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(04/26/07 4:00am)
Concert Review
Shakori Hills Music Festival
Silk Hope, NC
Friday, April 20
4.5 stars
When I planned to go out to the Shakori Hills Music Festival, I had planned to take a camera with me, hop around the way-out-of-the-way Chatham County farm and snap all kinds of slice-of-life kinds of pictures.
Ended up not getting a camera. So here's a little essay-style recount of Shakori, a family-style music festival that breathes with the life of Chapel Hill's music scene, in an undeniably North Carolinian context:
6 p.m. - Arrive at Shakori Hills. My roommate and I quickly realize Shakori Hills necessitates more than what we brought (nothing), so we drive in the general direction of a store described on the signs in the parking lot as "cigs, milk, beer."
6:30 p.m. - The store has a live bait vending machine out front, a great invention.
7:15 p.m. to 8 p.m. - Back at the festival, we scout out the camping areas and stages of varying sizes. We're supposed to be meeting up with some friends of the Squirrel Nut Zippers, but the only directions we've been given to find them among the RVs and sleeping bags spread out on the dirt and grass is to "turn left at the house and go back."
There are at least five houses, and we've gone back.
When we do find it, this is camp: a van with a futon mattress, one of those truly amazing pop-up campers that appears out of nothing and sleeps six people, a firepit and a bunch of kids, mostly preteens.
This seems to be approximately camp across the farm, except the kids vary in age from group to group.
Someone near the firepit, about the festival: "It's real. It's family."
8 p.m. - There are rumors of a fantastic food item up at the commons area: a "veggie thing." Considering the other menu items, "french toast" and something with maple syrup, "veggie thing" sounds a little shafty.
8:15 p.m. - Oh man, I am a fool. "Veggie things" are a salad in a quesadilla, and they are delicious.
9 p.m. ish - Squirrel Nut Zippers take the main stage, to a large crowd of very happy music-lovers and their very happy children.
I remember listening to the Zippers when they were radio-popular, but I don't remember what the band members looked like at the time. The sound I have in my head is young and full, but the only image is the one on the Shakori stage - missing a few members, but supremely gleeful about playing again.
Quote of the show from the roommate: "I had no idea that 'Hell' was their song." Youngun.
12 a.m. - Donna the Buffalo takes the dance hall stage, the floor of which is built in such a way that if you're standing in the right spot, the floor will force you to dance.
1 a.m. to morning - Amplified music has a cutoff point. If it didn't, everyone on this end of Chatham would be in for an awful long night.
But this is when the musical aspects get most interesting.
In the performers' camp, there are small fires going at the big clusters of tents and vans. Musicians slated to perform at the festival circle up with those who showed up with a banjo or a voice.
Shakori, as a music event, is refreshingly organic coming from a town as saturated with the stuff as Chapel Hill. Music just happens out here, there's no feeling of competition. Everyone is impossibly (but genuinely) nice.
Contact the Diversions Editor
at dive@unc.edu.
(04/26/07 4:00am)
At the beginning of this year, I wrote a column in this space that promised, in its headline, "Diversions: Now 2.5 times more diverting."
I lied in that column about what we would actually accomplish - several times, in fact.
Sure, I didn't know, necessarily, that much of what was being promised would not be accomplished in one school year. So our radio show went defunct, our Web site turned into a (very nifty-looking) blog, we never quite turned into the free-standing publication we had hoped.
There was one line in there, though, that I think held true in spirit, if not in literal practice: "To give townies a reason to pick up the student paper, and to give students a reason to get into town."
I know this is true, because of a blurb that appeared in the April 11 issue of the Independent Weekly:
"UNC's music blog Diversions (apps.dailytarheel.com/blogs/dive) makes everyone else in the Triangle look like rock critics crutching on 10 p.m. bedtimes and tastes for sleeping late: Over the past year, they've thrown themselves behind the local music scene with gusto and enthusiasm, posting album reviews, show reviews and live photos on a daily basis."
That was awful nice, and we appreciate the support. More importantly, though, I think it illustrates that we accomplished at least half of what we set out to do.
The blurb says we threw ourselves behind the scene, and that's absolutely true. It also says we're affliated with UNC, which is less true, as the DTH is an independent publication, but we'll let that slide.
That little line was printed to promote a show we threw at the Local 506 on April 13 - a show that drew, says venue owner Glenn Boothe, a crowd that was about 85 percent new members. I like to think these people were students, but I wasn't really paying attention. Important thing is, the place was packed with faces I had never seen before (go to enough shows in this town, and the crowd starts to look pretty familiar).
Goal accomplished. Town, at least parts of it, might maybe read
(04/19/07 4:00am)
MUSICREVIEW
Blonde Redhead
23
4 stars
For Blonde Redhead, dreams can float on the same forgotten thought (melody) over and over, lulling the listener into a trance that only makes you susceptible to what's to come: the group's best record to date.
Kazu Makino vocals linger somewhere off in the distance, giving the record a haunting feel in an easy-to-digest format.
23 has a sort of mussed-up, fuzzy version of the dissonant qualities the group had harped on.
But what makes 23 so effective is its simplicity. There's not much to the backbeats on tracks such as "SW," but distorted guitars playing pretty little consonancies make for a lush texture that gives the song its character. Of course, the anthemic horn interlude as a bridge might have something to do with that.
There's something about the song construction here that makes contrasting emotions accessible. Blonde Redhead draws on pop and electronica to create something that never gets old from track to track, despite an apparent lack of movement within the tracks.
Like most art pop, listening to 23 is about listening to each track as a unit in itself and then connecting that unit to an inseparable whole. "23" wouldn't be any good without "Spring and By Summer Fall" to follow it four tracks later. And that track just wouldn't be the same without the comparatively simple intentions of the next cut, "Silently."
The excellent qualities here are in what Blonde Redhead manages to do in the four-minute pop format, which the group has taken too handily. The verses are entrancing, the choruses are mindful of what choruses should do and the bridges are simply brilliant.
As an album, 23 is to be listened to carefully, in full, and perhaps a little delirious with lack of sleep.
Contact the Diversions Editor at dive@unc.edu.
(04/16/07 4:00am)
The arts don't make money, and neither does the Carolina Performing Arts Series.
"It's not like running a private performing arts venue. It's not the case where we'll be making money on this," Executive Associate Provost Steve Allred said.
"We're trying to bring top-level artists and still balance the books at the end of the year."
It is a fact of funding that is common knowledge within the arts community but is not always understood outside of it, Executive Director for the Arts Emil Kang said.
And it is the central reason why, going into the third season of the Carolina Performing Arts Series, fundraising and University support have become the two factors most important for the sustainability of the program.
Boasting acts such as Aretha Franklin, Yo-Yo Ma and STOMP, Kang said the new season, which was announced Friday, is the strongest yet.
But maintaining a series with so many internationally recognized acts is, of course, expensive. The average artist fee for the 2007-08 season is $28,000, Kang said. Franklin cost $100,000, Ma $75,000, STOMP $50,000.
Add on the $1.3 million in total salaries of 19 full-time performing arts staff members, plus the cost of putting on 35 shows, and things get pricey quickly.
There is, Kang said, a "long- term imperative to create a sustainable source of support to ensure that this won't drop off in the future."
In 2005, the series received a $5 million challenge grant from the William R. Kenan Jr. Charitable Trust, which would create a $10 million endowment for the program. Half of the $5 million promised was given up front, and the other half will come once the series has met the match.
The performing arts series has raised $9.2 million toward that goal, and Kang suspects he will surpass it by the Dec. 31 deadline.
Until that endowment comes in, all of the series' financial shortfalls will be covered by the University. Because much of the money donated was pledged, as opposed to cash, it might be a while before all of it is readily available.
"We probably won't see that $5 million for the next five years," Kang said.
Once that happens, and the endowment kicks in, the series will receive 5 percent, or about $500,000, annually for operations and booking.
Ticket revenue, which Allred approximated at $1.2 million for the 2006-07 season, covers the artists' fees and then some, Kang said.
The endowment would reduce the University's funding of operating costs, which Kang said "produce a huge deficit." Those costs include necessities such as lights, sound, box office staff and ushers, and totaled about $600,000 for this season.
The University will continue to cover the series' $1.3 million in salaries and benefits, as it would for any other University department.
"If you look at how this is done with universities around the country, it basically represents a commitment to the arts the same way you would fund a library or a chemistry department," Allred said.
The issue of University involvement, then, becomes making the series about more than putting on concerts. For the student body to reap the benefits of the millions spent, the series plans to reach out through thematic programming - such as next year's "The Death Penalty Examined."
"Ultimately the series has to reflect the values of the University," Kang said of the goal to challenge and broaden student experiences through the arts.
But putting terms like "challenging" and "broadening" into practice is a step that will need to be taken carefully, said Tim Carter, chairman of the music department.
"The ways to measure that kind of achievement become more difficult," Carter said.
Part of the difficulty, Carter said, comes with the varied constituencies the series has to keep happy.
There are undergraduates who ask why they haven't heard of more of the acts and community members who are more familiar with symphony orchestras than multimedia extravaganzas. And there's the need to draw ticket revenue and appreciation from those groups and all the arts advocates who sit somewhere in between.
"Everyone wants more of what they want, so we're just trying to do what we're trying to do," Kang said.
What's more, the series has only one venue: a 1,434-seat hall that might not be suitable for all performances and will feel empty with a crowd of as much as 500.
"We struggle with the fact that we have to do a one-size-fits-all performance space," Kang said.
Offering student tickets for $10, which is partially supplemented by $250,000 annually in student fees, cuts into ticket revenue, as well. With about 32 percent of tickets for the 2006-07 season going to students, Kang said the series is meeting one of its goals despite losing some potential revenue.
"Of course that kills our bottom line, but that's why we do it," Kang said.
For those reasons, Carter said, "there is absolutely no way it can be commercially viable."
The key thing to remember here, though, is that mixed funding and private donations always have been the stuff of promotional arts series.
Memorial Hall is not Walnut Creek, and even widely known acts like Wynton Marsalis do not come from the same cash crop as those like John Mayer.
With names like Aretha Franklin and Yo-Yo Ma on the schedule, the series is likely to continue drawing attention from potential donors.
Kang said when that money does come, it will be invested in artist residencies and extended engagements, rather than adding more one-off performances to an already full 35-date season.
"We want our series to be more than entertainment."
Contact the Arts Editor at artsdesk@unc.edu.
(04/12/07 4:00am)
Quentin Tarantino is a jackass.
As a filmmaker he has never tried to keep that disposition a secret, flexing his somewhat frustrating talents for writing dialogue and handpicking actors to deliver it in films that increasingly are caricatures of themselves.
Which is why, for his part in the double-feature "Grindhouse" - a movie experience that pays homage to the half-clothed girls, gory deaths and fast cars Tarantino has used as source material in his previous work - there were two ways to go:
Show restraint, or make a movie so self-indulgent it would be little more than Tarantino pleasuring himself on film.
Because the latter would be traumatizing, we can be thankful he held back. It's just too bad that "Death Proof," the movie that gives Kurt Russell one more chance to be a badass, feels so slow.
Slow, that is, as a follow to the ridiculous fun that is the first hour and 45 minutes of "Grindhouse." It's jarring to listen to pretty girls talk about pretty much nothing for 25-minute stretches when you've just been so invested in "Planet Terror," Robert Rodriguez's balls-to-the-wall zombie flick.
The plot of "Terror" makes not a damn bit of sense, but that's sort of the point (plot: soldiers have been gassed to become zombies, they eat people's brains, and a mysteriously ruthless Freddy Rodriguez shoots a lot of them).
Point is, there's about 40 tons of corn-syrupy fake blood splashed all over the screen, Rose McGowan has a machine gun for a leg, and the whole thing gets back to the silly fun of zombie movies.
To make the "Grindhouse" experience feel a little sleazier and a little more real, Rodriguez and Tarantino purposely ruined their product in the editing process - warping it to mimic the low quality you might get in a smutty 1970s movie house.
What's better, they tapped Eli Roth, Rob Zombie and Edgar Wright to direct mock horror movie trailers to serve as an intermission - all of which are clever, maybe even brilliant, in ways as yet unshown in those directors' real films.
Leave it to Tarantino, then, to go and kill that sickening, exploitative energy with what turns out to be a good film.
"Death Proof" takes forever to actually happen. But when it does, with an insanely cool, stunt-driven car chase, Tarantino's movie gains substance that his last few films have lacked.
His 1970s muscle cars speed down a highway filled with cookie-cutter sedans and SUVs, giving it a sense of real time and place that the director does not usually consider.
His simple but devilishly clever plot device ("device" is important, "Death Proof" has no plot) works in ways that the over-long "Kill Bill" movies never could.
And really, that's about the most jackass thing Tarantino could have done with "Grindhouse."
He went and made a good movie when he absolutely didn't have to.
Contact the Diversions Editor at dive@unc.edu.
(03/29/07 4:00am)
Walking onto a Chapel Hill stage for the first time since 2001 to the tune of "Final Countdown," pop pianist Ben Folds was greeted by a full house of standing fans.
A champion of singable melodies and on-stage silliness, Folds worked a sold-out crowd into a favorable frenzy Wednesday night at Memorial Hall.
The concert was presented by Live Nation live music company, Cat's Cradle and the Carolina Union Activities Board.
Folds, who plays the piano in a uniquely uncomfortable posture that is half-standing, half-squatting, ran through an hour-and-a-half set, mostly of songs written since the breakup of his Chapel Hill-bred trio, Ben Folds Five.
He did, though, play a few older tunes that, he said, "probably would have first been played at the Local 506."
A performer who is nothing if not silly, Folds chatted up the crowd - at one point joking for an entire song that he would hit a "brown note" on his shiny new synthesizer, making the night a gross embarrassment for about 1,400 people.
He later played that synthesizer with his foot.
While Folds' song selection left out well-known favorites such as "Brick" (his only radio hit) and "Rockin' the Suburbs," his audience did not seem disappointed.
Will Hemsworth, a freshman who camped outside Memorial Hall for 23 hours to get tickets to the concert, said he was not surprised the older songs were largely left out.
Still, he said, the song selection was strong, and the night spent sleeping outside wasn't wasted.
"It was an amazing experience and was definitely worth it," Hemsworth said.
Perhaps the most well-received number of the night was one that Folds didn't write: Dr. Dre's "B-----s Ain't S--t."
"My favorite way to write a song is to take lyrics someone else wrote and put music to it," Folds said, introducing the song, which is his biggest-selling single.
Whether anyone in the audience knew all the words when the song came out on The Chronic doesn't really matter. They sure seemed to like it here.
Eef Barzelay, frontman for the indie-country act Clem Snide, opened the show with a short set of satirical guitar songs.
Like Folds, Barzelay's voice is not what you might traditionally call "good" but fits his song style.
Though Folds' main set, featuring songs from Rockin' the Suburbs, Songs for Silverman and Supersunnyspeedgraphic showed his at times funny, at times endearing songwriting, his encore was the highlight of the night.
Dropping Chapel Hill landmarks on songs such as "Kate" and "Underground," Folds went from getting a crowd nodding to getting it dancing.
"I think the fans were great," said Robert Gurdian, CUAB music committee chairman and president-select. "It ran very smoothly."
Though no firm plans have been set, Gurdian said CUAB is looking at dates in Memorial Hall to collaborate with Cat's Cradle next year.
Successful on the whole, the only lag in the night came with an ill-fitting pop rock cover of The Postal Service's "Such Great Heights" - though the choice does say something for Folds knowing his audience.
But with a friendly demeanor and a willingness to throw his seat at the piano, Folds can cover whatever he wants.
Contact the Arts Editor at artsdesk@unc.edu.
(03/29/07 4:00am)
With a tri-city area stuffed to the gills with good bands, there has to be a thriving independent music industry working behind the scenes to manufacture, distribute and promote the music being made.
Often having been started as a means for a band to release its own music to the public, indie record labels have become a fixture in the Triangle.
Whether it's an indie rock powerhouse such as Merge or a friendship brigade such as Trekky, each Triangle record label has its own character, ethic and mission.
But they have one thing in common: a devotion to the music they love.
This list is by no means complete. It leaves out up-and-comers such as the 8088 Record Collective and Breakfast Mascot, which just hosted its first SXSW showcase. It doesn't include the hip-hop presence of Soul Dojo and Hall of Justus. It doesn't mention the electronica collective known as Broken Fader Cartel. And there probably are even more backroom record labels popping up every day to release new music that won't fit on this page.
The real point here is to remind you to check out the back of your new CD and give a little recognition to the folks who work behind the scenes to bring the music into your home, and more importantly, into your heart.
Merge Records
1. Back story: Merge was founded in 1989 as a way to release Superchunk albums. The label started in Chapel Hill, then moved to nearby Durham in 2001.
2. A-list: Arcade Fire, Dinosaur Jr., Neutral Milk Hotel, Spoon, Superchunk
Yep Roc Records
1. Back story: Yep Roc is not so much defined by a genre as it is by its mission to "feature some of the best, most soulful music of any kind."
2. A-list: Rev. Horton Heat, Paul Weller, The Moaners, Bob Mould, Apples In Stereo
Pox World Empire
1. Back story: Pox World is a small collective of rock bands from the Triangle. The label prides itself on being a home for growing artists.
2. A-list: Schooner, Nathan Oliver, The Sames, Pleasant, Jett Rink
Trekky Records
1. Back story: Trekky, which functions as an indie collective, is based entirely on the musical collaboration and support of friends and connections.
2. A-list: The Never, Lost In The Trees,
Endless Mic, Butterflies, Auxiliary House
Bu_hanan
1. Back story: Bu_hanan is a collective of musicians, all of whom more or less play in one another's bands, in both live shows and on albums.
2. A-list: David Karsten Daniels, Prayers and Tears, Physics of Meaning, Kapow! Music
Sit-N-Spin
1. Back story: Sit-N-Spin has done a number of relatively small releases for a variety of local bands, often in the form of limited-edition 7" records.
2. A-list: Hotel Lights, Erie Choir, The Kingsbury Manx, The Nein, Sorry About Dresden
307 knox
1. Back story: Lo-fi D.I.Y. 307 is one of the many youthful, up-and-coming outfits from the newly vibrant indie scene of Durham.
2. A-list: Red Collar, Cantwell Gomez and Jordan, Midtown Dickens
Pidgeon English
1. Back story: Focusing on central N.C., Pidgeon English supports independent music of all kinds. The label started releasing 7" records in 2001.
2. A-list: Bellafea, The Cherry Valence,
The Rosebuds
BiFocal
1. Back story: BiFocal is an independent media publishing company (not just a record label), so it shares some artists with other labels/collectives.
2. A-list: Kerbloki, des_ark
(03/28/07 4:00am)
If there's one thing that stands out to those who knew rock pianist Ben Folds when he was playing around town in the mid-'90s, it's the baby grand he brought to nearly every show.
Considering the musical climate at the time - mostly post-punk with grungy guitars - the bulky piano would be hard to forget.
"That wasn't just Chapel Hill, that was the world, so we didn't fit in at all," Folds, 40, said of the music scene at the time.
"When you start and you don't fit in, it's just a liability. But if you continue to stick by your guns, it ends up being an asset."
"It was a good shtick," said Joe Caparo, a friend of Ben Folds Five who was name-dropped on the group's first album.
"People could identify with it . they were pretty hard to miss," Caparo said.
Tonight, Folds will play a much larger piano for a sold-out crowd in Memorial Hall, returning to the town that claims him as one of its most successful musical acts.
The concert, co-sponsored by Live Nation live music company, Cat's Cradle and the Carolina Union Activities Board, is part of a 10-date tour of college campuses.
The performance will be the first time Folds has taken to a stage in Chapel Hill or Carrboro since Sept. 10, 2001, when he played at Cat's Cradle to promote his first solo effort, Rockin' the Suburbs.
So, why so long to come back?
"I've been wanting to do that for a long time, but it just hasn't worked out," Folds said. "I tried to book the Cat's Cradle, but people just wouldn't do it."
The show Folds referred to ended up at Raleigh's Meymandi Concert Hall.
Folds, who hails from Winston-Salem, lived in Chapel Hill from 1993 to 1999. Whatever and Ever Amen, the album that boasts his band's hit single "Brick," was recorded in Folds' old house on Isley Street.
Sharing an independently inclined scene with bands such as Superchunk, Archers of Loaf and Polvo, Folds said it was a little ironic that his band "caught so much shit for not being the same."
But that isn't necessarily a bad thing.
"Chapel Hill was a good musical place to come up, and I always really respected the other musical acts even if they thought we sucked," he said.
During his time in Chapel Hill, Folds played in a couple of bands: Majosha and Ben Folds Five.
So when the Five played at Lizard & Snake Cafe - a Mexican eatery located on South Columbia Street where Sakura now is - people already knew him, said Andy McMillan, who opened the restaurant in August 1994.
"When he started out with Ben Folds Five, it was sort of this whole different thing, and I think a lot of people saw there was this whole different thing going on," McMillan said.
"So even if you don't like his kind of music, you could appreciate it."
The group played its first show on a Sunday night in 1994 at the Local 506 to a crowd of about 30 people, said the venue's former owner Dave Robertson.
Former Ben Folds Five bassist Robert Sledge, Local 506 sound guy at the time, asked Robertson if his band could have the gig.
The thing was, Robertson said, that the band already had a publishing deal with Sony Music. But no one knew it yet.
Glenn Boothe, current owner of the Local 506, worked at New York City's Caroline Records at the time, the label that put out the Ben Folds Five self-titled debut.
"We had allotted to sell 5,000," Boothe said. "I'm sure it's something like 500,000 now."
Folds said he wasn't sure yet whether he'll play songs from those first few records at his show tonight, or if he'll focus on the solo songwriting he has done in the six years since the trio split.
"I'll either feel like, 'Wow I shouldn't do that' once I get up there or I'll feel like I should," he said.
But playing to a hall filled with hundreds of people who camped outside of Memorial Hall in the rain for tickets, it's not likely to matter.
Folds has come a long way since the days of pushing his baby grand into nearly every club in town - expect for The Cave, where it wouldn't fit down the stairs.
Two solo LPs, three albums with the Five and four EPs attest to that.
"Even then, before he was popular, Ben would bring his piano in - he had like a baby grand piano," McMillan said.
"On our little stage it was pretty fun."
Contact the Arts Editor at artsdesk@unc.edu.
(02/15/07 5:00am)
There are so many ways to tell a joke: Deadpan it, overact it, improvise it, write it for someone else to deliver. Tell it like a story, even though you clearly weren't there. Yell at it, incite it, make goofy hand gestures at it and stomp it into the stage. Tonight, with the opening act of the third consecutive Carolina Comedy Festival, University students will have a chance to try their hands at joke-telling techniques new and old. The last comic standing will get an opening spot on the bill for marquee comedian Lewis Black on Saturday, and a r
(02/15/07 5:00am)
CONCERTREVIEW
Squirrel Nut Zippers
Cat's Cradle
Thursday, Feb. 8
4.5 stars
On the way to the Squirrel Nut Zippers' first show in town in the last five years, I was so scared.
What if they weren't as good? What if the image of them burned into my brain by the Christmas album in eighth grade - along with the opening riffs to "Hell" - was rendered a waste of space? What if this reunion was a terrible, terrible idea?
Good thing none of that happened.
Often lumped in with the swing revival of the mid-'90s, the Zippers stand apart - the band's blend of 1940s swagger and Southern twang reaches far beyond its one-time peers.
Singer Katherine Whalen has the theatrics of a stagey jazz singer but keeps her tone and demeanor steady.
Frontman Jimbo Mathus brings deft guitar work and priceless facial expressions - lending the Zippers a sense of mischievous fun that had the sold-out Cradle crowd dancing throughout. Where Mathus gives you the sense that by listening to the Zippers means you're doing something wrong - his eyes make you believe it - Whalen reminds you it's all in good fun.
Even without original members Maxwell and Mosher, this reunion will be worthwhile. And with ensemble help from Old Ceremony members Mark Simonsen on vibes and Gabriel Pelli on violin, the Zippers had the solo power needed to keep their numbers engaging but not intimidating.
In the SNZ jazz setting, Simonsen and Pelli get the chance to get into the music in ways The Old Ceremony's pop structures can't allow. It's amazing what the addition of a flat nine can do for stage virtuosity.
Not that The Old Ceremony as an opening act was anything less than brilliant. A pop-noir-turned-pop-classics-band and newly cemented Chapel Hill staple, the septet plays songs both catchy and dark.
Frontman Django Haskins seems more comfortable with each performance, this time moving with the outward confidence of a rock star. Just as the Zippers made it clear they were happy to be back together, The Old Ceremony made it clear that it was happy to be back on the Cradle stage.
Seamlessly moving from one hook-laden track to another, The Old Ceremony's instrumentally driven rock was a fitting compliment to a completely welcome Zippers reunion.
Anytime a band reunites, there's always a worry that it won't be as good, or at least not the same, as it was before.
It's such a relief that the Zippers have escaped that trap.
Contact the Diversions Editor at dive@unc.edu.
(02/15/07 5:00am)
Every time I have been to Wetlands Dance Hall, I have been disappointed.
Wetlands, though it has managed to shake the seediness and dirt left behind by Treehouse (seniors will remember not wanting to go to that club without a 20-person backup posse), could have been so much more.
The space is great - after Cat's Cradle, it has the second highest capacity of any music venue in town.
The sound system is fantastic - there's enough room for the speakers to be neither on the floor nor lofted overhead, so the sound is good both close to and far away from the stage. Other clubs get by on much, much less.
The layout is perfect - big bar, seating in the back, plenty of stage room.
And that's where the ups for Wetlands ended. Everything else needed to keep a club up and running - publicity, active booking, a cohesive personality, reasonably priced drinks (and not astronomically priced ones) - was absent in a very noticeable way.
So when the club recently changed its name to Blend, and changed its image to become, essentially, a gay bar, I thought, "Great. They're finally doing something that makes sense."
What the space has now, as Blend, is the niche it always needed to forge. By scheduling weekly "Firefly" dance parties and the occasional drag show, the club has embraced the community it was leaning toward targeting in its last throes of being a music venue.
But having a dance party every Friday night is not enough to ensure future success. It is a step in the right direction, but it's a step that needs to be taken carefully, and with a stated purpose (and flyers).
Hosting the same event each week will attract crowds at the start but will lose its appeal inside of a month. Changing it up is key - Cat's Cradle wouldn't do business if it had the same band play every weekend and neither will Blend. Theme it, have a special guest, do what you have to do. Just do something.
It is disappointing that Wetlands was unable to take what it was given - location, size, sound and a bar should make a venue - but the prospect that Blend might be able to come into its own is promising.
In any case, as a specifically themed space, Blend can steer clear of all the things Wetlands failed so horribly at. Streaky booking no longer will be a problem, though publicity will be crucial for the club to keep people coming (as is true for any business).
I know you can be something, Blend. I just need to know what it will be.
Contact Margaret Hair, a senior journalism major, at mhair@email.unc.edu.
(02/13/07 5:00am)
Try to pin down the names that have defined the Chapel Hill music scene and a few mainstays come up.
Southern Culture on the Skids, Superchunk and modern-day piano man Ben Folds have all influenced the local music scene in some capacity.
On March 28 the Winston-Salem-born, Chapel Hill-infused Folds will bring his bouncy piano rock to the Memorial Hall stage, returning to the town that spawned the 1990s band Ben Folds Five (whose 1997 ballad "Brick" cemented the band's one-hit wonder status).
The event, co-sponsored by Cat's Cradle, the Carolina Union Activities Board and live music company Live Nation, is the latest in a growing line of rock shows booked for the town's largest music hall through the town's most reputable venue.
Part of a 10-date college tour organized by Live Nation, the concert is the realization of years of "wouldn't it be awesome if" talk among activities board members, CUAB president Erika Stallings said.
"It's one that people have been waiting to see for so long that there will be a good student response," Stallings said.
Other stops on Folds' tour include performances at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, the University of Virginia, James Madison University and Michigan State University.
Tickets for UNC students will run for $22 and will be sold at the Memorial Hall box office toward the end of this month, CUAB music committee chairman Robert Gurdian said.
Admission for the general public will be $35. The difference between the two prices, Stallings said, will be subsidized by CUAB.
While the student ticket price might seem steep to some - so steep that the organization's board almost did not pursue the contract, Stallings said - the chance to get Folds back on stage in the town that claims his fame was too good to pass up.
"We have to do it because it's such a rare opportunity," Stallings said.
Unlike past partnerships between CUAB and Cat's Cradle, the involvement of Live Nation in this event brings with it issues of ticket revenue not present with 2006 performances by alt-rock act Wilco or indie darling Sufjan Stevens.
While Stallings said CUAB did consider buying the event itself - a pursuit that would have cost about $35,000 - organizers decided to save the time and money, continuing the relationship with Cat's Cradle in the process.
Gurdian said the tour, because it was set in motion by Live Nation, likely will come with its own opening act. Whether Folds will play solo or with backup has not been announced.
CUAB has attempted to bring Folds in the past, Gurdian said, but a variety of hurdles have kept that from happening: most recently, that Folds had dates scheduled at other area venues such as Duke University's Page Auditorium and Meymandi Concert Hall in Raleigh.
Bringing Ben Folds back to Chapel Hill, and not just back to the Triangle, Gurdian said, is big.
"It has a huge audience, so everyone has always thought, 'Why don't we bring them?'" he said.
"His popularity hasn't gone down. . He's always been the poster child of Chapel Hill arts."
Contact the Arts Editor at artsdesk@unc.edu.
(01/25/07 5:00am)
MUSICREVIEW
Menomena
Friend and Foe
3.5 stars
Menomena sort of prides itself on being outside of the realm of immediately accessible rock music.
On the band's second album, Friend and Foe, there is even a song called "Weird." But Menomena isn't so weird - it is, in fact, comfortable in a way that at first is difficult to understand.
Jittery and blatting saxophone lines shouldn't be able to give a song backbone, but in this case, they do. Computer looping shouldn't provide an entire album with dreamlike melody, but here it is.
The Portland, Ore., trio is able to create songs that pack stream-of-consciousness development into a standard pop song length. On "Wet & Rusty," the group uses one repeated piano line to build on one chorus line, "It's hard to take risks/ with a pessimist."
"Running," which is reminiscent of a Beta Band song, kicks of a set of four strong tracks that push the album through its last half - using everything from organ samples to eerily shifting vocals.
With multi-instrumental talents and complex but accessible textures, Menomena is like a Flaming Lips for those of us here on earth.
Contact the Diversions Editor at dive@unc.edu.
(01/25/07 5:00am)
CONCERTREVIEW
Red Collar w/ Spider Bags
The Reservoir
Thursday, Jan. 18
3.5 stars
Here's the only way to judge the success of a show at Carrboro's neighborhood dive, The Reservoir:
If the crowd is making the same boozy fist-pumping gesture as the ones painted on the wall, then it's a success.
If not, the band playing is probably out of place.
So when Durham's feisty Red Collar took the stage to find most of the crowd shouting along to its punk-infused set on Thursday night, there was no doubt the results would be favorable.
Following a decent, if kind of ignorable, opening set from The Dry Heathens, Red Collar offered a kind of rock just fits in a bar that is meant for drinking. Their songs have grit, but they also benefit from an underlying melodicism provided by a synthesizer.
The this-music-just-feels-right-here vibe continued when Chapel Hill's southern-twanged Spider Bags went on to close out the night.
Spider Bags takes garage rock, puts it through the North Carolina roots music machine and comes out on the other side with songs that could easily be local anthems.
If either one of these bands are playing in town, the draw should be automatic.
Contact the Diversions Editor at dive@unc.edu.
(01/25/07 5:00am)
CONCERTREVIEW
The Dears w/ Annuals
Cat's Cradle
Monday, Jan. 22
2.5 stars
There's a lot to be said for show. On Monday night at Cat's Cradle, opening act Annuals knew how to do it, and headliner The Dears didn't.
Fresh off a gig on Late Night with Conan O'Brien, Raleigh's Annuals came home to a young and enthusiastic crowd. Though sound problems plagued the first hour or so of the night, the band took the stage with characteristic fire.
Frontman Adam Baker lept from one keyboard setup to another, dancing and singing with the eccentricity that has made him popular with the music press.
Breezing through songs off their first album, Be He Me, Annuals were able to appease a mass of fans who already know all the words to their songs.
It's possible, though, to go a little overboard with the theatrics, in this case proven by the band's two- drum set rhythm section. Having two people play a full set usually calls for beats outside the standard rock repertoire - something Annuals doesn't have.
So that means two guys playing the same thing on two sets, often with Baker thumping along on auxiliary percussion. The theatrics are great, but the music's textures were too often bogged down with the pounding drums.
Still, Annuals captivated listeners. The Dears came nowhere close.
Out of Montreal, The Dears are a semi-hard-rocking sextet, outfitted on Monday night in all black. Their set looked promising, with a prerecorded voiceover introduction, lights and all. But once The Dears took the stage, they set into a string of songs that were indistinguishable from one another.
Where Annuals seems to have a use for all six of its members, The Dears do not. At least one of the people on that stage has nothing to do but play tambourine on one of the many songs. If the members of the band look bored, there is no way to expect the audience not to look the same way.
Contact the Diversions Editor at dive@unc.edu.
(01/25/07 5:00am)
MUSICREVIEW
The Shins
Wincing the Night Away
4 stars
Life changing.
That's the tag that will follow the straightforward indie rock of The Shins for the foreseeable future.
And while it might often be said with a more-artsy-than-thou sneer, that attitude is indicative of one reality: The Shins are really damn good.
On their third album, Wincing the Night Away, The Shins take the Lennon-McCarthy-style songwriting of their first two efforts, add flair throughout, and end up with their most diverse effort to date.
With a little more pop energy than the band has exhibited before, this album keeps the same homebase as the well-received Chutes to Narrow and Oh! Inverted World. The personal lyrics, steady shuffling beats and evenly delivered vocals are still there.
But more so than before, The Shins are unabashed about making a record full of songs that take time to develop, without ever reaching any real crescendo. That might seem like a bad thing, but it's not; so many of the tracks on Wincing reach their peak in the first 30 seconds, that there is nothing to do for the remaining five minutes but sit back and take it in.
"Phantom Limb" stands out immediately, mostly due to its catchy tambourine accompaniments. With the same feel as cinematically apt tunes such as "Caring is Creepy," this track has the reflective sound of The Shins' past, but is exuberant in a way previously unheard. It's got New Pornographer-style backing vocals, but remains distinctly a song for this band.
From the start, it becomes clear this album is different. Where Oh! Inverted World was a suitable introduction into modern rock writing, and Chutes was a foray into indecipherable vocals, Wincing is an album created by a band searching for some wiggle room.
Here is a band that isn't afraid to be repetitive - album opener "Sleeping Lessons" consists almost entirely of variations on the same eight-note theme, but builds so well on it that the line becomes one of the easiest hooks ever written.
Maybe more than anything else, this album shows that The Shins aren't afraid to play songs with some bounce. There isn't much haunting on this record, which might prove a welcome turn for the band. You can't be the anthem of forgotten youth forever.
Long-awaited albums, as this one was in some circles, should always draw criticism. Always, that is, unless the wait was worth it.
Contact the Diversions Editor at dive@unc.edu.
(01/18/07 5:00am)
Tonight, Annuals - Raleigh's sextet of indie pop starlets - will perform on Late Night with Conan O'Brien.
They couldn't be more excited, frontman Adam Baker says.
Of course, they're also terrified.
"We've certainly never been on national TV before . it's an honor and a great fear right now," he says.
The group, whose youngest member is 19 and whose oldest is 22, has been getting praise from all directions since the fall 2006 release of its debut album on Ace Fu Records, Be He Me.
Baker, 20, who writes all of the band's multilayered music, is collected about and adoring of his imaginative brand of pop. Speaking over the phone, he throws in the occasional profanity and talks to his band in the background. He sounds tired but comfortable.
And it makes sense that he would be - Baker has been playing shows, mostly of the punk rock sort, with the rest of Annuals since middle school. With Nick Radford, Kenny Florence, Zack Oden, Mike Robinson and Anna Spence, this group of happily pop-rocking youths let its family-like ties come to light onstage.
On Monday, Annuals will bring their frenetic energy to Cat's Cradle, part of a 10-date tour with The Dears.
A band that has drawn comparison to indie collectives such as Arcade Fire, and is sort of a sonic equivalent of a slow-motion dance party in the rain, Annuals made a splash at October's CMJ music festival in New York and have graced the pages of Spin and Rolling Stone.
"Any success that we have been enjoying has been completely surprising for us," Baker says.
The music, he says, is "odd pop," recorded in a home studio used for the group's many varied projects.
"It's not a very practical way of doing it, but it seems to be the only thing that works," he says of his writing methods - pretty much laying music down as soon as it's written.
Baker's influences are as varied as the timbres found in his music. He genially recommends checking out anything that sounds unfamiliar: Johnny Cash, Paul Simon, Brian Wilson, Mike Patton, Brad Paisley.
On an ambitious and well-executed first record, which Baker describes as "orchestral and layered," influences, vision and samples become a collection of intricate sound patterns.
"It's just sort of a natural thing, the way I write in lots of layers," Baker says.
That trend will continue on the band's second album, which is already partially recorded, he says. Before that gets released, though, Annuals will tour across the country this spring, making stops in most major cities and at Austin's SXSW. After that they'll head overseas, with a dream-worthy performance date scheduled to open for The Flaming Lips in Dublin.
Not bad for a band that just played its first shows together three years ago - when it was in high school. Baker seems to be handling the success well and doesn't mind if his band is characterized for its age.
"That just means we have more time, which I'm very happy about."
Contact the Diversions Editor at dive@unc.edu.
(01/18/07 5:00am)
MOVIEREVIEW
"Stomp the Yard"
2.5 stars
Watching "Stomp the Yard," it's hard not to be reminded of Cole Porter musicals.
Sure, "Stomp" is set in Atlanta, and most Porter works are set at a beach resort or on a boat. "Stomp" starts out with someone getting shot, and Porter usually started with someone getting engaged.
But in terms of how we experience these things, those differences don't matter. If you focus on plot, characters or acting in a Porter musical, it'll be the worst tripe you've ever seen. The same thing goes for "Stomp" - or its obvilously comparable friends "You Got Served" or "Drumline."
This movie isn't about its embattled main character, it's about the fact that he can dance (just like Porter is about the chorus lines).
It's also about wishing you could slide across a dance floor on your head, and then being incredibly envious when it happens - twice.
It's about Columbus Short doing all his own dance moves as DJ, a badboy who gets broken-down and built back up.
What "Stomp" is not about, however, is the message it tries to deliver. It's only tangentially about the Atlanta university where it's set, the Greek organizations it includes, the emotional pull it tries to deliver and the hope it wants to instill - those range from completely fictitous to semi-fake-feeling.
The focus is on Short's natural delivery of steps mixed with hip hop music video-style moves, and director Sylvain White's darting cameras capturing them.
"Stomp"'s flair makes its predictably ignorable, as Porter's catchiness makes his cliches seldom mentioned.
Contact the Diversions Editor at dive@unc.edu.
(01/11/07 5:00am)
More than any other time, the end of the year for music writers means being defensive. (In Diversions' case, that time comes right at the start of the semester.)
It means casting votes for what you, esteemed critical mind, think was the cream of the past year's sonic crop. Often, it means thinking everyone around you has horrible taste, that every other list you see is wrong and that Rolling Stone has far outlived its glory days.
The upshot is that once you make those choices, you've got to stick to them. So if that Bob Dylan record you thought was great actually sounds like someone force-fed him zinc tablets and covered the vinyl in honey, you're stuck.
In recent years we've gotten a good amount of feedback about our top 10 lists - some of it on movies, but the bulk of it on music. What we listen to is personal, and people get pretty fired up.
This feedback never makes me question my choices. It makes me question what I want to do with my life. What qualifies anyone to write about music?
Part one of the "why music critics feel free to flaunt opinions" question:
In a 1958 article titled "Who Cares If You Listen?" avant-garde composer Milton Babbit cut deep into every active music critic's gut. Babbit, aside from many grand statements about his own intelligence, asked why everyone seems so comfortable offering their opinion on art. Art is, he said, the only field that draws criticism from people who could never replicate it.
Part two of the "flaunty music writers" question:
I'm reading a book right now about musicians who have killed themselves, by former Spin magazine writer and effectively conversational pop culture critic Chuck Klosterman. He says music writers are almost always people who enjoy opining on music and do not mind essentially reviewing their mail - and that's pretty much true.
Here's the thing: I'm starting to think Chuck Klosterman might be kind of stupid. I generally find his mix of semiobscure sports references, personal observations and adoration of radio pop to be charming and accurate. With this latest book, though, he seems to write in self-conscious circles. He links things together that make no apparent sense. He begins an infuriating number of sentences with "But ANYWAY."
And despite all that, I consider him to be one of the best rock writers there is. This might not bode well for the profession.
So why do we think we can do something as pretentious as becoming an authority on someone else's creations, and why is Chuck Klosterman (potentially stupid) so good at it?
The answer, as far as I can tell, is the same for both questions. Art, and in this case music, is a highly personal thing. It lets us think and act outside of ourselves. It's a storytelling mechanism and a machine for change. And music critics, we hope, love it in a very active way.
So we think we can judge this art form because it's so close to us. Also, we occasionally forget that making music can be hard.
Klosterman is good at writing because his subject is as close to him as his extraneous characters and asides. This overshadows his insane overuse of the word "vaguely." He's unapologetic about his lengthy metaphors or admiration for Beyonc
(01/11/07 5:00am)
CONCERTREVIEW
Elvisfest
Local 506/Shorty's
Saturday, Jan. 6
3.5 stars
There are peanut butter and banana sandwiches on the grill at Shorty's sports bar, and The Cogburns have taken over the corner by the window with their rollicking brand of punk-infused garage rock.
At least a handful of people sport tattoos with phrases such as "Heartbreak Hotel" scrawled across images of a hip-shaking icon. You've never seen so much hair pomade put to work.
"Jailhouse Rock" plays on big-screen TVs all along the bar's walls, and in one moment the King and some two dozen dancers are moving in perfect sync across the cellblock with the live band.
It's Elvisfest 2007, and it's a two-night hootenanny that's got a character all its own.
On Saturday night fans of the King packed Local 506 and next-door sports bar Shorty's in an event dedicated to one of rock 'n' roll's forefathers.
The setup is made for free-form sleaze rock: About 20 bands play during the two nights, and concertgoers can hop between the two bars at their fancy. The bands can play pretty much anything they want, so long as two covers of Elvis songs are included. According to The Cogburns, this can mean playing one version of "Viva Las Vegas" - because you can learn it in 10 minutes - and calling it a night.
When you pack this many Elvis fans into a room, ostensibly to celebrate Presley's birthday (Jan. 8), there's bound to be plenty of blues-fed rock, ranging from stormy guitar riffs to gospel-hued backing vocals.
From rockabilly to garage rock, the bands that play Elvisfest are sure to have one thing in common: They don't show up to play to any ol' rock fan, and this isn't any ol' rock show.
On Saturday this became clear when Kitty Box and the Johnnies took the stage at Local 506. A collective of Chatham County musicians (soon to be renamed Here Comes Everybody, because there are so many of them), the Johnnies took the country high road of the Elvis vein.
The band served up the best cover performance of the night, with a startlingly adept rendition of "Kentucky Rain" - complete with stirringly deep vocals, cutesy backup singing and a guy whose only apparent role was to hold an umbrella over the lead singer's head.
Showmanship, well beyond its normal amounts, is key to a successful Elvisfest set. And no band makes that more clear than New York's Psycho Charger.
A psychobilly band that takes the first part of that genre to heart, Psycho Charger went on wearing male sex dolls, which they had craftily cut up to (sort of) cover themselves with. The band's set can't be described as much more than loud and entertaining, but its antics are more than worth the trip to the club.
At least this year it didn't involve band members smearing anything on themselves (they say the smell of peanut butter coming off Psycho Charger's bodies last year was a little overwhelming).
For an event like Elvisfest, it's all about attracting the niche crowd - that crowd that will don thick-rimmed glasses, leather vests and tight jeans on its own accord.
When it comes around next year, get all shook up at Elvisfest.
Contact the Diversions editor at dive@unc.edu.