North Elementary doesn’t fit easily into any of the typical rock cubbyholes, so let’s call them indie and leave it at that. Their swervy, dizzy sound is built off a rock/pop base but wobbles like a weeble, falling at times into a shimmering crawl that recalls slo-core, as on meandering tracks like “Teenage Wife” or […]
Gavin O'Hara
Posted inMusic
True romance
If tumultuous times have often been known to produce great art, Andy Herod must have expected his new record to be nothing short of a masterwork. Crisis No. 1 for The Comas’ frontman occurred when he broke up with his long-time girlfriend, rendering himself aimless and temporarily homeless. Crisis No. 2 had to do with […]
Posted inNews
Louis v. Board of Education
The atmosphere must have been supercharged on the afternoon of May 8, 1954, when Louis Armstrong and his Dixieland All-Stars stepped onstage at UNC’s Memorial Hall. New Orleans jazz was enjoying a renaissance. Hundreds of students and other fans filled the seats, excited to welcome the music’s brightest light to Chapel Hill. But there was […]
Posted inArt
A Great Day revisited
Why in God’s name would you leave the cozy confines of your modified brick ranch to go meet Jean Bach and see “A Great Day in Harlem,” her Academy Award-nominated 1995 jazz documentary, at Duke this coming Monday? Why would you further delay watching your cache of TiVo’ed “American Idol” episodes to delve into the […]
Posted inNews
CQ (featuring Mellow and Various Artists)
Here are the simple facts: France is sexy. The ’60s are sexy. Sex is sexy. And women singing in sexy voices are very sexy. All of these things and more can be found on this, the soundtrack to Roman Coppola’s directorial debut. I have not seen the film–set in Paris in 1969, it is apparently […]
Posted inNews
Johnny Cash and June Carter
Do my eyes deceive? What the hell is The Man in Black doing on this record cover, bathed in Cybill Shepherd lighting, sniffing flowers and smiling like a choirboy? What happened to “I shot a man in Reno just to watch him die?” Ah, the late ’60s did funny things to everyone, it seems.There is […]
Posted inNews
The Feebles
This unsettling batch of songs–not country, not bluegrass (despite prominent fiddle and banjo) and not quite folk–barely bats an eyelash at tales of undertakers and titles like “Death Will Have Your Eyes.” In fact, The Feebles plead guilty to playing “Murder Ballads and Morbid Mountain Music.”Primary songwriter Jerry Kee once drummed in local pop bands […]
Posted inNews
Mates of State
More Georgia and Ira than John and Yoko, the newlyweds known as Mates of State crank out ebullient pop songs for indie-rock hearts, organ-driven numbers so utterly drenched in love they couldn’t possibly be faking it. Kori Gardner and Jason Hammel played in the Lawrence, Kan., band Vosotros before going duo and emigrating to San […]
Posted inNews
Ben Folds
There’s just no telling how much Ben Folds influenced his old bandmates and how much they influenced him, but it’s safe to say one thing: Folds may play most of the instruments on his debut solo album, but it sounds a hell of a lot like Ben Folds Five. The onetime Chapel Hill resident, a […]
Posted inNews
Jolanta Pucilowska’s Jukebox Jury
Jolanta Pucilowska is a hipster. No, she doesn’t have a pierced tongue or a giant Harley tattoo across her back. She doesn’t sit in smoky dives hand-rolling cigarettes and swilling beer. And she doesn’t name-drop Ginsberg or Camus at the slightest provocation. But she does know a little something about everything, has a keen and […]