Angelo Spencerwww.myspace.com/angelospencer
Angelo has self-released two previous albums (both available on iTunes), in addition to a split with Tender Forever and a debut 7” on K records with L’Orchidee d’Hawaii. Angelo's energetic one-man-band show might be one of the best we have ever seen. He has taken a leave of his one-man-band style to showcase more of his awesome guitar playing on a kicking seafoam Jag. He is currently touring so catch him in a city near you. p.s. he loves cheese, bread, Kimya and Panda!
See a short film about Angelo here: http://www.riviera-freelance.com/ange/
APOW - A Pack of Wolveswww.apackofwolves.com
A Pack of Wolves: the sound of late nights, tight jeans and urban decay. A world where malfunctioning laptops attempt to assuage bleary eyebags and unruly facial hair with beats from the late-century ennui songbook. Where Morrissey rides a fixed gear and opens for the Faint in a basement somewhere in the Midwest, where the sweat drips from the bricks just as salty and flat as the leftover PBRs from the night before.
Eden Mazzola and Francesco Catania are this pack unto themselves, raised on rhythm and propelled by temptation. They’ve shedded the suede duds of yesteryear for the prowling pulse of gold lamé, and they’re headed to take hostage the hoariest writhing bodies full of bloody guts, teenage venom and useless resistance. Drums vs. Guitar, Casio vs. Korg, Mac vs. PC—and now, you vs. A Pack of Wolves. It’s Round One, m’fers. Let the pain begin.
eden-drums.vocals.synth.laptop[mac]
francesco-guitar.vocals.bass.synth.mandolin.desktop[pc]
One sheet: A Pack of Wolves
Birds and Arrows
www.myspace.com/birdsandarrows
"The packaging for Woodgrain Heart, the debut EP from Chapel Hill duo Birds & Arrows, consists of a slim cardboard sleeve that's been spray painted a deep cerulean shade, the band's name written in a comfortable, slightly sloppy script across the top in coarse black marker. A rudimentary cutout of a human heart printed onto the sort of lumber laminate you'd use to line kitchen cabinets sits at the middle. Tucked inside, the liner notes are printed onto a single sheet of tawny paper with doodles and lyrics and acknowledgments packed onto one side, pictures of price tags and the band set in a grid on the other. It's a decidedly handmade production, the sort of thing bandmates attached at the hip make while watching the sun come up, an old record spinning on a nearby stereo."
"Indeed, Pete and Andrea Connolly (neé Nell) wed in October, becoming the most recent addition to the Triangle's excellent collegium of married bands that includes The Rosebuds, Work Clothes and Waumiss. And their work—warm, emotional, poetic folk music played tenderly and gingerly—thrives on the relationship's intimacy, spinning songs from domestic images like the blue flickering flame of a gas burner and the trove of persistent memories that remain like love's kindling. Andrea, who sings and plays guitar in the bluegrass quartet Sweet By & By, takes the lead on three of the EP's six tracks, turning in a slow-burning performance on opener "Garden Shed" and layering her reverb-tinged vocals over banjo and handclaps on the title track. With a voice that's as workmanlike as it is worn, Pete adds a jangly lift to his tracks, like the mandolin-abetted "Old Man Winter" or the structurally convoluted "Black Shoes." But, as things should be, the Connollys sound best when they sing together, their complementary voices wrapping together in rustic contentment and comfort, like a happy pair making music because that's how love makes them feel. These six splendid songs beg for those feelings to continue"
14 JAN 2009 • by Grayson Currin
boy/girlhttp://www.pleasehate.us/
"I often find two-pieces lacking in a fullness of sound. Of course, sometimes this works to a band's advantage, if it fits the music well. Such is the case with boy/girl, made up of Brooklyn's Eric Stiner (boy) and Jersey City's Lisa Cusack (girl). The word "spazz" or "spazzy" seems to get thrown around a lot when talking about them, but I don't really get full-on "spazzocity" or "spazzmasms" from them -- instead I feel dysfunction, but in a good way. So there you have it: dysfunction rock."City Belt - Day Job(http://citybelt.typepad.com)
"It seems the indie rock Friday we've been trying to keep afloat lives to see another week...and in a big big way. Today's featured duo are an incredible exercise in both reckless noise rock and minimal needs where bells and whistles are concerned. Plenty of you might make an obvious initial comparison to a certain Jon Spencer project (minus the cheesy ego), just as I first did. That might be a result of them using the same Manhattan practice basement many of Spencer's previous bands and related artists inhabited at one time or another. That likeness quickly faded as the vocals kicked me in the stomach" 4casey4music - Listening Room(http://milkmilk-lemonade.blogspot.com)
boy/girl are Eric and Lisa.
Join the boy/girl street team!
One sheet: boy/girl
Cantwell, Gomez & Jordanwww.cantwellgomezandjordan.com
...have a ridiculous story to tell. It is their own. Now with their second record on 307 Knox Records it just might get stranger...
Cantwell, Gomez & Jordan arose from the ashes of the much-ballyhooed mafia-ridden "Chapel Hill Scene." Anne Gomez had just been thrown out of UNC's prestigious law school and was looking for some paying gigs to support her Army of Three-Legged Cats.
She was known for her electric bass and vocal stylings in the rather esoteric world of beach resort dance bands like Special Agents of Her Majesty's Secret Cervix, The Blue-Green Gods, and the seminal Shaggy-Dawg's Shag-o-matics.
Anne hooked up with her former sorority sister Shannon "The Biggest Drumset in the World" Morrow. Shannon was the unifying "backbeat" behind HMS Cervix's spankin' rhythm section, as well as the blood that flowed through the mighty Bicentennial Quarters, Hillsborough's finest metal outfit since the Unoriginal Sinners.
Anne and Shannon immediately re-bonded but still needed a guitarist.
They needed look no further than David Jordan. After his expulsion from UNC's Ph.D. program, guitar player David Jordan decided to end his self-imposed hiatus from music. A veteran of such staples of the Catskills circuit as Polycarp, Glockenspiel, and Tony D'Antonio's Blue Velvet Chillers, he had certainly racked up his share of "cred." He had a vision for NC's musical future; he just needed some partners.
David completed his community service just in time to join with Shannon and Anne to create Cantwell (named in honor of Shannon's favorite Alaskan nineteenth-century Goldrush town, the study of which had always been a passion of hers). The music was dangerous, edgy, and threatened to dismantle Rock as we know it — and reassemble it into a soul-less musical Worldcode for the twenty-first century.
But, after a handful of promising shows and one brilliant long-player, Shannon "had to leave town." This time for Joliet. No one said a straight life was easy, and old habits DO die hard. Maybe life "on the outside" was too stressful — and too full of temptation.
Anyway, Anne and Dave still had bills to pay, so they got the first drummer they could find to fill in until Shannon was "all better": Dave Cantwell, backbone of party funk-metal jokesters Analogue (and his own solo experimental hip-hop John Williams tribute "project").
In a bizarre coincidence, the young drummer shared a name with the band he once drunkenly heckled. To avoid confusion (and dispel rumors), Anne and Dave Jordan decided to re-christen the band Cantwell, Gomez and Jordan. Says Gomez: "We were hoping the name would sound like a law firm or an ice cream company or something. You know: conceptual and shit."
Conceptual and shit, indeed! Gomez and Jordan's exciting, original, quirky tunesmithing combines with Dave Cantwell's ham-fisted drumming to create a new NC music like no other. Well, maybe like some other things, but I can't remember any of their names right now.
--Daniel Forthrite
Cantwell, Gomez and Jordan are:
Anne Gomez, Dave Cantwell and David Jordan
One sheet: Cantwell, Gomez and Jordan
Dan Deaconwww.myspace.com/dandeacon
Dan Deacon attended the Conservatory of Music at Purchase College in Purchase, New York, where he played in many bands, including tuba for Langhorne Slim and guitar in the improvisational grindcore band Rated R. He completed his graduate studies in electro-acoustic and computer music composition. He studied under composer/conductor Joel Thome and Dary John Mizelle. He is a member of Wham City, an art collective in Baltimore, Maryland.
Spiderman of the Rings was Deacon's first commercially distributed full length album, released by Carpark Records in May 2007. The album was well received by the press and was included in the Best New Music section of Pitchforkmedia.com. The album was also ranked as number 24 on the website's "Top 50 Albums of 2007".
Order the 7in now!
Future Islandswww.futureislands.com
FUTURE ISLANDS are a post-wave dance band from North Carolina, now residing in Baltimore. Future Islands play a terse yet passionate music wrought from a stripped back palette. Gerrit Welmers' cartwheeling synthesizer melodies tumble across the austere wilderness of William Cashion's post punk bass pulse, driven ever forward by Erick Murillo's ecstatic feel for rhythm.
Samuel, William and Gerrit had been writing songs together since 2003 in the guise of absurdist party project Art Lord & The Self Portraits, however it was with the arrival of Erick Murillo on drums that the band rid themselves of the mythology and masks, taking on a new motive and the name Future Islands. With the change their sound became exponentially faster and surprisingly more powerful. They quickly wrote and recorded an EP entitled 'Little Advances' in time for their first tour late 2006 and haven't looked back since.
"Follow You (Pangea version)" was recorded during the Pangea recording sessions in April 2006, a month after they recorded "Little Advances." These sessions were recorded by Chester Endersby Gwazda as part of his junior-year final project. In January 2007, Allen Cordell shot and directed a music video for the song. This is the long overdue proper release of this classic Future Islands single.
After you order the 7in and download 'Little Advances', don't forget to pick up a copy of their latest CD 'Wave Like Home', out now on Upset the Rhythm Records!
Future Kings of Nowherehttp://www.myspace.com/thefuturekings
The 307 Knox Family is continuing to grow. 307 Knox now welcomes the Future Kings of Nowhere to our label. Very exciting news! I remember the first time I saw the FKoN perform at the Nightlight in Chapel Hill, all I could think was how much the band reminded me of Billy Bragg and the Irish performer Luka Bloom. In my book, those are good things. Shayne and Luka Bloom both share the ability to take an acoustic guitar and produce a sound that people don't associate with acoustic.
Really the FKoN sum up their style best on their Myspace page- "If pressed, this Durham group (Shayne O'Neill on vocals and guitar, Mike on drums, and Jon on bass) will tell you that they play "acousticore," music for people who are angrier than Peter, Paul or Mary, but nicer than Henry Rollins."
photo credit to Flop
Video:
Performing at a skatepark (February 2007)
Duofest 2007 (April 2007)
BCHQ Grand Opening (March 2007)
One sheet: The Future Kings of Nowhere
Humble Tripewww.myspace.com/humbletripe
Humble Tripe are Shawn Luby, Stud Green, and Melissa York, who form a classical/folk/american/punk/pop trifecta! Rooted in Durham, North Carolina, with branches that span the nation, this trio combines electric beats and drums with fiddle, guitar, mandolin and an occasional harmonica. Don’t be surprised if you’re tapping your toes and humming along to tunes you’d swear you’ve known all your life.
Jews and Catholicshttp://www.myspace.com/jewsandcatholics
Jews and Catholics are a Winston-Salem, NC based duo comprised of upright bassist Alanna Meltzer and guitarist/vocalist/sequencist Eddie Garcia. Their combined elements of razor sharp rhythms, bowed bass, fuzzy guitar, and haunting vocals create an eerie density, a sound that wraps itself around the listener’s head and doesn’t let go. Their songs buzz with electric energy and intensity marked by commanding vocals and sharp dynamic shifts. Meltzer’s 10 years of orchestra experience and Garcia’s 14 years of rock band experience have shaped them into professional and dynamic songwriters and performers.
“A Sonic Youth style noisescape from the duo of Alanna Meltzer on upright bass and Eddie Garcia on guitar, vocals and beats…. a sleeper in the hot rod world…. what’s under the hood will blow most away…. It’s hard to believe that these two are creating the monstrous layered soundscapes that are on this disc” J.R. Oliver of EarCandyMag.com.
“The duo plays a unique blend of classical, rock and electronica… The instrumentals are fast and well blended with a futuristic, energetic feel…this band has exploded on the scene, playing tons of gigs in Winston-Salem and Greensboro, bringing their music to the masses,” Brittany Smith & Carla Kucinski of GoTriad.
“A dark mix of raging garage rock riffs, smooth, bowed bass runs, and new wave beats and synths — kind of like the Strokes jamming with New Order at Juilliard…. Jew(s) and Catholic(s) performed a mesmerizing, passionate, and well received set,” Matthew S. Maynard of Southeast Performer Magazine.
Katastrophehttp://www.katastropherap.com/
The Worst Amazing is Katastrophe's third full length release and finest work to date. This album is a snap shot of the end of adolescence and the precipice of adulthood.
The songs are intricately crafted tales of anarchy, revolution, peace and the constant search for hope. The verses are dense labyrinths of tongue twisted word play, while the hooks are polished pop and serve as the grounding force for each of these stories.
At times, Katastrophe's crooning is reminiscent of a chain-smoking, whiskey drinking, soul singer and other times his voice is as smooth and rich as a bedroom r&b singer. This emcee's rat-a-tat machine gun flow lends itself to each track as if it were another percussion instrument. His cadence and voice are like volcanic eruptions conveying the urgency of every word and breath, spilling over each 16 bar verse.
Tracks like "'til it's gone" and "halfway happy" offer a laid back, jazzy, classic 90s era kind of beat with a message that there is always a light at the end of the tunnel, while "tonight" and "big deal" are tongue-in-cheek dance tracks that will set any crowd in motion.
This album is a journey through the mind of an analytical young man that doesn't just want to make music, but wants to affect change in the lives of everyone who listens to his syncopated cry.
Video:
The Life (from fault, lies & faultlines)
Malcolm Rollickwww.myspace.com/malcolmrollick
Bio 2008
Malcolm Rollick started playing on New York sidewalks at the age of seventeen. She then headed off to college, collected degrees in Music and in Literature, and graduated to late night subway entertaining with friend and co-writer Gerard Smith (TV on the Radio). Malcolm and Gerard held a summer long residency at the now forgotten ‘Stinger’ club in Williamsburg in 2000. Their music was performed with and by members of ‘Coco Rosie’ and ‘TV on the Radio’. Most memorably Tundai (TV…) and Malcolm screamed angry jazz down each other’s throats until Malcolm got distracted and began reading aloud from Moby Dick. She apologizes to Jason Sitek… yes, i still have your book. Ian Coletti wrote the first four songs for his project “Angriest Pussycat” with Malcolm’s voice in mind.
Over four years she quit the band twice because no one could hear the lyrics (which are really good) but eventually she laid her four tracks to rest on the EP. She still misses screaming, and rock and roll sometimes, but not enough to go backwards. Ian dubbed her the cult character that kept vanishing from the band to go meditate, but she got kicked out of meditation camp in 2003. She worked for two awkward and potent years with the grassroots misfit band ‘Dufus’, singing in the choir and dancing like a robot. (this move is called “picking up a piece of paper and exiting stage left…” Lucas Crane, circa. 2001) In 2004 she played the lead in Gina Young’s most recent rock musical “God in a Girl”. She frequents as guest backup vocalist for NY-based chamber-pop ensemble Edison Woods. She has shared the stage with Diane Cluck, Mary Timony, Regina Spektor, Kyp Malone, Jenny Owen Youngs, Pamela Means, Kimya Dawson, Chris Pureka and many more. She is currently dreaming and manifesting her next recording, a character based project with a little film attached. Her music has been heard on WFMU, WFUV, QueerWaves Radio, RubyFruit Radio, Amazon Radio, and Wild Woman Radio. Her music was a gift from her father and her god-father alike, and it carries her close.
Video:
The List
One sheet: Malcolm Rollick - Lo-Fi(ction)
Midtown Dickenswww.myspace.com/midtowndickens
If you've ever impulsively left in the middle of the night to drive north and spent the way up the coast answering all of your life's questions by means of scanning the radio dials, you might have a taste for how Midtown Dickens began their ongoing tour. Only in addition to the radio dials, they use a well-thumbed version of Charles Dickens Hard Times to answer the more essential questions, such as which way they should go Kym, Catherine and Michelle the anti-folk denizens behind Midtown Dickens, carry their front-porch-music habits with them on their backs. Kym and Catherine began their musical career on the parking decks, roofs, and streets of Durham and Chapel Hill. They soon left their hometown to venture across the country and picked up plenty of orphaned instruments on the way, unbiased to their quirkiness or condition.
Thus, the raw folk roots that had originally sprouted the band quickly grew to feed it with a punchy minimalist humor that compliments bold lyrics and ethereal harmonies. Upon their return to North Carolina, Midtown Dickens stumbled upon their indie-rock influence. To top off their style, they strung together the found and scavenged instruments (banjo, accordian, musical saw, drums, tambourine, trumpet, trombone, harmonica) with a sparkly blue danelectro guitar. Midtown Dickens harbors an honesty too often absent from modern music, and the panache to pull off a broad spectrum of original songs from solid instrumentals, to escapist ballads, to a catchy tunes just about anything.
Performed with artists such as: Kimya Dawson, Bellafea, The Moaners, Willy Mason, The Robot Ate me, The Future Kings of Nowhere and Robo Sapien at venues including: The Cats Cradle and Local 506 in Chapel Hill; The Duke Coffeehouse and Centerfest in Durham; and CBGB's in New York. They are currently working on their second album, and they have a rooster. Midtown Dickens picks you. Kym: guitar, drums, trombone, banjo, trumpet, accordian, bass, bottlecaps, uke, fiddle, slide, tinky thing. Catherine: guitar, drums, saw, trumpet, banjo, accordian, (bowed) bass, harmonica, skateboard, melodica, piano, slidewhistle, uke. Michelle drums and egg and beat boxing. Shayne trumpet on Airplane.
Video:
New Song! performed @ Local 506 (June 2007)
CD Release Party, May 12:
Tetris (kinderfest)
Tambourine (kinderfest)
Guitars
AM Dial
Duofest 2007 (April 2007)
What A Bore performed @ Cat's Cradle (April 2007)
Tetris performed @ Underground (April 2007)
AM Dial performed @ 2007 Antifolk Fest (February 2007)
Tetris performed at "Too Much Head-banging" @ Cat's Cradle (July 2006)
One sheet: Midtown Dickens
Unisonwww.myspace.com/unison777
UNISON is :
melanie m. / julien c. / two little lost souls / far west / country of France / pure energy / love / hope / a positive vision of the future / love / to play with sounds / opposite styles / sonic incidents / noise / wall of sound / guitar blast / simple melodies / resonating drones / raising hearts / facing death / little rainbows / emotions / love / mental images / echoes / lyrics as abstract fields / different interpretations / unique female voice / common male voice / unison.
The Wigg Reportwww.myspace.com/thewiggreport
The Wigg Report are Christine Fantini, Stephen Mullaney and Ben Riseling. Armed with a guitar, the remains of a drum set and a saxophone The Wigg Report has been setting up on street corners, in clubs and anywhere that lets them play. Their guerrilla approach to playing has started to earn them recognition in their small town of Durham, and beyond including a feature in Nylon Magazine's 11/07 small-town bands to watch.
The Wigg Report was formed by Fantini and Mullaney, constantly practicing and recording in the tiny laundry room of their house in Durham. This is where their first self-titled release was spawned and also where their once-neighbor, Ben Riseling, must have heard them and started stalking them. This unavoidable collaboration led not only to innovative uses of laundry equipment as acoustic devices but also to their first full length album, Seltzer.
Adding a synthesizer and three part harmonies, their second full length, Flexi-Slacks, was released in 2006. Capping a year that featured extensive guerilla gigging on the sidewalks of the Southeast as well as supporting sets with The Mountain Goats, Hamell on Trial and Schwervon, The Wigg finally premiered Flexi-Slacks at the Troika Music Festival. We kind of like to think Flexi-Slacks is what a house punk band on Sesame Street would sound like. We hope folks will like it too.
The synth use is a logical progression for a band whose musicians feature instruments they've never played before. Christine Fantini – on stripped down drums with no kick that she plays standing – is originally a piano player. Stephen Mullaney – guitar and lead vocals -- was an accomplished punk drummer signed to Artist Only and Warner Bros in bands like Resolve and Tree. Ben Riseling – synth, clarinet and sax – started playing synthesizer this year after many years of session work with bands like Beulah, 100 Watt Smile and Shitty Shitty Band Band on horns.