More from Ben Davis & the Jett$

Just got word of a video release for Ben Davis & The Jett$ "Rincon Pio Sounds" and a reminder that the band will be at The Pinhook Thursday night.

Schooner to issue Cy-Tunes only release

Reid from Schooner just sent word that the band is releasing an  EP entitled "Duck Kee Sessions" on Cytunes in mid February.  Here' s what he had to say:

The "drop date" for the EP will be February 9, which means that's when we'll make it live on the site.   307 Knox is donating CDRs for TC to send to 150 radio stations, which will go out about a week before the release.

We are putting out no physical release in order to generate all of the traffic to Cytunes.  In lieu of this, we have a group of local artists that are making limited runs of 7x7"ish pieces of artwork that we will be attaching download codes to, courtesy of Chris Rossi.  We'll sell these at shows and some local stores with ALL of the $ is going to Cytunes.  The artists are:

Ron Liberti
Chris Williams
Will Hackney
Catherine Edgerton
Billy Sugarfix
Dave Cantwell
Kerry Cantwell
John Harrison
Michele Preslik
David Koslowski
Shirle Koslowski
Zeno Gill
Maria Albani
+ me.

The EP release party, where the artwork will be available for the first time, will be February 19th at the Pinhook.  Joining us will be Erie Choir, Veelee, and The Popular Kids (which Cy and I used to be in together).  The Merch is hooking us up with posters.

We're on the following radio shows in February:
February 5: WUNC's State of Things
February 7: WXYC's Backyard BBQ
February 12: WKNC's Local Beat
February 14: Valentines day performance on Ross Grady's WXDU show

And here's a sneak peak at what you'll hear on the new CD!

Raleigh Undercover night 3 recap

What an awesome weekend for local music! Despite a sold-out show two doors down (or maybe because of it) Raleigh Undercover was a huge, jam-packed success.

I didn't catch the Friday show, but heard great things about Bright Young Things rendition of Bowie. I also didn't see Dirty Little Heaters as The Doors (too early for me) and Hearts & Daggers as CCR (too late) during last night's show. But I liked what I saw in between, especially Static Minds' killer version of Black Sabbath. I didn't record it, but I've already seen video floating around Facebook this morning, so be on the lookout for it.

Left Outlet did an excellent version of Nick Cave, and The Whalewatchers had everyone singing along to the Doobie Brothers. Jeff Hart of course did a fine job with the Kinks (he has a Kinks tribute band), even if he did pick an obscure set list. Several people kept asking me who the band was, and I admit, I didn't even realize it until about the third song.

A clue for night two

Just in case you're not on the Raleigh Undercover facebook event list, Chris Tamplin just sent out this message:

"Holy Shit last night was amazing!  All the bands were in fine form and I can't thank them enough!  Also, thanks to everyone who Braved the "snow" to watch!  Tonight we are going to try and top last night with SIX bands!  Aminal kick it off at 9:15 sharp followed by Dry Heathens, The Tomahawks, Bright Young Things, Old Ceremony, and American Aquarium close it out!  One hint on  one of the acts being covered tonight is it is that artist's birthday today and it is not Elvis!  Once again it is a five spot to get in and the charity tonight is for Hopeline, Inc. of Raleigh.   For those of you going to one of the other great shows tonight stick your head in for a quick one (act and beer) the head out or try tomorrow night!  Thanks!"


Hmm. A quick google search of today's celebrity birthdays reveals the following: R&B singer R. Kelly (1969),  Mother Love Bone lead singer Andrew Wood (1966; d. 1990), David Bowie (1947), Doors guitarist Robby Krieger (1946),  "James Bond" theme song singer Shirley Bassey(1937). As much as I hope someone is doing R. Kelly's entire "Stuck in the Closet" series, or singing the James Bond theme, I'm going to guess that someone out there (maybe Old Ceremony?) is doing David Bowie. I already know who The Tomahawks are doing, and it should be "Something" to behold.

The best thing I have EVER seen at a Raleigh Undercover!

I don't know who River City Ransom are, but they absolutely NAILED Meat Loaf during night one of the Raleigh Undercover. Seriously, it was better than Valient Thorr's Parliament/Funkadelic tribute last year.

From the very first note, "Meat" himself owned the crowd. He sang like him, looked like him (except for a slightly dodgy wig), and moved like him. He even had an Ellen Foley-esque back up singer who was every bit as on it as he was. And the crowd was just going wild. I honestly can't wait to see River City Ransom as themselves simply because they did such an amazing job at Raleigh Undercover. Let that be a lesson to bands who want to break into the local scene: If you entertain a crowd at the cover up, people will want to know about your band.

Unfortunately I didn't shoot video because I don't want to run afoul of the law, but plenty of other folks had their phones and cameras out during this performance, so I'm sure we'll see something floating around out there soon.

Meat Loaf was one of only four bands that played last night, and all of them did well. Another band I don't know, Here Are The Young Men, did a great job with Joy Division, and Free Electric State had everyone dancing to the Pixies. I only caught the first song of Lonnie Walker's rendition of Talking Heads, but I'm already hearing that it was really good. 

Grayson hosted in character as Charles Bukowski. I even tweeted some video of him reading a Bukowski poem, but decided it might be best to take that down. Even though it was actually a fairly mild poem, I'm not sure it's something I would want to explain to my boss. 

If you're headed out tonight, the schedule includes the following:
Aminal
The Tomahawks
Bright Young Things
The Old Ceremony
Dry Heathens
American Aquarium
And, of course, there's Double Negative and Whatever Brains at the Berkeley (assuming you didn't get tix for the big Rosebuds/Megafaun show at the Pour House). Yours truly is probably going to stay in and gear up for tomorrow night, because I hear that Static Minds has something awesome planned.