Here’s a quick look at the best shows and events happening in Atlanta this weekend Thursday, November 7th through Sunday, November 10th!
Sinead Harnett at The Loft – Atlanta
Friday, November 8th at 7:00pm
London native Sinead Harnett, inspired at a young age by the likes of Whitney Houston and Michael Jackson, as well as Lauryn Hill’s role in Sister Act 2, got a foothold in the music industry through a series of collaborations during the early 2010s. In 2012, she made a small splash as the featured vocalist on “Boiling,” the dreamlike lead track on Disclosure’s The Face EP, and sounded like a confident veteran. She signed to Virgin EMI in the U.K. and released a four-track EP of her own, N.O.W., featuring a track produced by Snakehips as well as sophisticated pop in the forms of “Paradise” and “High Wire.” A self-titled EP arrived in 2016 and featured collaborations with Grades, Kaytranada, and Snakehips. The next year, Harnett issued the Chapter One mixtape, followed by the sultry singles “Body” and “Lessons” in 2018. As she worked on her debut album in 2019, she continued to release singles including “Leo Bear” and the duet “Pulling Away” featuring R&B singer Gallant.
Je Suis France, Small Reactions, Air Sea Dolphin & Sunset Pig at The Earl
Friday, November 8th at 9:00pm
One of the many bands hanging on the fringe of the Athens indie rock scene, eclectic in-jokesters Je Suis France balance a healthy penchant for garage rock and craggy instrumental epics harkening back to the early days of Built to Spill with an adventurous Camper Van Beethoven anything-goes-aesthetic (which is appropriate seeing that they released their first album on David Lowery’s Pitch-a-Tent label). And while their band persona — with members having names like Darkness and Iceberg, their philosophizing about Eastern bloc politics, and their baffling album liner notes and cover art seem to hint at the worst of art rock eccentricity — they are ultimately a fairly down-to-earth indie rock band. Forming while in a Marietta, GA, high school around principal members DJ and Darkness, the Je Suis France lineup was solidified when the various members found themselves enrolled at the University of Athens and working at the college radio station. With the additions of Chris Rogers on guitar and Iceberg on bass, the band went through a litany of names and instrumental alignments before exchanging the Masters of the Hemisphere’s Sean Rawls for his bandmate Jeff Griggs as drummer, thus finalizing their lineup. As their reputation grew in the crowded Athens scene, both for their artful songwriting and their occasional performance of songs in phonetically reversed lyrics, they found a home for their self-titled debut in 2000, which garnered highly favorable reviews for their mix of curvy instrumentals and ragged anthems. The similarly impressive Ice Age followed in 2002.
Electric Avenue performs Tears For Fears + other 80s Hits at The Vista Room ATL
Friday, November 8th at 8:00pm
At this performance, Electric Avenue will start the evening out with 10 songs from the incredible Tears For Fears. immediately followed by 22 of your fave 80s New Wave hits!
At just 23, Tears For Fears were launched into the world music scene with the multimillion-selling success of their sophomore release, ‘Songs From The Big Chair’, which featured the hits ‘Shout’, ‘Head Over Heels’ and ‘Everybody Wants To Rule The World’. They followed that up built on the multi-layered “love power” emanating from the mighty album ‘The Seeds Of Love’, featuring the vaulted and brave singles ‘Woman In Chains’ and ‘Sowing The Seeds of Love. Electric Avenue will be bringing these songs to life by shining light and love on every detail these songs have to offer. The balance of the evening will be a greatest hits collection of other 80s New Wave. Expect to hear George Michael, Men at Work, The Fixx, OMD, The Cure, Duran Duran, Prince, Howard Jones, Phil Collins, David Bowie, Thompson Twins, ABC, Naked Eyes, INXS…
Truett w/ Kate Barnette & Tyler Jarvis at Vinyl
Saturday, Nov 9th at 8:00pm
Is Truett a soul singer? He was raised on Bill Withers and Stevie Wonder and can croon a Sam Cooke song or shout his lungs out a la Jackie Wilson. Is Truett a guitar virtuoso? Hearing him play is like having Albert Collins throw his drink in your face and kick his muddy boot up on your table to solo at the height of his powers. Is what Truett does easy to define? Absolutely not. He’ll take you from the Mississippi Delta to Prince’s Minneapolis, Chicago blues to Bowery Punk, down through Outkast’s Atlanta and out the other side of the psychedelic rabbit hole. That explosive mix makes for a singular experience.
Zero Mile Presents – The Japanese House w/ Our Girl at The Loft
Sunday, November 10th at 7:00pm
Crafting a mix of lush dream pop and brooding electronica, the Buckinghamshire native worked under a handful of different monikers before using the Japanese House name in 2015. The name was inspired by a childhood trip to Devon, where she posed as a boy for a week, earning the affection of a neighborhood girl who was later heartbroken to learn Bain’s true identity. Owned by actress Kate Winslet, the cottage was called the Japanese House and Bain’s memories of her experiences there influenced the intentionally androgynous presentation of her musical work. After signing with U.K. indie Dirty Hit Records, she released a pair of EPs in 2015, beginning with Pools to Bathe In followed a few months later by Clean. A new single, “Face Like Thunder,” arrived in 2016. That track was featured on her EP, Swim Against the Tide. In 2017, Bain issued the languid pop single “Saw You in a Dream,” which was later included on an EP of the same title. In September 2018, Bain offered “Lilo,” the first single from her forthcoming Japanese House full-length debut. The album — titled Good at Falling — arrived in early 2019.
Bonus Show!
Counterparts / Stray From The Path / Varials / Chamber / Greyhaven at The Masquerade
Monday, November 11th at 6:00pm
Counterparts consciously decided to switch things up on their fifth full-length album and second for New Damage Records, You’re Not You Anymore. Forging into new territory, the Hamilton, Ontario quintet— Brendan “B” Murphy [lead vocals], Adrian Lee [rhythm guitar], Blake Hardman [lead guitar], Kyle Brownlee [drums], and Tyler Williams [bass]—stressed the incorporation of clean singing and tighter structures into the writing process, streamlining their searing signature style significantly.
“It’s cool that we’re still learning, trying new things, and being diverse after ten years together,” exclaims Brendan.
“We started this band at 16-years-old, and we’ve figured out a lot along the way. We wanted to write catchier music that’s heavy and still Counterparts, but people can sing along to it live. We’ve been gravitating more towards this for a while. These elements have become more apparent on every record. Finally, we were like, ‘Fuck it. Let’s write the best record we can and keep it short, heavy, and to the point.’ That’s what we set out to do.”
The progression proved natural for the group with 2015’s Tragedy Will Find Us paving the way. The album debuted at #116 on the Billboard Top 200 and earned the endorsement of Noisey who proclaimed, “This is a record made by a band who have hit their stride in defining exactly what Counterparts means in terms of sound and meaning.”
