I’m not from around here. Though you might have noticed my mixed-race byline at the INDY often during the last year, I’m actually a steadfast New York City native with no plans to move out of Queens anytime soon. But don’t take me for a damn rube, Raleigh. This isn’t my first time at the […]
Gary Suarez
Posted inMusic
Hopscotch 2015: Hip-hop and electronic programming spotlight the tension between being a major festival and a niche feature
Of course Pusha T won’t be playing the main stage at Hopscotch 2015. Even if he’s on a major label, and even if his Friday night set at the Lincoln Theatre will likely be one of the festival’s toughest tickets of the year, his eminently lyrical coke rap would put some folks off (or, heaven […]
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Faith No More and Refused struggle to get off the perpetual reunion machine
Faith No More with Refused Friday, July 31, 8 p.m., $27.50–$55 Red Hat Amphitheater 500 S. McDowell St., Raleigh 919-996-8800 www.redhatamphitheater.com We don’t love live music simply because it’s loud. Sure, in a wide-open amphitheater or a tight little club, rock ‘n’ roll’s riffs howl a bit higher, and the drums punch harder. But you […]
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Record review: Hanz’s Reducer
Tri Angle Records has taken a dark stand on the state of electronic dance music. Much as provocateur Genesis P-Orridge and Throbbing Gristle did with the oft-impenetrable Industrial Records, the imprint revels in revolutionary sounds, from the dystopian and totalitarian bass of Evian Christ to the long-tone menace of The Haxan Cloak. Add Durham-based producer […]
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Why Helmet decided to take an album that wasn’t a best-seller on tour, two decades later
Helmet Thursday, Feb. 26, 8 p.m., $17–$20 Motorco, 723 Rigsbee Ave., Durham 919-901-0875, motorcomusic.com An Interscope Records employee once asked Page Hamilton a question he had expected but didn’t want to hear. His band, Helmet, had just finished their third album, Betty. The label suit wondered why no tune sounded much like “Unsung,” the hit […]
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Popular white emcees are on blast for cultural appropriation. How did G-Eazy get a free pass?
G-Eazy Thursday, Jan. 22, 8 p.m., $25 Meymandi Concert Hall 2 E. South St., Raleigh www.dukeenergycenterraleigh.com 919-996-8700 The “G” in G-Eazy must stand for “getting away with it.” Gerald Gillum, or the rapper G-Eazy, is a rather handsome 25-year-old devil. He is toweringly tall, prone to leather jackets and greased-back hair, and as fair as […]
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Method Man & Redman are part of hip-hop’s new nostalgia industry
Method Man & Redman with B-Real, Berner and Mick Jenkins Friday, Nov. 21, 9 p.m. $30–$35 Lincoln Theatre 126 E. Cabarrus St., Raleigh 919-821-4111 lincolntheatre.com At some point, Cheech and Chong simply stopped being cool. Perhaps the tipping point came in 1983, shortly after the release of their fifth film, Still Smokin’, and more than […]
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Hopscotch’s Hip-Hop recovery
Murphy’s law took a real shine to Hopscotch last year, especially on the hip-hop front. Big Boi, half of the subsequently reunited Outkast and one of rap’s most idiosyncratic dudes, had to cancel his anticipated headlining set, along with a series of scheduled dates, after a leg injury sidelined him. Shortly before flying out to […]