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.  

Phuzz Phest 2016: Some of the Locals...

I'm a local music guy, so I usually approach these festivals (Phuzz Phest & Hopscotch) as a boon; so many of the great local bands all in a couple of days!  There are too many to list here, and I won't be able to see them all.  But below are a handful of videos I've accumulated over recent months/years of some of the better ones playing; a mini-video playlist if you will.  They're listed with the whens and the wheres for this weekend, April 14th-16th.  The wristband shows start on Friday, 15th.

Free Clinic (Thursday, 7:00pm; Texas Pete's Phuzz Phest Kickoff Party, FREE):


Teardrop Canyon (Friday, 7:45pm, The Garage) :


Skylar Gudasz (Friday, 9:30pm, Krankie's):


Naked Gods (Saturday, 7:00pm, Bailey Park):


Zack Mexico (Saturday, 10:45pm, The Garage):


Brett Harris (Saturday, 11:40pm, Test Pattern):


Other NC bands that will be great, because they always are (and I know I'm leaving some good ones out):  Sarah Shook & the Disarmers, Lacy Jags, Jphono1, The Tills, and Body Games.

Later, I'll post my picks for a few of the national/international acts (or locals I haven't seen yet) that I'm particularly looking forward to.  Check out PhuzzPhest.com for the full schedule.

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).

Body Games - Damager

Chapel Hill’s Body Games release their debut LP, Damager, this week.  I’ll admit from the start that I buy & listen to very little of the type of electronic pop mixes that Body Games creates.  If you couldn’t already tell reading this blog, I’m generally a guitar, indie, indie-pop guy.  Hell, I may not have even gone to see Body Games my first time were it not for a friend being in the band.  But immediately upon seeing them live, Body Games won me over (for me to say that about an electronic-heavy band means something). 

And it wasn’t just the stunning, synchronized visuals, courtesy band member Adam Graetz (thefacesblur).  They’re always a treat.  But it takes more than fireworks to impress this jaded soul (after all, my old zine was called “It’s the music, Stupid!).  Body Games’ live production is amazing.  Dense and melodic, the music radiates a hypnotic atmosphere, and you submit to a dark undercurrent.  Listening to the new album, I’m even more impressed by the layering and complexity brought to the live set.  But it’s not just layers for layers’ sake.  Its interesting mixes, and the catchy melodies of Dax Beaton’s songwriting.  Original, catchy melodies are all-too-rare in this genre (they’re usually sampled from some other, better songwriter). 

Right from Sunny Day, the first cut, we get the unexpected… South African vocals (Ladysmith Black Mambazo?) put through a deep filter, sounding as though they’re gurgling up from a deep ocean trench.  This jumps suddenly into a slow beat and a mellow-staccato verse from Beaton, and eventually morphs into grinding synth and a sinister-sounding refrain (“Come on, BOY!”). 

The entire record inhabits this shadowy-sexy groove.  On WMN, rhymes by local rapper WELL$ contrast with band member Kate Thompson’s heavenly vocals for a nice edge.  Body Games always shines when Thompson sings (she’s since moved, but hopefully, can telecommute her voice from South Korea!).  Matchstick is pure slow-groove, lover-boy pop, with Beaton auto-tuning “Every king needs a queen” to soft keys.  It’s probably the most straight-forward ballad on the record, and likely to be a crowd favorite.  Outdone treads similar slow-dance territory. 

After Matchstick, Damager returns to the mysterious, with the title song’s dreamy (nightmarish, really) intro.  It’s a heavier tune, but still one with a hefty dose of melody.  Gossip has similar dense vibe… distorted, wasp-like, voices humming in and out between more standard vocals.  Special gets very dark indeed.  Musings on an old relationship segue into heart-wrenching voicemails from a jilted lover.  A warped sample turns the Beach Boys' Nobody Knows What I'd Be Without You on its head, meshing with Special’s exploration of how complicated and hurtful relationships can be.

The last two songs, the quietly upbeat Silent Movie and the sadder Perfume, creatively incorporate more sampling... South African, again, and Blondie’s Heart of Glass, respectively.   But Body Games never relies on these samples; they’re always accents on already-fleshed-out songs.  Truth in any genre (whether a loner on a laptop or a baker’s dozen with horns, strings, and backup singers):  start with good songs, and the rest will take care of itself.   Body Games starts with good songs.

Body Games’ next show is at the always-great Phuzz Phest in Winston Salem, Saturday, April 16^th.  While the LP is out March 15^th, a second version called Damager+, including bonus tracks, will also be available.  Extra proceeds from that version will be donated to Janice O'Leary's recovery fund (she designed the artwork for the record, and was recently in a serious car accident).

In Defense of Kooky Small Towns: The New Media and the Rush to Judgement

A short time ago, the story circulated of a small North Carolina town, Woodland, and its zany residents.  They refused to allow a solar power farm in their sleepy hamlet between the coast and the piedmont.  Among other complaints expressed by the townies were that the solar panels would cause cancer and would “suck up all the sun’s energy.” 

I admit that I too had a laugh at statements which revealed such a stunning lack of scientific knowledge.  Scientific ignorance, and the increasing denial of science (often in the face of mountains of evidence), are issues close to my heart.  The stakes may be no less than a return to a kind of Dark Ages.  By the way, this ignorance and denialism cuts clear across the political spectrum… and even the more educated among us are not immune. 

But despite the laughable clickbait, even then, I assumed there was more to this story than the opinions of what were, basically, just two people.  Two kooky residents with backwards ideas on science.  Two residents who were, at least, politically engaged (when was the last time most people reading this spoke at a town council meeting?).

This was a story of loss:  loss of the rural south, loss of a way of life.  Because I can’t put it in any better words than that, I’ll quote from one of several follow-up articles, this one written by David Roberts on Vox:

"It's easy to mock goofy and irrational of fears about solar farms, but they are only an expression of deeper anxieties. The land that Woodland is being asked to rezone is currently zoned residential and agricultural. Rezoning it to allow solar panels amounts to admitting that it's currently going to waste. People aren't going to be living or farming there. The town is not going to grow — not now, not any time soon."

But besides the complex issues specific to this story, this tale also speaks to the wider issue of today’s media and how we ingest, and digest, it.  In today’s instantaneous society, we should all be careful when we get our news from social media, and the web in general. 

Briefly, this is how media works these days: 

1. Someone posts an article (sometimes barely more than a meme) crafted to be as clickbait-y as possible.  "Can you believe what these people said/did?!?" "Look at this shocking video (with no context provided)!!!"
2. The original story/meme spreads like wildfire. 
3. People react with outrage and/or derision.
4. More memes are made; previous opinions are verified; echo-chambers are filled; nothing is done.

In what can sometimes even be worse than inaction, mini-movements crop up, protests are begun -- action is DEMANDED! -- based on little more than one or two cleverly constructed memes.

This is not to dismiss the value of the internet and social media in calling to light truly important issues and injustices.  Unjustified killings of unarmed (mostly minority) citizens by law enforcement has been an all-too-common occurrence.  But it probably wouldn’t be an issue discussed much outside of inner city community organizations were it not for the prevalence of cell-phone videos and repeated postings of them online.  However, this is a case where time and further investigation revealed a troubling pattern.

And there’s the rub.  Time.  In the speed-of-light world we now live in, anyone can post anything, anyone can say anything, and it’s instantly available to everyone.  That’s great in many ways.  It allows for many voices to enter the discourse.  It equals the playing field.  But there’s no filter save what we each choose to put in place ourselves; and that filter is all-too-often colored by our preconceptions.

When a news story crops up, an informed populace has always had a responsibility to read objectively, to verify, to seek out other sources, to get the bigger picture.  We have seldom ever taken enough time to do so.  But even less so now, so overwhelming is the tsunami of information that scrolls across our screens with every refresh.

Occasionally, as in this case, the new media does its (vague, undefined) job.  Follow-up stories and opinions -- not all the same -- crop up over the interminable time-course of (gasp!) days.  If you’re patient, you start to get a more complete picture than what the original story/meme presented.  It’s piecemeal journalism, sure, but don’t blame the messengers.  The egalitarian information buffet will give us a lot of choices.  But the job isn’t over.  We have to take it further.

As it has always been (even when there were just three corporate-controlled networks), our job as to gather all the pieces and form a coherent opinion.  Our job isn’t to simply ingest the first bite and move onto the next course.  That’s not a job. That’s simply consuming.

No, North Carolina is not some backwoods derelict inhabited by technophobes.  North Carolina actually ranks fourth in the nation for solar energy (there are three solar farms already in Woodland).  No, 10,000 terrorist immigrants didn’t just come ashore in New Orleans.  Fourteen have, over the entire year.  Families with children, being aided by Christian charities.   

Despite the speed at which information comes our way these days, we all need to slow down, wait a few of what passes for news cycles these days, and form opinions with more reason and information.  Just because information now moves at lightning speed doesn’t means our judgement has to as well. 

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...

Diali Cissokho and Kaira Ba – MotorCo, Durham, NC (11/14/15)

I’ve always loved listening to music from other parts of the world; especially Indian, Middle-Eastern, and West and South African.  But I’m far from an expert on these regions’ musical genres and traditions… except perhaps possessing a decent outsider’s knowledge of Indian music, mostly via Bollywood.  I’m just a musically restless soul, always seeking variety. 

However, I seldom take the opportunity to see such music live.  I did make sure to see Kavita Krishnamurti, the famous Bollywood playback singer, perform at Cary’s Diwali celebration a few weeks ago, and that was amazing.  I’ve seen a few local bands that blend in musical elements from other parts of the world.  Despite our scene’s diversity of styles and talent, there aren’t too many opportunities to see truly authentic traditional music, or even pop music, from other countries.  And given the choice, I usually lean towards the indie/pop/garage/whatever (just rock’n’roll) when looking for some live music to check out.  But really, that’s a poor excuse. 

So although they’ve been a part of the local scene for quite a while now, I’m ashamed to say I’d never seen Diali Cissokho and Kaira Ba yet.   Better late than never, I suppose.  I am SO glad I finally went to see them a week ago at Motorco in Durham!  Their recorded music is wonderful, possessing all the things I love about this type of music:   complex percussion, emotive and intense vocals, heavy use of the kora (Cissokho’s signature instrument).  It’s a joy to listen to.  But it’s a completely different experience from their live show. 

Kaira Ba’s live show is, simply, a celebration of music and life, full of energy.  This is in no small part to the many dancers who are part of the show.  Most appear to be friends of the band, co-performers as it were.  They’re clearly familiar with traditional West African styles of dance -- at times graceful and flowing, at times showy and braggadocious, but always joyful.  Eventually, novice dancers get pulled up from the crowd and onto the stage as well, and throughout the show, Diali’s band has the audience pulsing and moving on the floor. 

Seeing Kaira Ba is like attending a party with a few hundred new friends.  Cissokho is returning to his native Senegal for a few weeks.  But he’ll be back, and I believe their next show is scheduled for some time in February.  Do yourself a favor, pencil that in, and don’t wait as long as I did to see them.

Many photos follow; I tried to capture the ebullience of the dancers in addition to the band…