Triangle Music for Newbies

L.A.-based Pac Div on the UNC-Duke basketball rivalry

Elizabeth Lilly — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 03:51:58 +0000

Pac Div is based out of L.A., but this hip-hop trio have a Triangle connection with their second mixtape, 2009′s “Church League Champions.” Tracks include the intro “Dick Vitale” with a sound clip of the husky voiced basketball announcer, followed by the song in question, “We The Champs (Duke vs. Carolina).”

For more info on their blue blood allegiances, mixtape and upcoming projects check out the group’s Q&A I wrote for the special basketball issue of the UNC-Duke features magazine Rival on pages 18 and 19.

Watch Like, Mibbs and BeYoung walk out to “Dick Vitale,” and perform “We the Champs (Duke vs. Carolina)” and other track excerpts off CLC during CMJ week 2009:

Like what you hear? Download the entire mixtape for free.

Lake Inferior 10″ release show at Local 506, Nov. 12

Elizabeth Lilly — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 02:43:42 +0000

See a good show, get a new 10″ release and check out what one of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s newest student organizations is up to this Thursday at the Local 506.

Lake Inferior's "Pegasaur," courtesy of the band's Myspace

Carrboro’s Lake Inferior will play to promote their new “Pegasaur” 10″, which UNC’s student-run label Vinyl Records is releasing on the same date. (Did I mention the $7 admission price includes a copy of the new release?)

The upbeat electronic indie rock outfit were chosen by UNC students as label signees in an online contest after a concert last school year, (Lafcadio Shot Back and My Boy Rascal were the other winners).

Their experimental sound comes across as a little Paul Simon-y if he was currently in college and primarily listened to electronic music, (which is quite good in my opinion). Just check out “Gepeddo” on their Myspace page (linked above) and then watch the classic video “You Can Call Me Al.”

Judge if you think I’m completely crazy for making the above comparison:

According to the label’s Twitter, advance copies of the “Pegasaur” are available at Bull City Records in Durham. [map]

If you still aren’t convinced of Lake Inferior’s talent, check out a review of the Vinyl Records showcase from UNC’s Fall Fest by The Daily Tar Heel‘s Diversions blog.

The rest of the lineup includes rockers The Honored Guests of Chapel Hill and noise rockers Gift Horse of Athens, Ga.

Doors open at 8:30 p.m. and Gift Horse start playing at 9 p.m. $7 at the door. [map]

Sample more of Vinyl Records’ talent by downloading its free 2009 sampler. It has 1o tracks that feature all three current Vinyl artists and an intro by Lexicon.

Troika Music Festival, Nov. 5-7

Elizabeth Lilly — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 21:33:02 +0000

If you’ve been waiting around for months to finally see that great local band that you’ve heard so much about, now’s your chance.

Troika serves as Durham’s own music festival with performances in venues all around Bull City throughout three nights. Some local event sponsors include Merge Records, Duke student-run radio station WXDU and the Durham Performing Arts Center.

This event is affordable (and college-student friendly) with a full-festival pass priced at $20 or $8 for a night. However, if you’re feeling super thrifty, there is at least one free show each night (one Thursday, two Friday and four Saturday).

Rock, Paper, Scissors, a new addition to this year’s festival, features live music, and art from local craftsmen and band merchandise for sale on Saturday from noon to 4 p.m. Check out the vendor list.[map]

There’s no lack of quality in talent whatsoever, so I’ll take the lazy, yet thorough way out and post the entire schedule:

Thursday, Nov. 7

Festival Kickoff at Durham Central Park (free) [map]

7 p.m. The Beast

7:45 Megafaun

Backstage at the DPAC [map]

8:30 p.m. Ghost Cats
9:15 p.m. Humble Tripe
10 p.m. The Future Kings of Nowhere
11 p.m. Bowerbirds

The Pinhook [map]

9 p.m. The Desmonds
9:45 p.m. House of Fools
10:30 p.m. Aminal
11:15 p.m. Max Indian

Duke Coffeehouse [map]

9:15 p.m. Molly Bancroft
10 p.m. The ExMonkeys
10: 45 p.m. EAR PWR
11: 45 p.m. Future Islands

Broad Street Cafe [map]

9:30 p.m. Regina Hexaphone
10:15 p.m. Pink Flag
11 p.m. The Dry Heathens
11:45 p.m. The Moaners

Friday Nov. 8

West End Wine Bar (free) [map]

7:30 p.m. Tea and Tempests
7:45 p.m. Liza Kate
8:30 p.m. Birds and Arrows

Marvell Event Center [map]

8:15 p.m. Ryan Gustafson
9 p.m. Wembley
9:45 p.m The Proclivities
10:30 p.m. Embarrassing Fruits

Trotter Building [map]

Duke Coffeehouse

Broad Street Cafe

9:45 p.m. Jews and Catholics
10:30 p.m. Whatever Brains
11:15 p.m. Dirty Little Heaters
12:15 a.m. Pipe

Bull McCabe’s (free)

11:30 p.m. All Your Science
12:15 a.m. Beloved Binge

Saturday, Nov. 9

Rock, Paper, Scissors at Trotter Building (free)

12:30 p.m. Three Days in Vegas
1:30 p.m. Tin Star
2:30 p.m. Mount Moriah

West End Wine Bar (free)

7 p.m. Sequoya
7:45 p.m. Jasme Kelly
8:30 p.m. The Tender Fruit

Marvell Even Center

8:15 p.m. Sea Cow
9 p.m. Bright Young Things
9:45 p.m. Lud
10:30 p.m. Luego

The Pinhook

9:30 p.m. Veronique Diabolique
10:15 p.m. Citified
11 p.m. Gray Young

Duke Coffeehouse

8:45 p.m. D-Town Brass
9:30 Veelee
10:15 Schooner
11:15 Lonnie Walker

Trotter Building

Broad Street Cafe

Bull McCabe’s (free)

11:30 p.m. Butterflies
12:15 a.m. Pistil

Check out a map of all the venues (courtesy Troika’s Web site).

If you can’t make it to Durham, head over to the Indy and download some free tracks from festival performers. (If you love free stuff check out Free-cession in the Triangle for all kinds of free activities!)

Can’t get enough Troika here? Follow the festival’s Bullbot and check out his blog.

Halloween all over the Triangle

Elizabeth Lilly — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 17:32:06 +0000

in Chapel Hill

Local 506: Cover bands Some Girls (Rolling Stones), The Julies (60s psyche) and Southern Girls (Cheap Trick) should make for a rocking good time. Doors at 9:30 p.m., show at 10 p.m., $5 at the door. Note that this show is non-smoking. [map]
Mansion 462: Eccentrik Festival VI: The Mariner’s Revenge, an annual steampunk/gothic fest hosted by Mistee Kantrip with Unwoman (San Francisco-based cellist/singer), Veronique Diabolique (Durham-based French goth)and Vernian Process (San Francisco-based dark/whimsical post-punk). Show starts at 9 p.m. [map]

in Durham

The Pinhook: Halloween Bash with cover bands Girl Ramonas (female Ramones), Heart of Glass (Blondie) and Amps Do Furnish a Room (Television). Show starts at 10 p.m. [map]
The Broad Street Cafe: Halloween party with Once and Future Kings (Raleigh-based dystopian indie rock). Show at 10 p.m. with a costume contest and prizes at 11 p.m. [map]

in Raleigh

Berkeley Cafe: Halloween show with UNTOLD, (Raleigh-based alternative rock) ReAlign, Facedown, Melville Toast (Melville-based blues rock). All ages show, $5 with a costume, $8 without. [map]
The Pour House Music Hall: 15th annual Phat Smashing Pumpkin Jam. Doors and show at 9 p.m. $5 and must wear a costume for entry. [map]

Spotlight on Merge Records, “Our Noise” book

Elizabeth Lilly — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 05:24:10 +0000

Although this blog is events-based, there are certain building blocks of Triangle music that anyone looking to learn more about it just needs to know, like the history of a little Chapel Hill record label called Merge Records and its impact on the local scene. However it isn’t just important for the Triangle, it’s a staple in talking about indie rock in general, from Neutral Milk Hotel to The Magnetic Fields to Spoon.

Listen to an interview with founders Mac McCaughan and Laura Ballance by Marketplace’s Kai Ryssdal about the label’s impact and success.

The now Durham-based label kicked off its 20th anniversary celebration this summer with the XX Merge festival at Cat’s Cradle in Carrboro and Memorial Hall at UNC-CH. Tickets for the July 22-26 festival sold out immediately and sad ticket-less locals (like me) were forced to constantly refresh a Twitter search for #xxmerge instead. But now other kindred spirits can find solace in this performance and interview video archive on Babelgum.

Performances included 33 bands from Merge’s two decades, including The Rosebuds, Conor Oberst & the Mystic Valley Band (Oberst’s otherwise known for his work in Bright Eyes), Telekinesis, Polvo, Arcade Fire, She & Him (M. Ward and actress/as of recently Mrs. Death Cab Zooey Deschanel) and Superchunk, which kicked off the festival and includes McCaughan and Ballance.

The founders recently teamed up with journalist/Superchunk fan John Cook (of Gawker and formerly Radar) to pen the history of Merge in “Our Noise: The Story of Merge Records, the Indie Label That Got Big and Stayed Small.” The 320-page book is packed with plenty of text in an oral history from the founders and others integral to the label’s birth, and is balanced out with coffee table-worthy images of concert posters, its first company invoice and enough behind-the-scenes pictures to fill several photo albums. The forward’s even written by long-time Merge fan/N.C. native/musician Ryan Adams. It’s available in stores and Merge’s Web store now.

But the celebration doesn’t end there, “The Merge Records Companion,” a limited-edition picture book discography of the label’s first two decades is available for pre-order now and set to ship on Nov. 3.

Check out this UNC TV special on the anniversary

For more info on Merge’s anniversary, check out this Indy article by Grayson Currin, the accompanying links on the same page, and an interview with Cook and favorable book review, both by Marc Masters.

If you just happen to be in New York on Friday, Oct. 23, Mac and Laura will read from “Our Noise” and perform some songs at Housing Works starting at 7 p.m. Check here for more info.

There will surely be many more great things coming from the folks at Merge, but not just musically. It seems that they have a knack for innovation as the label was the first ever to sell “LP3s” in 2005, which means that when a customer buys one of its releases on vinyl, he or she also gets a digital version at no extra cost.

For more general info on Merge, check out its blog and Twitter.

Expect future installments on other locally based labels.

2nd annual Cherry Bounce Fest, Oct. 18-24

Elizabeth Lilly — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 05:39:42 +0000

Get ready to gear up because like Shakori Hills, this post is going to be a long one.

This week-long Raleigh festival is named for a drink that an inn owner, Joel Lane, served to men who were searching for the site of N.C.’s state capital. Apparently this drink was so fantastic that it persuaded the powers that be that the place where the inn was located (which was what is now Raleigh) would be the destined site instead. Check out the full story and drink recipe here.

The artist lineups are almost completely local and it’s affordable as admission is free three nights and $5 the other four. Indy Week’s Scan points out that the festival has expanded by five days since it’s inaugural year and David Menconi’s On the Beat notes that this year that conveniently most of the venues are indoor since last year’s event was rather wet.

There’s only one stage a night so no worrying about trekking across muddy fields to catch another local favorite. Here’s the complete schedule:

Sunday, Oct. 18

Show at 9 p.m., $5

Deep South the Bar [map]

Angie Aparo

Alex Lawhon of Colourslide

Monday, Oct. 19

Show at 9:30 p.m., FREE

The Raleigh Times [map]

All acoustic:

Brian Corum of Lonnie Walker

Matt Douglas of The Proclivities

Jason Kutchma of Red Collar

Tuesday, Oct. 20

Doors at 9 p.m., show at 9:30 p.m., $5

Music.MyNC showcase at Slim’s [map]

Wednesday, Oct. 21

Show at 9 p.m., $5

The Busy Bee/The Hive [map]

Kooley High

Mount Weather

Thursday, Oct. 22

Show at 10 p.m., FREE

WKNC showcase at Tir Na nOg [map]

Free Electric State

Gross Ghost

The Poles

Friday, Oct. 23

New Raleigh showcase at Berkeley Cafe [map]

The Infamous Sugar

Colossus

A Rooster for the Masses

The T’s

Saturday, Oct. 24

Show at noon, FREE

The Raleigh Times

Sky Larkin

Old Avenue (1:45 p.m.)

Peggy Sue (3 p.m.)

The Balance (4:15 p.m.)

Schooner (5:30 p.m.)

Fin Fang Foom (6:45 p.m.)

The Hood Internet (8 p.m.)

Man Man (9:30 p.m.)

Raleigh Wide Open fireworks will follow

Jupiter One, Tripp, Wylie Hunter at Players Club, Oct. 16

Elizabeth Lilly — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 04:18:20 +0000

Local acts Tripp and Wylie Hunter will open up for New York-based Jupiter One in recently renovated Players Club in Chapel Hill on Friday, Oct. 16.

The headliner will play the show as a break in its tour with Regina Spektor and grace the stage of the bar that’s most commonly known for its naughty schoolgirl-themed parties but has hosted music-related events such as Anoop Desai “American Idol” watch parties. This concert is one of the bar’s first in carving a name of its own as a local music venue since its summer renovation.

Chapel Hill’s Tripp is currently selling their light-hearted powerpop wares while promoting their 2008 self-released album “Good Boy Charm.”

Check out their performance of “St. Jane” at Local 506:

Other Chapel Hill opener Wylie Hunter plays his pop rock as an solo acoustic singer-songwriter in the vein of John Mayer.

Doors are at 7:30 p.m., the show begins at 8 p.m. and the cost is $5/$10. [map]

For more info check out the Facebook event here.

The Beast album release at Duke Coffeehouse, Oct. 16

Elizabeth Lilly — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 04:23:24 +0000

Durham-based hip-hop group The Beast will kick off the release of its debut album “Silence Fiction” Friday, Oct. 16, at Duke Coffeehouse. The self-produced CD marks its first full length, but the group has practiced its blend of jazz, soul and hip-hop on EPs “Belly” in 2008 and “Catalyst” in July.

But don’t take P. Diddy’s word for it, download “Catalyst” for free here to check out their sound and see the band and Nnenna Freelon (who’s a Grammy award winner, mother of the band’s emcee Pierce Freelon and song “A Prelude to a Kiss” played during the closing credit’s of Oct. 10′s “Mad Men”) lay down the EP’s track “Once Again” in the studio.

Carlitta Durand, Kooley High and Freebass 808 open. The show starts at 8 p.m. and costs $10 at the door. [map]

For more info on The Beast visit its Web site.

Shakori Hills Festival, Oct. 8-11

Elizabeth Lilly — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 02:36:32 +0000

This Pittsboro-based semiannual festival is about more than just the music, (although that’s the biggest draw), with steps toward environmental sustainability that vary in size from a solar panels project meant to offset the electricity used for the festival to separate waste containers for compost, trash and recyclables placed throughout the festival grounds. There’s even a biodiesel shuttle that picks up festivalgoers from Carrboro, Chapel Hill and Durham.

Many local music acts are booked each time and as with most festivals there’s almost too much to do. So here’s a quick and dirty breakdown of recommended (mostly) local artists:

Thursday Oct. 8

5:15 p.m. Midtown Dickens at the Meadow Stage (The Durham self-described punk-folk quintet just self-released their newest “Lanterns” in September, which has received quite a bit of attention from UNC’s The Daily Tar Heel and Duke’s The Chronicle. )
6 p.m. Haw River Rounders at the Dance Tent (The all-acoustic Durham band channels the spirit of jug music from the 1920s and 30s.)
9 p.m. Roman Candle at the Meadow Stage (One of the festival’s more pop-leaning acts, Paste magazine calls the Chapel Hill band’s latest release “Oh Tall Tree in the Ear” a “modern-rock masterpiece.” )
10 p.m. The Hotwires at the Cabaret Tent (Expect energetic traditional bluegrass and a lot of instrumentals from the Raleigh-based band. )
11 p.m. dub Addis at the Meadow Stage (This roots reggae band hails from Ethiopia and resides in Durham.)

Friday Oct. 9

4 p.m. Cyril Lance at the Meadow Stage (Carrboro-based Lance has decades of blues jamming experience.)
7:30 p.m. The Duhks at the Meadow Stage (These Afro-beat playing Canadians are an expected addition to the festival lineup and actually have a sustainability project of their own.)
10:30 p.m. Kellin Watson at the Cabaret Tent (The Asheville folk rock songstress is no stranger to the festival’s other acts as her latest release “No Static” features fellow performer The Duhks.)
11 p.m. Holy Ghost Tent Revival at the Grove Stage (This Greensboro-based group’s genre is too difficult to define, but one definite thing is that they inspire a swinging good time. Check out the band’s music video for “Getting Over Your Love” to get a taste of their sound.)

Saturday Oct. 10

2:30 p.m. The Never at the Meadow Stage (The Chapel Hill group builds upbeat pop upon three-part harmonies.)
6 p.m. Chatham County Line at the Meadow Stage (The Raleigh bluegrass quartet is kind of a big deal in Norway and is currently supporting its 2007 collaboration with Jonas Fjeld “Amerikabesok” and 2008 release “IV,” which track’s “Birmingham Jail” was named one of the best songs of 2008 by the Independent Weekly. Check out the band’s 22-minute edition of Sessions at Studio B at NBC-17 in Raleigh on Music.MyNC.)
10:30 p.m. Lost in the Trees at the Grove Stage (The Chapel Hill folk makes music equally beautiful and complicated with a lineup that includes most musical instruments imaginable.)
midnight The Jackets at the Cabaret Tent (An acoustic side project of Chatham County Line’s fiddle/ mandolin player John Teer and banjoist Chandler Holt.)

Sunday Oct. 11

1 p.m. The Grady Girls at the Meadow Stage (The Ithaca, N.Y., quartet carries on the tradition of southwest Irish dance music.)
1:30 p.m. Big Fat Gap at the Grove Stage (There’s a good reason this Chapel Hill bluegrass outfit is repeatedly mentioned on TMFN.)
8:30 p.m. Donna the Buffalo with Jim Lauderdale and friends at the Meadow Stage (Who better to close out the festival than its founders DTB?)

Check out the full festival schedule and ticket info. [map]

(Don’t fret if you can’t make this installment, the spring edition is on April 22-25, 2010.)

Where in Durham can I go see free music…

Elizabeth Lilly — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 06:32:07 +0000

…and eat?

Anotherthyme Restaurant & Bar Jazz Thursdays with Al Strong and friends [map]
Papa Mojo’s Roadhouse with jazz guitarist Scott Sawyer during Sunday brunch noon-4 p.m. [map]

…and have a drink?

Alivia’s Durham Bistro with Superfunk featuring DJ Chocolate Thunder and Kid Dyn-O-Mite Wednesdays 10 p.m.-2 a.m. [map]
Sirens Lounge DJ events Saturdays 10 p.m.-2 a.m. [map]
Uptown Club on various dates [map]

…at open mics?

All Blues Jam at All People’s Grill, first Thursday of every month at 7 p.m. [map]
City Beverage Wednesdays from 8:30-11:30 p.m. [map]
Ideas! Coffee House second Thursday of every month at 7:30 p.m. [map]

…and sing karaoke?

The Tavern Thursdays at 10 p.m. [map]