Categories
Arts & Music

Advance Notice: The Week in Happenings 4/12-18

Here because you can’t be trusted to know where to hear the good stuff on every night of the week.

Tues – 4/13

Wed – 4/14

  • The Wailers / Steve Martinez & The Give Thanks Band @ Lincoln Theatre – $17 adv / $20 day of the show

Thurs – 4/15

  • Music on the Porch with Pierce Freelon (The Beast, w/ some stripped down accompaniment), Catherine Edgerton & Kym Register (Midtown Dickens), and Shirle’ Hale (Free Electric State) @ UNC’s Love House  – Spend the afternoon soaking in sun and some tunes by a curated group of local musicians. They’ll play music and take part in a discussion moderated by Glenn Boothe of the Local 506. Fun starts at 5 and is wonderfully $FREE!
  • Gossip Grows on Trees / The Future is Me / The Forever Endeavor @ Local 506 – $6
  • Ashley Raines & The New West Revue (late) / Arlene McCann (early) @ The Cave – $?
  • The Love Language / The Light Pines/ Moneybrother @ The Pour House – $8 adv / $10 at the door

Fri – 4/16

  • Xiu Xiu / Tune Yards @ Local 506 – $10 adv / $12 at the door
  • Free Electric State CD Release Party featuring A Rooster for the Masses and Beloved Binge @ The Pinhook – $5

Sat – 4/17

  • Luego / The Tomahawks / John Lindsay @ The Pinhook – $5
  • Honky Tonk for Haiti: Swinging Johnsons / Johnny Folson 4 / The Pheromones / The Stray Dogs / Multiples @ The Pour House – $8

Sun – 4/18

  • Titus Andronicus / Spider Bags / Dry Heathens @ Local 506 – $8
  • Mastadon / Between the Buried and Me / Valient Thor @ Lincoln Theatre – $SoldOut

Anywhere else?

Categories
Arts & Music

Hank Williams wins a Pulitzer

A little late but certainly a worthy entry. Here’s the citation:

A posthumous special citation to Hank Williams for his craftsmanship as a songwriter who expressed universal feelings with poignant simplicity and played a pivotal role in transforming country music into a major musical and cultural force in American life.

Categories
Community Weather

Thirsty?

As noted in this week’s Citizen, we’ve become a more thirsty community of late. Water use average under 6.8 million gallons per day through March, but is now running about 8 million gallons.
According to today’s Water Watch report (sorry, no permalink) our reservoirs, which have full to overflowing through this very wet winter, are now at 99.9 percent of capacity.

Categories
Farms

Eno River market open longer

The Eno River Farmers Market in downtown Hillsborough is now on summer hours. The market, located on East Margaret Lane, is open every Saturday from 8 a.m. to noon. New vendors on hand this year include Spoon, Sunshine Life, Box Car Farms, Serendip Farm, Lil Country Grower, Carolina Heritage Farm, Winking Moon Studios, John Mathivet and The Accidental Baker.

Categories
Community Farms

Wednesday market starts

The Carrboro Farmers’ Market is starting up its Wednesday afternoon market next week, April 14. The market runs from 3:30 to 6:30 p.m. at the Carrboro Town Commons.

Chef Ricky Moore will be opening the mid-week market with the first event in the new Carrboro Market Culinary Series.

The series is a local foods teaching and tasting event designed to highlight uncommon uses of commonly available local seasonal ingredients.

For the opening event, Moore, a former Iron Chef contender, will take on chard. “Chard is an ingredient that many people feel they know how to cook already, but there are many ways to cook and eat this beautiful green,” he said.

Categories
The Eater

Edible plant walk

Herbalist Kim Calhoun will lead a medicinal- and edible-plant walk on Saturday from 10 to 11:30 a.m. along the Lower Haw River State Natural Area Trail.

Participants will walk from the Bynum pedestrian bridge to the trail, learning about some of the edible, drinkable and medicinal plants growing in yards, fields, forest floors and canopies and along the river’s edge.

The fee is on a sliding scale of $10 to $20, with half of the proceeds going to the Haw River Assembly. Participants must register by today (Thursday) by calling or emailing Germane at the Haw River Assembly at 542-5790 or germane (at) hawriver.org

Categories
Weather

Cool weekend

Temps will pop back up to 75 during the day on Sunday, but it will stay plenty cool in the evenings through mid-week.
Via the NWS:

This Afternoon: Sunny, with a high near 69. Light northwest wind.

Tonight: Clear, with a low around 40. Calm wind.

Sunday: Sunny, with a high near 75. Calm wind becoming southwest around 6 mph.

Sunday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 47. Light west wind.

Monday: Sunny, with a high near 76. Calm wind becoming north around 6 mph.

Monday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 47.

Tuesday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 67.

Tuesday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 45.

Categories
Arts & Music

Gimme Five! MC Taylor of Hiss Golden Messenger

When MC Taylor left San Francisco for North Carolina almost three years ago, it wasn’t just the city he was leaving behind. Over four full lengths (’99’s Venture Whites, ’01’s Bless You, ’04’s Witch Season, and ’06’s Hearts) and one EP (’04’s Dead Diamond River), his band, The Court and Spark, had explored that eerie space between early country and psychedelic rock to cult reception and critical acclaim.  Thus, the big move east meant an extended hiatus for that group and a step away from a vibrant local music scene that had been incredibly supportive.  However, It also meant the beginning of a new chapter — a spot in grad school at UNC– and the head space to flush out his newest musical venture–Hiss Golden Messenger, a self-described part-time band and joint venture with fellow former-Sparker  Scott Hirsch that stretches country rock infusion beyond the psychedelic and into some ghostly plain inhabited by musical outsiders past.

Conjuring slithering imagery and mystical transmission, the name Hiss Golden Messenger reflects the sound well.   On the debut, 2009’s Country Hai East Cotton, Taylor, Hirsch and a curated crew of collaborators set bluesy lamentations to spaced-out grooves, abstract alt-rock fair to dub beats.  It’s a sprawling sound blending ambient texture with country stomp and resulting in a mid-tempo folk-nit jam-roots vibe that mystifies.  The live translation of all that lackadaisical experimentation ranges depending on the number of sidemen available (for Hirsch is currently homesteaded in Brooklyn) and Taylor’s mood.  Most nights round these parts, you’ll find Taylor alone with an electric guitar, a pedal, and an acoustic set to the side ready for him to pluck a pick-and-grin inspired original or lay claim to some old favorite, like Gary Stewart’s “Drinking Thing.”

And you can catch this version of the Hiss Golden Messenger live show this Friday, April 9 at The Nightlight where Taylor will play as a part of In the Year of the Pig‘s CD release party.

Now just five questions to wet your curiosity:

1. If your band were a car, what sort would it be?

Probably one of these:

Or maybe a 1975 Lincoln Mark IV, chopped and dropped.

2. When did the idea for Hiss Golden Messenger come up?

Probably about 2005 when things were disintegrating in San Francisco.

3. Describe how becoming a father has changed the way you think about (or relate to) music.

That would take a long time. I’m not as keen on traveling anymore, and I spend a lot of times really fussing with songs to get them right. Babies—like songs—are unpredictable, but if you go at them with a little patience, you might could come out the other side with something really nice and totally unpredictable. Music is more important than ever at home. Elijah—who is one-year-old—can do a killer dance to Tony Joe White’s “Even Trolls Love Rock and Roll.”

4. Who/what might be a few inspirations or influences that might really surprise people?

Me and some pals do like to dig in the bins for records that would fit into one of these micro-genres (thanks Brendan): honky-conch, zero hour, boot-cut, illegal vibrationz, shrimp plate, grabass, turbofocus, beach weirdo, troll-stroll, stone loner/brokedown van, Canadian smugglin’/gettin’ to the gig, damp and wobbly, wink-stink, high stakes, sneaky jams, boogie-hole.

This basically means late-era (always late-era) Merle Haggard, Joe Stampley, David Allen Coe, Eddie Rabbit, Ian Tyson, Tanya Tucker, Juice Newton, John Conlee, Jimmy Buffett, and Florabama’s own J. Hawkins, who has a song on his first record simply called “Shit.” And tons more.

I mention this stuff because I want to see it in print.

5. What did you dream of being when you were a kid? (How ’d that turn out?)

I dreamed of being a musician. It’s turned out fair to middling.

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You can check out the not so fair or middling music of Hiss Golden Messenger this Friday, April 9, at The Nightlight.  And by all means, be sure to give MC a high five when you see him!

Categories
Miscellany

Wake up y’all! PDF version of today’s Citizen now up!

Here’s the link: http://www.ibiblio.org/carrborocitizen/print/citizen040810.pdf

Enjoy! And don’t forget to support Citizen advertisers.

Categories
Arts & Music

Advance Notice: The Week in Happenings 4/5-11

Mon -4/5

  • Ted Leo & The Pharmacists / Screaming Females / Pink Flag @ Cat’s Cradle – $13 adv / $15 at the door

Tues – 4/6

  • Mitch Easter / Citay / Birds of Avalon @ Local 506 – $8
  • Southern Memphis Stringband @ Berkeley Café – $12 adv / $15 day of the show

Wed – 4/7

  • White Rabbits / Let’s Wrestle @ Local 506 – $10 adv / $12 at the door
  • Manchester Orchestra / The Features / Biffy Clyro / O’Brother @ Cat’s Cradle – $14 adv / $17 day of the show

Thurs – 4/8

  • Butterflies / Wood Ear / Cassis Orange @ The Pinhook – $5
  • Holy Ghost Tent Revival / Sol Driven Train @ The Pour House – $6 adv / $8 at the door

Fri – 4/9

  • DTH Diversions Show: Luego / The Beast / Dirty Little Heaters / Jason Kutchman @ Local 506 – $FREE!
  • In the Year of the Pig CD Release Party / The Golden Fire Pig Orchestra / Monsonia / Hiss Golden Messenger / The Collection of the Late Howell Bend @ The Nightlight – $TBA
  • Old Habits / Mandolin Orange @ The Pour House – $7 adv / $10 at the door
  • David Gray / Phosphorescent @ DPAC – $35-$60

Sat – 4/10

  • All Your Science / Polite Sleeper / Charming Youngsters / Sequoya @ The Pinhook – $5
  • Red Sparowes / Doomriders / Make @ Local 506 – $10 adv / $12 at the door

Anywhere else?

Categories
Arts & Music

Gimme Five! Autumn Ehinger of Cassis Orange

After successfully graduating from UNC in 2006, Autumn Ehinger took the show on the road…or herself rather and wound up in some pretty random places.  She moved to Virginia to participate in archaeology digs, the middle of nowhere Arizona to work in a national park, to Japan to teach English, and had a few other “pseudo-aimless wanderings” before sticking a stake in the ground in the “ultra-rural” town of Stedman, NC.  The rambling may have broadened her horizons, but it also made it hard to put a band together like she had in college.  Though the ability to collaborate was stifled, Autumn thankfully realized her drive to create wasn’t and thus came tumbling out the songs and sounds of Cassis Orange.

The product of the past four years’ travels, the music of Cassis Orange is a whirlwind of homesickness spun out with keyboards, glockenspiels, and cheap electronics.  Casio beats trill over lyrics about the battles of love and settling down.  Autumn’s voice surges out with startling intimacy amongst a numbingly trance-like rhythmic fill.  It’s lo-fi music made with digital technology, emotional strife with a fluttering cadence.

You can hear the Cassis Orange sound for yourself this coming Thursday, April 8th at The Pinhook where she’ll open for Butterflies and Wood Ear.  And you can also look forward to a number of upcoming dates because (who’d of guessed it) Autumn’s on the move again and Durham’s her next mark. (Lucky us.)

Now just the usual five question assault:

1. If your band were a city, which would it be?
Tokyo, Japan, specifically the Monzen-Nakacho neighborhood. I lived there a couple years ago, in a tiny apartment where I slept in a twin bed with my roommate because there was literally not enough space to sleep on the floor. The Cassis Orange songs always end up having to do something with my time there, directly or indirectly. And the band name is a popular mixed drink in Japan.

2. When was the moment you first thought music was something you might like to try?
In high school I was really obsessed with 1970s punk. I had a photograph of the Ramones going to a show at CBGB–they were on the subway, carrying their crappy instruments in a bunch of gross-looking shopping bags because they didn’t have any money for cases. I remember thinking, “Awesome! They are the best band ever, and totally broke!” And I was totally broke too, so that made me think I could also have a band or do music without always finding some dumb excuse not to.

3. Describe your typical Saturday morning routine.
My typical Saturday morning routine involves sleeping late enough to ensure I never develop a Saturday morning routine.

4. Who/what might be a few inspirations or influences that might really surprise people?
I really like the music they play at Cracker Barrel.

5. What did you dream of being when you were a kid? (How ’d that turn out?)
In elementary school I wanted to be an archaeologist. I rekindled the idea in college, and did do archaeology work for a while after I graduated. It’s really arduous physical work though, and I am basically a weakling, so after digging test pits in a cotton field in Virginia in a 100° August, I decided I would be ok with moving to a more indoors-y job. And now I really like teaching, so I think it all turned out well.

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Swing back by next week for the newest installment of gimme five and be sure to mosey over to The Pinhook on April 8th to hear Cassis Orange live. And by all means, give Autumn a high five when you see her!