Experimental, avant-garde, outsider: These are rubrics we use to define the wild fringes of the art establishment. But they can be just as elite as the academy they revolve aroundan outside that becomes a different kind of inside. Those unfamiliar with the hermetic rituals and internal hierarchies of either sphere can feel unwelcome in both. […]
Brian Howe
Posted inMusic
Les Savy Fav’s “Patty Lee”
Listen up! or stream it below. If you cannot see the music player below, download the free Flash Player. Brooklyn’s Les Savy Fav (which includes Durham-based drummer Harrison Haynes) mellowed out a bit on their most recent album, Let’s Stay Friends. But mellow is relative, as the rollicking “Patty Lee” attests. It’s just a more […]
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BoyZone, Clang Quartet, Jeff Rehnlund and Relay for Death
Listen up! Click the track buttons to guide through all four of our Albums of the Month. If you cannot see the music player below, download the free Flash Player. When people say that music from any given genre “all sounds the same,” they’re actually saying they aren’t familiar enough with the genre to make […]
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Glow in the Dark tour featuring Kanye West, Rihanna, N.E.R.D, Lupe Fiasco
I was running late for the Raleigh date of Kanye West’s hyper-ambitious Glow in the Dark tour, so I missed the opening set by Lupe Fiasco. Luckily, I was informed by one concert patron that Lupe Fiasco, a Grammy-winning rapper on a major label, was “really underground.” Though initially nonplused by the idea, I kind […]
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The Rosebuds’s Sweet Beats, Troubled Sleep (Night of the Furies Remixed)
Listen up! If you cannot see the music player below, download the free Flash Player. The indie rock remix album is a dicey proposition. Often, the music’s spontaneity and looseness make it ill suited to remixing, which, during this decade, has often meant techno-precision. And if you’re a diehard indie rocker, chances are a lot […]
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Wakers and dreamers in Dangerous Laughter
Dangerous Laughter By Steven Millhauser Alfred A. Knopf, 256 pp. “There are two kinds of people,” says a character from Steven Millhauser’s new short story collection, “wakers and dreamers.” The author is among the latter. Few writers tap the oneiric muse as deeply as Millhauser, who tampers with the boundary between reality and dreams until […]
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Mitchell Marlow performs for U.S. troops in Operation MySpace
What do Jessica Simpson, Filter, Disturbed, Pussycat Dolls, Metal Sanaz and Carlos Mencia have in common? Until recently, not much: Simpson and Pussycat Dolls are bootylicious pop stars; Filter and Disturbed are heavy guitar bands; Metal Sanaz is an ambiguous internet celebrity; and Carlos Mencia is a comedian. But these diverse acts became unlikely barracks […]
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The stars of Track & Field
The blood-red hallway is long, high and narrow. It’s lined with sconces that make it feel like a windowless train car. Vibrantly colored flyers for bygone shows pepper its length. At one end, a stairway climbs up, disappears around a bend. At the other, there’s a closed door. It’s the kind of room David Lynch’s […]
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White Williams’ tunes tie pop eclecticism to peripateticism
Listen! If you cannot see the music player below, download the free Flash Player. Joe Williams performs his electronically mediated pop as White Williams. Armed with guitars, keyboards, sundry noisemakers and a trusty laptop, Williams is a consummately modern musician, one who catches several loose ends of both his life and 20th-century music with nimble […]
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Trekky Yuletide Orchestra returns
Listen! If you cannot see the music player below, download the free Flash Player. December features loads of holiday-themed events for the tykes in footie pajamas and the adults who ply them with seasonal sweets. But beyond drunken games of Dirty Santa, what’s an indie rocker to do to get into that seasonal spirit? That’s […]
