That the Swedish-born musician writes songs more eloquently in English — his second language — than most of us can communicate in our mother tongue is astonishing. Matsson’s newest release, Dark Bird Is Home, is described lyrically as “both comforting and alarming.”
Singer-songwriter Drew Holcomb had a recent tour stop at The Orange Peel with his band, The Neighbors. Ahead of the show, he performed two songs exclusively for Mountain Xpress and Acoustic Asheville.
You don’t have to be a fan of throwbacks to like this New York City-based collective. The group, created by pianist/composer/arranger Scott Bradlee, takes pop tracks and reworks them as vintage jazz, swing and ragtime songs.
The Brooklyn-based indie-dance band plays in Asheville on Wednesday, May 20, at 9 p.m. Vacationer and local buskers Midnight Snack also perform.
During the past 15 years, no band has had a bigger impact on the sonic trajectory of independent music than Animal Collective. But within that talented membership, none has had a greater reach than Panda Bear, aka Noah Lennox, who performs at The Orange Peel on Saturday, May 9.
Each month concert photographer David Simchock of music news and reviews blog Front Row Focus shares some of his favorite images, captured on stages in and around Asheville.
Parts circus, funk collective and marching band, the 20-piece outfit blends party-ready music with dance, gymnastics and enviable attire.
Three bands, five bucks — that’s the basics of the local showcase taking the stage at The Orange Peel on Friday, April 3, at 9 p.m.
Singer-Songwriter Caroline Rose recently opened up for Shovels & Rope at The Orange Peel. Xpress was able to capture two songs — including a brand new song called “Goodbye May” — exclusively for Acoustic Asheville before the show. Here, Rose is accompanied by Brett Lanier on lap steel. Goodbye May American Religious
To those who think the celebration of romantic love is just a Hallmark company construct: not quite. Since the 1700s, lovers have been giving each other handwritten cards, flowers and sweets. It wasn’t until the 19th century that Valentine’s Day cards were mass-produced. But 200 years of tradition doesn’t mean you have to give in […]
Tara Nevins and fellow Donna the Buffalo songwriter Jeb Puryear provide a perfect example of how doing what you love can change the world: For 25 years they’ve not only excited audiences but built community.
It was the 31-year-old Chicagoan’s casual stand-up riffing on the Bill Cosby rape allegations that sparked a media firestorm. Buress went from being a quickly rising comedian to the guy who inadvertently brought down the biggest black entertainer in history.
The Steep Canyon Rangers must never sleep because, in addition to touring extensively and making albums with famous friends (their most recent is 2014’s Steve Martin and the Steep Canyon Rangers featuring Edie Brickell LIVE; the track “Pretty Little One” from that album is Grammy-nominated), they also make time to do good deeds. And drink […]
Ready or not, here comes the new year. Whether you can’t unload 2014 soon enough or you could actually use another month or two to tie up loose ends, the countdown to 2015 is on. It’s up to you how (and, perhaps more importantly, where) you want to greet it. Yes, watching the whole televised […]
“There’s nothing to do” is a complaint rarely heard around Western North Carolina. There are rivers to raft, trails to hike, breweries to visit, galleries to browse, shops to consider, historical sites to take in, restaurants to sample and neighborhoods to stroll. And then — as if all of that isn’t enough fun — there’s […]
Back in the day — 2005, to be precise — Josh “J2K” Young and Curt “Autobot” Cameruci began DJing parties under the name Flosstradamus. Armed with four turntables and two mixers, they packed out a tiny Grateful Dead bar in the Boystown neighborhood of Chicago with genre-blending, mash-up heavy sets. In the subsequent decade, the […]
Think of hip-hop, and a number of images might come to mind: DJs, loose pants, B-Boys and graffiti, perhaps. Even if your list isn’t culled from stereotypes, it’s unlikely to include aerialists — though that might change after the Hip-hop Circus at The Orange Peel on Saturday, Nov. 29. That event pairs area hip-hop acts […]
The New Pornographers’ Together was one of 2010’s standout albums, but compared with Vampire Weekend’s Contra, Sufjan Stevens’ The Age of Adz and Broken Bells’ self-titled debut — all of which successfully incorporated electronic elements into their creators’ indie sounds — its string-aided rock was a bit of an outlier. Four years later, arpeggiators and […]
At first glance, Shawnee, Oklahoma-based singer-songwriter Samantha Crain makes an unlikely front woman. She might not be a boho trendsetter like Johanna and Klara Söderberg, the sisters of Swedish folk-pop outfit First Aid Kit for whom Crain is currently opening. But, even alone on stage (except for her guitar), Crain quickly proves why she’s warming […]
It’s probably hard to open for The Afghan Whigs, one of the more formidable rock bands of the ’90s, with their huge sound and Greg Dulli’s powerful vocal — and even more challenging to open for the six-piece group as a solo artist. Unless you happen to be Joseph Arthur. Of course, Arthur wasn’t exactly […]
It was gear that brought singer-songwriter and guitarist Adam Granduciel to Echo Mountain Recording Studios, one of five studios in five different states where he recorded The War on Drugs’ latest effort, Lost in the Dream. (The band also recorded parts of 2011’s Slave Ambient there.) Granduciel wanted to use Echo Mountain’s Fairchild 670 stereo […]
