Rosebuds secret show

Triangle Music is reporting that The Rosebuds will play a secret show Saturday at the Downtown Event Center. Check it out.

Check out this site: Return to Comboland

I haven't had a chance to really peruse this site, but it looks pretty interesting. I'm glad to see the person who put it together included PKM, who, for my money, are one of the most underrated bands ever to emerge from this area, and who were always unjustly overshadowed by Nantucket.

Good Golden Dogs review

Here's a review from Hear Ya, a blog I just discovered and will make part of my regular Web reading.

Check out The Golden Dogs

No, they're not from the Triangle, but their new CD, "Big Eye, Little Eye," IS on Yep Roc, and it is incredibly infectious. Therefore you should check out the following track, "Dynamo," from Toronto's awesome Golden Dogs.

To-do this weekend

Even though I've been blogging since 2002, in some ways I feel like I really started only a couple of years ago. That's when I began taking photos and video with my trusty little Nikon and uploading the results to Flickr/Youtube. One of the first bands I documented in this manner was Dirty Johnny & the Make-Believes, who played at Slim's on Nov. 11, 2005. They'll be back in town this Saturday, again at Slim's, with the Straight 8's. As this picture from that November evening shows, they put on a rowdy show. Go see them.

The night before, the T's are playing an early show at Sadlack's for free! For those of you who hate driving to Raleigh (which is understandable, since I hate driving to Chapel Hill), they'll be at The Cave the night before. That will not be an early show, and as far as I know, won't be free.

Spark Con needs your help

The good folks who are putting together Spark Con are looking for volunteers, and especially supporters (you know, people with cash) to help out for the mid-September event. If you have a local business and want to support the arts, contact them about sponsorship possibilities.

There's a pretty amazing line-up for the Music Spark part of the festival, including Apples in Stereo, The Moaners, Bleeding Hearts and The Never.

If you missed Leslie at Slim's last Thursday

Here are a couple of shots by Mike Spence to show you what you missed.

Give the Hideaway some feedback

The owners of the Hideaway have started a Myspace page asking for feedback on their service, food, etc. It looks like you have to be their friend to comment, but I suppose you can just send a message. Here's what they want to know:

Hello and welcome to the Hideaway BBQ survey page. We welcome any concerns or comments you have about the Hideaway. We are trying to improve the Hideaway and we need your help. Please don’t be shy, say whatever you want, you won’t offend us. We really need some feed back from you. Do you still come to the Hideaway? What do you like/dislike about the food? Do you like the music? How do you feel about the price of shows? How do you like the staff? If you have stopped coming to the Hideaway could you tell us why and what we can do to get you back in here? Please be honest in helping us to improve the Hideaway. We have some new and exciting things happening here and we need your help to make the Hideaway, your HIDEAWAY!! Thank you for your time…………


OK, here's what I plan to tell them:
1. Bring back the mac & cheese
2. Hire a better waitstaff, or train the staff you have to be quicker, friendlier and more knowledgeable about what you have on the menu. This one pains me to say because I've been a waitress, and I know it's a difficult job, but I can honestly say I've never had good service at the Hideaway (the bartenders are great, however).
3. Have a late-night menu available during shows.
4. Consider dropping prices for weekday shows. Every time I go there for a show, I feel like I'm spending about $3-$5 more than the show is worth.

Valient Thorr tonight at the Brewery

I guess the Brewery didn't want a mad crush of people there for tonight's Valient Thorr show. That's the only reason I can think of for them not promoting this show until the last minute. I should note that Riverboat Gamblers are also a really good band.

Why don't more people have house parties in the country?

I have to thank my co-worker Sherry for having a fabulous party at her home in Harnett County yesterday, complete with free-flowing beer and wine, lots of delicious food (ribs, pork, wings, chocolate trifle, prosciutto-wrapped asparagus), and great music. Knoxville's Mic Harrison played a boozy set of rockin' originals and half-remembered covers. I think the best part was when Mic hollared out that the bass player had "lost her mind." Take a look at the video. You'll see the bass player is not a woman.

Mick Harrison from Mann's World on Vimeo.

Round up: Four bands, two clubs, one Raleigh block

Last night I started off at The Pour House, where The Loners were playing with The Heavy Pets and Adult Film Makers. AFM have been around for years, and include two members of one of my long-time favorite bands The Bad Checks, and yet I had never seen them. Their bass player was unable to be at the show, so this isn't entirely representative of their sound, but they still managed to rock.

Adult Film Makers from Mann's World on Vimeo.

Adult Film Makers A couple of doors down at Tir na nOg, Richard Bacchus and the Luckiest Girls were putting on a free show sponsored by WKNC. I swear, I can't figure out how Richard doesn't roast in that buttoned-up jean jacket he always wears. Here's their video.

Richard Bacchus & the Luckiest Girls from Mann's World on Vimeo.

After Richard Bacchus, I headed back to the Pour House and caught The Heavy Pets very last song.

The Heavy Pets from Mann's World on Vimeo.

My camera memory died at this point, which was too bad because I decided to go around the block to Slim's to see a Charleston, S.C., band called Leslie, rather than stick around for The Loners. These guys were strutting, bombastic blues rock, the type of band that hollers out "ALRIGHT" and "CAN YOU FEEL IT RALEIGH????" after every song. I think they really should be seen to be believed, but unfortunately you'll just have to take my word for it. Finally, I had no idea Uncle Kracker was even in town!

Manchild 3 and unreleased Melvins

Repost from Walsby's myspace bulletin:

BFM026 BRIAN WALSBY: MANCHILD 3 (BOOK)/THE MELVINS: MAKING LOVE DEMOS (CD)

Elder punk/art statesman Brian Walsby is back with another stinging slab of satirical comic art. In this new collection, Brian applies his fine tuned illustrative skill and wit to the following masterpieces: The Melvins 2006 Tour Diary, Life After Black Flag, SCTV: The Best Goddamn Comedy Show Ever, Magical Melvins Moments, Hang The DJ, Careers of the Black Flag My War Puppet, How I Survived Grunge, Rules For Young Rock Bands On TV, Whatever Became of Your Favorite Punk Rock Mascots, Rodney On the Rock, Well Meaning White Guilt, and many others.

Oh yeah... MANCHILD 3 comes with a Melvins CD. The Making Love Demos is a collection of 8 unreleased tracks recorded by the band in 1987. While the original master tapes have long since
disappeared, It just so happens that Mr. Walsby was given a copy of this recording back in '88 and held onto it just for this very moment. We’ve had the whole thing mastered and tweaked for your
listening/collecting pleasure. It’s still raw as hell, but we like it that way. Four of these songs were re-tooled and recorded for the Ozma record. Four of them exist only on this CD.

2000 copies available October, 9 2007. Pre-orders will go out a week or 2 before the stores get them.

Here is the e-mail address for Bifocal Media:

http://www.bifocalmedia.com/


thanks,
Brian Walsby and Charles Cardello

New tracks by Man Will Destroy Himself

Thanks to Earthworm from Man Will Destroy Himself for forwarding some tracks from the band's new CD, Nation of Ashes, on Earthworm's own Poverty is Violence label. Four of the songs are on the band's myspace, but I decided to upload this one because of the great Charlton Heston quote at the beginning. I'm not sure what this band's obsession with Planet of the Apes is all about, but I think it's cool.

Whenever I leave my camera home, I always see a great band

I deliberately left my camera home last night when I went to see The T's at Slim's, because I've documented them several times, and kind of wanted a night off. That was a mistake, because the band who opened for them, The Lonely H from Port Angeles, Washington, was pretty extraordinary -- a '70s symphonic-rock extravaganza unlike anything I've seen around here. I've you've been in Slim's for the past month, you've probably seen the Led Zeppelin I-looking poster with the five hair-bears all huddled together under the word HAIR. Well, that's them, and that poster pretty much sums them up in more ways than one. They are hairy, though they're so young, it looked like only one of them could sprout hair on his face. And they have some very distinct Zep influences, though honestly I heard more Zep on their CD, particularly one song that came a little too close to "That's the Way." Both Stephen and Martin said they reminded them of Meatloaf, which is fitting because all their songs had this powerhouse rock-opera quality a la "Paradise by the Dashboard Light." The guitars owed a lot to Queen and Thin Lizzy. And just to hammer that last point home they even covered, and nailed, "Cowboy Song." It really is too bad I didn't get footage of them, because they really were one of the best bands I've seen around here in a while. The T's rocked as usual. Seriously, they get better and better each time I see them. Thanks also to Rick Cornell for mentioning the blog in this week's Indy.

Miss Sharon Jones!

The diva has a new download, "100 Days, 100 Nights," from the album of the same name, scheduled for release on Oct. 6. Go to the band's page to download it and find out about the band's record release party at the Apollo.

My Justin Townes Earle article

I'm working on publishing an article on Justin Townes Earle, but in the meantime went ahead and wrote up something to work from. Let me know what y'all think: You can learn a lot about Justin Townes Earle just by looking at his tattoos. There’s the hammer and sickle on his right bicep, which he displays when asked about his politics. There’s “Townes,” his middle name, emblazoned in script across his chest. And on his left wrist there’s the word “Yuma,” the name of his recent self-released debut CD, looking surprisingly good despite the fact that he just had it done a few nights before in Athens, Ga. “I use Burt’s Bees Wax Rescue Ointment to heal my tattoos,” he says, as he sits on the tail gate of his pickup truck behind The Hideaway, a barbeque joint/country bar in Raleigh, N.C. “I have about a week of healing if I use Vitamin A&D Ointment but with the Burt’s Bees Wax it’s two to three days and it’s done.“ Earle is back in North Carolina on a hot July evening as the opener for Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit, who have just taken the stage and are doing their best to drown out his conversation. The pickup truck is his version of a touring van, with just enough room for a few guitars, a couple of suitcases, a small amp, a ukulele, and a ukulele player named Steve Poulton. Originally his booking agent wanted him to bring a full backing band, but told him he would only get $200 to $250 per night, so he decided to perform as a duo. Though the crowd is clearly Isbell’s, there’s a sizable contingent there, partly because they know and love his music, and partly because they know and love the music of his father, Steve Earle. The fact that Townes Van Zandt is the inspiration for that middle name means that he’s got a double whammy to live up to musically. Earle, unlike the progeny of other famous entertainers, doesn’t like trumpeting his lineage, but neither is he running away from it. Earlier in the summer he hit the road with Jubal Lee Young, son of songwriter Steve Young (“Seven Bridges Road) on a tour that was billed as a sort of “young guns” of country music, a characterization that, in retrospect, made him uncomfortable. “I learned that a long time ago because the people are going to come and they’re going to buy your records, first of all out of pure curiosity and then if you’re any good they become fans and they keep coming back,” he says. “It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that I’m Steve Earle’s son, and so I don’t see the point in telling anybody.” According to Earle, his famous father was less of an influence than East Tennessee singer-songwriter and family friend Scotty Melton, with whom Earle lived and toured as a teen. “I tried to learn from listening to my dad and listening to Townes and some of them but I really needed somebody who wasn’t my father to be able to tell me, to really instruct me on what was going on,” he says. “And teach me that a song wasn’t about a diary entry, it was about a thesis.” Love is a common theme in his folksy, bluesy acoustic yarns, but it’s always twisted and conflicted, like the story of the Christian in “Let the Waters Rise, “ who doesn’t have the guts to kill his cheating woman, so he prays for a flood to wash her away. Or the shattered and suicidal protagonist of “Yuma,” who thinks of returning home to that town before finding a different solution for his broken heart. Earle’s distinctive, rhythmic guitar strumming tends to trick audience members, who declare that he has to be somehow looping a backing track while he plays. “I call it a sleight of hand guitar playing because every time I play a show some body accuses me of having a sampler,” he says. Guitar-wise he cites singer-songwriters like his aunt, Stacey Earle, and Malcolm Holcombe. One thing you won’t hear at a Justin Earle concert is politics, despite that hammer and sickle on his arm. “I think that when people come out to shows they want to have a good time, and reminding them of what’s going on in the world is not my best suit,” he says. “If I write a song about my politics I prefer to write it to a sense where a Communist could think it’s about him, and a Republican could think it’s about him. I don’t have a problem with Republicans who buy my records!”

Home Movie Day this Saturday

Not really music-related, but looks pretty interesting. I'm guessing this is sponsored by A/V Geeks, and Skip always puts on an interesting show.


ANNOUNCING THE THIRD HOME MOVIE DAY RALEIGH

What? HOME MOVIE DAY RALEIGH
Sponsored by the Film Studies Program, NCSU.
When? Saturday AUGUST 11th, 2007,

1pm - 4pm
Where? Caldwell Hall Basement, NCSU North Campus

Rooms G107, 2221 Hillsborough St.

Across from Bruegger's Bagels on Hillsborough St. at Logan Ct.

Parking on Hillsborough St. and in the university lot across the street.

Website: http://www.avgeeks.com/hmd.html


WHAT IS HOME MOVIE DAY?
Home Movie Day was started in 2002 as a worldwide celebration of amateur home movies, during which people in cities and towns all over would get to meet local film archivists, find out about the long-term benefits of film versus video and digital media, and-most importantly-get to watch those old family films! Because they will happen in communities across the globe, HOME MOVIE DAY events and screenings can focus on local and family histories, taking us back to a time when Main Street was bustling and the beehive hair-do was all the rage, with images of people we may know or resemble. Home movies are an essential record of our past, and they are among the most authoritative documents of times gone by.

"Pneumonia" at the Carolina Rollergirls benefit

OK, so my intention was to go to the Carolina Rollergirls benefit yesterday at Sadlack's and FINALLY get some footage of The Cartridge Family. But as it turned out, their bass player, C.J., was out of commission with a combination appendicitis and pneumonia. My mother had to have an emergency appendectomy last year, and all I have to say about that is, it really, really, really sucked. Not my most eloquent description, but to the point. Mom would agree. Anyway, pianist Greg Rice took over the bass playing duties for the show, and after one practice earlier that day, they were good to go, and performed under the name "Pneumonia." Greg claims he's never played bass before, which I just don't believe. Surely, during his years as a musician, he's picked up a bass somewhere and jammed with someone. If not, then he's got a mighty impressive knack for it. What he can't do, though, is compete with Joe's rock face in this second photo. In fact it even looks like Greg is turned away in shame, knowing he can't feel the rock the way Joe is doing right here: I should note that this video is particularly strange because I just couldn't find a good spot. When I stood near Joe, the light was in my eyes. When I walked over near Greg, some dude started juggling beside me, which freaked me out. So enjoy the perspective on this one; it's like being everywhere at once. (Video removed)

For jazz heads: Thelonious Monk festival

Check it out at Duke this fall (Sept. 15 - Oct. 28). More details at The N&O.

Vote for Crap-Rock Allstars

Greensboro's Crap-Rock Allstars -- which is a pretty good band despite the name -- is involved in the Austin City Limits "The Sound and The Jury" contest, which gives bands a shot at appearing in the ACL Music Festival. They're pretty far down on the list right now, so go vote for them. We can't let them get beat by a band called Girl Fart.

CRG benefit at Sadlack's TODAY!

Help the Rollergirls go to their tournament in Columbus, Ohio, and hear some great music at the same time today at Sadlack's. The party is from 3 - 9 p.m., and the line-up is as follows: David Wilson The Wayves Regina Hexaphone ROBO SAPIEN The Cartridge Family

Sir Arthur & His Royal Knights

ursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px;" src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1126/996705796_1ccb454224.jpg" border="0" alt="" /> Sir Arthur & His Royal Knights lived up to their hype last night at Slim's with a Nuggets II-era retro rawness that invoked both a souped-up Move and a less tragically hip Horrors. The even covered the mid-60s Spinal Tap classic "Give Me Some Money," and absolutely tore it up.

Glam rock, honky-tonk punk and a Theramin

By now it's no secret that Birds of Avalon will be at Slim's tomorrow night. But while I certainly enjoy BOA, the band I'm really looking forward to is Sir Arthur & the Royal Knights, which from what I understand is essentially Greatest Hits sans Jeramy, plus some other guy. Sorry, Michele told me who the other guy was, but it was while she was giving me a massage, so it kind of went in one ear and out the other. I do remember her telling me they sound like the Kinks, so check it out. Around the block at Tir na nOg tomorrow night, there's a free show by The Bleeding Hearts, all of whom usually hang out at Slim's, so this is a little confusing. Joe and Sam from The Bleeding Hearts will also be interviewed tomorrow at 4 p.m. on WKNC. Friday's can't-miss show certainly has to be John Doe at The Hideaway. I really don't believe there's anything I can say about Mr. Doe that hasn't already been said. The bad thing is that it's on the same night as another really awesome event, Science Fiction Music at the Museum of Natural Sciences, which will include a "Musical Display from the Moog Foundation who will be bringing several different synthesizers and Theremins for visitors to experiment with" (!!!!!!!!!) and a showing of "Theremin: An Electronic Odyssey." I've seen the Theremin movie before, and it's truly heartbreaking and fascinating. The Theremin experimentation begins at 6 p.m., and the movie begins at 7. Since the Hideaway usually has their acts play two sets, you actually might be able to see the movie and catch John Doe. Or, if you want to skip the Theremin event, you can still go to the Wild Music Festival, also at the Museum of Natural Sciences, the following day. The Moog Foundation, and many other musicians and groups, will be there too, and that event is free. In honor of the Theremin, here's a video of one of the most well-known Theremin songs of all time, though, oddly, this version doesn't seem to have much Theremin in it. In fact, I'm not even sure Jimmy's even playing the Theremin here. I do know that Robert Plant was only 20 when this was filmed, which is amazing enough on its own.