Tomorrow’s News Now: A Forecast of the Athens Tunes Scene in 2023

Effectively, delighted New Yr, y’all. As we do every single 12 months at this time, we’re heading to go forward and get the year’s news out of the way and just tell you what’s likely to come about. So, welcome to the Threats & Guarantees recap of 2023.*

JANUARY: The Athens music scene woke up in a good mood for as soon as, which surprised every person. This can most possible be attributed to New Year’s Working day slipping on a Sunday, which suggests the scene didn’t even have to get out of mattress right up until 3 p.m. or so. 

FEBRUARY: Ah, February. In any rationally working society, this would be an annual thirty day period of financial reckoning for all those who went for broke for the duration of the holidays. But in the spirit of kicking the can down the highway, we in Athens celebrated Valentine’s Working day in fashion. To start with, the full scene achieved up for the prix fixe menu at The Countrywide, the place every person was guaranteed to depart with just sufficient area left in their bellies to justify buying up some Krystal on the way residence. But just before that, every person loaded into Hendershot’s for its yearly “Bottle Of Wine Night time That includes 45 Nearby Pop-Jazz Singers!”

MARCH: While items necessarily slowed down around the past few several years, 2023 was the 12 months that collaborating (traveling, actively playing, masking) in Austin, TX’s South by Southwest songs convention roared back into motion. Longtime participant T. Hardy Morris was briefly noticed outside the house the Shell Meals Mart at the corner of E. 87th Avenue and I-35 snatching a gasoline receipt from the hands of fellow band member Gene Woolfolk. Recognised for his tax-consciousness and dedication to proper paperwork, Morris was overheard telling Woolfolk, “No way, man. No much more throwing these factors out. This 12 months, we’re accomplishing it suitable!” A couple of seconds afterwards, as Morris was heading into the retail outlet, he was listened to asking Woolfolk if he wanted plain Corn Nuts or barbecue. 

APRIL: April showers carry May bouquets, and what do Mayflowers provide? Pilgrims! Though the Athens musicians who go by the singular of this designation are tried and accurate, dyed-in-the-wool trustworthy rockers, member Richard Mikulka specially embodied this ethic. If you purchased nearly anything at the Flicker Theatre & Bar for the duration of 2023, you were being served by him. As I typed this out at practically 1 a.m., Mikulka, the “Telecaster Tornado,” was even now there. And he was there the subsequent evening, and the subsequent, and the following. If there had been ever an Athens sentry, he’s it, so think about that when attempting to e book your band. 

May: This was the month that all the band people who at last graduated from UGA made the decision to announce that their teams were being on “hiatus.” Properly, ha! As we saw many years later, the market for 40s-ish dudes “getting the band back together” wasn’t practically as saturated as we considered. So, joke’s on us.

JUNE–AUGUST: In preceding stories, the three most brutal months of summer—in a city that has, essentially, nine months of summer—were broken out from 1 an additional. But in 2023 absolutely everyone at last admitted to having no plan when AthFest was in fact occurring, if the Flagpole awards ended up still a thing or figuring out no matter whether or not their shift was coated. Incredibly, or perhaps not, these a few subjects occupied most of the tunes scene’s dialogue all season. Perfectly, these and the age-previous bitch Olympics whereby absolutely everyone complained loud and long about AthFest’s shortcomings, the lineup, et al. On the other hand, in the spirit of variety, the 2023 lineup featured functions of all expertise levels from the truly excellent to the horrendously atrocious, and I assume the organizers ought to have some kudos for that stage of dedication.

SEPTEMBER: If May well is the month when interest bands go on hiatus, then September is the month they are born. The paint was scarcely dry in the freshman dorms when one incoming student spied that dude who sits in the quad with an acoustic guitar and struck up a conversation. They are actually seeking ahead to participating in the Panhellenic Spring Fling in 2024. 

Oct: Remembering her success with the 40th anniversary celebration for R.E.M.’s Chronic Town, 40 Watt expertise buyer Velena Vego made a decision to experience the lightning and ebook a dwell tribute celebrating the 32nd Anniversary of Nirvana Actively playing the 40 Watt. The first clearly show occurred Oct. 5, 1991, but it would take more than 3 decades right before tribute band Molly’s Lips was formed and ready to glow out. Ticket profits were being strong and moved swiftly, but nowhere was the excitement extra palpable than in the 9,000 Fb comments that simply go through “I was there!” even however that was all a pack of filthy lies and anyone realized it. 

NOVEMBER: Though gearing up for the holiday getaway shopping time, Propeller Seem Recordings co-founder Jay Coyle was found furiously digging by way of the bins of outdated albums at Wuxtry, Minimal YoYo Stuff and Watkinsville’s Rock Nobster and telling the clerks at each and every, “If you obtain anything at all here with an Athens, GA address on it, permit me know, for the reason that we’re reissuing it, newborn!” And that’s the origin tale of why you bought a manufacturer new duplicate of Dayroom’s 1997 album Contagious in your Xmas stocking from your kinfolk that “heard you have been into regional songs.” Equally, New West Data announced it would release a formerly unheard recording of Janis Joplin ordering sandwiches that was recorded as a result of a closed-circuit camera at a Whataburger site in Austin, TX circa 1967. 

DECEMBER: It is the most great time of the yr! Damn ideal, it is. It is the thirty day period of function slowdowns and getaway hoedowns. In 2023, folks reminisced about the aged Flagpole Xmas albums, and a handful of go-getters produced plans to revive the sequence. Now titled the Athens Album of Lights, the expected proceeds for the record—which were owing to go to some vaguely outlined charity out of town that just one of the organizers knew about—were sharply curtailed. The induce was just about every collaborating band just heading in advance and releasing its possess keep track of individually and according to no timeline at all. So, strike a blow for charity and teamwork, but chalk a person up for the old can-do spirit of Athens and our ongoing celebration of individuality. See ya in 2024! 

*It’s a joke, y’all. Lighten up.

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