Atlanta Soundtrack: Lonnie Holley (with Michael Stipe), Yaeji and vintage ABC

Lonnie Holley (featuring Michael Stipe) | “Oh Me, Oh My”

The gray skies of winter go perfectly with this hypnotic and contemplative piece, which brings together two distinctive Southern music legends. For the uninitiated, Lonnie Holley is a world-renowned singer and sculptor who grew up in Alabama and initially began making art in his 20s as a response to an awful family tragedy. His biography is too deep, fascinating and remarkable to do it justice here, but it’s worth exploring. Fortunately for us, Atlanta is now his home base.

On this track, Holley’s rich, emotive voice and the meaningful lyrics, bathed in warm animation, work in concert with R.E.M.’s Michael Stipe to melt the winter chill off your bones. It’s part of Holley’s new album, Oh Me, Oh My, due to drop on March 10, featuring additional collaborations with Moor Mother, Bon Iver and others.

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Yaeji | “For Granted” 

It’s been a minute since we’ve heard from up-and-coming Korean-American genre bender Yaeji. This latest single will lead her upcoming debut album, With A Hammer, set for an April 7 release. In a letter to her fans, she described the writing process for this new venture: “Music is like alchemy, and us who interact with music are alchemists… I want to take all that I’ve suppressed and let it breathe and live through this process of creation. I want my music to be free. So I started writing a story about me and my hammer. A hammer crafted from my anger.”

As previously detailed here, Yaeji called Atlanta home briefly as a child, then moved to Seoul, South Korea, and then back to the United States to attend Carnegie Mellon. She is now based in Brooklyn. Catch her live when she drops back into town later this year to play Variety Playhouse on May 2.

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Another Bad Creation | “Playground”

For anyone born after 1985, it might be hard to believe how big Another Bad Creation (ABC) was for one brief, shining moment in the early 1990s. After the 1991 release of their debut album, Coolin’ at the Playground Ya Know!, they were everywhere: performing on the TV series In Living Color and even playing themselves (or rather, bleach-blonde versions of themselves) in the 1993 film The Meteor Man as well as climbing the Billboard charts.

They also drew the (probably publicity-generated) “ire” of another child band that, yes, has already popped up as a vintage track in these digital pages. On the still-classic “Jump,” the one and only Kris Kross took aim at the band’s rivals with the slyly cutting line, “Don’t try to compare us to another bad little fad.” Ouch.

ABC was discovered and launched into fame by New Edition’s Michael Bivins. The ATL pre-teen quintet was comprised of Romell “RoRo” Chapman, Chris Sellers, David Shelton and the Pugh brothers, Demetrius “Red” and Marliss “Mark.” Unfortunately, any big dreams of longevity for the act evaporated with their critically panned and audience-ignored sophomore outing, It Ain’t What U Wear, It’s How U Play It. Suddenly, they were off the airwaves (though always in our hearts).

On a positive note, given the well-documented peril that child celebrities face from mega-stardom, the ABC crew may have been spared by fading from the limelight so quickly. After all, recent “Where Are They Now” pieces on the now-adult bandmates make it sound like they’re just living drama-free lives. And with strangely wholesome lyrics like this, it’s no wonder: “Into the Mizzark / Chillin’ in the pizzark / I got a break ’cause my mother said be home by dizzark.” “Playground” is our Vintage Track of the Week.