kathleen edwards @ cat’s cradle

Last night’s Kathleen Edwards show, based on my listening to all four of her albums at work during the day — well, I was a little afraid I was going to be the girl in the front of the audience honking and snotting and weeping all over the place. I was not! That is because…

worth getting up for: january 2012

Worth getting up for in January: Girl in a Coma, Red Collar, Spider Bags, Rat Jackson, Kathleen Edwards, Matt Pryor live; tribute shows; frozen samosas from Trader Joe’s; red patterened drop-waisted dresses; new pants; Bones coming back on TV; Justified; Onward, Soldiers’ new album; the Extra Hot Great mini-episode of names that Benedict Cumberbatch does…

review: the other f-word

I love this photo; it’s such a perfect quiet moment with Stephen and Joah Tunnell, and Joah’s daughter Madeline, amongst the furor of TRKFest 2011. Madeline is growing up as the daughter of two musicians, as the niece of two musicians. Her mother spends a large chunk of the year on the road with about-to-break…

studio session: effingham

Last night I got to Durham too late to see the Save Our Arts show with the Beast, Mount Moriah, and Megafaun (sold out! Good on them) so I trundled back to the Thrill and spent the evening hanging out with Jeremy Blair and Effingham, who are recording their first full-length in the Cowboy’s studio….

onward soldiers cd release party for ‘monsters’

There’s nothing more fun than an amped up crowd that’s at least as excited for a release as a band is; or maybe it’s the other way around. Either way, both Wilmington’s Onward, Soldiers and the crowd at the Pour House on Thursday were in fine form for the band’s release party for their sophomore…

the where’s the band? tour @ cat’s cradle

When Lisa at Sneak Attack got in touch with me about covering Matt Pryor and the Where’s the Band? tour, I have to admit: I was a little smirky about the tour. Besides Pryor, I made the snap judgment that it was lead singers from candy pop punk bands, it would be full of teenagers,…

kathleen edwards — voyageur

Kathleen Edwards — Voyageur. Out 1/17, Zoe Records. When I fell in love with Kathleen Edwards, between Back to Me and Asking for Flowers, it was on the strength of her songwriting: I am tired of playing defense and I don’t even own hockey skates, or asking for flowers is like asking you to be…

onward soldiers — monsters

Onward, Soldiers — Monsters. Out 2/21, Winoca Records, unless you’re in Raleigh, in which case out 1/26, at the Pour House. The Alpha Site has had a copy of Monsters in my car for a few weeks now, and when we were driving home from somewhere last week, we were talking about why it’s good….

like a record baby right round

I read a bunch of Continuum’s 33⅓ books! Now I am going to talk about them. Behind the jump: Music from Big Pink, Exile On Main Street, Horses, Highway 61 Revisited, Radio City. Pink Moon — Amanda Petrusich: one of my favorite things about this series is the flexibility of form in the books; you…