RTP-area local music and culture

[grady <grady AT ibiblio.org>]

Thursday, October 5
American Aquarium    (http://www.americanaquarium.com/)
Raleigh Music Hall, Raleigh



Thursday, October 5
Smog    (http://www.dragcity.com/bands/smog.html)
Vibrant Green    (http://vibrantgreen.iuma.com)
Local 506, Chapel Hill



Thursday, October 5
The Sammies    (http://www.myspace.com/thesammies)
Elevator Action    (http://www.elevatoractionband.com/)
The Talk    (http://www.the-talk.com)
Kings, Raleigh

The MoRisen Records tour comes to Raleigh. These 3 Charlotte-area bands 
are the mainstays of that city's MoRisen Records, which (like so many 
other people/thinks in the Queen City) has aspirations to true 
giantness. They're workin' on it, and if believing it is half the 
battle, then, well, they're halfway there.

The Sammies' debut CD from earlier this year is a wild mishmash of 
influences--I hear equal parts southern redneck-rock and The Cult (both 
Love-era and Electric-era), along with a smattering of Cure, Talking 
Heads, and even a dash of the Contortions. I have no idea how that 
translates live.



Friday, October 6
Be Your Own Pet    (http://www.beyourownpet.net/)
The Black Lips    (http://www.bomp.com/BlackLips.html)
Cat's Cradle, Carrboro



Friday, October 6
Half-Sewn Heart    (http://www.myspace.com/halfsewnheart)
Nightlight, Chapel Hill

Nightlight sez:

"Half-Sewn Heart is a sweet heart-breaking music project by Stephen 
Snipes of Asheboro. It's plaintive and earrnest song-writing with an 
emphasis on emotion and flourish, with a guitar and drums sound that is 
kinda country kinda folky. Real sweet. Feral Pony might open up - let 
the cipher be unbroken."



Friday, October 6
America's Next Top Models    (http://www.myspace.com/americasnexttopmodels)
Eberhardt    (http://www.myspace.com/eberhardtnc)
Midtown Dickens    (http://www.myspace.com/midtowndickens)
Joe & Jo's, Durham

This is a CD-release party for America's Next Top Models, whose new CD 
is every bit as entertaining/inspiring as their live show, only you can 
hear all the parts & it all sounds more consistently like actual music. 
Which is like having yr cake & assassinating the president too!



Friday, October 6
Kaiser Cartel    (http://www.kaisercartel.com)
Regina Hexaphone    (http://www.reginahexaphone.com)
The Cave, Chapel Hill

Regina Hexaphone are fronted by Sara Bell (Angels of Epistemology, Dish, 
Shark Quest), who has been raising the level of musical discourse in the 
Triangle via her playing for the past 20 years or so. Jerry Kee plays 
drums; his Duck-Kee studio has probably been responsible for more local 
records in my collection than any other single studio. Chris Clemmons 
was in the Bettys with Jerry, and played with Sara in Dana & Karen 
Kletter's band. Nathan Brown fronted Laramie UK. Margaret White was in 
the Comas & the Carbines, and nowadays is usually too busy touring with 
folks like Sparklehorse, Cat Power, and Portastatic to be able to make 
all the gigs. They are a bona-fide supergroup of folks who're far too 
modest to ever think of themselves that way.



Friday, October 6
Bowerbirds    (http://www.myspace.com/bowerbirds)
Amanda Jo Williams    (http://www.amandajowilliams.net/)
The Tourist    (http://www.myspace.com/thetouristnc)
Bickett Gallery, Raleigh

Bowerbirds are making another pass through their hometown on their 
endless 2006 odyssey/tour/ Great American Adventure. It's hard to choke 
back the envy for their young in-love- and on-the-road-ness, but the 
stone heartbreaking genius of their music helps it go down a little 
easier. This is Great American Music for the 21st Century: what comes 
off initially as tentativeness turns out to be an all-too-knowing 
wariness of certainty; it's there in the flutter of guitar, accordion 
and violin.



Friday, October 6
Caspian Sea Monsters    (http://www.myspace.com/68743074)
The Heavy Pets    (http://www.myspace.com/theheavypetsraleighnc)
The Bleeding Hearts    (http://www.thebleedinghearts.net/home.html)
The Trousers
Kings, Raleigh

The Heavy Pets are the current project of ex-Allnight/Mercury Birds 
frontman Art Jackson. This is a benefit for Raleigh artist Chris 
Plankers, who was hurt in a mugging.



Saturday, October 7
The Old Ceremony    (http://www.theoldceremony.com/)
Roman Candle    (http://www.romancandlemusic.com/)
Cat's Cradle, Carrboro

Old Ceremony frontman Django Haskins may be a little too immersed in his 
arch, world-weary Leonard Cohen raconteur persona, particularly for 
someone not quite 30, but at least he's got the good sense to book this, 
his band's CD-release party, with Roman Candle, the brilliant Chapel 
Hill pop band who're as remarkable for their lack of pretension as for 
their dead-solid pop songcraft.



Saturday, October 7
Park Life    (http://www.parklifeband.com/)
TV Knife    (http://www.myspace.com/tvknife)
The Vints    (http://thevints.us/)
A Rooster for the Masses    (http://www.myspace.com/aroosterforthemasses)
The Trousers
Kings, Raleigh

Raleigh isn't all big-R Rock; there's a poppy streak that gets filtered 
through the grit & comes out all weird, which partly explains the 
synthy, political britpop of A Rooster for the Masses, and the 
faux-70s-bombast of TV Knife.



Saturday, October 7
Velvet    (http://www.velvetpop.com)
Grasshopper    (http://www.ahhgrasshopper.com/)
Local 506, Chapel Hill

Velvet make jangly power-pop like it's 1986, and Grasshopper make 
warbly, slightly bitter indie-rock like it's 1996.



Saturday, October 7
Tennis and the Mennonites    (http://www.tennisandthemennonites.com)
Future Islands    (http://www.myspace.com/futureislands)
The Cave, Chapel Hill

Future Islands are a band of synth-toting weirdos from down Greenville 
way; they used to be in a band called Art Lord and the Self-Portraits, 
but eventually that band's elaborate self-invented mythos began to drag 
them down, so they jettisoned the whole thing & set sights firmly on the 
future.

Tennis and the Mennonites are mostly about neither, and are instead 
mostly about the slightly fevered mental contortions of frontman Jerstin 
Crosby, who no longer lives in Alabama, but still seems a bit tetched. 
If Jonathan Richman was a southerner, an ironist, a fucked-up visual 
artist, well, the world would be a very different place.



Saturday, October 7
Joe Swank and the Zen Pirates 
(http://www.myspace.com/joeswankandthezenpirates)
Slim's Downtown, Raleigh



Sunday, October 8
The Station Myth    (http://thestationmyth.com)
Entrance    (http://www.entranceband.com/)
Wetlands, Chapel Hill

The Station Myth are from NYC; they're all 4 named Daniel, or so they 
claim. At WXDU, a man whom I'll refer to as our Dean of Record Reviewers 
had this to say about their recent debut:

"Online reviews typically peg the music as unclassifiable, which is good 
for marketing the band to fans of Interpol, Joy Division, and Radiohead. 
They really don’t sound like any of those, but elsewhere, anyone who’s 
spent time with the bands on the Elephant 6 label, or Flaming Lips, 
maybe even the Kinks, wouldn’t find this band too far afield. The songs 
here are wonderfully crafted, intimate things seemingly under attack by 
washes of synth technology that threaten to engulf them. Much like 
contemporary life does to ordinary people, I suppose, and in that 
respect this band is sort of the polar opposite of something like 
Radiohead. Overall one of the best rock albums I’ve heard this year."



Monday, October 9
The Gondoliers    (http://www.myspace.com/comeseethegondoliers)
The Points    (http://www.myspace.com/thepoints)
The Cave, Chapel Hill

Gondoliers are a new Chapel Hill garage-rock band that emerged from the 
collective ashes of the Spinns & the Young Idea.



Monday, October 9
Yellow Swans    (http://www.jyrk.com/yellowswans/)
Mouthus    (http://www.ecstaticpeace.com/artist.php?id=7)
Clang Quartet    (http://www.myspace.com/clangquartet)
Secret Boyfriend    (http://www.myspace.com/scrtboyfriend)
Nightlight, Chapel Hill

Nightlight sez:

YELLOW SWANS < Otherworldly, confronational, staggering industrial 
noise/punk/psyche from Oakland, CA, dozens of releases, including ones 
on Narnack, Load, Collective Jyrk, etc - tumbling drum machines 
twisiting, everything electronic feeding back into itself, hellish 
sounds like smoke, bobble-heads rising from reaks and wrecks- first trip 
this far South, as far as I know! Howdy! Bull Tongue faves MOUTHUS 
return, lots of hair and bad trips / gnarly jams, conventionally 
outfitted with guitar and drums, but they're wringing necks and 
gesturing bleakly towards something - Scotty Irving's amazing CLANG 
QUARTET project has supplanted BOYZONE as the NL house band this season, 
and we couldn't be happier! SCRT BF plays POP MUSIC for fans of Bright 
Eyes, Saddle Creek, etc.



Tuesday, October 10
Nina Nastasia    (http://www.myspace.com/ninanastasia)
Tom Brosseau    (http://tombrosseau.com/)
David Karsten Daniels    (http://www.davidkarstendaniels.com/)
Local 506, Chapel Hill

David Karsten Daniels is a member of the Bu Hanan collective, though 
he's recently signed to Fat Cat Records. The bits & pieces of his 
upcoming album that I've heard (and the songs from it I've heard him 
perform live) are outstanding, simultaneously depressing & uplifting, 
and beautiful.



Tuesday, October 10
Dynamite Club    (http://www.dynamiteclub.com/)
The Kirks
Michael Thomas Jackson    (http://www.microearth.com/jackson/)
Nightlight, Chapel Hill

Nightlight sez:

This might be Dynamite Club's third show in almost a year at Nightlight, 
and maybe there's some kind of award for that. If there is, then it 
should look like a giant hot dog covered in Diamonds driving a MACK 
TRUCK, cuz that's kind of what D. CLUB'S sound izzallabout. It's two 
guys, Mike Pride and the insane guitar player in his underwear, and I 
have to admit that their live show obliterates their recording. The 
first time I saw them, I was blown away by the crazy energy and frantic 
heartbeat caused by the bouncing hat on drummer's (Pride's) head. Man. 
Randy Pelosi and Crowmeat Bob took 17 shots in the shoulder with an I.V. 
of Cheerwine mixed with Snow Juice and came up with the bright idea of 
starting a band called the Kirks. What is there more to know? Randy plus 
Bob, eh? Bob says "Randy wants us to do a thing with Nathan Logan on 
drums and Anthony Lener on electric bass. It'll be noisy and groovy. 
Randy wants to play chapman stick, but I imagine he might play amped-up 
cello, too. I'll play guitar and horns. We're called The Kirks." Say 
goodbye to horseplay. Michael Thomas Jackson has been creating music for 
something like 20 years now and works with some of the most interesting 
jazz musicians in the area including Ian Davis and Eugene Chadbourne. 
Expect something beyond but not limited to the use of feedback loops, 
tapes, clarinet, turntables, analog electronics, percussion, prepared 
guitar, what else? For fans of sticking your head in the microwave and 
B-Real/Sen-Dog on Rewind!



Tuesday, October 10
Joe Romeo    (http://www.myspace.com/joeromeomusic)
Beards
David Shultz    (http://www.purevolume.com/davidshultz)
Wetlands, Chapel Hill

Joe Romeo used to front Fake Swedish. His new band the Orange County 
Volunteers (I gotta change that in the database) features Rock Forbes 
(Bad Checks, Ghost of Rock) on drums, plus lapsteel, piano, and whatever 
other instruments/players Joe can corral at any given time.



Tuesday, October 10
Black Mona Lisas    (http://www.myspace.com/theblackmonalisas)
The Gondoliers    (http://www.myspace.com/comeseethegondoliers)
The Points    (http://www.myspace.com/thepoints)
Slim's Downtown, Raleigh



Tuesday, October 10
Concrete Bombers    (http://www.myspace.com/concretebombers)
Odessa Five    (http://www.myspace.com/odessafive)
The Hollowpoints    (http://www.thehollowpoints.com/)
Kings, Raleigh



Tuesday, October 10
Kerbloki    (http://www.kerbloki.com/)
The Mathematicians    (http://www.themathematicians.net)
Reservoir, Carrboro



Wednesday, October 11
Yellow Swans    (http://www.jyrk.com/yellowswans/)
Mouthus    (http://www.ecstaticpeace.com/artist.php?id=7)
The Hem of His Garment    (http://www.myspace.com/thehemofhisgarment)
Duke Coffeehouse, Durham

Yellow Swans are on Load Records; they're noisy. Mouthus are a gtr/drums 
duo but that's all I know. The Hem of His Garment are a Triangle-wide 
massed choir of drone/noisemakers whose goal is to realign the molecules 
in your body via high-volume sound.



Wednesday, October 11
Wolf Eyes    (http://www.bulbrecords.com/wolfeyes.html)
John Wiese    (http://home.earthlink.net/~johnwiese/helicopter.html)
Clang Quartet    (http://www.myspace.com/clangquartet)
Local 506, Chapel Hill

Wolf Eyes are the only noise band on SubPop, and as such they've sorta 
become the public/mainstream Face of Noise, for better or (as hardcore 
Noise partisans would probably have it) worse.

Clang Quartet are Greensboro drummer Scotty Irving's one-man 
percussion/noise tribute to Jesus Christ; it's one of the purest 
musical/performance experiences available 'round these parts. It is 
entirely what it is.



Wednesday, October 11
Pearlene
Nola    (http://www.myspace.com/nolaband)
Kings, Raleigh



Thursday, October 12
The Village Green    (http://thevillagegreenmusic.com)
The Purrs    (http://www.thepurrs.com/)
Stratocruiser    (http://www.stratocruisermusic.com/)
Local 506, Chapel Hill



Thursday, October 12
The Vints    (http://thevints.us/)
Transportation    (http://www.myspace.com/transportation)
Kingsbury Manx    (http://www.thekingsburymanx.com/)
The Cave, Chapel Hill



Thursday, October 12
Shaking Hands With Danger    (http://www.myspace.com/shakinghandswithdanger)
Fake Problems    (http://www.fakeproblems.com)
The Anchor Comes Home    (http://www.myspace.com/theanchorcomeshome)
Pistola    (http://www.pistola.us)
Wetlands, Chapel Hill

Shaking Hands With Danger are a Triad-area band with Devender from Kudzu 
Wish, and Kat Lamp from Malabaster/All Astronauts.



Thursday, October 12
Another Tombstone Dream
Kolyma    (http://www.myspace.com/kolyma)
Dirty Little Heaters    (http://www.thedirtylittleheaters.com)
Kings, Raleigh

Kolyma are a Raleigh rockband that make fucked-up swirls of noiserock 
that call to [my] mind that great defunct Raleigh band Picasso Trigger. 
Dirty Little Heaters are a gtr/drums two-piece that kinda remind me of 
The Gossip without all the 'tween-song proselytizing.



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