Category Archives: TVD Chapel Hill

Aussie Darren Hanlon writes wistful songs about unrequited love and about wanting presents. Actually, he’s a pretty great and witty songwriter who tells a hell of a story. Hanlon has been criss-crossing the United States for the last 7-8 months promoting I Will Love You At All, released on Yep Roc last September. It doesn’t hurt that he also looks like Russell Crowe.

Hanlon kicks off The Casbah’s acoustic songwriter series Thursday. Expect an intimate night of storytelling put together by The Casbah’s Steve Gardner, who a decade ago was the man behind the well-regarded Pine Hill House Concert series, which brought bands like Drive-By Truckers to an intimate living room in Durham. Hanlon took a pit stop on the road earlier this week to answer a few questions:

How do you describe the songwriting process? You have a lot of wistful songs about unrequited love, etc. Are these songs that you draw from your own experience?
I carry a notebook and jot little thoughts down but it mainly happens in huge chunks. I’ll stop moving for a few months and write a batch of songs. As for the unrequited love songs… some of them are for friends, some from stories I’ve heard or read, the rest are from my life and the difficulties of maintaining a relationship with someone when I’m always away.

You’re on the road a lot so you must meet a lot of characters. Any favorite stories from this latest tour? Any characters whose stories you may use for future songs?
I used to meet a lot more characters when I troured on public transport more. I once met an 80-year-old man who was getting the overnight bus from LA to San Fransisco. I’ve thought about writing a song of the experience. We sat up all night an talked like old friends. He told me in detail his family history that had roots in Mexico and could be traced back to Pancho Villa and further to the Spanish army. His parents were inseparable since they met at the age of 5, “like turtle doves,” he said. I tried to dictate it all down on a napkin as he spoke. In fact we got in trouble from the driver for talking and keeping people awake. When we got in to the depot I knew I’d never see him again and I already missed him. I gave him a hug and left and then when I got home to Australia sent him a postcard but never heard anything back.

What are your creature comforts on the road? Anything you can’t live without?
I always go on about it but pinball is the big one. If I feel a bit intimidated by a place I try to find a machine somewhere. If I know I can get to it if I need it eases my mind. Other things? I’d say a warm bed but after about 2 weeks on the road I can just about sleep anywhere.

Read More »

The Pains of Being Pure At Heart drop its sophomore effort, Belong, on Berkeley’s Slumberland Records today. If you caught them at the Cats Cradle last year then you remember the night as being a fairly fuzzed-out ordeal. The New York City-based band returns to the Cradle this coming Saturday.

We have a pair of tickets for the first person to tell us in the comments where the band got its name and give us a good reason why you want to go to the show, I mean, hey, we know how to do a Google search, too. We won’t ship tickets so you should probably live close or plan to be in the area if you respond (so, there!).

Recorded with the production and mixing team of Flood (Depeche Mode, U2) and Alan Moulder (Smashing Pumpkins, Jesus and Mary Chain, Ride), from what we can tell so far, Belong promises a bit more raw sound–a little more like catching the band live than their 2009 self-titled debut.

Download lead single Heart in Your Heartbreak.

TVD is hitting the road with Mike Watt + The Missingmen on their North American “hyphenated-man” Tour in support of Mike’s brand new LP, hyphenated-man.

In each city Mike plays where there’s an affiliated TVD, we’ve got an opportunity for one of you to win the aforementioned “hyphenated-man” on vinyl in exchange for your comment to the contest posting. Let us know why you deserve to win Watt’s latest vinyl opera and the most convincing of the bunch will find the LP in his or her mailbox.

For the fourth in what will be ten opportunities to win the new LP, Mike Watt + The Missingmen play Chapel Hill’s Local 506 tonight, 3/28! You have one week from today to be sufficiently convincing in the comments to be awarded the record. Comments from a previous hyphenated-man giveaway will still be considered for future ones. Winners must have a mailing address in the continental US or Canada.

Mark Fagan of TVD Austin spoke with Mike in advance of the tour:

Mike Watt’s rock & roll résumé is as impressive as they come. His legendary career began with the Minutemen in 1980 alongside guitarist D Boon and drummer George Hurley which ran until the tragic car accident in December 1985 that took D Boon’s life. He then started fIREHOSE with Hurley and Ed Crawford which existed from 1986 to 1994, and has played bass for the legendary Stooges fronted by Iggy Pop for the last eight years. And those are just a few highlights from his storied career.

He’s back in support of his newest solo album and third opera, hyphenated-man, which features Watt on lead vocals and, of course, holding down the low end on electric bass with his signature flowing style that has inspired and influenced fellow bassists for decades. Interestingly, he actually composed hyphenated-man on D Boon’s Telecaster instead of the bass as per his usual practice.

Due to the growing backlog of projects, Watt decided to start his own label—clenchedwrench—and hyphenated-man has the honor of being the first release from this new imprint. The Vinyl District had a chance to chat with Mike before he hit the road.

A BUNCH OF LITTLE THINGS MAKE ONE

TVD: I read that hyphenated-man is inspired by the paintings of Hieronymus Bosch. Can you go into further detail on this?
Watt: … [The documentary film on the Minutemen] We Jam Econo, have you heard of this?

TVD: Oh, certainly.
Watt: Ok, [hyphenated-man] was being made about the same time these cats Keith [Scheiron] and Tim [Irwin] asked me to help them. So I hadn’t listened to Minutemen in a long time because of sadness – with D Boon – but I had to hear it, ya know, for this thing. They wanted me to do a spiel and drive ’em around town. But hearing it was it was like, “Wow, I kinda like this little thing.” [Watt laughs] Ya know, no filler. I wanna work again with this kind of thing. I mean we got the idea from the English band called Wire, Pink Flag. But I still like the way ya know George [Hurley], Boon, and myself went and did this. I wanted to do it again. It struck a chord in me, a resonance in me. Mr. Bosch used all these little things to make one big thing.

Minutemen kinda did that with a record or a gig ya know, a bunch of little things make one. That’s where I kinda found a little parallel. So, in a way I went back to my old days, but then in the opera form. … I was also thinking of this other angle, as far as the middle-aged thing goes. Dorothy and The Wizard of Oz. I don’t know the intention of the writer, it was a man, L. Frank Baum. I don’t know his intentions. But my take is like, you notice that that tin man and scarecrow and lion, they’re the farm hands.

Read More »

New York’s The Fleshtones never really did hit the big time like some of their contemporaries from the garage rock scene, even though they helped coin the phrase. Still, the band soldiers on after 35 years of blood, sweat and well, you get it.

The band returned with a new record, the high-octane half instrumental/half original Brooklyn Sound Solution, March 15 and hits the Local 506 this coming Saturday. Check out footage below from a documentary, “Pardon Us for Living But the Graveyard was Full,” directed by Geoffrey Barbier and released as a deluxe package with the new record.

By now everyone and their best friend’s cousin’s Larry knows that the Purple One is playing Raleigh tonight. Tickets for his Welcome 2 America tour stop at the RBC Center sold out in nanoseconds (and TVD is NOT going, harrumph). Anyway, to commemorate the occasion that is Prince gracing the Old North State, Juan Huevos is back with a mix tape of favorite tracks and adds a few (OK, many) words:

“tonight Prince plays the RBC Center in Raleigh, NC. i will be going, having spent way too much money on tickets after dogging the internet on 2 computers at precisely the second they went on sale. i have been a hardcore Prince fan for 20 years now, and have the majority of his discography covered through tapes, CDs, and records. his music has got me through many many rough times and has always made me excited. like, really really excited. because it is that fucking good.

i became a Prince fan totally by accident. in 5th grade i was really into the first Batman movie. i had a shirt (which i still have) and a hat (it came from one of those weird grown-n-sexy boutique stores at the mall. it had a leather logo and it sucked.) and then one day i remember playing Nintendo and my dad came home and gave me the Batman soundtrack on cassette.

Read More »

Indie crooner Sondre Lerche will release his eponymously-titled sixth record on Mona/Yep Roc June 7. Stream “Domino” from the record below.

The Norwegian-born Brooklyn-based Lerche plays the Cats Cradle June 9.

Sondre Lerche | Domino

Here’s a few details about the release provided by the label:

The album was recorded – live in the studio – and mixed in a short but intense time period of three-weeks. The sessions included fellow musicians – Midlake drummer McKenzie Smith, longtime producer/collaborator Kato Ådland, Dave Heilman, drummer for Lerche-collaborator Regina Spektor, and co-producer, mixer and owner of Rare Book Room Studio, Nicolas Verhnes (Spoon, Animal Collective). “We recorded a lot of it to tape, forcing ourselves to either commit or burn bridges and move on,” Lerche said. “We were killing darlings left and right. It was truly liberating.”

The Blue Indian, a great indie music blog from Georgia that releases exclusive online compilations, recently asked Butterflies to contribute an unreleased song for their next free compilation. “Bleak Was The Breeze”, the band’s contribution, is the retelling of the myth of Deadalus and Icarus. It was recorded in The Owl Room, Trekky Records’ in-house recording studio, according to the label.

Catch the Butterflies at 4th Friday Bookings at The Regulator Bookshop on Durham’s Ninth Street March 25 from 8 p.m. until 10 p.m. when they play with Wildgeeses. Fullsteam Brewery is on tap to bring over some of its fine local beer.

Wylie Hunter & The Cazadores know a thing or two about love songs. With Durham set to marry itself to a ton of local residents on Saturday, Hunter picked out a couple of love songs as an ode to the beloved–and soon to be betrothed–Bull City. Hunter along with his band The Cazadores will play Fullsteam Brewery along with Scotland’s Admiral Fallow Saturday night.

http://music.mync.com/2011/01/sessions-at-studio-b-with-wylie-hunter-the-cazadores/

1. Jonny Corndawg-“Family Tree”- I saw Jonny Corndawg in Brooklyn last weekend, he played a few songs with Dawes and put on a great show of the humor and heartbreak that makes great country music. This is a fun little romp about marriage from his album I’m Not Ready to be a Daddy. Classic.

2. The Beach Boys-“Wouldn’t It Be Nice”-I’ve loved this song since the first time I heard it who knows how long ago. When I was in high school this was my anthem about how me and my girlfriend were gonna be together forever.

3. The Avett Bros-“January Wedding”-It’s harder than you’d think to find country or rock songs that mention weddings in a positive light, but this is one of the prettier ones.

4. Al Green-“Love and Happiness”-Al Green knows better than most how to get to the heart of an issue. Especially love. This is a soulful, realistic take on what it means to be in love.

5. Bruce Springsteen-“She’s the One”-Not necessarily a song about marriage, more like young wild love that you think you can’t live without. The best version of this song is the live recording from Hammersmith Odeon, London 1975.

Phil Cook & His Feat will release its next record, Hungry Mother Blues, May 10 on Trekky Records, the label announced late Thursday. Cook, a member of venerable Raleigh outfit Megafaun, made the all instrumental Hungry Mother Blues in a single day during an ice storm. Check out a free download the bluesy Ballad of a Hungry Mother.

The vinyl record will be pressed at 45RPM and feature a CD and digital download. The jacket features original art from Catherine Edgerton of Midtown Dickens.

Tracklist is as follows:

1. Frazee, Minnesota
2. Waiting ‘Round The Oven Buns
3. Juniper
4. Lament and Lullaby (For The Sloane Sisters)
5. Sparrowander
6. Ballad Of A Hungry Mother
7. The Last Steam Engine Train
8. The Jensens

Durham’s Free Electric State has been buzzing for a couple of months now about its gig opening for New York psych/noise rockers A Place To Bury Strangers and Hooray for Earth this Friday at Motorco. In fact, this is the first chance the public will have to see the band–currently working on its yet-to-be-named follow up to last year’s Caress–since November when the band played the Troika Festival.

Want to go? Tell us your favorite Richard Dryfus movie moment in the comments below (leave your e-mail address, too) and we will notify a winner by 5 p.m. tonight. (You should probably live closeby or plan to be in town as we’re too broke to ship tickets).

Where are you guys at with the recording the new record?

Tony Stiglitz: Plans are to go into the studio in April. We’re going to record in Baltimore with Rob Girardi at Lord Baltimore Recording. He has done some great records by Beach House, Celebration, Double Dagger, The Death Set, The Oranges Band, Arbouretum & Dragons Of Zynth just to name the proverbial few. Rob understands our music and actually “likes” it. From now until then we’re excited to be able to play the new songs out live. It’s a great way to see where your at with the material. I think we all love the fine tuning aspect of the process as much as the original writing/creation part.

Nick Williams: We are also spending a lot of time deciding what the “soundworld” of the record will be like. We want to establish a very specific atmosphere for these songs, but we are not sure what that atmosphere will be yet. I can promise that it will not sound like sunshine and daffodils.

Are the sounds any different and are there any new inspirations?

TS: For this record the motto is “More Kraut, Less Rock.” The songs still rock, but with more emphasis on the overall mood and groove so you can “let your eyeballs roll into the back of your head.” New “old” inspirations abound in these new songs!!!

NW: We are not quite as concerned with creating a shoegazy wash of guitar noise on these songs. I think each instrumental part should ring through the fog and succeed or fail based on it’s own merits, rather than hide beneath oceans of delay and distortion. That said, there are some pretty psychedelic head exploding moments in these new songs.

How are the songs are shaping up?

TS: Great. They’re starting to look like that mashed potato sculpture from Close Encounters of the Third Kind. We’re really hoping it will lead us to new alien life forms! I mean, nobody has stolen riffs from them… yet!

NW: Except the songs aren’t made of mashed potatoes. They are made of radioactive ice from one of Saturn’s moons. So, I think.

Are there any potential titles?

TS: Song titles, yes, but we’re going to wait until the baby is born before we name the little bastard.

NW: The working title at the moment is “Peanut Butter Sandwich”.

Why should someone come to your show on Friday with A Place To Bury Strangers?

TS: We’ll tell you the names of all the new songs!

NW: You should only NOT come to this show if you hate things that are great. If you hate awesome shit, you will NOT enjoy yourself.

Baltimore natives Wye Oak–which just released its third record Civilian yesterday on Merge–are coming to the Local 506 Saturday as the band works its way down to Austin for South By Southwest next week. TVD has a pair of tickets to give away to the first person to respond below with the band’s ORIGINAL name in the comments section below. Response must be received between now and noon EST Friday.

Please be sure and leave an E-mail address along with response so we can contact the winner. And, please note, tickets won’t be shipped so it’s best if you live close enough to get here in time for the show if you do win.

Merge’s Wye Oak is releasing it’s third record, Civilian, today. It’s a beautiful, if not haunting record, featuring songs undulating great swells like “Holy, Holy.” The Baltimore-based band, comprised of singer/guitarist/songwriter Jenn Wasner and Andy Stack (backing vocals/drums/keyboards) plays the Local 506 this coming Saturday. Baltimore’s the Lower Dens open.

TVD will have a pair of tickets to give out starting tomorrow. Check back. Until then, Wasner had this to say about the new record:

Where did the title track, “Civilian,” come from? The lyrics seems to suggest a longing for absolution or a need to fit into something bigger.

The song “Civilian” is about acknowledging an unhealthy level of dependence on others for your own happiness, and trying to break free of that. It’s about learning to love the life you have instead of constantly obsessing over the things you can’t have. And, overall, being more self-sufficient and free from the expectations others have for you (or, at least, the expectations you imagine others may have for you).

The rest of the songs on the album, then, all stem from that realization–at a certain point everyone has to choose their own path, and in order to fully exist in one world, there are others that we cannot have, and certain sacrifices we all have to make. In the end, I’m really happy with the life I’m living right now, but it’s inevitable that there will be times when I yearn for a bit more stability and permanence.

Because everything has happened so quickly for us–and we’re fortunate that this is the case, you don’t always get to choose the timing of these things!–we’ve always been learning as we go. Our first two records, in my mind, were “learning” records for us–figuring out how to write, how to record, how to feel comfortable with our live setup. “Civilian” is the first record that I felt adequately prepared to make. We’ve been performing together for long enough that we’re finally comfortable with our two-piece balancing act, and I feel that we’ve grown as songwriters and arrangers, as well. Appropriately enough, mixing the record with engineer/producer John Congleton was the icing on the cake. One of the most valuable things we’ve learned is how to recognize our own strengths and weaknesses and allow others to help us fully realize our ideas.

How did your hometown influence you as a band?

Andy and I grew up in Baltimore County, so we had a fairly suburban upbringing. I’ve lived in the city proper for about eight years now–essentially for the duration of my serious musical output.

Baltimore can be intimidating, but there is a lot of warmth in this city–the difference is that it comes from the people and the music and art that’s being made here rather than the surroundings themselves. It’s an inspiring and exciting place, but also a very comfortable and supportive feeling scene. It feels far less competitive than a lot of places; people here are genuinely excited to work with one another.

Langhorne Slim, Tift Merritt and Arrested Development are among some of this year’s high profile names announced for this spring’s Shakori Hills Spring Grassroots Festival, planned for April 21-24 in Pittsboro.

A host of other notable local acts are also on this year’s bill, including Kooley High, Gray Young and Mount Moriah.

Adult four day advance festival tickets are available now for $90.