No stupid questions — A self-reflexive exploration of a self-seeking local band on the culture industry, Ahleuchatistas (Ahleuchatistas, 2003) Q: What’s this album like? A: About once in any given three minutes, Ahleuchatistas will steer your ear vastly off course and completely fool you into thinking they’ve forgotten where it was they set out to […]

Front-row reviews What: Goths on Wheels Where: Tarwheels Skateway, Swannanoa When: Friday, Feb. 6 It’s hard to look haunted and emotionally detached while balanced on a pair of roller skates. Trust me, I’ve tried. Tonight is Goth Night at Tarwheels, and all around me, black-clad angels of death and despair-spewing nihilists are desperately attempting not […]

Joey “Dirty” Martini, aka Chris Bower, is having a wonderful time. That’s what he keeps saying, anyway, between drinks and short jaunts to The Hangar’s dance floor. Then again, this is Martini’s sort of place, teeming on all sides with a few of his favorite things: abundant booze, party girls and loud rock ‘n’ roll. […]

A competition of sexist relativism Contender: Malaprop’s Bookstore/Cafe’s “A Cafe of One’s Own” When: Saturday, Jan. 17 Stats: A women-only (or is that womyn-only?) poetry-and-prose reading held in the heart of one of Asheville’s most tolerant venues. Advantages: Understanding. Polite listeners. A safe place for women writers to share their innermost thoughts and feelings. A […]

Front-row reviews What: The Manor Daze Where: Fred’s Speakeasy When: Wednesday, Jan. 21 If you’ve ever toiled at a low-end multiplex, much of The Manor Daze won’t seem that far-fetched. Incompetent co-workers, angry managers and after-hours liaisons behind the popcorn-warming machine — that pretty much describes my own time behind the counter of a failing […]

It’s just such an Asheville story. Two highly creative yet unemployed roommates — an artist and a poet — live in a run-down apartment in one of the city’s more disreputable areas. They dodge rent, commit a little dine-and-dash, and party frequently on the charity of their working friends. And, of course, they play at […]

It may take more than talent or luck for Terry Letman’s dream to ignite. In fact, a little divine intervention may be required. For Letman’s big plan to play out, little Asheville has to become the next big hotbed for R&B and soul musicians. And that sounds unlikely. Letman, a respected producer, former touring gospel […]

Listening room (album reviews) Compulation Volume One: Songs From North Carolina, Various Artists (Pox World Empire, 2003) A good mix CD is a powerful thing. It was one particularly good compilation album — Asheville Homegrown (Onion Music, 2001) — that started me writing about the local-music scene in the first place. I got my copy […]

Bargain bin During a recent quest for used books and albums, I found myself in that greatest of pop-culture equalizers, the second-hand shop. At Goodwill Industries on Tunnel Road, N’Sync consorts with Rush, and Beethoven with The B-52s. The store’s makeshift shelves — little more than neatly arranged plastic tubs — aren’t stocked by the […]

David Copperfield doesn’t have anything to prove. Millions of people watched him on TV as he made the Statue of Liberty disappear, walked through the Great Wall of China, escaped from Alcatraz, and vanished from an imploding building. He’s a household name in America, easily the most successful magician of all time. So why on […]

Of note After the fall: Beyond-country twang aces Sugar & The Plums plan on releasing their sex-and-booze-soaked first studio recording — a 10-song-er — in late March on local Manimal Records. No title has yet been determined. Top open-mic addicts move on up The first thing you notice about Matt Lambert is his smile. It’s […]

On the other end of the phone, Leslie Aldredge is bragging about being the first person to “discover” Fisher Meehan and his band DrugMoney. And it’s really pissing me off. Aldredge is DrugMoney’s manager, and the architect of the group’s contract with Hybrid Recordings, as well as being the driving force behind the national mass-media […]

Front-row reviews Who: Sugar & The Plums w/My Fifty-Five Where: Vincent’s Ear When: Saturday, Dec. 20 In that weird mood that follows a good show, I approached Sugar & The Plums bassist Eamon Martin and demanded to know the score. “Have you been picking your bass with a credit card?” I inquired. “No,” revealed Eamon, […]

Listening room (album reviews) thankful, Michael Farr (4elements music, 2003) In the spirit of the holiday season — that time of giving and forgiving — guest reviewer Nicholas Holt and I decided to bring a little cheer into that most dismal of corners: acoustic folk. This week, we review local hotshot folkster Michael Farr‘s full-length […]

“We expect respect, and we expect them to pay attention. That’s a lot more than a lot of people have expected from them.” — art teacher Erika Schultz Todd tells me something I can’t understand. Amid his thick mumbles, all I can make out is something about a painting. “He said he wants you to […]

Bowling for Kerouac I was irredeemably behind. And then, with the four final throws in the final frame, it was over. I lost a game of bowling to Kerouac or the Radio. Guitarist Matt Cavanaugh, smiling wryly behind his glasses throughout the game, was holding fast to the lead there at the end (with a […]

“I believe that poetry is a long piece of hungry momentum. It’s a living organism,” declares Asheville-based poet Keith Flynn. He truly believes that poetry is as fundamentally human as a heartbeat. The words are propelled like blood to a heartbeat rhythm. The rhythm is in our bodies, those giant liquid drums, and the melody […]

Of Note Rockin’ in the Teen World: Rumors can be a nasty business. Yet for the Teen Rock benefit on Saturday, Dec. 13, they may just help a good cause. Word’s circulating that once-local guitar god Warren Haynes may be on hand to check out the three headlining local teen-rock groups — No Comply, Lost […]

Getting to the Center for Craft, Creativity & Design means following an unassuming two-lane on the outskirts of Hendersonville. It’s a typical winding mountain road, skirted with thick growths of trees. Were it not for the signs, in fact, the place would be easy to miss, sitting as it does behind a small ridge, its […]

Front-row reviews What: Tell Us the Truth tour Where: The Orange Peel When: Saturday, Nov. 15 Hours after the Tell Us the Truth tour had moved on, its celebrity performers had headed back out on the road, and the crowd from the halls of the Asheville Community Resource Center had dispersed into the chilly downtown […]