Man, okay, I’ve lived here how many years now and never gone to the Brewery before this. Partially that’s because at this point, years removed from solo Ryan Adams shows immediately pre-Whiskeytown implosion, they mostly book four and five band punk and hardcore bills that, prior to yesterday, I had zero interest in. But since I…
two sentence reviews of reasonably new albums i listened to in may, local edition
Short but sweet: three not-entirely-recent local releases I dug on in the last few weeks. All highly recommended. Mount Moriah — self-titled: staggeringly lovely, painfully intimate, gorgeously detailed, and absolutely heartbreaking. The most straight-up beautiful album released in North Carolina so far this year. Mandolin Orange — Quiet Little Room: I’ve seen Mandolin Orange a…
been a while, huh?
But things I’ve been collecting, in terms of inspiration, comma rocking my world: Postcards from America, a currently ongoing project by half a dozen Mangum documentary photographers. Their work in the American Southwest has been gorgeous and staggeringly sad, and their Tumblr is by turns hilarious and heartbreaking. Okay, not exactly inspiration, but college baseball…
college baseball: uva @ unc, 2011
Twelve, thirteen and fourteen. On Thursday, pocket-sized pitcher Patrick Johnson held Virginia scoreless for the first time in their last 166 games, tossing a complete game 9K masterpiece that got me what I wanted from the weekend: to not get swept. On Friday, four Carolina underclassmen held the third best offense in the ACC to…
dale earnhardt jr jr @ local 506
— If you put Pet Sounds and Portishead’s Dummy in a blender, Dale Earnhardt Jr Jr is the metaphorical salad dressing that would result, and I don’t just think that because they do a loopily lovely and genuine cover of “God Only Knows” as a staple of their set. — Sense memory, recent: Ash’s brother B….
dawes @ cat’s cradle
Another day, another headliner I’m completely ignorant about: this time it was Southern California indie rockers Dawes, who I had at least heard of, this time around. I had this nagging feeling I’d seen them before — opening for someone, maybe, but who? — but no photos to verify this feeling, and I certainly knew…
two cow garage @ kings
My beloved Two Cow Garage is touring as a three piece these days; subtract the keys, and their punk rock roots — and I wrapped myself up in Black Flag and I flew it as my own — start showing in a completely obvious way. They played for a scorching hour last night, Micah and…
onward, soliders @ local 506
Wilmington’s Onward, Soldiers are one of those superbly talented young bands that it quickly becomes a delight to watch grow up and blow up; they haven’t, yet, but they’ve played the Triangle relentlessly in 2011 after saturating their own coastal market, and they have the same edge to them, on stage, in their songwriting, in their…
sinful savage tigers @ johnny’s
As recently as last summer, I would groan and grouch and roll my eyes at shows in strange venues; the light is wonky, or the background is awful, or everyone is sitting down and I feel totally awkward standing on the side of the stage taking photos. Sometime in the last year that changed —…
bull city undercover
Bull City Undercover — three nights of locals doing cover sets by a single artist of their choosing — has its roots in the old scene at the old Kings, but I, for one, am thrilled that Tamplin brought it over to Motorco with him when he left Tir Na Nog; it was a funny,…
brand new kind of photography 