The stars aligned with the Constellations major label debut

When famed Atlanta producer Ben H. Allen started the Constellations, he never intended for it to be more than a studio project featuring members of various local bands such as Snowden and Ponderosa.

But it didn’t take long for the stars to align, making the band a touring party monster led by charismatic frontman Elijah Jones (Allen, best know for his work with pop acts including hip-hop heavyweight Cee-Lo and his band, Gnarls Barkley, is not part of the live band).

Having independently released its debut album of funk-soul psychedelic songs about the dark side of Atlanta’s after-hours party scene titled “Southern Gothic” a couple of summers ago, the band was signed to Virgin Records after a hometown show opening for B.o.B. at Stats last fall. Though Allen’s name recognition (as well as guest vocalists Cee-Lo and Asher Roth) certainly didn’t hurt, the band has since proven its worth with nonstop touring, opening for the likes of Snoop Dogg and RJD2, performing overseas and playing to thousands at some of this summer’s biggest festivals, including Bonnaroo last weekend.

To celebrate the major label release of “Southern Gothic” (including an extra track called “Weighing Me Down” and still adequately grimy reworkings of other songs) on June 22, the band, now featuring former members of Second Shift and other local acts, has a few special things in store for the city that inspired most of its material.

On June 21, the band will perform for 99X and Thrillist contest winners at the Clermont Lounge, one of many local dives name-dropped in the Tom Waits-inspired song “Step Right Up.” If the band is able to wake up in time, it’s scheduled for a "Good Day Atlanta" appearance at 8 a.m. June 22. That will be followed by an evening in-store performance at Criminal Records in Little Five Points, where the band will also sign copies of the album.

While much of “Southern Gothic” is specifically about what happens in Atlanta after the bars close, fans as far away as London are able to connect with the characters and locales as if they are fixtures in their own towns.

“I think at the end of the day the record is about a town and the characters you meet there,” Jones said before a recent tour stop with Hockey at the Drunken Unicorn, which could be considered the epicenter of the album’s debaucherous aura. “Everyone’s got some kind of nightlife, at least the places we’re touring, and I think that what people connect to is the fact that we’re talking about people we run into and know and those characters that you meet in the after-hours at nightclubs and stuff.”

And if Jones could do a concept about what happens in any other city in the morning’s wee hours, he already has a place in mind.

“I’m actually pushing to do the next record in Vegas,” he said, joking. “I like all that seedy stuff, and Vegas has always been debaucherous.”

The Constellations

99X/Thrillist CD release show

10 p.m. June 21. Free for contest winners.

Clermont Lounge

789 Ponce de Leon Ave.

Atlanta, Ga. 30306

404-874-4783

"Good Day Atlanta"

8 a.m. June 22

Fox 5

In-store performance and signing

7 p.m. June 22. Free.

Criminal Records