AQUABEAR LEGION

Aquabear is pretty excited about Cleveland, Ohio’s Megachurch making its first visit down to Athens… These guys are damn good, they even opened up for Mission of Burma at last year’s Studio-Rama. A drummer and two basses, these guys have spent a good deal of time over the years in many other projects both past and current including Machine Go Boom, The Buried Wires, Washout Corporation, and a lot more. These guys play sweet math rock driven by pounding drums and twice the bass.

Megachurch is playing the Aquabear County Fair at The Union on Saturday, March 6th.

Check out this video of them playing at last year’s Compund Fest in Cleveland!

Manor Animals are an Athens supergroup of sorts, made up of the five residents of The Bruce Manor house on West Union Street in Athens. Tim Race (Russenorsk), Zach Inscho (Seascapes, Russenorsk), Alex Eiler (She Bears), Josh Landis (In Silent Movies), and Mike Jones (also of In Silent Movies) make up a group that despite their involvement in many other projects definitely has it own sound. These songs rock and their is a depth to their live shows that comes from being in a band with everyone you live in a house with. Good stuff. They just finished an EP that I am hoping to get a hold of soon.

Manor Animals will be playing the Aquabear County Fair at Casa Cantina on Friday, March 5th and that is a FREE SHOW, so you have no excuse.

Video below from Andrew Logan of Manor Animals at The Spacement:

FULL DISCLOSURE: I am playing with this project at the Aquabear County Fair, and played with Scott in Casual Future for years.

Thx. Tiger is the current outlet for Scott Spice’s recordings, Scott (and myself and others) played for years in Athens band Casual Future. We stopped playing last June because most everyone was moving but Scott continued to write and eventually recorded a album’s worth of songs, playing everything himself (I think). And the record is awesome. Never would I have thought my next live project after Casual Future would be in a band with Scott Spice again, but I am thrilled to play some drums (of all things) and help a few more people hear these songs. You can listen to those Thx. Tiger songs on the Myspace page. It will be very nice to play for folks

Thx. Tiger will be playing the Aquabear County Fair on Thursday, March 4th at The (bruce) Manor. We will play early so seriously get there at 7pm.

Casual Future was not a well-filmed band, so all I can link you to in a visual sense is a performance from last year’s County Fair were we played our newest song “Citizen Watch”, I know some of those guys hate this version but it has its moments… there’s more videos somewhere.

Oh man, I cannot in any way at all think about my life without We March. When I came to Athens as an Ohio University freshman in 2001, We March was one of the first bands I saw down here and it made me feel instantly at home. These guys are the real deal. And we are honored to have them once again play their third Aquabear County Fair on Saturday, March 6th at The Union.

Not only has We March seen most venues and towns the road has to offer, been written up in Maximum Rock and Roll, and broken bones while playing shows but they have been doing it FOR TEN YEARS plus. And they are still very, very good.

Watch the video of them playing last year’s Blackoutfest from our friend Milo:

Chris Biester is arguably the best damn musician in this town, so what better way to open up the Friday night Casa show then with a set from him? Chris hosts the weekly Wednesday Open Stage at Casa Cantina and melts all of our faces with the occasional Chickenpussy performance besides working as an artist at Passion Works Studio in uptown Athens. And of course, I cannot preview a Biester show without bringing up his former band, Athens legends Appalachian Death Ride. For those of you who have never heard ADR you should remedy that problem immediately.

Watch Chris play solo and check out a great Appalachian Death Ride video for “The Serpent”  put together by Mike Elliott below and come see Mr. Biester play himself FOR FREE at the Aquabear County Fair on Friday, March 5th at Casa Cantina.

There is one band that has played every Aquabear County Fair, and the even played the first Aquabear Showcase at The Wire in 2005. That band is Weedghost. They will be joining us at again at The Union on Saturday, March 6th.

Comprised of Andrew Lampela and Kris Poland, Weedghost has been making and looping noise for over 5 years. These fine folks also help out a ton with Aquabear and have spent time playing in The Arch Villans, Collapse, Kid Panda Hands, Dinner of Swords and the 1,000 bands Andrew has been in. Weedghost has also been part of the group of Athens musicians who hosted and played at the regular (and now semi-regular) ARTS/West Noise Nights.

At this year’s County Fair Weedghost will be playing short sets inbetween bands at The Union on Saturday, March 6th and it wouldn’t be out of the question to see them at Casa Cantina on Friday, March 5th.

Watch the video below:

So. Aquabear has decided to preview one band EVERY DAY in the weeks leading up to the Aquabear County Fair on March 4-6, 2010.  In all, 15 bands will be playing this year over the course of three nights and three venues. Today marks our first entry: Columbus, Ohio’s Men of Gentle Birth. They will be joining the Fair on Saturday, March 6th at The Union.

First off. Holy crap! These guys haven’t played in several years (I believe one of their last shows was the 2nd annual Aquabear County Fair at Casa Cantina in 2008), and have remained a favorite of mine and many others too. Aquabear considers it an honor that MOGB has decided to get back together at our little County Fair, and we couldn’t be more excited.

If you haven’t seen Men of Gentle Birth before you really need to be at The Union on Saturday, March 6th. Seriously.

And instead of trying to describe how much I love their music, watching the video below of a badass show downstairs at The Union about four years ago…

by Laura McMullen

The first few songs on Cleveland native, Tom Evanchuck’s album, Tom, have lots of talk about train stations, roads, coming home, etc.—the usual sort of reflective, acoustic shtick. But at about two tracks in, it’s clear Tom makes it work better than most.

Sure, there’s the Lonesome Dove sort of fiction lingering behind his ode to his “darlin’ Mayapple,” and in a few tracks where Evanchuck can be pictured leaning against a tree in the Old West—guitar and brow dusty from livin’. But sometimes a guitar and a great voice can turn even the cutest, Ray-Ban-sporting twenty-year old into a weathered cowboy. Cue the bluesy “Bury My Wife” where he declares, “I’m gonna bury my wife under that old pine shade. Lord knows that woman don’t know how to behave.”

Read more

by Zachary Long

Ohio music lovers will be happy to know that the dates and line-up for the 2010 edition of the MusicNOW Festival in Cincinnati were announced this past week. The annual festival, now entering it’s fifth year, showcases some of the most forward-thinking artists in contemporary music. The event is curated by Bryce Dessner, a Cincinnati native who is better known as a guitarist for The National. The festival is held at Memorial Hall, a 150-year-old restored theater in Cincinnati’s historic Over-the-Rhine district.

This year’s festival kicks off on March 30th with a performance from harpist Joanna Newsom who will likely be playing material from her upcoming Drag City release, Have One On Me. On March 31st, St. Vincent will headline and the yMusic ensemble will premiere a commissioned piece penned by St. Vincent front-woman Annie Clark. The festival will close out on April 1st with a solo performance by Justin Vernon, better known for his work with the band Bon Iver
Read more