Save the Monkeywhale

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Jim is an extraordinarily generous man with a lovely voice accompanied by his long-time friends who play together at the local service station every week. If you drive through Concord on a Tuesday or Thursday, you might just get to hear them. A rare treat.

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Sirius.B

admin — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 13:27:56 +0000

A star for the new year. Sirius.B, self-proclaimed Gypsy Absurdist Metal Folk Funk Punk are based out of Asheville, NC. They packed themselves into their van and drove a total of 6 hours to play in this kitchen. Not only did I end up having a Young Ones quotation match with the Charango player but by the time they left they felt like old friends. Gypsy Absurdists indeed.

At the eve of this year, they played to a sold out crowd at the Rocket Club in Asheville. The opener was a rather racy act called Bootstrap Burlesque. Their name comes from a chance encounter with Imhotep who claimed to have been visiting from the planet Sirius.B. They needed a band name. Voila.

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Stephaniesid

admin — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 14:59:52 +0000

Here’s another great band from Asheville, North Carolina. They’ve played Bonaroo and Bele Chere with all manner of great musicians and artists. They’re also playing as part of the Save the Monkeywhale Festival in Greensboro, NC alongside some of Greensboro’s finest (October 1st, 2nd and 3rd). Signed to the Nine Mile Records Label out of Austin, Texas (a model music town with a vibrant arts scene and home to the hugely popular South by Southwest music festival) the band just released their new album, Warm People. This particular song was one of three they played in the kitchen unprocessed or filtered. What you’re hearing is their live performance without affect. This band puts on one heck of a show.

Praise for Stephaniesid:

“Although generally referred to as an indie-pop band, their sound is actually far more complex and compelling than that genre label implies. Starting off as a darkly bittersweet piano-bar duo (with Chuck Lichtenberger playing piano and Stephanie Morgan singing), the group has since expanded to a full band and become one of the most interesting, experimental and creatively edgy acts…. and [they support] the local scene through efforts like the POPAsheville music festival (formerly known as IdFest). [They] may be one of the defining Asheville-based music acts of this era.”
–Steve Shanafelt, Mountain Xpress

Stephaniesid on Stephaniesid:

Stephaniesid is indie pop revelry! The foundation is Stephanie (lead vox, guitar, synth) and Chuck (keys, bass pedals, backing vox), and a drummer (currently the fabulous Tim Haney), and sometimes we’re able to bring Matthew on vibraphone and Jacob and Justin on horns, or singers, or other folks we like to make music with. We always play with heart and lust and gusto, because there’s no point in doing anything else. We care about people and things. We often brood about them. But not for terribly long, as there is no gain in taking the human condition too seriously. The music, like life itself, is striving, searching, inconclusive, and (hopefully) beautiful.

We’d also like to add that they were all terribly good natured and fun to be around.

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The Alcazar Hotel featuring Katharine Whalen

admin — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 14:54:14 +0000

This trio from Chapel Hill not only craft great songs, but they make for excellent company and didn’t complain at all when I pointed thousand degree lights in their faces. Oddly, Will Dawson didn’t sweat at all and I’ve been informed by my more conspiratorial friends that that is a sign of a xenoform taking human form. Not sure about all that.

Dustin, the drummer, has played in numerous bands and spent a brief period of time with Greensboro’s Otis Reem back in the day, and Will Dawson played an entire host of different instruments on the most recent tour of the Squirrel Nut Zippers. Owen and Dustin play together in a band called, “JokesandJokesandJokes,” and Will also plays with another duo called, “Lucky,” with Katherine Whalen.

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“Anachronistic musical tracks that sound like a cross between Latin,sampled jazz, and the Motown Remixed series paired with Whalen’s hot vox make for intriguing, and highly welcome, bedfellows.”

- Ryan Gillespie-Pop Matters

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Bruce Piephoff

admin — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 14:38:34 +0000

Bruce Piephoff shows a mastery of folk here that anyone in the world would envy. He knows exactly how it relates to blues. He knows that a folk artist should never hesitate to express the most educated thoughts and sophisticated sentiments with contractions and colloquialisms.

-Arthur Shuey

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Martha Bassett Band

admin — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 14:31:41 +0000

photo by Robert Kirk

North Carolinians have known Martha’s music for some time now, but in the past couple of years, she’s been finding a new audience throughout the southeast due to increased touring, her work on the Sony Classics film JUNEBUG, festival appearances, and numerous articles in the press.

Martha and her band have opened for Lyle Lovett, played Merlefest, and are currently touring the east coast in support of the new disc “Sinner’s Prayer,” which features original Americana written by Martha and bandmate, Justin Poindexter. Although they are known for their ability to incorporate jazz, country, traditional, and rock standards into the live shows, it is their original music that fans appreciate most.

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Sam Frazier

admin — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 14:25:52 +0000

Musicians in Greensboro know Sam Frazier. He’s been playing music for decades with the likes of Scott “Scooter” Manring, Bruce Piephoff, David Driveway Moore, Walrus, the boys from Bus Stop, Tornado, Martha Bassett, Laurelyn Dossett, along with his own band, The Sam Frazier Band and the Hall Monitors with Lisa Dames.

He’s currently working on recording a new album and this is one of those new tracks, which incidentally he’s entering into this year’s Merlefest Songwriter contest. It’s great to hear him in the raw. If you get a chance to hear Sam live you won’t be disappointed.

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Filthybird

admin — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 14:23:14 +0000

Filthybird is currently recording a new album following their debut Southern Skies at the aptly named, Pinebox Recording Studio. There’s a sense of hopeful decay in these songs that stay with you long after the melody transitions to silence, like kudzu on a long forgotten telegraph pole.

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The Never

admin — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 14:12:34 +0000

The Never. Another great band to emerge from the Trekky Records Collective.

The Never are currently touring in support of the release of their second long player album, entitled ANTARCTICA. It’s a storybook album: a full length CD literally coupled with a fully illustrated storybook by guitarist Noah Smith. The story is centered around a young, naive boy named Paul and his journey to find the owner of a large bomb he finds near his home in the country.

ANTARCTICA is a plea for everyone young and old to remember the simple things of childhood. The book also serves as a reminder to appreciate our world and the beauty it has to offer.

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