The Selmanaires @ Aurora Coffee, Jan. 7, 2006

Photo by Alex Adan

After the Silver Jews shows brought a flurry of visitors to C&T from around the world, I thought it was time to deliver some goods to (and by) the local folks. On that note, I humbly submit for your listening pleasure a rare acoustic performance by The Selmanaires. This set was part of the acoustic performance series sponsored by Criminal Records and Aurora Coffee here in the Peachtree City. Only a few people around town are actually aware that I taped this, but many of them have been asking me to release it for some time. I've been putting it off until shortly before their next Atlanta show. Now The Selmanaires are due back in town to play at The EARL on March 21, so I figured it is as good a time as any.

This was a mostly acoustic show, with the guys switching instruments and singing sans microphones in the back of a coffeehouse. For those of us accustomed to seeing them play rock clubs, it was great to see the band show its stuff in a different setting. C&T readers unfamiliar with the band should be aware that this is not what The Selmanaires usually sound like. This is definitely a toned-down take on a number of their usually rockin' songs, and you even get to hear them experiment with an improvised drum machine/keyboard during "Selmanaire Rock." The crowd included a number of local musicians who wanted to see what the band would do, and you can hear from the tape that everyone was having a darn good time. It's also evident on the recording that the show was in a coffee shop -- banging doors, espresso machines, and the like can be heard. In fact, I'd neglected to bring a mic stand to the show so my mics were taped to the top of a coffee bean dispenser against the wall about 10' from the band. Locals, I hope you dig this. Everyone else, give these guys a listen. Hope to see a bunch of at The EARL next week for the show with The Joggers. FWIW, they're also at SXSW this week so check 'em out if you're in Austin.

The Selmanaires
January 7, 2006
Aurora Coffee, Atlanta, GA (Virginia Highlands location)

~* (mostly) acoustic show *~

01. intro/tuning
02. Build My Palace
03. Images
04. Day Tripper^
05. Cerulean Sky
06. Tennessee Farm
07. High Tide
08. "It Starts All Over With a Different Number"?
09. Take It Slow With Me
10. Selmanaire Rock*
11. banter/thanks
12. Mid-afternoon Motionless

^The Beatles cover
*with Jason on drum machine thingy

Download the full show here packaged in a .zip file (via Rapidshare).

You can download "Day Tripper" and "High Tide" above to check out the quality. If anyone knows the track names I'm missing, speak up.

Alex Adan's photos from this show can be seen via Photobucket.

Tourdates (including SXSW) and additional info on their MySpace page.

For more on the Selmanaires or to download some studio tracks, see this old school C&T post from early February. You know, back when this blog was in diapers. Last month.

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Isaac Hayes has quit South Park. Booo.

An Aquarium Drunkard posts on Wilco off-shoot The Autumn Defense, whose in-store in Athens I missed by 20 minutes last Thursday. D'oh.

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