Video of Static Minds from the J. Betski's Rocktoberfest

I have to apologize for the tardiness of this particular blog post. I'm dealing with several things right now (some good, some not so good) that are making blogging difficult. Regardless, here's the video from the Static Minds' rockin' Rocktoberfest performance. My picks for the shows of the week are the COC/Double Negative show tomorrow night at Kings, and the Birthday/Benefit for Steven with Royal Nites, Hank Sinatra, Richard Bacchus & the Luckiest Girls, the Hell No

and The Infamous Sugar Sunday at White Collar Crime. If things calm down a bit for me, maybe I'll see you out and about. More photos.

Five Questions with Minus Sound Research

Artists often don't confine themselves to one genre. If someone is a musician, chances are they create some sort of visual art as well. Chapel Hill's Minus Sound Research is a collective of local musicians who do just that: create visual art. This weekend the group will showcase the art, visual and aural, of its members with a two-day showing and concert at Carrboro's ArtsCenter. Collective members Maria Albani (Organos) and John Harrison (North Elementary) answered my questions.



1. Tell us about Minus Sound Research. Who are the artists involved, and what kinds of art to they create?
(Maria) Minus Sound Research is an artist collective comprised of local NC musicians. This year, for our 5 year anniversary, we have invited all of our past participating artists to submit 1 piece. In addition, we've also invited 5 new artists into the collective, who will be showing 4-5 new pieces.

These are all of the artists (Past & new) who have work in MSR5 this year:

New Artists: Mac McCaughn (Portastaic/Superchunk) Casey Cook (Americans in France), Casey Burns (The Nein) , Wendy Spitzer(Felix Obelix), & Billy Sugarfix (Billy Sugarfix)

Past Artists: Laura Ballance (Superchunk), Melissa Swingle (The Moaners), Bill Taylor (KM) Ron Liberti (Pipe), Beth Tacular (Bowerbirds), Michael Triplett (Fin Fang Foom), John Harrison (North Elementary), David Koslowski (Free Electric State), Shirle' Hale (Free Electric Sate), Catherine Edgerton (Midtown Dickens), Nathan Oliver (Nathan Oliver), Mas Sato (The Sames), Reid Johnson (Schooner), Anna Bullard (Anna Bullard), Chip Smoak (Simple), Linc Hancock (Strange), Drew Robertson (Phon), Viva Cohen (Jett Rink), Laird Dixon (Shark Quest), & Maria Albani (Organos/Schooner).

As far as what kind of art you'll see: Various mediums. Michael Tripplet shows his photgraphy, Anna Bullard has done a leather collage', Nathan Oliver has made a wooden light box, Laura Ballance made a ceramic pot (complete with baby jade plant living inside), Ron Liberti has a screenprint, & Drew Robertson has created an audio.visual piece that is incredible. There really is quite a variety.

2. Why did you decide to do a two-day concert, and how did the ArtsCenter get involved?

(Maria) The main focus of MSR has always been the visual art. We have never featured live music with any of the shows for that reason. When we approached the Carrboro ArtsCenter about having MSR5 in their gallery, we discovered we would also have access to their
beautiful theatre. Since MSR5 would be a celebration of our 5 year Anniversary-we really wanted to have live music this year. What's even more fantastic about this portion of the celebration, is that all of the bands are performing for FREE. This means that when folks purchase a ticket to see the bands play on both Friday & Saturday-100% of that ticket money is being donated directly to our ArtsCenter!

3. When is the book coming out, and where can we buy it?

(John) The book is out now! Here is a preview.
There is a wall exhibit of the book at the opening along with a copy and bookmarks that will have information on where to purchase your very own copy.
The link to get your copy.

4. Tell us about your own art. What are the similarities between your visual art and your music?

(John) Mostly the art I do is mixed media involving screen printing, acrylic and spray paints on canvas or found objects such as wood/paper. Certainly there is a collage element to both....the sounds and random bleeps/static surround the songs in much of my music...and....the spray paint or drips of random color that surround much of the screen print that is more formed and concrete. I feel that in both ways the song or definition of the piece is presented in a fashion that creates an effect somewhere between creating and deconstructing. I really enjoy the process of creating both...they come from the same source inside of myself.
(Maria) I do a lot of different things. Sometimes acrylic paints. Sometimes pastel chalks or some form of printmaking. This year I am showing an screen print. I guess a main similarity in my art and music would be the element of spontaneity. Resulting in compositions that might not make a whole lot of sense? I don't know. I never sit down and make art with an idea of what I'm trying to execute already present in my mind. It's always a surprise to me. Same with my music.

5. One of your new artists is Mac McCaughan. Tell us about his work.

(John) The subject matter of Mac's work for this show is based in music....amp tubes (the one featured on the new Superchunk album) and headphones. Mac uses pen and gouache on paper. Gouache is similar to watercolor but with a smaller ratio of water to pigment.

Come celebrate Ashlea and Brian's wedding

Ashlea Green is the amazingly talented graphic designer who did the poster for my show. This is the poster she did for her wedding party, which will take place at Kings tonight. You probably know her betrothed, Brian Green, from his tattoo work or his DJ sets at Neptunes. Anyway, they're having a big, public party with several great bands and DJs. It's free, so come out and help them celebrate!

Photos and video of Batillus, Kowloon Walled City and Machete!

(Batillus)

I have to say, last week's Nachtmystium show put me in a bit of a funk. Not only did I not get much photo-wise, but I was just really disappointed that so few people saw the show. When several friends told me I simply had to see Kowloon Walled City and Batillus (above) on Tuesday at Dive Bar, I decided to check the show out and see if it put me in a better mood. I knew very little about both bands, but ended up loving them both. 

The show suffered a bit from competition with the Wormrot show over at Volume 11. Seriously, why is it that we can go weeks without a good metal show, then have two must-see touring shows on the same night? Regardless, the turnout was fairly respectable, for a Tuesday night, and I think everyone had a good time. 

Living up to my promise to do a little better in the photo department, I also got some advice from a real photographer, Greg Cristman, who got some nice shots of the Nachtmystium tour for Brooklyn Vegan. I was happy with the results. 

(Kowloon Walled City)

The singer from Kowloon Walled City threw me off when he came onstage and announced the band as Batillus (you hear that on the video). As I said, I wasn't terribly familiar with either band, so it was only halfway through the set that I realized they were playing some KWC songs I'd been listening to just that day. 

During Batillus' set, there was a suddenly a strong odor of burning plastic, and several people rushed onstage to see what was up. Since I had to be at work early today, I thought that was a good time to make my exit. I guess everything turned out OK. I didn't see anything on WRAL about the club burning down. 

(Machete!)

The best surprise of the evening was Charlotte doom duo Machete! I'm looking forward to seeing them again. 

Well, I tried

Seriously, I did. Other than my own show at Hopscotch, I don't think I've ever spent this much time promoting a show, as I did last night's show at Kings with Nachtmystium (above), Zoroaster, Dark Castle and The Atlas Moth. All of these bands are amazing, with Nachtmystium, Zoroaster and The Atlas Moth releasing three of my favorite albums of the year. Why this show wasn't packed, I don't know. I've heard from two reputable sources that the metal community didn't know about it. Others speculated that people didn't want to try and figure out how to park and get to the club with all the Harley weekend festivities going on. Personally I would have thought having a metal show in the middle of a thousand bikers would be a sure hit, but evidently they were happier watching the Led Zeppelin tribute band on the street directly in front of the club. I didn't hear any of them, but I did look out and see that "Jimmy Page" was playing a gold top, which is just wrong. Any Led Zeppelin fan will tell you that.

Regardless, if any of the bands were upset over the crowd, they certainly didn't show it. All played well (though The Atlas Moth had some sound problems toward the end of their set), and all hung out and chatted with people and were very cool. Zoroaster in particular seem to have a whatever attitude and just had fun onstage. All of the bands are playing tonight with Buzzoven and Black Tusk in Charlotte, which should be a massive show.

The lighting for most of the bands was really dark and atmospheric, which worked with the music, but made taking photos difficult. In fact, the videos for The Atlas Moth and Nachtmystium were completely unusable. In the Zoroaster video, you can only see the drummer, Dan. Dark Castle, ironically enough given their name, were the only ones who had the lights up, and so that video and those photos are better. One of my goals for the year is to learn more about shooting in really low lighting. I don't claim to be a great photographer, but shooting in such conditions is way beyond my capabilities.

(Dark Castle)

See more photos.