Funky hip-hoppers branching out
Members of longtime Chapel Hill funk group Bruther Monk are venturing out on their own projects more these days. Emil McGloin is working on projects between here and NYC, while Dan Datiles, Bruther Monk drummer, is making beats and beat-boxing regularly. A duo of Jon Gregory paired with another collaborator, known as Living Dead, are performing locally, and are now aligned with the Nodcraft crew (www.nodcraft.com). Gregory reports “The whole Bruther Monk family is trying to get involved with contributing music to a soundtrack for a documentary on the CopWatch movement.” CopWatch is an organization that promotes public safety by holding police officers accountable for their actions.
Filmmaker turns sights to Chapel Hill music
Tess Ernst, onetime Triangle musician and artist, recently returned to the area for more than just visiting friends. Ernst is working on a short film, with a working title of Life Rocks, that she describes as “a personal (auto-biographical) narrative that moves within a social commentary about youth culture and the indie rock scene.” Working from influences like the video art of Sadie Benning and the cinema verite of filmmakers like Harmony (Kids) Korine, Ernst recently wrapped shooting the film at various locales in the Chapel Hill area. Ernst discussed her work with Indy film critic David Fellerath in October of last year, (“Filmbeat,” Oct. 22, 2003, www.indyweek.com/durham/2003-10-22/filmbeat.html). Funded by the grant she won from the Princess Grace Foundation, the mixed-media format (using stills, animation, 16mm live action) Life Rocks is “really about the Chapel Hill indie rock scene (set in the late Nineties), from my perspective as a youth.” Ernst and crew shot at Go! Studios in Carrboro, with a fictional band called Corduroy playing a song written by Aimee Argote and Tim Herzog of Des Ark, with Beth Hoskins (formally of Rubeo) and Ben Davis. Look for the film to be completed around May, with a “big Chapel Hill premiere party in June.” Stay tuned.
Durham Music Festival approaches
Here’s a reminder that DADA, the Downtown Association for Durham Arts, is calling for volunteers for both organizers and musicians for this year’s third annual festival. First and foremost, those interested in working on the behind-the-scenes organizing should contact DADA at dada@ibiblio.org. All interested performing musicians should submit a CD and press pack to DADA for festival selection as soon as possible. The deadline this year will once again be June 1. Send all materials to DADA, Attention: DMFe, P.O. Box 488, Durham 27702. 
