The folks heading up the Athens Popfest just released the first round of band announcements for this year's fest set to run October 11-15, 2011 in my favorite town east of the Mississippi.

Featured headliners include Olivia Tremor Control, Bob Mould, Throwing Muses, The Dead Milkmen, and Man Or Astroman? (with 65 more bands still to be announced!) and they will surely turn heads, but usually it's the lesser known bands that end up making big splashes in Athens. Need I remind you that we heard both Black Kids and Pains of Being Pure at Heart for the first time when they played opening daytime slots at the 2007 fest?

One of those lesser known bands on this year's PopFest schedule is Eureka California, an Athens, GA hometown band who has piqued my attention with their garage-rock-brit-pop songs.  My particular favorite song today is "Baby, I'm Your Garbage Man," recorded live at Slaglefest earlier this year.

{photo from the Eureka California facebook page}

Tomorrow morning, before the crack of dawn, I'll be headed to Atlanta, GA to visit my mom and sister for the weekend (they moved there a few years back, after I had already survived a Delaware childhood). Besides getting to visit with the fams, I am elated that my mom agreed to not only transport me from suburban Atlanta to Lil Five Points to visit ATL's Criminal Records, but also go on a mini-roadtrip to Athens for the day on Saturday!

It's no secret I love all that is Athens, GA. Over the last *cough* decade+, I have enjoyed many a stroll down Lumpkin Street and have worn out more than one 40 Watt Club t-shirt.  I really don't think I will ever get over my Athens-obsession.

The highlights this time around? A visit to Wuxtry Records and lunch at The Grit.  While running around GA, I will also have my eye out for some thrift stores (the southern ladies usually donate some pretty fly wares) and I might even spot a Nana Grizol or Cars Can Be Blue!

Anything else we should do while in the sweetest of small towns for the day? Any GA local releases I should look out for in the shops?

In case you're not roadtripping this weekend and will be in Seattle with your marshmallow peeps, there's plenty of stuff to keep you busy (hello Miniature Tigers and Surfer Blood!):

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at The Vera Project

Nana Grizol played The Vera Project on Tuesday, Jan. 19th along with Max Levine Ensemble, iji and A Million Years Ago. If you didn't already know about this show... see here, here, here, here, and here.

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I am fairly certain that imaginary keenan and I have created an airtight case to get yourself to the Vera Project on Tuesday {1/19} to see Nana Grizol {exhibits one, two, three, four}, but here are a couple more reasons to get you and your posse there:

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From an informal poll of recent friends' twitters, it looks like it's been a rough week for a lot of us.

Just when I was about to start self-medicating with diet soda and a bucket of leftover Halloween candy, Nana Grizol emailed us and offered a brand-spanking new, never been posted, beauty of a song that is going to be on the next Nana Grizol album Ruth (Orange Twin Records, January 12, 2010)!!!

As I was hoping, "Galaxies" is a brass horn-filled, jangle-ridden, heart-wrenching sing-along piece of pop wonderment (download it now!) and is a great follow up to the first sneakpeek from the upcoming album, "For Things That Haven't Come Yet" (download it).

If you're outside of Seattle, looks like you might be in Nana Grizol luck:

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Whether your camp memories are juicy or traumatic, our friends at Team Clermont have put together a music fun fest to put all our tales to shame.

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Gyrate is worth another listen, especially for the first track, "Cool."

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at 40 Watt

The Athens PopFest ruled... a helicopter shirt dance AND Daniel Johnston AND Japanese Pop AND horns? YES!

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at 40 Watt

I missed the day shows (Atlanta traffic sucks big time and it took 7 hours to pick up a friend at the airport!), but no mind, the night shows more than made up for it.

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at 40 Watt

That Ted Leo a smooth mofo! His flawless set took the fest up a notch with as he oozed with enchanting conversation and cool-kid moves.

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