Best Bands in ATL

In June, MASTODON released its sixth album, Once More ’Round the Sun. It arrived as a slab of hooky hard rock and immediately became the band’s highest charting record yet, peaking at No. 6 on the Billboard 200. True metal heads are quick to eat their own. It’s been a delicate balancing act for the band to craft those tangled and monstrous riffs that keep longtime fans headbanging, while pushing the group further toward commercial success. The 11 songs on Once More ’Round the Sun hit the sweet spot. Credibility on both fronts comes thundering in on such sleek, stately, but still brutally skull-crushing songs such as “Tread Lightly,” “High Road,” and “Diamond in the Witch House.” Mastodon’s fusion of the prog/sludge perfection of such past victories as Leviathan (2004) and Blood Mountain (2006) constrict around tempered pop-metal the group brought with Crack the Skye (2009) and The Hunter (2011). The group’s endless touring schedule has left a deep impact. Once More ’Round the Sun resonates with the same almighty roar that catapulted these mammoth rockers far out into the cosmos. www.mastodonrocks.com. less...

Hey loners, meet your new best friend. Sometimes, sitting with your own reflective contemplations just feels right, and the only companion you need is a resonating soundtrack. Mood Rings’ lush guitar pop is a sullen symphony of grooves. Singer/guitarist Will Fussell’s subtle yet dynamic voice swings like a pendulum between a forlorn falsetto and bold girl-group crooning on the group’s debut album, VPI Harmony (Mexican Summer). The album contains enough ethereal eccentricities and heartbroken wistfulness to sit comfortably alongside your record collection’s legendary mopers the Smiths, My Bloody Valentine, and Slowdive. www.moodrings.bandcamp.com. less...

PARTISAN hooked up in 2002, and four years later released The Gothic and the Gospel, an extraordinarily ambitious debut album. It mixed Afro-beat, Fugazi-era emo punk and indie pop with righteous, fiery lyrics about post-9/11 politics and radical activism. Spread out over 85 minutes, the music was overwhelming and filled with life. Unfortunately, when The Gothic and the Gospel was released on local imprint Reason Y Records, it attracted little attention beyond a small but rabid fan base. Partisan played a few shows, but didn’t have time to mount a real tour. Most of its seven members had full-time, well-paying jobs and couldn’t afford to go on the road for a low-budget national tour. The group quietly disbanded in September 2006, leaving behind a great rock album that most will never hear. less...

On stage, THE BLACK LIPS explode with raw power that jitters in a stew of blood, sweat and haunted reverb. Somewhere along the journey from playing shows at local rat holes such as the Somber Reptile (RIP) in 2001, to dominating in Tijuana, Mexico, last year, the group discovered the secret to churning out great rock ‘n’ roll songs. The Black Lips’ garage-rock anthems are bound by nostalgia and spastic rebel abandon. The group’s tales of debauchery are the stuff of legends that forefathers the Rolling Stones, the Sex Pistols and MC5 would smile upon. When the group hangs out around town between tours, Atlanta is a lot more fun — even a little dangerous.

www.myspace.com/theblacklips

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When word spread that A FIR-JU WELL was playing its “last show ever,” rumors of the band’s death were greatly exaggerated. Of equal exaggeration was the local music scene’s reaction when the group re-emerged under the name Gringo Star. What’s in a name, anyway? An awful lot. A Fir-Ju Well was a classy, mysterious moniker that hinted at the group’s swirling palette of sweat-soaked and baroque psych rock; it was miles away from a side-stabbing Beatles pun. Whether Gringo Star invokes a smile and a groan or just bewilderment, it’s certainly infused the group’s public image with a whole new sense of mystery. Hey, it worked out for Brian Jonestown Massacre, but not so well for John Cougar Concentration Camp.
www.myspace.com/thegringostars.

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