Categories
Weekly Charts

Underground Charts 3/5/24

Underground Charts

#ArtistRecordLabel
1ERICK THE ARCHITECTI’ve Never Been Here BeforeIDOL
2TOUSSAINT MORRISONThe Very Best Of Ricky & JaneUrban Home Companion
3WHO SHOT SCOTTBRAIN (SIDE A) [EP]Tenfold
4CZARFACECzartificial IntelligenceSilver Age/Virgin
5MIRANDA JOANOverstimulatedSelf-Released
6RITCHIE“RiTchie Valens” [Single]AWAL
7STALLONE AND WEATHERSThe Cost Of Doing BusinessSelf-Released
8DJ MOVESPam Grier Step KidsBlack Buffalo
9DANNY BROWNQuarantaWarp
10NORTHSIDE DRORevenue [EP]Self-Released

Underground Adds

#ArtistRecordLabel
1ABSTRACT MINDSTATE“True Story” [Single]Honest/Barak With Love
2POTATOHEAD PEOPLE“Last Nite” feat. Redman [Single]Bastard Jazz
3CASH LANKSY“No Heart In The Art” [Single]Mello
4BONZ“Big Dawg” [Single]Self-Released
Categories
Weekly Charts

Jazz Charts 3/5/24

Jazz Charts

#ArtistRecordLabel
1JUN IIDAEvergreenOA2
2YUSEF LATEEFEastern SoundsCraft
3NUBYA GARCIA“Fortify” [Single]Concord Jazz
4JULIAN LAGESpeak To MeBlue Note
5CHRIS ROTTMAYERBeingShifting Paradigm
6WOLFF, CLARK, AND DORSEYA Letter To Bill EvansJazz Avenue 1
7CHUCK COPENACEOshki ManitouJayward Artist Group/The Orchard
8BRIAN SCARBOROUGHWe Need The WindOutside In
9MARY HALVORSONCloudwardNonesuch
10BUTCHER BROWNSolar MusicConcord Jazz/Concord
Categories
Weekly Charts

Chainsaw Charts 3/5/24

Chainsaw Charts

#ArtistRecordLabel
1AMIENSUS“Vermillion Fog Of War” [Single]M-Theory
2TORN IN HALFPrayers Returned With Pain [EP]Isolated Incidents
3MORTA SKULDCreation UndonePeaceville
4RECEIVERWhispers of LoreGatesOfHell
5CRYPTOPSYAs Gomorrah BurnsNuclear Blast
6ILLUMISHADEAnother Side Of YouNapalm
7BRATSocial GraceProsthetic
8ABHORIADepthsProsthetic
9ESHTADUR“Fire Above Mountain Below” [Single]Self-Released
10TOMBSTONE WHISKEYDevil All The Time [EP]Self-Released
Categories
Weekly Charts

Afterhours Charts 3/5/24

Afterhours Charts

#ArtistRecordLabel
1Angels Gun ClubIndustry ChildrenAngels Gun Club
2ROXY RADCLYFFEThe Median’s ArkNext Year’s Snow
3DJ SLORGLDORFI Wanna Be Ur Girlfriend!!lua!!
4JUNGLE FATIGUE VOL. 3VARIOUS ARTISTSJungle Fatigue
5PERREOTEK VOL. 3VARIOUS ARTISTSAngels Gun Club
6THE BODY AND DIS FIGOrchards of a Futile HeavenThrill Jockey
7NABIHAH IQBALDREAMER (Remixes) [EP]Ninja Tune
8FAT DOG“All The Same” (Mandy, Indiana Remix) [Single]Domino
9WRECKED LIGHTSHIPAntipositionPeak Oil
10MUGEN COMPILATION VOL. 5VARIOUS ARTISTSLost Frog

Afterhours Adds

#ArtistRecordLabel
1ABSTRACT MINDSTATE“True Story” [Single]Honest/Barak With Love
2POTATOHEAD PEOPLE“Last Nite” feat. Redman [Single]Bastard Jazz
3CASH LANKSY“No Heart In The Art” [Single]Mello
4BONZ“Big Dawg” [Single]Self-Released
Categories
Miscellaneous

How Wim Wenders’ “Perfect Days” Shows a Love for Music

Recently, I went to see Wim Wenders’ new film “Perfect Days.” You may be familiar with the director for his work on the movie “Paris, Texas,” which is widely regarded as a classic, featuring a spectacular performance from the late Harry Dean Stanton and sprawling shots of the Texas countryside.

“Perfect Days,” has the makings of a classic in its own right. It follows Hirayama, an aging man who feels content with his life cleaning toilets in Tokyo. He focuses on the quiet beauties in life, cultivating plants, listening to his cherished cassette tapes, and taking photos with his small point-and-shoot camera. Every moment of his day is carefully routinized, almost like a meditation, as the entire first hour of the movie follows his routines. However, encounters with other people and his estranged family leads him to reflect on his simple style of living.

One aspect of the movie that stuck out to me was Hirayama’s cassette tapes. He listens to one tape every day on the ride to and from work, and the music settles him. Hirayama has collected hundreds of tapes ranging from The Kinks to Otis Redding.

There’s a point in the film where his younger colleague, Takashi, needs a ride because his bike has broken down. Hirayama is forced to give Takashi and his moody girlfriend, Aya, a ride. While Takashi frets over his bike, Aya is drawn to the stack of cassette tapes on the dashboard. She picks up Patti Smith’s album “Horses,” and asks if she can play it.

Categories
Concert Preview Local Music

March and April Live Music in the Triangle

Hello all. As the new year is slowly settling into place, I wanted to take a minute and assure you, the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill area has all around tons of music all around us for these next few months.

Here’s a little preview of some shows you can see and where you can see them…

Raleigh

Starting with this upcoming week (March 3 – 9), there are a bunch of opportunities to witness amazing live music at The Pour House like Goetia, Pathogenesis and Noctomb playing some metal on March 3. Also, there’s a bluegrass performance on March 7 with ShadowGrass. On March 29 there’s a grunge cover night with Pearl Jam and Soundgarden cover bands. All this and more is on The Pour House’s website.

Slims also has tons of metal oriented and head banging bands playing throughout these next couple of months, like Auroras Hope playing on April 5 and a plethora of bands playing April 25.

At Kings there’s awesome bands like Weymouth, Frost Children and Small Crush peppering their calendar.

So just in the Raleigh area, we have tons of access to musical greatness.

Durham

Durham has tons of wonderful venues like the Pinhook, which is featuring one of my favorite Philly bands, Washer, on March 11 followed by Cowgirl Clue on March 12. That’s two amazing nights of completely different tunes.

Also in Durham is The Fruit with a great head-banging lineup for March 29. A few of the bands performing will be Sevyrnce, Spunge and Lil Space Cat.

The one performance I wish I’d seen coming sooner at Motorco Music Hall is Mannequin Pussy and Soul Glo playing together on April 7, but unfortunately tickets are sold out on the website. They’ve also got tons of varying genres popping in and out throughout these next few months.

Chapel Hill

Good ol’ Chapel Hill has metal and thrashing central at Local 506. There’s a boatload of beautiful sounding band names filling my eyes as I peer through the never ending list. Most notable is Teen Mortgage on April 6, Sarah and the Sundays (not metal fyi) on April 12 and Spew on March 13.

Of course there’s the beloved Cat’s Cradle venue too, which is hosting: Guster on March 20, Unwound on March 22, Otoboke Beaver on March 26, The Postal Service & Death Cab for Cutie on April 27 at Coastal Credit Union and finally Black Country, New Road also on April 27 but at the cat’s Cradle Venue.

I hope you all find some bands or some resources to go out and support beautiful artists touring our neck of the woods in these next few months.

Categories
New Album Review

Album Review: “II” By Theatre’s Kiss

This week, I’ve been playing the role of “consumptive wretch” as my COVID-wrecked immune system struggles to prevail over a particularly virulent cold. I’d probably be doing better if I could remember to keep drinking water.

Somewhere between all the langushing malaise, pneumatic wheezing and bodily agony, I managed to catch the latest drop by post-punk artist Theatre’s Kiss — one of my top artists of 2023, I might add — and I’ve dragged myself from my sickbed to talk about it.

“II”

II,” released March 1, is the long-awaited sequel to the 2022 album “Leidensmelodien” (which I reviewed last year).

The mind behind Theatre’s Kiss, a mysterious corpse-painted individual known as “Fassse Lua,” explained to Post-Punk.com back in 2023 that “II” is part of what will become the “Solitude Chapter” of Theatre’s Kiss.

Cover for “II” by Theatre’s Kiss

The artist’s prior releases, “Self-Titled” and “Leidensmelodien,” are two halves of the “Grief” chapter. Apparently, the “Solitude Chapter” will be centered around two albums and one EP.

If Fassse Lua’s plans remain the same, then “II” is the project’s EP.

Consisting of three short tracks, “II” explores themes of addiction and dependence through the artist’s characteristic black metal-esque take on post-punk.

The EP

The first track on the EP, “Marie,” seems to capture the crux of the “Solitude Chapter.”

Opening with a sample from a newscast about drug use, the song is surprisingly upbeat. By Theatre’s Kiss standards, that is.

Based on the lyrics, “Marie” is about a young girl’s struggle with drug addiction. What’s particularly interesting about the song is how it serves as an introduction for the “Solitude Chapter” as a whole, reading as an opening narration to an unraveling story.

Photo by Raluca Enea on Unsplash

Wrenching, plaintive vocals and cold arrangements of guitar, bass and drums transport the listener into an arctic landscape.

There’s subtle drama in the growling voice that drops in to state “haunted by demons she lost her way/ chasing a high to numb the pain” and in the delicate staccato of a string instrument that emerges like a floating blossom from a bleak, dense fog.

drogomanicus” presents a narrative more abstract, with lyrics like:

Fragments of joy

Shattered on the floor

Enveloped by cravings relentless scream

“drogomanicus” by Theatre’s Kiss

While it’s clear that the song’s references to “cravings relentless” signal to the addiction of “Marie,” I’m not wholly sure what “drogomanicus” is meant to signify.

From some quick Googling, I’ve found that “Drogo” is a masculine name of German origin. (Which makes sense, since Theatre’s Kiss is based in Germany). The name means “To bear” or “To carry.”

Thus, one could speculate that “drogomanicus” is about bearing the burden of emotional turmoil wrought by addiction.

Thematic speculation aside, the song’s plain beautiful. The artist’s talent for instrumentation truly shines through in this ethereal, somber arrangement. I listen to this song and consider bittersweetness. I imagine fragments of sunlight punching through stormclouds.

Photo by Intricate Explorer on Unsplash

Imprisoned,” the EP’s final track, is where things get dicey.

While “Marie” opens with clear references to a girl (presumably Marie) and “drogomanicus” is devoid of pronouns, “Imprisoned” refers directly to a male figure.

The song is harder-hitting than its two counterparts, with strong guitar and bass almost drowning out the vocalist. There’s clearly more emotional punch here, and the lyrical subtext has my queer English major brain on fire.

In “Imprisoned,” an unnamed male figure finds himself “bound by the grip of faith” and confined by “the fear of damnation,” leading him to “[suppress] his essence” and “[deny]” his gender.

Photo by Polina Kuzovkova on Unsplash

It doesn’t take a lot of hoop-jumping to piece together a queer narrative from that. But aside from the song’s lyrics and the very vague information provided by Post-Punk.com, there’s nothing yet available to contextualize that “Imprisoned” is meant to signify.

Is it a trans narrative? Are “Marie” and the unnamed man the same person? Will we ever find out?

Hopefully the continuation of the “Solitude Chapter” will shine some light upon this.

Final Thoughts

My only gripe with this release is how aggravatingly short it is.

I’m crossing my fingers that it won’t take another year for the chapter’s next two albums to come out. You can guarantee I’ll be hopping on here to wax poetic about them when they do.

Categories
Weekly Charts

Top Charts 2/27/24

Top Charts

#ArtistRecordLabel
1AESOP ROCKIntegrated Tech SolutionsRhymesayers
2DANNY BROWNQuarantaWarp
3KILLER MIKEMichael (Deluxe)Loma Vista/Concord
4ARLO PARKSMy Soft Machine (Deluxe)Transgressive/PIAS
5BUTCHER BROWNSolar MusicConcord Jazz/Concord
6DJ UNKNOWNPrisoners Of GravityUrbnet
7GABRIEL TEODROSFrom The Ashes Of Our HomesSelf-Released
8H31RHeadSpaceBig Dada
9KIPP STONE66689 BLVDClosed Sessions
10PARIS TEXASMid AirParis Texas/The Orchard
11TOMMY RICHMANThe Rush [EP]Pulse/Concord
12BLACK MILKEverybody Good?Mass Appeal
13GOTTS STREET PARKOn The InsideBlue Flowers/PIAS
14SEAFOOD SAMAfros In The Wind [EP]drink sum wtr
15YUNGATITAShoelace & A KnotSelf-Released
16ALFA MISTVariablesAnti-
17CHEEKFACEIt’s SortedSelf-Released
18CZARFACECzartificial IntelligenceSilver Age/Virgin
19K-RIZOne Way TicketBirthday Cake
20LITTLE SIMZDrop 7 [EP]Forever Living Originals/AWAL
21MICK JENKINSThe PatienceBMG
22MIKEBurning DesireLex
23MOKA ONLYIn And Of ItselfUrbnet
24PACKSMelt The HoneyFire Talk
25SHYGIRLClub Shy [EP]Because
26SPRINTSLetter To SelfCity Slang
27TEEZO TOUCHDOWNHow Do You Sleep At Night?RCA
28YAYA BEY“The Evidence” [Single]Big Data
29DARKSOFTGrayscaleSpirit Goth
30OFFICE DOGSpielNew West/Flying Nun

Top Adds

#ArtistRecordLabel
1GLITTERERRationaleAnti-
2MAMA ZUQuilt FloorCosmic Twin/Thirty Tigers
3BABY IN VAINAfterlifeEscho
4SAY LOU LOU“Wong Kar-wai” [Single]Cosmos
5TEENS IN TROUBLE“Playlist” [Single]Asian Man
6HAHA SAME“Guess What To Do” [Single]Sub Pop
7PILLOW QUEENSLeave The Light OnSub Pop
8COCO“Mythological Man” [Single]First City Artists
Categories
Weekly Charts

Underground Charts 2/27/24

Underground Charts

#ArtistRecordLabel
1TOUSSAINT MORRISONThe Very Best Of Ricky & JaneUrban Home Companion
2CZARFACECzartificial IntelligenceSilver Age/Virgin
3STALLONE AND WEATHERSThe Cost Of Doing BusinessSelf-Released
4MIRANDA JOANOverstimulatedSelf-Released
5WHO SHOT SCOTTBRAIN (SIDE A) [EP]Tenfold
6H31RHeadSpaceBig Dada
7ERICK THE ARCHITECTI’ve Never Been Here BeforeIDOL
8DAY SOUL EXQUISITESanguine & CardamomLa Fem
9DANNY BROWNQuarantaWarp
10ATMOSPHERETalk Talk [EP]Rhymesayers

Underground Adds

#ArtistRecordLabel
1ERICK THE ARCHITECTI’ve Never Been Here BeforeIDOL
2NORTH$IDE DRORevenue [EP]Self-Released
3SEAFOOD SAM“Can’t Take The Hood To Heaven” [Single]drink sum wtr
4WISEBOY JEREMY“Pedal Tha Ave” [Single]Self-Released
5CAKES DA KILLA“Do Dat Baby” (feat. Dawn Richard) [Single]Young Art
6LOTTI“Lemme Get This Str8” [Single]CSUN VOVE
Categories
Weekly Charts

Jazz Charts 2/27/24

Jazz Charts

#ArtistRecordLabel
1JAMES ZOLLARThe Ways InJZAZ
2MARY HALVORSONCloudwardNonesuch
3BRIAN SCARBOROUGHWe Need The WindOutside In
4ALABASTER DEPLUMECome With Fierce GraceInternational Anthem
5SPECIAL FEELINGSSpecial FeelingsRhythm Section International
6DARIUS JONESFluxkit VancouverNorthern Spy
7CHUCK COPENACEOshki ManitouJayward Artist Group/The Orchard
8FIEVEL IS GLAUQUE“I’m Scanning Things I Can’t See” b/w “Dark Dancing” [Single]Fat Possum
9DENIN SLAGE-KOCHIt Comes In WavesSK
10BUTCHER BROWNSolar MusicConcord Jazz/Concord