RTP-area local music and culture

[grady <grady AT ibiblio.org>]

Gonna be out of town this weekend, so I'm sending this a day early (and 
I'm gonna miss all these fine shows). Don't forget, also, the Jem Cohen 
documentary about The Ex at Full Frame at 9:00 on Friday.


Wednesday, April 11
Veronique Diabolique    (http://www.veroniquediabolique.com/)
HUMANWINE    (http://www.myspace.com/humanwine)
Local 506, Chapel Hill

HUMANWINE are really picky about the typography of their name. They also 
have a "street team." Not sure how they'd ever be able to come back from 
a deficit that big, but the melodramatic/cabaret music on their MySpace 
was actually kind of pleasant, in an overly-arty kind of way. I suppose 
it'd be less so if I thought they took it completely seriously, which I 
suspect they actually do.

Veronique Diabolique try to keep a straight face, but it's hard to do 
that while wearing fishnets & vinyl trousers & putting that much chorus 
on the guitar.



Thursday, April 12
Double Negative    (http://www.myspace.com/thedoublenegative)
Cross Laws    (http://www.myspace.com/crosslaws)
Out With a Bang    (http://www.myspace.com/owab)
Brutal Knights    (http://www.myspace.com/brutalknights)
Bull City Headquarters, Durham

It's a transcontinental hardcore duel-to-the-death, featuring Italy's 
Out With a Bang & Canada's Brutal Knights vs. Carrboro's Cross Laws & 
Raleigh's Double Negative. I was gonna say "what, no Durham hardcore," 
but then I thought oh, the Durham HC must be over at Marvell tonight . . 
. but then I checked & only one of the three bands playing *there*, 
Doop, is from Durham, and they're not really hardcore, more like 
fake/funny anti-emo-core. Hmm.



Thursday, April 12
Doop    (http://www.myspace.com/shutupanddoopit)
Hazerai    (http://www.myspace.com/hazerai)
Sleepwalker    (http://www.myspace.com/wearesleepwalker)
Marvell Building, Durham



Thursday, April 12
Trans Am    (http://www.transband.com)
The Psychic Paramount    (http://www.thepsychicparamount.com/)
Zombi    (http://www.zombi.us/)
Local 506, Chapel Hill



Friday, April 13
Honored Guests    (http://www.thehonoredguests.com/)
Nathan Asher & the Infantry    (http://www.nathanasher.com/)
Nathan Oliver    (http://www.nathan-oliver.com)
Local 506, Chapel Hill

Wait, is there somebody named Nathan in the Honored Guests? I can't 
remember. Anyway. This is a free show/party being thrown by the good 
people at Diversions, the weekly [Thursday] arts-and-entertainment 
pullout section of the Daily Tar Heel. The current crop of Diversions 
staffers has really gone all-out to make the section relevant, 
particularly local-music-wise. Plus they have a *really nice* camera and 
they're way too committed to taking it to multiple shows a week & 
posting the photos on their blog.

Music-wise, you've got the uber-heartfelt over-the-top Springsteeny 
anthem-rock of Nathan Asher, the somewhat more-attenuated post-graduate 
indie-rock of the Honored Guests, and the amusingly frantic (didn't 
think you could get frantic with a viola in the band, didja?) indie-pop 
of Nathan Oliver.



Friday, April 13
Red Collar    (http://www.myspace.com/redcollarmusic)
Future Kings of Nowhere    (http://www.thefuturekings.net/)
Hammer No More the Fingers    (http://www.hnmtf.com)
Broad Street Cafe, Durham

Future Kings of Nowhere are a pop-punk band, but with acoustic guitar. 
It works pretty well, actually; you realize fairly quickly that the most 
annoying thing about pop-punk nowadays is the tedious 
overdriven-but-pristine electric guitar. Take that away, and you're left 
with catchy nerdy songs about love & hate & murder & stuff.

Hammer No More the Fingers are a new-ish band made up of members of some 
former Durham highschool bands; their song "Concrete" gets stuck in my 
head every time I hear it.

Red Collar are the kind of band who inspire people to call up when they 
hear them on the radio, just to say "this is Red Collar! They're so great!"



Friday, April 13
Tyler Hipnosis
AOK    (http://www.myspace.com/aoknc)
Crash    (http://www.myspace.com/crashkills)
Places to Live    (http://ihatemencia.googlepages.com)
Duke Coffeehouse, Durham



Friday, April 13
Dan Bryk    (http://www.bryk.com/)
Snuzz    (http://www.snuzz.com/)
Bickett Gallery, Raleigh

Thus begins the countdown to the end of Bickett Gallery, at least in its 
Bickett Blvd incarnation. I live close to an hour away from the thing, 
so I've only been there maybe a dozen times since it opened ~5 years 
ago. What's your excuse?

It's arch/witty pop night tonight, with longtime/oldschool Greensboro 
smartass popster Snuzz, and Toronto-via-Raleigh smarty-pants Dan Bryk, 
who puts that famous Canadian self-deprecation to work in the service of 
some really classically great screwy popsongs.



Friday, April 13
Kylesa    (http://www.kylesa.com/)
Buildings To Dust    (http://www.myspace.com/buildingstodust)
Tooth
Volume 11 Tavern, Raleigh



Friday, April 13
The Tourist    (http://www.myspace.com/thetouristnc)
Wes Phillips    (http://www.myspace.com/wesleydongeroga)
Andy Abelow    (http://www.myspace.com/andyabelow)
The Love Language    (http://www.myspace.com/thelovelanguage)
Nightlight, Chapel Hill

This time around, the Friday-the-13th bad luck comes in the form of Too 
Many Shows to choose from.



Friday, April 13
The Bleeding Hearts    (http://www.thebleedinghearts.net/home.html)
Slim's Downtown, Raleigh



Saturday, April 14
The Whole World Laughing    (http://www.myspace.com/twwl)
Opening Flower Happy Bird    (http://www.myspace.com/openingflowerhappybird)
Midtown Dickens    (http://www.myspace.com/midtowndickens)
Apis Bull    (http://www.apisbull.com/)
Beloved Binge    (http://www.myspace.com/belovedbinge)
Bull City Headquarters, Durham

Duo-Fest! This is an all-day (OK, well, all afternoon-and-evening) 
event, featuring the following bands, all DUOs:

Robo Sapien
A New Dawn Fades
Beloved Binge
Midtown Dickens
Phon
Jew(s) & Catholic(s)
The Whole World Laughing
Oh My God I Just Had the Most Amazing Year
Eberhardt
Sequoya
Opening Flower Happy Bird
Apis Bull
It's Reigning Men
Emotional Joystick
Salt

Dinner will be served somewhere in the middle of all that, so bring a 
covered dish if you want, I guess, and a few bucks, and maybe a lawn 
chair. No Jarts; the floor is concrete.



Saturday, April 14
Dave Fox Group    (http://www.davefoxgroup.com)
Bruce Eisenbeil    (http://www.eisenbeil.com)
The Punks    (http://www.myspace.com/thepunks)
Nightlight, Chapel Hill

Jazz, of the longhaired thinking-man's variety. Seriously, I'll betcha 
notorious longhair Walt Davis would be advising you to attend this show, 
if he were still around, but he up & moved his ass to New Zealand back 
in '04 after Bush got re-elected.



Saturday, April 14
The Never    (http://www.trekkyrecords.com/never.html)
Emperor X    (http://www.emperorx.net/ )
Embarrassing Fruits    (http://www.myspace.com/embarrassingfruits)
Local 506, Chapel Hill

Jesus H. Christ, those kids over at WUAG [UNC-Greensboro's college radio 
station] seem to be deadset on putting out a CD a year, all featuring 
music recorded at the station or in the greater Greensboro area. This is 
a CD-release party for the latest one. It's like they own a plastic mine 
or something.



Sunday, April 15
Taylor Hollingsworth    (http://taylorhollingsworth.com/)
The Points    (http://www.myspace.com/thepoints)
The Gondoliers    (http://www.myspace.com/comeseethegondoliers)
The Cave, Chapel Hill

Gondoliers are the garage-rawk spawn of the demise of the Spinns & the 
Young Idea. I really dig on their song in the player. http://groovo.org/



Sunday, April 15
Kerbloki    (http://www.kerbloki.com/)
Hazerai    (http://www.myspace.com/hazerai)
Whitebird    (http://www.myspace.com/whitebirdrockandroll)
Reservoir, Carrboro

Kerbloki are the somewhat Beasties-esque party-rap band that features 
current/former members of various local punk/rockbands. Hazerai contain 
ex-members of The Country Bears & they wanna draw a Fugazi comparison 
but maybe a mid-period Milemarker comparison will do.



Monday, April 16
Despot    (http://www.definitivejux.net/jukies/despot/)
Ratatat    (http://www.ratatatmusic.com/)
Hexa    (http://wordculture.com)
Cat's Cradle, Carrboro



Tuesday, April 17
Spouse    (http://www.spousemusic.com)
Inspector 22 & The Bramble Ramblers
The Cave, Chapel Hill

Clarque says:

"Inspector 22 & the Bramble Ramblers is a project comprised of Todd 
Emmert (of Mowing Lawns) on guitar and vocals, Chris Gerrard (of Spider 
Bags) on guitar, Clarque Blomquist (of K.Manx and Shallow Be Thy Name) 
on drums, Caroline Blomquist (of Shallow Be Thy Name) on bass and 
sampler. We've only played one show thus far, opening for Magik Markers 
at Nightlight a few weeks ago as "Quiverring Chariots". We'll be playing 
an early show (8:00 - 9:30) and a late show (11:00-12:30) at the Cave on 
tuesday april 17 with Spouse (Pernice Brothers' bassist Jose's band)."



Wednesday, April 18
Jason Crumer    (http://www.dadadrumming.org/jasoncrumer/)
Kakerlak    (http://freewebs.com/thoraxharshcassettes)
Tourette    (http://tourette666.fr.st)
Nightlight, Chapel Hill



Thursday, April 19
Gray Young    (http://www.myspace.com/grayyoung)
Nevada    (http://goodluckcricket.com/nevada)
The Cave, Chapel Hill

Nevada are on Good Luck Cricket, the label who released that excellent 
Hellsayers album a couple of years ago. Gray Young are a Triangle band 
whose music seems to flow back and forth between ambient shoegaze and 
indie-pop, at least on their debut EP.



Thursday, April 19
King Kong    (http://www.kingkongtheband.com/)
Torch Marauder's Grappling Hook 
(http://home.att.net/~sandydave/torchhome.html)
Local 506, Chapel Hill

The Grappling Hook is the band that finally rocked hard enough to make 
Torch retire the VCR, once & for all. They've got ex-members of 
Analogue/Sweet Militia, plus Maple Stave drummer Evan Rowe. Plus Torch, 
of course, sporting a remarkable array of shiny masks & other dazzling 
stagewear.

Is this the same King Kong who sucked in '96? 
http://groups.google.com/group/alt.music.chapel-hill/browse_frm/thread/f67412a548124c88



Thursday, April 19
Thunderlip    (http://www.thunderlip.com/)
Colossus    (http://www.myspace.com/thecolossuswillcrushyou)
Black Skies    (http://www.myspace.com/losblackskies)
Ampline    (http://www.ampline.net)
Reservoir, Carrboro

Heaviosity of many subtle shades and variations, from the multi-guitar 
NWOBHM attack of Colossus to the crazy spazzed over-the-top Valient 
Thorr-esque evango-rock of Thunderlip, to the retrogressive skuzz-rock 
of Black Skies.



Friday, April 20 + Saturday, April 21
No Future Fest    (http://www.freewebs.com/nofuturefest/ )
Nightlight, Chapel Hill

This is the third annual No Future Fest, which doesn't really add to 
Nightlight's reputation as Noise Central (the multiple monthly noise 
shows do well for that, thanks), so much as capitalize on that rep to 
bring you a weekend of more noise than any town really needs or can 
comfortably accomodate. That overabudance may have been partly 
responsible for the utter bodily-fluid mayhem that closed out last 
year's fest.

They're trying to keep the fluids & wanton destruction under control 
this year, but that rage has to be channeled somewhere, so keep a 
double-close eye on yr ears. The [partial/tentative] lineup, as posted 
whenever I cut-n-pasted this:

Night 1: Laundry Room Squelchers, Noxagt, Auk Theatre (Irene Moon), 
Angel of Decay, Leslie Keffer, Pop Culture Rape Victim + Tourette, Lazy 
Magnet, Black Meat, Lexie Mountain, Pax Titania, Clang Quartet, Ferveur 
Noire, Boyzone

Night 2: Macronympha, Bloodyminded, Can't, Damion Romero, Harrius, Goat, 
Climax Denial, PrairiePusher + Door, Tom Grimley, Charlie Draheim, 
Shallow Waters, Ryan Bloomer, Tusco Terror, Haunted Castle, Villa 
Valley, Silvum, Holy Family Parish, Joe Roemer + Jason Crumer



Friday, April 20
The Tourist    (http://www.myspace.com/thetouristnc)
305 South, Durham

I think these Friday-night shows at 305 South get rolling at 8:00 p.m. & 
you can shop while you listen. But I dunno for 100% on that.



Friday, April 20
The Antagonizers    (http://www.antagonizers.com/)
Blood Red River    (http://www.myspace.com/bloodredriver)
Simple Assault    (http://www.myspace.com/simpleassault)
Dead to Society    (http://www.myspace.com/deadtosociety101)
The Black Sheep    (http://www.myspace.com/anuphillbattle)
Broad Street Cafe, Durham

More [mostly Durham-based] punkrock than you can shake an angry fist at. 
Be forewarned: the flyers for this say "Pit Gear Encouraged." Polish up 
yr spikes, kiddos.



Friday, April 20
Steve Howell
Hideaway BBQ, Raleigh

Steve Howell provided twangy Bakersfield-style guitar & songwriting for 
two of the giants of the Triangle alt.country scene, the Backsliders and 
the $2 Pistols.



Friday, April 20
David Karsten Daniels    (http://www.davidkarstendaniels.com/)
Calico Haunts    (http://www.myspace.com/calicohaunts)
Arbouretum    (http://www.myspace.com/arbouretum)
Local 506, Chapel Hill

David Karsten Daniels's new CD, "Sharp Teeth," is a great leap forward 
for him. Oh sure, the songs are still about that awful breakup & its 
aftermath, just like on the last one, but the perspective is a wee bit 
less bleak. More to the point, the songwriting & arranging are 
excellent; the album-closer, "We Go Right On," is devastating, and only 
grows moreso with repeat listens.



Saturday, April 21
Idea of Beauty    (http://ideaofbeauty.com)
Gun Metal Black
The Lineage
Bull City Headquarters, Durham

This is an after-race rockshow/benefit for the Durham Bike Co-op [ 
http://www.myspace.com/durhambikecoop ]. Last year's big race was an 
alleycat-style urban stage race; this year, they're promising "a sort of 
deranged omnium," with events to include Tractor Pull, Crooked Crank 
Racing, Bike Polo, Hill Sprints, Huffy Toss, Tube Change & others. The 
race/event is in the afternoon; registration commences at 1:00 at the 
SunTrust building downtown. The rockshow is at 9:00.



Saturday, April 21
Wigg Report    (http://www.synchronizedswim.org)
Beloved Binge    (http://www.myspace.com/belovedbinge)
305 South, Durham

The 305 South co-house-bands Wigg Report & Beloved Binge join together 
to celebrate the official start of delightful warm springlike weather & 
longer summery evenings to come.



Saturday, April 21
Angry Johnny and the Killbillies    (http://www.getangry.com/)
Hideaway BBQ, Raleigh



Saturday, April 21
Fan-Tan 
(http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=148121401)
Local 506, Chapel Hill



Saturday, April 21
Hank Sinatra    (http://www.hank-sinatra.com/)
Stone Fox
Slim's Downtown, Raleigh



Sunday, April 22
The Scene of the Crime Rovers 
(http://www.myspace.com/sceneofthecrimerovers)
WXDU 88.7 FM, Durham

Is it poor form to announce this show ahead-of-time? I know in the past 
it has been the SOCRovers M.O. to just show up guerilla-style, but that 
was usually at places where people were already gonna be. No guarantee 
of pre-population here, so here's a warning/invite: Avant/Punk Marching 
Band on the Radio at 5:00 p.m! 88.7 FM or wxdu.org.



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