ATLANTA JOURNAL CONSTITUTION - THE ULTIMATE GUIDE 2005-2006 EDITION: Everything You Need to Know About Metro Atlanta (Atlanta, GA):
Performers:  Locals to Catch
Five-Eight
A killer live band replete with Who-like power chords and hooky tunes.  The band's independently released recent recorded work blows away most of what passes for rock on the major labels. "
[thanks to AG & RY for sending this our way!]

ATLANTA JOURNAL CONSTITUTION February 24, 2005 (Atlanta, GA):
Five Eight, Buck 65, El Pus
DEAL OF THE WEEK: Venerable Athens combo Five Eight headlines, a killer live band whose sixth full-length CD, released last spring, blows away most of what passes for rock on the major labels. Buck 65 is, at first glance, a hip-hop craftsman from rural Nova Scotia. But he's carved out his own genre that puts Tom Waits, Jack Kerouac and dust-bowl folk through the hip-hop grinder. What emerges is one of the freshest new sounds of the decade.The EARL will also host a late-night set by the hard-working Atlantans in El Pus, another nominally hip-hop act unhampered by the genre's conventions. The group's perseverance has paid off with a major label deal with Virgin, which will unleash "Hoodlum Rock: Vol. 1" on Tuesday.

ATLANTA JOURNAL CONSTITUTION Tuesday, December 28, 2004 (Atlanta, GA):
YEAR IN REVIEW
2004's best pop music
When we turned our pop critics loose to devise their year-end Top 10 lists, only one piece of music - Usher's superhit "Yeah!" - made all three lists. That's a testament to the breadth of stellar music in 2004 and to the disparate tastes of our resident headphone junkies. Here are their consensus favorites by genre, followed by the individual picks:
Hip-hop: The Roots, "The Tipping Point." Defying expectations, the creative Philadelphia band tightened up and dropped a straight-ahead hip-hop record, as if simply to remind us that they still can. Runner-up: The Streets, "A Grand Don't Come For Free."
Rock: U2, "How To Dismantle an Atomic Bomb." U2 may be mass-marketed to the nth degree and seemingly more interested in matters of the world than in music, but the Irish foursome still has as many smart, thoughtful things to say on a record as they do to a congressional panel. Runner-up: The Hives, "Tyrannosaurus Hives."
Country: Loretta Lynn, "Van Lear Rose." Nobody said country couldn't rock, and Loretta wouldn't listen even if some fool did. Runner-up: Gretchen Wilson, "Here for the Party."
R&B: Usher, "Confessions." Heart ("My Boo") and hurt ("Burn") revealed with even more style than the Atlanta pinup's abs. Runner-up: Jill Scott, "Beautifully Human: Words And Sounds Vol. 2."
Dance: !!!, "Louden Up Now." This is dance music in the same way that graffiti is art - it has a language of its own and a gritty urban energy, and you can either deal with it or get out of the way. Runner-up: Air, "Talkie Walkie."
Jazz: Don Byron, "Ivey-Divey." The fiery clarinet of Byron might seem an odd fit for a tribute to the easygoing tenor of sax legend Lester Young, but with players like drummer Jack DeJohnette and pianist Jason Moran on board, it's a thing of blazing brilliance. Runner-up: The Bad Plus, "Give."
Blues: Otis Taylor, "Double V." Anyone who thinks the blues has stopped evolving needs to hear Otis Taylor. His haunting, powerful protest songs and inspired storytelling takes the blues to new and fascinating places.
Gospel: Ben Harper and the Blind Boys of Alabama, "There Will Be a Light." Harper has always been a powerful performer, but when he's immersed in gospel and surrounded by the peerless Blind Boys, he turns it up a notch. Runner-up: Buddy Miller, "Universal United House of Prayer."
World music: Oumou Sangare, "Oumou." A foreign treat with instantly recognizable beauty. Runner-up: Youssou N'Dour, "Egypt."
Local (major label): Usher, "Confessions." Atlanta already had the country's most popular duo and reigning album of the year in Grammy winners OutKast. Now we've got the nation's biggest pop star, too. Runner-up: Van Hunt, "Van Hunt."
Local (indie label): Tie - Anthony David, "3 Chords and the Truth" and the Forty-Fives, "High Life High Volume." Easygoing acoustic soul and energetic garage rock were just hard to resist at either speed. Runner-up: Five Eight, "Five Eight."
Single: Usher featuring Lil Jon and Ludacris, "Yeah!" The gigantic triple-threat hit that once again repped Atlanta to the world. Runner-up: Britney Spears, "Toxic."
Debut album: Kanye West, "The College Dropout." The witty and complex "The College Dropout" combines the usual booty and bling of mainstream rap with reflections on college life, a touch of gospel and digs at everyone who tried to keep this newly minted superstar down. Runner-up: Franz Ferdinand, "Franz Ferdinand."
Comeback album: Brian Wilson, "Smile." More than 30 years in the making, "Smile" - which tormented Wilson in the '60s - now seems like the unsinkable life
preserver that's kept him afloat ever since. Runner-up: Loretta Lynn, "Van Lear Rose."
Musical makeover: Queen Latifah, "The Dana Owens Album." That this multitalent can ferociously rap "Ladies First" in 1989 and beautifully croon "California Dreamin' " in 2004 is yet one more reason to bow in her presence.
Reissue: Candi Staton, "Candi Staton." Here we were thinking "Young Hearts Run Free" was as gritty as this Stone Mountain resident got, and then this soulful Muscle Shoals find was unearthed. Runner-up: Brian Eno, "Another Green World" (along with seven other of his early solo CDs).
Box set: Various artists, "The Hip-Hop Box." Part history lesson and part block party, these four discs are an admirable (if incomplete) document of rap music's first quarter-century.

ATHENS BANNER HERALD Tuesday, December 28, 2004 (Athens, GA):
ROCK BAND FIVE EIGHT: ARTIST OF THE YEAR
By Julie Phillips
julie.phillips@onlineathens.com
Editor's note: This is the third of four question-and-answer sessions with the Classic City's top four newsmakers of 2004, chosen by the Banner-Herald's news staff for their impact on local news. Five Eight is the pick for Artist of the Year.
Five Eight got its start some 17 years ago in Athens, shortly after frontman Mike Mantione moved southward from his home in New York. He was beckoned here, he says, in part by his love for R.E.M., and wanted to strike out on his own and start a band that hailed from this legendary music town.
For years, Five Eight was known on the music scene as "the next big thing out of Athens." But despite relentless touring and a rabid fan base, commercial success eluded the band.
Still, the band members pounded away, each year garnering a new batch of fans by way of the University of Georgia and regularly headlining sold-out shows in their early years.
And it's not like the trio, which includes Mantione, bassist Dan Horowitz and drummer Mike Rizzi, has had big aspirations - success, fame and fortune would be nice. But truth be told, they just do what they love to do. Such was the case, Mantione says, when they released their latest record in March.
That self-titled album seemed to hold some magic powder, though, and soon earned the interest of execs at 99X, Atlanta's alternative rock radio station. In May, the first single from the album, "Square Peg," was added to the 99X playlist, sparking a buzz around Athens for the band whose local fanbase had dwindled over the years. In June, the band headlined 99X's Summerfest, and then in July, another single, "I'm Still Around," was added to the station's rotation. Things seemed to be picking up.
In August, everything exploded, though, when manager Martin Winsch with Mountain Entertainment Inc. in South Carolina, got a call for Five Eight to open six dates for R.E.M. on its upcoming U.S. tour, including the final appearance on the North American leg of its tour in Albuquerque, N.M. The news was something, Mantione says, that literally brought him to tears.
This week, Five Eight travels to South Carolina to open for Cheap Trick, and on New Year's Eve plays Atlanta's Downtown Countdown at the Marriott Marquis.
In all, it's been a stellar year for a band that's been hitting the stages of Athens for as long as most music fans in Athens these days can remember.
That's why the Athens Banner-Herald named Five Eight its Artist of the Year for 2004.
Athens Banner-Herald arts and entertainment editor Julie Phillips spoke with Mike Mantione to uncover some little known details and truths behind the band.
How long have you lived in Athens and what's your first memory of being here?
Seventeen years. My earliest memory is playing a show at the old 40 Watt (where the Caledonia Lounge is now). It was me and Dan Schwartz, and Jared (Bailey) was there. Nobody came to hear us, but I just remember being so psyched to be playing at the 40 Watt.
What's your favorite place in Athens?
I don't know, I guess just downtown, because there are so many great restaurants and places to hang out, it would be impossible to name just one.
When you come home to Athens after a tour, where do you have to go first?
I don't know but I'm always craving the Taco Stand.
What are the day jobs for the members of Five Eight?
Dan's flippin' burritos at Mean Bean (in Five Points). And Rizzi works at Locos in North Druid Hills. He's there almost every Friday, except every other Friday when we're playing. And I do general contracting, hardwood floors, tile.
You've done work on a couple restaurants downtown, right?
Yeah, I did the bar at the Winery and the work on the DePalma's downtown, and I did some framing at Transmetropolitan - I still get a free pizza there every once in a while. They're Mets fans, so we understand each other. It's kind of a disease.
What's a little-known fact about Dan and Mike you can share?
Well, let's see, Dan tried to teach me how to snow ski (last year), but it didn't quite take. And Dan plays everything - banjo, bass, guitar.
Mike is really concerned about his hair (laughs). That's not really true. Oh, and also, his mother's back is as hairy as Chewbacca's - it must be mowed. I'm not kidding. It's an oddity.
What would they say about you?
Um, that I have tape around my living room and plastic on the chairs. It's the kind people can look at, but they can't go in. Also that once blowdryers were eliminated in the '70s as an option for men to use - you know, like Leif Garrett and the Bee Gees (did) - my hairstyle has gone down the toilet.
What song or lyrics by an Athens band or musician do you wish you wrote?
Oh man, there's a bunch! I really wish I'd written "My Own Private Idaho" and "Rock Lobster" (both by the B-52's). And "The One I Love" (R.E.M.). I really blew it on that one. And how about the lyrics "That's me in the corner" (R.E.M.)? I mean, that is me in the corner. So close.
Then there's "Speed Racer" (off the album "Little" by Vic Chesnutt) - I mean, you could play pin the tail on the donkey with any lyric on "Little," and I'd wish I'd written it. There are so many great bands out of Athens.
What hopes do you have for the future of Athens?
I think the entire state of Georgia should be converted to blue.
What was the very best moment of 2004 for you?
The best moment was watching R.E.M. in Seattle, with my wife, play "Life and How to Live It" and being back there, watching from backstage, and seeing Michael (Stipe) get down on his knees and do that howl. It reduced me to tears. That whole experience was unbelievable. They were so good to us - I can't even tell you.
And I think the top moment for the band was when they started playing "Square Peg" on 99X.
What are your plans for 2005?
To be a better breakdancer. I was breakdancing at all the shows, but evidently I've been doing it wrong, because I really hurt my ankle in Oakland.
There are other things - let's see, start an IRA, relearn how to diaper a baby (his fourth child is due this year). And get Brian's (Cooley, the band's publicist) floors finished.
A year in the life of Five Eight
January 2004 to March 2004: Work on finishing recording of "Five Eight" and pre-promotion.
March 23, 2004: Initial release date of "Five Eight."
May 1, 2004: Five Eight performs at Music Midtown.
May 11, 2004: 99X officially adds song "Square Peg" to rotation.
June 5, 2004: Five Eight headlines 99X Summerfest.
June 15-19, 2004: Five Eight on tour with 7 Mary 3.
July 10, 2004: Five Eight performs at 99X Upstart Festival. Guys in band meet Scott Freeman from Best Buy, who along with the staff at 99X becomes one of the band's biggest/most influential supporters to date.
July 20, 2004: 99X officially adds "I'm Still Around" to rotation.
July 22, 2004: Five Eight performs at 10 High as part of the 2004 Atlantis Music Conference.
July 24, 2004: Mike Mantione from Five Eight performs on the "Writers in the round" at the 2004 Atlantis Music Conference.
Aug. 20, 2004: Marty Winsch receives call from Buck Williams at Progressive Global Agency. Offers Five Eight six dates with R.E.M. on upcoming U.S. tour.
Aug. 24, 2004: "Five Eight" re-released with Redeye Distribution.
Oct. 13, 2004: Five Eight kicks off R.E.M. U.S. tour in Los Angeles at The Greek Theatre.
Oct. 14, 2004: Five Eight supports R.E.M. in Santa Barbara, Calif., at The Santa Barbara Bowl.
Oct. 15, 2004: Five Eight supports R.E.M. in Berkeley, Calif., on Cal-Berkeley campus at The Greek Theatre.
Oct. 16, 2004: Five Eight supports R.E.M. in Irvine, Calif., at Verizon Wireless Ampitheater.
Nov. 19, 2004: Five Eight supports R.E.M. in Seattle at Marion Oliver McCaw Hall.
Nov. 28, 2004: Five Eight supports R.E.M. in Albuquerque, N.M., at Kiva Auditorium. Mike Mantione is asked to join R.E.M. on stage for the final two songs on R.E.M.'s 2004 U.S. Tour.
Dec. 29, 2004: Five Eight supports Cheap Trick in Myrtle Beach, S.C., at House Of Blues.
Dec. 31, 2004: Five Eight to play 2004 Downtown Countdown in Atlanta with Cowboy Mouth.

FLAGPOLE Wednesday, December 9, 2004 (Athens, GA):
CLUB NOTES
Words = Not Enough
By Ben Gerrard
Friday night: fierce local legends Five Eight are singing about "Saturday Night" in front of a PACKED Caledonia Lounge crowd before launching into the first track off the new self-titled album. It's easy to see the appeal of this long-suffering laconic rock trio; always only a breath away from capitalizing on their local popularity and breaking free of their relative obscurity. Mike Mantione's vocals are heartfelt and charismatic, in a blokey, "I've lived hard and suffered the slings and arrows…" kind of way. Meanwhile Mike Rizzi's drums drive hard and fast, but with a myriad of combinations and permutations - playing with and dictating the flow of the songs rather than just keeping time. Matching Rizzi's rhythmic bollocking is Dan Horowitz's fast and furious bass work and equally dynamic, wry sense of humor and affably-comical quasi-political banter.
In yet another autobiographical reference (after playing "The World Beat the Shit Out of My Favorite Band"), Five Eight goes for "I'm Still Around," the musical antithesis of Elton John's "I'm Still Standing." The set is scattered with new songs that perpetuate the glory of Five Eight's music: ostensibly, its unpredictability and its ability to lull you into deeper lyrical moments and the way those emotive moments reach out underneath the skein of heavy rock and blues - or scream high above it - interspersed with bridges of pure rock extravaganza. This is my first Five Eight experience, but definitely not my last: my innocence is lost but I'm hungry for more.

ATHENS BANNER HERALD Wednesday, December 1, 2004 (Athens, GA):
http://onlineathens.com/stories/120204/roc_20041202006.shtml

SANTA BARBARA INDEPENDENT Wednesday, October 13, 2004 (Santa Barbara, CA):
MAN ON THE PHONE – FIFTEEN MINUTES WITH REM GUITAR PLAYER PETER BUCK
By Duncan Wright
[excerpt]
What are you listening to these days?
Probably what everybody else is, the new Nick Cave, Björk, I like the Libertines ... There's a band called Razor Light who I saw and liked a lot, a band called Kasabian who I heard once, and like them, and we'll be playing with Five Eight on parts of this tour, a band from Athens who we like a lot.
http://www.independent.com/a&e/af934.htm

EAST BAY EXPRESS Wednesday, October 14, 2004 (San Francisco, CA):
BILLBOARD
5'8" High and Rising - Hand-picked REM openers are worth arriving early for.
By Stephanie Kalem
Pete Buck said to me on the phone," recalls Mike Mantione, singer/guitarist for this weekend's REM opener, Five Eight, "people aren't really going to be paying attention, so just play loud and
fast." This shouldn't be a problem for the Athens , GA band. Over the course of six albums, two lineup changes, and more tragedy and disappointment than you can shake a bottle of Zoloft at, Five Eight has gotten something very special -- and, yeah, something loud and fast -- just right. Whereas the openly manic-depressive Mantione's heart-wrenchingly honest lyrics and painfully vulnerable stage presence once acted as magnetic center for the band's feverish hurricane of sound, time, personal tragedy, and therapy have mellowed the singer into something more confident, less desperate, less disturbed, but still aching to spill out his soul. And this has happened just as his band has turned its instrumental attack into something ferociously
precise. Nowhere is this more apparent than on its latest, self-titled disc.
"I wanted to somehow tie everything together, come full circle," says Mantione. "This was the first rock record we'd put out in a while. The Good Nurse [2000] was more like a solo record for me. For this one, we kept all the instrumentation to us, the guys in the band. And really, nothing else fit." The band added extra sounds to the recording that could never be duplicated onstage with just three guys. But live, expect to hear a whole mess of newly muscular meditations on love,
loss, guilt, and playing rock 'n' roll, performed with an energy that seems impossible for a group of guys pushing 40.
"We put it all out there," Mantione says, "and a lot of times when you're on a major tour, there's a conscious effort to get a band that is not going to upstage you. It's just the way it's done. With REM, no one's gonna upstage them. I don't think they've got too much to worry about. But I'll tell you, I'm gonna give 'em a run for their money."
REM and Five Eight play this weekend at Berkeley 's Greek Amphitheatre.
7:30 p.m. Ticketmaster.com.
http://www.eastbayexpress.com/issues/2004-10-13/billboard3.html

THE ONION - A.V. CLUB Wednesday, October 6, 2004 (Chicago, IL) Album Review:
The Onion A.V. Club | Music
Reviews in Brief
By Noel Murray
After 15 years of slogging it out in the Athens, Georgia music scene—a stint marked by killer live shows and the occasional misguided overture to mainstream modern-rock radio—the punky, neurotic power trio Five Eight has been revitalized by a new audience of emo kids, who relate to Mike Mantione's open-vein lyrics and high, passionate shout. Five Eight abandons any pretense of polish on its new self-released, self-titled disc, which finally lives up to the frayed vamps of the band's first (and, until now, best) album, I Learned Shut Up. Five Eight (Buy It!) sounds hooky and heartfelt, and on the halting "The Liquor Song" and the twangy "Lousy Decision," Mantione's pained-but-wizened tone works with the group's charged performance to forge something like an epiphany...
Kevn Kinney predates Five Eight in the Athens/Atlanta scene, having fronted Drivin' N' Cryin' amid periodic solo albums throughout the '80s and '90s. Kinney's Sun Tangled Angel Revival (Compadre) (Buy It!) fuses his blistering country-rock and shuffling acoustic balladry better than any record in his solo or band catalog. The record's working-class laments, delivered in Kinney's still-appealing nasal rasp, routinely stretch out past six minutes, maintaining a momentum that might make Neil Young want to abandon Crazy Horse and move to Georgia...
http://www.theonionavclub.com/music/index.php?issue=4040

INK19.com Album Review:
http://www.ink19.com/issues/september2004/musicReviews/musicF/fiveEight.html

CHARLESTON CITY PAPER Thursday, August 26, 2004 (Charleston, SC):
Five Eight - Georgia underground Rock Vets Plug Away
By T. Ballard Leseman III
The secret of Five Eight is we don’t know what the fuck we’re doing!” jokes Dan Horowitz, bassist and co-founding member of underground rock trio Five Eight. “We draw from so many different influences and we throw it all out. The result is almost funny to me. It’s so un-deliberate.”
Horowitz, speaking in his distinctive New York brogue via telephone from his driveway in downtown Athens, Ga., is standing next to his broken-down motorbike and kaputski Ford Escort, chuckling his way through another interview. Dan’s bandmates, singer-guitarist Mike Mantione and drummer Mike Rizzi are surely stuck in Atlanta traffic. Dan’s just off a shift at the Mean Bean eatery and is trying for the 10,000th time to describe his group’s sound as the band prepares to promote its latest album, an edgy but tuneful 12-song collection simply titled Five Eight.
Mentioning that the high-profile Allmusic.com site plainly defines Five Eight as an “emo band” makes Horowitz laugh harder. The term is misleading because Five Eight were making a racket several generations before “emo” or “indie” or “alternative” and such tags.
“I thought ‘emo’ had its time in the sun about five years ago. Now, it’s kind of an old title, actually,” says Horowitz. “Emo is weird; you wanna say that it’s emotional, but a lot of [emo] bands are not particularly emotional… unless brooding is an emotion. Or whining. I mean, if we’re ‘emo’ we’re just as much ‘classic rock’ to me. But then we’re punk, too!”
“You could say we’re a punk band if you see us live on particular nights when Mike’s going crazy and smashing his shit and we play really fast like a punk band.
“But then Mike’s got this voice that really isn’t punk. And this undying ability to write catchy melodies. And that’s not a particularly punk element. But I do think we’re very punk influenced. What else is punk about us? We’re a fast, hard-rocking three-piece that is guitar-led and totally bitchin’. And we don’t rely on any kind of gimmick. You know?”
The band’s rich story starts way back in the mid-’80s with Mantione and Horowitz. The two were playing together in a band called The Reasonable Men when they relocated to Athens from Binghamton, N.Y., in 1987. They became Five Eight (the band members’ average height) in 1988, and hired drummer Patrick “Tigger” Ferguson in 1989. Five Eight quickly established itself as a dynamic, high-energy band with an unpredictable stage show, propelled by Mantione’s manic energy and wild, Townsend-esque guitar style.
Nearly 16 years on and a drummer later (Mike Rizzi of Binghamton joined the group after Ferguson quit in 1997), Five Eight remain a proper hard-working rock band. After a tumultuous few years of chaos and uncertainty (divorce, breakups, thefts, physical injuries, etc.), the band is now determined to press ahead with a new, independently produced and released self-titled album and a positive outlook. In a way, things are full-circle with the group.
“It has been very difficult because we put this album out ourselves and we’re paying all these people ourselves – like our manager, publicist, radio guy,” admits Horowitz. “We’ve recently had some pretty good tours and good single-paying money gigs and some good festivals where we’ve sold a lot of merch. But we haven’t seen a dime of it because it all goes back into the system. But it’s worth it.”
The hardnosed “DIY” approach was on track when the band started and as the new Five Eight album took shape
“We recorded it in people’s garages and didn’t spend any money until we went up to Hoboken for three days to mix it. It really was lo-fi and stripped down.” Horowitz points out that the artwork on the CD itself is this phone pole with wires which looks very rural and reminiscent of Georgia. And the shot on the back is a very urban, New York thing. Of course, that’s the dynamic of the band. “We’re totally fish-out-of-water. We’ve lived in the South but we’re so about New York, in a way. What I mean is we’re loud, frenetic and … ethnic and not polite in a Southern way. Like the song ‘Square Peg’ says [in the lyrics], we’re never gonna fit in. The fact that I’ve lived in the South almost as long as I lived in the North doesn’t seem to have much of an effect on people engendering us.”
The new Five Eight album is not only receiving airplay on the usual college radio stations but on some commercial rock stations, as well. Alternative “new rock” station 99X in Atlanta has featured two singles on its regular playlist over the spring and summer. The album is officially re-released this week on Red Eye Distribution.
“That’s pretty great… for an unsigned band,” laughs Dan.

NEW ZEALAND HERALD Tuesday, August 24, 2004:
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/entertainment/entertainmentstorydisplay.cfm?storyID=3586423&thesection=entertainment&thesubsection=music&thesecondsubsection:

LIVE DAILY Friday, August 13, 2004:
http://www.livedaily.com/news/6939.html?t=98

TAMPA WEEKLY PLANET Tuesday, July 22, 2004 (Tamps, FL):
MUSIC | SPINS
For a goodly portion of the '90s, Athens, Ga.'s Five Eight was the Bay area scene's favorite local band that wasn't local. Their combination of arena-scale presence and tunes, and house-party intimacy, connected with just about everyone who saw them. But eventually, having seen Five Eight roughly six million times, we kind of moved on. The group's falling out of flavor coincided roughly with other, bigger setbacks: Drummer/co-founder Patrick "Tigger" Ferguson split. Support guitarist Sean Dunn split. The band's label, Velvel, collapsed shortly after issuing their next-level coming-out disc, Gasolina!.
Five Eight persevered, recruited old fan/new drummer Mike Rizzi, and released The Good Nurse on then-buzzy emo imprint Deep Elm in 2000. That album's sparse and (for them) slightly experimental vibe, however, further alienated many longtime supporters while failing to draw in Deep Elm's underage throng. Quite a few of the Tampa folks who remembered seeing guitarist/vocalist Mike Mantione naked onstage at the Mug seven years earlier, reciting poetry and refusing to get dressed until he'd made enough money to put gas in the van, assumed they were done.
They're not. It's telling that the group waited six records to name one after itself. The gesture speaks of both renewed commitment and hitting upon a definitive statement, and Five Eight, easily the band's best effort in nearly a decade, lives up to its moniker. Like all Five Eight releases, it wanders occasionally from their trademark compelling amalgam of engagingly off-kilter stadium rock and punky catharsis (for the Foo Fighters-esque "I'm Still Around" and countrified "Bad for Us").
But overall, it's an amazingly solid and cohesive collection, given the combo's somewhat oddball character. As a bonus, many of the disc's best songs -- "Criminal," "The Liquor Song," "Square Peg," "Lousy Decision" -- have long been the best part of their live set. The whole album sounds live, in fact -- wonderfully tight-then-loose guitar overdubs aside -- with Mantione's keening, weirdly cadenced melodic wail sounding as immediate and strong as ever.
Five Eight isn't the sound of a potentially great band finally hitting its stride. It's the sound of an always-great band once again unconcerned with anything other than trying to make the album they know they've got in 'em, and succeeding. (www.fiveeight.com) (4 ½)

ATLANTA JOURNAL CONSTITUTION Friday, July 9, 2004 (Atlanta, GA):
99X UPSTART FEST BLURB:
Five Eight — We've told you before and we'll tell you again: These local boys are ready to blow up. Catch them now, before they have caviar dripping down their chins.

THE SUN NEWS Friday, June 18, 2004 (Myrtle Beach, SC):
NIGHT CAP RECOMMENDS
Speaking of the House of Blues, if you're looking for some live, unpretentious, gritty and loud rock 'n' roll, check out Five Eight of Athens, Ga., opening Saturday for Seven Mary Three at the Barefoot Landing venue.
The band, led by unpredictable and excitable frontman/songwriter Mike Mantione, is touring in support of its recently released self-titled CD, the band's sixth album. Five Eight has made its name on energy-packed live shows.
Oh yeah, headliner Seven Mary Three ain't too shabby either, especially if you're in the mood for mid-1990s post grunge nostalgia. Remember 7MT's radio anthems "Cumbersome," and "Water's Edge"?

CREATIVE LOAFING Wednesday, June 16, 2004 (Charlotte, NC)
MUSIC MENU
Five Eight are Athens, GA, stalwarts, and frontman Mike Mantione's live presence is legendary. After over a decade-and-a-half of writing, playing and touring, the group has released a quintessential recording of their collective rock wisdom. The new self-titled disc speaks for itself as an elegant yet potent return. Amos' Southend (Shukla)

CREATIVE LOAFING Wednesday, June 16, 2004 (Charlotte, NC)
VIBES | SPINS
FIVE EIGHT - Five Eight (Self-released)
By Chris Parker
In 1994, Five Eight was on top of their game. They had released three albums and two cassettes in six years, and had just put out Weirdo, their best album, whose title track was a perfect epithet for singer/guitarist Mike antione. His high-pitched vocals and confessional lyrics of tortured self-examination presaged emo by a half-dozen years, riding a dark melodic roar reminiscent of Superchunk on a Birthday Party death trip. Ten years and only two albums later, Five Eight finally picks up where they left off, with their tightest, most visceral set of songs ever.
Without toning down the self-flagellation that drives the lyricism, Mantione displays a measure of perspective that leavens his dark tone. An "accidental concept album," it opens with "Criminal," a parable about a car accident, tracing the vertiginous way what we fear perversely draws us closer. Closing with the line "so deeply scared of dying that we die," it's followed by the punchy pop of "I'm Still Around," which surveys the wreckage he never expected to survive, and then rumbling rocker "Magnetic Fields," which acknowledges "I can't hide from myself." Thus unfolds a cycle of songs dealing with alcoholism ("The Liquor Song"), being a 40-year-old rocker ("Square Peg", "Guitar") and the end of his marriage ("Lousy Decision," "Bad For Us"). The album rocks as hard as prior releases, but there's a crispness and precision that's heretofore been missing. Rarely do bands create their best work fifteen years in, but Mantione's always been the type you picture as the lead in The Tin Drum, and in continuing to bang around, he's finally hit the perfect chord.
Track to Burn: "Criminal"
Grade: A- --Chris Parker

METROBEAT Wednesday, June 16, 2004 (Greenville, SC):
ALBUM REVIEW
http://www.metrobeat.net/gbase/Expedite/Content?oid=oid%3A2715

THE DAILY BEACON Tuesday, June 15, 2004 (Knoxville, TN):
Five Eight promise unusual show
By Arleah Shellman, Staff Writer
Volume 96 Number 5
Who: Five Eight
When: June 16th
Where: Blue Cats in the Old City
Five Eight's music and live performances promise to be hard rocking  enough to get listeners off their seats and dancing up close to the  stage.
"We're going to be jumping around as much as you're not," Band  frontman and singer Mike Mantione said. This is just one of the reasons that makes Five Eight known for its  one-of-a-kind live performances."Our live shows are really different from other bands. We're like no  other band you're going to see this year," Mantione said. Five Eight prides itself on being the exact opposite of American  Idol.  "If you like American Idol, then you won't like our show,"  Mantione said. Although the band has played together for 16 years, it still has not  conformed to a mainstream pop sound packaged in a neat wrapper; rather  the band has stayed true their own individual sound. And what exactly is Five Eight's sound? Mike Mantione describes the band's sound as rock'n'roll, with classic  and punk rock. It is mostly guitar-driven, but Mantione said there are  times when only vocals, bass, and drums are the music. Five Eight hails from Athens, Ga., where it has played on the local  scene for the past 16 years. Now the band is being heard across the  nation. Five Eight has been recently featured on VH1's "Hear Music  First" and NPR's "All Song's Considered." Their newly released song,  Square Peg, has been added to the regular rotation at Atlanta's  alternative rock station 99X, and the band is touring the country  throughout the summer. Although Five Eight has released five other albums, its newest album  is self-titled and is considered to be the band's first real album."This album has a concept to it that is different from the other  albums in the past. It has the most rock elements out of all our  albums, because our past records have more acoustic in them. This  album was also recorded live and there were no dub overs. The process  was made with no aid of a record company and all the promotions have  been made on our own. The band has had much more creative control over  this album," Mantione said. The differences in the new album reflect the many trials and changes  that the band has encountered over the past 16 years. Through divorce, drugs, depression, a manager's death, major label  deals that bottomed out and band members' departures, Five Eight has  survived and come out stronger in the end."I tend to write songs on an autobiographical nature.  I draw from  experience and put my emotions into my music. The band's new music  definitely has a cathartic feel to it," Mantione said. Five Eight also has acquired a new drummer over the years, Mike  Rizzi, who has helped the band mold their sound into what it is today."When we first started, the band had a very thin sound, but now our  new drummer Mike has been with the band for seven years and really  hits the drums hard," said Mantione. Five Eight has plans to keep playing for years to come, and they are  currently working on a new record and plan to continue touring in New  York and Florida. As for their show in Knoxville, the three-piece group is very excited  to perform.
"We love to play rock'n'roll music. I love it more than anything."
Five Eight can be heard Wednesday, June 16 at Blue Cats performing  with Seven Mary Three.

METROBEAT Wednesday, June 9, 2004 (Greenville, SC):
COVER STORY
http://www.metrobeat.net/gbase/Expedite/Content?oid=oid%3A2693

FLAGPOLE Wednesday, June 9, 2004 (Athens, GA):
FIVE EIGHT - Five Eight
Independent release
By Michael Andrews
If Five Eight were a teenager, it'd be perplexed by life and all its hellish processes, moody to a fault and prone to occasional vocal outbursts. Even though the 16-year-old local trio is comprised of 30-something guys, all of the above still apply. That's not to say, however, there's little maturity in the band's kinetic brand of rock, as the self-titled sixth release readily confirms. Frontman Mike Mantione's songwriting ability is in full swing here with the material ranging from angsty alienation ("Square Peg") to inebriated longing ("The Liquor Song") to descriptions of everyday lives gone awry (the superb "Bad Juices"). Sure they're all reoccurring themes for Mantione, drummer Mike Rizzi and bassist Dan Horowitz but the band still sees them through with enough conviction to get fists raised in gracious approval. With all the "thinking man's bands" that've garnered widespread attention over the last few years (Magnetic Fields, Promise Ring, FireTheft, etc.) it's a wonder that Five Eight hasn't had more inclusion in that circle. No matter, though. They're always at their best - as they are on tracks like "Lousy Decision" and "A Man is a Pent Up Thing" - when working outside the lines.

CREATIVE LOAFING Wednesday, June 3, 2004 (Atlanta, GA):
VIBES | EARSHOT | FEATURE
Earshot
By Chris Parker
Nothing fails like success, and what a spectacularly successful failure Five-Eight has been. Which is to say, after nearly seven years of misfortune, the band was due for a change. And with its new self-titled album, the Athens trio redeems the promise of its three early-'90s albums -- momentum that was lost due to a bad label deal, a subsequently disappointing album, the departure of half the band, the dissolution of singer/guitarist Mike Mantione's marriage and the death of the band's former manager, Jimmy McLean. Despite Mantione's angst-ridden, punkish self-analysis preceding emo by a half-dozen years, a move from Atlanta-based indie Sky Records to former CBS Records President Walter Yetnikoff's Velvel Records -- which also signed locals Michele Malone and Ultrababyfat in a bid to become a major indie before folding a couple of years later -- netted only empty promises and the mediocre Gasolina! in 1997. With 2000's The Good Nurse, the band turned away from its raging rock sound to a more supple, arranged sound. But, beset by personal issues and Mantione's child custody battle, the band was unable to support the album with a tour. Now, more than 20 years after Mantione and bassist Dan Horowitz began playing together, and 15 years after forming Five-Eight, they've released an album worthy of their energetic live shows, bolstered by the best set of songs Mantione's ever written. Without toning down the self-flagellation that drives the lyricism, Mantione displays a measure of perspective that leavens his dark tone. "The songs were deeper than they had been in the past," says Mantione. "Songs like 'Lousy Decision' and 'I Don't Give a Damn' might create an immediate understanding of what's going on, but there's another layer to what's happening that has perspective, a sense of humor and self-awareness. It's better not to know what you're writing about -- one hand shouldn't know what the other hand is doing -- especially when it's jerking wildly." A self-described "accidental concept album," Five-Eight opens with "Criminal," a parable about a car accident, which elucidates how what we fear perversely draws us closer to it. Closing with the line "so deeply scared of dying that we die," it's followed by the punchy pop of "I'm Still Around," which surveys the wreckage Mantione never expected to survive; and then rumbling rocker "Magnetic Fields," which belatedly acknowledges, "I can't hide from myself." Thus unfolds a cycle of songs dealing with alcoholism, being a 40-year-old rocker and the end of Mantione's marriage. The album adds a crispness and precision that's heretofore been missing from Five-Eight.
The new qualities can be traced to the growing maturation of the band's drummer, Mike Rizzi, who joined Five-Eight prior to The Good Nurse. Complaining that Rizzi hit his kit "like a sissy," Mantione set upon a campaign of abuse he likens to toughening up your little brother through repeated beatings. "When we're playing live, I will wait for him to make a mistake, then I'll glare over at him. And as the night goes on, each time, as his anger builds, he'll play harder and louder," says Mantione. "The problem is it makes me more self-conscious about my own playing. But it's turned Rizzi into a powerhouse." The other key to Five-Eight's renewal was its intense work with mixer John Agnello (Dinosaur Jr., Redd Kross), for which the band shelled out its own money, increasing both its commitment and level of rancor. "I've been playing with Dan for years, and I know exactly what he's going to say," the autocratic Mantione says. "He probably wants, for once, to have a say in the mix, but I was tired of his comments and offered him $20 to shut up for one song. He said, 'No way you're going to buy me off for $20,' and Agnello said, 'How about $45?'" Like the album, which "is trying to process the nagging suspicion that something irrevocably bad has happened, and still come out the other end," Five-Eight has emerged not just intact, but better for the seven plagued years. And as Mantione says of that time of pain and misfortune, "It beats 40 years in the desert, right?"
Five-Eight plays the Virginia-Highland Summerfest (Virginia Avenue between North Highland Avenue and Park Drive), Sat., June 5. 7 p.m. Free.
http://atlanta.creativeloafing.com/earshot.html

Jeffrey Morgan, CREEM MAGAZINE/METRO TIMES DETROIT says of 'Five  Eight':
"I hate records that are so good they actually make me work at listening to them. But there's some kinda weird consumptive Velvet Underground/Neil Young dissipated thing going on here that's worth figuring out."

FHMUS.com:
FIVE EIGHT - S/T
By Kris Chen
Much like Seattle post Nirvana, Athens, Georgia was one of those regions of the US that major label A+R scouts devoured after the mainstream breakthrough of a local band. (R.E.M.) Local heroes Five Eight, who have been around for 15 years, never quite achieved that level of recognition though. Leader Mike Mantione’s plaintive vocals narrate heartbreak and anger with the arrangements veering between the Replacements’ raucousness, Uncle Tupelo’s affection for rootsy Americana, and even early R.E.M.’s cryptic brand of Southern rock. If it’s all new to you, Five Eight’s latest eponymous release is an excellent place to start for the unacquainted.

MUSIC MISFITS
ALBUM REVIEW:
http://www.musicmisfits.com/Reviews/FiveEight.htm

THE SUN NEWS Friday, May 28, 2004 (Myrtle Beach, SC):
FIVE EIGHT ATHENS, GA., TRIO FIRES ON ALL CYLINDERS ROCK
By Kent Kimes
Athens, Ga., rock trio Five Eight is living testament that raw, bursting talent doesn't always translate to mainstream success and household recognition. Five who, you say? Led by maniacal motormouth Mike Mantione, Five Eight rose from the post-REM Athens boom to create a buzz in the early to mid-1990s but never quite broke out of the regional spotlight. "I'm still around, I'm still around," Mantione reminds us on "I'm Still Around," the power-packed second track from Five Eight's self-titled disc, released May 4. And thank the stars he is. Mantione and mates have made a living off of slightly off-kilter material and a sometimes atonal guitar attack, but Mantione's once-rambling vocal delivery style has been reined in a little bit, and the songs have been tightened up on this taut, energetic 12-song set. Kinetic and unpredictable live shows are the norm for Five Eight, reflected in the instrumental jam at the end of "Magnetic Fields," which is obviously planned but seemingly spontaneous. The twangy "The Liquor Song" recalls the countryish output of Cracker. Loud and brash throughout this disc, the band throws a curveball with the acoustic guitar backbone of "Bad Juices." Track after track, Five Eight delivers unpretentious but thoroughly engaging and melodic rock. And make no mistake, Five Eight rocks hard. If you thought heartfelt, jeans-and-T-shirts, nonprocessed guitar-based rock didn't exist anymore, pick up "Five Eight," the best rock album you'll find from the best rock band you've never heard of. This one is a little hard to find, so your best bet is to go to www.fiveeight.com.
'Five Eight'
HIGHS | Album-opener "Criminal" rumbles out of the gate like a prisoner on the run; "Guitar" is a clever ode to the six-string.
LOWS | None.
SUMMARY | After years of creating a buzz, Athens, Ga., indie rock trio Five Eight finally concocts a winning formula on its sixth album, one that could propel it to new heights.

ORLANDO SENTINEL Friday, May 14, 2004 (Orlando, FL):
MUSIC REVIEW: * * * (3 stars out of 5)
FIVE EIGHT - Five Eight
Misery sounds sweet on Five Eight's latest album
REVIEW RANK
By Sentinel Staff Writer
*** Five Eight, Five Eight (Five Eight Records): If the new breed of teen-friendly emo bands were less melodramatic, more darkly desperate and more mature, they might sound like Five Eight. A seminal presence in Athens, Ga., for more than 15 years, the band is back with a new self-titled album that channels lead singer Mike Mantione's demons into songs occasionally leavened with cathartic bursts of guitars and drums. There's an ambience to the pulsating rhythm guitars and "woo-woo" falsetto backing vocals in the opening "Criminal" that belies guilt-ridden lyrics about the survivor of a car crash that claimed the life of a friend. "I'm left to pay to play for the ride of my life," Mantione sings. "Oh lady of the highway say your prayers for me, 'cause I'm so deeply scared of dying that we die." Mantione's high tenor colors the album with a sense of vulnerability, but driving accompaniment by bassist Dan Horowitz and new drummer Mike Rizzi lends a resilience to "I'm Still Around" and "Magnetic Fields." Both songs lean on the notion that love has the potential to save the day. Above the album's sweetest melody, "I'm Still Around" is Mantione's most optimistic moment: "Bring me out and let's disappear. Tonight is beautiful and the sky's so clear. Make me laugh when you're near." Dark clouds return on "Magnetic Fields," which looks at the internal struggle that makes happiness so elusive. Churning guitars unleashed in
an extended instrumental solo make this the album's angriest track. In its best moments, Five Eight turns misery into pretty songs accented by just enough rough edges. "The Liquor Song," which likens the compulsion to perform with addiction, balances country strumming with well-timed blasts of distortion. Chiming guitars vaguely recall R.E.M. on the deliberately paced ballad "Bad For Us." Unfortunately, even with the band's penchant for twisting melodies, there aren't enough compact hooks to keep these 13 songs (including a hidden bonus track) from blending into each other. "I'm never gonna fit in, fit in, fit in," Mantione wails in "Square Peg." On Five Eight, Mantione's songs do almost enough to make us care.
Reviewing key: ***** excellent; **** good; *** average; ** poor; * awful.

CHARLESTON POST & COURIER Thursday, May 20, 2004 (Charleston, SC):
FIVE EIGHT - Five Eight
At first listen, the band Five Eight might sound like any new modern rock band trying to get a toehold in today's crowded music scene. In reality, Five Eight has been doing its thing for the last 15 years, and in the process the trio has become one of the most beloved underground rock outfits in the band's hometown of Athens, Ga. Five Eight released "The Good Nurse," back in 2000. That album was well-received by critics and rose to No. 16 on the CMJ Top 200 charts. If four years seems like a long time between albums, it should be known that Five Eight has been through a run of bad luck that would break up lesser bands. According to the band's bio, the members of Five Eight have had to deal with drugs, divorce, depression, record deals that dried up, even the death of a manager. Instead of crawling away to lick their wounds, the member of Five Eight have delivered a phenomenal set of music, simply titled "Five Eight." To say that the material on "Five Eight" is catchy is putting it mildly. Just listen to songs such as "I'm Still Around" and "Square Peg," which should already be receiving airplay on modern rock radio stations nationwide. Lead vocalist Mike Mantione has one of those singing voices that let you know that he's working hard to reach those high notes. On what is probably the album's best track, "The Liquor Song," you can hear him straining on that song's chorus, especially during a key change at the end. To some it might sound like Mantione is overstepping his vocal bounds. To me, it sounds like a guy venting four years of frustrations, and doing so in a way that enhances his art. Whatever the case, rock rarely gets more passionate -- or real. (A)

CREATIVE LOAFING Thursday, May 13, 2004 (Atlanta, GA):
VIBES | EARSHOT | SHARP NOTES
Sharp Notes
By Nikhil Swaminathan
Athens on screen: Couch potatoes and web surfers can get their local music fix from their respective boob tubes, rather than deigning to attend a show. This Sun., May 16, at 7:30 p.m., Athens-based, indie alt-country kingpins the Drive-By Truckers will appear, at least in audio, on the FOX show "King of the Hill." The Truckers re-recorded the 1985 Tom Petty horn and guitar melange "Rebels" for the episode. On the Internet, if you can pull yourself away from atrocious Iraqi prisoner photos, online poker and free porn for a moment, slide on over to www.vh1.com, where the music channel has discovered long-running Athens band Five Eight. The melodic punk rock trio has its entire self-titled album -- released to the masses May 4 -- available for streaming download on the site's "Hear Music First" section. Hopefully for Five Eight, people find the website half as addicting as the channel's "The Fabulous Life" or "I Love the '80s."

FLAGPOLE Wednesday, May 5, 2004 (Athens, GA):
By Flagpole Magazine
One To Remember: On Wednesday, May 5, the fabulous 40 Watt will host Athens' long-running Five-Eight. Five-Eight's track "The Liquor Song" off the band's newest self-produced and self-titled album was recently featured on National Public Radio's "All Songs Considered." This marks the second time such praise found its way to the band; the first was in 2002 in recognition of the beautiful album The Good Nurse. On the band's website, the current publicists speak of Five-Eight as a band that knows how to survive. I guess that's true, considering all the band has had to endure (death, divorce, line-up changes, label troubles, etc.), but I would say that the band doesn't merely survive, it also thrives. Leader Mike Mantione is quite simply one of the most passionate, soul-searching songwriters this town has seen since the band's inception 15 years ago. For more information on Five-Eight please go to www.fiveeight.com.

VH1.com
Artist Page:
http://www.vh1.com/artists/az/five_eight/artist.jhtml?_requested=256525

NPR “All Songs Considered”
Feature Archive:
http://www.npr.org/programs/asc/archives/youplaydj/index.html#eight


ROLLINGSTONE.COM:  
"Combine the atonal guitars of the Velvet Underground, the intensity of a punk show and a quirky They Might Be Giants sense of humor and you've got the basic elements for Five-Eight."

FLAGPOLE Wednesday, May 5, 2004 (Athens, GA)
Mothers of Reinvention - With A New Album In Hand, Five Eight Seems As Fresh As Ever
By: Michael Andrews
Hard to believe, but Five Eight is 16 years old this year. In band-year terms, that means the energetic local trio has been together long enough to either genuinely enjoy one another's company and the sheer thrill of making new music, or that the guys have so little in common with the umpteenth crop of modern rock upstarts to pass their way that any alteration of the band's lineup or do-it-yourself method of survival would be cause for alarm. For vocalist-guitarist Mike Mantione, bassist Dan Horowitz and drummer Mike Rizzi (who's been with the group for its last six years), both situations do, in fact, apply.
Over the years, the band has released several albums highlighted by chief songwriter Mantione's emotionally charged lyrics and has played a lion's share of kinetic, moody rock shows that continue to resound with longtime fans and more recent converts. While Horowitz and Mantione have remained Five Eight's backbone, Rizzi joined up with the two after the 1998 departure of drummer Patrick "Tigger" Ferguson and guitarist Sean Dunn. They've also shared that fickle brush with widespread notoriety more than a couple of times. The last such instance occurred with the college radio and indie word-of-mouth success generated by 2000's downbeat tour de force The Good Nurse.
"That one was definitely written as a solo record," Mantione recalls. "The funeral aspect of the record, yeah, I think that comes through. It's funny though because that kind of thing, that kind of feeling, you really think about after the fact. Mainly I just wrote Good Nurse for myself as a personal thing about sickness and dying, so those songs came to me really quick, most of them in about a week."
If that record could be considered a funeral process of sorts, then Five Eight's latest release might well be its rebirth, or perhaps just its latest point of rejuvenation. The no nonsense self-titled project Five Eight lightens the levity of the previous situation and leans more on the band's crisp, adrenaline-fueled presence as a live act. Mixed by Buffalo Tom/ Dinosaur Jr. engineer John Agnello and produced by the band along with the Josh Joplin Group's Geoff Melconian, the Five Eight guys have even said themselves that 15 years into things, this recording feels like a new jumping off point for their still volatile brand of misanthropic rock and roll.
"It's kind of way of thinking about things when you're doing them at the moment," says Mantione about recording the album. "In that way, it really did feel like the first record for us. Sitting around Rizzi's kitchen table, some of the planning was done there, so it just had this feeling like it was doing something new for us. I guess it's also sort of a hope springs eternal kind of thing in just feeling good about something like that while you're doing it. It's really the love of the music and the friendship aspect that's kept us together for so long considering what's normally, ordinarily defined as success has eluded us, like fame, money, exposure, etc. So, I like to think our records just speak for themselves. Whatever I might say about [the new record] isn't going to compel many people to go out and grab it. Sometimes a band or artist might have a good story behind them. Like the guy from Iron and Wine or Guided By Voices or somebody like that, they've all got a good story. But usually, I find that music can speak for itself, that it's what grabs my attention first."
The highly conducive energy that's always fueled the band is present, accounted for and speaking loudly on Five Eight's 12 tracks. Time hasn't diluted Mantione's abilities as a songwriter, but this time out he switches gears from the Good Nurse's ruminations on mortality and physical sickness back to his more familiar themes of alienation, depression and the endurance factor of the human spirit. Heavy stuff in the hands of any band, but like the Rock*A*Teens or even the Pixies, Five Eight has always been adept at splicing weighty subject matter with go-down-easy hooks, frantic volume and unpredictable personality, a formula that can result in eyelid-drooping deep thought or direct emotional catharsis for the band, all depending on the current mindset of its members.
"Certainly on all the other Five Eight records we've had like a strict time limit and budget, things of that manner," says Mantione. "I'm not saying that's not a good way to do things, but it sure is a lot different when you don't have a time limit. Just having me, Rizzi and Dan together it's always something different. 'A Man Is a Pent Up Thing' dates back to the early days, around '89 is when it was written, but we didn't put it on a record until... I guess it was The Angriest Man which was in 1993. That was an acoustic version of the song. 'Guitar,' that dates back to the early '90s. Everything else is from the 2000s. I still find it so compelling to write about the inner working of the neurotic mind, I guess you'd say, that we [don't pay attention to] movements like emo or something. Movements are easy opportunities for publicity, easy for people to digest, but it's just writing about what I know that always springs my interest, y'know? I guess that might be emo, but to me it's really just what I know."
WHO: Sebadoh, Five-Eight, Michael Nance
WHERE: 40 Watt Club
WHEN: Wednesday, May 5
HOW MUCH: $10

ATLANTA JOURNAL CONSTITUTION Tuesday, May 4, 2004 (Atlanta, GA):
http://www.accessatlanta.com/hp/content/music/cds/0504/06fiveeight.html

ATLANTA JOURNAL CONSTITUTION Saturday, May 1, 2004 (Atlanta, GA):
MUSIC MIDTOWN SHOW REVIEW
By Nick Marino
As throngs of fans stood in the sun awaiting overwrought rock act Story of the Year on the 99X Stage, a handful of savvy fans caught the leaner local band Five Eight on the nearby Locals Only Stage. Lucky them, they heard the Athens/Atlanta trio play a blistering set, reducing a batch of jagged melodies to their chaotic essences. Singer/guitarist Mike Mantione was more expressive in one unhinged solo than Kenny Wayne Shepherd was in an entire set the night before. “I just want everybody to rock your heads off, please,” Mantione said. Easy to do when his band’s on stage.