Last Thursday evening, Finn Riggins, a charming, shambling, indie rock band from Idaho, drove three hours from Austin, Texas, to Houston to play one gig at the functionality-named SXSW Overflow Fest. The trio had played a daytime show in Austin earlier in the day, and aside from the Houston gig, they had three more South […]
Bryan C. Reed
Bio: Bryan Reed lives in Raleigh, where he nerds out about punk rock and comic books. He's written about music for INDY Week since 2008.Twitter: http://twitter.com/BryanCReed
Posted inMusic
Despite lost members and lost jobs, Eric Wallen wants his Minor Stars to get high—for life
Eric Wallen just lost his job. He’s stoked. For Wallen, 32, it’s an opportunity to push his new band, Minor Stars, closer to the goal he’s been chasing for a decade: to make music his living. The band has a freshly minted debut LP that brims with promise, meaning all that’s left now is to […]
Posted inMusic
Minor Stars and other locals look to Web solutions for exposure
Read also: “Eric Wallen wants his Minor Stars to get highfor life” Our review of Minor Stars’ debut LP In one of his characteristic spills on marketing, author Seth Godin tossed off a blog post about the future of the music industry and more or less made a profundity of the obvious. Records aren’t selling […]
Posted inMusic
Where the Buffalo Roamed’s A Wolf in the Works
Where The Buffalo Roamed, a four-piece spread between the Triangle and Asheville, is in many ways another splash in an already overflowing well of regional garage rock. Its recordings are of the low-fidelity sort, and its sound is roughmore earnest than polished, more shambling than shuffling. But like many of the genre’s best, Where The […]
Posted inMusic
Red Collar: Distribution deal, red vinyl, Troika video
For Durham’s Red Collar, self-releasing its first full-length album, Pilgrim, in February was an impetus to take the show on the road and make a full-time go of rock ‘n’ roll. The CDs were pressed and packaged, a publicity campaign was implemented and dates were booked. The band members packed into ‘Vandrew Blass,” the vehicle […]
Posted inMusic
Ben Davis and the Jetts’ Charge It Up!
In recent yearshis solo era, we might call itBen Davis has focused on texture and mood, dripping somber songs through lush arrangements and ignoring the jarring angularity of his work in Sleepytime Trio and Milemarker. Indeed, for two LPs and a split with Des Ark, strings flowed behind guitars, forming clouds instead of flashing lightning. […]
Posted inMusic
Dexter Romweber Duo & Jack White’s The Wind Did Move B/W Last Kind Word Blues
The differences between Jack White and Dexter Romweber are many and pronounced: White sings with an upper-register howl, punctuated by yelps and stammers. These days, Romweber croons with a cool, tempered bellow. White’s guitar squeals and spurts. Romweber’s rings and snaps. The collaboration between White and the Dex Romweber Duo, captured at White’s Third Man […]
Posted inMusic
Whatever Brains’ Saddle Up
On their second single for Bull City Records, Whatever Brains reprise the formula of their Mount Whatever platter, recasting songs from their startlingly catchy Soft Dick City cassette beside a new tune or two. Here, the fresh jam is the B-side, “Saddle Up,” which unreels wiry guitar lines before pulling back for the chord-bashing, steady […]
Posted inMusic
Luego’s Taped-together Stories
Before Durham’s Luego could record and release its full-length debut, Taped-together Stories, frontman Patrick Phelan endured a VH1-worthy scenario: The rest of the band bailed following a 2008 EP, I Know I Know, and a subsequent tour. Phelan almost quit, too, but soon enough, an influx of new (and better) players transformed the band. That […]
Posted inMusic
Aminal readies full-length debut
‘We’ve got three songs done,” says Aminal frontman Patrick O’Neill. ‘We leave in like three weeks to go back up to do another three songs. Then back the first of December to finish.” The nine (and maybe 10) songs he’s alluding to comprise an album tentatively titled Loud It’s You, and tentatively scheduled for release […]
