Although Greensboro-based indie-rock sextet Viva La Muerte will be making its first-ever stop at Jack of the Wood (on Friday the 13th, no less), the band has been playing around N.C. since 2005. A successful Kickstarter campaign last year, followed by being signed to New York City's Ex Umbra Records, has helped the band expand […]

When bassist Dave Hartley isn't busy with his his main gig, Philadelphia's The War on Drugs (or his various side projects), he — like bandmate Kurt Vile — keeps up his solo endeavor, Nightlands. "Listeners expecting a simple side project will be surprised by the boldness and scope of his vision," says a press release. […]

Gold is the new black (or animal, or bird reference) when it comes to band names, and Gold Light is the new project by former Kovacs sideman/Neapolitan Children frontman Joe Chang. A listen to "Divine Light" (the video is up at goldenlighten.tumblr.com) reveals warm and somewhat wistful post-folk that's at once melancholy and hopeful. And […]

Artist Tadashi Torii was born in Japan, but while studying business at Georgia Southwestern State University, he discovered the school's glass blowing studio. He completed a BFA in glassblowing and sculpture and went on to spend more than five years working with glass artist Richard Jolley in Knoxville. These days, Torii (who has earned numerous […]

Local artist Julie Armbruster holds her first solo gallery show, Hoard Reflex, an exhibition of new work. The collection builds on some of Armbruster's familiar narratives. "Characters like Potato Boy, the WoodChucks, Elmore, the Golden Unicorn and Professor Wunderbar are placed in fantastically detailed environments as they live out their unique potentials," says a press […]

Folk, punk, gypsy-jazz, soul and brass sounds all find a place in the sonic gumbo that is Redmond, Ore.-based Larry and His Flask. Worth noting: There is no Larry to be found among the five members (brothers Jeshua and Jamin Marshall with Ian Cook, Andrew Carew and Dallin Bulkley). There is, likely, a flask or […]

Bands with siblings are definitely a thing, though bands of all siblings are few and far between — The Jackson 5, The 5 Browns and Hanson. It's safe to say that, short of being a trio of brothers (Lain, Van and Jennings Carney), psychedelic outfit Pontiak, from Virginia, shares little with those other sib groups. […]

Flat Rock-based Americana trio Letters to Abigail (James Harrell, Kelli "Mae" Redmond and Lauren Bandy) raised $15,000 through Kickstarter to record their debut LP, Say Anything, at Echo Mountain Studios. They brought in guests like Steep Canyon Rangers' fiddler Nicky Sanders and Jimmy Buffett's pedal steel player Doyle Grisham for the record, which the band […]

Montford Park Players closes out its summer season with a blockbuster of a production: A story of "treachery, revenge, incest, moral corruption, duty and madness," as the theater troupe's website puts it. That dark thriller, aka Shakespeare's Hamlet, is the bard's longest play and, even today, is among his most performed. It tells of the […]

Local indie rockers The Luxury Spirit are set to release new album Forgotten Albatross. The first single, "Light," crackles with electricity and layered guitars. Drums snap and pulse below the melee, but the song, for all of its expansive inclination and amplitude, still maintains its taut structure. Singer Bob Burnette's tenor glides through waves of […]

"Multimedia" barely begins to describe the production La Reina which, according to a press release, "draws from 12 different texts which span nearly 4,000 years of theatrical tradition." Beyond the script, the stage show also incorporates baroque costuming (by local fashion designer Alexis Gault), circus arts, puppetry, modern dance and a live electronic soundtrack composed […]

If you're a fan of alternative hip-hop, you know who Del the Funky Homosapien is. In addition to his two decade career and many solo albums, Del has collaborated with El-P and Dan the Automator, contributed songs to the popular Tony Hawk video game series, and provided the raps on "Clint Eastwood," the seminal hit […]

Singer-songwriter Kelcy Mae is based in New Orleans, but don't plumb her music for jazz or brass band influences. Instead, she draws from "traditional Southern bluegrass and country instrumentation with an independent rock sound," according to her website. "She leaves simplistic odes to love or lust or heartbreak to other artists and instead dwells in […]

Unlike Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, set in a single fairy-enchanted evening, this weekend's “A Mid-Summer Night's Mardi Gras” spans two sundowns. And instead of fairies, the events are under the spell of Dixieland — from food and drinks to music and dance. Take a Cajun dance lesson, partake in two-steps and waltzes and taste […]

After being rained out earlier this year, Big Love festival was rescheduled for the fall (Sunday, Sept. 15). But Big Love fans don't have to wait for September to celebrate all that's great about Asheville (music, crafts, food and beer) — there's a pre-party this week. Pleasure Chest provides the soundtrack and there's a raffle […]

"It wouldn't be summer without the Anything that Floats Parade," says press for this weekend's RiverFest, the 14th annual celebration of the French Broad River, put on by RiverLink. The aforementioned parade involves "watercraft of all kinds" created by various local groups. The day full of family-friendly fun also includes food trucks, local beer, activities […]

Shakespeare's play, Love's Labour's Lost, was first published in 1598. It's about the King of Navarre and his three friends who vow to give up women in order to pursue their studies. But when the princess and her three ladies show up, the best laid plans go comically awry. Montford Park Players has reinterpreted the […]

If, when you think of American roots music, you don't immediately think of Los Angeles, that city's The Dustbowl Revival might just change your mind. Of the band's sound, press says, "This rambling, rolling spirit is the same spark that lit a fire under the past two centuries of Westward migration in America. It comes […]

On Aug. 1, Blue Spiral 1 gallery will be opening a new series of exhibitions. You won’t want to miss checking out the new sculptures that Asheville artist, Andrew Hayes, will be showing. The featured piece, “Kedge,” is a small-scale sculpture that is made of bent steel and book pages, a unique combination that is […]

"This is a coming together of friends for the cultivation of a spiritual awareness of the effect of music on the soul and the collective," says the earnest and enthusiastic press release for 2PPM (aka Two People Playing Music) and ONAWA. The local experimental bands have not only been honing their original sounds, but busily […]