Grayson Currin ·
4 Feb 2010, 3:46 PM ·
3 Comments
After playing a few games of basketball in Raleigh last night, I climbed in the car, turned on the radio and headed to a meeting across town. Sirius XMU, billed as being “like hearing college radio but never having to go to class,” was spinning Hot Chip’s “One Life Stand,” a college station standard of late. But when the DJ followed with “Lazy Lessons,” a track from the not-yet-released The Limbs EP by Chapel Hill’s Organos, I wondered if I’d actually switched the dial to WKNC 88.1 FM. After all, bandleader Maria Albani did all the press and radio mailing for her solo project’s new EP, and unlike Hot Chip or the next band, The National, an act like Organos and a label like Pox World Empire don’t have sizable PR budgets to pursue national DJs.
But it was indeed Sirius XMU, and, indeed, the non-traditional charms of the songwriting on The Limbs EP, described here, seem to be sticking. Pox officially releases the EP Tuesday, Feb. 23, though you can pick it up at the band’s CD release party tomorrow night at The Pinhook. To hear the song, and read the story behind the set, see this week’s newspaper.
New Music, News flashes Organos, Pox World Empire, The Pinhook
Andrew Ritchey ·
3 Feb 2010, 12:26 PM ·
Comment
Since forming in 1968, the Tannahill Weavers have grown into one of the world’s premier conduits for traditional Scottish music. On the road six months of the year, an active touring schedule lets the band spread the sounds of Scotland—and often puts them in interesting, unexpected situations. While preparing for another U.S. tour at his home in the Netherlands, guitarist and singer Roy Gullane recalled two of those most interesting times.
For one show,the band
The Tannahill Weavers
decided to drive from the north of Scotland all the way to Vienna. But a planned rest stop in Stuttgart, Germany turned into an all night party when they happened into Scottish folk singer Hamish Imlach.
“By the time we got to Vienna, we were shattered.” Tired and with little time before the show, Gullane couldn’t find any sort of dressing room. “I found a room somewhere behind the stage to change my clothes, but couldn’t find the light switch. Undeterred, I carried on with the task, and had just wrestled my pants off when a door burst open, the lights went on, and hundreds of people started pouring past me. I was in the foyer.”
And then there was the festival in Germany with the 7:30 a.m. sound check. Continue reading »
Interviews and Long Cuts, You Should Do This Chatham Mills, Tannahill Weavers, Tir Na Nog
Eric Tullis ·
1 Feb 2010, 5:34 PM ·
Comment
Grammy Family (From Phonte Coleman's Twitter: www.twitter.com/phontigallo)
Given our (sometimes controversial) familiarity with Phonte Coleman and Nicolay Rook’s run over the past year as they supported their second LP as The Foreign Exchange, Leave It All Behind, we’re, of course, a tad disappointed that North Carolina’s newest R&B resource didn’t walk away with this year’s Grammy in the Urban/Alternative Performance category for the song “Daykeeper,” a joint effort with D.C. vocalist Muhsinah. Rather, neo-soul benefeciary India.Arie won the award for a song called “Pearls”—a tougher-than-tofu number dedicated to caring about people and the rainbow and stuff, which doesn’t sound too different from the other 30 songs she’s made over the years about such ethical quandaries. Oh, well…
Sure, while the Grammy Award remains the highest mark of musical achievement in the land, listeners should at least take comfort in the fact that you can’t put much stock in a process that can nominate a sketch from Saturday Night Live (“I’m on a Boat”) as Best Rap/Sung Collaboration. So, what have we learned from tonight’s events other than the fact that Quentin Tarantino snorts 5 Hour Energy Drinks? Even if FE didn’t walk away with the award, they did walk away with some awesome memories and photos with some of their musical heroes—Quincy Jones, Charlie Wilson, Ludacris, Roberta Flack and, of course, Bishop Don Magic Juan. With a third Foreign Exchange album coming out later this year, the FE “Grammy Family” pledges that they’ll be returning to the Staples Center for another go. Sounds like a plan.
News flashes Grammy Awards, Phonte, The Foreign Exchange
Grayson Currin ·
29 Jan 2010, 2:17 PM ·
2 Comments
Yim? Jim? My Morning Jacket.
The grizzled bros of My Morning Jacket will play Koka Booth Amphitheatre in Cary April 30 with The Preservation Hall Jazz Band, after a tour-anchoring stop in New Orleans for Jazzfest. MMJ frontman Jim James (Yim Yames?) recently recorded two tracks for PHJB’s new album, PRESERVATION: An Album To Benefit Preservation Hall & The Preservation Hall Music Outreach Program. The nine-show run starts in Alabama and ends two weeks later in Ohio.
Live Actions: New Bills Koka Booth Amphitheatre, My Morning Jacket
Eric Tullis ·
28 Jan 2010, 1:11 PM ·
2 Comments
“It’s fuckin’ over” were just a few of the words Phonte Coleman had to offer last week on his Gordon Gartrell Radio podcast, using a 12-minute segment of the show to thank fans for supporting Little Brother over the years and explain to listeners that, yes, the LB saga has reached its end: The duo’s next album, LeftBack, will be their last. Continue reading »
New Music Little Brother
Chris Toenes ·
22 Jan 2010, 12:14 PM ·
Comment
Beach music and the Carolina Shag dance phenom still carry a lot of weight in North Carolina. It was evidenced when Secretary of State Elaine Marshall, an avid shag dancer, established Beach Music Day in 2004, coinciding with a concert celebration in Downtown Raleigh.
Now, UNC Women’s Basketball coach Sylvia Hatchell has invited shaggers to perform their footwork in front of the halftime crowd in Friday’s game against Clemson.
Hatchell is a member of the Eno Shag Club, and an old friend of beach & oldies DJ Charlie Brown, one of the primary voices for the scene from the mid-60s in Raleigh, now on WPCM 920 AM in Burlington, and in syndication “On the Beach with Charlie Brown.”
So, this Friday at halftime in the newly-renovated Carmichael arena, dancers from Burlington, Eno, Bass Lake, and Chatham shag clubs will perform an exhibition. Look for some junior shaggers, too, some vying for national level competition. Continue reading »
News flashes, You Should Do This
Andrew Ritchey ·
15 Jan 2010, 5:13 PM ·
Comment
Pastor Paul Adefarasin of House on the Rock church led The Experience, and Lagos, Nigeria certainly shook the night of December 4. Lasting from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m., the fourth annual interdenominational gospel concert drew over 450,000 people. Local guitarist and minister Will McFarlane traveled over the Atlantic to be one of the many. McFarlane has spent the past decade in the area, but he spent years before backing up Bonnie Raitt and as part of the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section.
Even with his solid résumé, McFarlane was surprised to be invited to the concert. “They called me out of nowhere, just a week in advance. I drove to Washington, D.C, to get my visa in a day, which was a miracle in itself.” He was recruited into a band that was half Nigerian and half American, including the likes of Phil Driscoll and Chester Thompson. With a little bit of time to practice, the group tackled the stage for an hour, starting around 1 in the morning. “The approach in Nigeria was just grab a hold and hang on. [laughter]” So what’s it like to play in front of almost half a million people? “It changes your body chemistry. [laughter] I mean, you could only see about the first quarter of a million. People were jumping and moving. It was just unbelievable.” Continue reading »
Interviews and Long Cuts, News flashes Papa Mojo's, Will McFarlane
Grayson Currin ·
14 Jan 2010, 1:29 PM ·
Comment
It seems 2009 was largely a regrouping one for Raleigh six-piece Annuals: Such Fun, the band’s second album and first for major-label imprint Canvasback Music, was released in 2008 to mixed reviews and comparatively low sales. According to Nielsen Soundscan, Such Fun sold only 7,341 copies, compared to their debut’s 17,999. And Canvasback was cooling on Annuals’ former blog-buzz property, even as the band was working on new material back in Raleigh.
“We found out that our deal with Canvasback was getting messed up over the summer,” says Annuals bassist Mike Robinson. “So, we decided, ‘Let’s do an EP and have it out in November.’”
And they mostly hit their mark: The upcoming five-track EP, Sweet Sister, due now on March 23, has been mostly finished since October. That same month, though, Canvasback announced that it would be inking a deal with Atlantic Records at the end of its three-year contract with Columbia. So the EP, like the band, didn’t have a home. Ace Fu, who issued Annuals’ 2006 debut, Be He Me, to much acclaim and strong indie sales, contemplated releasing the EP, though the label hadn’t released anything new since 2007. That didn’t happen, and Robinson didn’t want to issue Sweet Sister on his own Terpsikhore imprint because he didn’t think the label—essentially staffed by himself—had the proper resources to devote to it when Annuals were touring.
So Banter Media, a new label run by Matt Halverson, formerly an Ace Fu intern, offered help. Annuals are the fifth band on the startup’s roster.
Robinson says, “It’ll be really different, for sure, but it seems everything we do is on a different record label, so why not? It’s exciting to have a fresh start on a modest-sized label that can still do good work.”
Robinson feels good about the work the band did on this EP, too, something that wasn’t always the case with the second album, the sarcastically titled Such Fun. It often took frontman Adam Baker out of his comfort zone—which is to say, late nights with pedals and gear, and long hours of fussing over mixes and adding quirks and textures to songs. The band recorded much of Such Fun in Asheville’s grand Echo Mountain studio, with high-dollar producer Jacquire King.
“Adam never seemed satisfied about it because he never got to put on his finishing touches, the weird stuff that a lot of people like,” says Robinson. “This is Adam, though. He’s back into being in full control of things. He reassumed his role on how everything goes, and I think these songs are much more of a return to the weirdness and quirkiness on the first album.”
Sweet Sister was recorded at Terpsikhore’s studios in Raleigh and at Flying Tiger Sound with B.J. Burton. Ian Schreier, who also worked on Such Fun, mixed the music at Osceola Recording Studios. The EP ends with “Flesh and Blood,” a Johnny Cash cover that Annuals originally cut for Hear Here: The Triangle, the great Terpsikhore compilation of local tunes released last year. It was first scrapped from the collection because the band hadn’t gained the proper permissions.
Meanwhile, whispers have been floating through Raleigh that Anna Spence, the band’s keyboardist, was leaving the band. After all, she sat out a tour late last year, originally booked to promote the ultimately delayed Sweet Sister. Robinson says there’s nothing to those rumors aside from a tour that simply conflicted with Spence’s college schedule.
“Anna’s still in the band. She had to finish up college, and she’s now done,” Robinson says. “We’re hoping to get back on the horse this year pretty quickly.”
New Music, News flashes Annuals
Lisa Sorg ·
14 Jan 2010, 11:19 AM ·
Comment
Cary Moskovitz of the Haw River Rounders just announced the band is playing at the Blue Bayou in Hillsborough tonight at 8:30.
According to Moskovitz, the band will collect money to donate to Partners in Health, which has an office in Haiti and has been providing medical and food aid for the last 10 years.
Uncategorized
Grayson Currin ·
13 Jan 2010, 3:09 PM ·
Comment
N.C. State’s student-run radio station, WKNC 88.1 FM, announced the lineup for its seventh annual Double Barrel Benefit this morning: The vintage pop of Max Indian will headline the first night of the two-show weekend on Friday, Feb. 5, with The Light Pines, Veelee and Bellafea in the opening slots. Ex-Chapel Hill, current-Nashville album rock enthusiasts Roman Candle headline Saturday, Feb. 6, with The Tender Fruit, Midtown Dickens and Spider Bags opening.
This year’s Double Barrel represents a logical and somewhat necessary shift for the station, away from some of the bigger names that have headlined or opened in recent years—Birds of Avalon, Bowerbirds, Polvo, The Old Ceremony, Annuals, The Mountain Goats, Megafaun—and toward the Triangle’s rich crop of young but hitherto less nationally prominent acts. After all, Double Barrel has only presented six bands more than once in its seven-year run, so the pool is somewhat constricted.
But, Roman Candle excepted, what this lineup might lack in history it makes up for with plans and promise: Led by the yearning Southern warble of Christy Smith, The Tender Fruit, for instance, is currently cutting an LP with Megafaun’s Phil Cook. Veelee’s only get one self-released, three-song EP to its name, but the duo’s intricate, winding miniatures offer plenty of intrigue, and they’re set to record more this year. Same for The Light Pines, the doppelganger of The Love Language: Led by Josh Pope and backed by his fellow Love Language members, The Pines debuted with an ecstatic, engaging show in Portland, Ore., late last year for Musicfest Northwest. This will be their full-on local premiere. And they sometimes share members with Max Indian, who, like The Light Pines, are part of a Chapel Hill band network called Drughorse. And, as I said here, look for big things from that gangly collective in 2010.
So, yeah, no “stars” this year, but plenty of reasons to listen—and for cheap, too: Tickets are $7-$9 for each night, and the music starts at 9 p.m.
Live Actions: New Bills, News flashes Double Barrel Benefit, WKNC
lol @ braille song lyrics!
well done, sir.
kinda sad to see the end of an era, but maybe it's for the best. better to go of your own volition, than to be dragged out by sandman sims.