Martin's Downtown

Featuring Original lead singer of The Georgia Satellites; writer and voice of “Keep Your Hands To Yourself”; featuring lead guitarist Warner Hodges (of Jason & The Scorchers)

The Georgia Satellites were one of the most ferocious bands of the 80’s. What set them apart from the other 100,000 bands who cranked their amps up to eleven was that their wild riffs and tanked up cries came from a band who, from the start, understood it’s place in the rock tradition and fought hard to solidify it with each recording.

The story starts in the early 80’s at Hedgen’s, a “country club for the spiritually impoverished and emotionally destitute” as chief songwriter Dan Baird would later identify it. Bassist Keith Christopher, drummer Mauro Magellan and guitarists Dan Baird and Rick Richards were all playing on the Atlanta circuit in various bar bands such as The Hellhounds, The Brains and The Woodpeckers. These bands would gradually morph into the original Georgia Satellites, who signed to same the same management company as country-rock pioneers, Jason & The Scorchers, more of whom later.

#1 fan and road manager Kevin Jennings, sold an EP of early Satellites records to an independent UK record label, Making Waves, who released them as the Keep The Faith ep. The ep provoked an extraordinary response from the UK music press, which, in turn, woke up the previously indifferent US music industry. Elektra records quickly signed them and their first single, Keep Your Hands To Yourself, became a runaway hit. It reached #2 on the singles chart and their eponymous debut album reached the same position on the album charts. Both album and single only being kept off their respective #1 slots by Bon Jovi’s Slippery When Wet and Livin’ On A Prayer. A second hit single, Battleship Chains consolidated their success.

Where the Satellites really earned their reputation though, was with their live shows. All those years of three sets a night, paid dividends laid waste to audiences across the States and particular, Europe, which took the band to it’s collective heart, a love affair that continues to this day.

Two more Elekra LP’s, Open All Night and the remarkable In The Land Of Salvation And Sin, plus a cover of The Singing Blue Jeans, Hippy Hippy Shake, on the Tom Cruise movie soundtrack, Cocktail followed, but by the early 90’s, all those years of incessant touring had taken their toll and the band split. Dan Baird went on to a successful solo career with Rick Rubin’s Def American, scoring major hits with the album Love Songs From The Hearing Impaired and the single I Love You Period. A second LP, the critically acclaimed Buffalo Nickel followed and Dan also developed as a career as a highly sought after producer.

The rhythm section on both solo albums were Keith Christopher (bass) and former Georgia Satellites drummer Mauro Magellan, the duo responsible for a large part of Dan’s trademark sound.

Jump to 2007 and the band was completed by Jason And The Scorchers founder member and guitarist extraordinaire, Warner E. Hodges. The quartet released their debut album in 2008, championed by Alan Jones (Uncut), Scott Rowley (Classic Rock) and Bob Harris.

The band appeared at the Sweden Rock festival in 2009 and Hard Rock Hell in 2011 and 2012. In 2012 they headlined the prestigious Kilkenny Festival in Ireland. They have established an annual series of concerts in London that attract fans from all around the world.

In 2013, Circus Life, the long awaited follow up to the debut album, was released and attracted great reviews across Europe. The album was also their first CD to get a full USA release and their first album to album to appear as a vinyl release.

2014 saw long term bassist Keith Christopher replaced by ex Bonafide man Micke Nilsson as their touring schedule stepped up, seeing shows in Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Spain, Switzerland, Germany, Netherlands, Ireland, UK and USA. The last night of the 2014 tour will see the band play their first ever acoustic show before a sold out London audience.

Hailing from the Dirty South musical mecca of Atlanta, GA, Voodoo Visionary’s improvisational funk dance music balances a tight, grooving rhythm section with soulful organ, funky clavinet, singing synthesizers, masterful guitar licks, and moving vocals to create a sound the group calls psychofunk. Influenced by a wide array of artists from Parliament Funkadelic and the Meters to the Grateful Dead and Allman Brothers Band to Miles Davis and Herbie Hancock, Voodoo Visionary has a uniquely blended sound that’s guaranteed to put the 'oogie in yo boogie.

The band is Trent Gilson (bass), Scott MacDonald (vocals), Jose Rivera (percussion) Mac Schmitz (drums), Marcus White (keys) and Mike Wilson (guitar). Over the past 11 years, these players have built a unique chemistry that allows for exceptional improvisation during live shows and relaxed and creative songwriting sessions.

Voodoo Visionary released their debut album, Spirit of the Groove in March 2015 and their sophomore album Off The Ground in February 2017. While playing across the country over the last several years, the band has been direct support for Col. Bruce Hampton, Karl Denson’s Tiny Universe featuring Jimmy Herring, TAUK, DJ Logic, Big Something, Zach Deputy, Earphunk, Roosevelt Collier, Jerry Joseph, The Main Squeeze, Futurebirds, Fruition and more. In May 2015, they made their major festival debut at Counterpoint Music Festival near Rome, GA. Since then, they have excelled further into the national music scene with festival performances at Suwannee Hulaween, Sweetwater 420 Fest, Imagine Festival, Backwoods Music Festival, Funk Fest, Purple Hatters Ball, Great Outdoors Jam, and Hookahville.

“Voodoo Visionary... synthesizes elements of funk, jazz, disco, and rock ‘n’ roll into their unique improvisational sound.” – Live For Live Music

“A mix of psychedelic southern funk, Michigan soul, and gulf coast flavor.” - Relix

"Vooodoo Visionary is the next generation of Atlanta funk bands." - Seth Weiner, Inside Out WTNS

“If this band had been around in the early ‘70s out of Atlanta, they would surely have been scooped up in a heartbeat by Capricorn Records... Repeated listenings reveal layer upon layer of elements. This is simply a superb recording, in terms of composition, performance, and sound.” – Scott Hopkins, MusicFestNews.com

“Spirit of the Groove refuses to confine the band to a single genre and takes listeners on an adventure through sound and time... Voodoo Visionary has embraced and harnessed this epic blend [of influences], resulting in a truly amazing studio record.” – Randy Harris, Live Music Daily

“While genre conventions are clearly upheld, driving rhythms, blistering lead guitar, and gospelesque lyrics, Voodoo Visionary escape the generic and create their own space, capitalizing on what works within funk as a genre. These guys will no doubt jam easily into the college bar scene, keeping the waning hippie contingent well fueled with healthy servings of funk. For that matter, Voodoo Visionary maintains the spirit of bump and sway in an otherwise monolithic universe of EDM. Before robots usurped dance music, this was what you dropped doses to. This is what outer space looked like from fifty thousand feet." – Jon Litten, The Artifact Magazine

Samvega

"Band of artists, painters, builders, music makers, merriment creators, travelers, animal lovers, urban vacationers, beach combers, rust farmers, star gazers, book readers and barn dwellers..." ~Samvega

Samvega plays their very own brand of Psychedelic and Experimental Rock with a touch of dirty blues and world fusion. Their style is often referred to by the local San Francisco Bay Area crowd as Dark Circus Rock-N-Roll. They are influenced by the psychedelic rock scene of the 60's and 70's and the Punk/ Grunge music of the 90's. True originals and powerful lyricists like Lou Reed and Tom Waits are some of their favorite classic Rock-n-Rollers. Most recently, fusion bands like Goat , Dakabrahka, and The Black Angels have highly influenced Samvega's new material.

Today's Paramount

Today's Paramount has been hustling their own exclusive stylings out of Denver, Colorado for over five years. The band was formed with an aim to deliver sonic sincerity and inspiration above all else, and that goal combined with their wide range of musical influence has worked in their favor to forge a sound that is as original as it is exciting.

Although all four members were born and bred in the Denver area, their tunes are reminiscent of parts of the world spanning from New Orleans and the American Appalachians to Eastern Europe and the Balkans, to the Middle and Far East. With an instrumental lineup putting the guitar, bass, and drums alongside the violin, keys, synths, and vocals pushed through grainy microphones, Today's Paramount has managed to trick eardrums out of their comfort zones and into a world of sonically balanced dissonance and beauty, aggression and compassion. They've imported foreign melodies and rhythms, adding their own macabre darkness all while remaining true to the nostalgic energy that comes from their roots in old school, passionate Rock and Roll.

In June 2017, Today's Paramount independently released their premier self titled album. At seven tracks and just over 40 minutes long, it runs the gamut of genres and has the tendency to solicit chills of both desperation and inspiration. The album clearly seeks to convey as much of the human condition as possible with the humility of souls who have experienced the ugliness right alongside the beauty. It's impossible to have one without the other.

The band name comes from the idea that today, right now, is the only moment you ever get to experience, and thus it's the most important. In this moment alone you are alive. This quartet is leading by example, and they hope to inspire others to do the same. Because you could be dead tomorrow, Today is Paramount.

Phantom Mile

"With a sound of psychedelia tethered in new wave crush, Phantom Mile looks into the future while stepping into the past. Traversing the landscape, tattered in style, the winds are their burrows in tumbling light. There are stories beneath the surface of everything. Lee Cooper was held up in a tiny elusive apartment a stone’s throw from downtown Jackson MS, writing music at a furious pace. It wasn't long before the dawn broke and that tiny apartment was filled to the brim with music, as yet incomplete. The twilight room began to shake, the walls creaked and trembled, forcing him out of the shadows and into the city streetlamps. Trey Perez, singer of strings...Jason Vaden, divider of rhythms...Lynlee Healy, harbinger of bass…each knew the other by their shimmer and walked into the ring to unfold those songs into life. With each musician bringing their own flavor to the brew, Phantom Mile was formed, creating new sonic landscapes, crafted from a collection of familiar hesitations, triumphs and near misses. With a sound of psychedelia, tethered in alt dream rock, Phantom Mile traverses the landscape, tattered in style, where the winds are their burrows in tumbling light.

High-energy, Rowdy, Raucous, Longhair Mississippi Glam Rock. That's the sound of Easy, The Week's long-awaited followup to their breakthrough album, Dear Bo Jackson. Recorded at Ardent Studios in Memphis — a place filled with the ghosts (and gear) of the Replacements, ZZ Top, and Big Star, all of whom traveled to Ardent to create their own landmark albums — Easy finds The Weeks doubling down on a mix of groove, grit, and guitars. It's swaggering and sharply-focused, shining new light on a band of brothers who, although still in their mid-20s, have already logged a decade's worth of sweaty gigs together.

If Easy bears resemblance to the raw, rowdy attitude of the The Weeks' live show, it's because the album was written at the end of a busy, five-year period that found the group rarely leaving the road.

"We moved to Nashville in 2010," remembers frontman Cyle Barnes, who formed the band in Jackson, Mississippi, with his three longtime bandmates: drummer (and twin brother) Cain Barnes, guitarist Sam Williams, and bass player Damien Bone. "We spent 2011 to 2015 touring. November 2015 was the first time we ever spent an entire month in Nashville."

Those years on the road were eye-opening for The Weeks, all of whom were just teenagers when they began playing together in 2006. By their early 20s, the guys were touring Europe with Kings of Leon, promoting the newly-released Dear Bo Jackson in front of 20,000 people each night. Back in America, The Weeks continued playing their own club shows, too. The experience taught them how to bridge the gap between arena shows and smaller gigs. In short, it taught them how to be themselves, no matter the audience.

Appropriately, Easy consolidates the band's strengths. While the songs on 2013's Dear Bo Jackson were thick with horn arrangements, strings, and guest appearances, Easy is a leaner, louder beast. The Weeks began working on its 11 tracks after returning home from a long tour and taking some time to rest, reflect, and regroup. Newly energized, they began writing songs at Sam and Damien's home in Nashville, with Cyle and Williams splitting the bulk of the songwriting duties. The whole process relied on collaboration, with the full band fleshing out the newer songs.

"Everyone would come to the house, make food, hang out, and play music 'til four in the morning," Williams remembers. "We wrote 25 songs, then picked our favorites for the final tracklist.

Easy is driving and direct, captured in punchy sound by producer Paul Ebersold. The goal was to clear out any unnecessary clutter, focusing instead on The Weeks' biggest strengths: the elastic power of Cyle's voice, capable of a crooning drawl one minute and a roof-raising howl the next; the range of Sam's guitar playing, from Motown-influenced chord stabs to garage-rock blasts of sound; and the interlocking rhythms of Damien and Cain. They threw some curveballs into the mix, too, riding a lovely, lazy, organ-heavy groove on the southern soul song "Hands on the Radio" and punctuating songs like "Ike" with a small horn section. Along the way, they made good use the studio's vintage gear, finding room on a handful of songs for Elvis Presley's microphone, Big Star's snare drum, the "Green Onions" organ from Booker T. & the M.G.'s.

"We said, 'If we can do this song in five chords, let's do it,'" says Sam. "That way, whenever the curveballs do happen, they mean a lot. We focused on the songs first, and then we added stuff, as long as it didn't harm the energy or the groove. We wanted to pick our moments better."

Inspired by the real-life characters, places, and stories The Weeks encountered on tour, Easy is a record about where the band has been, as well as a sign of where they're going. "I wanted the stories to be real — a little dark, maybe — but I wanted them to be redeeming, too," says Cyle, who began turning the stories into proper songs once the tour ended. He tossed some personal tales into the mix, too, with songs like the autobiographical "Gold Doesn't Rust" focusing on the joy of plugging in, tuning up and rocking out.

"We just wanted to make a rock record," adds Damien, shrugging his shoulders at the simplicity of it all. The Weeks earned their road warrior credentials years ago, but they've never defined their ambition — or the wide range of their abilities — this clearly before.

And speaking of simple…what's the deal with that album title?

"We called it Easy because every time I make music with these guys, it's easy," says Cain, who has spent more than a third of his life as a member of The Weeks. "It feels good. But the other side of it is, there's nothing easy about being in a band. There's nothing easy about staying together for 10 years and still wanting to make music. We have the hardest and easiest job on the planet. But it works for us.”