Known around town for their artistic wardrobe choices and phenomenal stage presence, Casper and the Cookies are the PopFest veterans as one of the only musical ensembles to have graced the stages of every PopFest to date. We sat down with the Cookies to have a chat about an always-possible name change, the festival they call their own, and why they are your favorite band.

BLVD: Let’s discuss your name.
Cookies: You can’t ask that question, because there’s not a good story to go with it. It’s a terrible name and we’re probably going to change it. Even if we never get rid of our name, the constant threat of us getting rid of our name is good enough. People hear our name and think we’re cutesy and Cookie-esque, but there’s some pretty sleazy rock that comes out of us. I try to write about some really distasteful subjects, and when the record comes out all of the reviews say, “Happy sunshine pop that will give you a sweet-tooth ache!” It makes you wonder if they actually listened to the record; “Moldy Flowers” is not that. Half of the record is really dark; there’s a song about not existing anymore. The name has been around a long time and we’ve really evolved into something else.

BLVD: What genre would you consider your current sound part of?
Cookies: It’s rock and roll but it’s something else too. Rock and roll – it’s a little niche genre, you might not have heard of it.

BLVD: What do you like most about playing PopFest?
Cookies: Seeing friends. Almost everyone that we’ve played with will be here. We’ve gotten to be really close to people we’ve met through PopFest. I say this all of the time, but it’s almost like summer camp. That and The Apples in Stereo, we haven’t seen them for a few years and we toured with them. It’s going to be sort of a reunion.

BLVD: How do you pick who you tour with?
Cookies: We make friends with them and they ask us to tour with them. Or we ask. It’s like Sadie Hawkins’s dance.

BLVD: What are you looking forward to about PopFest this year?
Cookies: It’s going to be a love fest. It’s one of those shows where we’re just really looking forward to being backstage. PopFest is like the Cookie’s home festival in a way because HHBTM (Happy Happy Birthday To Me Records) has always been the force behind the festival and the Cookies are part of HHBTM. There are people, I know for a fact, that live in this town now because of PopFest, and that’s fantastic.

BLVD: Why did you choose Athens as your “hometown”?
Cookies: There’s nowhere like Athens. We’re all from other places and we moved here because it’s Athens. Venues come and go, and bands do too, but the general support system and the enthusiasm is still here.

BLVD: What has been your most memorable Athens show and why?
Cookies: Daniel Johnston. For PopFest a couple of years ago we backed him up.

BLVD: What direction are you planning to go in with your new music?
Cookies: That’s a wide-open field. We are ever changing. We’re going to try to not be tied down by expectations, our own or other peoples’. The songwriting process is underway, but once everyone comes in and adds their own parts, it gets a new feeling to it. We’re going to sound more like a band and less like 18 bands.

BLVD: What about your upcoming tour, Rockin’ Around the Planet?
Cookies: It’s going to be structured like a “rock and roll review” like they had in the ‘60s where there would be eight bands on the bill and everyone would get 20 minutes with no breaks in-between the bands. We think that’s really exciting. The posters are kind of fateful to that. They look kind of like a James Brown Soul Review – it’s like all of these bands, “live, in-person, in-town!”

BLVD: You are known for having a unique stage presence. What are your personal style philosophies?
Cookies: Interesting is better than boring. I’d rather be unpleasantly surprised than bored. Failure is worth surpassing meritocracy. We like to get dressed up, because we’re not particularly glamorous people in our day-to-day life. It’s partially a reaction to what happened in the ‘90s with grunge. We’re just regular people, but we’re not doing regular things. Getting up on stage and singing in front of people is a pretty protentious thing no matter who you are. Why be yourself on stage? It’s about the process of putting on your armor. It’s fun for us.

BLVD: What is the most important thing for people to know about Casper and the Cookies?
Cookies: We’re so good. We sound just like your favorite band. We sound like your favorite six or seven bands all rolled into one.

The only way to truly experience Casper and the Cookies is to see them live, so don’t miss them this Friday, August 13, at the 40 Watt club, wrapping up PopFest.

If you enjoy horror punk pioneers The Misfits, you must dedicate your evening on August 11 to an eye-opening show by Athens-based band Los Meesfits.

Los Meesfits started one year ago as the brainchild of Eric Hernandez, a graphic designer who thought the idea of covering The Misfits’ music in a Mariachi style would be hilarious. To Eric, the idea would end there; however, his friends prodded him and demanded that his joke become a reality.

“The problem is, I don’t know how to play the guitar,” Eric stated. “Since I grew up listening to salsa, I thought salsa would work better.” His knowledge of salsa’s rhythms and attitude would form a better foundation for the sound of Los Meesfits, so he ditched the thought of Mariachi.

Talk of the band continued, especially between Eric and his long-time friend Mike Turner, founder of Happy Happy Birthday to Me Records. Mike finally came to Eric one day and told him that he booked a show for Los Meesfits that was coming up in a month. Incredulous, Eric said he did not have a band to play, and Mike told him he had one month to put a group together.

Bongos in tow, Eric turned to his friend Geoff Terry for his amazing upright bass skills. Adam Hebert soon joined with acoustic guitar in hand. The trio then set forth in translating the grisly anthems and lyrics of The Misfits into Latin rhythms sung in Spanish. The process was tricky but rewarding.

“You have to start with a love and respect for the original material and a lot of respect for the genre that you’re trying to play,” Adam said. “If you don’t, it’ll come off as cheesy or as if you’re making fun it.”

“You have to have a sense of humor as well,” Geoff added. “You’re changing everything and swapping it. The most fun for me is to take the music and tear it all down, and then put it back together in a Latin and Cuba salsa style.”

Three bona fide songs were born, and the band’s first show was a success. The guys then wanted to expand the Meesfits family. The perfect solution? Eclectic people to play unusual instruments. Celeste Josephine hopped in with her wicked, homemade djembe drum. The final member, brought in to play Eric’s marimba, was Matt Kurz.

At several shows, the band noticed a couple that overtook the floor with fiery salsa dancing to their tunes, and decided the duo needed to become a part of the group. Lauren Traetto and Carlos Rivas now dance on stage as the band performs, adding another layer of Latin flare to Los Meesfits. With their faces transformed into ‘Dia de los Muertos’ skulls, Traetto and Rivas fuse The Misfits’ horror film imagery with Spanish culture.

Although the members come from different walks of life, they share a love for The Misfits. This bond enabled the group to mesh and produce dynamic covers, allowing the group to open up to each other’s influences and interests. Major influences include Fania All-Stars, Hector Lavoe, and Cheo Feliciano.

The success of Los Meesfits is a rarity in the music world. In one year the band has amassed a following in Athens, Augusta, and Anderson, S.C. Matt thinks the success of Los Meesfits comes from the band’s ability to “do well with people who like salsa and those that like The Misfits, but most especially with those that know about neither.”

Hopes of producing a record soon and playing in Atlanta will allow the band to gain more attention and enlighten more people of both The Misfits and salsa-Cuba culture. For now, the band has a MySpace and Facebook that allow fans to listen to music and keep up with future shows.

Your next opportunity to catch Los Meesfits is Wednesday, August 11 at Little Kings Shuffle Club.

Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/losmeesfits
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Los-Meesfits/174297619974?ref=ts

The laws of supply and demand are alive and well in Athens. Here, indie band after indie band is joyfully churned out and heralded in, complete with cutesy album covers and a certain whimsicality to their lyrics that is matched only by that of their fanbase. Nana Grizol, of Orange Twin Records, is a little bit of both columns, but delivers something so mighty that one may think twee pop will not meet its demise any time soon.

Made up of Theo Hilton, Robbie Cucchiaro, Laura Carter, Jared Gandy, and Matte Cathcart, Nana Grizol has been delivering their bright and breezy sound, which, according to Hilton, is influenced by The Kinks and Otis Redding, to area venues for three years. Each musician comprises a veritable Frankenstein of talent, given everyone’s involvement in a number of outside bands; Jared in Zumm Zumm, Laura and Robbie in The Gerbils, and years of musical backdrop elsewhere.

“It’s like how when I try to write a song, sometimes the words just come out wrong,” sings Hilton in the album “Love it Love it,” released in 2008. Of course, if the words have ever come out wrong, the people of Athens have not noticed, and they want more. So much, in fact, that Nana Grizol will be playing at the fourth annual PopFest once again.

After the festival, which is August 10-14 at the 40 Watt, Caledonia Lounge and Little Kings, Hilton says there is not much planned for the band. Each member is heavily involved in their other musical projects –“I am doing some solo stuff under the name Theo Grizol,” says Hilton– and working with Orange Twin, which multi-instrumentalist Laura Carter and vocalist Andrew Rieger, both of Elf Power, started.

Admittedly, there is more to working on this record label than meets the eye; Orange Twin, in addition to having signed local favorites such as Neutral Milk Hotel, boasts a conservation community located five miles from downtown Athens. While the community, which Hilton calls a “pedestrian village,” is technically separate from the label, the two originated at the same time, with the label having served to raise money and awareness for the community. There are 26 shareholders in all, and each splits up the tasks, from farming and cooking to managing the on-site amphitheatre. Located on 150 acres of woodland, Hilton recalls the inspiration brought forth by the community: “The fanciest meals I’ve eaten were there, and all the food came from within. My next goal is to stop driving all together and bike everywhere.”

It seems astonishing to accomplish as much as the members of Nana Grizol have, and the magic may lie in their music, which they look forward to imparting to attendee and musician alike come August 10. “We’re really excited about PopFest,” says Hilton as we finish up our interview, to which he came immediately after the Zumba class he now highly recommends. “Playing with the other bands like Defiance Ohio, Madeline, Your Heart Breaks, Toby Foster and others. It’ll be a really, really cool show for us because all these people are so closely involved with each other.”

Because it’s just so sweet to see a picture of your grandparents in love. This picture was taken on the dock of Staten Island, New York, the weekend my grandparents were engaged. Love the black dress, handbag and pearls on her and the slick suit and hair on him. Sometimes modern love seems so unromantic compared to this!