Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

ch-scene - 10 Singles

ch-scene AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: RTP-area local music and culture

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: Chris Calloway <ifoufo AT yahoo.com>
  • To: RTP-area local music and culture <ch-scene AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: 10 Singles
  • Date: Thu, 10 May 2007 20:36:16 -0700 (PDT)

I want to bring your attention to a nice little CD by
a Triangle expat.

Kurt Hagardorn was the mastermind behind Gumption,
which got a lot of play by XDU and XYC. There was even
a way brilliant and complex Gumption album as a four
piece that very unfortunately was never released.
That's a crime because that CD, boots of which are
called The Maxwell Egg, makes me swoon. Kurt often
backed up Thad Cockrell and Caitlin Cary and folks
from Tennessee also remember Kurt from the much loved
Brian and the Nightmares (who have been doing packed
out annual reunion shows in Johnson City the past few
years).

Kurt's friends have also been entertained by his
impression of Johnny Cash performing Ozzy's Crazy
Train. Kurt's a multi-instrumentalist who plays
everything, even the accordion. He's the most
accomplished ukulele player I've ever heard and knows
tons of classic tin pan alley songs to play at
parties. He's a fine bluegrass picker who loves AC/DC.
Kurt taught himself to play drums in order to be in a
Rock Lotto band. Now he's an accomplished drummer in
his own right. I've never known anyone who ate, slept,
and breathed music as much as Kurt.

Kurt packed up and moved to Portland last year. Kurt
met another Triangle expat there, Matt Brown of the
Ashley Stove, and now they both play in Matt's band
called Montauk Ghost. It gives me a lot of joy that
they are playing in the same band. Matt started a
record label, Bladen County Records, last year and
released a CD I've told you about before:

http://www.bladencountyrecords.com/montauk.php

But that's not the CD I want to tell you about today.
In between Gumption and Portland, Kurt spent something
like seven years recording ten pop masterpieces in
various home studios around Durham and Nashville with
the help of a lot of people with names like Stamey and
Chamis. He'd hone one of these songs for months,
recording and re-recording, mixing and remixing. I'd
hear one, be blown away, and then be really impatient
for the next one which would take a long time to get.

Those ten songs are now all rolled up nicely on a CD
from Bladen County Records called, well, Ten Singles:

http://www.bladencountyrecords.com/kurt.php

You can get it for cheap from CD Baby or Miles of
Music. Or individual songs from Digstation:

http://www.digstation.com/AlbumDetails.aspx?albumid=ALB000002452

I listened to Ten Singles nine times straight in a row
while driving from Portland to Seattle last fall. I
love the songs Lemon (like a long lost Beatles would
be hit) and International Travel Advisory, maybe
because I've been listening to them for years and was
so excited the first time I heard them. But when I
finally got the full CD, I listened to a song called
Leanne for the first time and just got chills. It's
one of those crank it up loud in the dark songs. I'd
have to stop the CD and listen to that one song two or
three time in a row.

Anyway, I don't know what took me so long to get
around to telling you about it, but Ten Singles
displays nice Casey Burns artwork, just like the
Montauk Ghost CD (and I'm told the upcoming Modest
Mouse CD). If you get one CD this year because I told
you so, it should be Ten Singles.

Also, if you remember break dancer extraordinaire Gary
Miller from Kurt's old band Gumption, and Gary's
International Twee Pop Festival at the 506, you might
be interested to know Gary is now quite the power pop
impresario in Seattle, putting on shows and running
this music blog:

http://seattle-powerpop.blogspot.com/

which functions as kind of the trianglerock.com of
Seattle, as well as working in two bands, The Scheme
and Shake Some Action, both of which are heard on
KEXP. I think he's pretty much always hanging out at
the Sunset Tavern.

3





Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page