"There are ticking time bombs in every city, ordinary people capable of doing great things. They wait tables, answer phones, sit in traffic. Unfortunately for some, they tick forever and never explode, but in the case of Ryan Stang and Kid Stuff, the fuse is hot and short. On the brink of blowing up, Kid Stuff already boasts a local draw more sought after than some of Atlanta’s more established bands just months after playing their first show.
Ryan is an Atlantan at heart, having spent the last few years in Alaska as a bicycle tour guide. He returned last year much to the delight of his friends and family. Since then he’s been a regular all over town at local rock and roll shows from the 529 or The Earl to The Highland Ballroom. A lover of music, Stang’s built friendships with devoted members of the scene including garage folk-pop group The North Trolls, Small Reactions, and This Piano Plays Itself. He calls himself a fan of these bands, but his passion lies in hip-hop and programming beats.
Before moving to Alaska, Ryan was squatting with Kyle Withrow, now in charge of booking at 529, at the Peachtree Hills apartments, which had supposedly been vacated to be leveled and replaced with new housing. While managing free rent, Stang built himself a make shift studio in one the bedrooms where he could program beats over which future Kid Stuff melody-man Tim Kohler would rap using his alias “The Electric Jew”, and record Withrow’s ongoing acoustic projects.
Perhaps because of the illegal nature of the operation, this whole project was kept secret from the world, and eventually was undone when Stang left the state.
After returning, Stang struggled to settle back in, waiting tables at multiple restaurants, looking for a place to live with a nice big basement to make music in. Luckily for Atlanta, Ryan found his basement on the east side.
Tim Kohler of Hannah Barbarian soon after hauled his keyboards down to Ryan’s basement and put his contagious pop sensibility to work, writing hooks and vocal melodies over thumping beats. Sam Jacobsen, formerly of Small Reactions joined in with his synthesizer, adding another layer of swagger, dance moves, and impressive skill, never missing a note while wailing on the tiny keys of his Korg.
“The band is just about having fun,” Kohler says, “We just want people to forget about work, girlfriends, boyfriends, finals, and have fun”. The band’s first show was in the basement in which it was born, named, ‘The Funderdome’ by the group. Friends piled in wearing tie-dye t-shirts that had been homemade by Ruti Jones and friends especially for the occasion, and it was a complete mess of a success.
Ruti Jones became an official member at a Wonder Root show, their first performance outside of the Funderdome, when she was called up to sing back-ups on their cover of Aaliyah’s, “Are You That Somebody” (a 90’s classic). The dynamic between the four was completed as she added harmony, rhythm on tambourine, and most importantly, always a new idea to make the next show as much a visual experience as a musical one. The band makes and wears costumes. They bring in their own light show to venues. They put friends to work, gearing them up in homemade paper mache masks to wear in the crowd. They truly put on a performance." - Gus Fernandez / The Real Atlanta
Kid Stuff on Facebook
The Sunshine factory from Mobile, Alabama, U.S.A. was formed in 2008 by Robert and Ian Taylor. It began as a one man band,using drum loops, recorded tracks with live guitar and vocals as a performance expression. The song writing team consists of the Taylor Duo .Following several east coast appearances and an expanding southeastern schedule the band grew to include a live drummer, Mathew Hendrich and a bass player Sydney Benningfield.
"For those of you looking for incredibly loud walls of melodious majestic sound with which to deafen yourselves The Sunshine Factory has confected a sugary short-list of songs. The music is highly orchestrated power shoegaze replete with pedaled ambiance and seraphim vocals." - Frederick Foxtrott
The Sunshine Factory website
The most awesome band in Atlanta. If you haven't bought all of our CDs, all of our t-shirts, gone to all of our shows, joined our fan club on facebook, written our name on your trapper keeper, called us at 3am and hung up repeatedly, found out where we live and hang out in a tree all night looking through our bedroom window, introduced yourself to strangers as our "tour manager", written us letters and passed us notes in class, or even just heard of us - you're missing out.
Blaming Tim website
$5, 21+
Doors @ 9 pm
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