The Hive Dwellers (Kings, Raleigh 4/2/12)

The Hive Dwellers is Calvin Johnson's latest band, he of K Records, Beat Happening, and Halo Benders fame. As much of a fan of his prior work as I've been, I'd never seen him live with any of his bands. What I saw was very entertaining, and probably (a bit like that deep baritone of a voice) a bit of an acquired taste to anyone unfamiliar with Johnson.


I don't know if his persona with this band reflects his usual stage antics, but what I saw and heard was part slam poet, part jazzbo/beatnik, part nightclub chanteuse, and a little Tai Chi. Funny, and fun (how could that combination NOT be?).




His songs are humorous, sometimes sweet stories. Highlights included Sitting Alone at the Movies, and Get In. The latter is an anthem for the disaffected, in which Calvin proceeds to rattle off an endless series of insulting names -- some reaching NC-17 depths -- for oddballs, minorities, geeks, and various outcasts. It's a bit cringe-worthy (in the way that David Cross's comedy can be), but the point is made. If you are weird, OWN IT! BE who you are, and make no apologies. And when all these "outcasts" are come together, they pretty much add up to... well... everybody (or at least 99%). Get in!

The audience was smaller than your usual Kings crowd (it was a Monday night), but very appreciative. So was Calvin, who seemed to enjoy the intimacy, and chatted with those in attendance throughout the show, and after.

On his guitar was an inscription from a fan reading "Calvin, you're kind of amazing!". You know what, they were right!

Lilac Shadows EP Release Show, w/ Jenny Besetzt & Airstrip (Kings, Raleigh, 3/31/12)

This was a show to celebrate the release of Lilac Shadows' Madness EP. But before they played, two other pretty good locals opened. I hadn't heard of Jenny Besetzt, and since they were playing first, I thought they were some wet-behind-the-ears kids. Plus, there was their stripped-down Facebook, and a Vimeo "teaser" with a couple of atmospheric song segments, and a bio merely stating that "Jenny Besetzt is about transcendence over those who see the world as only earthly and finite."

Well, they quickly let you know that they're no novices. They're a very tight and dynamic band... atmospheric and jumpy at the same time. A lot of rapid-fire electric strumming along with breezy vocals and keyboards (and a great light show) made for an upbeat start to the night (and some great pictures). Apparently, they have been playing around some -- for about a year or so -- and are from over in Greensboro. Go see'em!

Jenny Besetzt...



Airstrip was up next, a relatively new band led by Matt Park (ex-Veelee). Veelee was a duo, and this band perhaps has a similar sound, but it's more fleshed out as one would expect. You can recognize Matt's songrwriting style from Veelee. It's dark, with an abrupt edge, and he at times sounds like Thurston Moore or Neil Young. Dual guitars, you'd expect, would be very trebly. But Airsrtip has a heavy sound for an "indie/guitar" band. There's much emphasis on rhythm, with bass and drums driving many of the songs. Even the guitar is played kinda low and thudding, although there are some surfy accents, and Tre Acklen (also of Gross Ghost) even makes use of an 12-string electric.

Airstrip describes their music as "Nightmare Pop".

Yeah. That fits.

Airstrip...


So after a dark middle set, the hosts of the party, Lilac Shadows, brought back the light show (literally and figuratively). The music moved back into similar territory as JB as well. This band shares at least 3 members w/ T0W3RS (Derek Torres, Sam Logan, Karen Blanco), and you'd expect some similarities, sound-wise. But whereas T0W3RS is more Derek's gig, this is Sam's. And where T0W3RS is more aggressive and staccato, Lilac Shadows is smooth and impressionistic. They play a kind of a soaring guitar pop with a synth/electronic edge. They can momentarily drift into droning, Velvet Underground-like instrumental mantras -- unafraid to stretch a song -- before reining it in to a galloping, rolling pop.

Lilac Shadows have a slight late '80s-early '90s British feel (as did JB). Railway Children, Woodentops... a little bit o' shoegaze, and a lot of quiet-loud-quiet. And again, great light show... made for great photos.

Lilac Shadows...





Here's a video of Lilac Shadows doing Fever Pitch.


Oh yeah, forgot. Dave Mueller (Heads on Sticks) DJ'd between bands, and was great. Nice use of 'Fess (not that Professor Longhair is ever out of place).

Recent Local Beer Local Band nights

Just a few photos and a video of a couple of recent LBLB nights at Tir Na Nog in Raleigh. Nothing fancy. There've been a few DC bands playing of late, and a couple of them are pictured here with the usual Triangle acts.

Mittenfields
One of the DC imports, they passed through on a little tour with Gray Young before heading to parts south, I believe. Good fit w/ GY, powerful indie guitar, but more poppy/melodic from what I remember. Very good.

Free Electric State
These local steadfasts will soon be split between Baltimore and the Triangle. Hopefully we'll still be seeing them around... or the earplug market in the Triangle may dry up.
Gray Young
Really great, loud, power/indie rock from this trio. On second thought, the earplug market will survive.
Trepak
Sorta chamber pop, but much more interesting than most string-laden bands -- which you gotta admit there's a little glut of these days. VERY impressed by their balanced use of multiple instumentation -- the trumpet is a nice addition -- and their sense of melody.
Oh, did I say Trepak have a way with melody? It bears repeating.
Ugly Purple Sweater
Melodic folky pop from DC, they apparently usually have a drummer. They covered Bruce's "Dancing in the Dark" and it didn't sound ironic at all!
Prypyat
Another one of the cello bands, with a member of Hammer No More the Fingers. More ... jazzy maybe?... than Trepak. I'm gonna have to listen to HNMTF again, because I think I heard that same jazzy style behind the post-punk din when last I saw them live.

And a video of Ugly Purple Sweater performing "DC USA", a song about one of those "mixed use" shopping mall complexes in DC.

Bones and Lilies - Flowjo Family Circus w/ Crystal Bright & the Silver Hands (Carrboro, NC, 3/2/12)

I was really looking forward to this show. I'm a new fan of Crystal Bright and the Silver Hands, and LOVE their new album, Muses and Bones . Having seen them only once live, my immediate impression was that (among many other influences) they have a circus-like feel. So it only seemed natural that they would explore this connection.

And they have! Bones and Lilies was an abstract play, performance art piece, and -- well -- circus! All set to songs performed live by Crystal Bright and the Silver Hands!

The Flowjo Family Circus is a troupe based at Flowjo, a little enclave of hoops, yoga, acrobatics, and such off Main St in Carrboro. Apparently, they had only dress-rehearsed this with the band once (CB & the SH are based in Greensboro). But the members of Flowjo were given free reign to come up with routines to accompany the songs, and they did a great job. The CD Muses and Bones has themes of struggle, death, rebirth, and redemption running throughout it, and so did the show Bones and Lilies.

There was belly-, hoop-, and other forms of dance, high-flying acrobats, juggling, and stilt-walking. It all worked very organically with the music. Crystal and the band stayed pretty low-profile and let the circus take center stage. In the end, the symbolism was that of a Phoenix rising, and the show moved outside to a fitting performance of fire-spinning. It was very ethereal, thanks in part to what was a very misty night.

I'll let the photos say the rest.

Mac McCaughan & Ted Leo, Duke Coffeehouse (2/18/12)

One of the great things about the Triangle is the number of venues -- venues that bring in quality local and national acts, not just a handful of the same mediocre locals and open mic nights. There's always somewhere new to go to see good live music.

So I'm looking for something low profile to do on a recent Saturday night, and I thought: "I'll check out that little campus coffee house up in Durham that I've never been to yet. See what Duke tuition gets for the kids." Well, this coffee house "open mic night" featured solo sets by a couple of young upstarts, Mac McCaughan and Ted Leo. I've heard these guys have played around some...

For my part, I was there to see Mac, he of Superchunk, Portastatic, & Merge Records. Most of the rather intimate group of a hundred or so, however, were there to see Mr. Ted Leo. Dave and his friend, avowed Tedheads (is there such a thing?) drove from southern Virginia. Katie and Shane, from Nebraska, happened to be in town for one more night and looking for something to do, and being the big Ted Leo fans they are, well, it just kinda worked out.

Another great thing about the Triangle... you can just happen to be here for one night and, by dumb luck, catch your favorite band.

So Mac saunters out and welcomes the little crowd -- just he and his guitar, plugged in -- and breaks into Trash Heap, from the indie rock classic On the Mouth. I loved it. But I was looking to Portastatic, having seen the 'Chunk numerous times, but never the 'Static. He had recently played a set which ended with members of Portastatic coming up to play a few songs as a band, but that was not to be this night. Nevertheless, Mac played a set with as much Portastatic as anything: White Wave and the charming I Wanna Know Girls from Bright Ideas, the very sweet-sounding Paratrooper from Summer of the Shark, and Be Still Please from the album of the same name. A couple from Superchunk's latest, Majesty Shredding, were played (Learned to Surf , Crossed Wires...), and even though they're pretty upbeat rockers, they worked well with just Mac and his guitar.

Highlights were when he trotted out Leo to play melodica on a cover of Prefab Sprout's When Love Breaks Down, and another cover, Can't Fool Me (from hardcore band A Number of Things). Mac said the latter was a band he saw at one of the first shows he had seen at Duke Coffeehouse, back in the heyday of hardcore. He joked that we should start a pit. I'm sure this was a little different from his original experience with that song at the coffeehouse. But thankfully, Mac, and Merge et al, have always taken us to unexpected places musically.

Mac, with Ted Leo backing him up on melodica...
After a brief intermission, Ted Leo came onstage. Again, just he and an electric guitar. And again, the rocking out was more than sufficient despite the minimal instrumentation. Now, I myself am not a "Tedhead", so I didn't know all the songs played. There was Me and Mia and Bleeding Powers from Shake the Sheets (the lone Leo CD in my collection), Sword in the Stone, The Gold Finch and the Red Oak Tree, The High Party, and the crowd favorite One Polaroid a Day. After trying some whistling on A Bottle of Buckie ("made by monks, drunk by punks"), he joked that he shoulda gotten Mac to play melodica. He asked the crowd to sing along with Bottled In Cork ("Tell the bartender I think I'm falling in love!"), and they obliged.

There were a couple of new songs, and covers of Hazel Dickens' Aragon Mill and the classic Witchita Lineman, the latter of which really suited him vocally, and the former of which showed off his ample guitar chops. This surprised me most seeing Leo live... just how GOOD of a guitar player he is. His CD's, being more energetic, full band affairs, don't make that as obvious. But hearing him alone, in such an intimate setting, really makes that clear.

Then vocally... I never really figured out what was distinct about Ted Leo's vocals, but I knew there was something different there. Not just a maturing punker adding melodic coals to the political fire. Then when he covered, as an encore, the 1970's classic Gimme a Little Sign (by Brenton Wood), I got it. Especially after doing his Glen Campbell. THAT'S what I'm hearing vocally mixed w/ the post-punk edge. A little '70s, pop/R&B melody. This guy probably listened to a lot of Motown and AM Gold growing up. But then, also Television and NY Dolls, as made clear when he broke into another encore, his own Ballad of the Sin Eater ("you didn't think they could HATE ya now, didja?!"). Shades of Jim Carroll. The political edge was there all night, no doubt, with plenty of the anti-war lyrics Leo's known for ("people waiting for an excuse for war", "looking for another shitty war..."). But amidst the fire is the melody, a contrast which makes Leo's music so engaging.

Ted Leo...

So for Duke students and their little coffee house, I'd say tuition is well worth it. I'll have to check out this little venue again.

But the next little hole-in-the-wall club I'm gonna have to visit is the Haw River Ballroom. I think, though, that I've been beaten to the punch.

Oh, and thanks to the above mentioned Shane (Shane Hill) for the photos! I left my camera in the car for this one, bue he was kind enough to oblige, and got some great shots of Mac and Ted.

Birds and Arrows - "San Jacinto" (DBB9, Pour House, 2/3/12)

Here's the promised video of Birds and Arrows doing Peter Gabriel's "San Jacinto", from WKNC's Double Barrel Benefit 9 last Friday. Sorry for the crowd noise drowning out the quiet start (not exactly the best sound recording system on my Nikon), but it gets better.

WKNC Double Barrel Benefit - Day 2 (2/4/12)

Here's a brief review of Night 2 of the 9th annual WKNC Double Barrel Benefit.

Heads on Sticks: Most easily put, they're a dance band. But they're much darker, weirder, and harder than that implies. Snare-laden electronic drums with assorted other distorted noises (including, I think, the clip-clopping of horses), mix with guitars and David Mueller's Peter Murphy-ish vocals. Sometimes, when they pick up a second guitar in lieu of the electronics, the guitarists overdub each other live, while Mueller overdubs his vocals electronically. The heavy dance beat melding with more typical indie sound and tricks employed by certain collections of fauna (ie Animal, Panda...) make Heads on Sticks one of the more unique, uncategorizable bands around here.

Heads on Sticks...

Naked Gods: From Boone. These guys have a poppy, happy feel you'd expect from an indie band that lives in the mountains. I can hear some 70s in there... maybe in the guitar? Maybe early Doobie Brothers? (pre Michael McDonald, when they were still cool) Yeah, definitely a 70s vibe on one song they said was a brand new one. But they have a more punky edge, and complicated, edgy guitar. One the song "Hoods Up"(?), they said "this is where the the shit gets weird". They were right, kind of a trippy Gerry Rafferty.

Naked Gods...

Gross Ghost: Fast-paced, sharp indie-punk. Descendents of the Descendents, if you will, but maybe that's just because Mike Dillon's vocals sounded kinda like Milo at times. They have a beach-y, retro undercurrent that's more noticeable in their recordings, but definitely was there live. And the bass, Tre Acklen, is great! Gross Ghost had people dancing at the Pour House, too... but doing a very different dance than to Heads on Sticks.

Gross Ghost...

The Kingsbury Manx: They've got a pretty cool old school keyboard set up... a Wurlitzer electronic piano and a Nord Electro 2. This is key to their sound. The Kingsbury Manx had kind of a rolling, jangly, thing going, but the guitars aren't always jangly... they got rather crunchy at times. Overall, their set definitely got heavier towards the end.

The Kingsbury Manx...

The diversity of this 2nd night of DBB9 was as impressive as the first. In fact, not one of these four bands sounded anything like any of the bands on the first night of DBB9, much less like each other.