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.
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.
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.
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.
“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.
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.
Surfacing form the deep depths of Carrboro, NC is Cold Cream with their newest addition to the music world, “Cold Cream II”. As a psych-punk band, these folks have all the sounds you could desire: catchy vocals and beats; screaming; grounded, realistic lyrics.
In terms of members, Cold Cream claims “exes of Pipe, Superchunk, Bat Fangs, Flesh Wounds, Spider Bags, and Entez Vous” to be a part of this band (as stated on their Bandcamp bio). The band has Clark Blomquist (drums, synth), Laura King (bass), Ron Liberti (guitar) and Mara Thomas (vocals).
Cold Cream released the album on February 1, 2024, and it features eight tracks with a run time of about thirteen minutes. FCC warning: there are curse words and foul language in a few of the tracks on this album.
Alrighty I picked three songs to dive into a little bit. “Cactus Wife” has the most classic punk and indie rock vibe to it. It’s a pleasant reminder of other NC bands like Archers of Loaf that have been ruling and inspiring artists for over thirty years. “Decorate the World” also a similar upbeat punk rhythm to it if you enjoyed this track.
Here, we are able to find the most psychedelic inspired track on this album. The wavy reverbed vocals sink in like teeth into an ice-cream bar. It’s not pleasant for some, but I love it. The heavy drums have a rainy pitter-patter meant to keep your feet movin’.
A lovely title has to have a lovely sound, right? This track slams and thrashes the most (in comparison to the other tunes on this album).
Last Bite
As I’ve been writing these articles and posts for the last few months about NC music, I keep finding more hope and new bands to latch onto. I grew up being jealous of other states with exemplary music scenes like Philly or Seattle. Now I am beginning to find bands and sounds that have existed for some time, but finally want to unearth themselves to my ears.
I’m excited for the young bands coming onto the scene too. A few that I’ve written about like Babe Haven and smattering of other hardcore bands, are slowly getting pushed into the limelight because of their amazing talents.
Cold Cream is a another one of these bands (comprised of music veterans) that should be able to foster the growth of more unique NC sounds to come.
Pitch a tent by a local dive bar and sleep all night to the sound of the beer plonking on the rain cover,
Greg Mendez at the Cat's Cradle on February 14, 2024.
Valentine’s Day is a day of reflection. We reflect on the people in our life that we love, have loved, and will love. Stories of varied pasts are brought to mind, and we reflect on the stories we will make in the future with our favorite people. In the thick air of this sentimentality, I could not think of a more suitable act to see on this contemplative day than Greg Mendez.
A stalwart member of Philadelphia’s indie music scene, Greg Mendez’s singer-songwriter style music is marked with acoustic instrumentation, effective melodies, and thick emotions that lend themselves to an atmosphere which gladly accommodates a variety of feelings for a variety of audiences. Like many singer-songwriters in his category, and with his autobiographical and acutely personal songwriting, Greg’s music draws obvious comparisons to Elliott Smith; however, a deep dive is not necessary to find that he has carved out his own immediately recognizable niche.
Arriving at the entrance to the Cat’s Cradle Back Room, I noticed Greg at a short distance, partially obscured, treating himself to a quiet moment during the final moments of the opening act’s performance. This is when I immediately understood that this set would be an intimately nuanced evening.
As he and his partner walked on stage, one could sense Greg’s nervousness about beginning his performance, and the handful of attentive members of the (still somewhat chatty) crowd held respectful consideration for his hesitation. After some supportive pats on the back from his partner who joined him on stage, Greg picked up his acoustic guitar, found his seat, and with his head down, prepared to present his experience in the lusciousness and pain of life.
A hush promptly fell over the crowd as he started playing, intuitively, without an introductory word or notice.
The personal and dramatic energy of the narratives told in his songs were, unlike many similar artists, not lost in the allure of live performance. In fact, the connection to Greg’s lived reality felt viscerally tangible. The emotions were raw, and you could almost physically feel them coursing through the audience in waves. The notes of Greg and his partner’s deeply fervent and stunning harmonies pulsed throughout the space, making it unbearable to even consider looking away. In the fleeting moments between the ends of Greg’s songs and the passionate applause of the audience, I’ve never felt more deafening silence come from so many people.
As the set progressed, Greg quickly became more comfortable with his stage presence, quietly riffing on “thank you” and “you’re welcome” with audience members between songs. The tone of the performance may have slightly loosened, but the sense of admiration from the people in the crowd never remotely faltered, and the songs felt as impassioned as they did from the start.
Greg never skipped a beat, never had a crack in his voice, and always stayed true to the songs. During “Rev. John”, the half-opener to his self-titled album, I at first thought that Greg was playing the organ melody from a mysterious backing track because of how thoroughly identical it sounded to the studio recording. Peeking over the heads of the audience, however, I was surprised to see that Greg was hunched over his keyboard, playing the melody himself. The guitar parts throughout the set were just as eerily accurate to the studio versions as well, despite the lack of some of the additional instrumentation found on the album.
At the end, I walked outside on an emotional high, truly unable to come to terms with the fact that the set was already over.
Considering the straightforwardness and minimalism of the music, it was an unbelievably outstanding performance. I have never experienced such sensitive, intuitional power come from a single artist and his supporting musician as I did that night.
Our daily love is rarely as evident as it was on Valentine’s Day at the Cat’s Cradle.
