Chris Stamey plays The ArtsCenter with The Fellow Travellers Friday, Feb. 8, at 8 p.m. Tickets are $12–$15. Skylar Gudasz opens. Lovesick Blues is a musical anomaly, a seamless confluence of sounds that often clash. Cumulus orchestral pop disguises threatening thunderboomers, both backlit by melodies so bright and sharp that they rightfully earn the Beatles […]
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
After a quarter-century of making music in the Triangle, Greg Humphreys heads north
Greg Humphreys’ going-away party will take over the Lincoln Theatre Saturday, Dec. 22, as Dillon Fence and Hobex share the stage with a massive cast of collaborators at 8:30 p.m. Tickets are $12–$14. (The Connells and Balsa Gliders play Lincoln Theatre Friday, Dec. 21, at 8:30 p.m. A two-day pass is available for these shows […]
Posted inMusic
Tonight: ZZ Top in Durham
The temptation is to throw your hands in the air and cry that Rick Rubin has done it again. But while the famed producer has indeed helmed another solid-to-strong return by an out-of-fashion act with ZZ Top’s La Futura, it’s not quite that simple. Beyond quibbles over just how outré a four-decade-old blues band from […]
Posted inMusic
The Avett Brothers’ The Carpenter
Above the door to the Magic Theatre in Herman Hesse’s Steppenwolf, the protagonist finds himself beneath a sign that reads “Entrance Not For Everybody.” The same could be said of The Avett Brothers‘ new album The Carpenter, their second Rick Rubin-helmed, major-label effort. Indeed, their seventh full-length is moody, indulgent and unaffected, a hopeful and […]
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Ben Folds Five reunite for The Sound of the Life of the Mind
Ben Folds Five plays Sunday, Sept. 16, at Koka Booth Amphitheatre. Tickets are $40–$60. When you’re really good at something, there’s a pernicious tendency to want to push your talents in new directions. Woody Allen wants to write dramas. Michael Jordan wants to play baseball. Yet for every Crimes & Misdemeanors, there’s Jordan flailing helplessly […]
Posted inFestivals
The necessary exits of Americana
Helpful links Wristband / ticket distribution info Purchase tickets The schedule The day parties Complete event info When the S.S. Americana lists, skulls shatter across the decks. Once admired for its century-old charm, this ship’s slowly been reduced to a kitschy youth hostel, mere moments away from having its own Toby Keith’s I Love This […]
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Chatham County Line’s Sight & Sound
Nostalgia can be a fine thing. In rapidly changing times, there’s comfort in that which connects us to our family and our past. Nostalgia’s subtextand fallacy, I thinkis that the more things change, the more they stay the same; everything’s always changing. But Chatham County Line offers a sepia-stained window back through the strains of […]
Posted inMusic
Randy Dean Whitt’s The Outsider
Like many musicians and listeners of his generation, Randy Dean Whitt seems unimpressed by genre distinctions. In the past, Whitt has explored a broad swath of music, cutting from country and twangy rock to strummy folk and roots jams. For Whitt, moving from rustic, raw Americana to the gentle mannerisms of ’70s singer-songwriters has been […]
Posted inMusic
The theatric practicality of Alice Cooper
Alice Cooper performs at the Raleigh Amphitheater Friday, June 22, at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $34–$57.85. Billy Joel wasn’t the only one who noticed that a sinner’s popularity often multiplies that of a similar saint. When Vincent Furnier reached the same conclusion in Los Angeles, he found the inspiration for his long-running alter ego. In […]
Posted inMusic
The Breaks’ Electric General
The Breaks play at The Station Thursday, June 7, at 10:30 p.m. The show is free. Electric General feels like hot java in your lap. It’s the stuff to make you leap up and jump around. The Pittsboro quartet’s nervy rumble comes built on hooks that are dipped with backing vocals and impetuous swagger. Frontman […]