HIDEAWAY CLOSES
After spending the last 15 months building a reputation as the Triangle’s premier mid-sized venue for music of the roots variety, Hideaway BBQ will close its doors after a final gig from Delta Moon on Saturday, Jan. 19. Hideaway owner Palmer Stacy says the music side of the restaurant-plus-venue endeavor was somewhat profitable, but his profits from music and slow food sales couldn’t keep up with the overhead of a new building. Beginning with a Wayne “The Train” Hancock show on Jan. 25, Hideaway booking agent Marianne Taylor will move most of her shows to Berkeley Café. Don Dixon’s Jan. 26 performance will be moved to the Lincoln Theatre. For the full story, visit www.indyweekblogs.com/scan.
MAPLE STAVE AND MONSONIA SESSIONS
Maple Stave and Monsonia play Nightlight together on Saturday, Jan. 12, with Washington’s Caverns. Fitting, as both bandstwo of the Triangle’s most ferocious, precise trioshave new records near completion: Maple Stave recently finished recording with engineer Patrick Klem, and final mixes should magically turn into masters sometime next month. This latest set of recordings contains both the shortest and “probably the weirdest” Maple Stave song yet, according to drummer Evan Rowe. Plans are also in the works for a five-member Maple Stave to make its debut soon. The quintet version of the band features Dave Cantwell (of Cantwell, Gomez & Jordan and The Whole World Laughing) and Rob Koegler (Noncanon). The ears tingle at the thought.
As for Monsonia, eight songs recorded in new member Nick Petersen’s Track & Field studio over the summer will be released this spring as Growler, the band’s first LP. Drummer Andy Willard says some of the tracks were written before Petersen joined the band, but he thinks the three-way collaborative material that forms the rest of the disc works well. Monsonia will return to the studio in March to record its next batch of songs.
VIOLET VECTOR’S TOP
Gawker Media-driven music blog Idolator recently named “When I Say Can You Dig It (You Say Yeah We Can)”a song only released so far on the MySpace page of Chapel Hill band Violet Vector & the Lovely Loveliesas its 1A song of 2007, with “No Pussy Blues” from Nick Cave’s Grinderman taking the 1B spot. “It’s got a girly-girl singer and a loping beat and judiciously employed cowbells and a chorus of ebullient voices shouting ‘Yeah!’ as if that syllable is the most wonderful one in the world’s entire lexicon and a breakdown that sounds like fireworks. Yes, fireworks,” wrote Idolator editor Maura Johnston. The song will see a proper release through Chapel Hill’s Holidays for Quince Records on March 25 with the band’s debut, EP 1. See VV at Local 506 on Thursday, Jan. 10, with Stephanie’s Id.