RTP-area local music and culture

[grady AT ibiblio.org]

Ha! Got done. I get to go to Kings & see Ugly Americans. I expect to see 
you there.

Thursday, April 8
Roman Candle [http://www.romancandlemusic.com/], Shalini
[http://www.interbridge.com/shalini/], The Breaks
Cat's Cradle, Carrboro



Thursday, April 8
Alli With an I [http://www.alliwithani.com/], Kudzu Wish
[http://kudzuwish.tripod.com/], Fire Parade
[http://fireparade.topcities.com/ ], Xtreme Badasses
Go! Studios Rm. 4, Carrboro



Thursday, April 8
Ugly Americans [http://www.furious.com/perfect/nc-punk2.html], The
Ghost of Rock
Kings, Raleigh

This is the first Ugly Americans show since 1992, apparently. They
were one of the area's *other* hardcore (later-gone-thrashy) bands
(one of that handful who released records who weren't C.O.C.) in the
mid-80s, and their alumni went on to play for Picasso Trigger,
Bicentennial Quarters, Spatula (and about 100 other bands that Chris
Eubank has been in).

Between the curiosity-seeking 40-year-olds coming out to a show for
the first time in years, and the members of The Ghost of Rock (on one
side or the other of 40 themselves), this is gonna be the
oldest-average-age hardcore show ever.



Friday, April 9
Robotnika, Natasha, Black Castle [http://www.enterblackcastle.com],
Uwharria [http://www.slavemagazine.com/uwharria]
Go! Studios Rm. 4, Carrboro

Screamiest show of the week, hands-down. Natasha are an all-woman band
from Durham, and all I know is what I'm told, which involved
keyboards, Erase Errata references, and the fact that they had a lot
of kewl homemade logo merch.

Black Castle emerged from the ashes of Raleigh's Witchcraft by a
Picture, and they feature bleaty keys, bass, and hoarse screaming.
Spazzy electro-thrash noise.

Robotnika are from France. Yes, keyboards, yes, spazz.

Uwharria have no keyboards! They're an old-fashioned
political-hardcore band from the Triad region, they're tight as fuck,
and all their songs are about endangered species and ecosystem
destruction and stuff. I believe this is also the second show they'll
play this evening, the first being an early show in Greensboro.



Friday, April 9
Jim Smith & His Tall Buildings
The Cave, Chapel Hill



Friday, April 9
Roxotica, Bad Boys Running Wild, Manamid [http://www.manamid.com]
Kings, Raleigh

The ladies of Roxotica have been promoing this show thusly:

"A Hurricane of Rock's a-Comin' ... to NC this FRIDAY FRIDAY FRIDAY!
(April 9th)
King's Barcade in Raleigh

MANAMID (Greensboro - awesome post-rock)
BAD BOYS RUNNING WILD (DC - spandexed Kraut-rock/Scorpions Cover
Band)
ROXOTICA (Durham "England" - fishnet 'n' harmonies)

The ladies of Roxotica invite you to rock with them and their friends
the Bad Boys Running Wild.

The BBRW "gladly enjoy motorcycles and fast women" and will rock your
pants off.  They are prevented from rocking their own pants off by the
dangerously high Lycra content (not yet approved by the FDA for use
outside of Germany!).

Roxotica brings it avec raunch.  You know what we mean, or will...

Greensboro's Manamid will put the third nail in your rock coffin.

BE THERE BE THERE BE THERE!!!!

The Bad Boys are old friends of Roxotica's (from DC actually) and are
playing their last show in the area before losing one of their
members, SO obviously they need some support. Get it? Be there! We're
serious, they ordered spandex from ebay for this gig.  This means you,
too, can show up in Spandex. You've been waiting for this opportunity.

xoxoroxo



Saturday, April 10
The Ghost of Rock, Cantwell, Gomez, Jordan
[http://www.cantwellgomezandjordan.com], Blackstrap
Duke Coffeehouse, Durham

Duke Coffeehouse has been somewhat under-utilized (either that or
under-promoted--periodically over the past couple of years I'd notice
that there were emo shows happening there on a seemingly regular
basis, but I'd only notice this after some digging around their
website & whatnot) over the past few years, and apparently things have
come to a head with the administration. WXDU has always been friendly
with the Coffeehouse, and as a show of support for keeping the venue
open as an all-ages (BYOB!) rock venue on Duke campus (which by
extension makes it one of the only such venues in all of Durham), WXDU
has booked a couple of Saturday-night shows this month, of which this
is the first.

The Ghost of Rock are Rock Forbes and Clif Mann of the Bad Checks
(Clif's also ex-Pipe) along with Ron Liberti (ex-Pipe) singing, and I
forget who's on bass right now. They're kinda Pipey but with a bit
more swing in their step.

Cantwell Gomez & Jordan are just-plain messed-up. They've got fitful
stops, time- and key-changes, clapping, Dave Cantwell playing some
mind-bending rock drums, Anne Gomez yelling and generating concussive
bass tone, and David Jordan making his guitar sound like a telephone
orchestra. They make jagged postpunk noise-rock that's assaultive
while at the same time amazing nearly everyone, fan or not, with the
level of skill being brought to bear on the project.

Blackstrap are heavily influenced by the California punk scene of the
late 70s/early 80s, with specific points of reference being Dead
Kennedys & the Avengers, if I gotta narrow it down.



Saturday, April 10
Bellafea [http://www.bellafea.com/], Liza Kate, Kathy Cashel
[http://www.kathycashel.com/], Mike Law
Nightlight, Chapel Hill

Liza Kate is from Richmond; she played a show here a few weeks ago at
the Hillsborough Road Co-op, and the verdict the next day was
impressive. My friend A., who is pretty fucking jaded for 22, and is
especially hard to impress when it comes to singer-songwriters, could
not stop talking about Liza & the intensity of her set.

Bellafea are gtr/drums, ex-Wilmington, and for this show at least
Brent is on drums, rather than Nathan. Heather's still out front with
the clangy guitar and the ululating and the glorious shouts of "hey!"
at all the right places.

Oh yeah: this is the early show, as in 8:00 -- seriously, there's
another show at 10:30, so if you show up at rock-time, you're going to
see some kinda hardcore/emo thing.



Saturday, April 10
Randy Whitt and the Grits [http://www.randywhitt.com/]
The Cave, Chapel Hill



Saturday, April 10
The Nein [http://www.thenein.com/], Jet By Day
[http://www.jetbyday.com/], All Astronauts
[http://www.allastronauts.com/]
Go! Studios Rm. 4, Carrboro

The Nein are Finn, Casey, and Robert. They've adopted that oldschool
tactic of fronting jerkdom, but they're really total sweethearts.
That's probably why they do it, actually: to keep the ladies off 'em.
They've got a new EP with at least 50% good-song content, so if
they're selling it for $3 or under, pick it up. It's worth it for
"Handout" alone, actually. God bless short records.

All Astronauts are from Winston-Salem, and they've got half of the
amazing W-S buzz/grind/math band Malabaster, and half of the oldschool
rant-punk-pop-glam band Squatweiler. They make great vast sweeping
vistas of rock with rising/building male/female vocals and a lot of
Kemp Stroble playing guitar fast/loud and cussing & apologizing about
tuning between songs.



Saturday, April 10
Spader, Amish Jihad, Caspian Sea Monsters
Kings, Raleigh

This is a benefit for Go! Studios manager Mike Triplett, who was
seriously knocked for a loop by spinal meningitis recently. Amish
Jihad are the instru-metal spinoff of the now-defunct Scaries. Caspian
Sea Monster[s] are a band with ex-Motocaster bassist Brian Sliwa, and
that's all I know about them. Well, a Caspian Sea Monster is a bizarre
ground-effect aircraft developed by the Soviets to fly fast-as-shit a
couple of meters above the water.



Sunday, April 11
Evil Wiener [http://members.aol.com/Ludkmr/ew.html]
The Cave, Chapel Hill

This is going to be one of the more extra- Evil Weiner holiday
extravaganza, as should be evidenced by this email from Billy:

First, experience the intrepid space quest of Captain Lepus and the
Moon Hare, bringing electric Easter mayhem from the far reaches of the
Milky Way. See the galaxie's two most courageous space bunnies foil
flies , conjur ghosts, win races, rock, boogie and bring Easter to you
in ways that would make Peter flip his cotton-tail.  The sound mastery
of Ultra Fin Riz Productions' Jesse Olley will fuel this Theremin
laden Sugarfix hyperspace experience. Then...

 EVIL WIENER  EVIL WIENER  EVIL WIENER  EVIL WIENER   EVIL WIENER

In keeping with the theme, we the men of Wiener will resurrect songs
that we haven't played in years, and I mean years.  We will roll away
the stone and rock out with such forgotten gems as "Get Off Your Butt
and Start Lovin' Me", "The Girl From Faster Pussycat Kill Kill", and
many more.  But fans of late need not fret.  The band will still
March.

Next, we will surrender the stage and encourage you to reach deep into
your soul and let your spirit's voice ring out with JESUS CHRIST
SUPERSTAR KARAOKE.  That's right, your followers are blind, too much
heaven on there minds, and they'll hurt you if you don't
participate!!!!!  There's a TWENTY DOLLAR CASH PRIZE for the winner
and a lifetime supply of love for all that throw their Easter Bonnetts
in the ring.



Sunday, April 11
Of Montreal [http://www.angelfire.com/ga/ofmontreal/], Casper and the
Cookies [http://www.casperfandango.com/], Fashion Design
Go! Studios Rm. 4, Carrboro

Of Montreal are probably from Athens. You should look them up, because
I'm not gonna.

Fashion Design are from here, and they're at the forefront of the
current swirly-chorusy-echoey-droney 80s alt-pop revival--think
Siouxie, think 4AD, think a little bit of Birthday Party thrown in for
good measure.



Monday, April 12
Tobin Sprout [http://www.tobinsprout.com/], Portastatic
[http://www.portastatic.com]
Go! Studios Rm. 4, Carrboro

Tobin Sprout was one of the main musical instigators providing
structure & some semblance of sanity to Bob Pollard in the "classic"
version of Guided By Voices. I dunno what he does now.

Portastatic, once a Mac McCaughan bedroom-4track side-project, have
over the past umpteen years matured into a fucking great rockband in
their own right. Their two 2003 releases, "Summer of the Shark" and
"Autumn was a Lark," were two of my faves of last year, with SotS's
"Oh Come Down" near the top of my non-existent song-of-the-year
ballot.



Monday, April 12
Rasputina [http://www.rasputina.com/], Murder By Death
[http://www.murderbydeath.com/]
Cat's Cradle, Carrboro



Tuesday, April 13
Flicker [http://www.chapel-hill.nc.us/flicker]
Cat's Cradle, Carrboro

Flicker's back & better than ever; here's Jen's email detailing this
edition:

Jason Middleton lays his head in Durham but you may know him from his
work at UNC's Communications Department.  He'll be presenting his 16mm
print of "Postindustrial Symphony" for the first time. The film is a
visual essay exploring the older, centralized space of downtown
Durham, a former center for cigarette manufacturing, in relation to
the new, dispersed spaces of its neighboring Research Triangle Park,
home to electronics, pharmaceutical, and communications technology
companies.

UNC senior, Craig Boyer, will be screening two super 8 films.
"Schweinefleisch":  A German dream sequence from the upcoming film
"Roommate Wanted" & "Out of the Question":  A music video for now
defunct local band Milo.

Then we'll show two food films.  "A Pizza Man" by Eva Saks of New York
City is a 3-minute documentary about life, liberty and the pursuit of
pizza.  "French Fries" by Ellen Lake is a close-up of Los Angeles
filmmaker, Rebecca Baron's French fry collection.

And perhaps it is fitting that we'll then screen "A Little Life" shot
on stunning 35mm by Elizabeth Murray of Vancouver.  It's about the
life of the green bottle fly.

Wanna see some stills of the films mentioned above and some others for
good measure?  Head over to [http://www.flickerfestival.com]
http://www.flickerfestival.com and click on the link for the show at
the bottom of the screen.  Aren't you fancy!



Wednesday, April 14
The Fall [http://www.visi.com/fall/], The Nein
[http://www.thenein.com/]
Cat's Cradle, Carrboro



Wednesday, April 14
Pulsoptional [http://www.duke.edu/~jaf16/pulsoptional.html], UNC Gamba
Ensemble
Nightlight, Chapel Hill

Pulsoptional used to be called CSMG, and are a new-music collective
based at Duke. Here's the lowdown from the Nightlight website:

A night of classical and progressive music!! The talented UNC Gamba
Ensemble is a consort of violas da gamba, a Renaissance string
instrument. The consort plays music from 1500-present and often
collaborates with other music groups on campus to produce
concerts. Members of this year's group are jazz and rock musicians,
and the consort's set includes jazz and blues as well as music of the
Renaissance and Baroque periods. Pulsoptional is a new music ensemble
and composers' collective that has continued to steadily attract new
listeners since the group's inception in the spring of 2000 with its
boundary/genre defying, high-energy concerts. The group performs new
experimental works for its eclectic instrumentation, commissions new
music by emerging composers, and maintains a repertoire of
experimental "classics".



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