Showing posts tagged “Local 506”
Hunter Stephenson ·
4 Nov 2009, 7:55 PM ·
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Well, at least he still has a green T-shirt: Kurt Vile
After signing to Matador earlier this year, Kurt Vile is positioned as the latest long-hair millennial to draw parallels from critics to folk-rock and psych forebears Neil Young and Spacemen 3. Further adding to what molds rock mystique in 2009 is the fact that Vile’s surname is indeed real, and, as you might have heard, he previously worked as a forklift operator in his native Philly. Manual labor now coos to America’s indie set in tones more romanticized than perennial bedrock recordings (from which Vile’s career first sparked).
Needless to say, there’s a gracious helping of buzz and bangs to haze the identity of this 29-year-old dude. And even on Vile’s third and latest album, entitled Child Prodigy, his enigmatic promise doesn’t give way to a definitive, fully-realized sound. Instead, Vile continues to revel in soporific jams and lof-fi ballads before intermixing abstraction and stoney repetition. The line between a single and an experimental outtake is usually indistinguishable, much more so than on Vile’s output as a member of War on Drugs. Talking with Vile, currently on tour and traveling in a “Budget Rental red van with one fucked up tire,” he sounds happy with not having his future and future direction paved out. He’s also stoked on Thanksgiving.
And forget the future, anyway: Now, tonight, Vile brings his Violators to Local 506 at 9:30 p.m. Tickets are $8-$10. Continue reading »
Interviews and Long Cuts Kurt Vile, Local 506
Eric Tullis ·
8 Oct 2009, 11:43 AM ·
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Mayer Hawthorne
Local 506, Chapel Hill
Monday, Oct. 5
R&B’s white-guy invasion isn’t anything new. Though pasty dudes have been taking soul music for popular test drives off and on for the past few decades, recent history has Justin Timberlake’s meritless pop-culture importance to remind us of just how milquetoast it all can be. But people like Timberlake, I think, help open inroads for new singers like Mayer Hawthorne, an authentic white-guy-soul talent who recorded his entire new LP, A Strange Arrangement, in his Los Angeles bedroom, not in a fancy studio with industry geeks and big-time producers. This is appropriate, as beautiful things—like this record—happen in bedrooms all the time.
True: Hawthorne may not posess the stretching vocal chords of a Bilal, but he doesn’t pretend to be a vocal impresario, either. And his Ann Arbor, Mich., upbringing seems to have put him within such proximity to Motown’s contagiousness that, what he lacks in inherent soul, he makes up for with satin heritage. Continue reading »
Live Actions: Reviews Local 506, Mayer Hawthorne
Grayson Currin ·
2 Jul 2009, 7:58 AM ·
3 Comments
Mansion in the Hill
While reporting this week’s story on the conversion of Chapel Hill dance hall Players to a part-time rock club, we heard whispers from a few folks that Mansion 462—the West Franklin Street room that opened last January between Chapel Hill anchors Local 506 and The Cave—was closing. Apparently, several bands had been emailing other area clubs to reschedule dates dropped from Mansion 462’s calendar. Co-owner Brad Waycaster confirms that the club did drop several shows, but he says Mansion 462 isn’t going anywhere. Continue reading »
Briefly, Venues Local 506, Mansion 462, Players, The Cave
Chris Toenes ·
4 May 2009, 3:12 PM ·
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The pockmarked path of devoting your new band to a vintage sound rides bumpy at best. It’s often a process of osmosis, though, that leads one band to sound like a whole bunch of older bands—less looking directly in the rearview mirror for something to recreate and more just playing some variation on what’s funneled into your mind.
Just plain folks making records.
New York band The Pains of Being Pure at Heart has received an unusual amount of comparisons to its predecessors. Some have been fair, like early My Bloody Valentine or the Jesus and Mary Chain. Others, like Blink 182, have just been plain weird. It’s an interesting question: Does a band need to have an original sound to matter? And should the band be discounted if the sensors of past musical obscurity and good ol’ age are working to that band’s advantage? Maybe it shouldn’t be that simple, and usually, it’s not that simple. Continue reading »
Uncategorized Local 506, The Pains of Being Pure at Heart
Grayson Currin ·
19 Mar 2009, 7:52 PM ·
2 Comments
Not sure what you’re doing on Wednesday, but if you have a chance, I’d recommend going to Chapel Hill’s Local 506 to see Efterklang headline a three-band bill with Lost in the Trees and Canon Blue. On the disclosure tip, I happen to be staying at the same Austin house as the band thanks to a coincidence of mutual friends. But that doesn’t matter: About three hours ago, I watched as the Danes struggled with technical problems under a hillside tent atop the verdant lawn of Austin’s French Legation. At first frustrated and a bit perplexed by a venue soundboard that croaked and an onstage computer that soon followed suit, the six-piece—featuring multi-instrumentalists Peter and Heather Broderick of Portland, Ore.—soldiered on with a captivating and powerful set, its arch melodies pushed up from all sides by violin, double drums, keyboards, horns and tasteful guitar that stood as each song’s understated root. Continue reading »
SXSW09, You Should Do This Efterklang, Hometapes, Local 506, Slaraffenland
Grayson Currin ·
11 Mar 2009, 3:31 PM ·
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“Ticonderoga is the most exciting new Triangle act I saw, spinning elliptical folk songs over intricate webs of interlocking keyboard, drum, guitar and bass strands.” —That’s what I said, late 2004.
Continue reading »
News flashes Bon Iver, Bowerbirds, Local 506, Ticonderoga, Wes Phillips
Bryan Reed ·
3 Mar 2009, 2:13 PM ·
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Harvey Milk, Black Skies, Pontiak
Local 506, Chapel Hill
Friday, Feb. 27
Harvey Milk is a band to feel live more than see: Sure ,the unassuming trio, in its old jeans and novelty T-shirts (singer/guitarist Creston Spiers’ read “Lord of the Strings”), was animated and personable on stage Friday, cracking smiles and spreading surprising affability from its Local 506 pulpit.
Harvey Milk's Creston Spiers: Oh, Lord. (Photo: Bryan Reed)
But it was hardly a visual spectacle. Then the music started, and it became clear why Black Skies frontman Kevin Clark, amid a tuning break, hurried his bandmates along: “Come on, we’ve got a show to see.” His sentiment echoed that of a growing audience, all eager to hear Harvey Milk. Continue reading »
Live Actions: Reviews Black Skies, Local 506
