New Music: Scan, Indy Week

The Love Language returns with new single and a third LP due in July

Jordan Lawrence — Thu, 09 May 2013 15:58:00 -0400

“Calm Down” (streaming below) is the opener from Ruby Red—the third album from Chapel Hill and Raleigh's reliably hook-happy and heartbroken The Love Language, due via Merge Records on July 23. That’s the cover art at the top of the post.…

Raleigh hardcore bands Last Words and Abuse. ready new LPs for To Live a Lie Records

Bryan C. Reed — Thu, 09 May 2013 15:43:00 -0400

Since debuting in 2005 with a split 7-inch featuring California’s Godstomper and Maryland’s Magrudergrind, To Live A Lie Records—the one-man operation of Raleigh’s Will Butler—has steadily issued solid slabs of grindcore, powerviolence and hardcore from bands across the globe. Of the 91 titles in its catalog, though, only a few are homegrown.…

Annuals drop first full-length in five years

Jordan Lawrence — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 09:51:00 -0400

"It's been a couple years since I gave a fuck/ It's been a couple more since I ran out of luck."

That's the opening couplet from "Omnicide" — the lead-off to Time Stamp, Annuals' first full-length in five years — and it couldn't be more blunt about the struggles that have forestalled its release. Since ascending to major label success — 2008's Such Fun came out on the Columbia Records subsidiary Canvasback — the group has parted ways with the imprint and endured the financial fallout from a pretty devastating break-in and theft at their practice space, all while weathering the advancement of time and lives that too often upends bands, even ones who haven't been hit with such bad fortune.…

Future Islands precursors Art Lord and the Self-Portraits release a new master of an old song

Corbie Hill — Fri, 11 Jan 2013 15:30:00 -0500

This Valentine's Day will see Art Lord and the Self Portraits, which broke up in 2005, celebrate its tenth anniversary with a show at Kings and a double-album release. The Definitive Collection, out that day on Friends Records, includes Art Lord's four releases, but also features a download code for early demos and two live recordings.…

New benefit Christmas single: "Bing Crosby," by The Chorus Project

Corbie Hill — Fri, 21 Dec 2012 19:06:00 -0500

One new local Christmas track mixes nostalgic holiday R&B with the massed harmonies of a caroling glee club. "Bing Crosby," by Chapel Hill teenage vocal group The Chorus Project, was penned by Seamus Kenney of SNMNMNM and Trepak and co-produced by local audio engineer and dB's member Chris Stamey.…

A little Rosebuds for Christmas

Ashley Melzer — Thu, 06 Dec 2012 15:15:00 -0500

Santa has been making his list and checking it twice since 1939. The chestnuts have been roasting since 1944.…

The Rosebuds pay tribute to Sade

Eric Tullis — Mon, 19 Nov 2012 16:10:00 -0500

Last week marked the 20-year anniversary of Sade’s classic, Love Deluxe. In tribute to the original, Raleigh-based band The Rosebuds (now living in New York) have released their own version of Sade’s Love Deluxe, recorded while frontman Ivan Howard spent some time on the North Carolina coast polishing up demos for The Rosebuds.…

Stranger Spirits release new album, Masterpiece Rock Parlour

Ashley Melzer — Thu, 15 Nov 2012 13:00:00 -0500

Check out a Stranger Spirits set, and you may find yourself faced with a hype ninja or a surfing Amazonian librarian or the Sherriff of Rockingham himself. “We call ourselves rock ’n’ roll pilgrims from another planet,” explains Aubrey Herbert, aka Destructika Poppins, a most evil take on a favorite English nanny.…

Lost in the Trees debut new song

Jordan Lawrence — Wed, 31 Oct 2012 15:13:00 -0400

It took Ari Picker—the composer and songwriter who leads Chapel Hill's orchestrally inclined Lost in the Trees—four years to follow up 2008's All Alone in an Empty House. Though the record was reissued and expanded in 2010, Picker didn't debut a full collection of new songs until this year's haunting and fractured A Church That Fits Our Needs, an extension of All Alone's narrative and a tribute to his late mother.…

Whatever Brains release video for new song, "Bellied Up at Sick Town"

Jordan Lawrence — Wed, 17 Oct 2012 12:57:00 -0400

Bellied Up At Sick Town by Whatever Brains from LoganSayles on Vimeo.

Raleigh's Whatever Brains are nothing if not prolific.…

Lloyd Pack, featuring Dan Melchior and Letha Rodman-Melchior, announce debut 7-inch

Bryan C. Reed — Thu, 11 Oct 2012 17:21:00 -0400

They say in times of crisis, a person's true colors reveal themselves more brilliantly than ever.…

Hear a track from Le Weekend's third album, the magic y/ear

Jordan Lawrence — Wed, 03 Oct 2012 16:42:00 -0400

The music of Chapel Hill's Le Weekend is marked by stark contrast: moments of catchiest pop abandon give way to noisy freak outs. To this point, it's been a balance that the trio has struggled to maintain.…

Shirlette Ammons debuts video for "Take a Chance"

Jordan Lawrence — Mon, 17 Sep 2012 12:10:00 -0400

At first blush, the video for "Take a Chance," the new single from Durham MC Shirlette Ammons, seems quite simple. A colorful blue and purple screen announces that there is breaking news.…

Hiss Golden Messenger and Elephant Micah cover each other on split 7-inch

Jordan Lawrence — Fri, 10 Aug 2012 16:36:00 -0400

The past few months have been an exciting time for Hiss Golden Messenger, the Durham-based recording project of M.C. Taylor. Last year’s excellent and sedately funky folk-rock trove, Poor Moon, saw a CD reissue via the venerable imprint Tompkins Square.…

Black Zinfandel: funny name, casual band

Bryan C. Reed — Mon, 25 Jun 2012 15:34:00 -0400

By his admission, Brian Cruse isn’t adamant about much. But there was one thing upon which he insisted: “I was like, ‘My next band’s going to be called Black Zinfandel.…

With Tutankhamen, 9th Wonder wants you to buy the beats

Eric Tullis — Wed, 09 May 2012 13:53:00 -0400

Unless you’re an aspiring emcee looking for some quick beats to rhyme over, it might be hard to wrap your dollar bills around any legitimate hip-hop producer’s instrumental releases. Many of us don’t have any use for background boom-bap without vocals, anyway.…

Foreign exchange: UNC Beat Lab curriculum to be taught in Goma, DRC

Corbie Hill — Mon, 07 May 2012 11:11:00 -0400

May 13th is UNC's graduation date, which makes it an appropriate day for the UNC Beat Making Lab to release its free compilation. These 13 tracks—which draw samples from a wide variety of North Carolina acts—represent the final project from a course on beat-making taught by The Beast emcee Pierce Freelon and Chapel Hill producer extraordinaire Stephen Levitin— better-known in music circles as the Apple Juice Kid.…

Red Collar debuts new single, "American Me"

Jordan Lawrence — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 17:27:00 -0400

"The first words I ever learned/ Were 'Mommy' and 'Daddy' and 'heartbreak!'" Jason Kutchma roars at the onset of "American Me," the first single from Red Collar's new LP Welcome Home — due June 12 via Tiny Engines. The outsized Durham punk band has long mined the fractured ends of romantic ideals, but that line and the song that contains it express the band's unique brand of defiant heartbreak as well as anything they've ever released.…

First Listen: Whatever Brains' new LP and 7-inch

Bryan C. Reed — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 12:40:00 -0400

Before releasing their first full-length last year, Whatever Brains had marked their evolution from flash-bang scuzz-punk into warped and weird post-punk pranksters across a series of singles and limited releases. So when that first long-player was finally released, barely more than eight months ago, there was an already-deep well of experience from which to draw.…

First Listen: Horseback's new single offers Half Blood glimpse

Bryan C. Reed — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 09:28:00 -0400

After the flood of releases that preceded it, Horseback's 10-month lull has been a dramatic pause. But Half Blood, the long-awaited follow-up to 2009's The Invisible Mountain, has finally been announced, "set for a Spring 2012 release via Relapse Records."…

Stripmines debut LP Crimes of Dispassion makes impression, but band's future uncertain

Bryan C. Reed — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 12:42:00 -0400

Last Friday at Raleigh's Berkeley Cafe, five mostly new local hardcore bands took to the stage to raise money to help LA grindcore musician Sergio Amalfitano cover his daughter's medical expenses. The altruism was a warm touch, but with Greensboro's Torch Runner serving as the most veteran band on the bill, the gig was representative of a surge of new bands that formed nigh simultaneously—and in part because Raleigh scene titans Stripmines kinda-maybe-almost broke up.…

New Band Alert: Is Infección the Triangle's new punk supergroup?

Bryan C. Reed — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 18:49:00 -0400

The new Raleigh punk band Infección runs the risk of an overcrowded résumé: Its four members can count Double Negative, Whatever Brains, Brain F≠, Devour, Logic Problem, Grids, Street Sharks, Cross Laws and Crossed Eyes as relevant experience.

But with only one show and a raw three-song practice space video to its name, the quartet of guitarist Daniel Lupton, bassist Rich Ivey, drummer Bobby Michaud and singer David Mirabedini already has differentiated itself from its members’ other activities.…

New Red Collar record due this summer

Corbie Hill — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 14:19:00 -0500

On June 12, Durham's sociopolitical firebrand rock outfit Red Collar will release its second LP, Welcome Home, the followup to 2009’s Pilgrim. And though the band doesn’t play as regularly as it did around Pilgrim time, the three-year wait for Welcome Home comes from a desire to get this record right rather than a lack of time or commitment.…

I Was Totally Destroying It's new single a 'major let down'

Jordan Lawrence — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 11:47:00 -0500

“I’m a major let down,” I Was Totally Destroying It’s Rachel Hirsh sings with sugary confusion on “My Internal Din,” the band’s newly released single. “I don’t know what went wrong.”

That makes two of us.…

Rapsody warms up on "Right Now" with 9th Wonder

Eric Tullis — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 10:27:00 -0500

The last time 9th Wonder played with an R. Kelly sample, he landed a song, “Threat,” on Jay-Z’s The Black Album. This time, over the R. Kelly and Public Announcement track “Honey Love,” we get the same chopped-up formula, but with Jamla Records queen-b-girl, Rapsody, doing the rhyming honors.…