Phuzz Phest Night 2 (Winston-Salem, NC, 4/16/16)

My second night of Phuzz Phest, in Winston-Salem, was limited to all North Carolina acts.   Despite big indie names like Brooklyn's Chairlift, London's Yuck, and Austin's White Denim, I was happy to stay right here at home, as it were.  If ya ask me, the talent level is so deep in this state, those national and international hotbeds have a little competition on their hands.

As with Night 1, Night 2 kicked off at Bailey Park, with the great Boone band, Naked Gods.  It felt slightly odd seeing a band like this out in the wide open, as my prior experiences had been in little shotgun bars like the Cave.  That didn't prevent singer Seth Sullivan from bringing it out into the crowd, at least a bit, as he likes to do (hugged at least one audience-member).  This band's eponymous second album was one of the best of last year, REALLY worth your listen.

Naked Gods...

After getting my new favorite sandwich from the Camel City Grill food truck (PBBJ: peanut butter, red pepper jelly, & bacon!), I had to leave Bailey Park a bit early -- choices, choices -- to catch some of Chapel Hill's Body Games.  The Milennium Center was a great setting for the visuals that accompany their dark, electronic pop.  And when just they feared they were getting a little too preachy with the graphics, they brought out the fuzzies!

Body Games...

Stuck around Millenium Center for one of the shows I was most awaiting:  Shirlette Ammons.  Her new album, Language Barrier, is a tour de force... a melange of diverse voices joining to express a cohesive vision.  Live, Ammons and her band just rock.

Shirlette Ammons...

Next, it was up Trade St. two blocks for my first visit to Test Pattern.  The location made my remaining festival choices a whole lot easier, catching two great NC bands there, and tag-teaming with the Garage across the street for two more.

It started with the psych/zen/weirdness of Carrboro's Jphono1.  This band's sound has evolved into a sound of its own, distinct from  front-man John Harrison's earlier solo version, and also from his other band, North Elementary.  The full crowd at the small venue were loving it.

Jphono1...

Patrick in the zone...

Body Games travels with their light show, apparently (at Test Pattern/Jphono1)...

I often say Zack Mexico is the best band in NC.  It's just my opinion, but I talked up this show to a few festival-goers asking for my opinion on what to see.  I also often point out that this is one of the few bands I can watch stretch out a song for 8, 10, or more minutes and not get at all bored (I hate jam bands).  They can, and often do, play a 5-song set without leaving you feeling short-changed in the least.  This time, they played four... maybe five if you count the little warm-up instrumental at the beginning.  But what I heard from people milling around in shock afterwards, it only took four songs to make a lot of new fans. "Amazing!" "Incredible!" "You were NOT wrong!"

Zack Mexico...

Having a moment with a new fan...

Packed Garage for Zack Mexico...

Staying at the Garage, I only stuck around for a few songs -- more choices --for Boulevards, the stage persona of Raleigh's Jamil Rashad.  If I had left, I wouldn't have been able to get back in as the line was around the corner.  From what I witnessed, he's all he's cracked up to be.  All over the stage, pumping up the crowd to dance and party (like it's 1979).  Heavy Chic, Sugarhill Gang disco/funk that gets everyone's feet moving.

Boulevards...

Back across the street to Test Pattern, for Durham's Brett Harris.  Harris and his very tight band played mostly songs from his excellent new album, Up In The Air.  That's good, because they're great pop songs from a polished writer who hits just the right notes.

Brett Harris...

Joe Caparo & Brad Porter:  Rhythm section to the stars! (they're everywhere, really)

To close out the night, I head two doors down the street for a quick nightcap at Single Brothers.  The back patio at this little place featured one of the best sets I'd seen at Phuzz Phest (or anywhere, ever, really), the festival-closing set from T0W3RS in 2014.  This night couldn't top that, but Winston-Salem's Mauve Angeles, the solo project of Spirit System's Eric Gilstrap.  He mines the same early-mid 90s British goth vein as his band, with a little more of an updated synth-y approach.  Suffice it to say, Bela Lugosi's still dead.

Mauve Angeles...

A couple of years ago, I would have said (and probably did) that Phuzz Phest was a great mid-year festival to hold over those who couldn't wait for the next Hopscotch Music Festival in Raleigh.  Now, I could just as easily say that this year's Hopscotch will make a great festival to hold over those who can't wait for the next Phuzz Phest.

Phive for Phuzz

This weekend's Phuzz Phest , in Winston-Salem, is loaded with local acts I've seen before, love, and will try to see again (in the rapid-fire, sensory-overload fashion that these festivals afford).  But this short "Phuzzy Phive" concentrates on a few Carolina acts I haven't seen yet and a couple of national ones, each of which I'm looking forward to seeing and hearing.


Quilla (Greensboro, NC)

Quilla (pictured above) made her name as a DJ, and by penning the massive dance-floor hit Walls a couple of years ago.  But she's also a multi-instrumentalist who plays beautiful piano and sings introspective songs that at some times have an almost cabaret feel, and at others, experimental. Bjork is a pretty obvious influence.  Her bio says she's a linguist and anthropologist who's half-Peruvian/half-French Canadian (born Anna Luisa Daigneault), and she's settled here in North Carolina.  That pedigree gives you an idea of the diversity and originality you can expect from her show.  Her new album, Beautiful Hybrid, is a wonderful, moody jaunt. (Friday, 8:15pm, Millenium Center)


Shadowgraphs (Charlotte, NC)

This Charlotte band treads confidently on psychedelic ground, with a very authentic 1960s feel that still sounds relevant.  It also overlaps with the kind of jazzy, bossa nova scene I'm a sucker for.  Moonchild makes you feel as though you've slipped into a backroom of the house from Peter Sellers' The Party, into a secret party-within-a-party to which even Claudine Longet didn't get invited.  That song's got female lead vocals, but the male-sung tunes evoke a similar time and place, if a little more rock'n'roll.  (Friday, 8:45pm, The Garage)



Sunflower Bean (Brooklyn, NY)

This is one of the bigger name acts of the festival, and I wasn't gonna include them because, well, everyone's talking about them (this show will probably be hard to get into).  But their recent album, Human Ceremony, is just perfectly infectious, breezy indie-pop...  another thing I'm a sucker for.  Nothing groundbreaking, but it hits all the right notes, and has just the right amounts of reverb and punk thrown in.  It's a simple recipe, but it's hard to cook it right.  Sunflower Bean make you want seconds. (Friday, 11:45pm, The Garage)


Shirlette Ammons (Durham, NC)

To say this is a local act I've never seen isn't entirely accurate.  I saw Ammons once years ago at Local Band-Local Beer in Raleigh, I think.  That was a good show, but if I recall, fairly straight-ahead rock/hip-hop.  Listening to her new album, Language Barrier, though, I think she's achieved something special.  Ammons' career has always spanned wide territory.  But that chameleon-like variety all seems to congeal on Language Barrier into a collection that's at once diverse and cohesive. Despite the poetry/hip hop background, this is basically a pop-rock album, with a healthy dose of noise and a stellar cast of guest stars:  Meshell Ndegeocello, Indigo Girls, Amelia Meath (Sylvan Esso), Heather McEntire (Mount Moriah), Hiss Golden Messenger, and others.  But they all work towards Ammon's singular musical vision, in which she rails against xenophobia, homophobia, and other societal problems.  Many of the songs are paired couplets, with a "seque" followed by the "main song", starting with the driving Earth Intro Seque and Earth Intro (featuring Indigo Girls).  I LOVE the pair of Language Barrier Segue (ftg. German rapper Sookee) / Language Barrier even more.  That German rap is damn infectious... and oddly reminds me of Arabic rap I listened to a long time ago.  I hope this "segue/song"structure is used live, but either way, it promises to be a compelling performance.  (Saturday, 8:15pm, Millenium Center)

Linear Downfall (Nashville, TN)

The write-up on this experimental band promises a "seamless blend of psychotic noise and beautiful melodies" and an "intense and jarring" show.  Damn, ya got me.  Listening to their music, it's an apt description.  You never know where they're headed.  From song to song, they tend to swap back and forth between sometimes downright abrasive soundscapes and more typically structured and (unexpectedly) even gentle songs.  Some of their earlier material seemed to be more straightforward pop.  But they're best when the they mix the melodic and the caustic.  For sure, Bjork is hiding somewhere in this musical noise amalgamation, too. (Saturday, 9:30pm, Krankie's)

As for Ammons, Sunflower Bean, and Shadowgraphs, you'll have to ask THEM if Bjork was involved in any way at all! :)

Phuzz Phest is this weekend, April 15th-16th, in Winston-Salem, NC.  It's held at a variety of clubs and outdoors spaces throughout downtown, all within walking distance of each other.  Wristbands are relatively cheap compared to a larger festival like Hopscotch, although for quality, Phuzz really holds its own with its big brother.  See PhuzzPhest.com for details.  

Shirlette & the Dynamite Brothers, The Beast (Local Beer Local Bands, Tir Na Nog, Raleigh, 1/19/12)

Shirlette & the Dynamite Brothers played Local Beer Local Bands night Thursday. Shirlette Ammons is a Durham poet who has brought her words to the musical stage in a number incarnations, most notably with Mosadi Music, as well as collaborations with a veritable Who's Who of local indie rockers. But as of late, she's been gigging with the Dynamite Brothers, and together, they're about the funkiest thing going in the triangle.

Shirlette and the Dynamite Brothers...

Shirlette rarely sings; she mostly raps. But like the best of early rap (which was basically poetry set to beats), her timing and rhythm are so tight, it's more than simply a recitation. Her staccato rap is in your face... musically, rhythmically, and lyrically. She raps about race, sexuality, and other topics in an unapologetic way that demonstrates how music is perhaps the last effective form of free speech left in the U.S. Sad, if a bit obvious, but musical accompaniment often allows artists to more easily get away with their most contentious words, or at least allows them to speak them to a larger audience.


The first time I saw them, I thought the Dynamite Bros. were more of a rock band backing her. Upon a second listen, though, really, they're a great blues band. The tight interplay of their funk and blues with the words -- they match her cadence perfectly, and vice versa -- make a perfect vehicle for Shirlette's voice, and the entire venture a "band" in the true sense of the word. The guitarist even got all Barry White one one number, called "Chains" (or "Change"?), singing along with Shirlette.

The Beast, a self-described "indie hip hop and progressive jazz" group, headlined. Their rap was a more modern style, and definitely with more of a more rock-pop backing sound... complete with keyboards, guitar solos, and singing as well as rapping. Emcee Pierce Freelon (yes, he's related) name-dropped everyone from Ella Fitzgerald and Earth, Wind, & Fire, to Corey and Topanga from Boy Meets World. But it wasn't all fun and pop-culture games. Singing "We don't want no trouble now", they told the age-old tale of having to lay low if you're black -- or "weird", or just different -- and get stuck in some backwoods Southern town.

Pierce Freelon of The Beast...

While The Beast had more of a rocking sound (even a little "Rage Against the Machine"-ey at times), they showed their chops by dipping into a jazzy excursion here and there, and even a little into salsa and other latin styles. Midway through the show, before Shirlette had to go, she and Freelon sang a duet ("Strangelove") that was pure 70s soul!


Overall, this LBLB night was kind of a visit to the best of the old-school, and then the new. While Shirlette and the Dynamite Bros. are still the funkiest of the two, The Beast is taking the genre into new territory.

As a postscript, The Beast did a song about going to Brooklyn, "but every time I try, I've got Carolina on my mind". Great to hear that, and it about says it all about bands relocating... to Brooklyn, or Portland (in the 90s it was Seattle, in the 80s it was Austin and Athens). Props to them. Stay at home, especially now, when you can make and promote your music from anywhere. Besides, we've got a pretty burgeoning little scene here.