RTP-area local music and culture

[grady <grady AT ibiblio.org>]

Ken M wrote:
> Beth is doing the booking at the Library for Mondays.  She started the

Wait, Mondays or Tuesdays? I mean, Tuesday is the new Monday, but . . . ?

Speaking of which, looking ahead on the schedule, it looks like there's 
what might loosely be considered indie-rock on Thursdays in 
February/March. I'm not going to restrict myself to reading only the 
Tuesday listings on the schedule, but does this mean they're gonna try 
it on a night when people might actually show up?

Re: Avett Brothers -- a lot of XDU DJs like them. I like their records 
pretty well myself; if I've missed listing their shows it's more due to 
disorganization than to some conspiracy. I doubt that anybody who lived 
through the 90s of Whiskeytown, Pine State et al would find the Avetts 
quite as radical as some people seem to want to make out, and I think 
that the "yell all the vocals" strategy kinda wears me out after a while 
(though I should say that I haven't seen them live), but I guess I'd 
take their undergraduate popularity as a good sign.

I have the impression that Sweater Weather, Prayers & Tears of Arthur 
Digby Sellers, and Nathan Asher have some undergrad-appeal as well, 
although I don't know if that translates to popularity or not. At the 
risk of going out on a limb, I'd say that what these bands have in 
common is a certain level of earnestness & emotional availability that 
for whatever reason I think some people don't associate with indie-rock, 
at least as practiced around here, despite the fact that Superchunk 
certainly had that in spades. But then I guess Pavement happened.

I think at a certain level it is also difficult for some of us to 
recognize/acknowledge that we're at or approaching twice the age of the 
average undergrad, and no  matter how avant/hip/catchy our favorite 
local bands seem to us, I'd wager they're going to have to overcome a 
certain amount of resistance on that basis alone. I know Ken has seen 
the inside of this via his time with the B-Sides; I'd be curious to hear 
his take on it.

Certainly there were a shit-ton of kids out at the ECCHS battle of the 
bands at the Cradle over Xmas break. I was amazed yet again to see that 
Ska continues to refuse to die. I went primarily to see Alvarez 
Painting, whom I'd never seen, and I can report that they're definitely 
maintaining the Trekky Records warbly-vocals aesthetic, which is 
probably an acquired taste, but one that the kids didn't seem to have 
trouble with.

Hey Hepler, I'll bet En Garde is big with The Kids, isn't it? What do 
they tell you after the shows?

xo

Ross


> Ross is right..  My wife Beth should be responding to this, but I will
> because I think it's important and she's busy.  She and the Library
> absolutely would like to see better attendance at the Library Indy Rock
> Night.
>
> Beth is doing the booking at the Library for Mondays.  She started the
> job around Jan 1.  There are a couple issues that she's been trying to
> overcome, including not having an Indy listing and having to scramble
> to fill the shows during Jan.  Some confirmations haven't happened
> until the week of the shows, so publicity was by poster/newsgroup/WOM.
> Hopefully starting next week, the shows will be listed in the Indy, and
> will be booked further in advance.
>
> I encourage everyone to support the bands playing at the Library.  Beth
> didn't take this job to make money.  She took it because we both see
> the lack of interest that the "average" UNC student has in the local
> music scene, an issue that has been discussed here before. The Library
> is more "frat" feeling than even Wetlands, and though they have music
> on other nights at the Library, I never have considered the Library as
> a local music club...   it's the student bar on the other side of the
> tracks that has music sometimes.  So she wanted to try to force the
> local music scene on East Franklin St.
>
> Likewise, playing the Library is like invading someone else's territory
> and forcing yourself upon them.  Tom and I and Midtown Dickens had a
> good show there.  MD brought people in.  There were more regulars than
> on other weeks, which was coincidental.  While I can't say there was
> "mixing" of the groups in attendance, I will say that people were
> actually watching in the back.  So I felt that the show was worthwhile
> from a band standpoint and from a community standpoint.
>
> The point I guess is that clearly there used to be more students who
> attended shows and came to the bars.  Thank God for the townies because
> every Nut Magnet show would have been 0 audience without them.  And
> while I am guilty of not being as supportve of local music as I should
> be/wish I could be, I don't think the constants in our scene should
> blame this problems on each other.
>
> We need to figure out how to grow the student audience..... or at least
> re-acquaint ourselves with them.    Glenn has addressed this issue at
> 506, and tried different promotions. Did any of them work?
>
> One issue that I found hard to believe until recently was that *shock*
> that the students have a different "local" scene.  The Avett Brothers,
> who I happen to like a lot, drew hundreds of people at a student union
> show on campus.  I rarely if ever see them mentioned by anyone but
> their manager Dolph and myself, and thought they were under the radar.
> They clearly are not.
>
> If anyone has any ideas for the Library, please respond.  And if you
> want to play the Library, please email Beth off-list at our email.
>
> Ken M
>
>
>
>
> 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.
>
> -- ch-scene: the list that mirrors alt.music.chapel-hill --
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