“There will always be a handless wrist to crush.” Xiu Xiu demands attention. This is not casual listening. It registers for listeners at poles: shocking or boring, all or nothing, engaging or alienating. Above all, there’s one precept: Drop the notion of a songwriter that requires the bard to invite someone into a place of […]
Grayson Haver Currin
Bio: Grayson Haver Currin was the music editor of INDY Week and the co-director of Hopscotch Music Festival.Twitter: http://twitter.com/currincy
Posted inMusic
Black Taj, finally
The fastest way from Point A to Point Z is to believe that there is nothing in between, that the letters fall in sequential order, with the ending tucking in logically behind the beginning. For expediency’s sake, it’s best to ignore the holes, hold-ups and haranguing zig-zags slowing the smooth process of linear progress. As […]
Posted inGuides
Band Together
Danny Rosin was born to do this. He’s sitting on a full-length, red leather couch in the headquarters of his advertising and promotions firm, Brand Fuel, slightly nervous but mostly cool, asking his secretary to grab some T-shirts from some unseen stock, calling one of his employees to make sure a prospective client gets taken […]
Posted inNews
Soundbite
If you’re jaded by the claim of another 33-year-old singer-songwriter with good lyrics, a strong voice and adequate chops as a guitarist, pianist and arranger, Cole Guerra–described above–is someone to hear. Here’s another claim requesting indifference: Cole Guerra is different. Really. Guerra isn’t your orthodox singer-songwriter with curly locks expressing dreadnought desires about a girl […]
Posted inNews
The confusing nature of polymers
Arne Van Petegem is misunderstood. But that’s no small surprise. After all, he is an electronic songsmith from Belgium who sings in English if he sings at all. What’s more, he’s interested in subverting the notion that electronic songs aren’t to be just that: songs. Whereas most laptop practitioners favor thought pieces that escalate into […]
Posted inNews
Soundbite
The nature of this Work Clothes thing–on record, Jenny and Lee Waters, and live, a rotating cast anchored by keyboardist Jil Sanders–is elusive: Sure, the music itself is lovely, but it doesn’t sound as if its about love. Instead, it sounds as if Work Clothes turns trusty deep-soil plowshares into a fertile terrain of lonely, […]
Posted inNews
Soundbite
Songs from North Carolina–not music, bands or ideas, just songs. From North Carolina–not the Triangle, the Piedmont, the major cities or the coastal plain, but all of North Carolina. True, the 22 tracks collected on Compulation: Volume Two round up stuff from some of the best indie rock (what else are you going to label […]
Posted inNews
in lucha
The archetype: Good vs. evil. The outlet: Mexican wrestling. The setting: Kings, 424 S. McDowell St. on Saturday, Nov. 12 at 10 p.m. The characters: The Great Chupacabra, Mano of the mountains of Mexico City, and El Burrito Volador taking on El Conejo Malo, Fur-Kitty El Gato, and Dirty Willy Martini. The deity: Oh, that […]
Posted inMusic
Pick pals
Sitting in his living room on Glenwood Avenue on a Tuesday night, John Teer is commiserating. His iPod is plugged into a small corner stereo, playing the latest record from his and Chatham County Line’s Yep Roc labelmates, Dolorean. The Portland band is an heir apparent to Elliott Smith’s aloof beauty, and Teer is feeling […]
Posted inNews
in flows and philosophies
Several emcees and spoken-word artists have been carrying the message of the 2ND ANNUAL SPOKEN WORD & HIP HOP FESTIVAL into Durham communities all week, but the seven-day event comes back to its Hayti Heritage epicenter this weekend. The Liquid Lounge Tour joins Marc Bamuthi Joseph–who presents his choreopoem Word Becomes Flesh–for a night of […]
