onward soldiers @ nightlight

On the face, this was a strange line-up: Wilmington’s sharp Americana-pop songwriters Onward, Soldiers, with the Triangle’s rockers Effingham and garage-psych trio the Pneurotics, but you know what? It did. Effingham’s Jeremy Blair writes songs with a hook and a pop sensibility if not necessarily a pop sound, and with the collaboration of Magnolia Collective…

josh ritter @ the cat’s cradle

if there’s a book of jubilations, we’ll have to write it for ourselves I believe in rock and roll as a religion. I believe that if you close your eyes and tilt your head back, the right live music is capable of transformation and transportation. I believe in the church of effects pedals and goosebumps…

chimneys @ nightlight

I was looking forward to Brooklyn indie-folkers Chimneys’ set at Nightlight last night anyway, because their debut EP The Antarctic is my favorite release with that word in the title since Modest Mouse’s The Moon & Antarctica, but I was not expecting to be as blown away as I was — and I was absolutely…

two sentence reviews of new albums i listened to in july

Brother of Pearl — Draggin’ Around: kind of like if a pop punk band listened to a lot of George Strait when they were growing up in Texas; this is a technically strong album, but the songwriting never blew me away. If you like your country a little more mainstream, this would be right up…

the devil makes three @ cat’s cradle

Haven’t seen a great roots show at the Cradle since last fall’s Punch Brothers set, and it was a delight to see the Devil Makes Three play to an almost full house last night. Before their set, I assumed that the crowd was primarily there to see beloved local open Mandolin Orange, and while they…

money (that’s what i want)

That’s not really true; I want to be happy. But not being broke is nice, too. The point of this post is: I need a business plan.

promo shoot: sinful savage tigers

I’ve been working with Seth Martin and his bandmates in Sinful Savage Tigers, Seth Barden and Andrew Marlin, since April, putting together the concepts for a promo shoot for SST’s upcoming release, The Last Night Of The Revels. It’s totally changed the way I think of promo shoots, because it was such a good time;…

magnolia collective @ the station

The second half of my Thursday double-header was Magnolia Collective’s regular residency at the Station, complete with new banjo player and an opening set by Matt Douglas, who fronts the Proclivities and plays in the Small Ponds with Caitlin Cary. Matt’s solo stuff is strange and huge and noisy, and startled me a it. MagCo,…

boulder acoustic society @ deep south

I had the pleasure of going out to Raleigh to see my favorite klezmerpunkamericana band, Denver’s Boulder Acoustic Society, last night. With a huge sound, a practically punk rhythm section, and an accordian, BAS really, really don’t sound like anyone but themselves. Their set in Raleigh swung from gorgeous bluegrass waltzes to raving klezmerpunk fusions…