North Elementary - And Every Color You Have Ever Seen (Potluck)

North Elementary’s new LP, And Every Color You Have Ever Seen, opens with staccato guitar lines and words of encouragement and optimism:  “I know you’re dreaming of something / well I don’t care what it is / as long as you’re dreaming of something.”  I’m not great at interpreting (even hearing, really) lyrics, but I'd translate that as:  DO something, MAKE art, MAKE the world a better place.  It’s up to you!

…Color has lotsa psych-y vibes and straight-ahead power pop, and even swerves into southern rock territory at times.  As in earlier albums, North Elementary’s music is laced with ‘80s Brit & ‘90s American indie (I hear Versus and Built to Spill this time ‘round, especially the latter in Dems Da Breaks).  They pull all this diversity together into what is really a cohesive and non-derivative sound.

This collection makes for a really great (if a bit early) summer album, especially cuts like the jumpy Slippin’ Into the Sun and the stoner haze of Waste a Day.  What the hell, start your summer early.  

North Elementary celebrate this release with a great line-up at the Cat's Cradle Backroom, tonight, 4/7/14.  The Wyrms, S.E. Ward, and Reflex Arc open.  

Skylar Gudasz, "Oleander" Record Release Show, Cat's Cradle, 4/1/16 - "I'll Be Your Man" and "Wildflower Perfume" (videos)

Skylar Gudasz's Oleander.  Wow, what a debut, and what a release show for it!  I wish I had time to write a full review of this record.  Just too busy of late with real life to give it a thorough and thoughtful write-up, which I want to do when there's a record I really enjoy.  It's full of songs of beautiful sparseness and impermanence, with a few kickers thrown in (okay, a one-sentence review).  You'll just have to get it yourself, and watch the two videos from the show below.  The first is from the album, and the second is a Dead Tongues cover.

Gudasz plays April 15th at the always great Phuzz Phest in Winston-Salem.  One of many reasons to head west next weekend (I believe her set is Friday night at Krankie's).

Mac McCaughan + The Non-Believers w/ Blackball (Nightlight, Chapel Hill, NC, 12/11/15)

Mac McCaughan's new album, Non-Believers, to me sounds closer to his Portastatic catalogue than his Superchunk one.  It's (usually) somewhat mellower, even atmospheric at moments.  Fine by me, as I've been a fan of Portastatic almost as much as 'Chunk over the years.

But knowing his backing band are the members of primordial garage rockers Flesh Wounds, I was curious how they would manage to, well, frankly... rein themselves in.  Flesh Wounds as a band simply explodes on stage.  That kind of energy could simply swamp McCaughan's finely crafted pop tunes.

Short answer:  they do just fine.  And so does Mac.  Restraint by good players really goes a long way, and can be as important as balls-to-the-wall punk. They played 2 sets, the first of which was mostly stuff from the new album, and a few Portastatic tunes.  I LOVED the amped up version of Angels of Sleep.  The second set was, I think, mostly covers (Iggy Pop, Tall Dwarves, Superchunk... would that count as a cover?).  It gave them all a chance to cut loose a little more, and Mac was clearly having fun with the covers. Dan McGee from Spider Bags got up to sing along on one tune.

Speaking of balls-to-the-wall, openers Blackball (from Raleigh, NC & Richmond, VA) brought the primal energy.  Their singer Ericka screams vocals as if her lungs were twice their size... she is pure id.  Intense hardcore from a very tight band.

Some photos, and a couple of videos of Mac's band, follow (yeah yeah another version of Slack Motherfucker).  As you can see, fog machine was stuck in overdrive.

Blackball...

  Mac McCaughan + The Non-Believers...

Eston and the Outs - AM Gold (Potluck)

The opening number of Eston & the Outs’ new record, AMGold, begins as straightforward doo-wop/rock.  But its simple nature belies the complexity behind this wonderful collection of songs.  Eston Dickinson can’t string us along for even half a song, though.  The downshift from Donna to Nancy in Whatever Donna / A Notch for Nancy is downright majestic, recalling Dan Bejar (sans affectation) with his own Neko Case (courtesy ex-L-Daddy Issues’ Lo Davy), channeling the most anthemic moments of Twin Cinema.  Piano, organ, cello, and trumpet add to the lushness… seems Eston’s got his own Wrecking Crew. 

Already it feels like we’ve run through a whole album in the first song, but AM Gold continues to shine.  I’ve barely been listening to it for 24 hours, and my favorite song has changed 4 or 5 times.  There’s not a weak link on it. 

The title cut reminisces -- lyrically & musically -- about the heyday of AM radio, arguing you can still enjoy it today, “in a hoopdee or a Model-T” (for free! without an iPhone!).  Luxy’s Last Kiss is a straight-up homage to Scott Walker.  Clinking keys, melancholy cello, and pining “ahh ahhh ahhhs” underpin this gloomy tale of a femme fatale.  Seems to be a lot of that particular species populating the songs here:  Luxy is a “cunning minx, she had a plan for me”, Donna/Nancy leaves you “licking your wounds” / ”with a heart of blue.”

Just Another Holiday has crunchy organ and thudding rhythms apropos to the subject of a vacation from one’s own brain.  This one’s probably more than a little influenced by fellow Out Stu McLamb’s more recent, heavier Love Language (if not SOON) material.  As Easy As You Please is a jumpy bit of post-Mersey beat/pre-psychedelia Brit Pop, right down to the song title... maybe even a hint of PRE-Mersey skiffle in there.

Color… wow.  Just.  Wow.  It’s a heart-achingly beautiful pastoral.  This is the type of song that should have scored some sad, romantic film from 1968.  Cello and flute slo-mo thrust and parry a minuet, as Dickinson relates relationship-as-painting metaphor, harmonizing with Davy (who is again a highlight here).   

The closing number gets more literally pastoral (Green Pastures), and is perhaps the most upbeat song on the album.  It’s a zen-like acceptance of moving forward with the life you’ve got, and is full of great imagery… always love me a good nautical metaphor.  It ends the album on an optimistic note:  “Within all the good seeds that you root, it's the hearts you leave unbruised.”  

As you would expect from the title, the influences of AM Gold run deep.  While its soul lies in the earliest days of rock’n’roll, its heart lives in late ‘60s and early ‘70s California.  Nothing is ever totally new; everything builds on the old.  But nowadays, with access to practically every artist that has ever recorded (which I’ve said before and I’ll say again is the best thing to happen to modern music), good songwriters have a near infinite well upon which to draw.  Dickinson takes full advantage, harvesting this boon and creating something original in the process.     

While definitely its own thing, Gold is sonically closest to an Elephant 6 record as I’ve heard around here (thinking Beulah and the Gerbils).  Maybe it's the instrumentation.  This is thanks in no small part to the afore-mentioned crew, so I have to name them.  They’re a veritable Who’s Who of local music.  Besides Davy and McLamb, there’s Ben Carr (Last Years’ Men) on trumpet, guitar, etc, Mark Connor (SOON, Strange Faces) on guitar and bass, Dan Grinder (Gray Young) on bass, Tom Simpson (Love Language, SOON, Human Eyes, The Dead Tongues) on drums, Morgan Friedman (Flash Car) and Autumn Ehinger (Love Language) on keys, Jeff Crawford and Jon Lindsay on piano, and Hart Dementi on acoustic guitar.  Notably, Emily Pate plays the wonderful flute on Colors, and Josh Starmer (The Star Makers, and anytime anyone else needs a great cellist) plays cello throughout. 

I’m not sure how many of these guys are formally Outs, but I hope they ALL show up – to a number --and play at the CD release show for AM Gold.  This, by the way, is at the Cat’s Cradle Backroom, tomorrow (Fri, 8/21/15).  The mysterious Shelles and John Howie, Jr. (solo) open.   

Lakes & Woods / Jphono1 Split 12" release show, w/ Hectorina & Little Books (Cat's Cradle Backroom, Carrboro, 7/10/15)

Last weekend, there was yet another Potluck Foundation release show:  to celebrate a split 12" featuring Jphono1 and Lakes&Woods (also playing were Hectorina and the Little Books).  This Triangle collective of like-minded folks just keep'em coming, supporting music of a slew of the better local bands.  As much music as they share with us, they share band-members with each other even more.  Case in point, Jphono1, the formerly-solo alter-ego of North Elementary's John Harrison, plays keys in Lakes&Woods.

Jphono1 has been playing off and on as a solo act for a while, complete with lots of looping and other assorted effects to fill in his sparse, atmospheric songs. The result has been a rather psychedelic, rolling, drone of a sound.  While this single ("Castles")  is similar to that, the full band is just coming into its own.  Heavier and less reliant on effects and more on the usual guitar-bass-drums ethos, providing a different outlet for what are good songs either way.

Jphono1...

Hectorina are a Charlotte band that I think has been around for a while.  I caught them briefly in Wilmington some time ago, and was a little taken aback at first by a somewhat poppy and schizophrenic sound; are they funky? Are they Animal Collectiv-ites?  Wasn't sure what to think.  On second listen, I gained a greater appreciation.  Maybe if Interpol had more funk and a sense of humor, Hectorina might be the result.  They were sorta mathematical and jazzy, too.  Definitely not like anything in the Triangle.

Hectorina...

Lakes&Woods have a clean, jangly sound that traces it's lineage back through the Connells, dBs, Big Star, maybe all the way back to the Byrds.  Really, though, front-man and songwriter Matt McMichaels' earlier band, Mayflies USA, were  practically contemporaries with the later bands in that lineage, so he's just continuing to do what he does.  Also not a lot of stuff like this in the Triangle (anymore).  Occasional ukelele & harmonica, and organ from Harrison, provide nice depth to their straight-ahead power-pop songs.

Lakes&Woods...

The Little Books were a touring band (from Jacksonville, FL) added to the end of the bill, which made for a very pleasant surprise.  They're just a duo, a fact belied their sound.  Though they would sometimes settle down for a sweet folk number or two, they alternated this with frenetic, punky, K-records-style rippers.  I wonder if they  remember Crowsdell, another Jacksonville band from the late 1990's (or subsequent solo music by that band's frontwoman Shannon Wright).  Little Books kind of reminded me of them... especially on the song "The Cure" (see video below).  Dig up the song "Sugar-Coated", from Dreamette, Crowsdell's debut LP produced by Stephen Malkmus of Pavement.  Nevermind, I've done it for you.  And watch the Little Books video below to the end to see what they do to their equipment when they get carried away.  Also, see the other video below, of Lakes&Woods performing "The Future of the Payphone".

This weekend, there's another Potluck joint going on:  See Gulls' much anticipated EP release show at Kings!  'Course, if you saw the Indy this week, you could not possibly have missed that.   

The Little Books...

This weekend, there's another Potluck joint going on:  See Gulls' much anticipated EP release show at Kings!  'Course, if you saw the Indy this week, you could not possibly have missed that.

A couple of videos from the show...

Sylvan Sprites - Sylvan Esso w/ Flock of Dimes and Ivan Howard (Carrboro Town Commons, 4/3/15)

The first time I saw Sylvan Esso, all I knew about them was that they were an up-and-coming Durham duo with members of two bands I hadn't really listened to:  Amelia Meath from rootsy vocal trio Mountain Man, and Nick Sanborn from local favorites Megafaun (hell, I really just knew Sanborn as a sometime member of the Love Language from way back in 2011).  Dance not really being my thing, they were still fun when I saw them open for the Love Language many months ago.  This was just before they graduated from "up-and-coming local act" to "genuine international buzz band".  Despite being pre-album release and very few live shows in, they already had the audience eating out of their hands.  In that setting, though, I couldn't quite hear what has since become so appealing to me about this band.

But upon listening to their eponymous debut, Meath's liquid, layered vocals began to draw me in, begging to be drunk... to become drunken with them, to drown in them.  In songs like Hey Mami, H.S.K.T., and Play It Right, you can definitely hear a rootsiness.  This made sense since her previous band was one often compared to folkies the Roches, a similarity I (probably not coincidentally) noticed in her Sylvan vocals despite never having heard that earlier comparison.  But with Sylvan Esso, the pastoral is mixed with a siren-like worldliness more befitting a smoky cabaret or, yes, a dancefloor... but perhaps a dirt-strewn, moonlit dancefloor, as on this night.

Meath...

Not to ignore Sanborn's input.  He's the one doing the layering of her layered vocals (no trio to harmonize with here).  He's providing the rhythm, adding the accents, just making the damn thing whole.  Complex yet sparing beats perfectly complement the vocal melodies.  Truth be told, there are scores of stunningly beautiful vocalists out there.  Without Sanborn's skillz, Meath's excellent vocals (as talented as she is) might frankly get lost in the crowd.  But the chemistry between the two of them creates something much more exciting and relevant than just great singing.

Sanborn...

It is for me, however, that voice.  And, back to the setting, that voice could ask for no better space to fill than a grassy field in Carrboro on a stunning spring night.  Christ, the full moon was rising just as she crooned "The modern WOLF..." (the opener to the song Wolf).   It was all smoothly led into by the Rosebuds' Ivan Howard's solo set, and the singularly intense vocals of Jenn Wasner playing as her solo project Flock of Dimes.  This built to an eventual mellow-pagan dancehall vibe, ending with the encore of Come Down, the beautifully resonant closer from the album and perfect postscript for the night.

Carrboro Town Commons adds a great large outdoor venue to the Triangle scene, especially for nights like this one.  Here's hoping they use it more often (and provide more bathrooms, PLEASE!).  Both Wasner and Meath (no strangers to touring) said the crowd of around 4,000-5,000 was the largest they'd ever played before, and it's good to know we gave it to them.  The scene here can do that for more touring (and bigger local) bands.

Ivan Howard...

Flock of Dimes,...

Sylvan Esso...

Ahoooo!