Music defined by politics or devoted to certain styles often gets dulled by the pretense. Though they could hang their music on any number of obvious hooks, recent transplants to the Triangle Robo Sapien steer clear of the limitations, free to rock, rap and dance as they see fit. The duo, Chad and Whitney, moved […]
Chris Toenes
Posted inNews
in (extra)terrestrial exploration
A Midwestern girl who became a star of the art world, LAURIE ANDERSON thinks about this country and the web of humanity’s foibles in technology and culture through her multimedia work. Her career moved in bold turns to this point: stellar collaborations with great minds from William Burroughs to Andy Kaufman, brief commercial success with […]
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Pants party
Like his touring partner James Murphy of LCD Soundsystem, Juan Maclean started out as a hard rocker. Maclean played synthesizer and guitar in Six Finger Satellite, an angry group of men with a penchant for thudding robotic sounds. Unlike many of their peers and like Murphy’s then-band Pony, they experimented with electronics. But Maclean’s current […]
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The Clientele
Listening deeply to a Clientele song can be a soothing experience, even though the song’s subject matter may be heartache or loss. The London band exudes this effect like a woozy head after a pot of chamomile tea. The distinct feel of the music comes in swaths of echo, adding weight to song structures or […]
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Gang of Four return the gift
What happens when a musically innovative band is name-checked and cited as an influence so often that the mention of their name seemingly neuters the powerful work that made them crucial in the first place? Leeds, England group Gang of Four, appearing at the Cat’s Cradle Thursday, Oct. 6, were never famous in the traditional […]
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Wanderlust and workshopping
The most peaceful, sanity-saving moments for bands on tour after tour come in different forms. For some, it’s blowing off steam after a show, when the work is done. But for many, it’s the quiet time when the gear has been loaded into the club, and there’s not much to do but have a beer […]
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Illinoise band
Sufjan Stevens creates a unique sound world, crafting complex, often existential, stories alternately inhabited by natural wonders, a serial killer and God. To Stevens, this is his folk music: storytelling with intricate songswith large-ensemble instrumentation in a live setting. In concert at the Cat’s Cradle on Sunday, Sept. 25th, he and his band, The Illinoisemakers, […]
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in local lit
Their quiet generosity is hardly audible on the sidewalks of West Franklin Street in Chapel Hill, though they have a home base sitting in the Skills Development Center right across from the busy thoroughfare of restaurants and bars. The staff and volunteers of the Orange County Literacy Council do their work in all corners of […]
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305 South’s grand opening
James and Michelle Lee opened the Ooh La Latte Café next to their other business, the successful vintage clothing boutique Untidy Museum, as a social gathering place and, eventually, a music venue. The café, near East Campus on Broad Street, quickly became a regular stopping place for Durham locals and students. Both businesses seemed to […]
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Adieu to champion of improv
For the last decade, Walt Davis has been quietly enriching the cultural life of Triangle residents–an accusation he would humbly shrug off. Davis, who is moving to New Zealand, headed the Alliance for Improvised Music, organizing scores of free jazz, multimedia and border-crossing events. Metropolitan areas like Chicago, Davis’ original home, claim the deepest jazz […]
