FLAP reveals ‘Novelty Stop’

The guitar-slinging duo celebrates the arrival of their latest album at Avondale Towne Cinema

FLAP Novelty Stop Photo 1 .59ce54ae6774f
Photo credit: David Naugle
FOR NOVELTY USE: Andy Hopkins (left) and Matt Miller of FLAP.


Like demented scientists following a formula comprehensible only to themselves, Andy Hopkins and Matt Miller, otherwise known as FLAP, have been creating ingeniously twisted guitar music on and off for the better part of five decades.

Tonight, Fri., Sept. 29, the duo celebrate the arrival of their latest album, Novelty Stop, on a concert bill with two similarly idiosyncratic Atlanta-born aggregations, the Edgewood Saxophone Trio and Duet for Theremin & Lap Steel.

Mastered by Frank Schultz (the lap steel part of DfT&LS) and recorded over the last few years at Creative Sound Labs, Last Exit Studio and the Flap Shack,

Novelty Stop showcases FLAP’s esoteric experiments, which variously involve speed metal licks, mathy bluegrass riffs, skronky folk-jazz interludes, and psychedelic country ballads plied on acoustic and electric instruments including banjo and theremin (the latter comes courtesy of Scott Burland of DfT&LS).

FLAP’s lyrics further defy convention while tickling the funny bone by focusing on oddball subjects and novel characters, such as the unemployed pet owner who pines for the days when he could afford “Doggie Daycare” and aged malcontents ruminating on the glory days of hardcore punk deprivations in “Bad Samaritan.”

The whole madcap mix results in an engaging experience, which only gets more entertaining when witnessed in the flesh.

With Edgewood Saxophone Trio and Duet for Theremin & Lap Steel. $10. 8 p.m. Fri., Sept. 29. Avondale Towne Cinema, 106 N. Avondale Rd. 404-228-3125. www.mytownecinema.com.