Brooklyn’s Christopher Paul Stelling’s debut album, Songs of Praise and Scorn, came out last month; it’s an intricate, intimate portrait of sadness, darkness, and hope, and one of my favorite releases of 2012 thus far. CPS was kind enough to answer some questions for me from the road, and behind the jump, he talks about…
craig finn & some guns @ local 506
Craig Finn told what has to be the most Chapel Hill story ever last night before he got started on his set: he was excited to watch the Carolina/Duke game in Chapel Hill, but he didn’t realize you had to get somewhere three hours early to get a table. So he wandered around Carrboro, watching…
dex romweber duo @ local 506
There are plenty of things I always remember about Dex Romweber: that he’s a great songwriter and a phenomenal guitarist, that his hair will always flop forward into his eyes two songs into the set, that he’s been kicking around the Triangle for ages and probably knows everyone in Chapel Hill and then some. I…
heartless bastards @ cat’s cradle
I wanna be Erika Wennerstrom when I grow up. The nice married gentleman standing next to me up against the Cradle stage said that his young son calls her the little woman with the big voice, and it’s an utterly correct description — Erika Wennerstrom is a slight woman, not weighing much more than her…
a week(end) at the 506
Remember those weeks last year when it seemed like I’d just moved into the Local 506 and was, say, sleeping in the bathroom after shows instead of going home, because I would just be back there the night after, and the night after that? This year has had less of that, because this year has…
worth getting up for: february
Worth getting up for in February: Carolina/Duke; Eli winning Super Bowls; a new Patti Smith biography; Dr. Dog’s Be The Void; Lydia Loveless live; being shaken out of self-pitying funks by people who love me; mimosas; friends who take up winemaking; daffodils; days off for no reason other than I can; Sugar & the Hi-Lows;…
two sentence reviews of new albums i listened to in february
Damien Jurado — Maraqopa: psychdelic, ringing, and bleak, this is my first encounter with Jurado beyond a perennial favorite promo photo of him smoking a cigarette in a bathroom, and I love it. It’s scary and huge, and the guitar work on it is otherworldly in both talent and sound. Estrogen Highs — Irrelevant Future:…
leland sundries @ the cave
Leland Sundries is the brainchild of Brooklyn songwriter Nick Loss-Eaton; it’s a showcase for his exceptional songwriting, his wide-ranging musicality, and his excellent beard. On the recently released The Foundry EP, he takes on everything from a sea chanty about the burning of the Greenpoint warehouse district to a straight up country rocker about giving…
february helplessness blues
“I guess it is like an archaeologist, where you’re always wanting to find something you’ve never heard before. And people now are, even at a young age, they’re looking back into the past and trying to make connections. They’re trying to connect ’60s Pakistani pop music to punk rock in Washington, DC in the ’90s….
hacking a brownie
A few years ago, Ash gave me a vintage Kodak Brownie, in working condition but minus its 620mm spools, for my birthday — I’ve been trying to find spools for it since, albeit half-heartedly, but when a pair turned up on my Etsy favorites list for cheap last week, I had to jump on them….
brand new kind of photography 