RTP-area local music and culture

[grady <grady AT ibiblio.org>]

Friday, June 22
Cross Laws    (http://www.myspace.com/crosslaws)
The Obtruders    (http://www.obtruders.com/)
Acid Reflux
Life Trap
Life Crisis
Bull City Headquarters, Durham

Double Negative are apparently no longer playing this show. Dangit.



Friday, June 22
The Never    (http://www.trekkyrecords.com/never.html)
The Physics of Meaning    (http://www.thephysicsofmeaning.com/)
Cary Ann Hearst    (http://www.caryannhearst.com)
Cat's Cradle, Carrboro



Friday, June 22
Steve Howell
Hideaway BBQ, Raleigh

Steve Howell wrote songs & played twangy Telecaster in the Backsliders. 
His new band contains a bunch of vets: Allyn Love on pedal steel, Pee 
Wee Watson on bass, ex-Six String Dragger Scott Miller on guitar and 
ex-Backslider JD Maness on drums.



Friday, June 22
Billy Sugarfix    (http://www.soundclick.com/bands/8/billysugarfix.htm)
Midtown Dickens    (http://www.myspace.com/midtowndickens)
Charles Latham    (http://www.myspace.com/sircharleslatham)
Bowerbirds    (http://www.bowerbirds.org)
Local 506, Chapel Hill

Charles Latham is releasing a new CD, and this is the party for it. Then 
he's moving to Philadelphia, to be closer to Terri Gross.

Bowerbirds are about to be huge celebrities, so see 'em now.

Midtown Dickens & Billy Sugarfix are both genius at capturing the tiny 
minutiae of daily life into songs that are anything but mundane.



Friday, June 22
Dan Melchior    (http://danmelchior.com/)
Sugar in the Dirt    (http://www.myspace.com/sugarinthedirt)
Early Morning Swim    (http://www.myspace.com/earlymorningswimm)
Broad Street Cafe, Durham



Friday, June 22
The Spinns    (http://www.thespinns.freeservers.com/)
Joe Swank and the Zen Pirates 
(http://www.myspace.com/joeswankandthezenpirates)
The Cave, Chapel Hill

The Spinns broke up last year; this is listed as a "reunion farewell." 
They are/were a great stompy spirit-of-'66 garage-rock band.



Saturday, June 23
Caltrop    (http://www.myspace.com/caltropband)
Colossus    (http://www.myspace.com/thecolossuswillcrushyou)
Black Skies    (http://www.myspace.com/losblackskies)
Hazerai    (http://www.myspace.com/hazerai)
Cat's Cradle, Carrboro

Caltrop are ultra-heavy, ultra-sludgy, ultra-huge stoner-rockers. 
Hazerai are more in the neighborhood of post-Fugazi punkrock. Black 
Skies are fronted by Cat's Cradle doorman Kevin Clark, who was born to 
stick a microphone down his pants.



Saturday, June 23
Accelerators
Hank Sinatra    (http://www.hank-sinatra.com/)
Hideaway BBQ, Raleigh

Accelerators were a great sweet-sounding southern bar-rock band back in 
the 80s; they grabbed for the brass ring a half-dozen times, and are 
only the better for having never quite caught it.



Saturday, June 23
Midtown Dickens    (http://www.myspace.com/midtowndickens)
Future Kings of Nowhere    (http://www.thefuturekings.net/)
Eberhardt    (http://www.myspace.com/eberhardtnc)
Dan Melchior    (http://danmelchior.com/)
Titus Andronicus    (http://www.myspace.com/titusandronicus)
Ringside, Durham

This is a CD-release party for the long-awaited Future Kings of Nowhere 
CD. They're a big rawboned pop-punk band who just happen not to have any 
electric guitars. Singer Shayne O'Neill's loud, just-nasal-enough voice 
more than makes up for that, though.



Saturday, June 23
Kenny Roby    (http://www.kennyroby.com)
The Houstons
The Cave, Chapel Hill



Sunday, June 24
The Bindlestiff Family Cirkus    (http://www.bindlestiff.org/)
Lincoln Theater, Raleigh

The Bindlestiffs are a motley troupe of circus performers and freaks who 
decided they felt more comfortable onstage at bars & rockclubs than 
under a big top.



Sunday, June 24
Beat the Devil    (http://www.beatthedevil.com)
Blend, Chapel Hill

All I know about them is that they're an indie-rock band who feature 
harmonium as one of their primary instruments.



Monday, June 25
American Aquarium    (http://www.americanaquarium.com/)
Whistlestop    (http://www.myspace.com/whistlestop)
Local 506, Chapel Hill

This is another in Local 506's Magic Mondays series, meaning you get two 
local bands & a magician.



Tuesday, June 26
Cantwell, Gomez, Jordan    (http://www.cantwellgomezandjordan.com)
The Death Set    (http://www.thedeathset.com)
T.I.T.S.    (http://titsacrossamerica.com/)
Nightlight, Chapel Hill

As is usual for Nightlight, I dunno from the two bands I dunno about, 
but Cantwell Gomez and Jordan are so totally on their game (here I'd 
perhaps say "nowadays" but they've been totally on their game for like 6 
years now) that you don't need to know anything else anyway.



Wednesday, June 27
Mahasamatman    (http://www.cirrusoxide.com/journal/?p=48)
thenumber46    (http://www.myspace.com/thenumber46)
Modern Garage Movement    (http://www.myspace.com/moderngaragemovement)
Nightlight, Chapel Hill

Mahasamatman are Shannon Morrow (SOCRovers, Gates of Beauty, 
ex-Bicentennial Quarters, ex-HMS Cervix), Chuck Johnson (Shark Quest, 
Pykrete, ex-Spatula) and Chris Eubank (ex-Bicentennial Quarters, 
ex-Spatula, ex-Polycarp, ex-etc). They played a show a couple of weeks 
ago that I had to miss, and my friends took great delight in telling me, 
in excruciating detail, how utterly jaw-droppingly amazing it was. Not 
gonna let myself miss this one.



Wednesday, June 27
Casiotone for the Painfully Alone 
(http://www.tomlab.com/front/index.php?action=artist_detail&artist_id=4)
Donkeys
Wild Sweet Orange    (http://www.myspace.com/wildsweetorange)
Local 506, Chapel Hill



Thursday, June 28
The Gondoliers    (http://www.myspace.com/comeseethegondoliers)
Fighting Poseidon    (http://www.myspace.com/fightingposeidon)
Adam Thorn & the Top Buttons    (http://www.myspace.com/thetopbuttons)
Reservoir, Carrboro

Fighting Poseidon is a punk/whatever band with Eric Mann (ex-Kudzu Wish) 
and some folks from other local punk/poppunk bands.

Adam Thorn & the Top Buttons are the new project of ex-Kudzu Wish 
frontman Adam Thorn; they've also got KW bassist Tim LaFollette, and a 
drummer from Alli With an I.

Gondoliers are the great new(ish) garage-rock band with Todd from the 
Spinns; their secret weapon is Amanda Brooks (of Violet Vector) on organ.



Friday, June 29
Awesome Color    (http://awesomecolor.net)
Radio Birdman    (http://www.radio-birdman.com/)
The Ettes    (http://www.myspace.com/theettes)
Cat's Cradle, Carrboro



Friday, June 29
The Breaks
Killer Filler    (http://www.myspace.com/killerfiller)
The Cave, Chapel Hill

The Breaks are a casual rock-n-roll band that grew out of the 
retired-rockers enclave that's grown up in downtown Pittsboro. Steve 
Carr and Brunson Hoole were in the Emperors of Ice Cream back in the 
late 80s/early 90s, and have played/recorded with that other Pittsboro 
pop band Stratocruiser. John Ensslin was in Teasing the Korean/What 
Peggy Wants, and more recently Marat.



Friday, June 29
The Loners    (http://www.demonbeachrecords.com/loners.html)
The Trousers
Slim's Downtown, Raleigh

The Loners are the great reunited garage-rock duo of Eddie Taylor and 
Chris Jones. In an effort to use the appropriate idiom, I gotta say they 
rip.

The Trousers are a sort of acid-rock band; I saw them play in Raleigh a 
couple of weeks ago but I can't remember much in the way of details.



Saturday, June 30
Polynya    (http://home.mindspring.com/~polynya/index.html)
What's Her Face
The Curtains of Night
Bull City Headquarters, Durham

This is an afternoon (3:00) benefit for the Rock'n'Roll Camp for Girls, 
which is exactly what it sounds like: awesome.



Saturday, June 30
Schooner    (http://www.schoonermusic.com)
Bowerbirds    (http://www.bowerbirds.org)
Bull City    (http://www.bullcitytheband.com/)
Wes Phillips    (http://www.myspace.com/wesleydongeroga)
Blend, Chapel Hill

A reunion of sorts: Wes Phillips used to be in Ticonderoga with Phil 
Moore & Mark Paulson of Bowerbirds. They expired well before their time.

Bull City recently released one of the better albums of the year thus 
far, "Guns & Butter." Schooner are about to do much the same, though 
their leap to 54-40 or Fight records has made them subject to that 
label's release schedule, so we have to wait a bit.



Saturday, June 30
Le Weekend    (http://www.myspace.com/leweekendleband)
Mahasamatman    (http://www.cirrusoxide.com/journal/?p=48)
Minchia    (http://www.myspace.com/minchianc)
Bull City Headquarters, Durham

This is a regular-evening show. Le Weekend are Matt Kalb's (Audubon 
Park, ex-Hotel Motel) band wherein he indulges his 
pop-meets-prog-meets-Steely Dan tendencies, aided & abetted by a cast of 
locals including members of The Nein, Erie Choir, Audubon Park & 
Piedmont Charisma.

Mahasamatman is Shannon Morrow, Chuck Johnson, and Chris Eubank, making 
them collectively 2/3rds of 2 of the greatest NC bands of all time, 
Spatula and the Bicentennial Quarters.



Saturday, June 30
Fin Fang Foom    (http://www.lovitt.com/artists/finfangfoom.html)
Ben Davis + The Jetts    (http://www.lovitt.com/artists/bendavis.html)
Local 506, Chapel Hill

Ben Davis's solo albums have been collaborative affairs, and so too the 
bands he's assembled to play his music live. The current iteration is my 
favorite of the bunch, I think; they've got the longhair rock power of 
Eric Wallen, while still preserving the delicate finesse of Ben's melodies.



Saturday, June 30
ANTiSEEN    (http://www.antiseen.com)
Concrete Bombers    (http://www.myspace.com/concretebombers)
Slim's Downtown, Raleigh

ANTiSEEN have been cranking out the gnarly southern scumpunk for the 
past 20+ years, and there's still nothing quite like 'em. If you haven't 
seen Jeff Clayton grind a broken bottle into his forehead, then you 
really don't know a thing about punkrock in the south.



Sunday, July 1
The Whole World Laughing    (http://www.myspace.com/twwl)
WXDU 88.7 FM, Durham

The Whole World Laughing are Dave Cantwell (Cantwell Gomez & Jordan, 
ex-Razzle, ex-Analogue) on basstar, and Scotty Irving (Clang Quartet, 
ex-Geezer Lake) on drums. They're kinda like if Razzle & Analogue were 
compressed together & then stripped down to a bare-bones two-piece: 
repetitive, mostly-instrumental space-rock with a metallic edge.

5:00 p.m. 88.7 FM or wxdu.org.



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