Moontower

The eclectic Southern Jamrock band Captain Soularcat will celebrate The Rise, their second full-length studio release, with a pair of gigs in Metropolitan Atlanta this weekend. The band will perform at Smiths Olde Bar tonight with opening act Moontower and then they return to their hometown of Rome, Georgia for a Saturday night play at McCrobies. Soularcat gigs have been all too rare lately (the band took time off to write, craft and record the record) and the Southeast portion of their fan base is buzzing about these shows.The Rise will be the second full-length official release from the band. It was recorded the old fashioned way, live direct to tape at WonderDog Sounds in Marietta, Georgia. ‘We went all organic with this recording’ says lead guitarist Benji Shanks, ‘we did not edit or cut and paste at all, what you hear is what we did live in the studio.
The record captures energetic versions of songs from the singular pen of bassist Scott Warren. Shanks adds, ‘The music on the album moves between blues, country rock and stoner rock all done in a Soularcat style.’
Its heady times for guitarist Shanks, who has quietly become one of the most sought-after players in the scene. He has appeared with a number of local and national artists in the past few predominantly Soularcat-less months. Most recently, he joined Bill Kreutzmann, Butch Trucks, Oteil Burbridge, Chuck Leavell, Jerry Joseph, Col Bruce Hampton and Eric McFadden for a high-spirited Bermuda birthday bash. Report by Rob Turner - Rob Turner

The Apartment Projects were a Southeast favorite for many years, and tonight at the Moonshadow Tavern in Tucker, Georgia, Jeff Sipe will unveil his first incarnation of the group in five years. Sipe will be joined by Brian Lopes (saxophone), Neal Fountain (bass), Randy Honea (guitar) and Count Mbutu (congas, percussion). Moontower is also on this bill as the opening act.Anchored by Jeff Sipe (aka Apartment Q258) and bassist Ricky Keller, the Apartment Projects were public jam sessions that leaned heavily on improvisation and were a big favorite among adventurous music fans in and around Georgia. John Bell, Jimmy Herring, Jeff Coffin, Oteil and Kofi Burbridge, Matt Mundy and Colonel Bruce Hampton are just some of the musicians that took part in Apartment Projects of the past. All of the members of the band that will perform tonight at Moonshadow also performed with Ricky Keller at some point.
Sipe will return to his former home to revisit his Apartment Project series for the first time since Kellers passing in 2003. Keller, a man who Jimmy Herring referred to as a Super Genius, in a 2001 site interview, was a producer/arranger/composer with roots in the Atlanta music scene dating back to the 70s. He had a dizzying musical resume for example he produced string charts for Bruce Springsteen, OutKast, Stone Temple Pilots and Train. Keller also used to head up the annual star-studded Zambiland Orchestra events, the spirit of which is carried on in the Everyone Orchestra today.I am very much looking forward to seeing and playing with my friends having not seen them in some time, says Sipe, The musical conversations are sure to be exciting and Ricky will be smiling down on Neal Fountains bass. Report by Rob Turner - Rob Turner