While living in the slightly shrunken shadow of its big brother band, Annuals, Sunfold has barely been heard from since releasing its first full-length two summers ago. Annuals guitarist Kenny Florence fronts the sextet, eschewing Annuals bombast for precise texture and a more traditional guitar-keys-bass-drums approach. Though there’s not a knockout single to be found […]
Spencer Griffith
Bio: Spencer Griffith lives in Raleigh, where he teaches school and writes about bands.
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Copeland’s “The Day I Lost My Voice (The Suitcase Song)”
Listen up! or stream it below. If you cannot see the music player below, download the free Flash Player. Possibly the last album Copeland will release, You Are My Sunshine is marked with the trademark sound that afforded the Orlando quartet a 10-year run as the sensitive princes of the modern day emo and pop-punk […]
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Live: The Dirty Little Heaters celebrate the past and the future
The Dirty Little Heaters Local 506, Chapel Hill Saturday, Feb. 20 Plenty of bands commemorate their CD release with a special showtop-notch openers, an extra-long headlining set and a surprise guest or two. With its release party for Champions of Imperfectionfive years in, the band’s first full-lengthThe Dirty Little Heaters did all that and a […]
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Kooley High
Just east of downtown Raleigh, Kooley High producer Thomas “Foolery” Kevin has been moving furniture and crates of records out of his house all day. As his hip-hop crew prepares to hit the road for a pair of college shows before catching up with Brooklyn/ Cincinnati trio Tanya Morgan for an eight-show run, Foolery’s makeshift […]
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First Listen: American Aquarium’s Smalltown Hymns
Since American Aquarium‘s 2006 debut Antique Hearts, the Raleigh roots rockers have garnered plenty of (deserved) Whiskeytown comparisons. With rollicking E Street-flavored heartland rock like “Mary, Mary” and “Ain’t Going to the Bar Tonight,” last year’s Dances for the Lonely brought Bruce Springsteen references into the fold. Not that American Aquarium shied away from them, […]
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Live: WKNC makes us proud
WKNC Double Barrel Benefit The Pour House, Raleigh Friday, Feb. 5 & Saturday, Feb. 6 As I bemoan yet another Wolfpack men’s basketball loss (don’t laugh, Tar Heels), I’ve come to the regretful conclusion that WKNCN.C. State’s student-run radio stationmay be all that’s left to be proud of regarding my alma mater. Of course, that […]
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Snow glaze
We’ll call it cabin fever. Minutes after arriving back in Five Points Saturday night following the Carolina Hurricanes’ surprising 4-2 win over the league-best Chicago Blackhawks, my roommate and I decided to take a stroll in the snow before retreating into our cocoon for the night. It was warmer than we’d expected, and it was […]
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Fiddler Casey Driessen talks about the tradition of breaking traditions
My first attempt to reach fiddler Casey Driessen at his Nashville home failed. It wasn’t that Driessen didn’t answer. It’s that, over the cries of his 10-month-old daughter, I couldn’t hear him. By the time Driessen called back, I was still wondering how he fit time into his schedule to be a father. Just over […]
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Personal finance
Immediately after the Cars Allowance Rebate System, better known as “Cash for Clunkers,” went into effect earlier this year, a half dozen friends asked me the same question: “So, when are you going to trade in the Exploder?” “Clunker?” I’d reply with a hint of sarcasm. “What clunker?” I wasn’t going to hand in my […]
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Live: Auerbach flies in the face of the flu
Dan Auerbach Cat’s Cradle, Carrboro Saturday, Nov. 14 ‘I wasn’t sure if I was going to make it,” Dan Auerbach confessed early into his sold-out Saturday night show at Cat’s Cradle, just after hitting the crowd with the one-two punch of ‘Trouble Weighs A Ton”a spare guitar-and-vocal sing along aided only by the congenial harmonies […]