The story of a porn writer with family problems, Paula Vogel’s Hot ‘N’ Throbbing is a challenging play, dealing with issues even a professional theater company might have trouble bringing to life. Plaeides Productions’ version works about half the time. Here we have a single mom, Charlene (Betz Bigelow), trying to raise her two adolescent […]

Together again for the very first time It was a Valentine’s Day show, “Songs for Lovers on Ice,” another one of Fisher Meehan’s theme events that brings together Asheville’s best downtown musicians. But not much was getting past my dull-gray armor of mid-winter, lovelorn depression. Nothing, that is, until a band I’d never heard of […]

Descolada steals hearts with wordless intensity The origin of their name is a Portuguese word meaning “unglued.” That said, members of local instrumental-rock group Descolada actually take their title from a fictional disease created by sci-fi writer Orson Scott Card in his book Speaker for the Dead. According to the band, Card’s made-up malady turns […]

Christy Kane doesn’t sound like you think she will. What you expect from the leader of New Orleans neo-grunge trio The Hazard County Girls is the morning-after-Mardi-Gras rasp of a young woman who’s seen it all. Or at least a hint of jadedness — Kane’s group, after all, is regularly compared to the likes of […]

Front-row reviews What: Mosby w/Wayne Robbins & The Hellsayers and Cary Fridley Where: The Grey Eagle When: Friday, May 23 I have this secret urge to see Cary Fridley cut loose, kick off her hand-quilted, homespun charm, and rock the pine-wood cabin of Appalachian folk down to its foundations. I realize it’s probably never going […]

Put yourself in Bill Wirth’s place. You’re watching an off-road truck race with your wife. But as much as you like racing, you’re simply not impressed with the action. In passing, you make a seemingly harmless boast: “I [could] beat all those guys with that truck I’ve got.” You have, after all, recently purchased a […]

“I have the look, and I’ve created a stereotype for myself in a sense. I’d like for my music to be broadly accepted, yet I recognize that there is a stigma to being a folk singer.”

Of note Sweet release: Local metal group Unscathed recently released Under the Sun, their much anticipated debut. The album, produced by Swift’s Jamie King, was originally slated for release in mid-February. For more information, visit www.unscathed.net. Gettin’ greasy … live: Local old-time/bluegrass act The Greasy Beans recently announced plans to release a new live CD […]

Of note For a fistful of pennies: Asheville-based trio Red Penny Arsenal — Holiday Rd.’s Matt Anderson (guitar, vocals), Jared Rutledge (bass) and Lauren Habenict (vocals) — have recently released a four-song debut. The band, which describes its music as “a lustful symphony of intoxicating angst,” is currently selling this self-titled work for a mere […]

“There was a time that we were about to throw in the towel,” Acoustic Syndicate drummer Fitz McMurry revealed during a recent phone interview. He’s almost nonchalant about it, as if he were talking about some half-remembered anecdote from another person’s life. And yet it’s true: For a brief period, the members of Acoustic Syndicate […]

Of note The joy of throwing: Local heavy-music hybrid Throwing Myself — featuring former members of Estedy (Brien Worsham and Derek Anderson) and Send for August (Travis Moss and Brad Gaddy) — has recently launched its Web site. For more information about the group, which bills itself as “a band for all you love birds […]

Front-row reviews What: Mofro w/The Avett Brothers Where: Stella Blue When: Friday, Mar. 28 The Avett Brothers have done a remarkable thing: They’ve made traditional tunes feel as exciting as pop songs. To a casual listener, the Avett’s songs might sound like typical — if energetic — bluegrass. But underneath the music’s worn-out-blue-jean-and-week-old-beard exterior, there […]

Small-press magazines — or zines — hide ideas and stories that will never appear in the high-gloss mainstream marketplace. One of the better-known examples of independent ink is the self-published Doris, a zine that’s chronicled the life and trials of writer Cindy Ovenrack (yes, it’s a pen name) in cartoons and essays for more than […]

The Listening Room (album reviews) The Low Numbers Demo, The Low Numbers (Low Numbers, 2003) With their debut release, The Low Numbers walk the very narrow line between being a rock band that pays homage to the blues and being a pure nostalgia act emulating the blues-rock of the late ’60s and early ’70s. The […]

Her songs are ripe with rainy red Fridays, with disappointments about the lights of the world as seen from heaven, with love gone so wrong the wounds can only be cleansed by the entire ocean. Somber images. Some of her songs move slowly, diffusing from the strings of a guitar, or rising from deceptively soft […]

Inside the cattle call What: WNC Theatre League Unified Auditions Where: Blue Ridge Motion Picture Studios When: Saturday, March 1 The main sound stage at Blue Ridge Motion Picture Studios is a giant cavern painted flat black. In the middle of the room sits a set for a TV pilot, a local cooking show called […]

Of note Celibate breeding ground For a local label that’s been largely on hiatus since October, Celibate Records seems to be getting quite a bit done lately. The label’s most recent addition, Bro-9, will release their debut album, Auditory Condiments, later this month. And label-founding act Holiday Rd. plans a summer release for their sophomore […]

We still jump Who: Jump, Little Children w/The Borrowed Angels & Tinkers Punishment Where: The Orange Peel When: Saturday, Feb. 15 Along the wall, near the big club’s coat-check stand and exit, a few dozen people sat and waited patiently for the show to begin. Many were middle aged, or at least approaching it, and […]