RTP-area local music and culture

[grady <grady AT ibiblio.org>]

Thursday, January 20
Uncle Jemima [http://www.unclejemima.com/], Mike Uva
[http://collectibleescalators.com/mikeuva.htm], Man Man
[http://www.wearemanman.com]
Duke Coffeehouse, Durham

Duke Coffeehouse chews its way through the ash-legirons & breaks free
tonight with this, its first show in ages. New management, new Duke
staff oversight by someone who gives a shit about independent music,
and maybe even a new decor (I dunno, I haven't seen it). May be enough
for me to forgive the obliteration of the granagrams in the men's
room.

Man Man are from Philly and are, by all accounts, fucked up, in a more
or less Mens Recovery Project kind of way, or so I'm told.

"Uncle Jemima" prove, if nothing else, that Duke students are still
possessed of that unself-consciousness unique to the overprivileged.



Thursday, January 20
The Greatest Hits [http://www.thegreatesthits.org/], Elevator Action
[http://www.elevatoractionband.com/], The Scholarship
Martin Street Music Hall, Raleigh

Elevator Action are from Charlotte, and record for the Queen City's
newest/biggest upstart indie label, MoRisen, which has also lately
released albums by such beglammed Chapel Hill luminaries as Snatches
of Pink & Marat, fronted by ex-What Peggy Wants singer John Ensslin.
Hard to tell from the pix on the web, but I'm thinking eyeliner is
employed by at least one member.



Thursday, January 20
The Experts [http://www.expertsrock.com], Fashion Design
[http://fashiondesignband.com/], The Quarantines
[http://www.thequarantines.com]
Kings, Raleigh

The Experts have apparently spent some time pondering the age-old
Zappa question, "does humor belong in music?" and have responded with
a qualified "yes."

Fashion Design are, collectively, cute as a button, and they make
great crashing suitably chorused 80s-influenced Brit-ish indie-rock.



Thursday, January 20
Sun Ra's Biscuit Kitchen
Fuse, Chapel Hill

Sun Ra's Biscuit Kitchen is the latest brainchild of ex-Jennyanykinder
Michael Holland (his brother Mark is Jule Brown, for those of you
still struggling to keep the Brothers Holland straight). Fuse is the
latest incarnation of what used to be Henry's. It has most excellent
art on the walls, and a late-night menu of tasty asian fusion dishes.
And Guinness on tap.



Friday, January 21
All Astronauts [http://www.allastronauts.com/], Man Man
[http://www.wearemanman.com], The Nein [http://www.thenein.com/]
The Werehouse, Winston-Salem



Friday, January 21
The Rachel Nevadas [http://www.therachelnevadas.com/], The Know, The
Sames [http://www.thesames.com]
Kings, Raleigh



Friday, January 21
Hotel Motel [http://www.hot-mot.com], Clang Quartet, Glaz Almaz
[http://www.myspace.com/glazalmaz]
Nightlight, Chapel Hill

Glaz Almaz are from Baltimore, and may or may not be a gtr/drums
two-piece. They are, refreshingly, *not* paired on this bill with
either Bellafea or des_ark. (of course, if you averaged the members of
the other two bands, you'd wind up with two drummers & two guitarists,
more or less, so . . . )

Hotel Motel are pop geniuses; the music they make is so densely packed
that they really should do us all a favor & play each song twice.

Clang Quartet has been Scotty Irving's one-man avant-percussion
tribute to Jesus Christ for the past 8 years; he's now indisputably
(not that it was ever much in dispute) the nation's most distinguished
one-man percussion-only Christian avant-rock band.



Friday, January 21
A Rooster for the Masses
[http://www.myspace.com/aroosterforthemasses], Proof, Bellafea
[http://www.bellafea.com/]
Martin Street Music Hall, Raleigh

Proof make something akin to what we used to call mathrock (OK, well,
what we used to call Slint, I guess), but without that whole
detached-monotone vocal thing; they sing it like they mean it. A
Rooster for the Masses really *do* sound like, as their website
suggests, "ian mackaye singing for the dexy's midnight runners
covering the clash." How fucked up is that?

Chapel Hill gtr/drums duo Bellafea are also on this bill; lotta
shrieking in all the right places, and then things slow to a trickle
just long enough to get you to lean in close. Then the icepicks come
out.



Friday, January 21
Cub Country [http://www.cubcountry.com/], The Strugglers
[http://www.thestrugglers.org/], Honored Guests
[http://www.thehonoredguests.com/]
Local 506, Chapel Hill

Generation 18 of the indie-country revolution goes head-to-head in the
persons of Cub Country & the Strugglers tonight, with Cub Country
representing the aw-shucks we-still-love-pop dare-I-sayit Ryan Adams
side of things, and the Strugglers standing up for the
my-heart-is-broken, so-is-my-voice Palace/BPB contingent.

I thought the Honored Guests were a power-pop/indie-rock band, but
I'll confess I lost their demo & don't really recall. They'll be
refereeing, regardless.



Saturday, January 22
Superchunk [http://www.superchunk.com], The Ghost of Rock, Sorry About
Dresden [http://www.sorryaboutdresden.com], The Young Idea
[http://www.theyoungidea.com], Erie Choir
Local 506, Chapel Hill

OK, here's the skinny: This is a Tsunami aid benefit. $10 gets you
into this show as well as the somewhat frattier show at Cat's Cradle.
To attend the show at Local 506, you *must* be a member. Guests will
no longer be allowed. To become a member you *must* apply in person 3
days before the show you wish to attend.

Here is the lineup as I last heard it:

Monsonia 2pm
The Young Idea 3pm
Erie Choir 4pm
Cub Country 5pm
Superchunk 6pm
The Ghost of Rock 7pm
The Hurt 8pm
Nathan Asher & the Infantry 9pm
Fashion Design 10pm
Sorry About Dresden 11pm
My Dear Ella 12pm
"Blondie" from 2004 Kings Coverup 1am-ish

This is a most-excellent lineup, y'all; a wonderful cross-section of
local luminaries past-present-future. Don't miss it.



Saturday, January 22
Fake Swedish [http://fakeswedish.4t.com/index.html], Randy Whitt and
the Grits [http://www.randywhitt.com/]
The Cave, Chapel Hill

OK, even though I'm gonna be crammed into Local 506 all night, and
Glenn is promising that anybody who leaves is gonna have to go to the
back of the line to get back in, I'm *still* considering slipping over
to the Cave to catch Fake Swedish, at least for long enough to hear
them do "Get Correct," a long hallucinatory yarn about a dream Joe
Romeo had, involving standing on the streetcorner admonishing his
fellow humans to fucking get with the program. It's all perfect &
stuff. Their Jacques Brel cover ain't half bad, either.



Sunday, January 23
Manamid [http://www.manamid.com], Feeding the Fire
[http://www.feedingthefire.com/]
The Cave, Chapel Hill



Monday, January 24
Choosy Beggars [http://www.thechoosybeggars.com]
The Cave, Chapel Hill

Choosy Beggars are from Asheville & while they seem to have grown out
of that city's fertile scruffy/hippie/oldtime/jam hybrid scene,
they're more akin to the 60s soul-loving Rolling Stones, or so my
friend Rick Cornell would like to argue, and I can hear what he's
talking about on their self-titled debut from last year. I haven't
seen 'em myself.



Monday, January 24
Stratocruiser [http://www.stratocruisermusic.com/], The Talk
[http://www.the-talk.com]
Local 506, Chapel Hill

This is a free show. Stratocruiser are from Around Here somewhere, and
are the current project of longtime local pop/rocker (and Sparklefest
impresario) Mike Nicholson (X-Rayons, Bullwinkel Gandhi). The Talk are
from Charlotte & they make slightly edgy power-pop, or maybe it's
pop-punk.



Tuesday, January 25
Kingsbury Manx, Bellafea [http://www.bellafea.com/]
The Library, Chapel Hill

Secretly, for the past several months the Library (you know, like the
college-town version of that bar called "The Office") on East Franklin
has been having indie-rock Tuesdays. This week it's Chapel Hill
slow-fi band Kingsbury Manx (every time a Manx song pops up on the mp3
player, my ears perk gently upwards) and the dynamic-in-the-extreme
gtr/bass duo Bellafea.



Tuesday, January 25
Alabama Thunderpussy [http://www.alabamathunderpussy.com/], Southern
Bitch [http://www.southernbitch.org/], The Man
Local 506, Chapel Hill



Thursday, January 27
Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings
[http://www.daptonerecords.com/pages/stable_sharon.html]
Cat's Cradle, Carrboro

Every time I turn around, somebody is saying "hey, did you see Sharon
Jones?" and I have to say "no" because, well, I didn't, and then they
inevitably launch into rapturous descriptions of how freaking amazing
it was. Dude, I know. I *wanted* to go. The whole Daptone roster is
white-hot, and Sharon's no exception. We're talking real-live pure
60s-style funk/soul, but this ain't no retro revue.



Thursday, January 27
The Young Idea [http://www.theyoungidea.com], Brudarbandid
[http://brudarbandid.biz/enska.shtml]
The Cave, Chapel Hill

Brudarbandid are a 7-piece all-woman band from Iceland who perform
while wearing bridal gowns. The video I watched featured (heavily) the
line "Sid Vicious, so delicious" & that's about all I know. But shit,
7 Icelandic women in wedding dresses at the Cave on a Thursday night?
What more are you waiting for?

The Young Idea dress snappy & make punked-up mod-pop (think The Jam, I
guess) with matching Rickenbackers & a ton of attitude. One tip: if
you're gonna skip the solo (a practice which I heartily endorse) it's
also OK to skip the all-instrumental verse where the solo used to be.



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