Flipping over columns of tertiary sandstone in the New Mexican desert, you’d never think you’d find an accordion-toting Balkan brass band in the mix. But that’s exactly what Albuquerque native Zach Condon built in his bedroom. Now 20 and living between the towering girders of New York City, Condon was constructing his own version of […]
Chris Toenes
Posted inNews
Real Cat and DJs Andy Con Erick
The bulletproof Latin style of reggaetón took one beat and exploded across continents, pop music charts and genres of American music in this decade’s unrivaled mercurial run. Its core, though, remains a style belonging to Latino youth. Still, the transcontinental sound even has local practitioners, like Real Cat and DJs Andy Con Erick, who make […]
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The infinite shag
She smiles wide, bobbing her head to the beat and holding a tray of takeout, standing outside of Shorty’s, a sports bar and hangout next door to Chapel Hill music haven Local 506, peering through a window. The band wears Hawaiian shirts and dress shoes, and headset microphones that look showy, relative to the typical […]
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The Handsome Family
Death: It’s a natural thing. But, in this country, it often appears only as a footnote to life. When it actually crosses our path, we are unprepared, dismayed at its invasion of our days. Confronting the inevitable is a humbling thing, a vessel of important truths. Rennie and Brett Sparks–together, Minneapolis’ The Handsome Family–wade these […]
Posted inMusic
CGJ&You
Sometimes trends catch up to musicians, not the other way around. Triangle troupe Cantwell Gomez & Jordan have been bristling listeners’ hair for nearly a decade. It’s no longer a rarity, sweet as that denial was once, to hear a free-wheeling rock band punch several buttons simultaneously: Beefheartian gut rhythms, schmaltzy in-jokes, rigid punk geometrical […]
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Coughs
To make people free is the aim of art, therefore art for me is the science of freedom.” –Joseph Beuys Misinterpreted, that bit of Italian Futurist dogma was responsible for unfocused stabs at art by those he inspired, cluttered with the trappings of artists given unlimited license. Things went haywire. Misguided conceptual art props little […]
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The Legendary Shack*Shakers
Don’t blame it on The Stray Cats, but when rockabilly became forever entangled in the tattooed arms of punks everywhere, a new breed of rocker was born. Nashville’s Shack*Shakers get down in that goop, kin to the crazed, duck-tailed early rock ‘n’ rollers and those who fetishized them, from the Cramps right on down. In […]
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Country Teasers
True misanthropes occupy a lonely corner in rock ‘n’ roll, the strangely smart kid in time-out, always sneering and scratching. Enter Ben Wallers, employing his Scottish jesters Country Teasers in a dense satire, a piss-off that crosses lines of humor and basic good taste. His lyrics turn on silly points, but, when hate-speak creeps in, […]
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Chaz’s Bull City Records; Spinns break up; “It’s Carrboro”
Pass that hat Friends lean around a new record, fawning over stacks of vinyl and discs. A loud rock band blares from speakers. In soft focus, this scene could be a circle of friends in a living room, ripping through the spoils of a recent purchase. But this is Bull City Records, an independent record […]
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Hip-Hop Diplomat
Early on a Friday evening, L in Japanese is doing something he’s famous for in Chapel Hill. He’s hustling. Sitting in Carrboro’s dimly lit Orange County Social Club, he’s just finished recounting his goals as a local hip-hopper and his past adventures across the big pond in Paris, wide eyes glowing. He’s staring at his […]
