This week's cool shows: Insplosure and more

This weekend's best show isn't a show at all. If you find yourself wandering around at Artsplosure (whose musical line up isn't doing much for me this year), definitely pop into the Pour House to take a look at what some amazing local artists are doing. This year's stable of artists includes Greg Clayton, Leigh Griffin Harris, Chris Williams (Plastic Flame), Troy Jeffries, Kirk Adam, Julia Hoffman and many, many more.Plus it's a good spot to stop and get a cocktail before heading back out into the sun. 


Musically, this week's cool shows include Citified and Fan-Tan at Local 506 on Friday, Pontiak with Arboretum and Caltrop at Nightlight on Saturday, and Richard Bacchus and the Luckiest Girls with Rat Jackson at Slim's, also on Saturday. 

Check out the video for Future Islands' Tin Man

It's been out for about a month, but I just now got around to watching it. LOVE the fact that it was partially filmed in my hometown. Lots of great, iconic Morehead City views from my childhood, including the vista from atop the Morehead/Beaufort bridge. And it's really funny that Janie Davenport (Miss Morehead 1970, spied briefly in the video) is a family friend. Great video and great song!

UPDATE! Jake Seaton rightfully reminded me that Future Islands did a killer session, including a version of Tin Man on Sessions from Studio B. Check it out!

What's the Triangle's most musically walkable city?

The awesome new blog Prison for Jerks asks that question. Since I spend a lot of time in the Slim's-Landmark/Remedy-Tir na Nog/Pour House triangle, I have give Raleigh the nod. PFJ thinks otherwise. What do YOU think?

This week's cool shows: Mystery show and more!

This week's show of the week is undoubtedly the Thursday show at Tir na Nog that we've all been asked not to post on the Internet (after it was posted on Facebook). You probably know who it is already. If you're friends with Chris Tamplin on Facebook, then you definitely know who it is. The idea is that this should be a word-of-mouth only show, so I won't reveal it here, though I will say that I'm glad the band is making good on a favor they've owed Tamplin since January.


The other big show of the week is Megafaun and Mount Moriah at Cat's Cradle on Friday. Richmond's Great White Jenkins are opening. Greensboro's Citified will be at Slim's on Friday with Gray Young, and Broad Street Cafe on Saturday with Free Electric State. Static Minds are playing Abe Quinn's birthday blowout Saturday at Slim's so expect the alcohol to be flowing for that one. Future Islands are holding their CD-release show with Lonnie Walker TONIGHT at the Berkeley. And finally Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings are at Cat's Cradle next Tuesday, May 11.

Finally, this isn't music-related, but I really love this particular organization and believe in what they do: The Coalition to Unchain Dogs is holding its Fashion Unchained fundraiser on Saturday at Marbles Kids Museum. Please check it out!

Hot nites

It's no secret that Sir Arthur & the Royal Knights were one of my favorite bands around here. I even had them play my birthday party a couple of years ago. I loved their Nuggets-style nasty garage rock. So when Arthur quit  and the band decided to go on as the Royal Nites with Abe Quinn singing, I kind of had mixed feelings, especially when I kept hearing that the band sounds vastly different now.

Friday night at Slim's I found out that sounding different is an awesome thing, because now they sound pretty much like AC/DC, which is of course my second favorite band in the world (next to Led Zeppelin). The main force driving the AC/DC comparison is Abe who sound almost exactly like Brian Johnson, but yet has all of Bon Scott's swagger. I'll admit that they sounded a bit more original with the more garag-y sound, but I love them ten times more like this.

Check out the video below.

The Spring Collection, which is the new band with Sam Madison, Greg Rice and Mark Connor (sorry, don't know the drummer's name), had the un-enviable duty of following the Royal Nites. This was their debut show, and I really wasn't sure what to expect. Turns out that it's intelligent, skinny-tie pop, reminding me very much of early Joe Jackson. Good stuff. I'm looking forward to seeing them again.

Oh, and btw, Slim's has upgraded their sound system, so all the bands sounded great. I didn't stick around for the Loners, but I imagine they sounded fine too.