Azuka Jebose Molokwu spoke with the Indy last winter about a new African nightclub he was opening, Zanziba. Azuka was a young journalist in his native Lagos, Nigeria and covered the music scene, including the swirling maelstrom of Fela Kuti, who also became his friend.
Zanziba opened in Raleigh after some initial delays, but Azuka says his partner decided to have the club change its African heritage focus. “I parted ways with Zanziba because it was going in the direction that was at variance with our concept,” he said this week. But that hasn’t stopped him from staying deeply involved in promoting African culture and music. He brings the African Peace and Unity Bash to Raleigh’s Downtown Event Center this Friday, the 28th. Doors open at 9 p.m. and “African attire is appreciated.”
He says, “It is an all nite party featuring dance music by Africa’s top Dee Jays: Dee Jay Ibro and Dee Jay O. We encourage African attire, but we would love the peace-loving world citizens to come as they are.”
Azuka is also busy hosting a strong reggae show now on WSHA 88.9, Shaw University’s station, on Saturday afternoons from noon to 3 p.m. with, he says, “emphasis on roots and culture reggae.”
He’s also working behind the scenes for the station’s outreach to listeners.
Check out Azuka’s own reaching out at Friday’s event. As he puts it, it’s a needed celebration: “There is so much animosity amongst Africans in the Triangle area. This is either as a result of culture shock in the United States or lack of a social outlet for Africans to network and socialize.You watch the news, especially news coming of Africa and all we hear are economic and political strifes from that beautiful continent. There is so much to celebrate about Africa…and we cannot celebrate our cultural and traditional differences without peace and unity, hence this BASH. It is also a gathering intended for friends of and curious people about Africa to come and feel the rhythms of the cradle of civilization, its diversified culture and the music and dance that unites us all.”
Yet another more-famous rock band has picked up on Birds of Avalon’s scent and offered them a touring gig. This time it’s Jack Lawrence, who—with Jack White, Brendan Benson and Patrick Keeler—forms The Raconteurs. He saw BOA on their way to SXSW in Nashville and offered the Raleigh quintet an opening slot on the spot. They accepted. Those dates after the jump. BOA is currently on the road with Black Mountain. Stream BOA’s new EP here.
PineCone—the roots-music organization that presents shows across the Triangle—announced this morning that long-time Executive Director Susan Newberry will retire April 4. Program Associate William Lewis will replace Newberry. Newberry was the first full-time director of the program, named to the post in 1987.
[Ed.’s Note: This is the first post by Jesse Jarnow, who will be assisting us with our coverage of SXSW 2008. Jesse’s bio follows: Jesse Jarnow is a contributing editor at Paste and Relix. His writing has
appeared in the London Times, the Village Voice, Rolling Stone, and elsewhere. He has written children’s books about Presidential politics, Mark Twain, the Grateful Dead, Prince, Johnny Bench, socialism, telegraphs, Davy Crockett, and other topics, and once helped curate an historical exhibit titled Reimagining the Ordovician Gothic: Fossils from the Golden Age of Spam. His original songs and field recordings occaisonally appear under the name Funny Cry Happy. There’s a novel, too. Based in Brooklyn, he blogs about books, b-sides, and baseball at wunderkammern27.com.]
No fiddle, not afraid: YLT in TX.
Hoboken’s Yo La Tengo and Louisville’s My Morning Jacket showcased two stances on South by Southwest during their performances at the IFC Crossroads party on Tuesday night at the Parish. “This song is called ‘Ferris Bueller’s Day Off’” guitarist Ira Kaplan announced straight-faced as the band began “Mr. Tough” from 2006’s I am Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass LP while IFC promo footage flickered on flatscreens around the club. He introduced “Beanbag Chair” as “Jaws 3D.”
Perhaps lost on the non-plussed crowd was Yo La Tengo’s members’ four decade (and literally genetic) connection to independent film via drummer Georgia Hubley’s family of animators, including sister Emily, whose feature-length debut, The Toe Tactic, debuted in Austin earlier this week with a YLT score. Later, the band played “Demons,” which appeared (along with the band themselves, in Velvet Underground drag) in 1996’s I Shot Andy Warhol. The trio, who turn 25 this year, hardly need South by Southwest (and wryly closed their 2003 appearance with a sloppy cover of “Takin’ Care of Business”), but whose presence is undeniably relevant.
My Morning Jacket’s Jim James, on the other hand, was a bit more effusive, bantering about “sweet, delicious, pure, unspoiled Austintown,” which must be somewhere near Riddle, the mythical 19th century burg in which James delivered Bob Dylan’s “Goin’ to Acapulco” in Todd Haynes’ I’m Not
There. His quintet was practically hegemonic in their performance, lights and smoke machines turning James’ every head twitch into iconic blog-ready moments while his band evoked the reverberated stadium twang of U2, the harmonies of the Eagles and other tropes. Though a pedal steel-abetted version of “Golden” was lovely, by the end of the set, James was soloing on a Flying V with his foot perched like a conquistador on his monitor. And, born of the same hype cycle ecosystem as South by Southwest, perhaps he is.
Talk last week that Blend—the space on 157 E. Rosemary St. in Chapel Hill above Hell—had closed is true: The club’s MySpace page has been updated, and the hours are now simply listed as, well, “CLOSED.” A former employee confirms the news, but calls to management and the property owners have not been returned. Updates to come.
For now, Slim’s says the Jesse Malin/Richard Bacchus show at Blend on Thursday, March 6 has been moved to Slim’s. Tickets are $10, and the showtime is 10 p.m. Tickets from Blend will still be honored.
Fred “Funki” Mills, Carlos Morales and Betty’s cousins Nicky Neal and
Larry Johnson—known collectively as the band Funkhouse—with a reclining Betty Mabry/Davis.
In this week’s profile of blues-funk dynamo Betty Davis, the Durham-born, Reidsville-raised performer recounts some tales of growing up on the farm and her incendiary career. This is the woman who has been described as too wild for even Miles Davis, to whom she was married briefly. For shades of her public persona, check out this radio interview done by the DJ Al Gee in a mid-’70s Army Reserves radio program. It comes courtesy of Betty expert and author of her recent reissues’ liner notes Oliver Wang and Betty fanatic Joost Burger based in Amsterdam.
In it, Betty discusses her knowledge of astrology (naturally, she’s a Leo) and says flirtatiously, “I believe in a lot of stuff that I probably can’t talk about on the radio…” At heart, she is a complex Southern-born woman with strong attitudes and an indomitable spirit. She also has a private and shy side, evidenced by the rarity of this interview and our own.
For more, check out Durham’s own Funki Mills, Betty’s former keyboardist and musical director, and his current project, Sweet Dreams. And don’t forget those recently reissued first two records.
Chatham County Line acknowledges the crowd after their Saturday night set at the Lincoln. [Photo by Spencer Griffith]
Raleigh’s Chatham County Line, ostensibly a bluegrass quartet but straying further with each album they release, may have struck the perfect balance between that traditional sound and contemporary roots pop with IV. More Whiskeytown than Flatt & Scruggs, IV shared its release date last Tuesday with my birthday—fitting since it’s the frontrunner for my favorite album of 2008—and we celebrated with two Triangle release parties last weekend.
Friday night’s show at the Cradle sold out by the time openers the everybodyfields wrapped up their usual melancholy set, which didn’t translate as well to the larger venue. The crowd was ready to do a little toe tapping by the time CCL hit the stage and opener “I Got Worry” obliged (this video is from their October performance at the Cradle). The group’s cohesion is built on near-constant touring and shines with their careful weaving around a central, singular microphone. Each member had their own starring moments throughout the night: Chandler Holt, whose banjo prowess has improved by leaps and bounds since CCL’s self-titled debut, showed off his instrumental chops on “Clear Blue Sky” and songwriting on “Whipping Boy” (video also from October). John Teer’s harmonies soared throughout the night, particularly in the absence of album guest Caitlin Cary on “One More Minute”, and Jay Brown’s guesting on 3/4 bass allowed Greg Readling to move over to pedal steel for the ballad “Sweet Eviction”. Frontman Dave Wilson showcased his newest batch of songwriting gems as the band touched on ten of IV’s thirteen tracks—including standout “Birmingham Jail”, which was praised by the Washington Post. Sam Quinn and Jill Andrews of the everybodyfields were recruited to add vocals to a cover of The Velvet Underground’s “Pale Blue Eyes” and Chatham County Line continued their recent tradition of moving to the floor for an encore as they walked off stage to finish “Chip of a Star.” But they had some new tricks up their sleeves for “Thanks” and “One More Shot” (from their gold-selling collaboration with Norwegian Jonas Fjeld), as Zeke Hutchins strapped on a snare and Brown returned on bass so that Readling could add flourishes from an organ that was wheeled into the crowd.
Even for a Sunday night, The Pour House was completely dead when I arrived at the “Original Music Festival.” Tres Chicas playing at the same time a few blocks away surely didn’t help, but neither did the cover charge at this multi-band showcase. But when Greensboro’s Holy Ghost Tent Revival, who sound like The Avett Brothers and the Squirrel Nut Zippers getting drunk together on a roadtrip to Mardi Gras, hit the stage minutes later, the crowd blossomed, as though in the midst of a N’awlins jubilee.
While the comparison to the Avetts holds true—from both bands’ leave-it-all-on-the-stage punk rock attitude to guitarist Stephen Murray’s swooping dark hair and Seth Avett mannerisms—Holy Ghost manages its own identity, too. The horns (Josh Lovings on trumpet and Hank Widmer on trombone and euphonium) lend the music the celebratory feel that allowed a swing-dancing Bob Ross lookalike to cut a rug with at least a dozen different girls during the band’s 45 smokin’ minutes. Five of the six members sing, and each voice has its own distinctive quality. Together, they combine for some killer multi-part breakdowns when they’re not singing (or screaming) in harmony.
Check out my videos of “Lately” and “Honey Leave The Light On” after the break, plus one more over on Scan’s YouTube channel. While you’re at it, make sure to check out their terrific new music video for “Getting Over Your Love.” (more…)
Run! They’re fuzzy! Oso Optimo at Ruckus Pizza [Photo by Spencer Griffith]
Playing chunky, ‘90s-flavored alt-rock for the Pinkerton and Clarity crowd, Raleigh’s Oso Optimo (Yearling guitarist George Hage, Yearling drummer Mike Schroeder, Dakota Darling bassist Larry Dempsey) took over the back corner of Ruckus Pizza just before midnight on Saturday. Drawing from their forthcoming debut The Great American Short Stories, Schroeder powered the trio through a set that also featured Pinkerton favorite “El Scorcho.” Check out video of the Foo Fighters-esque highlight “Parting The Great Divide” after the break (sorry for the darkness!). And check “Discovering the Id” on Scan’s YouTube channel.
Tres Chicas, the alt-country combo of Lynn Blakey, Caitlin Cary and Tonya Lamm, kicked off Deep South The Bar’s “Deep In The Triangle” acoustic music series last night, pulling an admirable Sunday night crowd into the Dawson Street spot for a rare acoustic performance that didn’t wrap up until after 10 p.m. With the arrangements pared down to Blakey and Lamm’s twangy guitars and Cary’s weepy fiddle and melodica, the focus was squarely on the songwriting and those trademark harmonies. It all rose over the bar’s clatter.
I grabbed some video from the end of the relaxed set, when the Chicas even imitated metal vocalists between tunes. Check out “Drop Me Down,” the Lou Ford track that leads off the Chica’s 2006 LP Bloom, Red & the Ordinary Girl:
You can see a video of new song “Broken Glass” on the Scan YouTube channel. After the jump, glimpse the remaining lineup for the “Deep In The South” series. The rest of the line-up lacks a draw as strong as the Chicas, but hey, there’s no cover (and all donations go straight to the performers).
On the day stage at the Convention Center yesterday, Brooklyn’s A Place to Bury Strangers stepped to the mics like a band designed to play 30-minute industry showcases, which they promptly did, providing a perfect soundtrack to their surroundings (and making the cover of the local paper). The power
trio’s songs, which exploded with helicopter guitars, seemed to float out the doors of the carpeted room and out over the escalators, registration booths, and closed-off festival streets like a wailing embodiment of a spirit made flesh.
The Austin Convention Center’s tornado of promotional items (wristbands! download cards!), glossy magazines, hideous fruit drink giveaways, flat screens televisions flashing electronic press kits, hawkers offering to turn your band’s songs into ringtones, bloggers blogging, and texters texting is the closest one can probably get to a corporeal version of the contemporary culture industries’ insane oversaturation.
“Free mp3s!” somebody called out on 6th Street. “Aren’t they all?” a passerby replied.
Easy to forget amid the meat market chaos of South by Southwest is the fact that the festival plays host to real music made by real musicians, connected to deeper practices than blogs, licensing deals, and parties hosted by publicity outfits.
At the Thirsty Nickel, decade-old Massachusetts avant-noise collective Sunburned Hand of the Man—appearing as a quintet—unleashed blasts of jazz-sensitive improv, curling out over 6th Street like punk spackling paste to the already saturated sonic environs, as if they were jamming with the zeitgeist. A few blocks away, at Club DeVille, Lower East Side anti-folkie Jeffrey Lewis performed his “documentary” “A History of Communism, part III: the Russian Revolution”— a vaguely rhyming historical monologue punctuated by the comic book artist’s drawings.
“Systems aren’t just made of bricks, they’re mostly of people,” Lewis sang later, interpreting “Big A Little A” by British punk legends Crass (as he does on his new 12 Crass Songs). Which is true, of course. “I am he and she is she, but you’re the only you,” he reminded.
Back at the Convention Center, just after A Place to Bury Strangers’ guitarist Oliver Ackermann laid down his squealing Jazzmaster, Williamsburg-by-Williamsport utopians Akron/Family took the stage with a blast of goofy, Beatlesque defiance. Immediately spotting the wireless microphones, guitarist Seth Olinky and bassist Miles Seaton removed them from the mic stands and threw their hands in the air, before trying to lead the crowd in a hummed drone to lead into their “Phenomena.”
“It sounds really cool when the chords come in,” Seaton promised, and it did though getting the crowd to stomp along on the wall-to-wall carpeting was tough and, then, not that effective.
In last week’s paper, I praised New Zealand’s The Ruby Suns for their “impressionistic glory.” After seeing one of their several sets in Austin, I stand by that phrase: Ryan McPhun’s trio cycles between phases and sounds—straight pop joy, internationally enhanced enthusiasm, arrhythmic but coruscated drones, heavy rhythmic wallops—without ever seeming didactic or obsessive. Different sounds seem to fall into and out of this band’s music, a clement spring-time bliss thick with air so humid it can support sounds from a handful of continents. Download “Tane Mahuta” from new LP Sea Lionhere, and here’s a video we grabbed at that opening-day set in Austin last week:
According to Live Nation, Friday night’s Van Halen show at the RBC Center has been postponed as Eddie is currently undergoing some medical tests. Thousands of fans who think that finger-tapping is still totally rad will be disappointed.
