the corin tucker band @ local 506

Corin Tucker can flat-out rock. That’s what I took away from last night’s show; it was an aural assault of highly danceable tunes from her airtight band off Kill My Blues, her latest solo release on Kill Rock Stars. It’s excellent, her show was excellent, and I’m kind of ashamed that I didn’t tell her…

delicate cutters @ motorco garage

I still believe in the record label; that is, I believe in finding the small labels curating a select roster of bands and, if you like the bands they have, trusting them to find you new ones. One of those labels, for me, is Skybucket Records out of Birmingham, who used to release the Dexateens’…

bristol rhythm & roots reunion 2012

If you ask me, Bristol Rhythm & Roots is the best bang for your festival buck in the country — $40 gets you a weekend of the best traditional and new Americana artists out there, plus you get to watch the Tennessee/Florida game with Tennessee fans, and the quality of the street food is top-notch….

tift merritt @ carrboro town commons

No way to make my heart swell with love for where I live than a free show outside on a perfect fall evening, featuring three of North Carolina’s most beloved. Tift Merritt made me cry (for some reason, “Mix Tape” just destroys me) and made me laugh, Megafaun blew the crowd away by swinging between…

will johnson & anders parker @ haw river ballroom

If you have a chance to catch Will Johnson and Anders Parker on their current (mostly) living room tour, you need to do it — it was one of the most intimate, reverent, and fun evenings I’ve had in a long time. The third balcony of the Haw River Ballroom sounds just as good as…

the perfectly perfect camera bag

I have achieved camera bag nirvana. Not just camera bag nirvana, even: carry-on travel luggage daily purse everything bag nirvana. I am incredibly picky about my bags, which you might not guess because I own six thousand of them. But in the past, something has always been wrong with all of them: not sturdy enough,…

festival preview: bristol rhythm & roots reunion

shep. and I discovered Bristol Rhythm & Roots — or just “Bristol” to bands and regular festival-goers — back in 2009, when friends Holy Ghost Tent Revival and the New Familiars both played; we attended again in 2010, took 2011 because of its proximity to Raleigh’s Hopscotch Music Festival, and in 2012, I just said…

no friends tour 2012

I love when I get to watch people I love be awesome. I mean, of course, it happens all the time here, because so many musicians I love, but somehow it’s even better and more magical when it’s out-of-town friends being awesome. Adam WarRock and Tribe One, plus Mikal Khill and Jesse Dangerously, rocked the…

album review: will johnson — scorpion

Will Johnson — Scorpion. Out today. For about a month, the only thing I had written in the draft of this review was ~~FEELINGS~~, because that was how I felt whenever I listened to it. And when I say listened to it, I really mean got totally hung up on “You Will Be Here, Mine”…