Megafaun at Kings

On Friday I caught Megafaun's insanely packed show (night one of a two-night residency) at Kings. If you follow me on Twitter, I'm sure you saw my tweet about how I didn't want to deal with the crowd. But honestly I'd much rather be at an overly packed show than one where only a few people show up. The crowd was energetic, and the band fed off of that. They also debuted a new member, multi-instrumentalist Mark Paulson, who really complimented and improved the band's sound. See more photos. 

This week's cool shows: Kylesa/Zoroaster, Cannabis Corpse and Megafaun!

2011 is starting out splendidly for local metal fans. Tomorrow night (Wednesday) Savannah's Kylesa, whose "Spiral Shadow" was voted album of the year by many reviewers (including yours truly) will be at Kings. Opening up is one of my favorite heavy bands, Zoroaster. Also on the bill is Fight Amp. This is easily the show of the week, so do not miss it. I don't think Kylesa will be playing club shows like this for long. 

On Thursday, Richmond's Cannabis Corpse - who were hilariously great at Hopscotch - and Inter Arma, will also be at Kings. That same night Leslie will be at Slim's. 

Also at Kings, Megafaun plays a two-night stint Friday and Saturday. I'll see you there on Friday.

Other cool shows this week:

Thursday: Jucifer at Volume 11
Thursday: Hammer No More the Fingers at Playmakers Theater
Thursday - Saturday: Death to False Hopes Showcase at Motorco
Saturday: Mandolin Orange at Local 506

A new holiday song from Megafaun

Thanks to Triangle Music for alerting me to this: Megafaun's version of "I Saw Three Ships" is one of the free holiday tunes available for download from Hometapes. Check it out, and Merry Christmas!

Karen's Top 5 local releases of the year

Yes, we've been fortunate enough to have some really fine releases in the Triangle this year. That said, this list wasn't a terribly difficult one for me to make.

1. The Love Language: "The Love Language"

No other local release got as much play in my world -- or as much attention from the masses. Kudos to Bladen County Records' Matt Brown for making the incredibly wise decision to release Stu McLamb's lo-fi solo compositions as-is. And kudos to Stu for putting together a very fine live band to interpret those compositions.

2. The Bronzed Chorus: "I'm the Spring"
A fine release from the most compelling band I've heard, local or otherwise, in a while.

3. Lonnie Walker: "These Times, Old Times"
Listening to "These Times, Old Times" just makes me happy. And that's good enough reason to put this on my list.

4. Megafaun: "Gather, Form and Fly"
On the other hand, "Gather, Form and Fly" often makes me feel apprehensive. Even the quietest numbers have a calm-before-the-storm feel to them.


5. Polvo: "In Prisim"
Polvo returns, and isn't afraid to show their Led Zeppelin influence.

Song of the year:
 I Was Totally Destroying It: "Done Waiting"
Nothing made me sing at the top of my lungs like the "Whoa-ohhhhs" in this song.

Videos of The Beast and Megafaun from night one of Troika

Last night was a perfect example of why The Triangle is an awesome place to live if you love music. Not only did I get to see two great local bands (including one that was new to me), I also got to see one of my favorite bands of all time, reformed, in a club setting. My only complaint was that the timing of the two events clashed, otherwise I could have seen a lot more local music.


We started off with the free kick-off for Troika at the Farmer's Market at Durham Central Park. Durham Central Park really isn't a bad place to see a band. It was spacious, and the sound was good. But yours truly had underestimated how cold it would be outside in early November, so I spent most of the time shivering.


I did get to see  The Beast, a band I'd heard about but hadn't seen. Wow. Seriously. Wow. This band is impressive. Hip Hop, but with a lot of other musical flavors (particularly jazz) thrown in, reminding me of De La Soul. Vocalist Pierce Freelon is the son of local jazz legend Nnenna Freelon, and keyboard player Eric Hirsh is the brother of IWTDI keyboard player Rachel Hirsh.Check out the video below for "Interfaith Dialog."



The Beast - "Interfaith Dialog" from Mann's World on Vimeo.

After The Beast was Megafaun. I hadn't seen them in a while, and my two companions hadn't seen them at all, and weren't that familiar with their music. Let's just say they had completely different opinions. One liked them a lot and wants to hear more. The other spent her time in the only warm spot out there, the ladies room, Facebooking about how much she hated them. Among her gems:


"Bunch of hipsters clappin and singin along...feelin like dey gettin dey country influenced indie rock on...I want to machine gun everyone here..."


and


" we're at some outdoor uber-hipater fest and thse guyz sound like a more pretensiou version of the avett brotherz if that's possible...ready for the JL dammit!!!"




Megafaun at night one of the Troika Music Fest from Mann's World on Vimeo.
Well, I don't agree with her, but I did think that was pretty funny, and by that point I was ready for the JL too, so off we went to Chapel Hill. I didn't take the camera in because I'm still paranoid about shooting anything other than local bands, but there were probably about 50 other people shooting, including some who bravely got right up in David Yow's face as he swam through the audience, so you might see some photos and video floating around. Yow at one point announced that it felt good to be "old guys playing young guy music." I can say on the opposite side that it felt good to be an old gal once again watching one of the most electrifying live bands I've ever seen. 

My interview with Brad Cook from Megafaun

Check it out.

New Megafaun .. same as the old Megafaun

OK, count this as a classic Karen Mann brain fart: I was somehow under the impression that Megafaun's new CD was, uh, new. Turns out it's a re-release of their self-released CD from last year. Brad Cook from Megafaun says: "actually....the guy at Table of the Elements wanted to release that one as is.....so no new recording. We are working on a follow up as we speak....." Now, the reason why I didn't do anything with this CD when Grayson first gave it to me was that, until I heard them live, Megafaun really didn't do much for me. But seeing them live left me amazed. I can now appreciate the beauty of this CD, but if you haven't seen them live, you really haven't heard them at their best. 

Goner tomorrow night, plus a download!

I must apologize in advance because even though I've been driving around listening to an advance copy of Goner's "Rock 'n' Roll Always Forgets," I didn't bother to try and upload it to my computer until just now. That's when I realized that the song titles aren't listed in the track information, so I have no idea of the name of the song listed here. It's the first one on the CD. I have an e-mail out to Chris Dalton, so maybe he'll get back with me soon about the title, and I'll pass it on to you. they apparently have another download available at the Indy's site, so if you like this song, you might like that one as well.

Goner is playing tomorrow night (Thursday) as part of the local band, local brew night at Tir na nOg. The show is free, and you get samples of Big Boss brew. Plus, The T's are opening. Advance warning: The T's are going to have their CD-release at Slim's with The Lonely H, who were seriously one of the most amazing bands I saw last year. That show is Feb. 8.

A couple of other cool shows I'm going to try and go to this week:

The Loners, Wednesday, Jan. 16, at White Collar Crime (free!) with Russ DeSena's new band Rocket Cottage.

Megafaun, this Saturday, Jan. 12, at Bull City Headquarters. I haven't been to Bull City HQ yet, so I'm really going to try and make it out for this one.

Now, here's that Goner song.

UPDATE: this song is called "Better than Blue"

Download it here

Megafaun among group robbed in Toronto

According to Pitchfork -- with the Indy's Grayson Currin as contributor -- Megafaun was touring with Akron/Family and Greg Davis, and the bands' vans were apparently all broken into. Read more here.