Imagine Athens is a bubble. Are you happily floating in the unpredictable winds? Or are you frantically looking for the exit in the colorful film surrounding you?

Some find Athens as a vacuum, free from pressures to join Corporate America. Others may find that even in this artistically inspiring town, you can’t escape the dark cloud of a “real career” from hovering over you. Not knowing your future can be a reason to pull your hair out or a reason to sing for joy.

One thing is certain: Big Hug Little Kiss has no qualms about basking in its bubbly bliss.

“The only reason I am in Athens right now is to play music a little longer,” says Big Hug Little Kiss bassist Rob Leber. Graduating last May with a degree in history, Leber works at Dial America but admits that keeping up with the Athens music scene can be a job in itself.

“I try to pay attention to the music scene here, and then I will talk to somebody and they’ll list five bands I’ve never heard of,” Leber says.

Leber, with band mates Jeff Gess and Dan Gold proudly add to the endless catalogue of Athens bands. Their newest “retarded pop” project, Big Hug Little Kiss, will be their seventh band. Previous bands include Fashion Knee High, Nero and the Burning Violins and The Yahoos.

Their newest post-punk, or as they call it “rock/kick,” experiment features Gold’s droning vocals and punchy guitar riffs and sometimes switching to a portable organ for more melodic tunes. Traditionally a bassist, Gess makes his drumming debut surprising old listeners with steady, rocking rhythms and an occasional punk flair. Leber keeps listeners guessing with his free flowing funky baselines.

A new band is always welcome in Athens where reinvention is king and there’s a venue for every personality, even a split one like that of Big Hug Little Kiss.

“You don’t have to be in a clique to get shows. Any band can get a show here. And if you are pretty good, people will pay attention,” Gold says.

Big Hug can also reel in new listeners through poster promotion, which is like an ongoing Athens art contest. More than advertising, posters are a chance to express artistic style to garner a second look and, if lucky, a drop-in at a show when there may be dozens of others to choose from.

“Posters are put out there as more of a design advertisement than an informational advertisement. It becomes like a band t-shirt,” Gess says.

Playing in Athens is not always so glamorous. Gess remembers their show at DTs on Clayton Street on its closing night.  The bathrooms flooded and, before they knew it, the bar was logged with water. Yet the band kept a glass-half-full attitude thanks to free pitchers of beer.

If there is a downside to playing in Athens, the band says, it’s the fact that Athenians can be too nice. Sugar coating does not lend to an honest review or any constructive criticism of a performance.

“Most of the time everybody just tells you that you played pretty well even when you have no idea what they really think,” says Leber.

The Big Hug members are not too concerned with striking gold in a boardroom or as rock stars.  Although, Leber has some pretty specific plans if the band ever made it big.

“I would buy an island and hang out with Bono all the time,” he says.

Gold actually admitted that Big Hug Little Kiss has had “a couple of botched chances.”

“This guy from Virgin saw us play, but I lost his number. Then, a girl from Rockefeller saw us play, but I lost her number, too,” Gold says.

Gold, who is a film studies major, works in the UGA dining halls. “But I work in the kitchen. I do the real work,” he says. Working at the dining halls, beats doing data entry, a previous job he held in Boston that he claims was exactly reminiscent of the film Office Space.

An office will never suit Gess either. As an art major at UGA, Gess is a full-time student who sells paintings on the side. He paints unlikely subjects with a shocking grotesque twist.

“I don’t think any career path I choose requires me to invest a lot of time pursuing it. Anything I want to do, I am already working towards anyways,” Gess says.

As far as their future, you know just as much as Big Hug Little Kiss does, and they are okay with that. Invariably, Gold says, they live by leases. Who knows what will happen come the end of the summer? For now, Big Hug Little Kiss is perfectly content with staying in Athens for one reason: to play music for the joy of playing music.

“Everything else is just too far to even think about, or realistically think about at least,” Gold says.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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