In the Studio
Thursday, January 26, 2012
Following a MySpace-sponsored reunion show more than three years ago and last year's Folds box set containing some unreleased material, Ben Folds Five is reuniting for its first album since 1999. You can check out Ben Folds' Twitter for updates on the story.
This information is all that was contained in something like a press release that Sony Music circulated yesterday, save for one unfortunate screen shot—of an Internet Explorer window, with a Tweet, containing a picture of the band in the studio. (C’mon, intern, right click, “Save as...”) Folds, bassist Robert Sledge and drummer Darren Jessee are set to record through March. Folds said via Twitter that he anticipates a spring release. Congrats, Five, on the laziest album announcement ever.
It's been an uneven few years for Folds, who sounds more and more like just another guy playing a piano. He recorded an album with author Nick Hornby (weird, but sort of cool) and released an LP of college a cappella groups covering his songs (ha!). Perhaps surrounding himself with a real band is just what he needs.
In any case, '90s band reunions couldn't be hotter right now (read: not cool, if you want), so they stand to make some solid bank. The album will be the band's fourth LP and their first since The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner.
Monday, May 2, 2011
- Courtesy of Airiel Down and Phoenix Photography
- Thirsty for justice: Beaux Foy, in the shades, leads Airiel Down
Beaux Foy isn’t a fan of the evening news: "It pisses me off every time you turn on the news. The only time they mention our troops is when they have casualties,” the Airiel Down front man says.
To counter that, Foy is joining forces with Lowe’s, Pepsi and NASCAR on a campaign to honor the everyday achievements of servicemen and women who “put themselves on the line everyday to help in the greater good of global humanity.” He teamed up with Jimmy Johnson, Jeff Gordon and Dale Earnhardt Jr.—“all class-A gentlemen”—at a Norfolk, Va., Naval base for the promotion, set to run as a commercial in theaters nationwide, on morning news programs, at Charlotte Motor Speedway and displayed at Lowe’s stores,
In December, Raleigh's Airiel Down shot a music video atop the USS George H.W. Bush aircraft carrier, and this summer the group will play for troops in Guam and the Persian Gulf. The USO of North Carolina will honor Foy with the Heart of a Patriot Award at a ceremony in Raleigh in October.
“I said, ‘We don’t do this stuff for recognition,’” Foy says. “They said, ‘That’s exactly why we want to recognize you.’”
Foy has never been hard to recognize, though, especially while sporting Johnny Depp, Willie Wonka-style eyewear in the NASCAR promotion. “Junior and the boys got a big kick out of it,” says Foy, a bandana and goggles collector. “I said, ‘Hey, you guys have your uniforms on, I better put mine on.”
- Photo Courtesy of the Band and Phoenix Photography
- Big kicks: Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Beaux Foy
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Following Michael Jackson’s death in June 2009, BET aired a show called Michael Jackson: 10 Things You Didn't Know. In it, The Roots drummer Ahmir “?uestlove” Thompson made viewers privy to some comical trivia about the history of the King of
Pop’s song “Bad." According to ?uestlove, “Bad” was originally slated to be a duet that featured another member of music royalty—Prince. Prince declined the offer. Apparently, the opening line—“your butt is mine”—wasn’t too appealing to Prince. At a dinner, Prince told Mike, “You ain’t singing this line to me, and I sure ain’t singing this line to you.” Shortly thereafter, “Bad” was MJ's No. 1 hit.
Unfortunately, that’s about the extent of my Prince knowledge. I'm on MJ's team. But thanks to Rapper Big Pooh’s The Purple Tape project, I'm able to brush-up on some Prince history. Produced entirely by Detroit’s Black Milk, The Purple Tape (available here, at the big guy's Bandcamp) captures Pooh rapping above Black Milk’s reinterpretation of close to a dozen of Prince’s most famed hits. Several months ago, Black Milk released this instrumental, Prince-inspired project, Music From The Color Purple, but with his blessings and permission, Rapper Big Pooh decided to make an album out of it. Pooh has been steadily releasing scrimmage projects like this, in anticipation for his next official LP, Dirty Pretty Things. This just happens to be his most outstanding, creative tease yet. For a short making-of documentary on the tape, see HOJTV.
Friday, December 4, 2009
It often seems like we're trying to find new ways to describe Future Island's infectious music—essentially, three-piece, bass-and-beat driven emo-soul from dudes that (partially) grew up in Raleigh, moved to Greenville, N.C., and then Baltimore, Md.—on a weekly basis. And it's sort of true: The trio tours as hard as frontman Sam Herring sings, and they don't miss a chance to play in the Triangle. Last week, the band played a packed headlining set at Berkeley Cafe; tonight, they'll play Pizza Fest at The Cave. More on that event in this week's paper. We spoke with Future Islands' smoking bassist (like, literally: dude smokes while he plays) William Cashion last week about the band's new deal with Thrill Jockey Records, one of the finest labels in the land.
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
When Durham quartet Free Electric State booked studio time to make the follow-up to their excellent two-song debut demo, they aimed only for the next step in size: Cut an EP, and see if any labels were interested in a longer project. Turns out, they didn’t have to wait.
“Kyle and Steve said, ‘We’re not interested in putting out an EP. We’d rather do a full-length,’” says Free Electric State’s Shirlé Hale Koslowski of Kyle Miller and Steve Jones, who run the Durham label Churchkey Records. “We had the songs, so we said we would record more. It wasn’t our initial plan, but it made sense.”
The band cut the core of the LP over three days in late October at the Mebane studio of producer Jerry Kee. Over the last two-plus decades, Kee has worked with Superchunk, Ryan Adams, Bad Checks, Shark Quest and, oh, about half of the bands in the Triangle. In fact, Koslowski and husband David, who plays guitar and sings in Free Electric State, worked with him in their former band, Gerty! Just before Thanksgiving, they returned to Kee’s to add overdubs and finalize mixes. Chicago’s Carl Saff is currently mastering the disc.
The nine-song LP, titled Caress, features a reworked version of “Hawks,” from this year’s demo release, as well as two new songs that the band has yet to play locally, “Matching Scars” and “The Black Sea.” Those tunes will get their premiere Friday, when Free Electric State joins Irata and The White Cascade for a 10 p.m. show at Slim’s.
The record, though, will have to wait: Churchkey plans to drop Caress in mid-April 2010.“I feel like it’s so far away,” says Koslowski, laughing, “that we’ll have another album written by then.”
For Free Electric State's alternate version of how the deal with Churchkey went down, hit the jump.
Thursday, November 5, 2009
I’m not lobbying for the position of song-choice consultant for Matthew “Sid” Sweet and Susanna “Susie” Hoffs if the pair decides to release a third volume of their Under the Covers series, following ’06’s Volume 1 and the new Volume 2 (both on Shout Factory). However, I would serve with honor and incurable geekitude. OK, so maybe I am lobbying.
Past the jump are the 10 songs at the top of my Volume 3 wish list. Volume 1 stuck to the ‘60s, whereas Volume 2 was all about the ‘70s. My list reflects the hope that a third volume would be willing to revisit the ‘60s and ‘70s as well as dip into the ‘80s and ‘90s. I did limit myself in one way though: I didn’t choose any artists that are covered on the first two volumes, a who’s who that ranges from The Beatles and Bob Dylan to The Velvet Underground and The Zombies.
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Blag'ard heads into the studio, readies Capsize 7 archival release (Tonight at Nightlight)
Blag’ard has delayed the release of its second LP, tentatively titled Mach II, to the beginning of next year. Guitarist Joe Taylor now plans to accompany its release by unshelving the long lost Capsize 7 album he recorded with the old alt-rock act in the mid ‘90s before they were dropped from Caroline Records. Fusing the jagged angular spirit of Polvo with Achers of Loaf’s hooks, Capsize 7 was one of the Triangle’s most underappreciated coulda-beens. He brings a similar bristling sound to his new outfit, fueled by drummer Adam Brinson’s sizzling kit work. We spoke to Taylor about the forthcoming releases.
INDEPENDENT WEEKLY: So what’s up with the new Blag’ard recording?
JOE TAYLOR: The Blag’ard record was pushed back to an unforeseen medical situation in my family, which basically meant I had to derail my life for about a half a year. I got back on track with getting my shit together. We are going to record the record starting in October. We’re going to record with Nick Peterson and start tracking on the 6th—coincidently, the day after my birthday. So it’s a nice birthday present for me, and then we’re doing it on one-inch reel-to-reel. I hadn’t recorded with audio tape in a long time, so I’m psyched to be working with Nick and going down on reel-to-reel. We’re going to do 10 songs, and because of the fact that Fall crept around and we hadn’t recorded the record in September or August, we said, “Putting a record out in November doesn’t make any sense, so let’s just wait.” So it’s going to come out in January.
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Three things I never thought I'd hear from Chapel Hill's Kaze:
1. A "Best I Ever Had" remix. Drake? Seriously?
2. Kaze actually singing hooks on more than one song (also featured on his new mixtape is the 9th Wonder-produced single, "Fresh", which features newcomer Mr. Mohalyn singing the hook).
3. Auto-Tune.
While toiling within the local hip-hop scene for the past decade and establishing himself as a hard-life, no-frills emcee, it seems as if Kaze has been surreptitiously preparing to be North Carolina's version of Nelly, the St. Louis hitmaker who was once known as a sturdy, threatening emcee before settling and becoming more lady-friendly at the hips and party-friendly at the lips.
Let's be fair, though: Kaze, as much as perhaps any other artist from North Carolina, has deserved a big break, even if it means a break from what we've long known him for. Several months ago, when Kaze won his recording contract with SRC/ Universal, many of us speculated as to what that meant as far as the direction of Kaze's music. His new DJ Whoo-Kid-hosted mixtape, First in Flight (download here), offers some hints. The finding: Kaze can circumnavigate his way around hip-hop all he wants.
While this isn't the DJ Drama-infused Gangsta Grillz mixtape release that Kaze was hoping for (keep reading), having G-Unit's DJ Whoo-Kid at the steering wheel might just be the next-best option if Kaze wants to keep up with the big boys in the mixtape circuit. The guys over at 2dopeboyz are doing the hosting duties for Kaze's new project.
Hit the jump for our interview with Kaze in March (published for the first time here), not long after the SRC/Universal deal was signed.
Friday, September 4, 2009
Whether at Carter-Finley Stadium or at home watching on television, most people who saw last night's N.C. State-South Carolina season opener probably thought the 7-3 game was a snoozer. But they didn't watch the game with Beaux Foy and Taylor Traversari of Raleigh quintet Airiel Down.
The pair took a break from recording and touring to witness the debut of their reworking of the N.C. State fight song—a faster, screaming-vocals version that will be played all year as the Wolfpack takes the field—amid 60,000 fans in red.
"They came to us and said there's just a lack of electricity at the start of games," Foy said from his front-row end zone seat, referring to N.C. State's athletics marketing department. "They wanted to make it modern and hard-hitting."
"It's got to appeal to 60- and 70-year-old alums and also to 18-year-old freshman. The song was written in 1923 and we had to try to do something that's not cheesy. It was a daunting task, but we said, 'Let's just play it loud and fast, brother.'"
Though the PA wasn't quite loud enough to do the song justice, Foy and Traversari enjoyed the limelight all evening. They slapped fives with players as they emerged from the lockers and out of the smoke. Heck, they slapped fives with everyone near them—fans, band directors, former offensive coordinators, anyone within arm's length.
Longtime Wolfpack fans might appreciate that Airiel Down kept the traditional lyrics of "come over the hill, Carolin(a/e)" instead of the more modern," go to hell, Carolin(a/e)." Younger folks might enjoy the song's tempo and flair. Download it here, and be prepared to be at least slightly shaken or stunned. For a making-of video, watch this.
Neither Foy nor Traversari went to N.C. State, but they've embraced Raleigh as their home. They recorded a similar song for the Carolina Hurricanes earlier in the year and have plans to perform the national anthem at an N.C. State game later this season.
Provided the logistics of setting up a stage, rocking a show and clearing out in time for the second half are worked out, they will also perform at halftime of the Nov. 7 Homecoming game or the final match up against UNC.
"We support any and all things North Carolina," Foy said. "Everywhere we go, we're proud to be a North Carolina band. We're not a New York band. We're not an LA band. We're not moving to LA. We're an N.C. band, and we're proud of that fact."
N.C. State will continue to play Airiel Down's song, "Gunslinger," at every halftime. Foy sang along with himself last night, throwing rock and roll hand gestures at every chance. He also offered advice on life, love and sport with every play. That's available after the jump. [Editor's note: Trust us on this one. Make the jump.]
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
For any of you out there waiting on The Anti-Mixtape Resistance Movement to gain momentum, you're probably better off trying to squeeze orange juice out of a ham: Ain't gonna happen. Rappers are sticking to that ol' formulaic hustle of releasing no-hassle mixtapes in lieu of or in preview of forthcoming LPs. No matter how much we bitch and whine about the infinite piles of pointless mixtapes on our hard drives, they're going to keep coming as hip-hop artists gobble up the low-cost exposure.
That said, we should at least be grateful for all the free material we've been given and offer these mixtapes a chance, at least. September, after all, is shaping up to be an extremely active month for hip hop (Jay-Z, Raekwon, Ghostface all releasing monster albums), and if two Triangle crews can help prime us, well ... more power to us Carolinians.
Michael Pollan,
Amen, Amen, Amen!! Your comment was excellently put. Thanks so much for writing in! …
by jwaters on Carrboro Commune occupies CVS building (Orange County)
Gannamede,
The building DOES belong to them and all of us, or at least it should. The people's labor …
by jwaters on Carrboro Commune occupies CVS building (Orange County)