RTP-area local music and culture

[grady <grady AT ibiblio.org>]

Friday, April 29
Fashion Design [http://fashiondesignband.com/], Gerty 
[http://www.gerty.org], Spader
Ooh La Latte, Durham

Ooh La Latte comes through again, with a big local show; this one's a 
benefit for this year's Durham Music Festival, which doesn't currently 
have enough grant/donation/city funding to cover all its projected 
expenses. Pay a little now or pay more later, I guess. On the bill 
tonight are young britpop/shoegazer revivalists Fashion Design, HUGE 
Timbuk-3 fans Gerty, and Raleigh's Spader.



Friday, April 29
Chris Stamey [http://www.chrisstamey.com/], Spencer Acuff 
[http://www.spenceracuff.com/], Pico vs Island Trees 
[http://www.picomusic.com/]
Cat's Cradle, Carrboro

For this tour, Chris Stamey's traveling with legendary drummer Anton 
Fier (Feelies, Golden Palominos) and pianist Tyson Rogers, who played a 
pivotal role in the recording of Chris's recent collaboration with Yo La 
Tengo, "A Question of Temperature". Here's a brief description of the 
setup from Chris:

I'm doing a show at the Cradle, April 29, as the grand finale to a 
midwestern tour I'm doing with drummer/composer Anton Fier (Yoko Ono, 
Herbie Hancock, Bill Laswell, John Zorn, Lounge Lizards, Golden 
Palominos, lots more).

Tyson Rogers (keys), Rick Lassiter (bass), and Matt McMichaels (guitar) 
will be playing with us at that show. We are playing some of the stuff 
from the "A Question of Temperature" collaboration with Yo La Tengo, 
some old stuff from the 80s and 90s, and some stuff as yet unreleased.

Anton and I are improvising together in an interesting way, quite fiery 
at times, and this may be the only time we get a chance to do this in NC.



Friday, April 29
My Dear Ella [http://www.mydearella.com], The Reputation 
[http://www.reputationmusic.com/], New Grenada
Local 506, Chapel Hill

Sometime in the past 4-5 years, My Dear Ella traded their earlier 
Beatlesque-pop sound for something thicker, more guitar-heavy; last week 
I mentioned the undocumented influence of Matthew Sweet on a whole host 
of musicians, and I think that comparison holds true here as well.

Local 506 owner Glenn Boothe says that last year's Reputation show was 
his favorite show of the year--and Glenn's seen a fuckload of shows over 
the past 12 months, to be sure.

New Grenada is an outgrowth of last week's Bartender Battle of the 
Bands, featuring members of Fake Swedish, Jett Rink, Leadfoot and The 
Spinns, performing their newly-penned rock opera inspired by the 
brilliant 70s teen-delinquent movie Over The Edge.



Saturday, April 30
A Rooster for the Masses [http://www.myspace.com/aroosterforthemasses], 
TV Knife [http://www.myspace.com/tvknife]
Kings, Raleigh

Both A Rooster for the Masses and TV Knife have *excellent* songs 
available for download via their MySpace.com pages; check them out. This 
is more than just an indie-rock show, however; it's also "Your Ass is 
Oates," which is, yes, a Hall & Oates Tribute featuring members of both 
bands. I've been led to believe, perhaps erroneously, that there will be 
but one Hall, but many Oates. Or is that Oateses?



Saturday, April 30
Prefuse 73 [http://www.multsanta.madvision.co.uk/prefuse73/], Battles, 
DJ Nobody [http://www.mixent.com/artists/djnobody.html]
Local 506, Chapel Hill

Prefuse 73 = college-radio-huge laptophiphop. Battles = guitarist Ian 
Williams of Don Caballero/Storm & Stress, plus ex-Helmet drummer, plus 
Tyondai Braxton (son of Anthony) on guitar & intricate 
pedal-noise-making. And somebody on bass.



Saturday, April 30
Gore Gore Girls [http://www.goregoregirls.com/], The Pink Slips
Martin Street Music Hall, Raleigh



Saturday, April 30
The Rockwells [http://www.rockwells.com/], The Perfectionists
Bickett Gallery, Raleigh



Sunday, May 1
New Roman Times [http://www.thenewromantimes.com/], Ticonderoga 
[http://www.ticonderobics.com/], The Perfectionists
Local 506, Chapel Hill

It's May Day, and what better way to express your solidarity with the 
Working Classes than to step out & hoist a few while watching Raleigh's 
Ticonderoga, who are probably a bunch of effete academic pantywaists who 
never worked a day in their lives. Certainly the Pavement influence 
comes through loud & clear on at least a few of the songs on their 
self-titled debut, and we all know what *that* means.

Luckily for them, and for us, it's a great debut album, full of odd eddy 
currents and hushed misdirections. Soft-spoken confusion abounds, and 
periodically a string section appears, Deus Ex Machina, to elevate the 
proceedings. No word on how they're gonna drop the cellists from the 
ceiling of the 506, but I'm sure they'll figure something out.



Monday, May 2
Shearwater [http://jound.com/shearwater/main.html], The Mountain Goats 
[http://www.themountaingoats.net/]
Cat's Cradle, Carrboro

The Mountain Goats have a new album out, their 426th, and it continues 
in the direction begun by their last one, namely, towards actual 
autobiography, as opposed to fantastical meldings of Greek mythology and 
bitter relationship fiction. Which is kind of fascinating, given how 
many obsessive fanboys John Darnielle's had to deal with over the 
years--the last thing *I'd* want to do would be to feed them any more 
information.

Then again, I suppose it's entirely logical to conclude that you're 
gonna have to deal with fanboy misinterpretations no matter what you do, 
so why not write what you want? At least if you go autobiographical, 
that's one set of fanboy assumptions that'll finally be on-target.

Those of you who stopped paying attention to the Mountain Goats back in 
the 90s may or may not be startled to discover that they moved away from 
the single-guitar and boombox aesthetic quite some time ago, thereby 
obliging fully 95% of the population to reverse their opinions, good for 
ill & vice versa, of the band.



Monday, May 2
Clang Quartet, Eyes to Space [http://www.eyestospace.net/], Captured! By 
Robots [http://www.capturedbyrobots.com/]
Local 506, Chapel Hill

Clang Quartet is a one-man percussion-only tribute to the life of Jesus 
Christ. Eyes to Space is a nerd-rock band whose keyboardist built his 
own key-tar out of a regular keyboard and some spare auto parts. 
Captured! By Robots is a gimmick-band involving a lot of semi-automatons 
who are purported to have enslaved their creator. At some point, if he's 
not careful, said creator may have to change the band name to Enslaved! 
By Gimmicks.



Tuesday, May 3
Cherry Valence [http://www.thecherryvalence.com], The Bleeding Hearts 
[http://www.thebleedinghearts.net/home.html], The 45s
Local 506, Chapel Hill

If you attend this show & discover that your favorite half of The Cherry 
Valence are MIA, then you'll need to watch the listings for El Boa, 
a.k.a. Birds of Avalon, which is the new Raleigh supergroup formed by 
Paul & Cheetie (along with members of Strange, the Weather & I don't 
know whatall else) after leaving TCV.

If, on the other hand, you're relieved to discover that your favorite 
half of The Cherry Valence is still onstage, then you'll be pleased to 
know that the current incarnation is working on a new record for 
Raleigh's Bifocal Media.



Wednesday, May 4
The Dirtbombs [http://www.thedirtbombs.net/], The Spinns 
[http://www.thespinns.freeservers.com/], Snatches of Pink 
[http://www.snatchesofpink.com/]
Local 506, Chapel Hill

Detroit's Dirtbombs are possibly this nation's finest purveyors of dirty 
amped-up garage-rock-and-soul currently working, or so my sources tell 
me. The Spinns are garage-rock of the intentionally-rudimentary sort, 
the kind that involves a whole lot of banging on the floor-tom. I think 
we should all request "Moulty" by the Barbarians. Actually, more fun to 
yell that during Snatches' set; find out if their eyeliner is waterproof.



Thursday, May 5
The Avett Brothers [http://www.theavettbrothers.com], Langhorne Slim 
[http://www.langhorneslim.com/]
Cat's Cradle, Carrboro



Thursday, May 5
Caspian Sea Monsters, The Trousers
Kings, Raleigh



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