ATLRetro

by Aleck Bennett
Contributing Writer

It’s been over three years since we first witnessed the infamous bloodthirsty biker gang, the Impalers going mano a mano with Sasquatch in DEAR GOD NO! (2011), James “Jimmy” Bickert’s lovingly crafted 16mm shrine to All-Things-Exploitation. Turns out that while Bickert has been busy doing things like helping resurrect the World Famous Drive-Invasion, he’s been working all the while on his film’s long-awaited sequel, FRANKENSTEIN CREATED BIKERS! Filmed in glorious 35mm, the sequel will find our anti-heroes reanimated and back on the trail of Bigfoot while also trying to elude rival gangs, the law, bounty hunters, mutants and a femme fatale with a thing for explosives. If the wild description and upgrade in film format hasn’t clued you in that Jimmy Bickert is aiming for a bigger spectacle than before, he’s also added genre favorites like HUMAN CENTIPEDE 2’s Laurence Harvey, HEADLESS’ Ellie Church and AMERICAN MARY’s Tristan Risk to his ensemble of returning actors including Kool Kat Shane Morton (Silver Scream Spookshow, Gargantua, Atlanta Zombie Apocalypse), Kool Kat Jett Bryant (Bigfoot), Nick Morgan (Splatter Cinema), Bill Ratliff (Truckadelic), Kool Kat Madeline Brumby, Jim Stacy (Pallookaville, Get Delicious!, Offbeat Eats) and many more!

As with DEAR GOD NO!, FRANKENSTEIN CREATED BIKERS went directly to its potential audience for support through a Kickstarter crowd-funding campaign, and met its budgetary goals with time to spare. But the campaign still rolls on, with insane perks (ranging from the expected DVDs and Blu-rays to tattoos, personalized burlesque videos, on-screen appearances, decapitated heads and biker jackets) on offer for those willing to pony up and help move the movie through those heady days of post-production and distribution. Check out the full range of rewards here, because there’s still time to be a part of exploitation film history!

Kool Kat Madeline Brumby and James Bickert

ATLRetro caught up with Jimmy Bickert for a quick rundown on what’s coming back for FRANKENSTEIN CREATED BIKERS, why going with crowd-funding made sense for this project and what you should be watching while you wait for this tale to unspool on a theater screen near you!

ATLRetro: First off, why a Kickstarter for FRANKENSTEIN CREATED BIKERS? Are there any inherent advantages with going this route over taking an indie co-production deal?

Jimmy Bickert: It’s very difficult to pitch an idea like FCB to anyone. No sane person would get involved with such a rotten picture. (laughs) That’s the beauty of crowd-funding. We can rebel against what is trendy in the marketplace, even micro sub-genres of horror, without worrying about someone’s return investment. It’s freedom to put what we want to see and experience on the screen without having to placate or conform to the expectations of the general public, too. Nobody on this production team has any interest in doing anything we’ve seen before or a hundred times over for that matter. If we can look at the screen and laugh together, the journey was a success.

You’ve assembled some great bonuses for investors, ranging from special DVDs and Blu-Rays to posters and international distribution rights (!!!). What can folks looking to invest via Kickstarter expect to get when they pony up their dough?

DEAR GOD NO!

We’ve reached our goal but WE NEED MORE MONEY FOR POST PRODUCTION! (laughs) They will immediately know they’re dealing directly with like-minded cinema fans. Many Kickstarter rewards tend to distance themselves from the contributors by offering digital downloads. How lazy and impersonal is that? I’m going to address a package and physically mail it to you. I may even throw in something extra and if our paths cross, we can share a beer together. We’re not looking for something for nothing. Many of the rewards are designed to get people involved and let them be a part of this project. We’re building a community and not trying to step on people so we can hang at L.A. cocktail parties. There is a level of smugness you find in the Indie film festival scene that is absent among the horror Indies. We tend to embrace our audience and drag them along for the ride.

Okay, my two main fascinations growing up were anything related to Bigfoot and Frankenstein. DEAR GOD NO! did Sasquatch proud while taking on other sub-genres—biker flicks, mad scientists, etc. What new ingredients are you bringing to the Frankenstein template?

We’re reviving everything you mentioned. There is a plot device in FCB very similar to the Shaw Brothers’ Kung-fu films and Spaghetti Westerns where we introduce three “larger than life” bounty hunters. I’m most excited about incorporating elements from one of my favorite sub-genres—the Talking Head movie. Since the script has just about everything, I would love to incorporate a kitchen sink into a death scene. (laughs)

Last time out, you nearly burned down one of the screens at the Starlight staging a van explosion. Do you have anything new planned that has the potential for that kind of destruction with FRANKENSTEIN? We do. Much more controlled this time around but yes, there will be some explosions. Shhh! I’m trying to secure my production insurance policy! (laughs)

DEAR GOD NO!

You’re shooting this on 35mm, which is both a step up from DEAR GOD NO!’s 16mm and away from the mainstream’s adoption of digital as the norm. What led to this decision and what qualities would you say 35mm offers you over the other two formats? In other words, how is this going to affect FRANKENSTEIN CREATED BIKERS’ look?

We’re shooting on 35mm to have that connection to cinematic history on the set. I like a hand-crafted aesthetic that doesn’t resemble a Marvel blockbuster. Visually I can tell the difference. It appears more natural to my vision – especially with some good lenses. The medium will definitely help convey the late ‘70s visual connotations we’re trying to achieve. Due to the lack of availability for independents, this is probably our last chance to shoot on film so we’re going to make it count.

In addition to the returning DEAR GOD NO! ensemble, FRANKENSTEIN CREATED BIKERS features contemporary genre notables like Ellie Church, Laurence Harvey and Tristan Risk. How did you wind up casting them?

They’re all great people that I’ve met at Horror conventions while promoting DEAR GOD NO! or was introduced to by friends like director Jill Sixx Gevargizian. Not only are they being brought in because they are talented and right for the roles, but they are also genuine people who will fit right into the homegrown talent we already have. I’m looking forward to seeing what they bring to their characters and watching our world-wide horror community get closer.

Any other people from behind the scenes coming back for this entry (music/crew)?

Pretty much everybody. We have a good group. If anything, we’re just adding more people. Bryan G. Malone and Adam McIntryre (The Forty-Fives) will be handling the soundtrack again with the brilliant Richard Davis (Gargantua) composing the score. Post-production sound doesn’t get a whole lot of direction from me. These are some of the most talented people I know and they deliver the goods.

Lastly, you’ve got an encyclopedic knowledge of exploitation greats. Give us five things you’re into at the moment that we should be watching right now—directors or movies, past or present, well-known or obscure.

Brian Lonano‘s CROW HAND (2014) is big right now. It’s a bloody good mess of a short. I’ve been so busy writing that I’ve been avoiding my genre fan responsibilities. There is a ton of stuff I’m really looking forward to seeing like Astron-6’s THE EDITOR (2014), Arthur Cullipher’s HEADLESS (2015), Stephen Biro’s AMERICAN GUINEA PIG (2014), Adam Ahlbrandt’s HUNTERS (2015). Everything Richard Griffin and the Soska twins (Jen and Sylvia Soska, ed.) are doing. Just to name a few. There is a ton out there. On my down time, I keep digging up Joe Sarno films from the ‘60s and revisiting Mark Haggard’s THE ALL AMERICAN GIRL (1973). You can’t go wrong with PAYDAY (1973), HONKY TONK NIGHTS (1978), THE OUTFIT (1973), LAST NIGHT AT THE ALAMO (1983) or PRIME CUT (1972). If you’re just looking for a fun creature-feature, track down Michael Stanley’s ATTACK OF THE BEAST CREATURES (1985) or Richard Cunha’s GIANT FROM THE UNKNOWN (1958). Ugh! Don’t get me started! I have a shooting schedule to work out and flights to book. (laughs)

All photos courtesy of James Bickert and used with permission.

by Melanie Crew
Managing Editor

Hey kiddies! Retro Atlanta is the Kat’s meow and is chock full of goodies, with cult classics to a whole ‘lotta honkytonk shenanigans, blues and rock n roll! Forget Blueberry Hill, guys and gals! Get your thrills in Retro Atlanta this week!

Monday, March 23

Get your ‘90s British psychedelia and alt-rock fix with Swervedriver at Terminal West! Or rock down to the Drunken Unicorn for a night with Cinema Novo, Eula and Sheeba Darwin! Folk it up with Sara Louise, Moses Nesh and Lebo Jenkins at the Mammal Gallery’s Cropland Ramble! Get geeky with Blast-Off Burlesque as they start your week off right with a night of adults-only trivia at the Euclid Avenue Yacht Club, every Monday night at 8:30pm! Catch Jonathan Demme’s PHILADELPHIA (1993) at the Charles D. Switzer Public Library’s “Brown Bag Lunch Film Series” at 12pm! Truett Lollis delivers a night of blues and soul at Darwin’s Burgers & Blues in Marietta! Or boogie on down to the Northside Tavern and spend an evening with Lola at her famous Monday Night Northside Jam! Get funky and groove on down to Café 290 every second and fourth Monday of the month for a taste of Bumpin the Mango, ‘The groove that makes you want to move!’ Get some roots ‘n’ soul with Brandon Reeves at Blind Willie’s! Get folksy with Jamie Laval at Steve’s Live Music in Sandy Springs! And blues on down to Fat Matt’s Rib Shack for a taste of the Pork Belly’s and a plate full ‘o finger lickin’ BBQ!

Tuesday, March 24

Rock out at The Earl with Sabadoh, Qui and The Preakness! Get really retro at Pallookaville with Jim Stacy’s second in his culinary anthropological series, “Eat Like A Native American” at 7:30pm! Feufollet and Megan Jean & the KFB deliver a night of rockin’ Americana, avant-garde punk ‘n’ Cajun tunes at Eddie’s Attic! Take a trip through the universe with the award-winning astrophysicist, author and host of FOX’s COSMOS, Neil deGrasse Tyson at the Fox Theatre! Make your way to the Landmark Midtown Art Cinema for their screening of Bob Rafelson’s FIVE EASY PIECES (1970) during their “Midtown Classics” series at 7pm! The Star Bar delivers a night of retro shenanigans with Kool Kat Jeff Clark and Stomp & Stammer’s Rock ‘n’ Roll Trivia at 8pm, followed by ‘80s Dance Night! The Northlake Festival Movie Tavern has made an offer you can’t refuse with their screening of Francis Ford Coppola’s THE GODFATHER (1972), during their “Classic Films on the Big Screen” series at 7:30! Or make your way to the Rialto Center for the Arts for the world premiere screening of Danielle Bernstein’s IMBA MEANS SING (2015), with a pre-show performance by Yacht Rock Revue with the Atlanta Music Project Choir! Jazz it up gypsy-style at Steve’s Live Music in Sandy Springs with Crystal Bright & the Silver Hands! The Hollidays deliver a night of rhythm, soul and rock ‘n’ roll at Blind Willie’s! Jam it up with Joe Gransden and his jazz jam session at Twain’s in Decatur every Tuesday at 9 pm! Or boogie on down to Darwin’s Burgers & Blues in Marietta for a taste of Bill Sheffield’s acoustic roots and blues! And as always, The Entertainment Crackers get bluesy with their folksy Americana at the Northside Tavern!

Wednesday, March 25

SCENE MISSING Magazine presents My Neighbor Atlantotoro, at the Highland Inn Ballroom, as part of the 2015 Atlanta Film Festival, delivering a night of writing, comedy and other performances based on films of Studio Ghibli at 9pm! Get spooked and spend the night with Alfred Hitchcock as TCM presents REAR WINDOW (1954), screening at several Atlanta-area theatres at 2pm and 7pm (Hollywood Stadium 24; Perimeter Pointe 10; Avalon Stadium 12 in Alpharetta; AMC Sugarloaf Mills 18 in Lawrenceville; AMC Southlake 24 in Morrow; Regal McDonough Stadium 16; Cinemark Tinseltown 17 in Fayetteville and Newnan’s Regal Georgian Stadium 14)! Folk it up with a little traditional Irish and Celtic tunes at the Variety Playhouse with Lunasa! It’s a night of experimental jazz guitar and painting at Eddie’s Attic with Nels Cline, Norton Wisdom and Sam Amidon! Mr. Blue Sky, Zach & Davis and Vinyl Refuge deliver a night of jazz, blues and soul at Smith’s Olde Bar! Fleetwood Mac rocks out at Philips Arena! The Electromatics deliver a night of Chicago and West Coast blues at Blind Willie’s! Punk on down to The Basement for a night with Swingset, The Landmines, The Mad Doctors, Microwave and Bully Pulpit! Funk it up with a night of rockin’ blues with The Georgia Flood at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack! The Northlake Festival Movie Tavern has made an offer you can’t refuse for a second time with their screening of Francis Ford Coppola’s THE GODFATHER (1972), during their “Classic Films on the Big Screen” series at 7:30! It’s a hootenanny and a half at The Star Bar as Kool Kat Rich DeSantis and his band Honkytonk get smokin’ hot during their Slim Chickens’ Honkytonk Extravaganza event, featuring live-band old-time country and western tunes! Or make your way to the Northside Tavern as Danny ‘Mudcat’ Dudeck fires it up with his rockin’ blues! And as always, it’s Ladies Night at Johnny’s Hideaway which plays hits from Sinatra to Madonna for a generally mature crowd.

Thursday, March 26

Celebrate 30 years with the “Brat Pack” with a screening of John Hughes’ ‘80s classic, THE BREAKFAST CLUB (1985) at 7:30pm at movie theaters across Atlanta (Perimeter Pointe 10; Hollywood Stadium 24; Avalon Stadium 12 in Alpharetta; AMC Sugarloaf Mills 18 in Lawrenceville; Carmike 12 in Snellville; AMC Avenue Forsyth 12 in Cumming; AMC Barrett Commons 24 in Kennesaw; AMC Southlake 24 in Morrow and Regal McDonough Stadium 16)! Bluegrass it up with Smokey’s Farmland Band at the Red Light Café! Father John Misty and King Tuff rock out at the Variety Playhouse! Baroque rock it up at The Earl with Hare & the Hounds, Ben Trickey and Sara Rachele! It’s a night of old-school-inspired punk at Smith’s Olde Bar with Bloodplums, Olio and Bearknuckle! Stomp down to the Crimson Moon Café for a night with Danielle Howle and The Ain’t Sisters! Get jazzy with Miles Tackett & the 3 Times at the Drunken Unicorn! Or funk it up with Incognito featuring Maysa at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Center! It’s Mai Tai Thursday at Trader Vic’s, so get your taste of a little ‘60s/’70s Jamaican soul with Lloyd’s Rocksteady Revue! The BadAsh Allstar Team deliver a tribute to Sting and The Police at Steve’s Live Music in Sandy Springs! Blues it up with Sweet Betty & the Shadows at Blind Willie’s! Stagger on over to Noni’s Bar & Deli for their Bitter Heroes event featuring DJ Brian Parris as he gets charmingly morose with a little New-Wave, The Smiths and The Cure! The Northside Tavern gets rockin’ with a little Chicago/Delta blues of The Breeze Kings! Darwin’s Burgers & Blues gets down and dirty at their Blues Jam hosted by The Cazanovas! Get your boogie on at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack, as Chickenshack featuring Eddie Tigner, delivers some honky-tonk blues! And as always, get your boogie on at Mary’s, as the East Atlanta venue gets funky with their weekly Disco in the Village.

Friday, March 27

Have a devilish good time at 7 Stages for the 2015 Atlanta Film Festival’s screening of Kool Kat Eddie Ray’s SATANIC PANIC 2: BATTLE OF THE BANDS (2014) at 6:30pm, followed by Splatter Cinema’s presentation of Mario Bava’s BLACK SUNDAY (1960) at 10pm, with pre-screening lobby shenanigans! Or for something a little less sinister, get your dino fix at Earl Smith Strand Theatre with their screening of Steven Spielberg’s JURASSIC PARK (1993) at 8pm! Rock out and get some soul at the Little Vinyl Lounge with The Lamentations, Jed Drummond, Matt Greenia and Kool Kat Amber Taylor (Sexual Side Effects)! Or blues it up at the Fox Theatre’s 11^th Annual Blues Festival, featuring Theodis Ealey, Mel Waiters, Shirley Brown, Latimore and Sir Charles Jones! Make your way to the Toco-Hill Avis G. Williams Library for their screening of Woody Allen’s RADIO DAYS (1987) at 1:30pm! Honkytonk it up with Lee Bains III & the Glory Fires, The Bohannons and Hans Condor at The Earl! Cosmic Charlie delivers a rockin’ tribute to the Grateful Dead and Pink Floyd at the Variety Playhouse! The Cazanovas deliver some rockin’ blues at the Dallas Pub House! Get your ‘80s fix with Kool Kat Becky Cormier Finch and Denim Arcade at Sportstime Bar & Grille in Duluth! Eighties it up at the Famous Pub for their ‘80s Music Video Dance Party! Get funky with Dynamo at the Red Light Café! It’s a night of retro rock at Union EAV with Love Letter, Hip to Death and Avi Jacob! Riot grrl it up at the Masquerade with The Shondes! Rock out science punk style at the Ferst Center with Leucine Zipper & Zinc Fingers! Jazz it up with Kenosha Kid at the Elliott Street Pub! Steve’s Live Music in Sandy Springs delivers a night of rockin’ folk and Americana with The Ain’t Sisters, Danielle Howle and Underhill Rose! Blues it up with Larry Griffith and Hill Roberts at Darwin’s Burgers & Blues! Or make your way to the Northside Tavern as Danny ‘Mudcat’ Dudeck fires it up with his rockin’ blues! It’s a Blues Rendezvous at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack while The Nighthawks get some soul at Blind Willie’s! Hottie Hawgs BBQ dishes out a night of ‘70s rock ‘n’ roll with Swami Gone Bananas! Boogie down at the Fernbank Museum of Natural History’s Martinis and IMAX event while sippin’ a few cocktails with Lethal Rhythms! Boogie on down into Disco Hell at The Family Dog as DJ Quasi Mandisco delivers a night of classic funk, soul and disco the last Friday of every month! And as always, Time-Warp it up and get naughty with some uber musically-inclined transsexual aliens at The Plaza Theater as they continue their tradition of screening THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW (1975) every Friday night, featuring the live cast of Lips Down on Dixie at midnight!

Saturday, March 28

Pig out to some rockin’ tunes at the Masquerade Music Park for Baconfest 2015 with The Dirt Poets, Thimblerig Circus, Blast-Off Burlesque, Kool Kat Rich DeSantis’ Honkytonk Extravaganza and more! Or get dolled up for Pit Bulls & Poodle Skirts: An Evening for Puppy Love for Bullseye Rescue at DooGallery, with rockin’ tunes by Kool Kat Joshua Longino with Andrew & the Disapyramids, pin-up contests and a shimmy ‘n’ shake with Mary Strawberry! Jazz it up with the Atlanta Finland Society as they present a night of Finnish culture and the jazz guitar stylings of Olli Hirvonen at Front Page News! Or get immersed at The Goat Farm Arts Center with their screening of Andrei Tarkovsky’s NOSTALGHIA (1983) with an art installation by Igor Korsunskiy at 8pm! Make your way to SCADShow for their screening of Agnes Varda’s CLEO FROM 5 TO 7 (1962) Smith’s Olde Bar rocks out old-time style with Delta Moon, The Bitteroots, Big Daddy Love, Soul Mechanic and Penny Western! Flappers welcome at The Basement for their Roaring Twenties Party featuring Waking the Bates, The Roycrofters and the DAMS! Shake a tail feather at Kavarna with their Last Call Blues Dance at 8:3opm! Get down and dirty with The Cazanovas at Good ‘Ol Days Pub in Cumming! Stomp on down to the Red Light Café for a night with Eric Norman and The Ain’t Sisters! Martin Sexton gets some soul at the Variety Playhouse! Get funky with Rough Draft at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack! Francine Reed & the Shadows sing the blues at Blind Willie’s! Hannah Thomas and Cooper Carter deliver a night of Americana and blues at Steve’s Live Music in Sandy Springs! Eddie’s Attic delivers a night of jazz and western swing with Hot Club of Cowtown! Stomp on down to the Red Clay Theatre for a night with Eric Taylor! Or folk it up with the Jason Kenney Band at the Crimson Moon Café! Jesco White, the “Dancing Outlaw” boogies down at 529 with Six Shot Revival! Meat & 3 deliver a night of classic rock at The Family Dog! Make your way to the Northside Tavern as Danny ‘Mudcat’ Dudeck fires it up with his rockin’ blues! Kool Kat Becky Cormier Finch and Denim Arcade rock out ‘80s-style at the North River Tavern in Sandy Springs! Darwin’s Burgers & Blues dishes out a night with the Gina Sicilia Band! And as always, DJ Romeo Cologne transforms the sensationally seedy Clermont Lounge into a ’70s disco/funk inferno late into the wee hours of the night.

Sunday, March 29

Red Light Café folks it up with Boo Reefa, Julian Morena, The Brookses, Zac Jimenez, Stephanie Koziej and Gas Hound! Smith’s Olde Bar delivers their Bluegrass Brunch with Honeywood! Al Stewart gets folksy at Eddie’s Attic! Blues it up with Uncle Sugar at the Northside Tavern! Rock out at The Earl with Wymyns Prysyn, Buck Biloxi and The Fucks, Heavy Lids and Earth Girls! And get the blues with Snakelegs at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack!

Ongoing

OnStage Atlanta dishes out the infamous horror rock musical, “Little Shop of Horrors”, horrifying through March 28! (LAST CHANCE!)

The 39th Annual Atlanta Film Festival, being held at The Plaza Theater, runs through Mar. 29 (LAST CHANCE!)

The 35th Annual Atlanta Fair is being held at Turner Field through April 5!

The Atlanta Contemporary Art Center presents the “Gilda Radner Research and Translation Center”, an unofficial academic-ish platform for the analysis of Radner’s life and comedy, running through April 11!

The Marietta Museum of History gets Victorian as they present their “Peeling Back the Layers: Victorian Wedding Ensembles” exhibit through May 2, 2015!

The High Museum presents “Gordon Parks: Segregation Story” (‘50s Life Magazine photos) and “Leonard Freed: Black in White America”, (1963-1966) exhibits through June 7!

William Bremen Jewish Heritage Museum’s, “Where the Wild Things Are: Maurice Sendek in His Own Words and Pictures” getting wild through July 5!

Blast-Off Burlesque geeks it up with a night of adults-only trivia at the Euclid Avenue Yacht Club, every Monday at 8:30pm!

HepCat’s Hop gets swingin’ every second Wednesday of the month at the 57th Fighter Group Restaurant!

Nerd Film Mafia screenings at the Diesel Fueling Station following NerdCore Trivia, every last Tuesday of the month!

ICON 80s: Music Video Dance Night rocks out at the Famous Pub every Friday night with a different 80’s theme!

The Star Bar delivers Stomp & Stammer’s Rock ‘n’ Roll Trivia at 8pm, followed by ‘80s Dance Night at 10pm, every Tuesday!

Boogie on down into Disco Hell at The Family Dog as DJ Quasi Mandisco delivers a night of classic funk, soul and disco the last Friday of every month.

The Plaza Theater Time-Warps it up as they screen, THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW (1975) every Friday night, featuring the live cast of Lips Down on Dixie at midnight!

Every first and third Mondays are Big Band Nights at Café 290, featuring Joe Gransden and his amazing 16-piece orchestra playing jazz and swing standards in the tradition of The Glen Miller Orchestra and other legendary groups.  Second and fourth Mondays are Bumpin the Mango, ‘The groove that makes you want to move!’

Every first Wednesday is the Graveyard Tavern’s Graveyard Swing Night, featuring the swingin’ jazz and boogie-woogie sounds of the Savoy Kings!

If you have a suggestion for a future event that should be included in This Week in Retro Atlanta or see something we missed, please email us at atlretro@gmail.com.

By Andrew Kemp
Contributing Writer

Alongside the first appearance of flip-flops and the musk of Bradford Pears, the arrival of the Atlanta Film Festival at the Plaza Theatre (and other venues) is becoming a new annual rite of Spring. Starting Friday, the AFF is bringing another year of offbeat and engrossing titles, and you can bet that ATL Retro is going to be all over it, providing coverage, features, and reviews of the best of what the festival has to offer.

For Retro-inclined readers out there, we’ve taken the liberty of targeting a few productions that may be relevant to your interests. Every screening at the AFF is likely to be a great time at the theater, but consider this your retro primer. In fact, let’s make that official:

OLD SOUTH

Kick off your AFF experience with a little crowd participation by visiting the folks from Lips Down on Dixie as they present their extremely popular performance of THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW (1975). Although a Plaza staple for years, the show gets even better when seen with a festival crowd of fervent movie fanatics. You could even decide to see the show twice during your festival-going, if you just can’t get enough of the good Doctor Frank-N-Furter’s “hospitality.” There’s another midnight screening the following Friday. (THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW plays at midnight, March 20 & 27, at the Plaza).:

Retro is a broad category, and it can sometimes mean a state of mind. In OLD SOUTH (dir. Danielle Beverly) contemporary values collide with a damaging stereotype from the past as a college fraternity in Athens “known to fly the Confederate flag” attempts to mount an antebellum-style parade in a historically black neighborhood. The film plays with PEN UP THE PIGS (dir. Kelly Gallagher), a film described as “handcrafted, collage animation” that explores connections between old slavery and present-day racism. (OLD SOUTH plays 3/21 at 12:45 @ the Plaza)

Meanwhile, HOLBROOK/TWAIN: AN AMERICAN ODYSSEY (dir. Scott Teems) explores a more positive representation of the old south. Hollywood legend Hal Holbrook’s most famous role is that of Mark Twain, who he’s performed on stage in a one-man show for most of his life. This new documentary looks into the special relationship Holbrook has with his version of Twain, and features new interviews from stars like Sean Penn and Martin Sheen discussing Holbrook’s life and legacy. (HOLBROOK/TWAIN plays 3/21 at 8:00pm @ The Inn at Serenbe Pavilion, with an encore screening on 3/29 at 4:30pm @ 7 Stages)

THE EDITOR

Finally, for retro horror lovers, don’t miss THE EDITOR (dir. Adam Brooks, Matthew Kennedy). In this Canadian comedy-horror film, a shlock film editor with wooden fingers is accused of a string of murders and must clear his name. The production comes from the demented minds of Brooks and Kennedy, two members of the ensemble who brought the world MANBORG (2011), and features genre mainstays Udo Kier (SUSPIRIA) and Paz de la Huerta (NURSE). (THE EDITOR plays 3/21 at 9:45pm @ The Plaza)

Musician Frank Morgan’s life can be used as a cautionary tale about how great talent is no defense against the traps of the world which, in Morgan’s case, manifested as a drug addiction that sent his life and career spiraling into bankruptcy and incarceration. SOUND OF REDEMPTION: THE FRANK MORGAN STORY (dir. N.C. Heikin) chronicles Morgan’s struggles beginning with the ups (when the saxophonist was considered a successor to Charlie Parker) all the way to the downs and the back again. The documentary features extensive concert footage featuring the likes of saxophonist Grace Kelly and pianist George Cables, both of whom will appear in a live performance preceding the film. (SOUND OF REDEMPTION screens 3/25 at 7:30pm @ The Rialto Theater at Georgia State University)

THE KEEPING ROOM

THE KEEPING ROOM (dir. Daniel Barber) is a Civil War drama that places the spotlight squarely on a trio of strong, Southern women in a tough situation. When their father and brother go off to fight for the Confederacy, two sisters and their slave must defend the homestead from marauding Union soldiers who are in advance of Sherman’s infamous march. THE KEEPING ROOM is a tense, claustrophobic drama that features known stars Hailee Steinfeld (TRUE GRIT), Brit Marling (ANOTHER EARTH), and Sam Worthington (AVATAR). (THE KEEPING ROOM screens 3/26 at 9:30 @ The Plaza).

Atlanta director and ATLRetro Kool Kat Eddie Ray follows up his 2011 short film SATANIC PANIC: BAND OUT OF HELL with the in-demand sequel, SATANIC PANIC 2: BATTLE OF THE BANDS. The sequel finds our heroes, electronic dance band who pretend to be Satan worshippers for marketing reasons, preparing for a huge band battle while their manager plots to sacrifice them to the Dark One himself. In their new adventure, the band must contend with “secret government spy missions, band rivalries, and growing egos.” Look for an exclusive interview with Eddie Ray here at ATLRetro.com next week. (SATANIC PANIC 2 screens 3/27 at 6:30pm @ 7 Stages)

BLACK SUNDAY

The folks from Splatter Cinema join the festival this year with a special presentation of the Italian horror classic BLACK SUNDAY (dir. Mario Bava). Banned in the UK for years—a true badge of honor in the horror world—the film stars the immortal Barbara Steele as a witch burned at the stake who returns 200 years later for bloody revenge. Featuring memorably grotesque and frightening scenes, BLACK SUNDAY is a slam-dunk classic of the genre that is well worth the effort to see on the big screen. (BLACK SUNDAY screens 3/27 at 10:00 pm @ 7 Stages)

LOVE AND MERCY (dir. Bill Pohlad) is an unconventional biography film about the life and career of singer/songwriter Brian Wilson. The film chronicles the young Wilson’s struggles with his musical ambitions, as he seeks to throw off the “surf music” label he had become known for as part of the Beach Boys, and with his overuse of psychedelic drugs. Paul Dano (LOOPER) plays Wilson as a young man, while John Cusack (GROSSE POINTE BLANK) plays Wilson as an adult, on the other side of experiences that left him a broken man. (LOVE AND MERCY plays 3/29 at 12:15pm @ The Plaza)

LOVE AND MERCY

And finally, there’s a documentary that has sadly gone retro, as one of our favorite downtown eateries is sadly no longer with us. DANTE’S DOWN THE HATCH (dir. Jef Bredemeier) is a profile of the famed restaurant and its owner, Dante Stephensen. Far more than a place you could eat fondue while watching the alligators lounge in their pool, Dante’s became a landmark for many of us an integral part of the Atlanta landscape, and this documentary ensures that legacy is not forgotten. If you missed ATLRetro’s Kool Kat interview with Dante about his unique decor, you can find it here. (DANTE’S DOWN THE HATCH plays 3.29 at 4:30pm @ The Plaza)

Of course, these films represent just a tiny portion of the events, shorts, seminars, and screenings taking place as part of the festival. For a complete list, you need to check out the official Atlanta Film Festival Schedule. And keep an eye on ATLRetro throughout the fest for coverage on all the fun and films. Enjoy this year’s AFF, movie lovers!

Andrew Kemp is a screenwriter and game designer who started talking about movies in 1984 and got stuck that way. He can be seen around town wherever there are movies, cheap beer and little else.

by Melanie Crew
Managing Editor

Alessa Rogers as Esmeralda – CAMINO REAL – Photo Credit: Charlie McCullers

Alessa Rogers, professional ballet dancer with the Atlanta Ballet, will be dancing her way into a “dead-end place in a Spanish-speaking town” in a ballet adaptation of Tennessee Williams’ 1953 stage-play, CAMINO REAL,  sharing the role of “Esmeralda” (a character derived from Victor Hugo’s “The Hunchback of Notre Dame”) with fellow company dancer, Tara Lee. The world premiere of Williams’ “lost classic” of love, redemption and courage has been adapted and choreographed by Atlanta Ballet’s choreographer in residence, Helen Pickett, with sound and original score by Peter Salem (get a taste here), which will be performed live with the Atlanta Ballet Orchestra. The Atlanta Ballet’s CAMINO REAL premieres this Friday, March 20, with a red carpet opening night, at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Center, running through March 22. For ticket information and performance schedule, please click here.

Alessa is currently in her seventh season with the Atlanta Ballet, the “oldest continuously performing ballet company in the United States.” She began training with Daphne Kendall, leaving school at 14 to pursue her dancing career at the North Carolina School of the Arts, which led to her spending one season with the North Carolina Dance Theatre II before her journey to Atlanta and the Atlanta Ballet. Alessa has danced across the country having been a guest artist at the National Choreographer’s Initiative in California (See video of Alessa detailing her experience at the NCI here) and at the Terpsicorps Theatre of Dance in Asheville, NC.

Alessa has filled the dancing shoes of many strong female characters since she began her dancing career, but her favorite roles include “Juliette” in Jean-Christophe Maillot’s ROMEO ET JULIETTE; “Margaret” in the world premiere of Helen Pickett’s “The Exiled”; “Lucy” in Michael Pink’s adaptation of DRACULA; “Ophelia” in Stephen Mills‘ HAMLET, “Lover Girl” in David Bintley’s “CARMINA BURANA; and “Princess Irene” in the world premiere of Twyla Tharp’s THE PRINCESS & THE GOBLIN.

Photo Credit: Charlie McCullers

ATLRetro caught up with Alessa for a quick interview about her trek into the dancing world; fully immersing one’s self into a character; her take on Helen Pickett’s ballet adaptation of Williams’ CAMINO REAL; and the sweet, sweet smell of vampires.

And while you’re taking a peek at our little Q&A with Alessa, get a taste of her transformation into “Juliette” in Jean-Christophe Maillot’s “ROMEO ET JULIETTE here, which premiered this past February.

ATLRetro: What drew you to Atlanta Ballet?

Alessa Rogers: I came to Atlanta without much forethought simply because my older sister was already here dancing with the ballet. At the time I thought it would be a transition year between my first professional contract when I was 17 (with North Carolina Dance Theater second company) and figuring out where to go next. Now that I’ve been here for nine years, I’d say it’s been quite a long and wonderful transition!

How does it feel to be a part of Atlanta Ballet founder and dance visionary, Dorothy Alexander’s dream of bringing quality ballet to Atlanta?

You know so much has changed in the dance world since Dorothy Alexander opened Atlanta Ballet over 80 years ago. And even in the nine years that I have been here we have gone from being what could be described as a regional dance company into a world-class organization that has gone on international tours and consistently brings in the world’s greatest living choreographers. So it’s been a really amazing experience to be a part of that

Maillot’s ROMEO ET JULIETTE – Photo Credit: Charlie McCullers

growth and to be able to grow myself within that. I think the most gratifying part of my job is when someone who has never seen dance before comes to a show and realizes that it is completely unlike the stilted, inaccessible performance that they had anticipated. You might be surprised at how much even the most jeans and baseball-cap wearing of people can enjoy a night at the ballet. (You can even come in your jeans, by the way!)

We see that you just recently wrapped your role as Juliette in Jean-Christophe Maillot’s ROMEO ET JULIETTE. What was it like to play the part of one of the world’s most well-known literary female characters?

Juliette was the highlight of my career so far. Having so recently finished, it is hard to imagine ever having that profound an experience on stage again- but of course I have to hope that another ballet that special will come along again. To portray a character that everyone is familiar with, I actually had to throw all my preconceived ideas out the window. I had to forget everything I thought I knew and had been told about Juliette so that I could start fresh, with no one else’s interpretations in my head; and be able to discover her for myself again as if for the first time. That’s what I tried to do at least.

What was it like playing “Lucy” in Michael Pink’s adaptation of Bram Stoker’s DRACULA? Anything fun about that performance you’d like to share with our readers?

“Lucy” was one of the most fun experiences I’ve had on stage. She is such a complex character and it is almost always more fun to be the dark character than a sweet, vapid heroine. It’s something I hope to be able to do more in the future- the villain role. In the ballet DRACULA, the blood is made from corn syrup and everything gets drenched in it; so my pointe shoes, my hair, the whole backstage smells sweet. Every time I smell corn syrup now I think – vampires.

“Lucy” in DRACULA. Photo Credit: Charlie McCullers

Who or what influenced you to become a dancer? Any intriguing stories about how you got started?

I saw my sister’s dance recital when I was four years old, and in it there was a piece with bumblebee costumes. I decided right then and there I had to start ballet so that I could get one. (Full disclosure: Still haven’t gotten one!) And basically since I was four years old, I wanted to be a professional ballet dancer. I remember my sister and I once thinking it’d be a great idea to sleep in a split the whole night. The next day I couldn’t walk, but these are just the things we did (And we weren’t even the crazy ones!) I had lots of ideas growing up about what to do after I retired (dancers retire in their 30s generally) but I knew I’d have to be a dancer first. I don’t know that I ever made a conscious decision about the matter – it was just something I took for granted would happen.

“Esmeralda” – Camino Real – Photo Credit: Charlie McCullers

If you could be any character in any ballet or adaptation that you haven’t played before, who would it be and why?

Hmm. I don’t know that I really have any dream roles, per se, though I do have a lot of choreographers whose work I would love to do: Alejandro Cerrudo, Nacho Duato, Marco Goecke, Jiri Kylian, William Forsythe, to name a few. My favorite roles are acting roles, so any chance I have to inhabit a character is always a fun process for me. I think you learn so much about the human experience when you put yourself into the skin of someone other than yourself. There are some great works of literature that I would love to see adapted into ballets – JANE EYRE, GREAT EXPECTATIONS, THE MISTS OF AVALON.

But actually, now that I think about it- when I was 11 or 12, I went to see the ballet THE RITE OF SPRING choreographed by Salvatore Aiello. I brought my book with me to the show because back then I was very bored by ballet. But as soon as the curtain went up everything changed. I had never seen a ballet like that before – there was nothing pretty about it; no tutus or buns or pink satin ribbons. It was raw and physical and scary and I loved it. It changed everything for me about my perception of what dance is capable of. At the end of the ballet the lead woman is stripped down to her underwear and covered in paint and is sacrificed – that’s a ballet I’d love to do!

Can you tell our readers a little (without giving too much away) about your role as “Esmeralda” in Helen Pickett’s adaptation and world premiere of Tennessee Williams’ stage-play, CAMINO REAL?

I am sharing the role of “Esmeralda” in our world premiere next week. The play is inhabited by characters from literature, like “Don Quixote” and “Casanova.” “Esmeralda” has her roots in Victor Hugo’s THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME. She is a young gypsy girl who is held captive by her mother and is sold as a prostitute. Not a role I’ve had too much experience in playing fortunately!

Tennessee Williams’ CAMINO REAL, first performed in 1953, was one of the first American plays to break the fourth wall. Do you and the company

Tennessee Williams’ CAMINO REAL

have anything special planned for this exciting three-day performance? Will there be additional runs?

I don’t want to give too much away, but there are a lot of firsts in this ballet. I think the audience will be surprised by a lot of what they see – many of the dancers (me included) actually have speaking roles which has been a challenge for us. There is an original score, original costumes, an original set and they are all amazing. The collaborative nature of this ballet has been so exciting. Just being in the same studio with all these talented, creative designers and artists who are working so hard (I’m pretty sure some of the production team has just been sleeping at the studio in order to get this massive ballet built.) has been so cool to watch. I just can’t wait to get into the theater and see it all come together and come to life!

Who are some of your favorite vintage and retro dancers and why?

I grew up in Charlotte (for the most part) and North Carolina Dance Theatre (NCDT) dancer Kati Hanlon was my hero. I think more than her being an amazing dancer, which she was, she was a really kind person. That affected me a lot as a young dancer – having someone who was so down-to-earth and approachable to emulate, as opposed to an icy, photo-shopped, perfect cut-out who couldn’t be bothered to smile at the clumsy kid who idolized her. Actually Kati was the lead woman in the production of THE RITE OF SPRING that I spoke of earlier. Eventually she became my teacher and then my co-worker at NCDT. It was one of my first magical stage moments the first time I shared a stage with her as a co-worker.

Nowadays, it is the people who I am surrounded by on a daily basis who inspire me the most. Atlanta Ballet dancers like Rachel Van Buskirk and Jackie Nash who can be so powerful and so soft at the same time. It’s interesting because those two have a very different style of dancing than I do. But I love to watch them and cheer them on and learn what I can from them.

What’s next for Alessa Rogers?

A show a month until our season ends in May and then guesting with the New Orleans Ballet Theater and Wabi Sabi in the summertime. I hope to be able to keep dancing until they drag me out of the studio when I’m around a hundred and then after that…I have some more plans!

Can you tell us something you’d like folks to know about you that they don’t know already?

In my spare time, I like to relax by rock climbing!

What question do you wish somebody would ask you in an interview but they never do and what’s the answer?

Q: Would you like some ice cream? And my answer? Yes, yes I do!

by Melanie Crew
Managing Editor

‘This Week’ in Retro Atlanta is scorchin’ hot with Kool Kats galore and all the rockin’ good times you’ve been cravin’! Get your fill of red-hot blues, tasty tease, hootenannies and more! Get off that couch, get hep to the jive and live la vida Retro!

Monday, March 16

Get your suspense, adventure and danger fix at the Highland Inn Ballroom with The Rookery Radio Hour Live! event for two nights, featuring a live recording of comedy sketches done in the style of old-time radio at 8pm! It’s a night of surf rock and ‘70s pop at 529 with Delicate Steve, Del Venicci and Breathers! Get geeky with Blast-Off Burlesque as they start your week off right with a night of adults-only trivia at the Euclid Avenue Yacht Club, every Monday night at 8:30pm! Catch Stanley Kramer’s INHERIT THE WIND (1960) at the Charles D. Switzer Public Library’s “Brown Bag Lunch Film Series” at 12pm! Truett Lollis delivers a night of blues and soul at Darwin’s Burgers & Blues in Marietta! Or boogie on down to the Northside Tavern and spend an evening with Lola at her famous Monday Night Northside Jam! Swing on by Big Band Night featuring Joe Gransden and his amazing 16-member orchestra at Café 290 every first and third Monday of the month! Blues it up with Barrelhouse Bob Page at Blind Willie’s! Get folksy with Jamie Laval at Steve’s Live Music in Sandy Springs! And blues on down to Fat Matt’s Rib Shack for a taste of the Pork Belly’s and a plate full ‘o finger lickin’ BBQ!

Tuesday, March 17

Rock on down to The Star Bar for their “Whiskey In the Jar-O” celebration of Thin Lizzy’s Phil Lynott with Gunpowder Gray, Night Terrors and more! Get psychedelic and space rock it up with The Church and The Sharp Things at Terminal West! Make your way to the Landmark Midtown Art Cinema for their screening of Peter Bogdanovich’s adaptation of Larry McMurty’s 1966 novel, THE LAST PICTURE SHOW (1971) during their “Midtown Classics” series at 7pm! It’s your last chance to get your suspense, adventure and danger fix at the Highland Inn Ballroom with The Rookery Radio Hour Live! event featuring a live recording of comedy sketches done in the style of old-time radio at 8pm! Get adventurous with Harrison Ford at the Northlake Festival Movie Tavern with their screening of Steven Spielberg’s classic, INDIANA JONES AND THE RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK (1981), during their “Classic Films on the Big Screen” series at 7:30! Or get really retro with Fred Astaire and Judy Garland at the Decatur Library during their screening of Charles Walters’ EASTER PARADE (1948) at 10am! Bluegrass it up with Cabinet at Eddie’s Attic! Punk out Irish-style at the Masquerade with The Tossers, DDC, Antagonizers ATL and Rotten Stitches! Jam it up with Joe Gransden and his jazz jam session at Twain’s in Decatur every Tuesday at 9 pm! Or boogie on down to Darwin’s Burgers & Blues in Marietta for a taste of Bill Sheffield’s acoustic roots and blues! And as always, The Entertainment Crackers get bluesy with their folksy Americana at the Northside Tavern!

Wednesday, March 18

Gypsy jazz it up with a little garage blues in the mix at The Earl with Jessica Hernandez & the Deltas, Kool Kat Rod Hamdallah and Momcat! Buckwheat Zydeco delivers a night of Cajun zydeco, blues and roots at Terminal West! Jazz it up with Sal Gentile at the Elliott Street Pub! 529 delivers a night of country punk and hill country blues with FLAP, Tijuana Hercules and Duet for Theramin & Lap Steel! Follow the yellow brick road all the way to the Studio Movie Grill (Alpharetta/Duluth) for their screening of Victor Fleming’s THE WIZARD OF OZ (1939) at 7pm! Funk it up with a night of rockin’ blues with The Georgia Flood at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack! Get some bluesy soul at Eddie’s Attic with Truett Lollis and Crane! Get your rockin’ blues fix at Smith’s Olde Bar with Studio Le Bradshaw, The Gypsies and Rose for Tomorrow! Blues it up with Little G Weevil at Blind Willie’s! Emory Cinematheque screens Ross McElwee’s SHERMAN’S MARCH (1985) during their “Movies Made in Georgia” series at 7:30pm! Take a trip to Cairo with Harrison Ford at the Northlake Festival Movie Tavern with their screening of Steven Spielberg’s classic, INDIANA JONES AND THE RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK (1981), during their “Classic Films on the Big Screen” series at 7:30! It’s a hootenanny and a half at The Star Bar as Kool Kat Rich DeSantis and his band Honkytonk get smokin’ hot during their Slim Chickens’ Honkytonk Extravaganza event, featuring live-band old-time country and western tunes! Blues it up with Lola at Sweet Georgia’s Juke Joint! Or make your way to the Northside Tavern as Danny ‘Mudcat’ Dudeck fires it up with his rockin’ blues! And as always, it’s Ladies Night at Johnny’s Hideaway which plays hits from Sinatra to Madonna for a generally mature crowd.

Thursday, March 19

Shimmy on down and get a taste of smokin’ neo-burlesque revival and cabaret from around the world with Kool Kat Katherine Lashe and her Syrens of the South as they bring you the 5th Annual Southern Fried Burlesque Fest being held this year at 7 Stages, running from March 19-22! It’s a tantalizing four-day event that promises bawdy burlesque performances, variety shows, vaudeville, workshops and a vendors with all things pin-up and retro! Headliner for this year’s fest is Queen of Burlesque, Miss Exotic World 2014, Midnite Martini! So, come on down for a night filled with shakin’ shenanigans and tantalizing tease! Tonight’s events include the Newcomers Showcase, featuring performances by Anne Atomic, Electra Mourning, Ada Manzart, Tippy Tappage and more!

Rock out at The Star Bar with The Hotels, Ma Holos, The Nico Missile and Koko Beware! Stomp on down to The Earl for a night with Blood on the Harp, Lily & the Tigers and Moses Nesh! It’s Bluegrass Thursday at the Red Light Café, so come on down for a night with Jason Waller, Hailey Whitters and Stephanie Lambring! The Atlanta Cyclorama & Civil War Museum presents their screening of Christine Herbes-Sommers’ documentary RACE: THE POWER OF AN ILLUSION (2003) at 7pm! Jazz it up with Brian Lenair at the Suite Food Lounge! It’s a dirt road revival at Eddie’s Attic with Kristy Lee! Get retro swing, folk ‘n’ blues style at Smith’s Olde Bar with Gravy and Bosley! It’s Mai Tai Thursday at Trader Vic’s, so hula on down and get your ‘50s and ‘60s surf and rock ‘n’ roll fix with Kool Kat Joshua Longino with Andrew & the Disapyramids! Beverly “Guitar” Watkins delivers a night of rockin’ blues at Steve’s Live Music in Sandy Springs! Or blues it up with Liz Mandeville at Blind Willie’s! Stagger on over to Noni’s Bar & Deli for their Bitter Heroes event featuring DJ Brian Parris as he gets charmingly morose with a little New-Wave, The Smiths and The Cure! The Northside Tavern gets rockin’ with a little Chicago/Delta blues of The Breeze Kings! Darwin’s Burgers & Blues gets down and dirty at their Blues Jam hosted by The Cazanovas! Get your boogie on at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack, as Chickenshack featuring Eddie Tigner, delivers some honky-tonk blues! And as always, get your boogie on at Mary’s, as the East Atlanta venue gets funky with their weekly Disco in the Village.

Friday, March 20

Tease on down to night 2 of the 5th Annual Southern Fried Burlesque Fest at 7 Stages for their Free Range Burlesque International Show Case featuring performances by Vince V. Vice, Agatha Frisky, Kisa von Teasa, headlined by Midnite Martini, emceed by the World Famous Bob and more! Shake a tail feather on down to the Red Light Café for Speakeasy Electro Swing Atlanta’s event and the official Southern Fried Burlesque Fest after party, featuring performances by Nikki Nuke’m, go-go girl, Trini Quinn and music by DJ Doctor Q! Or take a trip to “a dead end-end place in a Spanish speaking town surrounded by desert,” brought to life by Tennessee Williams and Helen Pickett with the Atlanta Ballet, during their performance of his 1953, “Camino Real”, running through March 22 at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Center (See our Kool Kat feature on Alessa Rogers [“Esmeralda”] soon)! And tonight is the opening night of the 39th Annual Atlanta Film Festival, with screenings being held at The Plaza Theater, running through Mar. 29 (ATLRetro coverage coming soon)!

Get old-school punk-style at The Star Bar with The Queers, Richie Ramone and The Atom Age! ATL Collective presents the 1967 debut album of Leonard Cohen, “Songs of Leonard Cohen” with two shows at Eddie’s Attic, featuring Dwayne Shivers, Lonnie Holley and Marshall Ruffin! We ain’t afraid of no ghosts and neither is the Earl Smith Strand Theatre! Pack up your ghost hunting gear and make your way to The Strand for their screening of Ivan Reitman’s GHOSTBUSTERS (1984) at 8pm! Make your way to The House with Eyes’ EAV Movie Club as they present their Mystery Movie Night, featuring a classic movie of choice heckled by comedians at 8pm! The Variety Playhouse gets folksy and delivers a night of blues with G Love & Special Sauce with Matt Costa! Bluegrass it up with Del McCoury and David Grisman at The Buckhead Theatre! Jazz it up Latin-style at the High Museum with Willie Ziavino & the C.O.T. Band! Get your ‘80s fix with Kool Kat Becky Cormier Finch and Denim Arcade at Wild Wing Café in Gainesville! The Uncle Mike Band delivers a night of classic rock and ‘80s funk at Steve’s Live Music in Sandy Springs! Get the blues with Nick Moss at Blind Willie’s! Smith’s Olde Bar gets revived and delivers a night of southern gothic roots rock with Lincoln Durham and Kyle Cox! Boogie on down to Darwin’s Burgers & Blues for a night with the Alexis Suter Band! Hottie Hawgs BBQ dishes out a night of rockin’ blues with Men in Blues! It’s Salsa Dance Night at the Fernbank Museum of Natural History’s Martinis and IMAX event, so cha-cha under the dinosaurs with the Salsambo Dance Studio while sippin’ a few cocktails! Blues it up with Stoney Brooks at the Northside Tavern! Blues it up with The Sly Dog Band at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack! Rock out with The Brotherland at The Family Dog! And as always, Time-Warp it up and get naughty with some uber musically-inclined transsexual aliens at The Plaza Theater as they continue their tradition of screening THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW (1975) every Friday night, featuring the live cast of Lips Down on Dixie at midnight!

Saturday, March 21

Shimmy on down for night 3 of the 5th Annual Southern Fried Burlesque Fest at 7 Stages for their hottest main event, the Southern Fried Burlesque Pageant Competition along with a farewell performance by last year’s SFBF Queen, Jeez Loueez! And get nice ‘n’ toasty with their Southern Scorcher Showcase featuring Dee Flowered, Bunny Wigglebottom, Flame Cynders and more! It’s a rockin’ blues extravaganza at the Northside Tavern for two days as Chicken Raid 2015 invades with all proceeds to benefit the Frank Edwards estate! Blues it up with the best of them, including Brandon Reeves, the Wasted Potential Brass Band, Scene of the Crime, Mandi Strachota, Joshua Jacobson, Cody Matlock, Shelton Powe, Essie Mae Brooks & Family, Chicken & Pigs with Skye Paige, Sammy Blue, Albert White, Danny ‘Mudcat’ Dudeck & the ATL Horns, Eddie Tigner and Lola in a piano showdown, Roy Lee Johnson, Beverly “Guitar” Watkins and more!

Doo-wop it up with a night of rockin’ shenanigans at Mammal Gallery with The King Kahn & BBQ Show, Milk Lines and Paint Fumes! Ride a wave on over to Kavarna for the Southern Surf Stomp featuring the Aqualads, Genki Genki Panic and Built for Speed! Yacht Rock Schooner gets smooth and ‘70s as they play a Steely Dan show at Terminal West! Get to the root of it all at the Red Light Café with the Donna Hopkins Band, the Alex Guthrie Band, the Divine Love Mission and Gibson Wilbanks! It’s your second chance to ‘80s it up this weekend with Kool Kat Becky Cormier Finch and Denim Arcade at Wild Wing Café in Suwannee! Get revved with Kool Kat Hot Rod Walt & the Psycho-Devilles at the Dixie Tavern in Marietta! It’s a night of Irish tunes at Steve’s Live Music in Sandy Springs with The Irish Brothers followed by some ‘60s and ‘70s rock ‘n’ roll with The Rainmen! Blues it up with House Rocker Johnson & the Shadows at Blind Willie’s! Honkytonk it up at Eddie’s Attic with Joe Ely! Rock on down to Smith’s Olde Bar for a night with Eric Sardinas and 68-75! The Black Lillies deliver a night of boot stompin’ Americana at Grocery on Home! Or Stomp on down to Hottie Hawgs BBQ for a night with the Poverty Level Band! Get the blues with Bryan Lee at Darwin’s Burgers & Blues! And as always, DJ Romeo Cologne transforms the sensationally seedy Clermont Lounge into a ’70s disco/funk inferno late into the wee hours of the night.

Sunday, March 22

It’s day 2 and your last chance to blues it up at Chicken Raid 2015 at the Northside Tavern with performances by The New Radio Ramblers, Tito & the Chicken Raiders, Spike Driver, the Blues Dude, Swami Gone Bananas, Larry Griffith, Essie Mae Brooks & Family, the Rockaholics, Robert Lee Coleman, The Breeze Kings, Uncle Sugar, Ross Pead, Eddie Tigner and more! Jazz it up with George Winston at the Variety Playhouse! The Buddy O’Reilly Band delivers two rockin’ Irish/Celtic Americana shows at Eddie’s Attic! It’s your last chance to follow the yellow brick road all the way to the Studio Movie Grill (Alpharetta/Duluth) for their screening of Victor Fleming’s THE WIZARD OF OZ (1939) at 2pm! Bluegrass it up at Smith’s Olde Bar with In the Wheelhouse in the Bar Room! And stick around to rock out in the Music Room with Black Pussy, the Savagist and Halmos! Make your way to Park Tavern for a night with Gareth Asher & the Earthlings! Get alternative and rock on down to Terminal West for a night with the Juliana Hatfield Three and their 21st Anniversary Tour! And get the blues with Snakelegs at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack!

Ongoing

OnStage Atlanta dishes out the infamous horror rock musical, “Little Shop of Horrors”, horrifying through March 28!

The 39th Annual Atlanta Film Festival, being held at The Plaza Theater, runs through Mar. 29!

The 35th Annual Atlanta Fair is being held at Turner Field through April 5!

The Atlanta Contemporary Art Center presents the “Gilda Radner Research and Translation Center”, an unofficial academic-ish platform for the analysis of Radner’s life and comedy, running through April 11!

The Marietta Museum of History gets Victorian as they present their “Peeling Back the Layers: Victorian Wedding Ensembles” exhibit through May 2, 2015!

The High Museum presents “Gordon Parks: Segregation Story” (‘50s Life Magazine photos) and “Leonard Freed: Black in White America”, (1963-1966) exhibits through June 7! William Bremen Jewish Heritage Museum’s, “Where the Wild Things Are: Maurice Sendek in His Own Words and Pictures” getting wild through July 5!

Blast-Off Burlesque geeks it up with a night of adults-only trivia at the Euclid Avenue Yacht Club, every Monday at 8:30pm!

HepCat’s Hop gets swingin’ every second Wednesday of the month at the 57th Fighter Group Restaurant!

Nerd Film Mafia screenings at the Diesel Fueling Station following NerdCore Trivia, every last Tuesday of the month!

ICON 80s: Music Video Dance Night rocks out at the Famous Pub every Friday night with a different 80’s theme!

The Star Bar delivers Stomp & Stammer’s Rock ‘n’ Roll Trivia at 8pm, followed by ‘80s Dance Night at 10pm, every Tuesday!

Boogie on down into Disco Hell at The Family Dog as DJ Quasi Mandisco delivers a night of classic funk, soul and disco the last Friday of every month.

The Plaza Theater Time-Warps it up as they screen, THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW (1975) every Friday night, featuring the live cast of Lips Down on Dixie at midnight!

Every first and third Mondays are Big Band Nights at Café 290, featuring Joe Gransden and his amazing 16-piece orchestra playing jazz and swing standards in the tradition of The Glen Miller Orchestra and other legendary groups.  Second and fourth Mondays are Bumpin the Mango, ‘The groove that makes you want to move!’

Every first Wednesday is the Graveyard Tavern’s Graveyard Swing Night, featuring the swingin’ jazz and boogie-woogie sounds of the Savoy Kings!

If you have a suggestion for a future event that should be included in This Week in Retro Atlanta or see something we missed, please email us at atlretro@gmail.com.

by Melanie Crew
Managing Editor

This Week in Retro Atlanta is the Kat’s Meow! Come see all the shakin’ shenanigans we’ve found for you! From honkytonk hootenannies to rockin’ garage, glam ‘n’ punk, we’ve got you covered!

Monday, March 9

Make your way to the Shakespeare Tavern for Kool Kat Nicolette Emanuelle’s The Dead Poets Lounge event featuring a combination of literature, circus arts, acting, and live music to bring the poems of dead poets to life at 7:30pm! Rock out at 529 with Ukiah Drag, Wymyns Prysyn, GG King and Polish Nails! Get geeky with Blast-Off Burlesque as they start your week off right with a night of adults-only trivia at the Euclid Avenue Yacht Club, every Monday night at 8:30pm! Catch Alan Pakula’s THE PELICAN BRIEF (1993) at the Charles D. Switzer Public Library’s “Brown Bag Lunch Film Series” at 12pm! Truett Lollis delivers a night of blues and soul at Darwin’s Burgers & Blues in Marietta! Swing on by the Georgia Ensemble Theatre for the “Sounds of the Big Band Era” event with Joe Gransden and his amazing 16-member Big Band!  Folk it up with Hiss Golden Messenger and William Tyler at The Earl! Or boogie on down to the Northside Tavern and spend an evening with Lola at her famous Monday Night Northside Jam! Get funky and groove on down to Café 290 every second and fourth Monday of the month for a taste of Bumpin the Mango, ‘The groove that makes you want to move!’ It’s a night of acoustic roots ‘n’ blues at Blind Willie’s with Bill Sheffield! Get folksy with Jamie Laval at Steve’s Live Music in Sandy Springs! And blues on down to Fat Matt’s Rib Shack for a taste of the Pork Belly’s and a plate full ‘o finger lickin’ BBQ!

Tuesday, March 10

It’s a night of burly-Q shenanigans with Kool Kat Katherine Lashe and Syrens of the South, at the Red Light Café with their Tease Tuesday: Spring Fling event featuring a whole ‘lotta pipin’ hot performances at 9pm! Make your way to the Landmark Midtown Art Cinema with their screening of Stanley Kubrick’s PATHS OF GLORY (1957) during their “Midtown Classics” series at 7pm, featuring a pre-show intro and a post-film Q&A session! It’s a night of fast draws and wild rides at the Northlake Festival Movie Tavern with their screening of George Ray Hill’s classic, BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID (1969), during their “Classic Films on the Big Screen” series at 7:30! Rock out at 529 with Lowbanks, Buffalo Rodeo and The Illiterates! The Star Bar delivers a night of retro shenanigans with Kool Kat Jeff Clark and Stomp & Stammer’s Rock ‘n’ Roll Trivia at 8pm, followed by ‘80s Dance Night! Curtis Jones & Primal Roots bluegrasses it up at Steve’s Live Music in Sandy Springs! Jam it up with Joe Gransden and his jazz jam session at Twain’s in Decatur every Tuesday at 9 pm! Stomp on over to Blind Willie’s for the Boohoo Ramblers! Or boogie on down to Darwin’s Burgers & Blues in Marietta for a taste of Bill Sheffield’s acoustic roots and blues! And as always, The Entertainment Crackers get bluesy with their folksy Americana at the Northside Tavern!

Wednesday, March 11

Get your gypsy Americana rock fix at the Red Clay Theatre with Scythian! Funk it up with a night of rockin’ blues with The Georgia Flood at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack! Or get your retro rock ‘n’ surf fix at WonderRoot with Man Up Yancey, Wild Front, It’s Not Your Fault and The Organ Machines! Blues it up with Kool Kat Scott Glazer’s Mojo Dojo at Blind Willie’s! It’s your last chance to catch George Ray Hill’s classic, BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID (1969) at the Northlake Festival Movie Tavern during their “Classic Films on the Big Screen” series at 7:30! It’s a hootenanny and a half at The Star Bar as Kool Kat Rich DeSantis and his band Honkytonk get smokin’ hot during their Slim Chickens’ Honkytonk Extravaganza event, featuring live-band old-time country and western tunes! Or make your way to the Northside Tavern as Danny ‘Mudcat’ Dudeck fires it up with his rockin’ blues! And as always, it’s Ladies Night at Johnny’s Hideaway which plays hits from Sinatra to Madonna for a generally mature crowd.

Thursday, March 12

Folk it up with some funky rockin’ Americana at The Star Bar with Birdcloud, wWAYLon, The Ain’t Sisters and Gashound! Or bluegrass it up at the Red Light Café with Coldheart Canyon, Keena Graham (Blood On the Harp) and Sofia Lute! The Atlanta Cyclorama & Civil War Museum presents their screening of Christine Herbes-Sommers’ documentary RACE: THE POWER OF AN ILLUSION (2003) at 7pm! It’s a night of absurd hilarity at 7 Stages with director Del Hamilton’s take on George Tabori’s “Mein Kampf”, running through Mar. 15! Get old-timey at the Elliott Street Pub with the Muleskinner MacQueen Trio! Garage rock it up at 529 with Shepherds, Paperhaus, COMA GIRLS and Mythical Motors! Beverly “Guitar” Watkins delivers a night of rockin’ blues at Blind Willie’s! Get rootsy at Eddie’s Attic with Penny & Sparrow! It’s Mai Tai Thursday at Trader Vic’s, so hula on down for a night of swanky soul and rock ‘n’ roll with Bogey & the Viceroy Quartet! It’s a night of “brass kickin’ roots rock” and funky grooves at Smith’s Olde Bar with Sol Driven Train, Voodoo Visionary and The McNifficent 7! Stagger on over to Noni’s Bar & Deli for their Bitter Heroes event featuring DJ Brian Parris as he gets charmingly morose with a little New-Wave, The Smiths and The Cure! The Northside Tavern gets rockin’ with a little Chicago/Delta blues of The Breeze Kings! Steve’s Live Music in Sandy Springs delivers a night of roots, rock ‘n’ reggae with Jump Babylon! Darwin’s Burgers & Blues gets down and dirty at their Blues Jam hosted by The Cazanovas! Get your boogie on at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack, as Chickenshack featuring Eddie Tigner, delivers some honky-tonk blues! And as always, get your boogie on at Mary’s, as the East Atlanta venue gets funky with their weekly Disco in the Village.

Friday, March 13

Get your fill of monsters and mayhem at the Masquerade with our pals at Wrestling With Pop Culture’s (Kool Kat interview with Jonathan Williams here) “Culture Shock” event hosted by Needless Things’ Phantom Troublemaker and Ghouella Deville, promising an extravaganza of wrestling, music and more! You won’t want to miss their special Friday the 13th frightening feature match with Monstrosity Championship Wrestling stars and side-show shenanigans with Captain & Maybelle! Get gore-ified at the Sweetwater Bar & Grille during their Friday the 13th Horror Rock Show, featuring Kool Kats, The Casket Creatures, Fifty Two Ways and Crypt 24! Or rock on down to The Star Bar for a night of punk tribute bands with Horror Business (Misfits), Banned in ATL (Bad Brains), Salad Days (Minor Threat) and Everybody & the Whatevers! Or for something a little less sinister, get your fill of ‘50s pop culture at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Center with I Love Lucy Live, running through March 15! It’s a night of retro funk ‘n’ soul at Aisle 5 featuring Kool Kat Ruby Velle & the Soulphonics, Magnolia Sons, Lady Daisey and Batsauce! John Mellencamp and Carlene Carter deliver a night of rock ‘n’ Americana at the Fox Theatre! Get revved in slow motion at the American Tavern in Loganville with Kool Kat Hot Rod Walt’s solo acoustic show! Folk it up at Smith’s Olde Bar with The Howlin’ Brothers and Tall Tall Trees! The Jamie Laval Trio delivers their St. Patrick’s Day Show at Steve’s Live Music in Sandy Springs! Blues it up with House Rocker Johnson & the Shadows at Blind Willie’s! It’s a night of rockin’ Americana at The Earl with The Last Bison and Cereus Bright! Boogie on down to Darwin’s Burgers & Blues for a night with Lola! Hottie Hawgs BBQ dishes out a night of Dixie blues with Seminole Jackson! Get geeky and make your way to the Famous Pub for Markers.Con’s Infestation 4: Halfway to DragonCon event! Have twice the fun boogyin’ under the dinosaurs at Fernbank Museum of Natural History’s Martinis and IMAX event with The T.S. Woodward Trio delivering a little post-ragtime jazzy blues followed by a little foot stompin’ bluegrass with The Shoal Creek Ramblers! Get psychedelic with Swami Gone Bananas at the Northside Tavern! Blues it up with The Unusual Suspects at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack! And as always, Time-Warp it up and get naughty with some uber musically-inclined transsexual aliens at The Plaza Theater as they continue their tradition of screening THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW (1975) every Friday night, featuring the live cast of Lips Down on Dixie at midnight!

Saturday, March 14

Hey kiddies of all ages! Joelanta & the Great Atlanta Toy Convention invades the Atlanta Marriott Century Center for 2 days only! If you love vintage toys, stop-motion animation, comics, cosplay, pop culture and more, you won’t want to miss this two-day toy extravaganza including dealers tables, celebrity guests including GI Joe comic writer, Larry Hama, live music by Radio Cult and the Possum Kingdom Ramblers, panels with Needless Things’ El Phantasmas and more!

The Star Bar delivers a night of rockin’ garage ‘n’ glam with The Subsonics, Black Linen and the PowWows! Honkytonk on down to Kavarna for a night with Kool Kat Julea & Her Dear Johns, Kelsey Waldon and Kira Annalise! Or rev on down to Thunder Tower West Harley Davidson for their St. Patty’s Day Party hosted by Kool Kat Reverend Andy Hawley of Garage71 Internet Radio, featuring the best beard contest, kilts and wenches! And stick around for some rockin’ tunes with King Daddy Polecats! Catch a wave down to the Drunken Unicorn for a night of surf rock with the Antarcticats, The Organ Machines and The Future Babes! Kool Kat Hot Rod Walt & the Psycho-Devilles will rev you up at the Irish Bred Pub! The Center for Puppetry Arts screens Henry Selick’s film adaptation of Roald Dahl’s classic, JAMES AND THE GIANT PEACH (1996) at 7pm! Bluegrass it up at Eddie’s Attic with Roxie Watson, Boy Named Banjo and Forlorn Strangers! Rock on down to the Earl Smith Strand Theatre for White Winged Dove, paying tribute to Fleetwood Mac! Make your way to the Variety Playhouse for The Good Gracious Show featuring Gareth Asher, Hannah Thomas and more! Escape Vehicle delivers a St. Patrick’s Day Party & Jam at the Red Light Café! Get your bluesy roots fix at Steve’s Live Music in Sandy Springs with Hannah Zale and Julie Holmes! It’s a night of holler-folk and stomp at Grocery on Home with The Ghost of Paul Revere and Caleb Caudle! Boogie woogie on down to Darwin’s Burgers & Blues for their Dueling Pianos event! The Northside Tavern gets down and dirty with The Cazanovas! Blues it up with Sweet & Salty at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack! Honkytonk it up with Whitey Morgan & the 78s at the 120 Tavern & Music Hall! Get folksy with Seth Livengood at the Crimson Moon Cafe! And as always, DJ Romeo Cologne transforms the sensationally seedy Clermont Lounge into a ’70s disco/funk inferno late into the wee hours of the night.

Sunday, March 15

Rock out 1977-style at the Variety Playhouse with Gang of Four! It’s day 2 and your last chance to experience the Joelanta & the Great Atlanta Toy Convention at the Atlanta Marriott Century Center! It’s a night of ‘70s punk at The Earl with Dirty Fences, Boy Toy, Sheer Mag and Mexican Slang! Bluegrass it up at Smith’s Olde Bar with Controlled Burn in the Bar Room! Get folksy with Jamie Laval at the Crimson Moon Cafe! Or get your Americana fix at the Red Clay Theatre with Sarah Lee Guthrie & Johnny Irion! It’s sultry Sunday at Steve’s Live Music in Sandy Springs, so come on down for a night with Jessica Sanders! Get sweet and low down blues-style at the Northside Tavern with Uncle Sugar! And blues it up with Snakelegs at Fat Matt’s Rib Shack!

Ongoing

OnStage Atlanta dishes out the infamous horror rock musical, “Little Shop of Horrors”, horrifying through March 28!

The 35th Annual Atlanta Fair is being held at Turner Field through April 5!

The Atlanta Contemporary Art Center presents the “Gilda Radner Research and Translation Center”, an unofficial academic-ish platform for the analysis of Radner’s life and comedy, running through April 11!

The Marietta Museum of History gets Victorian as they present their “Peeling Back the Layers: Victorian Wedding Ensembles” exhibit through May 2, 2015!

The High Museum presents “Gordon Parks: Segregation Story” (‘50s Life Magazine photos) and “Leonard Freed: Black in White America”, (1963-1966) exhibits through June 7!

William Bremen Jewish Heritage Museum’s, “Where the Wild Things Are: Maurice Sendek in His Own Words and Pictures” getting wild through July 5!

Blast-Off Burlesque geeks it up with a night of adults-only trivia at the Euclid Avenue Yacht Club, every Monday at 8:30pm!

HepCat’s Hop gets swingin’ usually every second Saturday of the month at the 57th Fighter Group Restaurant!

Nerd Film Mafia screenings at the Diesel Fueling Station following NerdCore Trivia, every last Tuesday of the month!

ICON 80s: Music Video Dance Night rocks out at the Famous Pub every Friday night with a different 80’s theme!

The Star Bar delivers Stomp & Stammer’s Rock ‘n’ Roll Trivia at 8pm, followed by ‘80s Dance Night at 10pm, every Tuesday!

Boogie on down into Disco Hell at The Family Dog as DJ Quasi Mandisco delivers a night of classic funk, soul and disco the last Friday of every month.

The Plaza Theater Time-Warps it up as they screen, THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW (1975) every Friday night, featuring the live cast of Lips Down on Dixie at midnight!

Every first and third Mondays are Big Band Nights at Café 290, featuring Joe Gransden and his amazing 16-piece orchestra playing jazz and swing standards in the tradition of The Glen Miller Orchestra and other legendary groups.  Second and fourth Mondays are Bumpin the Mango, ‘The groove that makes you want to move!’

Every first Wednesday is the Graveyard Tavern’s Graveyard Swing Night, featuring the swingin’ jazz and boogie-woogie sounds of the Savoy Kings!

If you have a suggestion for a future event that should be included in This Week in Retro Atlanta or see something we missed, please email us at atlretro@gmail.com.

Photo Credit: Raymond Adams

by Melanie Crew
Managing Editor

Rich DeSantis of Whiskey Belt, guitar slingin’, classic country and roots rock lovin’ wayward son and card carryin’ member of the “Redneck Underground” along with his outfit, the Honkytonk Extravaganza deliver a night of high-energy live-band classic country karaoke with a whole ‘lotta shakin’ shenanigans during his Slim Chickens’ Honkytonk Extravaganza event raisin’ a ruckus at The Star Bar this Wednesday, March 4 and every Wednesday night at 9pm!

Rich is no newbie to Atlanta’s ‘roots’ music underground. He’s been “channeling the Grand Ole Opry circa 1957” with his band, Whiskey Belt since 2011, has put together boot stompin’ classic country line-ups in the past as his alter ego, Slim Chickens, revvin’ it up with The Blacktop Rockets, Julea & Her Dear Johns [March 2014; see ATLRetro’s Kool Kat feature on Julea Thomerson, here], Migrant Worker, The Scragglers, Wayne “The Train” Hancock and more; and plans to keep on honkytonkin’ it up with the “Redneck Underground” on a weekly basis at The Star Bar!

The Honkytonk Extravaganza include members from Whiskey Belt as well as a few rockin’ extras: Rich DeSantis (host/vocals/acoustic guitar); Johnny McGowan (lead guitar/vocals); David James (keyboard); Dave Roth (bass/vocals); Mike Hammer (drums) and Steve Stone (pedal steel). So, come on down and raise a ruckus with these fellas at the rockin’est shindig in town, Slim Chickens’ Honkytonk Extravaganza, Wednesday nights at The Star Bar!

ATLRetro caught up with Rich for a quick interview about Atlanta’s “Redneck Underground” and roots music scene; his weekly Slim Chickens’ Honkytonk Extravaganza event and his admiration for Buck Owens of The Buckaroos.

And while you’re takin’ a gander at our little Q&A with Rich, gear up for a rockin’ night with the fellas by takin’ a peek at the Slim Chickens’s Honkytonk Extravaganza songlist here and take a listen to his Spotify playlist here!

ATLRetro: We see that you’ve been stompin’ it up since 2010 and dishin’ out a whole lotta live classic country karaoke, which has been a hit at the Star Bar. Can you give us the scoop on Slim Chickens’ Honkytonk Extravaganza’s origins?

Photo Credit: Raymond Adams, (L-R) Johnny McGowan, Steve Stone and Rich DeSantis

Rich DeSantis: I’ve been hosting an event for years to feature roots rock music and culture called the Honkytonk Extravaganza. I would hire a couple bands and also invite some extra talent to play and encourage on-stage collaboration; it was fun and a great meeting place for people who love this music. Then, last May, Kahle Davis put a note out on FB asking if anyone had an idea for an event for every Wednesday at The Star Bar. I suggested doing live band classic country karaoke with a house band. My first call was to Johnny McGowan to play lead guitar, then David James on keys, Dave Roth on bass and Mike Hammer on drums. The first night was a success and we moved forward watching the event grow every week. In August, I added Steve Stone on pedal steel and lead guitar and that’s the band.

Atlanta has proven to have a soft spot for old-time country, rockabilly and has thrived on the sleazy nitty gritty underground music scene. What drew you to the scene and what do you think could make it even better?

The music is what drew me to that scene – with a taste for Buddy Holly, Buck Owens and Elvis, I went looking for like-minded individuals and found them at The Star Bar. That was always where the cool kids were. I was watching bands and playing in bands and learning what it meant to be in a band and The Star Bar is ground zero for the “Redneck Underground”. What we need to make it better is what you are doing – a little promotion is all we need to draw more music lovers out to our little event.

Have you always been into classic country? When did you pick up your first guitar?

I’ve always loved Buck Owens but I found classic country through the rock and roll and jump blues I was playing with my old band, Slim Chickens. I began adding a high-energy George Jones or Waylon Jennings tune to our set here or there and having fun and getting a good crowd response so I began looking for other great songs. I love the high quality of musicianship in classic country. I started playing guitar at 13.
Who are your favorite classic country and vintage performers and influences?

Hank Williams, Lefty Frizzell, Faron Young, Webb Pierce, Gram Parsons are folks I haven’t already mentioned. I love the space in this music as these fine players weave together their little vignettes. And I love what feels like down-home comfort mixed with the worldliness of narrators who learned their lessons the hard way.

In 2010, we see that you revved it up with The Blacktop Rockets and later with other wranglers and foot stompers (Kool Kat Julea & Her Dear Johns, Wayne “The Train” Hancock, Migrant Worker and The Scragglers). If you could line-up a show of your favorite musicians (still around or not) for a helluva hootenanny, who would you choose and why?

“Hot Rod Walt” & the Psycho-Devilles are a huge part of the Atlanta roots-music scene. I would have Cicada Rhythm, Willie Heath Neal, and Ghost Riders Car Club and open up for them, that would be a fun show. I guess Elvis opening up for Hank Williams would be pretty cool too.

Photo Credit: Raymond Adams; (L-R) Johnny McGowan and Rich DeSantis

You’ve stated that with the help of Steve Stone (Pedal Steel and producer/engineer) Honkytonk has been recording in his studio. Any plans for an album any time soon?

Well, we are recording – we have two songs finished and are about to record a new original or two for a compilation record. Steve is incredibly talented and busy being the hottest new picker in town, so I anticipate an EP ready in the spring.

What would you say is the most requested song at the Honkytonk Extravaganza? How do you choose your song lists?

I think “Jackson” by Johnny Cash and June Carter gets a lot of play and probably “Folsom Prison Blues” too. Johnny Cash is very popular; he is a dark character and creates a bridge between rock and roll/punk rock and classic country, so nearly every music lover likes the “Man in Black”. I started with the song list from my band Whisky Belt and continue to add new songs based on my research and suggestions from the audience and band members.

What can our readers expect at your Wednesday night Slim Chickens’ Honkytonk Extravaganza events at The Star Bar?

Expect to watch a great country band rip through a few numbers and then invite other entertainers from the audience to sit in with us for lively versions of dusted off country and rockabilly classics. It’s a fun-filled variety show with a parade of singers and instrumentalists showing out. The audience will be dressed in style and laughing, drinking and making the scene. Expect a spotlight shining on the “Redneck Underground” circa 2015.

Photo Credit: Raymond Adams, (L-R) David James (keys), Johnny McGowan (guitar), Mike Hammer (drums), Art Holliday (vocals), Rich DeSantis and Dave Roth (bass)

Any special events coming up? Special guests in the near future?

We’ve been asked by the folks at Dad’s Garage to play at the Masquerade for BaconFest 2015 on March 28. We will be bringing the Honkytonk Extravaganza out there to do 3 hours of live band karaoke in Purgatory from 2-5pm.

What’s next for you and Slim Chickens’ Honkytonk Extravaganza?

I’m just excited to move into the spring with the momentum we’ve gained through the winter and take the whole event to the next level in every way. I have a few new things in the works and people can follow along by joining the Facebook Group, Slim Chickens’ Honkytonk Extravaganza.

Can you tell our readers something you’d like folks to know that they don’t know already?

You don’t have to sing or play to participate – most people just come to watch and have their own kind of fun.

What question do you wish somebody would ask you and what’s the answer?

Q: “Where can we get shirts like you guys wear?”
A: I bring 10 or 20 western shirts to the events to sell.

Photo Credit: Kim Koch, Front (L-R) Dave Roth, Mike Hammer, Anita Lee, Steve Stone, Johnny McGowan. Back: Rich DeSantis

All photos are courtesy of Rich DeSantis and used with permission.

by Melanie Crew
Managing Editor

Retro Atlanta is the bee’s knees this week! From a whole ‘lotta revved up rock ‘n’ roll, to hillbilly hootenannies galore, to all the jazz and blues your rockin’ little heart could desire! And you won’t want to miss all the classic cinema we’ve found for you! So get off that couch and live la vida Retro!

Monday, March 2

529 will erase those Monday blues with a night of electronic funk and rock a la Talking Heads with Highlander, This Piano Plays Itself and Acapoco! Get nostalgic at The Mammal Gallery with their Everything Is Terrible! The Legends Show at 8pm, featuring thousands of forgotten VHS tapes mixed up and released for your enjoyment! Get geeky with Blast-Off Burlesque as they start your week off right with a night of adults-only trivia at the Euclid Avenue Yacht Club, every Monday night at 8:30pm! Truett Lollis delivers a night of blues and soul at Darwin’s Burgers & Blues in Marietta! Swing on by Big Band Night featuring Joe Gransden and his amazing 16-member orchestra at Café 290 every first and third Monday of the month! Or boogie on down to the Northside Tavern and spend an evening with Lola at her famous Monday Night Northside Jam! And get folksy with Jamie Laval at Steve’s Live Music in Sandy Springs!

Tuesday, March 3

It’s a night of midnight madness of David Lynch-ian proportions at the Landmark Midtown Art Cinema with their screening of ERASERHEAD (1977) during their “Midtown Classics” series (See our Retro Review here) at 7pm! Or get adventurous at the Northlake Festival Movie Tavern with their screening of Rob Reiner’s ‘80s classic, THE PRINCESS BRIDE (1987), during their “Classic Films on the Big Screen” series at 7:30! Get really retro at Pallookaville with Jim Stacy’s first in his culinary anthropological series, “Eat Like An Ancient Roman” at 7:30pm! Rock out at the Masquerade with ‘90s rocker Scott Weiland & the Wildabouts, The Last Internationale and Stocklyn! Let WonderRoot shake you up with a rockin’ night featuring the Great American Noise Jijad, Koko Beware, Nude Tayne, Jitters and Novus! The Star Bar delivers a night of retro shenanigans with Kool Kat Jeff Clark and Stomp & Stammer’s Rock ‘n’ Roll Trivia at 8pm, followed by ‘80s Dance Night! Jam it up with Joe Gransden and his jazz jam session at Twain’s in Decatur every Tuesday at 9 pm! Or boogie on down to Darwin’s Burgers & Blues in Marietta for a taste of Bill Sheffield’s acoustic roots and blues! And as always, The Entertainment Crackers get bluesy with their folksy Americana at the Northside Tavern!

Wednesday, March 4

It’s a night of psychobilly, surf and grungy rockin’ bluegrass at The Drunken Unicorn with Fiend Without A Face, Brief Lives, Look Alike and Word Travels Fast! Emory Cinematheque screens Robert Aldrich’s classic, THE LONGEST YARD (1974) featuring Burt Reynolds, during their “Movies Made in Georgia” series at 7:30pm! It’s your last chance to pirate it up at the Northlake Festival Movie Tavern with their screening of Rob Reiner’s ‘80s classic, THE PRINCESS BRIDE (1987), during their “Classic Films on the Big Screen” series at 7:30! Or make your way to The Plaza Theater for their screening of Noah Baumbach’s KICKING AND SCREAMING (1995) at 7pm! Boogie on down to East Atlanta’s Graveyard Tavern for their Graveyard Swing Night, held the first Wednesday of every month, promising an evening of swingin’ jazz and jive with the Savoy Kings! Jazz it up Latin-style at Java Monkey with Wild Rice! Stomp on down to Eddie’s Attic for a night with Kevn Kinney (Drivin’ N’ Cryin’) and Tim Knol! Blues it up with Lola at Sweet Georgia’s Juke Joint! It’s a hootenanny and a half at The Star Bar as they get smokin’ during Slim Chickens’ Honkytonk Extravaganza, featuring live-band old-time country and western tunes (Check out our Kool Kat interview this week with Rich DeSantis!) Or make your way to the Northside Tavern as Danny ‘Mudcat’ Dudeck fires it up with his rockin’ blues! And as always, it’s Ladies Night at Johnny’s Hideaway which plays hits from Sinatra to Madonna for a generally mature crowd.

Thursday, March 5

Live long and prosper while celebrating Leonard Nimoy as Cineprov riffs his STAR TREK III: THE SEARCH FOR SPOCK (1984) at The Plaza Theater at 7:30pm! Take a trip to Valhalla and Viking it up at the Euclid Avenue Yacht Club with Blast Off Burlesque and their Viking Bingo party delivering a night of Bingo, dancing and surprise performances! Come dressed in your rockin’est Viking getups, win some prizes and get your B-I-N-G-O shenanigan fix! Rock out at The Star Bar with Kool Kats, The Joy Kills, The Landmines, Blue Tower and COMA GIRLS! Or get your fill of the greaser and pin-up life at the Kustom Kulture Art Show with Garage71 Radio, featuring a night of Pin-Up and Tattoo Flash Art at the Tannery Row Artist Colony in Buford! Get sinister with a night of ‘80s and ‘90s metal at the Masquerade with Behemoth, Cannibal Corpse, Aeon and Tribulation! Adia Victoria delivers a night of “back porch blues swamp” at The Drunken Unicorn with Black Linen! Get funky with Dumpstaphunk and AJ Ghent at Terminal West! Or folk it up at the Red Clay Theatre with Shaun Mullins and Michelle Malone! Stomp on down to Galactic Quest in Lawrenceville for a hoppin’ CD Release shindig with Possum Kingdom Ramblers! It’s a night of Americana and string band goodness at the Red Light Café with The Plate Scrapers, Todd & Alex and Jesse & Noah! It’s Mai Tai Thursday at Trader Vic’s, so hula on down for a night of rockin’ island tunes! Get some soul at Smith’s Olde Bar with Kristin Diable and Anderson East! Stagger on over to Noni’s Bar & Deli for their Bitter Heroes event featuring DJ Brian Parris as he gets charmingly morose with a little New-Wave, The Smiths and The Cure! The Northside Tavern gets rockin’ with a little Chicago/Delta blues of The Breeze Kings! Get ‘yer outlaw old-school country and rock fix at The 120 Tavern & Music Hall with David Allan Coe, Von Kiss and Willie Heath Neal! Darwin’s Burgers & Blues gets down and dirty at their Blues Jam hosted by The Cazanovas! And as always, get your boogie on at Mary’s, as the East Atlanta venue gets funky with their weekly Disco in the Village.

Friday, March 6

Swing on by Blue Mark Studios as they and the Artifice Club bring you a night of Electroswing, circus and sideshow shenanigans at 8pm, with performances by the Blue Moon Circus (Kentucky), DJ Vourteque (Chicago), Kool Kat Talloolah Love and DJ Doctor Q! Folk it up with little fiery antics at the Red Light Café with the Moonshadow Marauders, the Poverty Level Band, Threadbare Skivvies and Randy Burnette of the Imperial OPA Circus! Surf it up at The Earl with La Luz, The Shivas, Small Reactions and Shantih Shantih! It’s a night of retro rock and foot stompin’ blues at Smith’s Olde Bar in the Atlanta Room with A Moment Electric, Six Time Losers and Momcat! Or rock out in the Music Room with Dank (formerly Dank Sinatra) and The Kinky Aphrodisiacs! Get funky and acoustic with Chadwick Stokes at Vinyl! Jazz it up with Grant Green, Jr. at Eddie’s Attic! Stomp on down to Java Monkey for a night with the Barrow Boys! Spend a night with Kevn Kinney (Drivin’ N’ Cryin’) and Tim Knol at the Crimson Moon Café! Shawn Mullins and Michelle Malone folk it up a second night at the Red Clay Theatre! Hottie Hawgs BBQ delivers a night of country blues with Tito & the Chicken Raiders! Darwin’s Burgers & Blues dishes out a night of funky blues with Biscuit Miller & the Mix! Steve’s Live Music in Sandy Springs delivers a night of ragtime and folk with Caleb Warren & the Perfect Gentlemen and Sailing to Denver! Funk it up at the Fernbank Museum of Natural History’s Martinis and IMAX event with The Mar-Tans! Blues it up with Robert Lee Coleman at the Northside Tavern! And as always, Time-Warp it up and get naughty with some uber musically-inclined transsexual aliens at The Plaza Theater as they continue their tradition of screening THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW (1975) every Friday night, featuring the live cast of Lips Down on Dixie at midnight!

Saturday, March 7

Get revved at The Star Bar with Kool Kat Hot Rod Walt & the Psycho-Devilles and Hillbilly Casino! UnionEAV delivers a night of gritty rock ‘n’ roll with Swank Sinatra, Seagulls, karbomB, Ganges Phalanges and Pretty Please! Blues it up with JJ Grey & Mofro and the People’s Blues of Richmond at The Buckhead Theatre! Get your rock and psyche fix at the Masquerade with Capsula, Behold the Brave, Novus and Fake Flowers! Jonathan Toubin delivers his “Soul Clap & Dance Off” spinning a night of ‘60s soul at The Earl! Stomp on down to the Music Room at Smith’s Olde Bar for a night with Will Kimbrough and The Van Lears at 6pm followed by Folk Soul Revival and Owner of the Sun at 9pm! Or get funky in the Atlanta Room with Rollie and El Quattro at 6:30pm followed by The Dirty Souls, Liz Brasher and Circus Dog! Jazz it up with Virginia Schenck at the Red Light Café! Get chaotic at The Highlander with the Moreland Wrecks, Squadron and Night Terrors! Folk it up at Kavarna with The Ain’t Sisters, Claire Campbell (Hope For A Goldensummer) and Bless These Sounds Under the City! Eliot Bronson and Dean Fields deliver a night of rockin’ Americana at Eddie’s Attic! Eighties it up at the Dallas Public House with Kool Kat Becky Cormier Finch and Denim Arcade! Natalie MacMaster and Donnell Leahy fiddle it up with a night of traditional Celtic tunes at the Ferst Center! Get your blues rock fix at The Basement during Brother Hawk’s Big Medicine Festival with a red-hot line-up featuring Brother Hawk, Stonerider, Big Jesus, Tedo Stone, Trae Vedder (Death on Two Wheels), Radio Birds, Bear Fight, Madre Padre and Moonbase! Get some soul with Kyshona Armstrong at the Elliott Street Pub! Blues it up with Frankie’s Blues Mission at Hottie Hawgs BBQ! Rock out with Bush at the Tabernacle! Make your way to Steve’s Live Music in Sandy Springs for their “Winter Classic R&R” series with Absynthe Makes the Art Garfunkel at 6pm, followed by Brian Ashley Jones’ twangy blues at 9pm! It’s a night of red-hot blues at Darwin’s Burgers & Blues with RJ Mischo! Or blues it up with Albert White at the Northside Tavern! Get folksy with Shawn Mullins and Chuck Cannon at the Red Clay Theatre! And as always, DJ Romeo Cologne transforms the sensationally seedy Clermont Lounge into a ’70s disco/funk inferno late into the wee hours of the night.

Sunday, March 8

Smith’s Olde Bar has your Sunday covered, starting you off with their Bluegrass Brunch with Cedar Hill in the Bar Room, followed by a night of rockin’ garage and blues with Patrick Sweany, Joe Fletcher and Kool Kat Rod Hamdallah in the Atlanta Room! Calling all vivacious vintage gals! Get saucy at Garage71 Studios with Grease Inc, Magazine in Buford at their Spring Pin-Up Boot Camp with Ms. Memphis Monroe, at 11am, with a full day of learning hair and make-up basics and all things vintage! Get nostalgic with a little space rock ‘n’ grunge at the Masquerade with Dreamers, Born Cages, The Kickback and Mammabear! It’s a night of traditional Scottish tunes at the Red Light Café with The Tannahill Weavers! Stomp over to Eddie’s Attic and catch Carolina Story followed by Soul Suga and Diane Durrett! And you won’t want to miss another night with Shawn Mullins and Chuck Cannon at the Red Clay Theatre!

Ongoing

OnStage Atlanta dishes out the infamous horror rock musical, “Little Shop of Horrors”, horrifying through March 28!

The Atlanta Contemporary Art Center presents the “Gilda Radner Research and Translation Center”, an unofficial academic-ish platform for the analysis of Radner’s life and comedy, running through April 11!

The Marietta Museum of History gets Victorian as they present their “Peeling Back the Layers: Victorian Wedding Ensembles” exhibit through May 2, 2015!

The High Museum presents “Gordon Parks: Segregation Story” (‘50s Life Magazine photos) and “Leonard Freed: Black in White America”, (1963-1966) exhibits through June 7!

William Bremen Jewish Heritage Museum’s, “Where the Wild Things Are: Maurice Sendek in His Own Words and Pictures” getting wild through July 5!

Blast-Off Burlesque geeks it up with a night of adults-only trivia at the Euclid Avenue Yacht Club, every Monday at 8:30pm!

HepCat’s Hop gets swingin’ every second Wednesday of the month at the 57th Fighter Group Restaurant!

Nerd Film Mafia screenings at the Diesel Fueling Station following NerdCore Trivia, every last Tuesday of the month!

ICON 80s: Music Video Dance Night rocks out at the Famous Pub every Friday night with a different 80’s theme!

The Star Bar delivers Stomp & Stammer’s Rock ‘n’ Roll Trivia at 8pm, followed by ‘80s Dance Night at 10pm, every Tuesday! And every Wednesday, stomp on down for Slim Chickens’ Honkytonk Extravaganza, delivering a night of live band classic country karaoke!

Boogie on down into Disco Hell at The Family Dog as DJ Quasi Mandisco delivers a night of classic funk, soul and disco the last Friday of every month.

The Plaza Theater Time-Warps it up as they screen, THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW (1975) every Friday night, featuring the live cast of Lips Down on Dixie at midnight!

Every first and third Mondays are Big Band Nights at Café 290, featuring Joe Gransden and his amazing 16-piece orchestra playing jazz and swing standards in the tradition of The Glen Miller Orchestra and other legendary groups.  Second and fourth Mondays are Bumpin the Mango, ‘The groove that makes you want to move!’

Every first Wednesday is the Graveyard Tavern’s Graveyard Swing Night, featuring the swingin’ jazz and boogie-woogie sounds of the Savoy Kings!

If you have a suggestion for a future event that should be included in This Week in Retro Atlanta or see something we missed, please email us at atlretro@gmail.com.

ERASERHEAD (1977); Dir. David Lynch; Starring Jack Nance, Charlotte Stewart, Allen Joseph, Jeanne Bates, Judith Roberts and Laurel Near; Tuesday, March 3 @ 7:00 p.m.; Landmark Midtown Art Cinema; Tickets $11; Trailer here.

By Aleck Bennett
Contributing Writer

Landmark Midtown Art Cinema continues its “Midtown Cinema Classics” series with ERASERHEAD, the debut feature from one of this country’s most iconoclastic and distinctive filmmakers, David Lynch. Though made with an almost non-existent budget and shot over the course of five years, it quickly became one of the defining films of the “Midnight Movie” circuit and established Lynch as a singular artist with a visual strength and innovative storytelling style that must be reckoned with.

First, a summary: The Man in the Planet pushes a lever and things go into motion. Grey, desolate cityscapes. Harsh concrète pulses of industrial noise interspersed with the jaunty organ music of Fats Waller. Flickering lights in the hallway. Henry Spencer, a man with a questionable hairstyle. A family dinner with a bleeding, miniature roast chicken. “They’re new!” A revelation. “They’re still not sure it is a baby!” Something that looks like a goat fetus swaddled in bandages. The Lady in the Radiator. “In Heaven, everything is fine.” Crying. Oh, the crying. The Beautiful Girl Across the Hall. Visions. We have a title. Scissors. Confrontation. Explosions. An embrace. And despite the Man in the Planet’s attempts, those levers will not go back. No way to slow down.

There is no effective way to critically assess a movie like ERASERHEAD. It just exists, monolithic. Even discussing the making of the movie is a faulty way to approach the film. It’s too mundane. Too workaday. Is it interesting that Lynch filmed it while on an AFI scholarship and used their campus as filming locations? That it took over five years to complete and that he shot it around his schedule as a newspaper delivery boy? That star Jack Nance’s then-wife, assistant director Catherine “The Log Lady” Coulson helped fund it by donating her entire salary as a waitress? That nobody will speak of the nature or construction of the baby prop? Perhaps. But none of that is nearly as interesting as the movie itself.

You can try to analyze it and its symbols, but as David Lynch has always been such a closed book when it comes to discussing his own work, that approach depends entirely on what you bring to the table. Is it a horror movie about the terror a parent faces when an unwanted child is brought into the world? Sure! Why not? It’s an easy read of the text. It’s pretty much exactly what you’d say if you were to attempt to summarize the plot in a linear fashion. But try to tie that to a theory that this reflected Lynch’s mindset at the time, and that’s all on you. Lynch isn’t talking, and he’s never going to tell you that you’re right. For all you know, he thought the movie was high comedy. From on-set reports, that’s precisely what he thought about the Dennis Hopper/Isabella Rossellini scenes in BLUE VELVET, and those are freaking harrowing. No, the only way to approach the film on any interpretive level is to take the postmodern stance that the “meaning” of any work of art is dependent entirely on the viewer. And for what it’s worth, Lynch is completely on board with that. You come to it with the baggage you bring, and you walk away from it eyeing your baggage suspiciously.

Universally speaking, and without getting into personal interpretation, the only thing I can do is insist that you undertake this experience without hesitation, and try to relate to you the film’s ugly beauty. The production design is incredible, and Lynch establishes early on that he is expert at bringing on board cinematographers who can translate his inner visions to celluloid. ERASERHEAD is photographed beautifully. What it captures is often bleak, horrifying and miserable, but depicted with incredible detail and economy. Though the film presents incredibly unpleasant themes and sets its sights on incredibly unpleasant visuals, it does so with such a striking aesthetic impact that you cannot help but appreciate the care, passion and technical precision and accomplishment behind every frame. Lynch, trained as a painter, knows how to work effectively within a frame and does so with a remarkable style and uniform visual sense.

What’s more striking, though, is how this single work has come to define David Lynch as a filmmaker. Even more than his many early short films, this is the lynchpin (and may the Man in the Planet strike me dead for making that pun) for all of his subsequent works. The unnerving sense of “is this supposed to be funny?” bubbling up from the depths of the darkest sequences. Trademark visual motifs (figures emerging from shadows, the unreliability of electric light sources), storytelling elements (the blurring of dream and reality, odd chanteuses appearing at crucial moments to perform for us), visual composition (alternating black-and-white set design, long establishing shots, seemingly random inserts) and sound design (ever-present ambient noise, strangely anachronistic musical score) all find their wellspring here. Even in casting, Lynch’s oeuvre is tied together by this film, in which he first cast his most frequently-used actor, the late Jack Nance as Henry Spencer. Nance’s distinctive presence and oddball style made him a perfect choice for many subsequent cult films, and Lynch continued to use him in nearly all of his subsequent features (save for THE ELEPHANT MAN) until Jack Nance’s death in 1996.

Frank Zappa coined the notions of “conceptual continuity” and the “Project/Object,” in which he posited that all of his work—every album, song, interview, etc.—was all part of the same Big Work of Art that he was eternally designing as he went along. In a way, this is true of Lynch’s work as well. You could spend days going back and forth about the concepts of identity in his films and how MULHOLLAND DR. is the feminine flip side to the male-dominated diabolism of LOST HIGHWAY, and how all of that relates to the shifting and blurring definition of “self” in INLAND EMPIRE. You could follow the threads of adultery and its repercussions that pop up with regularity throughout his work. You could focus on the almost religious reverence he consistently devotes to the physically aberrant. And you could easily use any of those examinations to tie all of his work together as one big Project/Object. But you’d be hard pressed to do so without coming to the conclusion that it all comes together perfectly in one spot and flows out from that source: ERASERHEAD.

Or maybe not. It’s kinda up to you.

Attractive Eighties Women. Photo credit: Josh Meister

Hammerhead Fest IV: Weekend at Burnouts thrashes the Star Bar back to the punk and metal glory days of the ’80s and ’90s Fri. Feb. 27 and Sat. Feb. 28 . Throw on your combat boots and get ready to thrash at this two-day event of bands, booze and debauchery. Co-headlining are comedy core “divas” Attractive Eighties Women (Fri.), who mix classic punk with ‘70s stadium rock, and self-described hardcore “jerks” The Vaginas (Sat.). Also on the killer bill are thrash metal Death of Kings,  Misfits-style punk SHEHEHE, Gunpowder Gray, Spray Tan, Hatestomp (from Tennessee), Bigfoot (featuring Kool Kat Jett Bryant), DROPOUT, Divided Heaven (featuring members of The Boils), Bottle Kids and Magoo’s Heros.

ATLRetro caught up with Phoebe Cates, recently to find out what happens when all that testosterone…er female power gets pent up in one bar. She’s one of the four Attractive Eighties Women, which also include Kelly McGillis, Christie Brinkley, Shelley Long, and Princess Leia herself, Carrie Fisher. The comedy-core band has rocked the Atlanta music scene back to MySpace days and are known for fun little ditties like “Mama Get a Mammogram,” “Murder Kroger” and “They Shoot Hipsters, Don’t They?”  “Lightning Bolt,” a jab at live-action-role-play, even made it onto AdultSwim’s FRISKY DINGO.

If that’s not enough to earn Phoebe a crack at Kool Kat of the Week, we’ve got to admit we sure dug her in GREMLINS. 

ATLRETRO: What’s the secret origin story of the Attractive Eighties Women?

Phoebe Cates: We were all fans of the Scottish prog-rock band Hot Eighties Ladies, so we decided to form a cover band. The seven original members of Attractive Eighties Women all met in 1997 in an IRC chat room for HEL fans.

How did you get your band name? We heard it had something to do with a self-help video so we assume you guys are pretty fit and stable.

The original name of the band was Guitars Aplenty—because we had four guitar players. Our friend Miss Lady Flex of Le Sexoflex suggested “Attractive Eighties Women” because our band is composed of some of the most attractive actresses of the 1980s. After she pointed that out, it was kind of a no-brainer.

Which of you is the most attractive and why?

Me, Phoebe Cates. Why? Because of this infamous clip which I’m sure you’ve seen. Christie Brinkley thinks she’s the most attractive, but she also thinks “Uptown Girl” was written about her. What an idiot. 

Classic punk mixed with ‘70s stadium rock sounds like an oxymoron. How do your reconcile the basic antipathy felt by each toward the other, or are you simply schizophrenic?

It’s 2015, who cares about multisyllabic words like “antipathy” and “schizophrenic.” Rock & roll is for the people, baby! Whether they’re in a shithole dive or the Georgia Dome, AEW is for everyone regardless of race, income level, gender, sexual orientation, smell, complexion, hair height, shoe size, IQ, political affiliation, blood type, dick length, vagina depth or BMI. Except Georgia Tech fans. They’re not welcome at our shows.

You’ve been getting airplay at major media outlets lately with the Murder Kroger getting renovated and cleaned up into the Beltline Kroger. So how do you feel about that makeover? Be honest, is Atlanta losing a landmark? 

“Murder Kroger” the song is far more famous than our band. That makes us a one-hit-wonder, just like Joan Osborne and Tag Team. If that song is our legacy in the city of Atlanta, that makes me very happy. Getting upset about gentrification or the death of small businesses is pointless. I prefer to spend my time contemplating the cosmos and writing songs about beer shits. Murder Kroger will live forever in the minds of those who experienced the filth and the fury themselves.

Should hipsters still be shot?

No one cares about hipsters anymore. What’s a 2015 hipster? What was a 2007 hipster? I say shoot everyone under the age of 25.

Why should ATLRetro readers be sure not to miss Hammerhead Fest IV?! 

Attractive Eighties Women on Friday, and our friends The Vaginas on Saturday. I really like Death of Kings, too, and I’ve heard good things about Dropout and SHEHEHE, though I’ve never seen them myself. Is that Elvis Vault still there? Also, Shelley Long promised to whip it out during our third encore.

Looking at your Facebook page, can we expect Lazer Tag?

Yes, you can expect the hell out of it. 

OK, you don’t want to give away any spoilers, but for folks who have never seen you “ladies” live, what can they expect? And for those who have, why should they bother seeing you again?

Every Attractive Eighties Women show is unique, just like human dental records. Coincidentally, that’s what the authorities will need to identify the bodies in the audience after our sick riffs burn the Star Bar to the ground.

Attractive Eighties Women. Photo credit: Josh Meister.

What else are you up to now? Tour? New songs? Album?

There are no plans for any of that stuff at the moment. Immediately after the show is over, I’m being whisked offstage and flown back to Thailand, where I’ve been living for the past five years. I am doing a lot of meditating and training at a Buddhist temple. It’s very similar to the beginning of RAMBO III.

What question do you really wish someone would ask you? And what’s the answer?

Q: What’s the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow? A: What’s it like to be a virgin in your 40s?

All photographs are provided by Attractive Eighties Women and used with permission. The cover gallery photo credit on the ATLRetro home page is by Josh Meister.