This Friday in Raleigh at Slim’s Downtown Distillery one of the newest bands from the Triangle is releasing their first recorded material.  The Debonzo Brothers are putting out their debut EP, Places, which was recorded earlier this year and finally completed just a little while ago.  You may think this was a quick process for a band that only played their first show last November, but all the members of the band (Keef & Jeff Debonzo, Grant Emerson, and Chris Hibbard) are all tried and true musicians from the area who have been playing live for quite a long time.

Places is getting it’s debut release right here in this blog with almost all of the tracks from the EP being leaked in the interview below.  We chatted about the history of the band and the different members, including both of the actual Debonzo Brothers and their non-Debonzo bandmates.  We explored the sound and recording process of the EP and also pumped up the show Friday.  Take a listen below:

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You can catch the Debonzo Brothers this Friday at Slim’s Downtown.  Fellow Raleighite Jason Adamo will also be sharing the stage and the doors open at 9pm.

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Last week on the Local Beat was a lot of fun, as we had two bands in the studio for 2.5 hours of good conversation. Maria Albani, bass player of Schooner, came in to chat about her new solo project Organos at 5 p.m which is having a debut album release for the brand new EP, Limbs, this Friday at the Pinhook in Durham (it is already getting airplay on Satellite Radio).  Organos is an interesting band in which Maria plays an assortment of unorthodox instruments such as spoons, glass, cardboard, boxes, shaker eggs, and sticks among other interesting sounds to create a unique yet immensely satisfying minimalist folk rock sound.  On the album Maria performed most of the parts herself but live Organos is a whole different animal.   A mini local super group of sorts, Organos live claims the likes of Reid Johnson (Schooner), Wes Phillips (solo, North Elementary, Rosebuds), Theresa Phillips (North Elementary), Nathan White (Nathan Oliver), and John Harris0n (Nathan Oliver, North Elementary), not to mention Maria herself.  In our conversation Maria, Theresa, and I chatted about the album, the band members, the show, and also her past bands which include Pleasant, Tennis and the Mennonites, Un Deux Trois, & The Pox Family Singers.  Listen to the podcast below:

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Organos is playing at the Pinhook this Friday, February 5 alongside Birds and Arrows and Ye Old Shoppe (with members of Wild Wild Geese).  The show is at 9:30 p.m., and you get a free copy of the album with price of admission!

At 6 p.m., local bluegrass favorites The Hotwires stepped in to chat about an assortment of different topics, but mostly to encourage our listeners to head to the Haiti Relief Benefit show at the Pour House Thursday, February 4th.   The Hotwires are playing in the middle of the show after Andy Bilinski, Roger Gupton, and the Debonzo Brothers, and before Chatham County Line, Filthybird, and A Rooster For The Masses.  The show is $12 and all proceeds are going to the Red Cross in support of Haiti Relief efforts.  The fellas and I spent quite a bit of time chatting about bluegrass as a genre, the history of bluegrass, as well as their upcoming album which is hopefully going to be released at some point this spring.   We even got a little touchy when talking about their old band name, No Strings Attached.  They also brought in some instruments and played some live tunes for me.  Check out the reverbnation player below to listen to the songs or listen to the entire podcast:

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I also interviewed Hank Smith for this past Monday’s Eye On the Triangle program here on WKNC about the benefit. You can listen to that segment here.

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