Sunday, June 28, 2009
Jazz funeral for MJ
Friday, June 26, 2009
Triangle Music posts Merge video retrospectives
After all that talk about seeing Holy Ghost Tent Revival ...
House of Fools from Mann's World on Vimeo.
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Triangle bands team up on their own
On June 24, 2009, reverbnation teamed up with Microsoft Windows and scores of bands to launch a new musical/promotion experiment. Bands help promote Windows, Windows helps promote bands.
It is a decent enough idea, and many bands from Central NC chose to participate. The only downside is this. For some reason, Reverbnation and Windows decided they would promote bands that are already popular over bands that aren't so much.
Several members of bands from the Triangle region of North Carolina decided that we don't have to be discouraged by the fact that we're somewhere in the middle or at the bottom of a mix of thousands of bands. If we team up we can promote ourselves AND each other.
This is the place where you can see many of the local participants of the Reverbnation/Windows song sponsorship program, listen to their songs, and pass them on. Every band listed here gets 50 cents for every unique download of their song. So listen, and if you like it, download it and tell your friends.
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Roundup: Lots of .mp3s and a Pipe warm-up show
Grayson reports that Pipe will play a pre-XXMerge warm-up show July 17 at the Cave. I can tell you that Greg Adams is not playing bass, but so far I don't know who is. If someone does know, please tell me!
Spinner.com has a download of the new Avetts' track, "I and Love and You."
Friday, June 19, 2009
Catching up with Gray Young and Citified
Gray Young from Mann's World on Vimeo.
(Citified) The headliner for the evening was Greensboro's Citified, who are quite the buzz band these days. I shot video for "Secret Knock," which is my favorite song by them.Citified - "Secret Knock" from Mann's World on Vimeo.
Pitchfork posts new Polvo
Pitchfork has posted a preview .mp3 from Polvo's upcoming CD and it ROCKS. I think Steve and Dave's time in Black Taj was a very good influence on them. That's a serious stomping rhythm Steve and BQ have going on.
Check it out!
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
This week's cool shows: IWTD U2 and more!
John Dee Holman, Sertoma Amphitheatre, Bond Park, Cary
The Duhks w/ Sam & Ruby, Berkeley Cafe
Saturday, June 27:
Raleigh Downtown Live with The Tubes, Moore Squre
Also playing:Cracker, The Loners, Mosadi Music, Balsa Gliders, Acella Vega, Do It To Julia
Friday, July 3:
Weese Fest, The Pour House
With Patty Hurst Shifter, The T's, Birds of Avalon, Left Outlet, Skullbuckle
2:00 - Once and Future Kings (Raleigh)
3:00 - Blag'ard (Chapel Hill)
4:00 - the Virgo Nine (Durham)
5:00 - Battle Rockets (Raleigh/Pittsboro)
6:00 - Free Electric State (Durham)
7:00 - the White Cascade (Raleigh)
8:00 - Irata (Greensboro)
9:00 - Goodbye, Titan (Raleigh)
After living in Los Angeles for a few years, Jolly has chosen to make the music she adores the most. Growing up cultivating her voice she says she “always loved country, bluegrass, Americana, folk, honky tonk, rock, and roots music”. Within her initial five country songs - now accessible online but later part of an album - Jolly shares a piece of her conscience and the experience of a broken heart, maybe a heart that was smashed to smithereens, and quite possibly a reawakening into a fulfilling existence. “Desert of my Mind” draws from a truly solemn and forlorn place in her memory, while “Don’t Say I’m Sorry” assures us that she won’t be licking her wounds for long. But, it’s not Hank Williams. It has a rock likeability which certainly leans toward the alternative country genre.
Jeanne will be backed an all-star band of Greg Humphreys, John Teer, Roger Gupton, and David Burke.
Saturday, July 11:
Raleigh Downtown Live with Joan Jett, Moore Square
Also playing: The T's, Violet Vector, The Beast, Schooner, Panyelo, The Bleeding Hearts
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Check it out
Check out my interview with I Was Totally Destroying It, who will be performing a set of U2 covers this Friday at Tir na Nog.
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Algonquin to release Merge book
From the folks at Merge:
OUR NOISE
The Story of Merge Records, the Indie Label that Got Big and Stayed Small
by John Cook with Mac McCaughan and Laura Ballance
Introduction by Ryan Adams
Includes extensive profiles of:
Arcade Fire * Spoon * Magnetic Fields * Superchunk
Neutral Milk Hotel * Lambchop * Butterglory
During an age when big music labels call the shots, and when iTunes and pirated music have nearly rendered vinyl records and CDs obsolete, one independent label has beaten the odds and held its own as a veritable force in the music industry. Merge Records, a small, independent label stationed in Durham, NC, remains in the forefront of the indie music scene. And this fall, to celebrate the company’s 20th anniversary, Algonquin Books chronicles their achievements by releasing OUR NOISE: THE STORY OF MERGE RECORDS, THE INDIE LABEL THAT GOT BIG AND STAYED SMALL (pub. date: September 15, 2009).
Launched by two 20-year-olds, Mac McCaughan and Laura Ballance, in a rented home in the late 1980s, Merge Records had the humble beginnings of a great success story. Hand-labeling and shipping each record themselves, Mac and Laura started to make their mark on the independent music scene. They gained popularity by fronting the popular pop-punk band Superchunk, one of Merge’s first bands, in the mid-90s. Over time, the label has become known for discovering some of the best indie bands in the country.
Twenty years later, with just thirteen employees—and a real office—the label boasts some of the biggest bands on the independent music scene, including Arcade Fire, Spoon, Magnetic Fields, M. Ward, Neutral Milk Hotel, She & Him, and more. But Merge still maintains its small-label mindset by producing good music they have faith in—not only what they think will sell the most copies.
Author John Cook traces the growth of Merge along the bumpy roads that led to its success and importance today, through first-hand interviews with Mac, Laura, their friends, and band mates, and other key players in the formation and growth of the label. Featuring photographs the life and times of the label and its bands, as well as concert memorabilia, record label art, and a link to a streaming Internet soundtrack for the book, OUR NOISE tells Merge’s story in an intimate and entertaining package.
John Cook is a freelance reporter who has worked for Radar magazine and the Chicago Tribune. He first fell in love with the music of Merge Records at a Superchunk show in 1994 and has been a devoted fan ever since.
New Avetts -- a play by play of their new CD
This week's cool shows: TRK Fest and more!
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Pure to reform bor Merge XX, play "secret shows"
Tuesday, June 09, 2009
Merge music to be choreographed
Saturday, June 06, 2009
Videos of Richard Bacchus & the Ghost of Saturday Nite
(Ghost of Saturday Nite)
After telling everyone to go see Righteous Fool, and interviewing Mike Dean for New Raleigh, I ended up not seeing the band because I'd forgotten I had a 7:15 a.m. appointment the next morning. Earlier in the evening I thought I actually would get a chance to see them, because someone in the know insisted that the first band would be playing at 9 sharp. Turns out that person was just plain wrong. So, I saw The Ghost of Saturday Nite and Richard Bacchus & the Luckiest Girls, but not the band I came to see. But the folks who were there (and the show was strangely undercrowded) that I had MISSED IT, and the show was amazing. Damn.
At least I got to ride in the "I Gotcha" cab, which has been prowling the streets of downtown for a few months now. If you haven't seen it, and I hadn't until that night, it's a macked-out mini van with lights, comfy bench seating, and bongos, cowbells and tambourines for passengers to play. The driver blasts classic rock like Kansas and Styx and sings along loudly, and very out of tune, over a loud speaker. Look for him tonight at 2:30 when it's time to make your way home and you know you shouldn't drive.
Ghost of Saturday Nite from Mann's World on Vimeo.
(Ghost of Saturday Nite)
Richard Bacchus & the Luckiest Girls from Mann's World on Vimeo.
(Richard Bacchus & the Luckiest Girls)
See more photos of Richard Bacchus & the Luckiest Girls and Ghost of Saturday Nite.
Friday, June 05, 2009
Wednesday, June 03, 2009
This week's cool shows: Righteous Fool and more!
Righteous Fool with Ghost of Saturday Night and Richard Bacchus & the Luckiest Girls, Pour House
Thad Cockrell, Duke Gardens
CPSFC's Save Our Arts benefit
The Great White Jenkins of Richmond, Virginia
Phil Cook of Megafaun (and his feet)
and another rad band (for real.)...tba!
NEXT WEEK'S SHOWS
Wednesday, June 10:
Ivan Rosebud
Embarrassing Fruits
Hammer No More The Fingers
Des Ark
Midtown Dickens
The Never
The Strugglers
Mount Moriah
Vibrant Green
John Dee Holman, Sertoma Amphitheatre, Bond Park, Cary
June 25:
Holy Ghost Tent Revival, The Pour House
June 27:
Raleigh Downtown Live with The Tubes, Moore Squre
Also playing:Cracker, The Loners, Mosadi Music, Balsa Gliders, Acella Vega, Do It To Julia,
Urban Sophisticates, The Pour House
July 3:
Weese Fest, The Pour House
With Patty Hurst Shifter, The T's, Birds of Avalon, Left Outlet, Skullbuckle
July 11:
Raleigh Downtown Live with Joan Jett, Moore Square
Also playing: The T's, Violet Vector, The Beast, Schooner, Panyelo, The Bleeding Hearts,
Tuesday, June 02, 2009
My interview with Mike Dean
I'll go ahead and say this is the show of the week: Righteous Fool at the Pour House. Read my interview with bass player Mike Dean for New Raleigh.
Superchunk album news
Superchunk's "Crossed Wires" b/w "Blinders (Fast Vers.)" was produced by Scott Solter (John Vanderslice, The Mountain Goats) at Overdub Lane in Durham, NC, and will be available in a limited edition of 1,000 copies on clear vinyl. “Crossed Wires” comes in a beautiful picture sleeve featuring artwork by New York artist, Will Yackulic, and comes with a digital download code that gets you both songs plus a demo version of “Crossed Wires.”