If you’ve got any of those phonetic toys used to teach children to speak, or one of those “hey, NOW it’s a party!” talking fish mounted on a fake wood plaque, or basically anything that makes noise and contains electronics, chances are Randy Ward can make an instrument out of it–one that would emit sounds […]
Finn Cohen
Posted inMusic
Don’t sweat the technique
“That’s all people want you to do,” explains Cesar Comanche as he leans forward in his chair in his Missie Ann Studio, a simple affair utilizing a computer, some really nice microphones, and crates full of records. “To just sound like you and express yourself the best way you can.” Since his high school days […]
Posted inNews
Cold Keys
Over the past decade, Iceland’s musical exports have sent waves of buzzwords down the collective spine of American listeners. Both Bjork and Sigur Ros are known for their ethereal, complex contributions to the alt-world of popular music, but pianist Sunna Gunnlaugs is tinkling the ivories loud enough to gain attention across the U.S. jazz scene […]
Posted inGuides
Thrift stores
A good thrift store is a museum of discarded, forgotten memories, wedding gifts, and randomly bizarre T-shirts. If you look at them anthropologically, these secondhand shops are some of the most accurate templates of modern humanity’s taste, both through what we give each other and what we grow out of or have no use for […]
Posted inGuides
Buy local
Convenience is costing more than it should these days. The word itself has lost meaning, thanks to the Roach Motel design of our strip malls peppered with Super Wal-Marts and Office Maxes. Need four pounds of Pop-Tarts for three dollars? Only willing to spend nine bucks on the 50 Cent album? You can find these […]
Posted inMusic
DADAtown
“It’s tough economically to be creative lately,” says Durham Association for Downtown Arts (DADA) member Jason Fagg, and he’s right. These are not the best times in which to pursue one’s art (read: to lose money), but Fagg, along with the rest of DADA, is throwing a life preserver into risky waters for the sake […]
Posted inGuides
The bars
We’re not here to tell you about the khaki-and-Abercrombie, carefully-mangled-white-ballcap, giant-Miller-Lite-banner-on-the-wall college bars in the Triangle. If that’s your scene, chances are you’ll find it anyway, the way ants find a grain of sugar on a white countertop. We’re here to tell you about the dingier, seedier, romantically-messy-hair, PBR-and-Jim-Beam, cigarette-stubs-in-the-urinal-soap bars in the Triangle–and there […]
Posted inMusic
Live!
Tuesday, April 15 Alltel Pavilion at Walnut Creek At least part of this event’s appeal was the pairing of former Ticketmaster-challengers Pearl Jam and their uber-political openers, Sleater-Kinney, within the Orwellian corporate environs of Alltel Pavilion. (“Alltel” is such an entity that the spell check feature on my computer doesn’t even underline the word; is […]
Posted inMusic
SXSW 2003 Diary
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 12: I hate flying, and this particular trip is made worse by the plague of music industry stormtroopers on our flight. The leeches behind me refer to SXSW’s bands only in terms of what companies work with them: “Oh, yeah, they’re supposed to be really good. … I think Bill represents them.” “Oh, […]
Posted inMusic
Capital Capital
For those of us who live in Durham or Chapel Hill, I’m sure the following excuses have been used to avoid driving to Raleigh for shows: “I have to work tomorrow,” “I don’t know if I want to drive that far,” “I’ve already got one DUI … ,” and so on. For those of us […]