RTP-area local music and culture

["trekky records" <willhack15 AT gmail.com>]

i think you're definitely right about the "newness" distinction. the
DIY/hippie/indie/whatever culture in CH sometimes seems so stale, and,
as you said, most of the institutions are SO old, so established.
great, but not exciting. so, the fact that durham is cheap is half of
it, but i also think something like BCHQ might not take off in CH,
just because of that general feeling of "we probably already have
something like that, or at least something similar enough for me to
just go to that one". which is silly, cause we DON'T have something
like that, and i want it.

ALSO, WXYC has had TWO practices in preparation for the kickball game
and WXDU should be shaking in their boots. last years contentious
barely-a-victory by XDU will soon be forgotten.

-will

> >> From: grady <g... AT ibiblio.org>
> >> Reply-To: RTP-area local music and culture <ch-sc... AT lists.ibiblio.org>
> >> To: RTP-area local music and culture <ch-sc... AT lists.ibiblio.org>
> >> Subject: Re: On Durham and identity
> >> Date: Wed, 04 Apr 2007 15:35:30 -0400
>
> >> Umm, I think so many groups are self-identifying as Durham bands becau=
se
> >> their members live in Durham. Root cause: for some folks, it's the most
> >> affordable place to live, and for a lot of folks, it's the most
> >> desireable place to live. I stopped counting a long time ago the number
> >> of my friends who'd moved to Durham from the other points in the Trian=
gle.
>
> >> So if you're trendspotting, the trend started at least a half-dozen
> >> years ago, and it's called "musicians like cheap housing."
>
> >> As for the question about t-shirts, well, I guess you just haven't seen
> >> the Carrboro t-shirts, or the OCSC t-shirts. Given the longstanding
> >> basketball/rock connection in Chapel Hill, I'd say any UNC
> >> basketball-related t-shirt would probably count for Chapel Hill.
>
> >> Are you asking "why does Durham have such uncanny self-esteem-boosting
> >> T-shirts?" Because the answer to that is pretty much "James & Michelle
> >> Lee," and if you start asking "why James & Michelle Lee," I'm not sure
> >> that there's an answer for that. Other than, getting back to point A,
> >> musicians like cheap housing. Where else could they afford to operate
> >> such a sprawling enterprise as 305 South?
>
> >> There are other folks whose outsized level of involvement/boosterism
> >> sort of singlehandedly makes Durham seem more "together" or "organized"
> >> or "scene-like" [than it actually is]: Melissa Thomas at 307 Knox, and
> >> certainly Chaz. Shannon Morrow moved back to Durham from Chicago (thou=
gh
> >> before she moved to Chicago, she was living in Carrboro, so there ya g=
o)
> >> & started the Scene of the Crime Rovers.
>
> >> What do all *these* people have in common? Maybe that they like the id=
ea
> >> of being able to get something done more or less singlehandedly, or wi=
th
> >> a small group of co-conspirators. Durham seems like a tabula rasa,
> >> culture-wise, at least to youngish white-ish indie-rockers. Check out
> >> that article in the Indy from a couple of weeks ago about the NCCU jazz
> >> program & you'll see that Durham isn't really such a clean slate, but
> >> when it comes to youth culture, all it takes is a fallow period of a
> >> couple of years to wipe everything pretty clean.
>
> >> Maybe another thing they have in common is the good old fashioned
> >> punkrock ideal that community is a good thing, and that building
> >> community is an end unto itself. Obviously there are some folks who ha=
ve
> >> slightly different ideas (i.e. the Troika folks who like to salt the
> >> festival lineup with a few out-of-towners), but even they do what they
> >> do by and large for the sake of the community, rather than out of some
> >> quest for larger fame/fortune.
>
> >> But then I think you'd have to go all the way to Charlotte to really
> >> find anybody who was desperately seeking fame via indie-rock. Oh, well,
> >> I guess there are those guys from Raleigh who bought a tour bus to live
> >> in while they wait for their ship to come in, Airiel Down, but they're
> >> an aberration even for Raleigh.
>
> ...
>
> read more =BB