Friday October 24, 2008 will be a celebration of the season with the Dead Mans Party.  This event will include a costume party, vegan treats and herbal teas, local musicians including The Back Pockets, and much more.  The party starts at 8pm.  Grab your favorite ghoul friends and join us!

Starting from the top - clockwise
Emily,some guy,Aviva,Jeff,Lindsey,Marty,Ryan, and Conor in the center.

In the beginning there was song, music in the head, lyrics on paper, a limited audience. In the words of the creator of The Back Pockets...

I was singing alone in my car all the time for about 6 months or so, and I kept finding myself writing lyrics. My co-worker Sirius Bee (musician as well) told me I needed to sing my own lyrics, in response to my quip "I need someone to sing these, these need to be sung!" "You are!" he said, "you need to sing your lyrics!"

He told me I was going to play music and do shows pretty much, which I found ridiculous and outrageous and totally unattainable. silly. My other co-worker/friend/fellow dreamer Kristy said, "Em, pick a date for a show!" when she found I was experimenting with sound and perhaps I could play a little with Omelet (awesome band go research them. now!!) and so I did. SEP. 5 2008 and then I was left with no choice but to find/make/create/join/acquire/pretend/make believe a band up.

I began singing to my friend Brett W. Thompson via voice mail and he was ALWAYS encouraging and excited about whatever I sent his way and so I kept singing. Also I played a show with omelet and did some crazy dancing and vocals mainly, in this period of time when I was in a chrysalis of what was soon be creative explosion. Dressed in bizarre attire and wide eyed I reeled outta that Omelet show with a sickness. I am SICK for music. What started as a love affair from art has become a full fall into a deeply satisfying and glee bringing relationship. ART + MUSIC = EM = MUSIC + ART

And in my own words....

From that humble beginning a call went out to all the corners of Atlanta, even to the darkest corners. I went like this, "Hey, you want to be in a band?" Many turned away, shaking their heads at such youthful exuberance, but a few followed. I was approached with the other call that went out, which went like this, "Guess what, I'm starting a band." "Cool", I replied, "Do you need a drummer?" And so that's how I became a member of The Back Pockets.

Our earliest rehearsals weren't so promising, or so I thought. There seemed to be a lot of confusion and wasted energy. But after a few more rehearsals we started coming together. A few people drifted away, and a few more drifted in.

Eventually we managed to get a rehearsal space and there we met several nights a week for about three weeks, practicing what songs we had on the table, and creating new sounds and techniques almost daily. By this time we had also scheduled our first gig, that infamous Wonder Root show. It's amazing what a deadline will do to encourage a sense of accomplishment.