Atlanta Record Stores: An Oral History

Why write a book about Atlanta record stores? The truth is that you get a singularly unique perspective on a city’s history, its culture, and its personality when viewed through the lens of a record store’s front window. I have often said that if you want to understand a society or a culture, just take a look at its pop culture, and music has always remained right there on the frontlines.

Atlanta is world-renowned as a hip-hop mecca, but a rich underground rock scene has been thriving here for decades. The hub of that world is the city’s record stores. Featuring decades-old institutions to shops that existed just long enough to leave an impact, Atlanta Record Stores is a rock-centric take on a hip-hop town, unfurling the secret history of music underdogs—outliers living among outliers—telling their stories in their native tongue. From Jarboe of SWANS to William DuVall of Alice in Chains and Neon Christ to Kelly Hogan, Gentleman Jesse Smith, Atlanta Braves organist Matthew Kaminski, and those surly characters behind the counter at Wuxtry, Wax ‘n’ Facts, Criminal, Ella Guru, Fantasyland, and more, all were drawn by the irresistible lure of vinyl records—all found their communities and their own identities, leaving an indelible mark on the culture of Atlanta.

Click below to pre-order your copy of Atlanta Record Stores: An Oral History. $23.99 (postage paid).

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Miles Seaton of Akron/Family R.I.P.

Akron/Family at the Earl on February 20, 2007. Photo by Chad Radford


Sad news made the rounds over the weekend, as word spread that Miles Seaton of Akron/Family has died. He was 41 years old.

I was lucky enough to see Akron/Family play The Earl a few times over the years—in 2005, 2007, 2009, and 2012. The group’s members also made up Michael Gira of Swans group Angels of Light when they played The Earl in 2005.

Akron/Family was the quintessential experimental folk outfit, an offshoot of the “new weird America” scene, blending a cosmic strum and wail over a bed of noisy and psychedelic pleasantries. The group’s sound was a warm and far-out acoustic dirge that was inspired more by the back roads of rural Georgia than the mean streets of their hometown of Brooklyn.

I took these photos at The Earl on February 20, 2007, when Akron/Family was on the road playing songs from the album Love Is Simple (Young God Records). They shared the stage that night with Untied States.

Rest in peace.

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Nicol Eltzroth Rosendorf: ‘Big Other’


RadATL has big things in the works with Nicol Eltzroth Rosendorf‘s latest LP, Big Other. The album features four pieces that are bursting at the seams with droning beauty, anxiety, texture, and ambiance. Like author James Joyce’s 1939 modern fiction classic Fennigans Wake, every note and every nuance heard throughout the record contains the gravity of the entirety of the work.

Big Other features contributions from Jarboe (SWANS), Atlanta’s James Joyce (Cheifs, Noot ‘d Noot, Car Vs. Driver), Shannon Mulvaney (Maganpop, Anna Kramer, Clobber), Brian Halloran (Smoke, W8ing4UFOs), Billy Fields (Follow For Now, Dionne Farris, W8ing4UFOs), and Xander Cook, with liner notes by author Blake Butler.

Keep an eye out here for more coming soon!