Scan

• Photo by Jordan Lawrence
• Mandolin Orange plays to the Commons

Tift Merritt, Megafaun, Mandolin Orange
Carrboro Commons
Sept. 21, 2012

To any concert promoter or civic entity in Durham, Wake, Orange and surrounding counties with the means to put on free and accessible outdoor concerts with local musicians: We need more of them. Friday night, after three good to great sets in the Carrboro Town Commons — one of the Triangle's most criminally underused outdoor venues — that was the thought that stuck with me.

The first-ever edition of "Cat's Cradle in the Commons" — of which there will hopefully be many more — packed a trio of artists with strong local ties, offering them up in a free, all-ages outdoor setting early on a weekend evening. With a wealth acts that are charming, accessible and artistically adventurous, the Triangle music scene is in the perfect position to benefit from such easy entry points. On Friday night, the Commons crowd seemed equally rewarded.

Folks were still flowing in as Mandolin Orange kicked things off a little after 5:30 p.m. Expanded into a full folk-rock ensemble after a few years spent as a bare-bones duo, the Chapel Hill outfit ambled along with rustic charm. The harmonies of singers Emily Frantz and Andrew Marlin were as bright and warm as the early fall sun setting behind them. Their organic interplay — as well as their respective fiddle and mandolin solos — were enough to elevate staid folk arrangements into something lush and welcoming. Approachable and tuneful, Mandolin Orange was a winning choice to open things up.

• Photo by Jordan Lawrence
• Megafaun challenges the crowd

Durham's Megafaun played the middle slot, offering an admirably adventurous set considering the mostly unindoctrinated audience. Though they started as a willfully weird folk outfit, Megafaun's current live show is a marvel of mercurial rock 'n' roll influences. The sarcastically inclined spiritual "His Robe" blended gospel with elements of psychedelic funk, jagged guitar lines and a raw keyboard solo adding rhythmic aggression to the traditionally inspired melody. Best of all was "Real Slow," a Crazy Horse-inspired slow burner that the band expanded with a boundary-testing interlude. Ethereal distortion and skittering rhythms built until the song's central melody returned, propelled by cathartic arena-rock riffs. At points, many in the audience seemed confused by the avant-garde display, but most of those people stood to applaud at the song's end, won over by Megafaun's expert mix of challenging sounds and irresistible melodies.

• Photo by Jordan Lawrence
• Tift Merritt plays with passion

Acclaimed songwriter Tift Merritt headlined, and while she no longer calls the Triangle home, she got her start with the Chapel Hill band The Carbines. She lovingly recalled playing shows at the Cave and continually heaped praise on the area. She and her band presented a polished country sound highlighted by rich melodies and lush, road-worn textures. Merritt stamped and spun during her breaks from the mike, highlighting the emotional power of her songs as the other players embellished them with cutting guitar fills and prickling pedal steel.

In the past few years, the Triangle has seen a variety of locally sourced outdoor concerts find success. From the Locally Grown and Oak City 7 summer series in Chapel Hill and Raleigh respectively, to Durham's concerts on the lawn at the American Tobacco Campus, these free events bring dollars to downtown businesses and ears to artists that are ready for the exposure. "Cat's Cradle in the Commons" was further proof of how successful these events can be, a reminder that there's no shortage of people ready to take a chance on local music when it's made easily accessible.

Spider Bags, The Golden Boys, Limes
Kings
Sept. 20, 2012

click to enlarge

• Photo by Jeremy M. Lange
• Spider Bags' Dan McGee

The song "Que Viva El Rocanrol" was released twice, almost simultaneously, in August 2009. It appeared first on Compulation Volume 3: Songs from North Carolina, released by Pox World Empire, and then again about a week later on Spider Bags' second full-length, Goodbye Cruel World, Hello Crueler World. In hindsight, it was an early signal of Spider Bags' semi-recent surge in local — and national — prominence.

By now the song has become something of a hit, a staple in the Bags' live gigs, and a rallying cry to rock 'n' roll fans holding on to a sound that seems ever to be slipping from public consciousness as electronic music, hip-hop and murky, reverb-drowned pop offer the sounds du jour. Churchkey Records, the 5-year-old local imprint that issued Spider Bags' 2010 "Take It Easy Tonite" 7-inch, adopted the "Que Viva" imperative to title its Hopscotch day party — a showcase of few-frills garage rock bands including Spider Bags, Last Year's Men and Cheater Slicks — and emblazoned it in hashtag-form on T-shirts.

All this to say it's noteworthy that Spider Bags didn't play that song at Kings on Thursday night, and it's even more noteworthy that its absence wasn't glaring.

Right now Spider Bags are the best they've been. Last month, the band released its third album, the infectious and impulsive Shake My Head, and with it shortened the Local Album of the Year shortlist. Live, they've coalesced into a stable (remarkable given the amount of turnover the Bags saw early on) and intuitive trio whose on-stage chemistry is magnetic. The trio formation found its footing by mutating frontman Dan McGee's songs into sets that could be a loose and sprawling psych meander or a tight punk-rock suckerpunch; now, they manage both. Their gigs thrive on creating a perception of recklessness, threatening to careen into chaos but usually gripping the rails barely tight enough.

Thursday, they offered a varied and rambunctious set that toyed with calamity but held fast to its momentum and intention. After two songs sung by the former Dirty Little Heaters frontwoman and blues-rock belter par excellence Reese McHenry, the Bags launched into a set heavy on Shake My Head material (and highlighted by the crowd's enthusiastic sing-alongs to "Simona La Ramona," "Friday Night" and "Keys to the City"). "Que Viva," it seems, might have been redundant; every song Spider Bags played felt like a celebration and an affirmation of no-qualifiers rock 'n' roll.

In fact, the whole, seamlessly matched triple-bill managed to reinforce that notion. The Memphis band Limes, led by songwriter Shawn Cripps, met hard, greasy country-funk twang with jagged post-punk. The Golden Boys of Austin, Texas, charged their set with pop propulsion, suggesting an unvarnished Sloan. Spider Bags, for their part, formed a bridge between Limes' sinewy twang and the Golden Boys' irrepressible pop. It was a show that demonstrated rock 'n' roll's staying power and found opportunities to further interpret the idiom. In other words, it was the difference between showing and telling. Calling out "que viva" just seemed unnecessary.

• Photo by Jordan Lawrence
• Girl Talk greets the crowd

Girl Talk
Longbranch
Sept. 20, 2012

Gregg Gillis, who performs as Girl Talk, had been playing Raleigh's Longbranch for about an hour when he finally paused. In such quantities, his manic mash-ups of pop, rock and hip-hop were an endurance test as much as they were a party starter. The pace of his product never lulled, pushing forward with frantic abandon, insisting that bodies in the crowd maintained constant motion. During the break, Gillis jumped on top of his DJ booth and shouted at the crowd, asking repeatedly if they were ready for him to continue. Each time he queried the crowd got louder. "Jesus Christ," he cried, "are we alive right now!?!" The crowd went nuts. They felt alive.

Gillis' collages match sexually charged raps to ironically virtuous classic rock crescendos, creating unstoppable rhythms from instantly recognizable metal riffs and equally ubiquitous hip-hop beats. It's a style that has earned him as much criticism as praise. He's been called a pirate in the press. A former editor of mine said he was no better than a wedding DJ. Critics will continue to analyze his intricate collections of popularly sourced sound, but that misses the point. Girl Talk is about energy, a dance party that reaffirms life, and while there are many — this writer included — who will likely never quite understand why, Gillis inspires that kind of boundless vivacity in his audiences.

Gillis played — triggering and organizing his various samples — amid panels of lights and screens that accentuated the fervor of his show. Walls of spotlights flashed at the audience as psychedelic images, such as a banana peeling itself and then reassembling, played on the screens. Balloons dropped at the beginning, confetti blasted intermittently and bigger balloons were thrown into the crowd during the finale. It had all the pomp and outsized frivolity of a Flaming Lips show without a shred of the intellectual pretension. Girl Talk is a concert spectacle for the everyday 20-something, a form of populist expression that feeds on and appeases today's attention-depleted culture.

Near the end of the show, Gillis resurrected "Oh No," the opening cut from his 2010 effort All Day, which places the confrontational chorus to Ludacris' "Move Bitch" over the grimy riffs of Black Sabbath's "War Pigs." Some people sang along and danced. Others began pumping their fists, excited to hear a snippet of a hard rock classic. Gillis has the unique ability to unite such opposing forces in the mainstream world. For a certain set of listeners, he speaks their language better than almost anyone. Love him or hate him, that's a skill you have to respect.

• Dan Schram
• Mandolin Orange perform "Waltz About Whiskey"

It was a big year for North Carolina at this year’s Americana Music Festival in Nashville. While the state didn’t capture any of the awards given last Wednesday night at the Ryman Auditorium, contributions by the Old North State to what the Americana Music Association (AMA) considers the best of the best has grown considerably. While the state only landed one performer in the coveted showcase performance spaces last year, eight appeared this year.

Many were younger bands that have gained a considerable draw over the past few years. Delta Rae, Red June, Mandolin Orange, American Aquarium and Holy Ghost Tent Revival all have recent releases that likely propelled them to Nashville. Established acts like Chris Stamey & The Steep Canyon Rangers provided a sample of the depth of talent within the state’s borders. Then there was the Songs of Big Star showcase, which debuted at the Cat’s Cradle last year. While the festival lasted four, and while most festival goers insisted on seeing acts they’d never seen before, I caught as many locals as possible during my two-day stay.

Thursday evening at The Rutledge, Songs of Big Star closed the evening’s Music of Memphis theme. The stage could hardly contain its members. In fact, the conductor of the string section stood in the crowd at the end of the stage to perform his duties. The crowd was quiet and respectful, although it was sprinkled with earlier performers like Jakob Dylan & Luther Dickinson. While most of the recognizable singers taking their turn with the Big Star ensemble earned more attention during their time on lead vocals, quiet chatter became silent as the more unknown Brett Harris (on “You & Your Sister”) and Skylar Gudasz (on “Thirteen”) took their turns. The largely industry crowd delivered rousing applause for them. Afterwards, Dylan even sought Harris out to exchange pleasantries and CDs, which had to feel like a shot in the arm for the younger performer.

Two Triangle mainstays, Mandolin Orange and American Aquarium delivered showcases Friday night. Before Mandolin Orange took the stage at The Rutledge, a manager Jimmy Rhine of Five Headed Entertainment alluded to exciting possibilities on the horizon for the duo. Despite the relative quick success for the duo, nothing seemed to have changed when they hit the stage: In classic fashion, Andrew Marlin chose to play barefoot, while Emily Frantz wore heels. And while most bands might play it safe by performing only songs they’ve recorded and released, Mandolin Orange played three songs they have yet to release. Perhaps they added to the assertion that the duo was sitting on a considerable amount of excellent, unreleased material. As talent buyers lined up in the front rows to watch the performance, the duo stepped off stage to a standing ovation.

Later in the evening, American Aquarium went into The Basement, a room that suggests that Slim's of Raleigh and The Cave of Chapel Hill had a child—low capacity, not much room, cheap drinks, sa mall unraised stage, low ceilings, few windows, minimal air. American Aquarium throve in the environment. The crowd appeared to be less about the industry and more about fans who purchased passes just to come see the band. American Aquarium was looser and seemed to not bear the burden of impressing attendees.

Earlier in the evening, though, lead singer BJ Barham participated in an event at the Hard Rock Cafe to celebrated the discovery and display of a notebook belonging to Gram Parsons. The journal featured hand-written lyrics to the song “1000 Wedding.” Barham, appeared slightly nervous while sitting on stage with other performers in typical guitar-pull fashion. He performed "Return of the Grievous Angel.”

As American Aquarium wound down their set back at The Basement and packed their trailer after a relatively short set, they lamented their long drive to Little Rock the next evening. Though the drive was long, they would be heading to a sold-out gig in a town that’s treated them well. As tour manager John Massengill tweeted the next evening, “I’ve sold t-shirts to at least 3 people obviously on meth tonight. #littlerock.”

Personally, the biggest standout performance did not come as a surprise. Two years ago, John Fullbright came to the Berkeley Cafe at the age of 21. Now, people are beginning to catch on to his massive talent. A highlight of my trip to Nashville was watching Fullbright, a native Oklahoman, sit on an otherwise bland panel of up-and-coming Americana acts. As each performer stepped to the front to perform early in the morning, none seemed to take the otherwise tedious event seriously. Fullbright stepped up to the front and blew everyone else off the stage with a fiery version of "Gawd Above". Fullbright, an otherwise fairly dry fellow, quietly sat back down possibly not realizing what a treat he had given to a tired looking crowd. Fullbright is miles ahead of his peers in songwriting, instrumental prowess and in the business that is being an independent Americana musician. Pick up a copy of From the Ground Up to hear for yourself.

Click here to watch 2012 Americana Music Festival videos of Brett Harris, Skylar Gudasz, Billy Joe Shaver, John Fullbright, BJ Barham, Wanda Jackson, Mandolin Orange and American Aquarium.