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 […]
These days ’90s alt-rock band reunions are a dime a dozen. Then again, there really wasn’t another ’90s band like The Afghan Whigs. When its major-label debut, Gentleman, dropped in 1993, the group’s sprawling soul-and-R&B-inflected rock histrionics and dapper style stood out among a crowded field of flannel-clad grunge upstarts. The Greg Dulli-led outfit went […]
For more Wood Brothers images, check out David Simchock’s blog, Front Row Focus. Not long into The Wood Brothers’ sold-out Saturday night show at The Orange Peel, Chris and Oliver Wood told a story about playing the same venue a few years back. It was a seated concert and they optimistically set out 100 chairs. […]
If there’s a theme to this week collection of songs, it has to be unique takes on roots music — though Philadelphia-based rockers Purling Hiss probably don’t fit in the roots category at all. Still, their re-envisioned approach to rock and pop fits with The Wood Brothers’ innovation of blues and Americana, and Judah & […]
“Within the first few bars of opener ‘Wastin’ My Mind,’ which could pass for a lost cut from The Last Waltz, it’s clear the brothers are operating on a different plane than when we last heard them, on 2011’s Smoke Ring Halo.” So says the bio for The Wood Brothers and their new album, The […]
by Paul Clark The biggest challenge to making a movie about the busking scene in downtown Asheville, says Erin Derham, was knowing when to stop. New buskers cycled through town all summer, giving the filmmaker endless possibilities to flesh out her story on the subculture these musicians inhabit. Super-organized and deadline-oriented, Derham gave herself six months […]
What was once a derogatory term for a woman of questionable repute is now the band name for a pair of brothers — producer/guitarist Matt Hill and drummer Mark Hill. The Floozies’ take on contemporary funk includes samples, talk box, plenty of nods to psychedelia and party anthem savvy. “You know the brothers could easily […]
These are not your ordinary love songs. And some aren’t actually love songs at all — Malcolm Holcombe’s “Pitiful Blues,” EDJ’s “For the Boy Who Moved Away” — but the emotions still apply. On this week’s playlist: • “When You Were Mine” by local rockers Posh Hammer. • “Pitiful Blues,” the title track from the new album […]
by Jordan Lawrence With a newly renovated arena complex in the U.S. Cellular Center and a number of theaters and rock clubs strewn throughout the city, Asheville books what would be an impressive array of musical entertainment for a town five times its size. We checked in with three of the city’s successful venues — […]
Although country singer-songwriter Jim Lauderdale is as tied to Nashville as to the colorful, embroidered suits he wears, he’s actually a North Carolina native. The son of a minister and a church organist, Lauderdale was born in Troutman, N.C., and grew up in South Carolina. He did head to Nashville after college, but it was […]
In the Chinese zodiac, 2014 is the Year of the Horse. For the United Nations, it’s the Year of Family Farming and Crystallography. And, as designated by Partners in Amphibian and Reptile Conservation, it’s the Year of the Salamander. No stranger to celebrating diversity and creative thinking for all ages, Secret Agent 23 Skidoo honors […]
The group behind Teatro del Gusto calls the cabaret circus a “feast for the senses.” The new series, which premiered at The Orange Peel on July 13, included vaudeville, burlesque, and classic circus entertainment. Local rockers Red Honey opened the show with a set of half a dozen tunes — some original and some covers. […]
Since the release of last year’s The Worse Things Get, the Harder I Fight, the Harder I Fight, the More I Love You, her sixth album as a solo artist, Neko Case can’t seem to quit talking about gender. Songs like “Man” and “I’m From Nowhere” added to her collection of tunes that elliptically reject […]
The crowd at the Little Dragon concert at the Orange Peel on Wednesday night came to dance, and the band delivered. Hot off a massive Bonnaroo concert stage just a few days before, the Swedish band was perfectly in its element in a packed and sweaty room. Lead singer Yukimi Nagano seemed taken with the […]
Part multi-instrumentalist, part mythical creature, singer-songwriter/surfer/environmentalist/cultural activist Xavier Rudd took the didgeridoo from tribal instrument to legitimate dance club beat-maker. The musician, who lives in Australia, “gradually refined his globally influenced collage of world music — a matchless mixture of reggae, funk, blues, folk, and nearly every other sort of song with the ability to […]
On tour for “Things Are Really Great Here, Sort Of…,” a collection of re-imagined Handsome Family songs, Andrew Bird returns to Asheville. His band includes Tift Merritt.
Little Dragon was formed in the mid-‘90s by vocalist Yukimi Nagano and her high school friends drummer Erik Bodin, bassist Fredrik Källgren Wallin and keyboardist Håkan Wirenstrand. Even if, in 18 years, Little Dragon’s studio discography is short, the band’s list of EP, singles and videos shows that its emphasis is on immediacy and artistry.
Music that makes you want to shake it For rockers Langhorne Slim and Deer Tick, The Orange Peel in Asheville was the first stop in a five date tour in which the bands paired up for dual appearances. The Districts, a high octane foursome from Pennsylvania, opened the show with the whiplashing, full throttle hit, […]
There’s something refreshingly honest about the way singer-songwriter John McCauley of Deer Tick delivers his unapologetic lyrics. His brazen vocals are backed by upbeat instrumentals. In an interview on NPR’s “World Café,” McCauley said that a lot of personal turmoil provided inspiration for the band’s fifth album, Negativity, released in 2013. The Providence, Rhode Island-based […]
Usually the opener is the opener and the headliner is the headliner and if the two happen to meet onstage it’s because the opener joins in for a song or two, special-guest-style. The Conor Oberst show at The Orange Peel on Friday did away with that formula. Openers Dawes played a full set of their […]
