This morning, North Carolina natives and Baltimore residents Future Islands took to Instagram to announce important summertime news: They’re coming home—or at least to Carrboro—to play their 1,000th show on the Carrboro Town Commons. Scheduled for July 26th, the concert’s commemorative number is indicative of just how hard Future Islands worked before signing to Thrill […]
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
In a land of rising rents and competition, area clubs aim to diversify their options
Drugs, fireworks and temporary tenants: The stories people share about late nights they had long ago in the rooms above the Chapel Hill rock club Local 506 tend to be incriminating and muttered off the record. On a sunny Friday afternoon, Sarah Schmaderone of the club’s principal booking agentsclimbs the stairs, winds through those mostly […]
Posted inMusic
Hear Body Games’ excellent new Local Love Vol. 1 EP in full
If you line up the original versions of the four songs that Body Games cover on their forthcoming EP, Local Love Vol. 1, the runtime lasts for less than 15 minutes. But Body Games’ rendition stops just shy of the 20-minute mark. That difference is telling, as the electronic Carrboro trio both slow down songs […]
Posted inFood & Drink
The expanding South: an interview with Sean Brock
After all the sweet potatoes stuffed beneath the collard leaves had been devoured and just when the bowls holding the finale of smoke-flavored ice cream were being scraped clean, chef Sean Brock shuffled dutifully between the tables of Death & Taxes. He’d finished the third of four “Firestarters” he would lead during two nights at […]
Posted inFood & Drink
A monster of a grill is the star at Ashley Christensen’s new Death & Taxes
When Matthew Kelly cooked four dinner services at a pricy preview of the new Raleigh restaurant Death & Taxes during a two-night stand in late April, he didn’t light a single burner on the stove. Instead, he pulled each course off or out of the place’s hulking centerpiece, a 6-foot-wide, 6-foot-tall, 2,200-pound J&R grill. It […]
Posted inMusic
Slim’s employee and owner to open new Fayetteville Street bar and venue, Ruby Deluxe, in late June
Just before Tim Lemuel and Van Alston pose for a picture amid the construction debris of their new Fayetteville Street bar and part-time music room, Ruby Deluxe, Lemuel slips out of one T-shirt and into another: “BOSS,” the new black sleeveless T reads across the front, in capital white letters. Alston simply shakes his head […]
Posted inMusic
An unceremonious, non-musical farewell for the Cameron Village Underground
Rod Abernethy pulled back the sheer curtain that hung beside the fashion show’s future stage, took four steps forward, pointed to his right and shouted, as though he’d seen a specter. “Well, holy shit,” he exclaimed. “That’s it. That has to be it.” With his 17-year-old son, Matt, at his left, Abernethy stood in front […]
Posted inReviews
Record review: Heads on Sticks’ Decision/Surrender/Landscape
If you’ve seen Heads on Sticks within the last year, perhaps you already know David Mueller’s now doing some of his best work with the long-running, ever-evolving outlet of psych-rock, post-punk and dance music. Maybe you even know these songs, as the band issued “Big Decision” and “Surrender” on a limited-edition, tour-only 7-inch last year. […]
Posted inMusic
TV on the Radio, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, X, Dwight Yoakam among Hopscotch 2015 headliners
In the past several weeks, two camps of potential Hopscotch Music Festival fans have emerged: those who don’t think the lineup matters, because they’ll be there anyway, and those who wouldn’t dream of buying a ticket before the lineup drops. After a series of delays and leaks, the festival has finally announced the lineup for […]
Posted inMusic
Photos: B.B. King christening DPAC in 2008
On a Sunday night late in 2008, B.B. King opened the Bull City’s new Durham Performing Arts Center, becoming the venue’s first headliner. (You can read the review here.) King went on to play DPAC two more times—June 3, 2011, and April 21, 2013. King died Thursday night, four months shy of his 89th birthday. […]
