This is essentially a post for Athenians, and specifically Athenians who are involved with music and/or theater, though anyone who loves Athens and music and theater, or any combination of those three things is welcome to contribute or comment.
Many of you are aware that I am in the furious skronk rock band Music Hates You. I also happen to be friends with members of Hope for a Golden Summer. Some months ago I had an idea- since Music Hates You is arguably the most extreme example of raucous, angry music in Athens, and Hope for a Golden Summer is almost certainly the other extreme- shimmery, dreamy, thoughtful soul/pop/roots music (Gordon, if you’re reading this, I think you might like ’em)- I thought “Wouldn’t it be funny if we learned a half dozen or so of each other’s songs and then did some shows together?” And by “funny,” I mean “Really damn cool.”
I broached the subject with both bands, and everyone is on board, more or less, and we have talked about it, though we still need to all sit down and talk TOGETHER about it, and make some plans. I am hoping to document the whole process on DVD and if we make enough money at the shows, we plan on recording an album of the tracks that we learned. We have been calling it the “Hate for a Golden Summer Projeckt.”
Mrs. Dog and I have been talking about this and her goals for the next year. She is an actor and director and has spent most of our time together traveling to get paid for her work. Now that we have a nice little farmhouse and a dog or two, she wants to come home and stay home. She’s been talking about starting an Athens Shakespeare company. Today, on the way to work, after we had each had about three hours of sleep (she was here for a couple of days, so she went out on the road with Music Hates You last night) she said that she was interested in doing Shakespeare in some unconventional spaces, like barns and warehouses or abandoned churches, and having an Athens band provide incidental music and music between the acts.
Music Hates You, since most of our songs are about anger, mortality, venality, betrayal and sex, is a natural for MacBeth. (Plus, like Hamlet, by the end of the play, the stage is positively drenched in blood. Cool…)
Hope for a Golden Summer… A Midsummer Night’s Dream. I mean, c’mon, how much more obvious could that be?
Ishues for Othello? Parker and Lily for King Lear (or Romeo and Juilet?)? Don Chambers and Goat for Hamlet? Dark Meat for The Merry Wives of Windsor? Who should do Henry V? David Barbe?
Music Hates You played the Secret Squirrel the other night, and we were all struck by how cool the scene was there, and how wide open everything felt. Secret Squirrel’s excellent PA and two-stage set-up would be ideal for unconventional staging of dramatic art and music.
Just thinking out loud here…