Last weekend was my first ever trip to Atlanta. Kate has family down there and we both wanted to go see the Catfight! 30th Anniversary show. As good a couple of excuses for a trip as any! As usual, our M.O. for visiting a new city was to pick a seemingly central location and then explore different neighborhoods for cool record, book and junk shops. A couple good local meals is always a plus and, if time or desire permits, we indulge in touristy stuff.
The Show: Sometimes you're a fan of a band and sometimes your a fan of a band's records. The limitations of money (can't afford tickets), geography (The band is local to somewhere else) and/or time (the band is... um... dead) sometimes just conspire to prevent you from seeing a band live.
Catfight! was a "records only" band for both Kate and me. I discovered them back when ordering records for my first shop, Rudy Goose Comics. Basically, I was ordering everything I could from Atlanta's Worrybird Records based on liking the Subsonics a lot. I fell in love with their singles "Mamie" and "Panic Attack" as well as the "Girl Crazy" comp they appeared on were all keeper records for me. Their CD was pretty great too, but if I still have that it's buried deep in a box in a closet. (The fate of all of my CDs.) Kate discovered Catfight! after we purchased a DVD of the marvelous B-Movie tribute "Stomp! Shout! Scream!" at a Woggles show. I don't think either of us ever expected to see the band live due to geography. When would I ever be in Georgia or why would they ever come to Ohio? Luckily, we had reason to go visit Kate's family in Atlanta at the same time as Catfight! was performing their 30th anniversary show!
I am happy to say that I'm a full fledged fan, now. Catfight! performed a short solid set that covered their career chronological, from the singles I was already familiar with to recent tunes that were written as angry responses to the rise of Trump-ism and MAGA terrorist bullshit. Thirty years of experience performing was in full evidence as they plowed the audience with great rock songs.
The opening acts were pretty great too! (We mused over the last time that we saw a show with two openers that were both great. Maybe the Sonics with the Cynics and Alarm Clocks opening at Beachland Ballroom?) In reverse order of appearance: The Token Hearts were billed as an "supergroup" as its a side project featuring members of both the Woggles and Subsonics. That was exciting to me as I've seen the Woggles, but Subsonics are a band that I am basically a fan of their records. "Basically" since I have never seen them live, but I did do an interview with them years ago which got turned into a cartoon for Roctober Magazine... so somewhere on the spectrum of a label that I wrongly presented as a binary. Any who, the Token hearts were very good. I guess I can say that I'm a full-fan of Buffi Aguero and Clay Reed, but still mostly a records-only fan of Subsonics. Or maybe avoid labels since I'm bad at it.
The Brower Sisters were the first band to play. (I guess I'm doing this in reverse order.) In some ways they were the most exciting group to play. To cop another band's descriptor, the Brower Sisters are young, loud, and snotty in the best possible way. They also brought the fun with a young crowd that not only danced to the Brower Sisters, but who also stuck around to dance to both Token hearts and Catfight!. Let that be a lesson to all of the old timer rockers out there: Let teh kids play, they'll make your show better. I hope the Brower Sisters keep at it and put on a zillion more shows and put out a zillion records. The Location: The show was in Atlanta's West End. We actually stayed just a few blocks from the show venue. I'm not sure what to make of the neighborhood: Its seems similar to the Near East Side and Franklinton neighborhoods of Columbus: historically multicultural with a dash of recent development that may lead to the unfortunate effect of gentrification. I could be wrong about the last bit. I hope so. The giant brewery that housed the show venue and the new food hall next door did seem out of place with the households just across the way in a small park.
The place we stayed was kind of a hoot. An airBNB advertised as a tiny cabin. The "cabin" was a done-up storage container in the owner's fenced in backyard. A stripped down, but thoroughly adequate place to sleep and bath while on the road. Y'know... It had electricity and plumbing. The inside walls and floors were all unfinished wood and the huge windows cut out on one side made me feel a little like Roddy McDowell in his Twilight Zone space zoo. I only have one real complaint and that is that the walls were thin and the neighborhood dogs were loud.
The Record, Book, and Junk Shops Our first shop-stop, Antiques and Beyond is a sprawling shop about a twenty minute drive from our West End tiny cabin. (I feel like every place in Atlanta is a twenty minute drive from every other place in Atlanta.) It takes up the entirety of a what looks like it was once a strip mall with three or four store fronts as well as having a large outdoor area filled with patio furniture and yard art. Contents ranged from antique to merely vintage and from quirky to outright creepy. (I mean that in a good way.) Lots of great stuff, though all of what I found cool was unfortunately not suitable for the single suitcase I brought. Thanks to the woman working there who tried to give me the giant stack of mystery 45s after hearing about my Sketchbook Picture Sleeves project! Sorry I couldn't take 'em off your hands!
Next up was a pair of Decatur stores: The Book Nook and Wuxtry.
The Book Nook is an arcane media explosion, loaded with DVDs, CDs, LPs, Comics, Magazines, and (natch) books. Another spot that was probably originally a couple to a few store fronts but has clearly grown out of control. There was a loose organization to the aisles of make-do bookcases, long boxes, and display racks, but really this was a crate digger's spot. You probably have to go several times and look through all the piles and files to get everything that might be up your alley. My best scores were a signed copy Big Sandy and the Fly-Rite Boys' LP "Feelin' Kinda Lucky" and an old copy of Peterson's Surf toons with a cool Michael Dormer strip titled "Surfenstein." Kate I think did better than me with a collected copy of Matt Groening's "Children Are Hell," Lynda Barry's "My Perfect Life" and book of Phyllis Diller housekeeping gags.
Wuxtry: Decatur has two more famous brethren in Athens, Georgia noted for records and comics respectively. The Decatur shop is pretty much a straight up record store. What I liked best about it was the seemingly untouched boxes of 45s, which I made most of the way through before my back gave out on me. (They weren't on the ground or anything, it's just that my back is essentially a bundle of kindling wood held together by the frayed remains of my sciatic nerve these days.) I think the guys behind the counter were happy that I actually took the time to raid those boxes, thanking me for taking the time! I also grabbed a copy of Jeffrey Lewis's lo-fi classic "A Turn In the Dream-Songs." I think he's both a fun musician and fun cartoonist! Anywyas, I probably should've paid more attention to what I bought specifically at Wuxtry so as to do Tales from the Crate issue about the trip, but man... I'm backed up on those!
The next day we went to the Little Five Points Neighborhood, where I was interested in visiting Criminal Records (like the original Wuxtry famous for having both records and comics) and Wax N Facts.
Criminal Records looks unassuming on the outside, but when you enter it becomes apparent that the store is deep and long. There's a lot of square footage and its pretty tightly packed. I picked up a small pile of 7"s and a local artist's monster comic/sketchbook. Based on its size, I was a little surprised that I didn't spend longer there and pick up more stuff. (These things go in cycles. Maybe if I ever go again there will be more.) One minor peeve... Criminal needs to use smaller price stickers for their 45s. I usually leave such things on to remind me where I picked up any given record, but these stickers covered up a lot of the imagery on the pic sleeves. Luckily most of them peeled off.
Wax N Facts is a smaller store and is mostly focused on used LPs, though there was an impressive pile of 45s in a back nook. I should have hit this shop before Criminal. It's tightly packed and a physical effort is required to flip through the bins. I'm sure I missed some good stuff. Got some good stuff too, though. The cartoon art on the Bill Haley LP is pretty awesome and the Louis Prima 7" EP is outstanding! The fella behind the counter was super nice and gave us the Catfight! show poster in his window. (This was the day after the show)
7" Gallery: I'm honestly not sure which records I bought where at this point, having removed some price tags. (Also Wuxtry and Wax 'n Facts seem to use the same model price gun)
Good Eats and Tourism Our first night in we had both a massive meal and full on tourist experience at Trader Vics. Cheesy? Yes. Expensive? Yes. More than vaguely inappropriate in terms of cultural appropriation? Yes. My love of tiki decor is a guilty pleasure and one that I can't indulge in here in post-Kahiki Columbus. The Atlanta Trader Vics isn't the original, but it was an early site. The masks and bamboo and giant smoker pots all looked authentic fake. The food was... Mostly the same in quality as you'd get a fair-to-middling American Chinese restaurant at a jacked up price, but I loved the gimmickry.
Silver Skillet provided the best meal that we had in Atlanta. I understand that this joint is famous, but I wouldn't call it touristy. Just a good old fashioned coffee shop/diner. The decor had a great mid century vibe and the food was inexpensive and tasty.
World of Coke. This tourist attraction was our last stop on the trip. Ugh. I don't know what possessed me to go to this "museum." Its like a full tilt advertising barrage that we paid for the privilege to be indoctrinated by. I mean... I feel like it could have been cool. Tasting the different products coke sells across the world was kind of neat, I guess. (The floors in that room were sticky like a sleazy movie theater, though.)
I did like some of the record themed art pieces, though!
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