Last Year’s Men are fresh off the release of their highly-acclaimed Churchkey Records debut, Sunny Down Snuff, which has appeared on many Triangle-area “Best of 2010” lists in recent weeks. TVD has a vinyl copy to give away, along with a pair of tickets to the band’s show at the Local 506 on Sunday. They’re opening for Asheville’s Reigning Sound, which last played the 506 back in 2005.
Be the first to respond in the comments section below with your e-mail address to win.
Hüsker Dü was founded by Grant Hart, Greg Norton and Bob Mould in 1979. Only 17, Grant Hart was nonetheless a veteran of a handful of previous bands and had already been playing music professionally since the age of 13. Hüsker Dü made several records for the legendary SST label including the much-loved Zen Arcade, New Day Rising and Flip Your Wig. Moving on to Warner Brothers Records in 1985 they made two albums, 1986’s Candy Apple Grey and the band’s second double album, Warehouse.
Leaving the group in 1987 to form first The Swallows then eventually Nova Mob, Hart and ex-partner Mould became embroiled in one of rock music’s most enduring feuds.
Hart returned in 2009 with Hot Wax, his first solo album of the 21st. The former Hüsker Dü drummer and co-songwriter worked with the diverse cast of musicians from Godspeed You Black Emperor and Silver Mt. Zion on the record, which was recorded in Montreal and Minneapolis.
The first person to respond at chapelhill@thevinyldistrict.com with the correct translation of “Hüsker Dü” will win a pair of tickets to Hart’s show at Motorco in Durham this coming Friday night.
Raleigh’s Gross Ghost is the braintrust of Mike Dillon and Tre Acklen. Formed in 2008, the band’s brand of layered, guitar-driven pop recalls the sunny sound of another local band, The Love Language. Signed to the Chapel Hill’s Grip Tapes label, the band issued a free download of their latest EP, Lip City, via Bandcamp.
“Gross Ghost is the product of two best friends with nothing to do and nowhere to go,” Dillon said. “All we want to do is live in a van, crash on your couch, melt your face off and drink all of your booze…. and totally change the world through the healing power of song. ”
Dillon describes how Gross Ghost was born via the Grip Tapes site.
Chapter 1: EBONY & IVORY
I used to have bands play at this house I lived at with some crust freaks a couple of years ago. Sometimes brilliant, sometimes garbage, these shows attracted randoms from all over. I first met Tre when his friends gave me their band’s demo at one of these parties and I checked it out. The production was incredible. I started hanging out with Tre and he soon became a fixture around our house shows, always stealing my booze and falling asleep in really awkward places/positions. He would usually wake up around dawn and kind of stumble around the kitchen of our house, lurking for food. I saw him doing this once and said to myself, “That guy looks dead. A real gross ghost. We should start a band together.”
Chapter 2: TROUBLE IN PARADISE
We started messing around with stoned jams in the basement and eventually he moved in. Later, we got evicted. Never date an arsonist. Tre and I ended up living out in the sticks, far away from our previous worlds. Our nights consisted of a tape machine and alcohol. It was cathartic, but chaos quickly turns to boredom if it happens all the time. The sense of trying to capture the fleeting moments of our minds and indiscretions from nights previous had been preserved. But the cabin fever had gotten to us and we went our own ways. We still passed demos to each other and the sounds began to mutate into something else.
Chapter 3: MENTAL RADIO
Lately, a series of comic tragedies mixed with a dash of lethargy has been threatening to knock us down. Life can try but the music keep us afloat. We are inspired by the highs and lows we see on the day to day. Our lives are how you survive when you’re waiting for bigger, better, stranger, more exciting things to happen. You have to find a nice place to go, wherever it is, to find a balance. Gross Ghost is our escape.
Carrboro’s ethereal Lost in the Trees will be en route Friday for a sold out show at Joe’s Pub in NYC and now comes news from the band’s label, Anti-, that they will join forces with Neko Case next month to open a handful of shows.
Sadly, none of those shows are in the Triangle but LITT did play to a packed out Motorco in early December. Grip Tapes’ Veelee opened that show, which was also the official launch of Durham’s Fullsteam Brewery’s LITT-inspired Belgium ale, named for the band.
Lost In The Trees Tour Dates:
(++ supporting Neko Case)
Jan. 07 – Joe’s Pub – New York, NY
Jan. 12 – The Earl – Atlanta, GA
Jan. 13 – Common Grounds – Gainesville, FL
Jan. 14 – Underbelly – Jacksonville, FL
Jan. 15 – The Social – Orlando, FL
Jan. 16 – The Monterey Club – Ft. Lauderdale, FL
Jan. 17 – The Orpheum – Tampa, FL
Jan. 18 – Club Downunder – Florida State Univ. – Tallahassee, FL
Jan. 19 – The Charleston Pourhouse – Charleston, SC
Jan. 20 – The 567 – Macon, GA
Jan. 21 – Sage Café – Asheville, NC
Jan. 22 – Snug Harbor – Charlotte, NC
Jan. 28 – The Hangar 9 – Carbondale, IL
Jan. 29 – Old Town School of Folk Music – Chicago, IL
Jan. 30 – Wexner Center – Columbus, OH
Feb. 01 – Bearsville Theatre – Woodstock, NY++ (supporting Neko Case)
Feb. 02 – Lupo’s – Providence, RI (supporting Neko Case)
Feb. 03 – Wilbur Theatre – Boston, MA (supporting Neko Case)
Feb. 04 – Calvin Theatre – Northampton, MA (supporting Neko Case)
Feb. 05 – Westhampton Beach Performing Arts Center – Westhampton Beach, NY (supporting Neko Case)
Feb. 09 – Black Cat Backstage – Washington, D.C.
Durham’s Free Electric State took advantage of the Christmas snow to shoot a video for “Feather Bed,” a song from the band’s 2010 record, Caress, released on Churchkey. The band took a break from playing shows following their excellent–and very loud appearance–at November’s Troika Music Festival in Durham. The band is currently writing a new record.
FES’s David Koslowski describes the video for TVD and lets on that he may be looking for video work in the future…
“Feather Bed” is a song about a woman getting what she wants… taking a man into the woods and having her way with him. It’s a liberating and empowering song.
The video was shot and edited in one weekend with the use of applications similar to that ai image generator. We had gotten 9 inches of snow, Shirlé and I were bored and had a bit of cabin fever, so I thought, ‘Let’s make a video.’ It was shot in the woods near our house and I wanted to create the feeling of what it’s like for a woman to be in the woods alone searching. It’s stark, cold and desperate. The woods can be a scary and lonely place… I think this is even more true when it snows, because most of natures sounds are soaked up into the snow like a sponge or just don’t exist at that moment.
Once the video was shot & edited I sent the files to my filmmaker friend, Mariexxme, who lives in Paris. She had shot and directed the music video for our song “Six Is One”. Anyway, she and I chatted online about what sort of treatment I wanted for “Feather Bed” and she nailed it. Her treatment made the video even “darker”… which was what I was after. This is my first music video that has actually seen the light of day. I wouldn’t mind doing more down the road.
We played our last show at Troika. We made a conscious effect not to book any shows for three months in order to write the follow up to Caress. We’ve been spending almost every Sunday afternoon at The Pinhook working on new songs as well as some time at a practice space in Chapel Hill.
Our goal is to write about 15 – 20 new songs for the record and then edit it down to the best material. We have about 10 thus far and have tossed some already. The new songs coming out of us have been dark, minimal and have a very cold and distant feel to them.
As far as recording, we really want to work with someone that is going to capture how things sound when we’re playing live and/or rehearsing at The Pinhook, embracing our noise and extended freeform Krautrock freakouts and not edit it out… As much as we love Caress we don’t want to make Caress Jr.
–photo above by Jarrod Jones
TVD wasn’t launched in time to add to the hype about the Avett Brothers’ last-minute show Dec. 29 at the Cat’s Cradle, announced at midnight Dec. 28. Joining the Concord natives on the stage were Rhode Island’s very eclectic The Low Anthem and Durham’s Bombadil. The $40 tickets sold out within a half hour but TVD special contributor Bart Smith was there and had this to say:
I was relatively late to the Avett Brothers bandwagon—I started listening sometime between The Gleam and Emotionalism—which meant I had already mostly missed out on their days of playing smaller venues. The past few years I’ve passed on seeing them live because their sound just didn’t seem suited for the larger amphitheatres and coliseums they were playing. Sure, there was little chance of the band’s popularity waning to the point where they’d be playing small, local shows again, but I was at least hoping for a more intimate, indoor setting like Durham Performing Arts Center.
The Dec. 28 announcement that The Avett Brothers would be playing a surprise show the following night at Cat’s Cradle was a welcome surprise, a Christmas present that I wouldn’t have even thought to ask for from Santa the week before. The show itself was everything one could ask for from an Avett Brothers show. Clocking in at around an 1:45, the band played 19 songs from eight different albums along with two unreleased songs and two covers in front of a small but appreciative crowd that sang along with concert staples like “When I Drink” and “Talk on Indolence.” While the six-hundred-some people packed into Cat’s Cradle on a cold December night was far fewer than the tens of thousands that The Avett Brothers have grown accustomed to playing in front of, Seth Avett admitted that the room still felt as large and frightening as it had when the band first played there.
Support for the show was provided by indie folk band The Low Anthem and Durham-favorites Bombadil, playing their first official show after an 18-month hiatus as bassist Daniel Michalak dealt with worsening tendinitis in his hands.
Check out live videos of the Avetts playing “When I Drink” from the band’s 2006 EP The Gleam and the title track from 2009’s Rick Rubin-produced I and Love and You.
Avett Brothers 12.29.2010
Cats Cradle, Carrboro
Magazines – the Everybodyfields cover
Talk on Indolence – Four Thieves Gone
The Fall – Four Thieves Gone
Rainbow Stew – Merle Haggard cover
The Lowering (A Sad Day in Greenville) – Four Thieves Gone
January Wedding – I and Love and You
Shame – Emotionalism
Tin Man – I and Love and You
Matrimony – Four Thieves Gone
Down with the Shine – unreleased
Kick Drum Heart – I and Love and You
At the Beach – Mignonette
Pretty Girl from Raleigh – A Carolina Jubilee
And It Spread – I and Love and You
Head Full of Doubt / Road Full of Promise – I and Love and You
When I Drink – The Gleam
Sanguine – The Gleam
Traveling Song – Swept Away
Can You Not See – Undressed
I and Love and You – I and Love and You
Slight Figure of Speech – I and Love and You
————-
Paranoia in B Major – Emotionalism
Bella Donna – The Second Gleam
Chapel Hill’s Wylie Hunter & The Cazadores refuse to show up on the scene quietly. Equipped with a voice that is equal parts gruff and grace, Hunter wields a heavy pen, with intimate lyrics that play well beyond the songwriter’s 23 years. Hunter’s highs and lows are matched by The Cazadores, a band that’s not so much been assembled but patched together from open-mics and other friendships forged from the Triangle music scene during the past year. Guitarist William Taylor’s (The Fooligans, Skylar and the Ugly Girls) soaring riffs command attention while being lifted further skyward by Charles Cleaver’s (Max Indian, the Tomahawks) keyboards. Backed by the hard-hitting rhythm section of bassist Seth Barden (Brand New Life, Sinful Savage Tigers), and drummer Paul Fisher (Tripp) it’s easy to hear why the Triangle’s Independent Weekly has said the band’s “excitability and wanderlust are worth watching.”
The band will play two shows this coming weekend at the Local 506, including a Hungry Heart of Gold: Neil Young vs Bruce Springsteen, a benefit for the Family Violence Prevention Center on Jan. 7 and a going away show Jan. 9 for keyboardist Cleaver, who is moving to New York City to join his girlfriend.
Hunter sat down and answered a few questions for TVD recently:
Like most musicians, I’m sure you guys have a shared love of vinyl. Tell us about it… what is it about the sound that you like?
There’s something so classic about vinyl, I’ve always felt like part of living the musical dream is having a vinyl collection. I still call albums “records” because that was always the dream: to make records. Nowadays music is so disposable, if you don’t like the 30 second clip you hear online you never have to listen to that song again. With vinyl you’re made to listen to those album cuts, the ones you may miss on the first pass.
What’s the last vinyl record you bought?
I think the last vinyl I bought is a live Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers record from the 1985 called “Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers Pack Up the Plantation.” I got it at Nice Price Books in Chapel Hill. It’s pretty awesome; the band sounds tight as hell.
You recently bought a tour van. Have you put it to good use yet? Any funny stories from the road?
We just bought the van a couple months ago, so we’ve had a few chances to use it. A couple weeks ago we played at The Earl in Atlanta and decided to drive back to Chapel Hill after the show. As the night went on it turned out to be the coldest one of winter so far, even in Atlanta, and as we drove back to Chapel Hill the heater in the van decided to quit on us. Instead of just turning off though, it took the cold air from outside and blew it straight at our feet. Seven hours straight of all five of us bundled up with as much padding as we could find. Its only funny now because its over.
What’s your most essential item on the road?
It’s a tie between deodorant and Emergen-C. It’s easy to forget when you’re moving fast to keep up appearances and make an effort to stay healthy. These accomplish both between the two.
Pick your favorite songwriter:
That’s a tough question but overall, I’d have to say Bruce Springsteen. I feel like a lot of people first heard Springsteen because their parents loved his music. I found it when I was 18 years old and just about to drop out of school to pursue music, so I had a different perspective. To me the way he wrote felt like learning a new language, a clear, beautiful way to say the things that I wanted to say. I think the way he uses language is still his biggest influence on me.
Welcome to 2011 and new blog for the Triangle music scene. Because we will be giving special focus to Triangle bands we wanted to start off this new decade by giving a nod to some of last year’s best via Stuart McLamb of The Love Language, a band whose second release, Libraries, hit many a critic’s top picks for 2010. In case you missed it, Stuart compiled his list of favorite Triangle music for Merge’s blog. Called For Lokols… or Street Hitz: vol 2, Stu compiled favorites from Veelee, Cassis Orange, Shit Horse, The Moaners, Naps and many others.
Head over to the Merge blog to download For Lokols.
