Catching up from Thursday and Friday

Thursday a gang of folks from The N&O went out to the Pour House to see N&O photographer Jason Arthurs' band, Whoa ... an Ellipsis, and to say goodbye to another co-worker who is off to USA Today. The band was kind of screamo, which really isn't my thing, but I think they did a good job of it. They just need to get a simpler name. I missed the teenage hardcore band, but I understand they totally kicked ass. Here's the video for "1060 W. Addison."

Whoa ... an ellipsis from Mann's World on Vimeo.

Two doors down at Tir na Nog, all-star alt-country group The Whistlestop was playing, so walking back and forth between the two clubs was certainly a strange juxtaposition. This is the latest band with Rob Watson, Scotty Miller and Pee Wee Watson. Here are two songs from The Whistlestop. The first is a fairly quiet song, so you hear a lot of chatter among the Tir na Nog patrons. I suppose most of them were hangers-on from dinner. Otherwise, I can't think of any reason why someone would go to a show and just talk through the whole thing.

The Whistlestop from Mann's World on Vimeo.

(first song) See more photos.Friday was a different scene altogether, when Angela and I went to Chapel Hill to see Blag'ard's CD-release party at guitarist Joe Taylor's house. Black Skies and Caltrop -- who is now officially my favorite band in the Triangle -- opened up. Black Skies and Caltrop are both heavy and sludgy, while Blag'ard had a slightly poppier feel. Angela compared them to Pavement, and I don't think that's far off the mark. Regardless, it was great to go to a house party again. There's nothing like seeing a band play under a bunch of Christmas lights in a back yard. Plus I saw a couple of folks from way back in the day, including one woman I knew during my years at ECU in the late '80s. The video of Caltrop unfortunately was corrupted, but here's video of Blag'ard's "Kick Out Queen."

Blag'ard from Mann's World on Vimeo.

See more photos.