Sunday, October 30, 2005

Amazingly, I'm feeling pretty good this morning, following last night's costume revelry at Kings. Actually, my arms are so sore I can hardly move, but I think that has more to do mowing the grass yesterday for the first time in six weeks than it does with anything that happened at the show. Japanese band DMBQ and Raleigh's The Greatest Hits played. I have to say, I don't think any band in this area has grown on me as much as The Greatest Hits. I really didn't like them at first, but they've become one of my favorites. DMBQ was ear-splitting psychedelic metal. The guitar player secured a place in my heart by playing with a violin bow. As for our costumes, jessica went as the typical '70s tough girl stoner chick who always sat in the back of the class and played with her roach clips. We decided her name was Tonya. I had made a vow that I wasn't going to dress up, but while we were out at American Way, I found a hideous pair of leopard print cotton spandex pant and realized that all I had to do was dig out my old Krokus T-shirt to have the perfect costume. We listened to Def Leppard on the way over to Steve and Jeff's house and decided my name was going to be Lady Strange. I'd like to thank the rockabilly dude who took our picture while we shopped for beer and snacks at the Kangaroo.

Thursday, October 27, 2005

The new CD by Black Taj, featuring Steve and Dave from Polvo, is out now. I'll give a review once I get my hands on it.

Friday, October 14, 2005

The Spinns have a new album!

They're one of my favorite local bands. Check their new stuff on myspace, then go buy their CD.

A review of Damian Marley's "Welcome to Jamrock"
(Universal)

It can't be easy to distinguish yourself in a family full of musical visionaries, but Bob Marley's youngest, Damian "Jr. Gong" Marley, sure is giving it a good try. After winning the Grammy for 2002's Halfway Tree, and after penning one of the most explosive reggae hits of the summer, the menacing anti-violence anthem "Welcome to Jamrock," Marley returns with an album that lives up to the single's promise.

The album erupts right off the bat with "Confrontation," which builds from spoken word dialog by Bunny Wailer (along with recordings from Haile Selassie and Marcus Garvey) into a pounding indictment of war in general, and the war in Iraq in particular. Other stand outs include "Pimpa's Paradise" (with Black Thought and Stephen Marley), a cautionary tale about a casualty of hip-hop's bump-and-grind video culture; "All Night," in which Marley sings about trying to keep up with his insatiable lady over a loping Skatalites sample; and "For the Babies," an Asian-influenced anti-abortion song that takes men to task for abandoning their pregnant girlfriends.

Marley gets quite a bit of help from friends and relatives, including his late father, on several of the tracks. Bunny Wailer, Nas, Black Thought, Bounty Killer, Eek-A-Mouse and even Bobby Brown put in appearances. Marley's brother, Stephen, co-wrote and performs on many of the songs. And at least two songs include "interpolations" or samples of work by Bob Marley himself. But while Marley isn't shy about celebrating (or cribbing from) his father's legacy, the end product is his alone.

Thursday, October 13, 2005

Sanctuary Records closing

Here's an e-mail my friend Dave Rogers sent out. Dave is a great guy, and any band out there would be lucky to have him on the road with them.

Thanks,

Karen

Hello everybody, if you haven't already heard the news Sanctuary Records is closing their Raleigh NC location. That means as of Friday 10/14 me and many of my co-workers here will be out of a job. That's right - to all the bands and managers that wanted to put me on the road - I'm now available! At the very least you'll find me in the photo pit. Anyway, I do want to stay in touch with many of you and as I begin my search for the next gig keep me in mind. My contact info is below. Cheers!
>
>Dave Rogers
>dave@away-team.com
>919-539-2239

Wednesday, October 12, 2005

The Red Alert ran my review of The Rosebuds!

Tuesday, October 04, 2005

Finally, the Valient Thorr movie.

Beware, it takes a long time to download.

Valient Thorr from Mann's World on Vimeo.

Monday, October 03, 2005

Harvey Danger's downloading experiment.

The band Harvey Danger is offering its new CD available for download absolutely free. On the band's Web site, they discuss their reason's for doing this (quote: "Given our unusual history, and a long-held sense that the practice now being demonized by the music biz as “illegal” file sharing can be a friend to the independent musician, we have decided to embrace the indisputable fact of music in the 21st century, put our money where our mouth is, and make our record, Little By Little…, available for download via Bittorrent, and at our website."), and they include links to bitTorrent and direct download. The band requests that, if listeners like it, they should send a small donation to the band, or go out and buy the physical copy.

I'm interested to see how this comes out for the band. It's already gotten them one new listener: Even though I don't know much about them, I'm going to go ahead and download it simply because there's no risk involved. If I don't like it, I haven't wasted any cash on it.

Sunday, October 02, 2005

Beenie Man!
Lots of good shows comming up in the next few months. Here's a list of some I am either definitely going to, or seriously considering going to: Oct. 7: GANG OF FOUR at Cat's Cradle Oct 9: KINGS OF LEON at Cat's Cradle Oct 15: DEVENDRA BANHART at Cat's Cradle OR Oct. 15: BARRISTER'S BALL with COREY PARKER BAND at Kings (If Devendra is an earlier show, I will go to both of these. If not, I will just go to the Barrister's Ball.) Oct 22: THE ROSEBUDS at Cat's Cradle Oct 31: URGE OVERKILL at Cat's Cradle Nov 2: MATISYAHU at Cat's Cradle Nov 3: BEENIE MAN at Lincoln Theatre Nov 14: LCD SOUNDSYSTEM at Cat's Cradle ****Nov 26: BIRDS OF AVALON and BLACK TAJ at Kings**** (This will be the night after my birthday, and my friend Laura will be in town, so everyone should come out to help us celebrate with two of the best bands in the Triangle.) Nov 28: GENE LOVES JEZEBEL at Legends
I hate spammers.

This blog has been relatively free of them until recently. This morning I had to go through and delete about eight messages -- seven of which were the same exact thing but with different user names. So, I appologize in advance for any spam that may show up here. I'm removing it as soon as I see it.

Saturday, October 01, 2005

Here are some awesome pics from last night's Valeint Thorr show/video premiere at Kings. Also, I just wanted to note that the beginning of Damian Marley's "Confrontation," with its atonal chanting, military drumming and violin samples, could easily fit in a black metal song.

OK, here are the pics.






















Valient Thorr from Mann's World on Vimeo.