RTP-area local music and culture

[grady <grady AT ibiblio.org>]

If you're down with the Critical Theory, you probably already know about 
the 7:00 p.m. screening of "Zizek!" at White Auditorium on Duke East 
Campus on Sunday. Or at least you do now.

Saturday, January 28
Chronic Town, Planet Claire
Local 506, Chapel Hill

Southern Indie / 80s-Athens / Tribute Night at Local 506. A motley
assortment of local musicians, who've more than proved their mettle in
such [original] bands as The Butchies, Dom Casual, Fashion Design,
Gerty!, Jett Rink, Mind Sirens, Old Ceremony and The Sames, get
together to indulge the perhaps-unhealthy (but they feel so good!)
nostalgic impulses of people my age. Is it more or less healthy for
people my age to feel nostalgic for our small-town Southern 80s
upbringings, or for kids 10 years younger than us to feel the same?



Saturday, January 28
Stratocruiser [http://www.stratocruisermusic.com/], The Venables
[http://www.myspace.com/thevenables]
The Cave, Chapel Hill



Saturday, January 28
Kingsbury Manx, Michael Holland [http://www.bigjohnsrecords.com], Big
Fat Gap [http://www.bigfatgap.com/]
Wetlands, Chapel Hill

I assume Michael Holland & Big Fat Gap are performing together, as
that's the lineup who appear on Michael's latest solo album,
"Tomorrow's American Treasures." I believe I read that BFG gave
Michael a bunch of tapes of themselves jamming, and he kind of
cut-and-pasted his favorite parts & then wrote & recorded vocals over
the top of them. But I may have imagined reading that. Certainly parts
of the record *sound* like that, particularly the hit single "Crystal
Meth Freak From California," with its crazed Steve Millery organ solo
spurting out of the middle of it.

Kingsbury Manx put out an excellent album this year, which may have
been overlooked a bit due to the very fact that it's as good as, and
somewhat similar to, the rest of their catalog. College-radio DJs hear
so much music every week that I think there's an inclination to
discount anything that sounds too familiar--and the Manx aren't quite
pastoral enough, I guess, to cross over to NPR, though I suspect
they'd be a big hit there, and I don't mean that as a dis. It's
beautiful music.



Saturday, January 28
Patty Hurst Shifter [http://www.pattyhurstshifter.com], The Trousers
Slim's Downtown, Raleigh

Night 2 of the big CD-release festivities for Patty Hurst Shifter,
who've got the full power of the local daily *and* the local
alt-weekly arrayed behind them. Will be interesting to see how that
works out for them . . . is the Triangle ready for rootsy bar-rock?



Sunday, January 29
In the Year of the Pig [http://www.southernloveprod.com/ityotp.htm],
Some Girls [http://www.somegirlshaveallthefuck.com/], I'm On Fire
[http://ncrtprock.fc2web.com/]
Local 506, Chapel Hill

Is I'm On Fire the Raleigh-based Japanese Metal band, or am I
mistaken?



Tuesday, January 31
The Spinns [http://www.thespinns.freeservers.com/], Future Kings of
Nowhere [http://www.thefuturekings.net/]
The Library, Chapel Hill

Maybe it's just the nights I've attended, but near as I can tell, the
Library's Tuesday-night Indie Rock shows haven't exactly been a
rousing success. I'm not sure why; it's not a bad space, and they've
got more decent beers on tap than most of the other rockclubs around.
Sure, it's on East Franklin, and I suppose after the demise of the
Lizard and Snake there may have been some kind of communal hex cast:
"East Franklin Street, Thou Shalt Never Rock Again!"

But Wetlands is east of Columbia (albeit over on Rosemary) and it's
doing just fine. Is Tuesday just the New Monday? Anyway, tonight it's
the Spinns, bringing their stompy Troggs/Sonics 60s-Garage revivalist
rock to the land of midriff-sweaters.



Tuesday, January 31
Bombadil [http://www.bombadilmusic.com/]
The Cave, Chapel Hill

The kids in Bombadil have emailed me three times in the past month to
tell me they wear "suspenders and Bolivian old man hats." Duly noted.
I'll let you be the judge of their priorities & what that might mean
for their music; I haven't heard it.



Wednesday, February 1
Viroid Stew
Kings, Raleigh

Crowmeat Bob holds down a weekly Wednesday-night slot at Kings, for
which he assembles various ensembles. Here's the description of this
week's:

Another recurring difference. Featuring Dave Mueller (Strange, Olympus
Mons) on guitar and alto sax; Joel Rhodes (Strange) on Fender Rhodes
keyboard and trumpet; Phil Martelli (Savage Nights, Dude Garden) on
electric bass; John Randall Pelosi (Kismet, The Feraliminal
Lycanthropizers) on treated sax and cello; Neil Vendrick (Another
Tombstone Dream, Apartments for the Dead) on sample recodifying; Mike
Isenberg (Savage Knights, Kolyma, Olympus Mons) on percussion;
Cortemaw Bob on horns & guitar.




Wednesday, February 1
Malt Swagger, New Roman Times [http://www.thenewromantimes.com/], We
Are Ex-Lovers [http://www.myspace.com/exlovers]
Wetlands, Chapel Hill

New Roman Times are from Orlando. Malt Swagger are from Durham & have
existed, sporadically, for at least a decade. They make throbbing
instrumental music that derives its hypnotic pulse from the unholy
combination of Steve Carter's vibrophone & Dave Jernigan's
Vibro-Champ. Both turned to 11.

We Are Ex-Lovers are like a standard drums-and-keyboard indie-pop
two-piece with muscular superstar bassist Matt Tomich (Scaries, Sorry
About Dresden, En Garde) kinda grafted on top, to fend off the
bullies.



Thursday, February 2
Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings
[http://www.daptonerecords.com/pages/stable_sharon.html], Savage
Knights
Kings, Raleigh



Thursday, February 2
Swearing at Motorists [http://www.swearingatmotorists.com/], The Hold
Steady [http://www.theholdsteady.com/], Plastic Constellations
[http://www.theplasticconstellations.com/]
Local 506, Chapel Hill



Thursday, February 2
Viva La Venus, Stratocruiser [http://www.stratocruisermusic.com/], Out
of Orbit
Marvell Building, Durham



Friday, February 3
Transportation, North Elementary [http://www.northelementary.com]
The Cave, Chapel Hill


Friday, February 3
The Dynamite Brothers [http://www.dynamitebrothers.com/], TV Knife
[http://www.myspace.com/tvknife], The Capulets
[http://www.thecapulets.net], DeYarmond Edison
[http://www.dyemusic.com/]
Kings, Raleigh

This is night one of WKNC's Double Barrel Benefit. Dynamite Brothers
you know by now; they make fast gtr-drums electric-blues-boogie swamp
music. TV Knife I haven't seen, but I downloaded a song last year,
"Monster," which was like a brilliantly crazy tribute to 70s UK glam
bands like Slade & Sweet, all electric guitars & piano & goofy
vocals.

The Capulets' demo, at its best, sounds remarkably like the Strokes
(and, at its best, is just as catchy). DeYarmond Edison moved down
here from Eau Claire, WI, and have apparently taken Raleigh by storm.
The CD they brought with them sounded to me like Bruce Hornsby, and
I'm thus mystified by their popularity, although I haven't seen them
live. I'm told they like to stretch out & improv a bit more onstage,
which to me just invokes bad memories of Hornsby's stint with the
Grateful Dead. I doubt that's what my correpondents had in mind,
however, so I continue to attempt to reserve judgement.



Friday, February 3
Early Man [http://www.earlymanarmy.com], Priestess
[http://www.priestessband.com/], The Sword
Local 506, Chapel Hill



Saturday, February 4
The Whole World Laughing, In the Year of the Pig
[http://www.southernloveprod.com/ityotp.htm], Calabi Yau
[http://www.calabiyau.com/], Hide and Seek
[http://www.freewebs.com/hideandseeek]
Chaz's Bull City Records, Durham

Chaz's Bull City Records is upstairs, 2 doors down from Cosmic
Cantina, just off 9th Street in Durham. His space is just the right
size for shows--intimate-to-cramped, depending on the turnout, but
with a couple of side rooms you can escape to, so it's never
claustrophobic.

Calabi Yau are from Charlotte, and they make crazed spazzy
gtr-bass-drums-squawking freakout rock that sounds like what you'd get
if you raised a child on nothing but Primus and the Boredoms.

The Whole World Laughing is Dave Cantwell on that crazy bi-amped bass
rig that he used to sport in Razzle, and Scotty "Clang Quartet" Irving
on drums. They make a giant noise, and it is good.

In the Year of the Pig were apparently onstage when that crazed
fuckhead stole the mic & started ranting during the Minutemen tribute
show, but I was long gone by then, so I dunno how they reacted.



Saturday, February 4
Cinemechanica [http://www.cinemechanica.com/], A Rooster for the
Masses [http://www.myspace.com/aroosterforthemasses], The Trousers, We
Vs. The Shark [http://www.myspace.com/weversustheshark/]
Kings, Raleigh

Night 2 of the WKNC Double Barrel Benefit. We Vs the Shark &
Cinemechanica are both from Athens; maybe now that WKNC have a jillion
watts, they can be heard that far south/west?



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