A month after Moogfest unveiled plans to relocate from Asheville to Durham last summer, you could soon sense that the Art of Cool Festival knew it needed to get newly busy. The jazz-and-soul upstart had just completed its second year as Durham’s only major music event and, once again, finished shy of breaking even. As […]
Eric Tullis
Bio: Eric Tullis lives in Chapel Hill, where he writes about music and basketball.Twitter: http://twitter.com/erictullis
Posted inMusic
After Tuesday, Beyù Caffè Will Close for a Week to Relocate to Bigger Space
When Raleigh jazz pianist Andrew Berinson played Beyù Caffè’s brunch show on Sunday, he became the last person to ever perform in Beyù—that is, until the downtown Durham coffee, cocktail, food, and jazz destination relocates to its newer and larger space just two doors down at 341 West Main Street. The restaurant will serve dinner […]
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Trap-A-Long Karaoke Comes to The Pour House. Why, Trap Lord, Why?
What a time to be alive when we have the luxury of listening to a podcast of music critics arguing about who made trap music “album-worthy”—T.I., Travis Scott, Post Malone, or Future? Hell, while we’re at it, we might as well expand the conversation to even more ridiculous lengths by asking the more pressing question: […]
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Cee-Lo Catches a Break From Kendrick Lamar and Netflix
CEE-LO GREEN SUNDAY, MARCH 13 LINCOLN THEATRE, RALEIGH 8 p.m., $29.50–$45 A good thing happened to Cee-Lo Green last week. On Thursday night, Kendrick Lamar dropped the eight-song surprise, untitled unmastered. One track, “untitled 06 | 06.30.2014,” paired the Compton emcee with the Atlanta soul-machine singer over bossa nova waves. The song stemmed from demo […]
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Art of Cool Ramps Up its Festival Programming with Jam.Shop.Sip.Repeat
In advance of May’s third-annual Art of Cool Music Festival, the festival’s backbone organization, The Art of Cool Project, has upped its music-related programming. So far, that’s included a benefit concert with Moogfest, a Mardi Gras party, Terence Blanchard-themed film screenings, a music-and-art hang at CAM Raleigh, a weekly YouTube “Honesty Hour” series, and even […]
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K97.5 Wants to Know Which Local Rappers It Should “Replay.” Does It Matter?
Though it may have taken WQOK-FM program director Derrick Baker several months to deliver on the radio station’s plan to bring back its weekly “919 Radio” show, he kept his word. Last October, he resurrected the station’s local hip-hop showcase as a once-a-month Sunday broadcast—at least until January, when K97.5 on-air personality Mir.I.am became involved. […]
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KING Should Be R&B’s New Rulers
KING The Pour House, Raleigh Saturday, Feb. 27, 9 p.m., $10–$20 www.the-pour-house.com Last August, two dozen elite producers, DJs, and musicians met on a tucked-away Delaware estate to workshop and network. Founded by hip-hop icon DJ Jazzy Jeff, the inaugural gathering, dubbed The Playlist Retreat, pulled together progressive young musicians with their more-practiced influencesDJ Scratch, […]
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Moogfest, Art of Cool Collaborate to Boost Girls Rock NC at Thursday Benefit
We showed you what it looked like when The Pinhook’s Kym Register and a few friends showed up to the North Carolina Department of Revenue Friday to pay off the club’s $80,000 tax debt. With that issue resolved, the beloved downtown Durham performance space can get back to doing what it does best— fostering an […]
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Party Illegal is the Inclusive Dance Party Durham Has Long Deserved. Can the Series Shape its Wider Scene’s Future?
Party Illegal with Divoli S’vere The Pinhook, Durham Saturday, Feb. 20, 10 p.m., $5–$8 Once there was a glory holelong since boarded up, mind youcarved into the stall walls in one of the all-gender restrooms at The Pinhook. Depending on your persuasion, the infamous orifice was either alluring or repellent during a lavatory visit at […]
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Record Review: G Yamazawa’s self-titled debut EP
YAMAZAWA EP (self-released) Over the years, the spoken-word organization Sacrificial Poets has produced some of the area’s most talented wordsmiths. When those linguists inevitably pursued rap careers, though, the results have varied. The ambition of cofounder Kane Smego’s Soul Train Robbers soared higher than its music, for instance, while eccentric lyricist Danny Kaplan enriches his […]