Irata at the Pinhook - April 13

These guys from Greeensboro sound pretty cool. Kind of like Tool meets Morphine and some other trippy instrumental shit. Might be worth checking out. Makes me wish I still got high...

Freedom Hawk. Awesome Name.

These guys are playing a free show at the Dive Bar in Raleigh on April 23rd.. Hard rockers like Clutch, Drunk Horse, Red Fang, Fu Manchu, etc. It's free and on a Friday. Can't beat that!

This song is not too bad but there are better tunes on the myspace page. Click the title to get there.


Stand Back - The Movie Video

Freedom Hawk (New Album Out NOW!) | MySpace Music Videos

Mastodon & Valient Thorr at the Lincoln

Mastodon and Valient Thorr bring the pain to Raleigh on Saturday, April 17th. Tickets are a bit steep at $25 but it might just be worth it to see local extraterrestrial rockers Valient Thorr blow established metal stars Mastodon off the stage. If you've never seen Valient Thorr check out the video for an idea of what you've been missing.

Caribou at the Cradle: May 12th

The spring music lineup just keeps getting better. I really dig me some Caribou. Not sure what the live show will be like(just the one dude) but I bet its fun. Check out this video from the new album "Swim" due to release on April 20.

Bear Eats Cymbals: Local 506 on 3/7

So we went to this show expecting to see two great bands for the eight dollar price of one. If we had gotten there in time to see the opening band Freelance Whales that may just have happened. Only caught a couple songs from the Whales but I did like what little we saw. Equal parts Arcade Fire, Death Cab, and Polyphonic Spree (maybe get the blog some hits with those references?).

Obviously that means I didn't particularly care for one of the headliners. I'm afraid that distinction falls to "Cymbals Eat Guitars" but we'll go in chronological order and get to them later. Bear in Heaven was second to the stage and they were impressive even before playing a note. I guess at this point we should expect a Brooklyn based post-rock group to be pimping some pretty sweet moustaches and were they ever. The driving force behind the Bear in Heaven set was Joe Stickney whose tribal drumming expertly set the stage for the hypnotic trance-inducing sound of the band. Frontman Jon Philpot(he of the most impressive tache) joined in with somewhat spooky falsetto vocals and loops from the array of electronics spread out before him. The band was rounded out by the more than adequate guitar and bass work of Adam Wills. You could tell these guys were having fun and they really appreciated the big crowd on a Sunday night (should probably expect it when you're Pitchfork's darling). For me the highlights were not hits like "Lovesick Teenagers" or "You Do You" but rather more obscure tracks that the band felt like they could experiment more with. All in all a great show, and easily one of the most interesting I've seen in a long time.

As mentioned before I was not very impressed with headliners "Cymbals Eat Guitars". Perhaps my companion for the evening summed it up best with her remark after a few songs that "these guys could be on the Party of Five soundtrack". I really had a hard time getting past frontman Joseph D'Agostino's antics, vocals, and corny guitar solo's. At times it seemed like we were watching a band do Modest Mouse covers at a high school talent show. The crowd steadily thinned during the set and I'll admit to leaving early as well. It's entirely possible that Cymbals Eats Guitars is just not my thing, or perhaps we caught them on an off night.

Video: Bear in Heaven - Shining and Free

Listen to This: Goes Cube

New York based Goes Cube is performing next Monday night (ugh), March 8th, at Slims here in Raleigh. I haven't heard enough of there music to do a proper review, but what I have heard is a pretty heavy, sludgy, metal/ grungy mix. Sometimes a little heavy on repetition, but definitely bright spots of awesome, chunky hooks. Take a listen:



Of local interest, the bass player, Matt Tyson, is actually a Raleigh kid who went to high school at Athens Drive in the mid 90's. He became a music journalist in New York and became friends with the guys in Goes Cube while he was covering them on tour. They had an opening when the bass player quit and Matt jumped in.

His other (I assume main) job is running the New York version of the Rock Report (at a much more advanced level), called EarFarm. It's a pretty awesome site and he spends a good amount of time covering NC bands. It's actually close to what I imagine we at the Rock Report are shooting for. So, check it out.

Another Day Has Passed - Goes ...

jj - "Let Go"

jj - "Let Go"

They open for xx in March at the Cradle. And its sold out.

 

Tanya Morgan This Friday at The Pour House

Them Crooked Vultures @ The Fillmore, Charlotte, NC 2/10/2010 review

I’ll start with the venue. The place is nice. It has bars on all four corners and plenty of space to get around. $9 is rough for 22oz beers but after all these years, I’m not sure what is a good deal anymore. Seems every place is expensive. The sound and lighting was great. Only thing is they need a seat or two for pregnant ladies to rest for a little bit. And to turn on the heat outside!


The band was incredible. In your face, I just f’d your little sister and stole your Han Solo figure incredible. It’s hard to pick which guy was the best because two out of four of those dudes are pretty much the cat’s meow in the business at what they do. Grohl and JPJ are flat killers. Josh Homme should be counting his lucky stars that he gets to make music with these guys.