Atlanta Music
Atl Concert:
Whoaa February 16th at Drunken Unicorn
When did this song come out?
I’m going to be honest, I had never heard of the Atlanta duo, Whoaa, until this morning. I was looking for a show to highlight this weekend, and I stumbled upon them when I was trying to figure out who was headlining over a DJ Jelly / Mr. Collipark battle that would have been the talk of my high school back in the day. Whoaa is one of the most unique acts I’ve heard in a while. Each song sounds like a tribute to a dance party anthem from the past. But not one specific decade. They have titled this weekend’s event “Born in the Wrong Era”, even though we need them now more than ever.
“Broken Hearts Avenue” bops like a Paula Abdul track if she was backed by The Revolution. “Poison” sounds like a 90s child actress released a single to shed her “good girl” image. “Don’t Take Me For Granted” could have warranted an 80s mall tour by itself. “No One” took me back to a time when TLC had “Baby, Baby, Baby” and “What About Your Friends” dominating local and national radio. Then they throw in a cover of the `1985 track by 52nd Street “Tell Me (How It Feels)”. And it feels like they’ve just covered 20 years of hits.
I'll let them describe themselves:
If you were to classify us into a musical genre, it would be “Retro-Pop” but to be specific …. we are like “late 70s turn of decade post-disco, early 80s new wave, electroFunk mixed with the Golden Era mid 90s rap”
Whoaa’s music videos all intentionally look like you stumbled upon a little known VHS recording from Matt Pinfield’s private collection. Each track has the female vocalist Ring singing through the selected genre, with bars sprinkled throughout from Atlanta’s rapper Dolla. While you might not have heard of them yet, you can expect a feel-good party for 10 bucks at Drunken Unicorn on Saturday. Make sure to check them out.
Whoaa Links
atlanta Spotlight:
Lucky Daye - II
Over the past few weeks, good music has been coming in small doses. Gone are the days of needing more than 10 tracks to have a release. Two weeks ago, I talked about how I was playing Summer Walker’s 4 song EP “Clear” on repeat. Since Friday, I’ve been doing the same for Lucky Daye’s “II”.
Lucky is basically releasing an album in chunks of 4-5 songs at a time. This week, he put out his second installment. He weaves effortlessly between singing soulful choruses with funk beats underneath and intricate raps that speed up and slow down like a vintage Kendrick track. He starts the EP with one of the most catchy and creative songs I’ve heard in a long time.
The first song “Karma” has Lucky showing the two different sides of himself. In the first verse he sings about his new girl and how well everything is going, probably taking it one step too far by telling her “I ever got the chance to, I’d come and meet her mama”. In the chorus he realizes he might be taking it too fast, and reminds himself that he better slow it down. By the second verse we find out that she’s moved on, and he’s following her around throwing tantrums backstage and failing to figure out what to buy her affection with. Again, he reminds himself that he needs to slow it down, but switches to rapping and telling how he’s really feeling in the last verse, then outros the song with one of the tantrums he mentioned earlier.
It’s a fitting ode to how everyone is living life these days – dual personalities. Not in the American Psycho way that is portrayed in movies, but how we all have the person we show on the outside, and the one we keep on the inside. There’s the version we want every one to see with our posts online, when we “slow it down” and carefully choose the words, gifs and emojis that will strain out any thoughts that make people uncomfortable. It’s the catchy, confident, braggadocious version that starts the song (and makes your head nod).
But when the affection stops coming, Lucky switches into unfiltered mode – capping it all off with a one sided argument. It only took three minutes for Lucky to take us from bragging about his new girl to his friends, to overhearing a phone argument from him like we are in a booth next to him in Waffle House (we’ve all been there, right?). Overall, this is why you’ll never hear “Karma” on the radio. Lucky is willing to show us both filtered and unfiltered versions of himself. It’s fantastic, and you should make sure to add it onto whatever playlist has your heaviest rotation.
The other three tracks are so different from one another, that I can’t compare him to any combination of artists without starting a long checklist. But that’s the good thing about these great EPs; it will only take you 16 minutes to find out for yourself. Then do yourself a favor and make a playlist combining it with his first EP “I”.
Curt Castle Interview
Curt Castle had his release party for his new album “If I’m Here at All” last night at the Earl, and he invited me out to talk a little Atlanta United. He sent me over the Soundcloud link to his new album to listen to before coming out.
As soon as I walked in, Curt greeted me with a hug. His bandmate was having to perform solo as the opening act due to a last minute flu cancelation. Curt is a huge ATLUTD fan and was excited to talk about the team with me for a long time leading up to when he was due to get on stage. He was most excited about how many games the Five Stripes have this year that are nationally televised since he is often out of state.
We laughed about the story of Frank de Boer hiding low in a Starbucks drive through while Darren Eales was the one the cashier recognized. He got to prove to his guitarist that former die-hard Braves fans were now loving Atlanta United since the Cobb County swap screwed over anyone needing to use MARTA (I was a season ticket holder when they were still at Turner Field). Then we recapped the preseason domination of Pity, Barco, and Josef. Oh, and the depth of this team. I argued that we could split into two squads and each make the playoffs. But let’s just concentrate on that CCL tourney first.
He had friends coming up to him the whole time, each of which were as easy to talk with as Curt. When it was time for me to tape a quick interview with him, he made sure to go grab his Almirón jersey to wear under his blazer. He thanked me for coming out and went to get ready to go onstage.
“Ok guys, we’re gonna ease you into it” he introduced himself to the crowd, and put on a hell of a show. The other four members of his band were having a great time, and you could tell how well they get along musically and personally. Their upbeat version of Across State Lines (Supernova) was a highlight of the show. As you can see below, every member in the band is grooving in a different way like a Charlie Brown dance number. Clearly their bassist is the Snoopy of the group. I don’t know which Peanuts character the others are, but that dude is a Snoopy soul in a Steve Zissou uniform (These are meant to be compliments).
I don’t know whether more people were at the show because they were fans of Curt’s music, or fans of Curt. I saw our bartender from earlier in the crowd nodding his head to a few songs on a meandering trip to the bathroom. There were a handful of older people joyously taking selfies while the band was setting up, and they looked like they picked the perfect activity for a late weeknight. I couldn’t tell who was a friend and who was a fan. But everybody there had a great night.
Curt is a super entertaining musician, a great dude to talk with, and will always be a friend of the site. Check him out at curtcastle.com and listen to his new album here on Spotify.
Did Big Boi have the most Atlanta week ever?
Big Boi started off this week by releasing two tracks that had only ATL artists featured, and being a rap game vet was a requirement. He paired up with current hype-man and Organized Noize alum Sleepy Brown on “Doin’ It”. Then he decided to slather more Atlanta flavor on his B-side by enlisting Killer Mike and Dungeon Family’s Backbone. The tracks pair up in true Big Boi style. His two most popular tracks of his last album were the uber-catchy “All Night” and the hard-hitting “Kill Jill”. The essence of those two are summed up in his new pair of tracks.
Now let’s talk about it: The Super Bowl halftime show. Nevermind, let’s just talk about Big Boi’s 2 minutes. To start, he rolled up in a Cadillac to a painfully short, not even ringtone length snippet of “Kryptonite”. Though it seems it only took about 15 seconds of being chauffeured to get him a new ride:
Next up, time for Sleepy Brown to get paid. I’m sure Adam Levine wanted to be the only one to sing the chorus, but Antoine had to look out for his day one, Sleepy. SO MANY SONGS TO CHOOSE FROM, but we can’t be mad at him picking an Outkast track, though it was essentially his solo breakout.
(You’ll have to watch the video below on YouTube’s site/app, because there’s no way I’m going to link to the entire halftime show)
To follow everything up, Big Boi made the ATL hats and ATLiens jackets available for purchase before the game was even over. His site was flooded with orders, and they couldn’t even keep up with all the expedited shipping. That’s right, just like in the 90s, you’ll see people all over the country repping Outkast clothing.
To cap it off, he left the stage with an “ATL HO” chant that would have made a non-corporate crowd erupt. Truly, he was the only entertaining part of a boring Super Bowl.
And to keep bringing Atlanta glory to the rest of the country, Big Boi announced the upcoming Dungeon Family reunion tour.
They’ve sure come a long way from recording in an crawlspace under a house. Here’s hoping the handful of cities will show up to appreciate the greatness that was, and is Atlanta music.
Now go on and marinate on that for a minute.
This week's atlanta Spotlight:
Summer Walker - Clear
If you have to drive to work anywhere in Atlanta, then you have time to check out this 10 minute joy of an EP. Summer Walker has blessed us with a peek into her live performance, and you’ll want see the full act when she comes to Atlanta to wrap up her tour. Her style is R&B loaded with realness, and a smooth jazz band to compliment her effortlessly beautiful voice.
With a 4 track EP, and a 7 date tour, there is no risk of having too much Summer Walker, so let’s cherish what she’s given us.
For old folks, think Erykah Badu mixed with Aaliyah. For young bucks, think SZA mixed with H.E.R.
