Podcasting again!

It's been a while, but now I'm finally back to podcasting. I'm hoping to do this bi-weekly rather than weekly -- it turns out it's more work than I anticipated!

This week's edition features Portastatic, who will be opening for Yo La Tengo at Cat's Cradle on Monday, and The Broken West. And, for my "From the Vault" feature, well, guess who!

Download it:
http://www.rockthetriangle.com/podcasts/20070202_podcast.mp3

Menconi's Great Eight -- and my own

Most of you know that I work at The News & Observer. I was honored to be part of the production crew for this year's Great Eight, in which music critic David Menconi lists his eight bands to watch for the upcoming year. Real kudos go to my co-worker Rob Roberts, who did all of the Flash heavy-lifting here (I just helped shoot video of some of the bands). Check it out.

As for David's selections for the Great Eight, well, let's just say I politely disagree with him on every one of his choices except for the Annuals, who are truly one of the most exciting bands in the area (and they're playing this Saturday at Kings, so go and check them out for yourself). The Never and Old Ceremony are both good bands that have the potential to become great, but aren't quite there yet. I would have put Roman Candle on my list rather than Old Ceremony, and Schooner rather than The Never. (To be fair, David put both those bands on previous Great Eight lists). Dirty530 is flavorless jam-hip hop -- Urban Sophisticates blew them away at Cat's Cradle. Darien Brockington is just fine at smooth r&b-flavored hip-hop, but since that's not my thing, he's not going on my list. Southern Culture was played out 20 years ago. As for Des Ark, Amiee Argote has a beautiful voice, and at her best sounds like a female Rick Danko, but she sings in such a mannered way that it ruins the experience. She sounds awesome on the songs she performs with Ben Davis on the split CD "Battle of the Beards." But the truth is, Ben Davis and the Jets, whose Eric Wallen is one of my favorite local guitarists, are much more deserving of a spot on the list.

The biggest surprise on David's list, for me, is the Carolina Chocolate Drops, a young old-time bluegrass band. I'm looking forward to see how they develop, so I'll make them an honorable mention on my list.

As for my own list, it's true that my tastes tend to be more harder edge than David's.

1. Ben Davis and the Jets
2. Black Skies
3. The Annuals
4. Roman Candle
5. Thunderlip
6. The Greatest Hits
7. Schooner
8. Urban Sophisticates

Honorable mentions: The T's, Carolina Chocolate Drops, Dynamite Brothers, Black Taj, Red Smokes White, The Trousers and Un Deux Trois.

OMG I hope this is true!!

The Police might reform and play some dates in the U.S.!!!

Seriously, I saw The Police in Charlotte on the Ghost in the Machine tour (with Joan Jett opening!), and it was one of the best major concerts I've ever seen.

A good local music calendar

The good folks at Triangle Music have come up with a good, complete local music calendar online. When you get to the blog, click on TRIANGLE MUSIC CALENDAR on the right rail.

As for yours truly, I am debating between Vietnam at Cat's Cradle (yes, Lemonheads are playing too, but I couldn't care less about them), and Black Skies at Alibi in Raleigh.

More N.C. rock on Youtube

Searching for "Comboland" on Youtube brought up a couple of gems.  Comboland sampler As someone who lived through N.C. rock in the '80s, the Comboland sampler brought back a LOT of memories. I saw many of these bands at Clawson's, which was an awesome little club in Beaufort in the early '80s, and whose manager always allowed us to come in even though we were underage. I remember seeing Doc Holliday at the Big Surf in Atlantic Beach, and PKM at a festival sponsored by WXQR at the Craven County Fairgrounds in New Bern. And I saw both PKM and Doc Holliday (along with Nantucket and the Bill Lyerly Band) at some outdoor festival in a parking lot in Jacksonville. I remember there was also a wet T-shirt contest -- in broad daylight -- and my boyfriend's dad, who was our chaperone, was absolutely mortified. I also saw Glassmoon at He's Not Here during my first visit to Chapel Hill in 1985. And I swear the Spongetones played ECU's Barefoot on the Mall every year. The only year they didn't play was when GWAR played, causing some visiting parents to threaten to remove their kids from the school as a result. The only band I don't remember from this sampler is Luky Owens & Revolver.  Arrogance at The Pier  PKM at The Attic. I wasn't there, but I think my friend Rachel was. Where are the Nantucket videos? Every time I search for them, I just get family vacation videos.