Montgomery Advertiser

Jumper… and lots more!

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Last weekend, a music video was filmed for the song “Jumper” by Barrens. As with any film project, it was a group effort, and I want to take a moment to thank the folks who helped us out:

Thanks to my fellow band members – J. Slickwood and Clay Smith – for supporting my vision as director. Many thanks to my friends Jeff McKinney and C. DeWayne Cunningham for coming through as assistant director and assistant camera.

Special thanks to the stars of the video – Greg Loggins and V. Serrano. Y’all did a wonderful job.

Thanks to Johnny and Beth Veres and James Weddle for providing locations for the shoot. Y’all be sure to check out Johnny and Beth’s band Electric Blue Yonder and go get some food and beer at Goat Haus Biergarten. (Ooh, their weekend brunch, y’all… so good.)

Thanks to Yvette Hochberg and Glenn Grant for helping us out with props for the shoot. Thanks to Sharon Sanders for coming through for us at the last minute, to Rod Williams for helping us get in the last location, and to Lou Wood for helping out on set.

On behalf of Barrens and Terrible Master Films, thank you all!

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Now, since I mentioned Electric Blue Yonder, that happens to be one of the bands – along with our buds in V-8 Death Car – that will be performing with us at our album release show on Friday, Aug. 16. That’s coming up at Commerce Beerworks. Click here to see the Facebook event.

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In film news, the Foolish Henry Films short Bad Deal, by writer/director Shane Gillis, is premiering at Sidewalk Film Festival in Birmingham this month. It’s in the “Alabama Narratives” short film block on Sunday, Aug. 25 at 4:55 p.m. See the full schedule here.

The writer/director of The Song You’ll Never Hear – Stephen Poff – has started an IndieGoGo campaign to raise film festival submission funds. (Any indie filmmaker will tell you – those get expensive.) You can see the campaign and take a look at the perks here.

And Secret Weapon from writer/director Christopher S. Hubbard will be part of the Lanett City Film Festival and the Central Florida Film Festival this year, so congrats to him and the entire cast and crew on that!

And… check out some new music and video performances from my friends in the Abusements and The Last Thing You Remember, courtesy of the Montgomery Advertiser. Links to those below:

“Punk rock child care: Hanging out with Abusements’ ‘Uncle Dude’”

“Facing mortality with originality: The Last Thing You Remember’s ‘Home’”

As always, thanks for reading! You can subscribe to this blog below. And much love!

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Songs you’ll hear and songs you won’t

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Here are some quick updates on some stuff and some things. Stuff and things, folks. Stuff and things.

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The Song You’ll Never Hear is a short film written and directed by Stephen Poff. I play “Ralph” the bartender. The old Hail the Titans van makes an appearance. And… it’s debuting this Saturday – July 20 – as part of the Montgomery Film Festival (which is held at the Capri Theatre.)

Check out write-ups on the film in The Montgomery Advertiser, RSVP Magazine, and ALMetro360.

Now on to songs you’ll actually be able to hear soon:

BARRENS has a new album coming out soon called <content>obsolete and the cover art, by artist April Allen, has been unveiled (along with a sneak peek of the song “Shut Up Peaches”):

In other news, Pinocchio opens tonight at the Cloverdale Playhouse and runs through July 28. I got a preview of the show earlier this week while photographing it, and it’s really good. You’ll definitely want to catch it.

Here’s the promo video I helped director C. DeWayne Cunningham create for it:

And… a short film I was in earlier this year  – Secret Weapon by writer/director Christopher Hubbard – is an official selection in the Lanett City Film Festival!

Also, since I mentioned the Montgomery Film Festival earlier, they will have their infamous intermission again this year. I got to act in a couple of the fake ads they’ll be playing, so be sure to catch that as well.

More news coming soon! Subscribe to this blog below. Thanks for reading! Much love!

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Feb. 16 benefit show

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Info on the upcoming benefit show! Link in IG bio!

A post shared by TOWERING ABOVE (@toweringabove) on

Barrens is joining up with The Ghost of Daniel Pratt, Abusements, The Last Thing You Remember, and Buddy Wiltbank for a benefit show for our friend – fellow musician and artist Kris Morris. Comedian Jason Fifi will MC the evening.

The show is Sat., Feb. 16 at Bomber’s Pub in Montgomery.

The Montgomery Advertiser ran a story on the upcoming event with more details about what Kris is dealing with and links to online fundraisers that can help him out. Read it here.

Film and tacos… kinda

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Just a few quick updates here…

One of my tweets ended up on the Montgomery Advertiser in a story about a candlelight vigil for a Taco Bell that burned down recently.

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This weekend also signals the return of the Montgomery Film Festival. Check out more about the festival and the films that will show on their website.

They are also bringing back their famous intermission with fake advertisements. (Here’s a link to the one my friend Royce Williams and I submitted last year. Warning: language NSFW.)

Also, festival director Anton Jackson was busy working on the new “Capital Carnage” spot this weekend:

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And in other film festival news, my new documentary Commit to the Song: The Joe Thomas Jr. Guitar Pull will screen at this year’s George Lindsey UNA Film Festival in Florence, AL.

More news coming soon. Thanks for reading!

Some things, man… and some stuff

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Did that title draw you in? Huh? Did it? Yeah?

Good.

So here are some things you may be interested in:

1. Steve Hall Productions is bringing New Politics, Magic Man and Sleeper Agent to Montgomery. They’re all performing tomorrow night at Rock Bottom American Pub. Click here for details.

***EDIT*** I just saw a Montgomery Advertiser article about the New Politics show. Read it here.

2. Comedy Central’s show “Drunk History” will be filming in Montgomery on Saturday night. The crew will be downtown at AviatorBAR at 7 p.m. Details here.

3. The new Mogwai album “Rave Tapes” comes out next week. It’s streaming on the Brooklyn Vegan website. Click here. Yes, I’m kind of a Mogwai fan-boy, and yes, I really like the album.

4. The new album by Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra (you know, that band from Canada that has some members from Godspeed You! Black Emperor and has also gone under the names “A Silver Mt. Zion,” “Thee Silver Mt. Zion” and “Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra & Tra-La-La Band”) is streaming on Pitchfork. The album is called “Fuck Off Get Free We Pour Light On Everything.” Click here to stream.

5. Megan Jean and the KFB has a new video out – a live video for the song “These Bones.” Check it out below:

 

6. I recently got up with Adam Davila to record some drums to a Fall of Adam song titled “1989.” The EP is getting closer and closer to being complete. More details as they come along.

Film updates and “Five Questions”

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First of all, I’m told that “Gut Munchers” is coming soon. A recent Facebook post says:

“The DVD authoring is all done. Just gotta get the artwork back and it’s goin’ down! You can buy the NEW ‘Best Worst Movie’ you’ve ever seen!”

When it’s available, you’ll be able to find it at RAD Vinyl.

“See, THIS is a counter top.” Really, I have no idea what I may have been talking about right here. Photo by Elise Taylor.

Also, this past Friday, we filmed more scenes for “Death to the World.” The cast and crew were on set from 7 p.m. until 2 a.m. working on these scenes. To quote co-producer Jason Snellgrove (who happens to be the writer/director of “Gut Munchers”), “Lots of laughs, fun, knives, and FRUIT?!”

It’s very exciting to see this come together. Filming isn’t done yet, but it’s been a fun ride so far, and I’m looking forward to more of it.

And the Montgomery Advertiser’s GO! Play section is starting a new feature with local artists called “Five Questions.” I was happy to be part of this new feature, and you can read more here.

[witty title involving photos goes here]

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First, here’s your reminder that tonight is the Pint Bottle Photography showing at Head on the Door. Prints are for sale (and make great gifts… I mean, who doesn’t like art? And if they can’t appreciate art then you may want to rethink your friendship with them because maybe, just maybe, they have no culture, and their level of artistic depth is a Nickelback album – you owe us one, Canada!)

OK, where was I? Oh yeah… the art show tonight. The Montgomery Advertiser’s GoPlay section has an article about it: “Local photographer’s work on display tonight.”

Also, speaking of photos, Organic Hippie has posted some from their 1-year anniversary show. Click the photo below for the entire gallery, which includes photos of The O’Dudemen, Banditos and Hail the Titans.

Other than that… I was able to catch that comedy show on Tuesday. (I mentioned it in a post on Monday.) It was pretty good. Funny stuff.

And I have been catching up with some friends, enjoying some good conversation, good beers (’tis the season for a good stout!) and not getting enough sleep. So, uh… I’ll see you at the art show tonight!

Re-read it… and something else, too

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On Tuesday, I posted about some events that are going on this weekend. If you missed it, click here to catch up. The Denied and Underexposed event has gotten some really good press as of today’s Montgomery Advertiser.

They ran a nice article about the event, and the partnership with Helicity Montgomery, titled, “A little exposure: Event hopes to open doors, expand horizons for area artists.”

From the Montgomery Advertiser: Will Abner sets up for the "Denied and Underex­posed Art Initiative" at the S.H. Kress Build­ing on Tues­day. / Amanda Sowards

[UPDATE] Per Johnny Veres: “The Suzies, El Cantador, and Vulture Whale are playing after at Alley Bar, and they are giving out 1000 wristbands to Denied and Underexposed attendees (over 21) for a 5 dollar discount on the door. DJ casequarter (Kevin Nutt) will be spinning vinyl in the front bar all night.”

Oh, where to begin…

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The past few days have been busy, but in a good way. On Friday, “Hymns of Mare Nostrum” by Hail the Titans was officially released. It’s now on CD Baby, iTunes, Amazon, Last.fm, etc. (Check out the “Music Links” page on this site for more info.)

The Montgomery Advertiser’s GoPlay section posted on Tumblr about the album and the CD release show Friday. Read that here. They said some very nice things.

The show went great. We actually brought in a golden shopping cart to play during the last song. The crowd was very kind to us, and we have gotten a lot of positive feedback on the album. I am very glad that people are digging it as much as they are.

Saturday, we played Nophest in Atlanta. We were at 529, and this is the first time I have ever played that venue. The sound in there is great, and the crowd was very receptive and kind to us. A few people even asked us to pose for photos with them.

Tracey from Rock Science got a couple of photos during our set:

Share photos on twitter with Twitpic

We got to play with Mice in Cars again – a great band with super nice people. If you haven’t heard them, do yourself a favor and check out their “Burn the Reader” EP on their Bandcamp page.

We played after Mice in Cars, then Fish Hawk played after us. They had a lot of energy. I missed part of their set because we were loading, and then I walked up to East Side Lounge to catch the tail end of R_Garcia‘s solo set. I saw Graham and Josh from Jungol while there. They performed a Dark Room set during the same time slot we were playing.

I went back to 529 and caught part of Scarab’s set. Good stuff. The guitarist appeared to have an iPod wired into his guitar. It looked like he had a Moog app on it. Very interesting stuff.

During the night, I had more than one person tell me about Nigredo. Some said we would go very well with them musically. Well… they were right. Along with being super nice guys, they were amazing. I thought we set up a lot of equipment. I was wrong. Our pedal boards were dwarfed by comparison. These guys had kind of a Russian Circles vibe to their stuff… and if you didn’t catch the word “amazing” already… well… that’s an accurate description.

Nophest was like a musical family reunion. Along with running into members of Jungol, Randy from Nophi/Swank Sinatra, Tracey from Rock Science and playing with Mice in Cars again, we ran into other members of Swank Sinatra, Gun Party, Capillaries, Billy from Ricer, Amelia (who wrote in Performer Magazine about the Drunken Unicorn show we played back in June) and others. We even spotted one of the guitarists from Maserati at one point.

I think the only non-positive thing about the weekend was that The Appleseed Cast was in Atlanta on Saturday, too… and I didn’t get to see them. Hopefully, they will tour this way again soon.

Anyway, it was a great weekend, and we appreciate all of you who made it great by sharing it with us!

An exciting weekend ahead

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Before I get to this coming weekend, I was able to catch a really good show on Saturday. The Sneaky Hand, from Atlanta, played at Head on the Door with Breaking Aim and the Rhythm.

Both bands rocked it. You should check them both out.

OK, this Friday, Aug. 26, marks the official release of “Hymns of Mare Nostrum,” by Hail the Titans.

It feels like it’s been a long time coming. We began recording the album in January, raised money during June, and now, at the end of August, it will finally be released.

The preliminary reviews have been really good.

Pro-BMX rider Tom Haugen, on TheBykeRack.com, said, “Technically proficient, yet still with a universally, easily accessible feel, the 8 tracks here are swimming in meticulous, creative and atmospheric post-rock with dynamic tempo changes.”

The Montgomery Advertiser‘s Sean Gourley called it “a fantastic mix of music and noise,” and said, “It’s one thing to blur the lines between genres; it’s another to crank up the sound and blow them apart,” adding “Hymns of Mare Nostrum’ is worth a listen, many times over.”

Friday, we’re at Head on the Door with our good friends Hellakopta of Love.


(Photo by Pint Bottle Photography. Photographer: Tyler Caldwell.)

Our friend Nolan Dewey made a promo video for the show. You can view it on Facebook.

For this Friday, we encourage you to get the venue early as a lot of people have told us that they are planning to attend.

In case the venue gets to capacity, we plan to have a merch table set up outside to make it easier to purchase the CD. We may also have some new t-shirts for sale that night as well.

Also, on Saturday, we are playing Nophest in Atlanta. We are on the 529 stage that night at 10 p.m. This is going to be fun, and I encourage you to get tickets early if you plan to attend. There are more than 50 bands playing this festival this weekend at four or five venues in East Atlanta Village.

So please join us at one or both shows this weekend. We’d love to see you there.