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Arts & Music

Gimme Five! Ross Montsinger of Holy Ghost Tent Revival

It takes almost as many words to describe the sound Holy Ghost Tent Revival creates as it takes them instruments to do it.  Luckily, these ragtime-gospel-punk-americana misfits take that challenge in stride.  Their esteemed drummer, Ross Montsinger, may keep the beat steady on stage, but can he handle these five questions?

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Arts & Music

Gimme Five! Justin of Justin Robinson & The Mary Annettes

Justin Robinson’s may have traveled the world sharing traditional music as a chocolate drop, but these days he’s been pulling strings of a different sort as bandleader of his own crew of genre bending, crack instrumentalist Mary Annettes.  They band’s tackled an EP and is looking ahead to a steady schedule of tour dates, but can their leader handle our five questions?  See for yourself after the jump.

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Arts & Music

Gimme Five! Jeff Stickley of Mason’s Apron

photo by Allison Springer

Mason’s Apron may have been a band for little over a month, but that doesn’t mean these boys don’t know how to pick a pretty tune.  Nor does it mean we’ll cut them any slack, see how Mr. Jeff Stickley handles the inquisition after the jump.

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Arts & Music

Gimme Five! Renee Mendoza of Filthybird

Filthybird spent the past year migrating from Greensboro to Graham and winning over everyone with their lush, Americana charms, but can they handle a round of our questions? You be the judge after the jump.

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Arts & Music

Gimme Five! The Brand New Life

Uniting eight different musicians and a world of music, The Brand New Life has found a life of its own bouncing back and forth between its bases in Greensboro and Chapel Hill and fluttering out to all manner of cities beyond to share the band’s African inspired music.  So, sure they’ve got the chops to bring their world influence to North Carolina, but can they handle facing down these five questions? See for yourself after the jump.

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Arts & Music

Gimme Five! Justin Williams of Twelve Thousand Armies

He may not be a decorated officer, but Justin Williams is master and commander of his own band of brothers, Twelve Thousand Armies.  Luckily, the lads (typically Josh Moore, Carter Gaj, Ryan Gustafson, Josh Pope, James Wallace, Jeff Crawford, Tom Simson, and sometimes Mark Simonsen) of his crew play with instruments, not guns, and are set to release a record, North Carolina, this spring.  But before Williams and co can get there, we figure it’s about time he face down the five.

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Arts & Music

Gimme Five! Missy Thangs of Soft Company

When not playing keys with dream-pop rockers The Love Language, Missy Thangs has been quietly creating her own Soft Company to indulge her own musical proclivities–and now, to face down the  five.

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Arts & Music

Gimme Five! Last Year’s Men

Fresh off last year’s Churchkey Records release Sunny Down Snuff, the boys of Last Year’s Men– guitarist Geoff Schilling, drummer Ian Rose, and singer/songwriter Ben Carr–are taking to the road, but first they’re facing down the five hardest questions in faux business.

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Arts & Music

Gimme Five! Patrick Phelan of Luego

Patrick Phelan had only met producer Jeff Crawford a few short months before he called him up and told him he wanted to make a Luego record together.  They talked it out at OCSC at least once over a round of PBRs and Wilco records.  Then, they burst into action.  Their introduction had been a sort of blind luck, but the hard work and heart they put into the next few months was pure intention.  The resulting record, 2009’s Taped Together Stories, showed the fruits of their labor— a playful barrage of pop rock melodies and warm, folk-minded arrangements and a testament to the well-oiled working relationship between Phelan and Crawford.

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Arts & Music

Gimme Five! Rick Miller of Southern Culture on the Skids

On their new record, The Kudzu Ranch, Southern Culture on the Skids revels in the swampy barrage of country, rockabilly, surf rock that’s been their calling card from the start (aka all the way back to 1983!). Rick Miller, Dave Hartman, and Mary Huff trot out all the old styles while imbuing them with a little edge and a lot of humor and showing off all the ways the band’s grown.  They sing of bone dry dirt, busy roads, bad boys, and neighbors burning trash.  There’s also, appropriately, a track about pig pickin’ and if you mosey on down to the Cat’s Cradle this Saturday, Dec. 4, you can join the band at a holiday pig pickin’ to support the Carrboro Food Pantry.

And now just the five filthiest question this side of the mason-dixon:

1. If your band were a fried food, what would it be?
3 pieces of fried catfish with raw onion on white bread on a paper plate on a picnic table in a square cinder block building. (Catfish Sandwich, Archibald’s #2 , Tuscaloosa, Alabama.)

2. When was the moment you thought you’d made it?
When I quit the day job in 1992 – my proudest career moment to date!

3. Describe your typical band practice.
Practice usually goes like this.

  1. somebody is late.
  2. talk or argue for a while – doesn’t matter which.
  3. rehearse the songs we screwed up last at the last gig
  4. make some coffee or tea (our practices depend on caffeine more than alcohol)
  5. run thru a set list till we are bored (Mary likes to check her email at this time)
  6. jam really loud for a while on a riff or a song.
  7. tell each other not to forget what we just played “cause it was really good”.
  8. try to play it again but realize we forgot it but there was some other stuff we just played “that was really good too”.
  9. go home – come back tomorrow and do it again cause “practice makes perfect”.

4. What/who might be a few inspirations or influences that would surprise people?
Belly dancing records!!

5. What did you want to be when you grew up? (How did that work out?)
I wanted to be a farmer like my Grandfather and Uncle but my family told me it was hard to make a living being a farmer – so I decided to become a musician and I love my job!

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Join Southern Culture on the Skids at the Cat’s Cradle this Saturday, December 4th for an old fashioned pig pinkin’. And, by all means, give Rick a high five when you see him!

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Arts & Music

Gimme Five! Wendy Spitzer of Felix Obelix

For a time, Wendy Spitzer thought she’d play classical oboe for the rest of her life.  The idea of that—symphonies, incessant practice, orchestras, audiences packed with the stilted and elderly—was enough to make her stop playing music pretty much altogether for about two years.  After taking a little space to think it all over, she reemerged first as a bass player in a friend’s band and then as all out band-leader in her own outfit, Felix Obelix.