concert: tribe one and jesse dangerously

I never, ever get tired of watching people I love do really amazing things; and I never, ever get tired of shooting hip hop, because it’s something I don’t do often; so I really love when my nerdcore rapper friends come to town, because I get to watch people I love do amazing things they…

album review: the julie ruin – run fast

From the first count off on “Oh Come On”, the Julie Ruin’s Run Fast is a hard-driving masterpiece of the bratty female-fronted punk that Kathleen Hanna pioneered with Bikini Kill and Le Tigre. Her little girl vocals tail off into sighs and escalate into screams, and the guitar of Sara Landeau is heavy enough that the instrumental…

life list: 100 foods, 100 counties

Though my trip to Hickory was only partially successful — baseball-watching thwarted by a thunderstorm and a dead car battery — I did get to cross off three more counties on my Life List item of eating at all of Our State’s 100 Foods In 100 Counties. From top to bottom: Iredell County: Port-A-Pit BBQ,…

two sentence reviews of reasonably new albums i listened to in august

Dash Hammerstein — Bito Cabrito: sort of slinky ’50s garage pop, lots of keyboards and drawling vocals and weird orchestration. Charming as hell. Great songwriting, loads of earworms, A+ recommendation from Fuel/Friends. Have Gun, Will Travel — Fiction, Fact, or Folktale?: this is the fourth LP from Florida’s Have Gun Will Travel, and it’s just…

footbawwwwwl

But then, like all villains in scary movies, Steve Spurrier came back for one final scare. Yep, he took over the South Carolina head-coaching job. — Clay Travis, Dixieland Delight Go Heels. Beat the Cocks.

concert: the breedings @ the casbah

I have been waiting a long time — since I first heard their 2010 record Laughing At Luck, basically — to see the Breedings live. And, oh, was Friday night’s set lovely. Every time I listen to one of their records, I am amazed at Willie and Erin’s ability to harmonize, and the songwriting is…

book review: turn around bright eyes — rob sheffield

I have a lot of feelings about Rob Sheffield’s new book, Turn Around Bright Eyes: The Rituals Of Love & Karaoke. This is, in part, because Rob Sheffield’s writing about music just gives me feelings, because he says things in the way I want to say them, often, where I end up trying to say…