case, I’m actually not afraid to say that the band has, seriously, come a long way since Jonathan Boyd and Matt Mullinax first hatched a plan to start a band in the 5th grade with Ryan Grayson. Now that they’ve enlisted Matt’s 16 year old brother David on bass, the energy is electric and the sound indeed seems fitting of an older, shoegazier, 90s-er (I said it) band. All very good things.

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Weekend Music Workout

If you want to get with the Whitney Weekend Workout, it’s fairly simple. Just go to an inhumanly possible amount of shows around town and try to stay awake. That’s all. Wait! There’s a late night BK chicken sandwich involved sometimes. And lots and lots of PBR.

This weekend? Keep reading and find out…

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