On the upcoming year

If you haven’t read Gordon Lamb’s 2016 in Review, then I’d highly recommend taking a gander. Yes, his tongue is lodged firmly in cheek but if you’ve been paying attention lately, you’ll see that he’s calling out some of the behavior we’d really like to sweep under the rug.

July’s entry is particularly brutal and awfully true. I’ll be first to admit that I have not covered Athens hip hop really at all. It’s something I’m trying to remedy and yes, I am ashamed of it.

Gordon also hits on some Pinterest friendly festivals, the puzzling pushback Kai gets every year for Slingshot, and our general “eh, it’ll get done by someone” attitude. I look forward to these every year and this one’s a goodie.

I’m sure you’re DYING to know what I think will happen this upcoming year. So I made you a list.

1. Athfest Hits 20, Faces Midlife Crisis about where to go next
2. Local band/promoter/jackass declares someone is “selling out”, proceeds to badmouth said someone across the Internet
3. David Lowry sues someone/writes opinion piece, general public gets behind it without any idea of the law/practices of music licensing
4. Another local musician leaves Athens for NYC, Portland, Austin or Nashville.
5. AMJ will continue to scream into the endless void and pay our bills via the day job
6. The Eastside will continue to be ignored
7. Ditto to musicians who aren’t white and male
8. Someone will start another Discover Athens blog with lovely photos and content

A bit bleak, huh? Yeah, I agree. So I also made a list of all the good things I think will happen this year.

1. New musicians will move into town, bringing much needed new blood into bands around town
2. Nuci’s Space will continue to save and improve lives
3. Gordon Lamb will piss off a band with a correct judgement in his column, all but the band will agree
4. A leading band will sign with a label, get press from all over and become our new town sweethearts
5. There will be at least two AMAZING albums out of Athens this year
6. An old band/artist will come out of retirement and all will rejoice
7. Someone will see their first live show at the 40 Watt and fall in love with the place
8. Athfest
9. Slingshot
10. Athens Intensified
11. The Wild Rumpus (even bigger!)
12. and so on…

I think we’re in for an interesting year. To use sportsball terms, we’re in a rebuilding phase. But we can make it great, don’t you think?