As impressive as are both Balsam Range and the Atlanta Pops Orchestra Ensemble, the unsung hero of Mountian Overture is Wes Funderberk; on all but one tune, it is his arrangement skill that creates the seamless musical blend between the bluegrass and orchestral players.
DJ Audio — born Ethan Conner — is a well-rounded talent, with notable skills in writing lyrics, vocals (both sung and rapped) and keyboards.
The nearly four-hour show, with DJ Plain Ole Bill scratching next to Ant, was a vibrant bravura for Atmosphere’s Rhymesayers Entertainment label, home to Aesop Rock’s critically acclaimed latest release (The Impossible Kid) and the proving ground of the beloved late rapper Eyedea.
Depending on your current metal state, you might take keen pleasure in a song title, “F**ked Up Erector Set.” Especially when it plays as if said erector said it being hurled and smashed; tiny screws and painted metal pieces sent flying in all directions. The song is the lead track on Recorded (out on Monday, […]
On Monday, Sigur Rós performed a two-act set at the Thomas Wolfe Auditorium. That much emotional anticipation can set a high bar for live performance. Adding to the challenge, Sigur Rós is touring without a new album and without long-time member and keyboardist Kjartan Sveinsson, responsible for the band’s epic orchestral and string arrangements.
The band’s debut is described as “smooth and dark, sad but upbeat” on its CD Baby page. And that’s accurate, though the sadness feels more like poignancy; the pang in the change of seasons, love recalled from a distance of time.
The latest EP by local musician Miles Cramer is a collection of “songs about home, death, love and moving forward,” according Cramer’s Bandcamp page.
Saxophonist, composer and arranger Kamasi Washington has been selling out venues around the country and being praised as the savior of American jazz. At The Orange Peel on Thursday, Washington and his band, The Next Step, proved they were worth the hype.
While the conversations between the instruments are active and cerebral, moods wash through the music so that it’s felt emotionally as well as intellectually.
There are plenty of wonders, but Live at The Mothlight would rather thrill, scare, haunt and taunt that be plainly, simply pretty.
From the first song, the band seemed ready to befriend the entire audience and perform at full-throttle, no warm-up required.
JJ Grey seems like a guy who knows how to have a good time. He also seems like he genuinely wants everyone around him to have a good time. With his six-piece band Mofro, Grey played the outdoor stage at Pisgah Brewing Co. on Friday night.
Xenography, the new album by composer and musician Chris Stack is intensely observant and deeply peaceful. It’s not an album that commands you to listen, that stage dives and struts and makes a spectacle of itself. But to really pay attention to these songs is to go into a deeper, quieter, slower-paced place; a place welling with its own life forms and pulses and magic.
At first glance, Thompson is of the David Wilcox/David Grey school of songwriting. Pop-savvy, thoughtful, rhythmically interesting. He’s also a good guitarist, a showman, and able to access his New Orleans roots for slashes of jazz and soul that elevate the songs above standard songwriter fare.
Part experimental, part indie-pop, Kisses to the Sky — the new release from N.C.-based collective Oulipo is as risky as it is dreamy. The album “takes inspiration from the studio pop melodrama of Talk Talk, Phil Collins, and the two Bruces (Springsteen & Hornsby)” says the group’s Bandcamp page.
From the knuckle-pop percussion and the fuzzed-out opening lyrics of “The Kids,” Fashion Bath‘s newest release, Sunday Best is full of intrigue, dark shimmer and reticent importance. The EP is a mix of astute alt-pop (like “The Kids,” with its almost-slowdance beat and buzzy, heady melody) and explosive, driving noise-rockers (like “Funny Feeling,” with its […]
1UP, the new record by Western North Carolina and Greensboro-based Seers is an unabashedly weird, inspired, fantastical, bizarre and transcendent collection. The nine-track album is just part of a larger project — released by the collective Nomad Staff — including short films and music videos. The combination is a slide down a rabbit hole of […]
It might be a song about dying, but The Freeway Revival‘s cover of “Whipping Post” — performed last Saturday night during the local band’s show — brought The Allman Brothers’ legacy to life. In fact, the five member band, led by a songwriting brother duo, seemed to channel the soul-filled history of rock ‘n’ roll. […]
“As long as you come out to hear us, we’ll keep coming back,” promised guitarist Andrew Trube of Austin-based band Greyhounds. “There are more people than last time we were here.” The crowd numbered optimistically at 30 — a small group inside The Grey Eagle. But Greyhounds, a class act, performed as if it was a […]
It’s been said that The Get Right Band doesn’t play the same set twice, but while that signals unpredictability, it’s not a sign of inconsistency. Completely at ease on stage (singer/guitarist Silas Durocher was barefoot, despite the chill outside), the band launched into its first song — “The Carpenter’s Daughter” — to a mostly empty […]
Sidecar Honey is the songwriting trifecta of Dave Dribbon, Jeff Honeycutt and Randy Dzielak — a self-described “down home roots sounds with an original modern edge” outfit. But what makes this Americana act (in a sea of roots-music bands) a stand out is the smart juxtaposition of shrewd songwriting and high-energy rhythm. Not that Sidecar […]
