Six years ago, Found Magazine creator Davy Rothbart got a message that completely changed his life. It wasn’t a burning bush from God, or an oversized check from Ed McMahon. It was somewhat more pedestrian than that—a scrap of paper left on the windshield of his car that read: Mario, I f***ing hate you. You […]

Many artists have been inspired by the bleak sterility of the modern hospital, with its conflicting roles as place of healing and prison—among them Dalton Trumbo, Ken Kesey, Lars von Trier and Susanna Kaysen (perhaps better known as the author of Girl, Interrupted). In 2001, local guitarist and singer Jason Smith added his name to […]

Galactic’s sixth album, From the Corner to the Block, is an aural roadmap, one that guides you throughout various U.S. metropolises, one corner at a time. And to guide you on this tour of inner city corners, the band didn’t rely on one vocalist (in fact they split with their full-time singer in 2004), instead […]

Ah, Halloween! As the evenings cool off and the crisp winds pick up, gently swaying the limbs of trees and the rocking the creaky, antiquated houses of Asheville, don’t you just want to curl up in your house with a cup of tea and a good book and await those happy trick-or-treaters? Or do you […]

Punk rock is not aging very well. For example, The Sex Pistols, the band that once declared there is “No Future,” have now, 30 years later, rerecorded the song “Anarchy in the U.K.” to be featured on the soundtrack to the mainstream video game Guitar Hero III—not exactly a nihilistic or anti-establishment statement. Fiend Club […]

While radio listeners are bobbing their heads to the bling-laden soundtrack provided by chart toppers like Soulja Boy and Fergie, local rockers Crank County Daredevils are cranking out a hard-rocking brand of sonic sleaze that tips a leather cowboy hat to a brand of musical excess from another era: that of past pop-chart superstars Mötley […]

In the few years surrounding the turn of the last millennium, there was an explosion of performance troupes across the country digging up the bones (or at least mending the wounds on the badly battered body) of old-time vaudeville and burlesque entertainment. Like any cultural explosion, though, most of these scrappy, by-the-seat-of-their-pants troupes burned out […]

There’s a small town nestled somewhere in the mountains that’s known for its pristine forests, its great skiing and its charming culture. The town’s web site proudly proclaims it to be a great place to escape the heat in the summer, and it’s easy to imagine the smiling face of Mayor Terry Bellamy overlooking a […]

“People always ask things like, ‘How did you meet?’” says Simone Pace, speaking on the phone with Xpress from his home in Brooklyn. “But that was so long ago, you know, who cares?” (Non)blonde on (non)blonde: Fitting name or not, Blonde Redhead have spent the last dozen years crafting a sound that’s all their own. […]

In not exactly this order, this is how Nikki Talley has spent the past few months: She ended a three-year stint playing cafes in suburban Toronto; reintegrated to her home turf in Western North Carolina; turned 30; and released her second album, Telling Lies. A Star is reborn: Now that she’s proven she can play […]

There’s a pretty logical starting point for an article about a band with an unpronounceable name—in this case the California-cum-Brooklyn based !!! (which they verbalize as any repetition of a monosyllabic word or sound, such as “pow-pow-pow,” or more commonly “chk-chk-chk,” the clicking sound made by the Australian tribespeople in the film The Gods Must […]

Silver-haired and bearded, sporting jeans and a cowboy hat, Tommy Erdélyi is a living-legend punk in Farmer’s Market clothing. Tommy Erdélyi is shadow of his former self, but maybe that’s a good thing. illustration by Ethan Clark Only the true fan would be able to squint and see in 55-year-old Erdélyi the features of his […]

If you were to jump to conclusions based on the artwork on Acid Mothers Temple albums Absolutely Freakout and New Geocentric World—garish prints inspired by ‘60s poster artists such as Rick Griffin and Bob Masse—you might write them off as yet another Jerry-worshipping jam band. The songs are, at least initially, improvised—and I was certainly […]

Selling out can be accomplished in a lot of ways. Sonic Youth toned down their feedback-rich jam sessions and signed to Geffen. Beck did thinly veiled Prince impersonations, also for Geffen. The Butthole Surfers went from making noise rock discordant enough to cause seizures to making pop songs saccharine-sweet enough to cause cavities—and, worse, signed […]

Sssshhhhhh …. Hope and Anchor is playing. (Photo taken at Pete’s Candy Store in Brooklyn’s Williamsburg neighborhood, Dec. 2005 by Jenene Chesborough) Hope and Anchor is as low-key as the rubbed-down name of one of its three members, who goes by “sarahbrown.” “I always say ‘quiet’ first,” offers band mate Todd Weakley, asked to describe […]

The Winston-Salem-based group Healing Force perform at this year’s Kwanzaa celebration at the YMI Cultural Center. Radio stations don’t play Kwanzaa songs. Homes aren’t draped in Kwanzaa decorations. And no stores in Asheville are putting anything on sale to commemorate the celebration’s recurrence on the calendar. If you’re not among the 18 million people who […]

Still undressing for all the right reasons: The everprovocative Rebelles. As the eye of the storm that is The Holidays inches toward us, millions across the country are ironing out the minute details of their family gatherings. Party hosts are buying stocking stuffers, drawing up Christmas dinner seating charts to avert personality conflicts and planning […]

They may not be old enough to vote, but the kids in Lose This Gun still have the right to rock. Now, if there was only a place … Rock ‘n’ roll has come a long way in its 50-odd years on the planet. Souls have been sold to it, cities have been built on […]

Forget the ’80s: With a new album and a musical mission that spans sex, war and politics, Joan Jett and the Blackhearts are firmly rooted in the 21st century. Rocker Joan Jett, whose numerous chart-topping rock anthems will forever inspire fist-pumping sing-alongs and underwhelming drunken karaoke routines, is feeling political. On Sinner, her first studio […]

Post-folk proto-punk: Arthur Lee and Love’s album Forever Changes may have been ignored in its time, but today it’s ranked among the most important albums of the 1960s. Marc McCloud loves movies. Well, duh, of course he does. His movie store, Orbit, is said to have the largest selection of DVDs in Western North Carolina, […]