Listen up! or stream it below. If you cannot see the music player below, download the free Flash Player. The clattering and clanking that accompany the banjo of “Time to Get a Gun” are ramshackle, lending the song a homespun quality, as if writer Fred Eaglesmith ran right out to the barn to record it. […]
Chris Parker
Bio: After a fond stint in the Triangle, Chris Parker lives in Cleveland, Ohio, where he writes about music and politics for a variety of newspapers and magazines. He has written about music for INDY Week since 2002.
Posted inMusic
David Karsten Daniels
Listen up! If you cannot see the music player below, download the free Flash Player. One man’s poignant ache devolves quickly into melodrama and then parodydepending on your level of sympathy, of course. While Will Oldham was able convey a parched, hopeless resilience with his hoarse, cracking vocals on tracks like “Agnes, Queen of Sorrow,” […]
Posted inMusic
The Death Set’s “Negative Thinking”
Listen up! or stream it below. If you cannot see the music player below, download the free Flash Player. Digital Hardcore, a term coined by Atari Teenage Riot’s Alec Empire, failed to scratch the substratum of popular music during its 15 minutes in the early ’90s, but its waves continue to reverberate. Acts like Digitalism […]
Posted inMusic
The return of the Gringo
What do you do when the only bandmates you can find like to party as hard as you do, and that band falls apart? Start a one-man band, of course. Or so it is that Spinns drummer Josh Johnson moved to another country and started Pinche Gringo. Always a fan of primal garage blues, Johnson’s […]
Posted inMusic
Jason Collett’s “Papercut Hearts”
Listen! Download Jason Collett’s “Papercut Hearts” (4.2 MB) or stream it below. If you cannot see the music player below, download the free Flash Player. While “Papercut Hearts” opens with a cool bar chord crash, the thing really propelling this pop-rock nugget is its rhythm section: Drummer Rob Drake and bassist Michael Clive forge a […]
Posted inMusic
Dark Meat
Listen! If you cannot see the music player below, download the free Flash Player. Athens musical troupe Dark Meat rival Polyphonic Spree in size and the 13th Floor Elevators in squalling, shambolic approach. Frontman Jim McHugh is actually listening to Roky Erickson’s old band when I reach him by phone. Formed in 2004 by Greensboro […]
Posted inMusic
Gary Louris’ “Vagabonds”
Listen! Download Gary Louris’ “Vagabonds” (7.5 MB) or stream it below. If you cannot see the music player below, download the free Flash Player. If there were ever a corollary to that John Cougar Mellencamp song and car commercial “Our Country,” it would be Gary Louris’ “Vagabonds.” Sometimes the shiftless aren’t idle, but moving, and […]
Posted inMusic
Sunshone Still’s “Pallet of Buffalo Robes (Widower’s Blues)”
Listen! Download Sunshone Still’s “Pallet of Buffalo Robes (Widower’s Blues)” (6.8 MB) or stream it below. If you cannot see the music player below, download the free Flash Player. This track is the third “chapter” of a sprawling 17-song historically based opus about Kit Carson and the United States’ attempt to repatriate the Navajo Indians. […]
Posted inMusic
Brett Harris
Listen! If you cannot see the music player below, download the free Flash Player. If we had more interest in talent than Q Ratings, maybe we wouldn’t be stuck with shiny, empty baubles like Britney Spears. If there were as much preoccupation with stories as plot twists, we could do a lot better than American […]
Posted inMusic
Simple
Like the tide, Chapel Hill trio Simple is unrelenting. A sturdy thrum of distortion rises and crashes in undulating waves, suggesting ’90s dream pop acts like Luna and the Swirlies for different reasons: Luna for the shapely, glistening hooks that dangle from the soft-hued hum, an azure sky above a waiting sunset; The Swirlies for […]