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Home > Atlanta Music Scene > Archives > 2008 > August > 14
Thursday, August 14, 2008
Atlanta’s Lesbian Afternoon: Colored vinyl and a free freak out
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
What is a Lesbian Afternoon? Well, for starters, it’s a band, or, more accurately, the name Mike Koenig uses for his performances and recordings.
Lesbian Afternoon has a new 7-inch colored vinyl single in stores. Remember colored vinyl? L.A.’s new “Three Owls Teahaus” single comes in “swirly gray marble,” blue, gold or clear. He’ll be celebrating that release with a show tonight, Aug. 14, at Star Bar (437 Moreland Ave., Little Five Points. 404-681-9018, www.starbar.net). Koenig says he expects to go on first around 10 p.m. It’s part of a night they’re calling “Freakout,” with performances by Ominous Castles, Baby Dinosaurs Vs. Extinction and the Hat Company, in addition to L.A. Best of all, it’s free.
Atlanta native Koenig began performing as L.A. just over 10 years ago, after serving time in bands such as Bob and Gong Fodder. The name originates from a time when Koenig says he was writing “a lot of surreal word collage poems … and blindly put the two words together.”
The name is open to interpretation, which Koenig says felt right for the music he was making. “I enjoyed the play on words on a number of levels — messing with people’s preconceptions would be one of them — but it was also a way to give a shout to women in music (specifically all-girl punk bands) who’d really inspired me to play drums or pick up a guitar in the first place,” Koenig writes in an e-mail. “ In the end I think it’s about keeping an open mind, having fun and not taking things too seriously.”
Lesbian Afternoon was involved in a remix album of songs by twitchy San Francisco indie-pop experimentalists Deerhoof and contributed a track to a tribute album to Athens band Of Montreal.
Koenig’s a resourceful guy who makes his own (very strange) videos. You can find several of them on YouTube and through his MySpace page.
The music is a surprisingly memorable puzzle, with pieces of the lo-fi rumble of Pavement, Grandaddy’s pastoral freakiness and My Bloody Valentine’s drone, sometimes separately, sometimes all jumbled together.
So, why did Koenig decide to go with a vinyl release instead of the more usual self-made CD release? “For one, record stores will carry it,” he writes. “Very few record stores will carry homemade CDs, which is quite sad because they’re usually inexpensive and offer something unique to the listener without that annoying barcode getting in the way. It’s curious. Records are more or less homemade as well, but offer a certain charm that tends to make everyone happy so it’s a win-win situation.”
