SCHEDULE CHANGE: The first planned show at Kings has been moved to Slim’s: Friday, Aug. 27, with Spring Collection, The Royal Nites and The Tomahawks. The first show at the new Kings is now: Saturday, Aug. 28, with Bandway and The Dynamite Brothers. Visit Kings’ website and Kings’ Twitter. See also Related Locations below. This […]
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
The Tender Fruit’s Flotsam & Krill delivers the stunning romantic flipside to Bon Iver’s For Emma, Forever Ago
Download The Tender Fruit’s Flotsam & Krill at drop.io/thetenderfruit. “2 Things Into 1,” the penultimate track on the debut album by Christy Smith, who records as The Tender Fruit, seems at first an elegy. An acoustic guitar floats a solemn chord, and moans of bass pass by like low, gray clouds. “Brian, oh, Brian/ I […]
Posted inMusic
The Arcade Fire’s ascension, and their cold stare back down
By the time you read this sentence, Merge Recordsthe little independent imprint that started in Chapel Hill 21 years ago to sell cassettes and vinyl singles by local bandsmight have its first best-selling album. The label, now a relative empire headquartered in a comfortable old building at the corner of Mangum and Chapel Hill streets […]
Posted inMusic
Five words with Javelin
Javelin headlines Cherry Bounce at 9:45 p.m. Saturday, July 31, as part of Raleigh Wide Open in front of Raleigh Times Bar. Other bands on the day-long bill include Bright Young Things, Jews and Catholics, Lake Inferior, I Was Totally Destroying It, North Elementary and Bomba Estéreo. Javelin, an electronic duo from Brooklyn and Providence, […]
Posted inGuides
Chris Tamplin introduces new listeners to new bands at no cost
At least Chris Tamplin remembers his role at Tir na nOg when he began working at the downtown Raleigh Irish pub in 2005. He was part-time help, manning the door as needed and, on Sundays, stepping behind the bar to serve drinks and make a little money aside from his job peddling clothes at a […]
Posted inMusic
Frank Fairfield channels his dark days, and stuns
Frank Fairfield headlines the Do Itcha Damn Self showcase—a gathering of one-man bands—at The Pinhook Friday, July 16. Phil Cook of Megafaun, Catherine Edgerton of Midtown Dickens, Dan McGee of Spider Bags, Dave Rogers, Colin Booy, Jason Kutchma of Red Collar, Matt White of Fight the Big Bull and Django Haskins of The Old Ceremony […]
Posted inMusic
The Love Language’s Libraries
The most significant four minutes of Librariesthe second LP by Raleigh’s The Love Language and the album that, thanks to Merge Records, is perhaps poised to break the band to an international audiencecome late, as time expires on these 10 tracks. A tape machine clicks on to start “Wilmont,” capturing an acoustic guitar that’s being […]
Posted inMusic
The Honored Guests’ Into Nostalgia EP
The Honored Guests play Saturday, June 26, at Nightlight, at 10 p.m. Western Civ and Pros and Cons join the $5 bill. The Honored Guests haven’t released new music since 2006’s sprawling departure, the keyboard-and-atmosphere-soaked Tastes Change. But the Chapel Hill quartet, three-quarters of which have been playing together in bands for almost a decade, […]
Posted inMusic
Raleigh’s downtown amphitheater still needs a name, and Cary turns up, temporarily
If you’ve got a few hundred thousand dollars to spare annually and the desire to have an amphitheater bear your name, the City of Raleigh wants to make a deal. Last week, North Carolina’s Alcoholic Beverage Control Commission rejected a request by the city and local beer distributor Harris Wholesale to name the new $2.5 […]
Posted inNews
ABC nixes Bud Light naming rights for Raleigh amphitheater
The Raleigh Amphitheater and Festival Site, as the Raleigh Convention Center’s website now calls it, is still seeking a title sponsor. Thursday morning, the chairman and commissioner of North Carolina’s Alcoholic Beverage Control Commission denied the City of Raleigh and Harris Wholesale the advertising exemptions necessary to put Bud Light’s name and logo on the […]