SoundTrack

It was hard not to feel like an outsider as I took my seat atop a barstool at the French Broad Brewery. As the pre-show banter between the audience and band indicated, I was a stranger amongst friends. Family members dominated the makeup of the dozen attending and I felt a bit out of place, […]

SoundTrack

You Dirty Rats is the latest project of Rudy Colombo, the singer/songwriter/guitarist of The Humbuckers and a former member of The Gypsy Moths, Billy the Six and NC Rail. But, unlike those other projects — Colombo's Asheville presence dates back to the 1990s — You Dirty Rats is a departure from the country-influenced songs Colombo […]

Sound Track

From the first notes of "Hurricane Cocaine," a slow-building, richly layered pop-rocker, Wages establishes itself. Were this a speed skating trial, they'd be Apolo Ono overtaking three Koreans in a single fluid motion. Were this an Iron Chef match, they'd be Kat Cora with all her practiced cool and secret spice. Were it not the […]

Soundtrack

Jason Smith, the singer/songwriter/composer known as Night's Bright Colors (NBC), released the fourth and final installment in his Hospital Quartet on Sunday, May 2. The album — like its predecessors — is available online only, by free download. The drop date was significant: It was Smith's birthday. He begins a new year as his current […]