Reptar

Reptar is more than a fictional cartoon dinosaur from a fictional children’s television show. It’s also the name of my penis. Beyond that, it’s the name of a band from Athens, GA who describes themselves as “The Talking Heads meets a more electronic Beirut“. While I’m not really sure if I can agree with that designation, their song “Phonetics” shows immense potential. And when I say immense, I mean they could “OMG TOTES B THE NEXT MGMT“. If I did A&R for an indie label, I’d be jizzing myself so much that it’d be dripping down my ankles. My ol’ Reptar would be so worn out from the immense indie-boner experienced.

My only complaint? Their songs are too damn long. I am such an A.D.D. motherfucker that it’s rare for me to remain engaged beyond the five minute mark of a song. There are obviously exceptions, and “Phonetics” takes a place as one of them. Reptar’s other song “Context Clues” might also be one of those exceptions. Hell, all of their songs might be exceptions if they’re all as exceptional as “Phonetics”.

With that said, I’m still not entirely sure what this song is about. In my head, this is a song about hooking up with a crush you’ve admired from afar for a relatively long time. You only begin to realize the next morning that you have very little in common, resulting in a scramble between your socially awkward tendencies, neuroses and desire to impress your consummated crush. When all is said and done, the new person in your life means nothing, because you are in a fantastic band called Reptar that is destined to tour on ice-skates.

Revelation: This song may not have anything to do with romance. It might be about going to camp or having a college roommate. In fact, the latter could be more possible than lover shit. - It's the Money Shot

Tuesday was my first concert in Athens. To be honest, it was my first concert in a long time (since the mother of all concerts, Bonnaroo). This does not include a Dead Rabbits and Lonely H concert I went to because, alas, I was entirely too drunk to remember it. It was after all also a house party. Regardless, I think I would have felt the same way about the Tasty World experience. That is to say I enjoyed it (for the most part).

Tasty World is a venue that has been around for atleast 10 years, but is just recently becoming known it seems. Located right on Broad Street, not than a jaunt from UGA’s north campus, the stage area is located on the upper floor of a bar called Magnolia’s. The place is destined to be hip; a careless doorman, an even less attentive barman and tons of hip music (I heard Animal Collective and MGMT within the first ten minutes there) ensure a wealthy future. On top of that, I know the barman and doorman, so free drinks on me!

The first band that came out, Odist, basically sounded like an all instrumental Incubus before they went pop. Lots of spacey, funky white folk jams with rock hooks and guitar fiddling. No one was too good, or too bad. The drummer was especially proficient. Also, she was really hot.

Next out was Your Best Friend. Your Best Friend dressed like hipsters. They acted like hipsters. They were even poor like hipsters (a sign on their stage asked concert goers for a place to stay that night). And ironically, this kind of emo rock was exactly the kind of stuff these guys would have been listening to circa 1990. That is to say, the sound entirely too much like Taking Back Sunday or Sunny Day Real Estate to be taken seriously anymore after the Great Schizm of underground that lead to emotionalism being commercialism. Even the band seemed to be in on it, singing along with all to ridiculous facial gaspings. I liked them however, in the way I liked TBS in 9th grade.

Between each band there was a 30+ minute break and I took this one, and all of Jacob’s Ladder‘s set, to search downtown Athens for a working ATM. Did you know the ATM’s close after 12? I didn’t.

By the time I got back, Reptar was about to take stage. I had heard many things about Reptar. A wide range of people seemed to think of them as Athen’s next big thing. One was heard to say they were “a combination of Animal Collective, Passion Pit, and MGMT.” So basically, all the hype wrapped up in one hyperbole. You know how a band is destined for cult status? When they are named after a fucking Nickelodeon character.

There set was definetly dance inducing. Using a combination of electro-sythn riffs, pounding drum beats, and sweet man vocals the band definetly called to the hype bands of the year. More than anything the band seemed in touch with the audience. Everyone there fucking loved them and it showed. Whether it was the glitter machines or the honky dancing, this thing really started pumping so much so that by the encore, I really wanted an encore. If these guys get signed to the right label, someone could be making lots of dough (THIS MEANS YOU MATADOR!)

Hopefully the rest of the concert experiences I have in Athens will be this pleasant. Reptar: Recommended. Your Best Friend: Recommended (but only in the privacy of your earbuds) Odist: Not so much. - The Piano Filled with Flames

Reptar came to me via a recommendation of a musician friend who shared a bill with the band at Athfest ’10–I typically am offish towards this kind of stuff, but I found the “down-home” take on the euphoric, electro-pop thing endearing. Athens is GA’s ground zero for a handful of thriving, underground scenes. It’s also a go-hard or go-home college town.

“Here’s the thing about Athens. People here reeeeeaally like to drink and go crazy–and we really like to perpetuate that,” writes drummer Andrew McFarland via email.

Reptar (yes, a reference to bygone Nickelodeon cartoon, Rugrats) actually gets its name from keyboard player William Kennedy’s downtown party-boy alter ego, “Mister Senior Lovedaddy.” Mister Senior’s vehicle is an oft-sighted and well-decorated (lights, streamers etc.) bicycle known as “Reptar.”

“Once we formed the band, we decided that we wanted to try and encompass not only the bicycle’s name, but also its essence. I think we do a pretty good job,” says McFarland.

“Houseboat Babies” features a pulsating synth melody that cuts off with a sassy jerk, and the syncopated, sampled, sultry gasp–”aye…“–lends the right amount of self-conscious, unabashed cheese to make this track fun without pretense. Singer Graham Ulicny captivates with vocals that simultaneous sound glam-rock but not out of place in a stifling, central GA backyard.

Reptar is unsigned and has yet to release a full album, but a digital single (“Houseboat Babies”/”Cannabis Crayon”) is now on iTunes. As for an ideal “Houseboat Babies” listening experience, the band recommends “dancing VERY enthusiastically in a Burger King Playland ball pit…” Get down to your socks and jump in. - NPR

Chesnutt, a longtime Athens singer-songwriter who died on Christmas Day last year, won the Flagpole Music Award for album of the year in Thursday night's annual awards ceremony. "At the Cut," which was released last fall, featured 10 of Chesnutt's songs.

The Whigs added two prestigious Athens awards to their growing list of national accomplishments Thursday night as well, winning two Flagpole Music Awards.

The Athens band that has been touring nationally was named the Athens band of the year and the city's best rock band. The Whigs are on tour and could not attend to accept their awards.

? See more photos from the Flagpole Music Awards.

The members of Girls Own Love celebrated both The Whigs' and Chesnutt's awards by dancing and leading the crowd in a cheer from the Morton Theatre stage.

Flagpole hosts the readers-choice awards every year to kick off AthFest, which showcases more than 150 bands on outdoor stages and in clubs this weekend. Comedians TJ Young and Chris Patton emceed the program and also accepted awards won by bands that weren't around.

After the first set of four awards, Patton and Young broke script and gave an impromptu award to Circulatory System, the first band that made it to the stage to get their Flagpole trophy.

Circulatory System had good reason to be there. They were one of the six live performers for the evening, making up a lineup that showed the wealth of different music genres that have stakes in town.

Thursday night, Elite the Showstoppa danced and rapped off some original hip hop before the Morton Theatre crowd, while A Postwar Drama brought its unique blend of Americana and swing music to the stage with a collection of jugglers and other circus acts behind them.

Los Meesfits stole the middle of the show with their bilingual performance, which included two salsa dancers, three percussion players, and an upright bass player who rode the instrument as he played it.

A few of the performers ended up on the stage twice, first to sing and then to accept a Flagpole Award. Reptar reminded the audience why the trio won the awards for best live band and upstart of the year with their live electro-pop performance.

Circulatory System picked up honors for the best experimental band. The long-standing Flagpole Music Awards house band, Kenosha Kid, was named jazz band of the year.

Different local celebrities presented awards throughout the evening, including Murphy Wolford, who owns Tasty World Uptown. He announced earlier this month that he was closing the live music venue on East Broad Street after AthFest.

"He's given a lot of young bands their start at that club," Young said. "Mine was one of them."

AthFest continues today with performances on two outdoor stages on Washington Street, which start at 5 p.m.

AWARD WINNERS

More than 70 Athens bands were finalists for Flagpole Music Awards in more than 20 categories. Here are the winners:

Jazz: Kenosha Kid

DJ: Immuzikation

World: DubConscious

Electronic: Abandon the Earth Mission

Jam Band: Incredible Sandwich

Cover Band: Abbey Road Live!

Rock: The Whigs

Pop: Venice is Sinking

Experimental: Circulatory System

Metal: Maximum Baby Muscle

Punk: American Cheeseburger

Country/Southern Rock: Betsy Franck and the Bareknuckle Band

Americana: Hope for Agoldensummer

Hip Hop: Deaf Judges

Live Band: Reptar

Solo Performer: Allison Weiss

Upstart of the Year: Reptar

Best Album Cover Art: “Lionz Breaking Out of the Zoo,” by Josh Hunter

Band/Performer of the Year: The Whigs

Music Video: Casper & the Cookies “Sharp”

Album of the Year: Vic Chesnutt, “At the Cut”

Editor's Note: An earlier version of this story attributed a quote about the music venue Tasty World to the wrong speaker. - Athens Banner Herald

Without hyperbole, Reptar is one of the most exciting bands in Athens right now. In less than a year, the band has cultivated a real buzz around its live show and a culture around its audience. Simply put, fans go batshit. They sweat, they grind, they crowdsurf, they climb whatever they can to get the best view while generally pretending like they’re at a hardcore show—without the actual danger of getting kicked in the face. Some fans dress up; some wear face paint. One fan brought anti-SARS masks to a show, and by the end of the night, everyone was wearing them. Reptar’s fans even have a name: "Reptards.”

“We go crazy onstage, and I think that in turn, it makes the audience go crazy,” bassist Ryan Engelberger says. Crazy, indeed. Keyboard near-virtuoso William Kennedy is probably the philosophical core of Reptar. He’s built like a wire coat hanger or a stick of spaghetti—resembling moreso limp spaghetti when he flails about stage jumping from synth-to-synth and directing the audience to dance. Singer/guitarist Graham Ulicny might be the straight man to William’s all-over-the-place, but onstage he prances and swaggers like the best of ’em, punctuating and over-enunciating his words into a singular staccato. Drummer Andrew McFarland probably works the hardest, furiously guiding through time-signature changes and responding to the band’s wild improvisation. But Reptar’s real talent lies in its music. “We’re not hard to get into,” Ulicy says. It really is music for everybody: the band’s synth and sample-pad-based guitar pop is accessible enough for anyone to jam out to, still exploratory enough to excite the experimental.

Reptar’s success is all the more surprising considering that its members are scattered across the Eastern seaboard. Engelberger attends Dartmouth. McFarland and Kennedy attend UGA. Ulicny, UNC Asheville. All of the members are sophomores, and three of the four are music majors. “Living so far apart—it is very impossible,” Ryan says, laughing.

And be it houseshows or venues, a recent five-show jaunt in Austin for SXSW, or busking in Asheville, NC, Reptar always puts its all into what has amounted to dozens of much-talked-about performances. There’s the show where they literally “brought down the house” and destroyed a poor Boulevard home’s wooden floors. And then there's that show when the audience ransacked the stage. There’s also the one where the band met Grammy-award-winning producer Ben Allen (also behind Animal Collective's Merriweather Post Pavillion and Gnarls Barkley's St. Elsewhere), who’s prepping their CD release. And naturally, behind every great show is a great back-story, so here’s some of Flagpole’s favorite Reptar shows—as remembered by fans, Allen and Reptar themselves.
Aug. 25, 2009, Tasty World Uptown

"It was so hot and the AC wasn’t working. William’s sister [band manager Katherine Kennedy] was in from Brooklyn and was leading a “Simon Says”-style dance party that the audience was miming. We didn’t have our confetti cannon finished yet, so we dumped confetti in front of a fan. Near the end of the set, everyone rushed the stage, and I almost fell off. That’s the night Graham’s computer got ruined. Someone had thrown beer on it. The whole audience was covered in little plastic strips glued with sweat, and some people were complaining about glitter in their eye. At the end of the night, I told the bartender ‘Sorry for the confetti.’ He said, ‘Yeah, fuck you.’" [Ryan Engelberger, bassist]
Dec. 19, 2009, Athens House Party

"Reptar played at my house, and people were standing on the washing machine and on countertops. There were over 100 people jumping up and down and going wild. We heard a snap, and the house was sagging after that and people were chanting, “Break the floor! Break the floor!” But I couldn’t blame them all for it because, you know, it was a Reptar show." [Anonymous party-thrower]

"I have these big keyboards, and they were rocking back-n-forth, back-n-forth. I had to tell the people in the front to hold them down so they wouldn’t fall. The floor was like a trampoline, and everything was falling, or about to fall. The crowd kept pushing inwards, and the space was getting smaller and smaller, like those trap dungeons. I was crushed up between the amp and one of the keyboards. Graham had to stand on his amp. We broke the floor that night." [William Kennedy, keyboardist]
Dec. 20, 2009, Drunken Unicorn (Atlanta)

"We played the Drunken Unicorn after this band Guyliner—and they had on these wild toy soldier costumes, elf costumes. I don’t think we had practiced. I had just got off a plane from visiting Germany and went straight to the venue. William was in a crazy oversized Santa costume that he tried to stuff with a pillow, but it kept falling out. Andrew was wrapped all in Christmas lights. I was wearing a purple Teletubbies costume. We started the show late because no one was there yet, and we were worried, but eventually the place ended up packed. That’s the night we met Ben Allen and he said he wanted to record with us. Sometime after that, some random person goes up to us and was like, 'Do you know who you just talked to?'” [Ryan Engelberger, bassist]

"I went to see another band with a friend of a mine, and I happened to see Reptar. This was at the Drunken Unicorn at the end of last year, and I didn’t know anything about them. I fell in love with the band and the fans. What initially attracted me to them was that the fans were so excited. The energy of the band is so pure, and that washes off on the audience, too. What got me excited was the fans' reaction." [Ben H. Allen]

Impressing Athens’ famously jaded audience is no small feat, and the gesture is not lost on Ulicny: “Playing in Athens, I always feel there’s something to prove.” Reptar’s future is bright, and if the dudes really take the year off from school that they’ve been planning, who knows where they’ll go, especially with Allen working the boards. Also look for Reptar on an outdoor stage at AthFest this summer, and hopefully a full-length’s worth of new material by the end of the year. Until then, enjoy the show, the band's debut seven-inch (available at the show!) and watch out for the crowd. - Flagpole Magazine

Reptar is a band with big plans. After performing extensively in Athens this summer, the band hopes to release their first EP during the winter. This December, the band plans to tour Florida.

“I think we have a cruise line lined up where we’re gonna play,” said keyboardist William Kennedy.

After conquering the Southeast, what could be next for this backbeat-infused sex-pop foursome?

“We were thinking about Mars,” drummer Andrew McFarland said. “We’d like to just take that over, and devote the entire planet to synthpop.”
REPTAR with Marriage, Alexis Gideon, Shelley Short

When: 9 p.m. today
Where: Flicker Theater & Bar
Price: Free

Reptar played its first show at the Farm 255 in May, but traces its origins to well before that. Kennedy, an undeclared University student, guitarist Graham Ulicny and bassist Ryan Engelberger played together in high school in Atlanta, but the beginning of their collegiate careers put an end to their high school band. At the same time, the three hoped to continue playing together when possible.

“Anytime we’re home, we all love playing music,” Engelberger said.

Kennedy met McFarland, an English major, last year as McFarland returned to the United States after living in Brazil for several years.

“That’s where I started playing drums,” said McFarland. “They do all the crazy street fest drumming, so I saw that and I was like, ‘That’s awesome.’”

The band practiced when the members were home on breaks from school, and played house shows in Atlanta. This summer, in addition to the Farm 255 show, the band played several house shows in Athens and played at Tasty World.

“If we had it our way we’d be playing five times a week still,” said Ulicny.

However, the band has slowed their live schedule with the return of the school year.

“This summer we were living here and nobody had jobs, so the only thing left to do was just play music all the time,” McFarland said.

As they work on recording their EP, Reptar faces the difficulty of translating the energy of their live shows onto the record.

“The way that I look at it is, we try to get the essence of the actual song itself,” Ulicny said. “Apart from being really crazy on stage we put a lot into the music.”

McFarland and Kennedy have a different idea.

“We’ve actually hired an extensive army of people and whenever you listen to our music, they just surround you and start dancing around you, and as soon as the songs are over they start trashing your house,” McFarland said.

“It’s kinda like a mini Reptar house show,” Kennedy said.

The members of Reptar also deal with the challenge of geographic disparity, as only Kennedy and McFarland live in Athens. While Ulicny, who attends UNC-Asheville, can perform live with the band, Engelberger, who attends Dartmouth, must record his bass parts before the concert. Because part of their show is prerecorded, the band members, especially McFarland, must pay careful attention and keep a strict sense of rhythm.

“Playing drums to that stuff is really, really difficult,” said Ulicny. “Everyone has to be creative on stage but also you have to be listening really carefully to see what’s going on.”

The band hopes that the advent of technology such as Skype and iChat will eventually allow Engelberger to project his performance from New Hampshire to Athens.

“What could be more unifying than bringing two different points on the Eastern Seaboard [together]?” said Engelberger. “That’s really what the music’s all about, bringing together Athens frat stars and New Hampshire lumberjacks.” - The Red and Black