Olympia, Wash.’s Gossip (pictured above) are on uber-punk label Kill Rock Stars, but singer Beth Ditto’s sultry voice is more akin to one of her heroines, blues grand dame Bessie Smith. Ditto belts out focused wails about making out and getting by, over the trio’s din of revved up, uncomplicated guitar roar and a steady […]
Chris Toenes
Posted inMusic
The Cirkus is back in town
In the days when a good party band meant being able to manhandle some of the time’s hardest rocking cover songs, which in turn, sparked some original songs as well, Raleigh group Cirkus burned brightly. They are coming back for a one-off, all-ages show at the Lincoln Theatre this Saturday, July 19, for fans and […]
Posted inNews
In clubs
Washington, D.C.’s Dismemberment Plan are on their final tour, always arriving armed with gusto, a mind for funky rhythms and smart, pensive lyrics on topics from politics to partying protocol. Maybe that’s why, over the group’s 11-year stint, Travis Morrison’s lyrics and moves have been likened to both Talking Heads and booty bass jams. Their […]
Posted inMusic
Artful autonomy
“We are Northern white crap that talks back. We are the Fall!” So enigmatic Manchester poet Mark E. Smith announced his band to an audience, and to the world, encapsulating the attitude held by many in the city, and their aversion to the city folks down in London. Punk and its scattered debris are becoming […]
Posted inMusic
French toasters
Any musician who uses computer software can try to pull off sprinkling pastel-colored pop bits onto mashed-up electronic beats and beautiful dance-oriented numbers, but the members of the French electronic music trio DAT Politics bring a special dry wit and razor-sharp editorial mastery to the process. The group reduces their sources to the tiniest grains […]
Posted inGuides
Summer music selector
After shaking off a more frigid winter than we’ve had in a long while (chilling in many ways), it’s time to get out, hear live music and rethink things a little. In this list, you will find events to spark faith in new music, rekindle the love of three chords and an attitude or–gads!–maybe just […]
Posted inMusic
Hip-hop Pollination Profile
Homegrown hip-hop music has long been a strong presence in both Durham and Raleigh, not merely ivy creeping up through cracks in the pavement. Through college radio stations like Duke’s WXDU and N.C. State’s WKNC, and promoters like Mike Nice and Courtney C, there is a strong support network for nurturing hip-hop artists and allowing […]
Posted inNews
Iannis Xenakis
Greek composer Iannis Xenakis had a very colorful background before devoting himself to music, and his works are filled with the same drama and often agonized emotions that ruled his life. He fought the Nazis with the Greek resistance (which left him blind in one eye), collaborated as an architect with innovator Le Corbusier and […]
Posted inNews
Numbers
The San Francisco trio Numbers posed recently for a telling, if slightly corny, photo shoot. Mimicking a famous pose of German electronic music icons Kraftwerk, they appear militarily stiff in identical rows. They stare blankly facing, instead of Kraftwerk’s gigantic synthesizers, three automated teller machines. It’s a satirical comment on both modern consumerism and inescapable […]
Posted inNews
Mind Sirens
Chapel Hill’s Mind Sirens are captured in various stages on this compilation of early singles (recorded for vital former local label Jettison Records) and previously unreleased demos and tapes. The group, as it appears in these recordings, often succeeded where other late ’80s/early ’90s Southern pop bands failed by tempering the gothic, sometimes dark overtones […]
