This from south of town:
Windy, cold, snow covered and getting a shower of tiny ice pellets.
Not much traffic anywhere. Peals of laughter from the snow covered slopes of Southern Community Park.
This from south of town:
Windy, cold, snow covered and getting a shower of tiny ice pellets.
Not much traffic anywhere. Peals of laughter from the snow covered slopes of Southern Community Park.
At times like these, it’s best to let the NWS folks speak for themselves. Forecast discussion:
INTERESTING ENOUGH THIS SNOW BAND IS IMPACTING THE MAJOR POPULATION CENTERS OF CENTRAL NC…WITH AS MUCH AS 1.5 TO 2.0 INCHES OF SNOW ALREADY BEING REPORTED IN BOTH THE TRIAD AND TRIANGLE (SEE RDUPNSRAH FOR FULL LIST OF SNOWFALL REPORTS). WHILE THERE WILL BE SOME BRIEF LULLS IN THE
MODERATE SNOWFALL…THIS EXPANSIVE/ELONGATED BAND EXTENDS ALL THE
WAY BACK ACROSS UPSTATE SC. SO MANY OF THE SAME AREAS COULD SEE ANOTHER 1 TO 2 INCHES POSSIBLE THROUGH MIDNIGHT…BEFORE THE
STRONGER ISENTROPIC LIFT SPREADS OVER THE AREA AFTER MIDNIGHT. AS SUCH…WITH A 2 TO 3 INCH BASE LAYER OF SNOW IN PLACE BEFORE THE
ARRIVAL OF THE BEST FORCING…MAY HAVE TO RAISE SNOWFALL AMOUNTS IN THE SWEET SPOT WHERE THIS BAND HAS FORMED.
Chapel Hill and much of southern Orange are getting a few flakes but Hillsborough has already gotten a dusting.
There is a violent tension in the moniker Birds and Arrows, but the music that couple Pete and Andrea Connolly craft, spins that friction away from brutality and into elegant, elemental heights. If you take even just one passing listen to their music, it’s apparent these are voices that aren’t in harmony so much as interlocked. It’s as if two people wandering around the woods suddenly came upon each other and realized they were singing the same song– a romantic image made all the more apropos because Pete and Andrea are newlyweds.
Cute personal history aside, it’s the instrumental textures and intimate lyrics that should really catch your attention. From their debut EP Woodgrain Heart to their latest full length Starmaker, the Connolly’s have dreamed up what can only (to my ear) be described as a shimmering deconstructed pop-country sound. There’s a grounded, vintage tone to the arrangements, but a spacey, voyeuristic disconnect in the translation. All in all, it’s a head-scratchingly beautiful mess of music that you can catch at any number of local shows coming up in the near future.
So, now that you’re convinced they’ve got the musical chops, check how they tackle the furious five:
1. If your band were a craft project, what would it be?
PETE and ANDREA: We would be a little boat made out of Popsicle sticks. See photo……
2. When was the moment you realized there was something to this musical partnership that needed to be shared?
PETE: When my brother Jon first played me a CD that Andrea had given him of her solo stuff. I wanted to play drums, sing or just be a part of it.
ANDREA: I would say it was when I found out Pete was such an awesome drummer. He made my songs much more interesting. and also, the first time we sang harmony together. Pete had written me this beautiful (sappy) love song and he would play it for me often and I would sing harmony on the choruses.
3. Describe your typical PE experience.
PETE: Getting picked second or third to last due to my height and huge Robert Plant hair but then the team being pleasantly surprised with my performance…..if I were even there cause I was probably scoring beer at the local Vietnamese Market.
ANDREA: I always thought I was as strong (if not stronger) than all of the boys. Which at the time probably wasn’t that far off sent most of them were very small and hadn’t hit puberty yet. So, I would end up challenging them to a race or to a pull up contest etc… Pete probably would say I am still like that to this day. Trying to prove my strength and never asking for help when lifting my huge amp.
4. Who/what might be a few inspirations or influences that might really surprise people?
PETE: I would have to say Boston. When I was in 7th grade I used to drum on an office chair with rulers to “Smokin'”
ANDREA: Babs. My mom says (I don’t remember this very well cause I was 3) whenever she would put on a Barbra Streisand record I would sing along for awhile and then claim that I could perform it much better. So, all my musical career I have been secretly trying to out sing Barbra.
5. What did you dream of being when you were a kid? (How ’d that turn out?)
PETE: I told my mom when I was 5 that I wanted to be a Jet Airplane salesman or I could fall back on being a Rockstar….the air industry doesn’t look so enticing anymore so I’m working on the Rockstar thing.
ANDREA: Well, music and performing is the only thing I have ever done since I could talk. So, I would have to say a musician of some kind. then, when I picked up a guitar in middle school and got introduced to classic rock I wanted to be Stevie Nicks Oh, and I also in the back of my mind wanted to be a vet (like a lot of little kids) I loved animals. So, I actually tried this for a semester in college and after castrating a pig I realized it wasn’t for me. So, back to the stage.
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Please check in next week to see who else will take up the challenge of facing down the five. And if you happen catch a Birds and Arrows live–and you really should–by all means give Pete or Andrea a high five.
Here are the links for main section and Mill:
Main:Â http://www.ibiblio.org/carrborocitizen/print/citizen012810.pdf
Mill: http://www.ibiblio.org/carrborocitizen/print/printedmill/mill0210.pdf
As you can see, there are more than a few chances to take January out with a bang.
Mon – 1/25
Tues – 1/26
Wed – 1/27
Fri – 1/29
Fri/Sat – 1/29-30
Sat – 1/30
Sun – 1/31
And?
This week, I’m proud to kick off a new feature to spotlight artists and entertainers in our community who though deserving of a real high five, will have to settle for our internet version–although this one‘s pretty great too. The concept is simple: one person, five questions.
Kicking us off is Maria Albani, who after playing bass for some of the area’s best (once upon a time with: Pleasant, Un Deux Trois, and Tennis and the Mennonites, currently with: Schooner) is now ready to take center stage with her own understated and wholly mysterious music under the moniker Organos.
Given her murky lyrics and percussive arrangements, it’s clear Albani’s new found stake to the spotlight is less a calculated progression than an artistic risk. The tracks are cluttered with more cardboard boxes and kitchen utensils than typical indie rock dude-bro instruments and the song narratives feel unselfconscious, fragmented, although the hooks are catchy.
The sound bespeaks the project’s beginnings as a little homework experiment, but now it’s grown legs with Albani set to release her first EP of tunes this February. She’s also assembled a seaworthy crew to aid her in translating the music to the stage which you can catch in action at the release show for Organos’ The Limbs EP on Pox World Empire Records at The Pinhook on February 5th featuring openers Birds and Arrows and Ye Olde Shoppe with members of Wild Wild Geese.
Now all that’s left are the five hardest hitting questions in faux business. Get at ’em:
1. If your band were a movie, what would it be?
2. When did you start to think music might really work out as something more than a livingroom hobby?
When I played my first show at CD Alley. It was 1996, and we set up outside behind the dumpster of University Massage. And hornets were swarming around my hands and nobody elses! At that moment I was like, “Wow! I can totally do this, for real!â€
3. Describe your typical high school dance experience.
I barely went to High School, let alone a dance. I can tell you about some Middle School dances though. Sneak drinkin’ Boone’s Farm Strawberry Hill and/or Mad Dog 20 20 beforehand, and dancin’ my butt off when any INXS song came on.
4. Who/what might be a few inspirations or influences that might really surprise people?
Stevie Nicks, Michael Hutchence, Pepe The Prawn, Cats, & tequila. I don’t think that people would be too surprised by those last two.
5. What did you dream of being when you were a kid? (how ’d that turn out?)
Ricky Schroder’s wife (now known as “Rick†Schroder), an artist, & a singer. Ricky and I never hooked up, but the artist and musician dreams have come true!
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Tune in next time, you never know who’s coming or what questions will be thrown their way. And by all means, if you happen to see Maria on the street, give her a high five.
As per the article in this week’s Citizen, Sen. Ellie Kinnaird’s case for Costco in a letter to alderman Dan Coleman.
Here’s the link: http://www.ibiblio.org/carrborocitizen/print/citizen012110.pdf
There may be more variety this week than in any post yet. I take it as a challenge; you should take it as an opportunity.
Tues – 1/19
Wed – 1/20
Thurs – 1/21
Fri – 1/22
Sat – 1/23
Sun – 1/24
We’re always looking for new places to be and new bands to hear. Please share.