RTP-area local music and culture

[grady <grady AT ibiblio.org>]

Sunday, October 11
Tin Star    (http://www.myspace.com/tinstarnc)
WXDU 88.7 FM, Durham

Tin Star are a supergroup of sorts, with Jamie Miyares (ex-tommygun), 
Louis Botta (ex-William Christ Supercarr) and Bart Moyers (Bringerer, 
ex-William Christ Supercarr) forming the core. Their songs are fueled by 
the tension between Jamie's piano & her high delicate voice, and Louis's 
shrill, distorted guitar lines, which weave in & out between the other 
instruments.

Show gets underway at 4:00 p.m. at 88.7 FM or wxdu.org.



Sunday, October 11
Phosphorescent
Alberta Cross    (http://www.myspace.com/albertacross)
Local 506, Chapel Hill



Monday, October 12
TV Ghost    (http://www.myspace.com/televisionghost)
Wizzard Sleeve    (http://www.myspace.com/wizzardsleeve)
Harlem    (http://www.myspace.com/harlemduh)
The Pinhook, Durham

WXDU DJ Craig Powell, fresh off the rousing success of last week's house 
show featuring Thomas Function, has this to say about this show:

TV GHOST - play dark, damaged garage punk and have a badass new LP on In 
The Red. "Lafayette, Indiana creepers TV Ghost incorporate the 
licentious nuances of the earliest Cramps scuzz, No Wave cacophony and 
Suicide's terrifying throb alongside cavernous bellows from the depths 
of the third layer of hell." http://www.myspace.com/televisionghost

HARLEM - are on tour from Austin, TX. They play catchy, Nuggets-style 
garage and were just signed to Matador Records after releasing a 
super-catchy debut LP "Free Drugs" and subsequently earning rave reviews 
for said LP as well as their live show (two frontmen trading off 
guitar/drums = high energy!) They play songs about girls, drugs and 
"Psychedelic Tits." Plus, they have a Triangle connection - Jose grew up 
in Chapel Hill and played in Spider Bags before moving to Austin. 
http://myspace.com/harlemduh

WIZZARD SLEEVE - I know it's cheesy to say, but maybe these guys defy 
description... Alabaman glue-wave? Or you could just come to the show 
and then decide for yourself....Their new LP on HoZac is being called "a 
skin-crawling, death-punk masterpiece" and I've heard that their 
frontman, Captain Beyonce, is one of the weirdest/coolest... 
http://myspace.com/wizzardsleeve



Monday, October 12
Anti-Pop Consortium    (http://www.wordsound.com/antipop.html)
Local 506, Chapel Hill



Tuesday, October 13
Spider Bags    (http://www.myspace.com/spiderbags)
Pinche Gringo    (http://www.myspace.com/pinchegringoband)
Harlem    (http://www.myspace.com/harlemduh)
Nightlight, Chapel Hill

If you couldn't make it to Monday's show at the Pinhook (or if you did, 
and didn't get enough), here's another chance to take a gander at 
Austin's Harlem, along with two of NC's finest garage-rockers, Spider 
Bags & Pinche Gringo.



Tuesday, October 13
Drink Up Buttercup    (http://www.myspace.com/drinkupbuttercupband)
The Uglysuit    (http://www.myspace.com/theuglysuit)
Givers
Local 506, Chapel Hill



Wednesday, October 14
Workday/School Night
Ghost Hand
**k    (http://www.myspace.com/2starK)
Nightlight, Chapel Hill



Wednesday, October 14
Royal Bangs    (http://www.theroyalbangs.com/)
Drummer    (http://www.myspace.com/drummertheband)
Local 506, Chapel Hill



Thursday, October 15
The Bronzed Chorus    (http://www.myspace.com/thebronzedchorus)
Antarctic    (http://www.myspace.com/antarcticsounds)
Tir Na Nog, Raleigh

This week's Local Bands, Local Beers features the gtr/keys/drums 
instrumental duo Bronzed Chorus, from Greensboro, and Antarctic, from FL.



Thursday, October 15
Monotonix    (http://www.monotonix.com/)
Whatever Brains    (http://www.myspace.com/whateverbrains)
Turbo Fruits    (http://www.myspace.com/turbofruits)
Pour House, Raleigh

You've probably heard the stories about Monotonix by now: sloppy, 
high-energy, Israeli, less interested in making intricate (or even 
coherent) music than in running through the audience banging on things. 
The live shows draw raves; the albums less-so. Lucky for you, this is a 
rockshow & not a listening party. With Turbo Fruits & the excellent 
Raleigh fuzz-punk-[pop] band Whatever Brains.



Thursday, October 15
Jokes & Jokes & Jokes    (http://www.myspace.com/jokesjokesjokes)
The Alcazar Hotel    (http://www.myspace.com/thealcazarhotel)
Tercer Divisa Nacional    (http://www.myspace.com/tercerdivisa)
Reservoir, Carrboro



Friday, October 16
Clang Quartet    (http://www.myspace.com/clangquartet)
Cantwell, Gomez, Jordan    (http://www.cantwellgomezandjordan.com)
des_ark    (http://www.des-ark.org)
Maple Stave    (http://www.maplestave.com)
Fortress of Swatches    (http://www.purevolume.com/fortressofswatches)
The Pinhook, Durham

Show of the week, month, maybe even the decade. It's Cantwell, Gomez & 
Jordan's 10th Anniversary (pretty much literally -- their first show 
under that name was Friday, October 15, 1999 at the Skylight Exchange 
(now the Nightlight) in Chapel Hill with Clang Quartet).

Altogether fitting, then, that Clang Quartet should join them for this 
show, along with many of their other favorite local bands, including two 
that feature drummer Evan Rowe: des_ark and Maple Stave. Wilmington's 
Fortress of Swatches round out the bill.

I've seen Cantwell Gomez and Jordan at least 40 times over the past 10 
years, but that's less than a quarter of the 165+ shows they've got 
listed on their website. 
(http://www.cantwellgomezandjordan.com/chrono.htm) They are sort of the 
ultimate Triangle band, in the sense that they've all got day jobs, and 
yet they're totally committed to their band and to one another, 
regardless of how many Monday-night shows they wind up playing, and how 
few people come out to see them. They simply love playing together, and 
at this point it's nearly impossible to imagine them *not* playing together.

They recently took a short hiatus (David Jordan is a new dad, and Dave 
Cantwell was touring the country with his wife Kerry), of the sort that 
often turns into the kind of "extended hiatus" that marks the effective 
end of great bands as they get older. Not CGJ: they returned with a 
vengeance a few weeks ago, playing a set that was among the most 
furiously intense I've ever seen from them. Do not miss this show.



Friday, October 16
Six Organs of Admittance    (http://www.sixorgansofadmittance.com/)
Lichens
Om    (http://www.omvibratory.com/)
Cat's Cradle, Carrboro



Friday, October 16
Kooley High    (http://www.myspace.com/kooleyhigh)
The Beast
Carlitta Durand    (http://www.myspace.com/missdurand)
Freebass 808
Duke Coffeehouse, Durham

This is a CD-release for local hip-hop phenoms The Beast; joining them 
are *other* local hip-hop phenoms Kooley High.



Friday, October 16
Broadcast    (http://www.billions.com/broadcast/)
The Selmanaires    (http://www.myspace.com/theselmanaires)
Atlas Sound    (http://deerhuntertheband.blogspot.com)
Local 506, Chapel Hill



Friday, October 16
Megafaun    (http://www.myspace.com/megafaun)
The Black Twigs    (http://www.myspace.com/blacktwigs)
Charlie Parr    (http://www.myspace.com/charlieparr)
Nightlight, Chapel Hill

Megafaun are coming off a fairly high-profile tour with their former 
bandmate Justin Vernon's Bon Iver; last time they played a homecoming 
show in Orange County (at the ArtsCenter a few weeks ago), they 
completely exploded the place. Theirs is a music that improves and 
expands the more they play it, so seeing them at the end of a tour leg, 
in front of a hometown crowd (and in a tiny venue like Nightlight, 
especially) is a golden opportunity.



Friday, October 16
Goner    (http://www.gonertheband.com/)
Gray Young    (http://www.myspace.com/grayyoung)
Lonnie Walker    (http://www.myspace.com/lonniewalker)
Berkeley Cafe, Raleigh



Saturday, October 17
The Bronzed Chorus    (http://www.myspace.com/thebronzedchorus)
Antarctic    (http://www.myspace.com/antarcticsounds)
It's Just Vanity    (http://www.myspace.com/itsjustvanitync)
Duke Coffeehouse, Durham



Saturday, October 17
Polvo    (http://www.southern.com/southern/band/POLVO/index.html)
Savage Knights    (http://www.retroactivedynamics.com)
My Dad is Dead    (http://mydadisdead.com)
Cat's Cradle, Carrboro

Now that Polvo are a more-or-less fully operational band again, touring 
on one of the 2 or 3 best records of their career, some 
expectation-recalibration is in order. For their first few "reunion" 
appearances, the fact that they were actually writing new material (and 
extensively fucking with the old material) was mindblowing enough on its 
own.

At XXMerge, though, it felt more like they were all roped together but 
pulling in different directions (and doing so while wading through 
hip-deep mud). Ah, yes, that's right, Polvo had off nights back the 90s, 
too.

I'm not going to argue against seeing them -- the new material is too 
strong, and when they're "on" they're amazing -- but the fact remains 
that they're at least as human now as they were 12 years ago, so to 
expect the Second Coming every time they play would be a bit naive.

Also on the bill: the avant-jazz-wrestles-rock (it's not "fusion," it's 
more like a cobra & a mongoose tied up in a gunny-sack) of Savage 
Knights, and the still-pretty-chilly post-Joy Division drum-machine rock 
of My Dad Is Dead, who made the Cleveland -> Carrboro transition a 
half-dozen years ago.



Saturday, October 17
Luego    (http://luegomusic.com/)
Huguenots    (http://www.myspace.com/thehuguenotsmusic)
The Tomahawks    (http://www.myspace.com/jeffcrawfordmusic)
Local 506, Chapel Hill

This is a CD-release for the new Luego CD. They began life as a sorta 
low-key country-rock band with some kind of Duke affiliation, but they 
upped the ante considerably when they added ex-dB Peter Holsapple to the 
lineup.



Saturday, October 17
Dirty Little Heaters    (http://www.myspace.com/thedirtylittleheaters)
Simeon
The Cave, Chapel Hill

It's hard to beat the hurricane-strength garage/blues/rock wallop of the 
Dirty Little Heaters



Sunday, October 18
Built to Spill    (http://www.builttospill.com/)
Disco Doom    (http://www.discodoom.net)
Violent Soho    (http://www.violentsoho.com)
Cat's Cradle, Carrboro



Sunday, October 18
Liza Kate    (http://www.myspace.com/lizakate)
Josh Moore    (http://www.myspace.com/joshuamoore)
Holopaw    (http://www.myspace.com/holopaw)
Nightlight, Chapel Hill



Sunday, October 18
Japandroids    (http://www.myspace.com/japandroids)
Real Estate    (http://www.myspace.com/letsrockthebeach)
Local 506, Chapel Hill

The first time Vancouver's Japandroids played the Local 506, earlier 
this year, they did so on a Monday night, and drew maybe 150 people. 
This despite having released only one proper album, and that one (at the 
time) only in Canada. (Yes, it had been well-reviewed by Pitchfork -- 
proof, if you needed any, of p4k's actual power)

I first heard Japandroids via an MP3 I downloaded from one blog or 
another. My strategy is to download everything, throw it into a folder, 
and then listen to it on shuffle to see what sticks. Japandroids' "Young 
Hearts Spark Fire" stuck in a MAJOR way. Equal parts fuzzy, catchy, and 
driving/heavy, it turned into enough of an obsession for me that I 
tracked down the aforementioned Canadian album, Post-Nothing (since 
released in the US by Polyvinyl).

Which is how *I* wound up at that Monday-night show a few months ago. 
Yes, they're a guitar-drums duo, and lord knows I've seen enough of 
those to last a lifetime, but playing on a Monday night in a strange 
town on their first tour of the US, they freaking *brought it* in a 
major way.

Which is why, for the second time in 2009, I'm going to sacrifice a 
night of sleep & head to Local 506 on a school night.



Monday, October 19
Ben Davis + The Jetts    (http://www.lovitt.com/artists/bendavis.html)
Art Brut    (http://www.artbrut.org.uk/)
Princeton    (http://www.myspace.com/princetonmusic)
Cat's Cradle, Carrboro



Monday, October 19
Dolorean    (http://www.dolorean.com/)
Deer Tick    (http://www.myspace.com/deertick)
Holy Sons    (http://www.myspace.com/holysons)
Christopher Denny    (http://www.myspace.com/christopherdenny)
Local 506, Chapel Hill



Tuesday, October 20
We Landed on the Moon    (http://www.welandedonthemoon.com/)
Death to the Details    (http://www.reverbnation.com/deathtothedetails)
Lions at Lunchtime    (http://www.reverbnation.com/lionsatlunchtime)
The Pinhook, Durham

11:00 - Death to Details
10:00 - We Landed on the Moon
9:00 - Lions at Lunchtime



Tuesday, October 20
The Drowning Lovers    (http://www.reverbnation.com/thedrowninglovers)
Dent May and his Magnificent Ukelele    (http://www.myspace.com/dentmay)
Local 506, Chapel Hill



Tuesday, October 20
Crash    (http://www.myspace.com/crashkills)
Sunset    (http://www.myspace.com/lobosunset)
City Center    (http://www.myspace.com/citycenternyc)
Nightlight, Chapel Hill



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