Bo White’s made strange music in several different bands: He’s led the late noise rockers Calabi Yau and bolstered Afrobeat-happy Black Congo NC, supported posi-poppers Yardwork and anchored the vibes-and-jazz-guitar Duo Select. Though all that informs his latest solo record, Same Deal, New Patrones, the résumé hardly does the Charlotte native’s ambitious new LP justice. […]
John Schacht
Posted inMusic
With Nootropics, Lower Dens seek dynamic stability
Lower Dens plays at Kings Thursday, June 21. Tickets for the 9 p.m. show are $8–$10. No Joy and Alan Resnick open. For a group whose records depend on so much wanderlust, the topic of “home” certainly comes up often in stories about Lower Dens. Based in Baltimore when they released their much-buzzed debut, 2010’s […]
Posted inMusic
Lee Fields: out from James Brown’s shadow
The year was 1967, and Lee Fields had just finished singing a set at Tom Woodards, a juke joint tucked away in the forest outside Wilson, N.C. Fields remembers it as the kind of rough-and-tumble, liquor-license-free setting that cooked on the weekends and brooked no half-assed performances; you brought it all or you didn’t bother […]
Posted inMusic
Joshua Carpenter’s Full Flight
On the cover of his first solo release, Asheville’s Joshua Carpenter cradles a rooster in his arms. Since barnyard fowl are for all intents earthbound, Full Flight makes for a slyly ironic, self-deprecating title. But if the joke is meant to lower our expectations, Full Flight‘s 10 fine pop songs negate that intent. True, in […]
Posted inMusic
Some local heroes rescue the third LP from Fan Modine
Fan Modine plays a free album-release show at Cat’s Cradle with Chris Stamey, Trepak and Antibubbles Saturday, May 28. The show starts at 8:30 p.m. In 2004, Gordon Zacharias released his second full-length, Homeland, as Fan Modine, the recording and performing alias he’d used since 1998. A homemade set of orchestral indie pop that skirted […]
Posted inMusic
Portland’s Grails are sonic foragers
Grails play Local 506 Thursday, April 21, with guitarist James Blackshaw at 9:30 p.m. Tickets are $10–$12. “If music was a lady,” Emil Amos says of his Portland, Ore., band Grails, “we would fuck anything that moves.” With Grails, the analogy isn’t just provocative hyperbole. The decade-old instrumental rock actincluding founding members Amos (Holy Sons, […]
Posted inMusic
The story of Floating Action’s pan-everything soul
Floating Action plays Kings Friday, Feb. 18, with Schooner and Tomahawks. Seth Kauffman, the frontman of Black Mountain band Floating Action, is on the horn to discuss his fresh collection of homespun relics, Desert Etiquette. I’m prepped for a conversation that, like his songs and their stories, could cover a good part of the globe, […]
Posted inFestivals
Interview: Tortoise and Broken Social Scene
Broken Social Scene plays Raleigh City Plaza Friday, Sept. 10, with Panda Bear and The Rosebuds. Tickets are $30 and are still available. Tortoise plays Lincoln Theatre Saturday, Sept. 11, with Bear in Heaven, NOMO, Balmorhea and Aquarelle. See Related Events below. Somebody needs to get a memo to Broken Social Scene: It’s Kill Your […]
Posted inMusic
Vanishing element
In the annals of any successful indie label, you’ll find those seminal early recordings that point toward prominence. Too often overlooked, though, are the unheralded, low-digit catalog entries that might have been just as character-definingvinyl or cassette evidence of a thriving DIY aesthetic, often from one-and-done bands that soon slid into obscurity. For Merge, Purebassist/ […]
Posted inMusic
Merging into maturity
Stories about maturity hold all the appeal of a finger-wagging lecture on “growing up,” “acting like an adult” and “pulling your head out of your ass.” But when it comes to the M. Ward/ Lambchop/ Portastatic triple-bill at the Cat’s Cradle this Tuesday–essentially, a mini Merge Records festival–maturity is practically a gig-defining trait. There is, […]