Megafaun feat. Justin Vernon (Bon Iver) & Nick Sanborn (Sylvan Esso) The Pinhook, Durham Tuesday, April 29, 2014 Last night, a few songs into his band’s first set in nearly two years, Megafaun’s Brad Cook made a circle at the center of the stage. He talked and signaled to the other three members, counting off […]
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
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Wesley Wolfe’s Numbskull
On 2010’s Storage, the Carrboro singer-songwriter Wesley Wolfe was quick to confess his existential malingering: “Everyday we choose coffee over suicide,” he sang at the start of the record’s second song, his strangely cheery tone buoyed by a spry beat. “So far so good/Run and hide to stay and fight.” Storage represented Wolfe’s return to […]
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The Art of Cool advances, Hopscotch gets its hip-hop
Cicely Mitchell knows that her birthday is quickly approaching, but on Monday afternoon less than 36 hours since the end of the inaugural Art of Cool Festival, she can’t remember if it arrives on Tuesday or Wednesday. It might even be today. “That’s how crazy it’s been,” says Mitchell, laughing. “I’ve lost track of my […]
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How The Art of Cool reimagined and struggled with the model of music-festival fundraising
The Art of Cool Festival Friday, April 25–Saturday, April 26 $55–$275, with free shows both days aocfestival.org Cicely Mitchell and Albert Strong have an unusual rule about date nights: When one of them thinks about work, they don’t say anything. They save the thought and e-mail it when it won’t interrupt the romance or relaxation. […]
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The new landowners in Shakori Hills now look beyond festival season
You won’t find the most significant difference between this weekend’s Shakori Hills GrassRoots Festival and the most recent iteration last October on any stage or in any campground. It won’t leap up in the circus-sized dance tent or manifest itself in the popular children’s education area. Very few attendees will notice it at all. But […]
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Merge Records expands 25th anniversary lineup
Merge Records, a label that’s always loved a good anniversary party, announced the final lineups for its four-day, 25th-anniversary celebration this morning. And what was already a great docket has now become kind of insane. On the fest’s opening day, for instance, both William Tyler and Mount Moriah will open for Lambchop, who will (as […]
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One thing is certain about anyone who attends New Yorker music critic Alex Ross‘ talk this afternoon at 4:15 p.m. in UNC’s Gerrard Hall: that person will learn something fascinating about Richard Wagner and his effect on American culture in the late 1800s. Alex Ross is one of the most consistently engaging, erudite and readable […]
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Raleigh spends big on a new public image
Even before Joshua Gajownik graduated from N.C. State’s College of Design in 2004, he knew he needed to leave Raleigh. It wasn’t the university’s fault. The award-winning design program had won him over from aerospace engineering. He had made typefaces and crafted logos, studied the theories of shapes and colors in ways he’d never imagined. […]
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Mount Moriah & The Mountain Goats’ Or Thousands of Prizes 7″
The first volume of Merge’s 25th-anniversary seven-inch subscription series, Or Thousands of Prizes, pits two local dignitaries against one another on a green single. Both the rebellious spirit and electric crags of Neil Young have always been central to Mount Moriah. They take his “Revolution Blues” for an uneasy trip here, with the bristling guitar […]
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Five words with Jenny Hval
Jenny Hval with Matt Northrup Friday, March 28 $10, 9 p.m. Local 506 As a bass tone took its first stabs into the void, Norwegian songwriter Jenny Hval challenged it for attention: “At night, I watch people fucking on my computer.” Those moments of sudden shockwhether musical, lyrical or a perfectly rendered pair of the […]
