Category: Blog

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Concert Review

Beggars save night from colossal failure

Kings Barcade hosted the kickoff of the Beggars and Colossus’s 2011 North Carolina statewide tour Thursday, Jan. 13. Fortunately for the audience, the opening act was worth the $6 admission price.

The Beggars, classified as punk/rock/soul on their MySpace page, is a five-piece band from Detroit proper. Almost 700 miles is a long way to come to play for the two dozen or so people milling around Kings at the beginning of the set, but the group didn’t seem to mind. Vocalist Steven Davis swaggered around the stage wearing a red polo, khaki pants and a pair of white wrist sweatbands looking like he could be right at home at a 1980s Sunday afternoon family reunion – until the music started. Davis and his band mates were, in a word, enthusiastic. The singer’s theatrics included frequent jumps into the audience, losing his loafers and socks on more than one occasion, tossing the microphone around, crawling on his knees across the stage, a string of “fuck, yeah!”s in between songs and a backwards somersault from the floor back onto the stage. With all the jumping around, he even split his pants (a fact they specifically requested to be put in this blog). Davis slipped off the stage at the start of the last song, returning with “super limited edition” tour merchandise – a six-song CD and spiffy black tee.

The 45-minute set opened with “Same Costume as Mine,” a quirky song about matching outfits punctuated by the superb saxophone work of Rod “Pool Party” Jones. That got the crowd pumped up and kept them there through “FRK,” “It’s All About Me,” “Gold (My Neck I’ll Hang Around),” “25 Miles,” “Us Dudes (Wee get so Rad),” “Sleepaway Camp” and “Thieves.” Their finale “Stop, Drop, Rock n’ Roll” had the crowd chanting the chorus and pumped for the show’s headliner.

Colossus lead singer Sean Buchanan joined the Beggars on stage for “Stop, Drop, Rock n’ Roll,” which gave the first hint of intoxication. He made it clear he had a few too many when he crashed in to the drum kit in the middle of the second song. After a brief interlude, Buchanan regained his composure and the show continued. When he knocked over another drum, the band called it quits after the fourth song. The lyrics weren’t coherent enough to get any song titles.

Those who saw Colossus before Thursday should choose to remember them from previous performances. For those experiencing the Raleigh rock/metal band for the first time, consider giving them another chance. Colossus really does display “talent like a Viking lets blood on a battlefield as Independent Weekly’s Bryan Reed wrote. While the crowd did grow from the original two dozen, perhaps it was best there were limited witnesses.

The 2011 North Carolina statewide tour continues Friday, Jan. 14 at Pinups in Greensboro and Saturday, Jan. 15 at Reggie’s in Wilmington. The Beggars conclude their trip of the Wolfpack state Sunday, Jan. 16 at the Reservoir in Carrboro. Colossus will play again Saturday, Feb. 5 for the second day of the Bull City Metal Fest at Casbah.

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Music News and Interviews

Local playwright Kelly Doyle introduces ‘Blue,’ and we have tickets!

“Burning Coal announces the world premiere of Blue by Raleigh playwright Kelly Doyle. Blue is a comedy about Louise, a self-absorbed wife who falls for an escape artist at the circus, Adagio, her equally self absorbed comic-book-making-artist husband with a juvenile perspective on the world, and William, the seductive but dangerous circus performer Louise falls for. Blue opens this Thursday the 13th and runs through January 30th. Burning Coal is also featuring a Thursday Night Out package that includes a drink at Market Restaurant.  Call 919-834-4001 for details. Or go to burningcoal.org.” -Press release, 1/11/11

Just listen to WKNC and be the correct caller when the DJ asks for it this week to win a pair of tickets to a showing of Blue during its opening weekend, January 13-16!

Categories
Music News and Interviews

Giveaways for this week!

If you can brave the icy cold air and scraping the ice off your car, we’ve got some hot giveaways for you!

1/12: Obits @ Kings Barcade

1/12: The Walkmen @ Cat’s Cradle

1/13: Colossus @ Kings Barcade

1/13: The Wigg Report @ Casbah

1/15: The Love Language @ Cat’s Cradle

1/15: The Ettes @ The Pour House

Be the correct caller at the appropriate time to win tickets – you have to listen to win!

For a more complete list of local shows, visit the Rock Report!

Categories
Concert Preview

Lineup for Night Two of Double Barrel Benefit 8!

Night two of Double Barrel Benefit 8 features Kid Future, HaLo, King Mez, Yardwork and Hammer No More the Fingers.

Kid Future
(Kieran Moreira, WKNC Program Director)
Kid Future could possibly be one of Raleigh’s best kept secrets. The indie band maintains a low profile online only featuring one of their recorded tracks. However, it can only be a matter of time before their talent betrays their anonymity. After catching them at a packed Slims Downtown in July and seeing them perform at Hopscotch in front of Raleigh Times, it’s clear that Kid Future has a knack for mesmerizing audiences. What’s to be expected from their performance? Dreamy synth sounds mixed with frontman Bryan Costello’s moody voice creates a recipe that is very reminiscent of the National and the Killers.

HaLo
(Tommy Anderson, WKNC General Manager)
Ahem, that’s “hah-low,” or “Mr. Ben Ready” to you, good sir.  This guy is witty, upbeat, and dare I say funky hip hop out of Raleigh. HaLo is connected with 9th Wonder, and he appears on Kooley High’s much acclaimed recent album Eastern Standard Time. This gentleman has already developed a name in the area and beyond (he’s also got one Local Beer Local Band under his belt.) Request his stuff on WKNC during Local Lunch and Underground. Fantastic stuff.

King Mez
(Tommy Anderson, WKNC General Manager)
What can you say? If you were fortunate enough to catch any of King Mez’s performances in the area (or elsewhere), you know what an energetic, committed show he is able to put on. Street-wise lyrics, lush beats (provided by Commissioner Gordon on his most recent release “The Parapalegics” ), and a style that is all his own, King Mez is unforgettable and singularly compelling. As with HaLo, request this during Local Lunch as well as Underground. We’re very very excited to have King Mez on board making night two that much more of a treat for anyone lucky enough to get a ticket.

Yardwork
(Nicole Kligerman, WKNC Local Music Director)
Hailing from Charlotte, NC, Yardwork is described as playing “South Eastern Minimalist Pop/Prog.“ No matter what you call this band’s music, it is awesome, and those who have seen this band live know that this will not be a show to miss. Complete with a large and eclectic cast skilled in multiple instruments, this group puts on a kaleidoscopic show that will entertain your eyes as well as your ears. Usually working with two simultaneous percussionists, the sound is so rich and deep that you’ll find a completely new array to look for in each song.

There isn’t a lot known about Yardwork, and the biography on the band’s Myspace is a story including feral, mutant school teachers and PV rays. Whatever the history of the band, the music they play is bad ass and great for jumping around.

Their Local Beer Local Band performance in 2010 was barely contained by the stage. The larger space at Kings should be a perfect opportunity for this helter-skelter outfit to unleash their full furry upon downtown Raleigh. I saw Yardwork for the first time at last years TRKfest and am so psyched for another chance to see the live energy at this years’ Double Barrel Benefit 8.

Hammer No More the Fingers
(Kieran Moreira, WKNC Program Director)
Possibly the coolest name for a band, Hammer No More The Fingers, hailing from Durham, are local heavy hitters with a UK tour under their belt. They’ve graced WKNC’s airwaves since 2007, so it’s only natural that they take their place as Double Barrel Benefit night two headliners. Looking For Bruce, which released in 2009, cemented the band’s success meshing a blend of quirkiness, mid-twenties male humor, rock, and pop. What’s to be expected from HNMTF at Double Barrel Benefit 8? Raw energy. Although a lot of indie artists delve into bubbly pop sounds, HNMTF tries to remain edgier and grittier with sharp guitar licks and soaring vocals. We are very excited to have these fellas on board as headliners.

Categories
DJ Highlights

WKNC deejays’ Favorite Concerts of 2010

To state the obvious, we here at WKNC love music. A lot. We also love live music. A lot. Most, if not all, of us attend many concerts and music festivals each year. What follows are lists of some of WKNC’s deejays’ favorite shows of the year. They range from national to local acts, regular shows to festivals. Some (myself included) went to so many it was hard to narrow it down to five, so we listed ten. Some lists are in numerical order, others are not. Caribou, Future Islands, and the inaugural Hopscotch Music Festival were some of the most common favorites, among dozens of other acts. Check it out:

Synthesiser Patel (Daytime/Afterhours)

– Chromeo/A-Trak/Kid Sister/Theophilus London @ Congress Theater (Chicago)

– The National/Owen Pallett @ Raleigh Memorial Auditorium

– Metric @ Lollapalooza

– of Montreal @ Cat’s Cradle

– Born Ruffians/Winter Gloves @ Local 506

DJ Mensch (Daytime)

1. The National @ Raleigh Memorial Auditorium

2. Minus The Bear @ Lincoln Theatre

3. Max Indian @ Hopscotch Music Festival

4. Broken Social Scene @ Hopscotch Music Festival

5. The Rosebuds @ Hopscotch Music Festival

May Day (Daytime)

1. Broken Social Scene @ Hopscotch Music Festival

2. Camera Obscura @ Duke Gardens

3. Surfer Blood @ Cat’s Cradle

4. Yeasayer/Javelin @ Cat’s Cradle

5. OK  Go @ Lincoln Theatre

DJ Mollypop (Daytime)

1. Paul McCartney @ Sprint Center (Kansas City)

2. The Weepies @ Lincoln Theatre

3. Phoenix @ Koka Booth Amphitheatre

4. Crooked Still @ Casbah

5. The New Pornographers/Dodos/The Duchess and the Duke @ Memorial Hall (UNC-CH)

The Noobhammer (Chainsaw)

1. Scale The Summit/Devin Townsend Project/Cynic/Between the Buried and Me @ The Fillmore Charlotte

2. Sons of Liberty/Iced Earth @ 9:30 Club (Washington, D.C.)

3. Powerglove/Firewind @ Volume 11

4. Valient Thorr/Between the Buried and Me/Mastodon @ Lincoln Theatre

5. Boris @ Cat’s Cradle

Iris G (Daytime)

– Mumford & Sons @ 9:30 Club (Washington, D.C.)

– Ratatat @ MeetFactory (Prague)

Audity (Daytime)

– Active Child @ Hopscotch Music Festival

– Cassis Orange @ Duke Coffeehouse

– Veelee @ Duke Coffeehouse

– Old Bricks @ Kings

– Deerhunter @ Cat’s Cradle

Sarahnade (Daytime/Post Rock Block)

1. Trans-Siberian Orchestra @ RBC Center

2. Local Natives/The Union Line @ The Grey Eagle (Asheville)

3. Phoenix @ Koka Booth Amphitheatre

4. The New Pornographers/Dodos/The Duchess and the Duke @ Memorial Hall (UNC-CH)

5. The Temper Trap/The Kissaway Trail @ Cat’s Cradle

6. This Machine Kills Cancer benefit

DJ Ones (Daytime)

1. Phoenix @ Koka Booth Amphitheatre

2. The New Pornographers @ Memorial Hall (UNC-CH)

3. Broken Social Scene @ Hopscotch Music Festival

4. The Big Pink @ Cat’s Cradle

5. Sharon Van Etten @ Hopscotch Music Festival

DJ Hammerhead (Chainsaw)

1. Municipal Waste/Double Negative/Zeus @ The Milestone (Charlotte)

2. Overkill/Forbidden/Gama Bomb/Evile/Bonded By Blood @ Volume 11

3. D.R.I./Final Curse @ Amos’ Southend (Charlotte)

4. Nemesis/Chainsawdamy/Avalon Steel @ Tremont Music Hall (Charlotte)

5. Exmortus/Vektor/Final Curse @ Charlotte’s Underground (Charlotte)

The Blog Lady (Blog Editor/Staff Photographer)

1. The Avett Brothers @ Asheville Civic Center Arena

2. Lost In The Trees @ Cat’s Cradle

3. Mandolin Orange @ Troika Music Festival

4. The Rosebuds @ Hopscotch Music Festival

5. Chatham County Line @ Troika Music Festival

DJ Vice (Daytime)

1. Benji Hughes/The Old Ceremony @ Cat’s Cradle

2. Passion Pit @ The Fillmore Charlotte

3. The Avett Brothers @ Asheville Civic Center Arena

Just John (Daytime)

1. Caribou/Phantogram @ Governor’s Island (New York City)

2. Beach House @ Cat’s Cradle

3. Every Future Islands show

4. Joanna Newsom @ Carolina Theatre

5. Ponytail @ Siren Music Festival

The Cosmic Cowboy (The Church of Bluegrass and the Truer Sound)

1. John Prine @ Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival

2. Joanna Newsom @ The National (Richmond) and Variety Playhouse (Atlanta)

3. Cedric Watson and the Bijou Creole/Red Stick Ramblers @ Reynolds Industries Theater (Duke)

4. Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy @ Borque’s Social Club (Scot, LA)

5. Charlie Louvin @ Borque’s Social Club (Scot, LA)

DJ Elly May(Daytime)

1. Delta Spirit @ Cat’s Cradle

2. The Rosebuds/Megafaun @ The Pour House

3. Holy Ghost Tent Revival @ The Pour House

4. Minus The Bear @ Lincoln Theatre

5. Turbo Fruits @ Local 506

Lucretia (Chainsaw)

1. Eyehategod/Nachtmystium/Withered/Haarp/Stripmines @ Volume 11

2. Kreator/Voivod/Nachtmystium @ Jaxx (West Springfield, VA)

3. Slang/World Burns To Death/Devour/Stripmines @ Slims

4. Immolation/Vader/Abigail Williams/Lecherous Nocturne @ Volume 11

5. High On Fire/Torche/Kylesa @ Cat’s Cradle

6. Atakke/Parasytic/Devour @ Slims

7. Pentagram/Cough/The Gates of Slumber/Windham @ The Hat Factory (Richmond)

8. Alice In Chains @ Raleigh Memorial Auditorium

9. Hate Eternal/Cannabis Corpse/Malebolgia @ Volume 11

10. Glass Casket/Wrath & Rapture/Malebolgia @ Johnny & Junes (Winston-Salem)

Agent Orange (Daytime)

1. Broken Social Scene @ Hopscotch Music Festival

2. Yeasayer/Javelin @ Cat’s Cradle

3. Caribou/Toro Y Moi @ Cat’s Cradle

4. Annuals/The Light Pines @ Tir Na Nog

5. Ra Ra Riot/Givers @ Cat’s Cradle

Riff Raff (Daytime)

– Hopscotch Music Festival

– Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros @ Cat’s Cradle

– Veelee/Lonnie Walker/Future Islands @ Kings

– Beach House/Washed Out @ Cat’s Cradle

– Ludacris @ Reynolds Coliseum

DJ Kligz (Daytime/Local Lunch)

1. Hopscotch Music Festival

2. Future Islands/Lonnie Walker/Veelee/NAPS @ Kings

3. Shakori Hills Grassroots Festival

4. Beach House @ Cat’s Cradle

5. Caribou/Veelee @ Cat’s Cradle

Chuck (Daytime)

1. LCD Soundsystem @ Pitchfork Music Festival

2. Massive Attack/Jonsi @ MoogFest

3. The National @ Raleigh Memorial Auditorium

4. Wilco @ Durham Performing Arts Center

5. Caltrop/US Christmas/The Curtains of Night @ Nightlight

6. Titus Andronicus/Spider Bags @ Local 506

7. Deerhunter/Schooner @ Cat’s Cradle

8. Deakin @ Hopscotch Music Festival

9. GWAR @ Lincoln Theatre

10. These Are Powers/Lemonade/MNDR @ The Pinhook

What were your favorite shows and/or music festivals of the year?


Categories
Concert Preview Local Music

End your first week of the Semester right! January 13 LBLB

This week at Tir Na nOg we have two darling bands to delight us. WKNC is proud to present The Revolutionary Sweethearts of Raleigh and Crystal Bright & the Silver Hand of Greensboro. The show is FREE, 21 and up, and starts at 10 p.m.

The Revolutionary Sweethearts

I’ve seen this band twice… once on Thanksgiving with Felix the Drum Machine and again with The Loners. I must say I fell in love with these two the first time I heard them. The band “draws inspiration from indie-rock projects like Fugazi to singer-songwriters such as Neko Case. Filled with catchy melodies and curious harmonies, the music is simple yet dynamic… The Revolutionary Sweethearts continue to write and play music, and eagerly look forward to recording their first album in the upcoming year.” (quote found on their Myspace page)

I will have the Revolutionary Sweethearts at the station on Thursday at 7 p.m. so be sure to tune in!  They promise some live music!

Crystal Bright & the Silver Hands

“Crystal Bright & the Silver Hands have a maddeningly eclectic sound. This band is truly difficult to put a label on. Depending on the song being played, one could describe them using a variety of descriptions ranging from circus nightmare theme to Spanish traditional song to experimental noise. The band is composed of Crystal Bright playing accordion, keyboard, saw, and whatever other little toy she decides to pick up (There’s one instrument that looks like a big hamburger that she hits with mallets.), Pete Lewis on the drums, Charles Kurtz on upright bass, and Diego Diaz on guitar, toothbrush, and electric lapsteel. Definitely a hell of a wall of sound. Crystal Bright is an amazing multi-instrumentalist Badass with the voice of a damn banshee.” -Taylor Bays (before his badass joined the band)

Categories
DJ Highlights

Some of DJ Short’s Favorite New Albums

In the past couple weeks, of all of the new albums I’ve reviewed, here are a few new names to me that I find myself playing on repeat.

DePedro – Nubes de Papel

Leave it to a Spanish guitarist to introduce an album with immediate charm. Lead man Jairo Zavala, along with Calexico’s Joey Burns, was admittedly more patient with this, his second album. This graceful Spanish folk is never inactive even at its most intimate. There are tracks with English lyrics (2.Empty Fields – with vocals by Joey Burns, and 9. What Goes On – a Lou Reed/Velvet Underground cover), and a jazzy instrumental (11. Tramuntana) that treks through gloom and lightens into understated joy.  The whole album feels understated. You may not realize how much you love it until you aren’t listening to it anymore.

There are no tracks that I wouldn’t suggest. I like it all.

Mariage Blanc – Mariage Blanc

Bravo to this (also the second) album from the Pittsburgh based band.  This is a really cohesive album with consistent melody.  The tracks can seem to blend sometimes, but remain mostly individual. There is a strong presence of keys with an electronic harmonic background that I really enjoy as they barely avoid sounding too Pop-y. The vocals (lead and backup) are nicely complimentary to the music. The lyrics are pleasantly intelligent (6. Rag To A Bull – “no contrition for the line that’s crossed, an ornamental savior, a steady sentiment of gain and loss, that makes convictions waiver”).  The equally intelligent composition allows the instrumentation to be minimal. This isn’t very intricate music and I like it a lot.

My personal favorites: tracks 2, 7, 8.

Categories
DJ Highlights

Sweet Annie Rich’s Top Five of 2010

It was a great year for Americana, as always.  I had a lot of favorites for this year, but for simplicity’s sake, here’s a top five (in no particular order) of the music I love:

Crazy Heart soundtrack

Jeff Bridges as a country singer?  You’d better believe it.  A good blend of contemporary artists, classic country, and some originals written for the movie by T Bone Burnett (and performed by Jeff Bridges and sometimes even Colin Farrell) make a great soundtrack that stands alone to perfectly complement the movie.

Justin Townes Earle – Harlem River Blues

Justin Townes Earle’s latest effort doesn’t have a single song I’d skip.  There’s a wide range of musical stylings here, from the dark gospel sound of the title track, to the Elvis rockabilly of “Move Over Mama,” to the singer-songwriter tradition of “Christchurch Woman."  Earle puts on a great live show, as well, and shouldn’t be missed.

Broken Hearts and Dirty Windows

Most, if not all, of the singer-songwriters today owe something to the words of John Prine. For some reason, Prine has always flown under the popular radio radar, but he has a devoted following among listeners and fellow artists alike.  This compilation of covers is genius with unexpected artists like Bon Iver right next to Americana favorites like the Avett Brothers.  Standout tracks for me were the Josh Ritter cover of "Mexican Home” and the Avett Brothers version of “Spanish Pipedream.”

Carolina Chocolate Drops – Genuine Negro Jig

This is the album that carried the Carolina Chocolate Drops from local favorites to national recognition.  Plays on NPR catapulted their status, and with good reason: this album updates bluegrass for a new generation, including a cover of the R&B song “Hit ‘Em Up Style” that adds a whole new groove.

Twistable Turnable Man

Not many people realize that Shel Silverstein penned several of the old country classics of yesteryear. Perhaps the best-known is Johnny Cash’s hit song “A Boy Named Sue."  This tribute album has a strong lineup (Todd Snider, My Morning Jacket, and Sarah Jarosz with Black Prairie, just to name a few), brilliantly covering the songs of a well-known wordsmith.

Categories
Concert Review

Organos Brings Complex Pop To Kings

It was a frigid night on Friday, but that didn’t keep people from coming out to a great local bill happening at Kings.

Starting off the night were Soft Company. A local supergroup of sorts, with Missy Thangs of The Love Language serving as bandleader, backed by members of such defunct local acts as Lake Inferior and Violet Vector & The Lovely Lovelies, the band made their way through a set of mid-tempo songs  that brought to mind 70’s AM radio and classic pop. The highlight of the set was a song midway through (that I didn’t catch the name of) that slowly built to an epic couple minutes of wailing guitars and prolonged “oh"s from Thangs.

Taking a break between sets to play some pinball down in Neptunes, I came back up to find a curiously less full Kings. Josh Carpenter, who plays drums in Asheville band Floating Action, brought along his own set of original songs that brought to mind The Old Ceremony on a sugar rush. With a full album recorded and (hopefully) due out soon, he’s definitely one to keep an eye on in the coming year.

Organos finally came on around midnight to perform one of the best sets by a local band I’ve seen in recent memory. Maria Albani, her bass, and a couple pals encircled a table covered in various percussive instruments and a glockenspiel, while Reid Johnson from Schooner and Nathan White from Nathan Oliver played  intertwining guitar runs and Ginger Wagg, of Veelee, provided the back beat. The set ran through all of Organos’ debut, The Limbs EP, as well as several new songs. One of the best aspects of the show was how well the band played together. It’d be easy for the ramshackle songs on the EP to come across messy live, but the band performed them with an effortless grace that further revealed the subtleties and intricacies in the music. As a bonus, Albani’s between-song banter rivaled that of Bradford Cox’s in hilarity, making quips such as "this is our guitarist, Justin Bieber”(referring to White).

Overall, the warm tones found in the night’s music served as the perfect counter to the icy winds blowing outside.

Categories
Concert Preview

Announcing: Lineup for Night One of Double Barrel Benefit 8!

Since 2004, the Double Barrel Benefit has since served as the station’s primary fund raising event. As a department of a state university, NCSU Student Media consistently faces budgeting concerns (read: small budgets, which are made smaller each year). Similar fund raising efforts are absolutely integral to any non-commercial radio station, especially those that have very little in the way of guaranteed annual funding. Is that a shameless appeal? Not really, just part of the framework of the event.

What better way to secure some operating funds than to expose and promote local music? It’s unarguable that the Triangle area (conveniently covered in full by WKNC’s 25,000 watt transmitter atop D.H. Hill Library) is brimming with musical talent. WKNC has been a gracious actor within the local music scene for years, and helping local musicians reach their target audience (and beyond) is a major part of what we’re all about.

This year, local music fans who are generous (and indeed lucky) enough to attend the Double Barrel Benefit will receive something more than just two nights of great music and the knowledge that they helped the station keep the lights on for another year. All eight acts supplied a previously unreleased track to an eight-song compilation album; seven of the eight tracks were engineered and mixed right on the N.C. State campus. Kitchen Mastering, one of the South’s premier mastering facilities was responsible for the fantastic mastering work, and Triangle Duplication, located right in Raleigh, NC, provided duplication services; a free copy of this compilation is included in the $10 ticket price (buy a two night pass, get two compilations).

This year, Double Barrel Benefit 8 will take place on Friday and Saturday, February 4 and 5, at Kings in downtown Raleigh. Friday, February 4, will feature Cassis Orange, Luego, Bright Young Things and The Old Ceremony.

Cassis Orange
(Nicole Kligerman, WKNC Local Music Director)

Cassis Orange has got to be one of my favorite bands to come out of the Triangle in the past year. The poppy sweet sound is addictive, and I’m so happy about all the love this band has been receiving after the release of their Cassis Orange EP. I’m even happier about their inclusion in our Double Barrel lineup for this year.

Cassis Orange is the project of Autumn Ehinger and friends, and it’s actually the name of a popular Japanese cocktail drink. Japan is quite a large source of Autumn’s inspiration for song writing as her songs are, directly or indirectly, about the time she lived in Tokyo teaching English.

When trying to describe the music of Cassis Orange, I am reminded of a trip to the candy shop or being surrounded by color on a sunny day. The music is full of lo-fi pop sounds coming from Autumn’s Casio keyboard and lyrics about love and the like. The video for “Listen Heartbeat” was even filmed with a Locopop making its way around Cameron Village. The songs have the perfect sound for any happy time, and Friday night’s DBB8 is sure to be just that.

Luego
(Adam Kincaid, host of The Local Beat)

To say Luego is a super-group is a bit of an understatement. Fronted by talented young troubadour Patrick Phelan, this band features an ever rotating cast of a who’s-who of the Triangle Music Scene, all friends and contemporaries of the ever expanding congregation under the tutelage of Jeff Crawford.  The likes of Peter Holsapple, William Moose, Mark Connor, Cameron Lee, Charles Cleaver, Rob DiMauro, Will Goodyear, Stuart Robinson, Brett Harris, Nick Jaeger, Caitlin Cary, James Wallace, and Dale Baker can all claim ties to Luego in one way or another. And yet despite this massive accumulation of local music demi-gods, it is Phelan who shines through with his vibrant stage presence and catchy lyrics layered on top of craftily set lo-fi blues rock that gets your feet moving while speaking to your heart.  The latest release, Ocho, was put out just a mere eight months following the debut release of Taped Together Stories setting a prolific trend that we hope can continue.

Bright Young Things

(Tommy Anderson, WKNC General Manager)

There are several ways one could take the now-infamous tongue-in-cheek description of the BYT as “the Beatles on a bad day,” but the fact remains that there is only one way to take their live show. Energetic, creative, playful, yet still down to earth, Raleigh’s Bright Young Things weave their way right into the audience’s consciousness. (“I feel like I’ve known this band my whole life, and I’ve been a fan the whole damn time.”)

Lead guitarist Cameron Lee’s searing guitar licks slide right in next to Matt Damron’s crooned hooks; smooth and in-step keys along with the driving, bolstering rhythm section round out this attractive and impossible to forget outfit. The BYT are unassuming, polite, and darn catchy.

The Old Ceremony
(Adam Kincaid)

Django Haskins formed The Old Ceremony back in 2004 as a “mini-orchestra” of sorts with the aspiration of creating music that could not be composed by typical rock bands. What resulted was one of the catchiest and most sought after North Carolina groups in recent memory. After the release of their self titled debut full length the band struck a chord in the heart of music critics with their most successful output in 2007’s Our One Mistake, which was listed as one of the top 100 albums of that year by Paste Magazine. Without hitting a slump the band has dropped two more sophisticated masterpieces, Walk On Thin Air and Tender Age, while continually building upon the legacy that their live shows have garnered. Behind Haskins on stage, Mark Simonsen, Daniel Hall, Gabriel Pelli, and Matt Brandau fill out the fitting pieces into an intimate yet high energy show that has yet to repeat a set-list or let an audience down. The Old Ceremony is certainly a legend in the making.