my favorite atlanta-based rock band is not one of those trendy indie bands. you won’t see their name painted on the krog street underpass or read about them in paste. yes, our city has plenty of those and many are very good, but my favorite atlanta band has to be roots rock combo the beggar’s guild (web facebook myspace).

i love these guys because they play tight, well written rock songs about all the great rock themes. the music is catchy and fun and they are pretty incredible musicians. i have been to see them live many times and never left after a bad time. they also happen to be pretty decent dudes, the kind of musicians you want to support. even if drummer jon chalden is a cardinals fan. seriously it’s good enough to get me to overcome that objection.

anyway, the guys are playing tonight at smith’s in support of sam thacker and his cd release. i don’t know sam thacker at all, but i can tell you this, if the guys in the beggar’s guild are playing with him, he’s probably pretty good.

so go check ‘em out.

tickets $10 advance until 2pm today on ticket alternative, or $12 at the door.

yeah, not a clubber at all. in fact since i run most saturday mornings i am usually in bed by 10 in the evening while most of you are just getting wound up.

oh well.

i’ve never been in atlanta’s sutra lounge but when i came across the above poster in joe’s east atlanta coffee shop i thought, damn, now that is something i would consider actually going out for.

i’m not going to, i’m running the big peach 5k but i would.

i mean seriously, a night of dj’s mixing up nothing but prince and michael jackson? how badass is that?

if you go, enjoy and let me know so i can live vicariously through you.

okay, it’s not technically about atlanta, but it’s hard for me to think of atlanta without thinking of this song. it’s one of the two quintessential songs about georgia in my book, and my favorite. when i used to drive i-75/i-24 with alarming frequency between tennessee and points north and atlanta, it was always my ritual to play this song as i crossed the georgia/tennessee line back into georgia. usually these drives were late at night and hearing gladys belt out that she was going back to find a simpler place and time always got me pumped again.

so i give you our next song about atlanta, midnight train to georgia by gladys knight and the pips

UPDATE: i had to include this after someone reminded me of it’s existence. hilarious. enjoy.

it’s like a bag of cheetos or a big, meaty burger from the vortex. no matter how bad you know it is for you, no matter how fattening, you just can’t help digging in.

that’s welcome to atlanta, atlanta’s rap anthem.

if anything could ever serve as a testament to the atl’s arrival as a hip-hop captial it’s jermane durpree howling “welcome to atlanta, where the players play.” before i live in atlanta, when i used to fly through here on delta and the flight attendant would announce, “welcome to atlanta,” when the plane landed this song would always pop into my head.

it’s also how my cousins in south carolina learned about old national highway. and as for me, well , i make my own rules, b&!t*h, call me the mayor.

and let’s not forget ludacris beling out one of my favorite lines in all of hip hop – “i’m big paper like pancakes, stacking ‘em up,”

love it.

i’ll see you guys on my way to the dec to hit jazzy t’s…..

like picking belly button lint or reorganizing your sock drawer, the one and only vanilla ice will be appearing tonignt at cowboy’s in kennessaw.

yo v.i.p. let’s kick it.

if you don’t even know how to get to kennessaw you should probably just go ahead and skip this one.

for those not planning to help vanilla ice fund his retirement, what are you up to this weekend?