Raleigh’s third annual Raleigh Wide Open was held this past weekend to celebrate the opening of the new Raleigh Convention Center. Dozens of local vendors set up booths offering a wide variety of food and beverage options for the anticipated tens of thousands of attendees. Three stages were booked with bands representative of the varied nature of Raleigh’s collective musical taste… from Chuck Berry to Annuals, Soul Asylum to Freebase 808, and many many more. Unfortunately, Hurricane Hanna (at this point merely a tropical storm) had other plans. Most of the day Friday was intermittently interrupted by rain showers and strong winds as the storm made landfall and headed inland. This resulted in fairly poor attendance until later in the evening, but the show most definitely went on as planned regardless of the inclement weather. After all, hurricanes ain’t nothin’ but a thang to North Carolinians (who’ve endured over 400 hurricanes in recorded history) and by mid-day Saturday the weather was back to sunny and beautiful as the festival hit full stride with Lou Gramm (former lead singer of Foreigner) headlining the main stage, Islands on the Cherry Bounce stage, and fireworks lighting up Raleigh’s ever-evolving skyline.
Lonnie Walker (above): 3:00pm, Cherry Bounce Stage, Friday
In the midst of steadily falling rain and a mere handful of brave audience members, Lonnie Walker (hailing from Greenville, NC) took to the Cherry Bounce stage with tight guitar parts, fresh out-of-college faces, loose “Dylan went electric” vocals, and an aura that begs for them to cut their teeth on a series of shows at dingy New York clubs. Think The Walkmen by way of Vampire Weekend and Bright Eyes… Lonnie Walker are signed to Terpsikhore which, at the very least, should ensure that more than a few people have a chance to catch their rousing live show in the near future.Live from this show: Unknown Song by Lonnie Walker - YouTube | MP3
Dawn Chorus (above): 4:15pm, Cherry Bounce Stage, Friday
On their recently released record Florida St. Serenade, Greensboro’s Dawn Chorus find a happy place between Neil Young and The Connells that comes across as both dynamic and nicely understated. They deliver a studied balance of songcraft and pacing that signals a mature band ready for bigger and better things; however, these little things that make them so successful in the studio were simply absent in person at Raleigh Wide Open. Given the conditions, that’s more than understandable.Live from this show: “It’s Human” by Dawn Chorus - YouTube | MP3
The Bleeding Hearts (above): 5:30pm, Cherry Bounce Stage, Friday
If rock and roll has to be one thing, and one thing only, it has to be LOUD. Sexy. Abrasive. Dangerous. Rapturous. Feverish. Bluesy. Foot-tapping. Body-moving. Deadly. Did I say one thing or ten? The definition differs for every listener, but whatever that most central characteristic is for you one thing is certain: The Bleeding Hearts have it. It. Raw power.Live from this show: “Nothin’ On But The Radio” by The Bleeding Hearts - YouTube | MP3
Dex Romweber Duo (above): 6:30pm, Cherry Bounce Stage, Friday
Roots-rocker Dexter Romweber has been a major influence on a wide variety of artists (most noticeably Jack White) thanks largely to his time fronting Chapel Hill’s Flat Duo Jets in the ’80s and ’90s. Currently, he and his sister perform as the Dex Romweber Duo and play a combination of genres that always ends up heavy on the early rock, rockabilly, and bluesed-out guitar shredding. Highlight of the set: a slightly uptempo take on the Tammy Wynette classic song “Still Around”.Live from this show: “Still Around” (Tammy Wynette cover) by Dex Romweber Duo - YouTube | MP3
Chuck Berry (above): 7:30pm, Main Stage, Friday
The major draw, in terms of name, for the entire weekend was the one, the only, Chuck Berry. People were abuzz early on talking about seeing his car drive by, spotting Chuck ever-so-briefly on the street, and anticipating being able to see a living legend perform later that evening. Given that I’d recently seen him in a much more controlled environment, I planned on skipping out on Chuck Berry altogether. However, as his set time neared I found myself drawn to the main stage eager for another glimpse of Chuck and (fingers crossed) another performance of “Memphis, Tennessee”. As the rain fell hard and fast the audience shielded themselves with a canopy of umbrellas that all but entirely blocked the view to the stage and turned the show into a rainy listening party. Enough! I headed back to the Cherry Bounce stage after a mere two songs.
Annuals (above): 8:00pm, Cherry Bounce Stage, Friday
Hometown shows can be a tricky thing when circumstances outside of a band’s control threaten to impact turnout or the overall mood of the night. After consistently small crowds, and increasingly severe rain, the question of just how many fans would show up for the Cherry Bounce Stage’s Friday night headliner, Raleigh’s own Annuals, lingered in the gusty air. Thankfully no amount of tropical stormage was going to deter Annuals fans from showing their love and the band fed off of the crowd’s energy for well over an hour, performing favorites from the past, present, and future (their new album Such Fun drops on October 7th) as the audience grew to its largest size of the day and Hanna edged closer and closer. The circumstances, coupled with the band’s ever-improving live performance chops, made for quite an epic show. Likely the highlight of the entire weekend.
The T’s (above): 4:00pm, Cherry Bounce Stage, Saturday
Saturday was a new day, sunny and warm and perfect in that special post-storm kind of way. But that didn’t stop The T’s from bringing the pain as if they themselves were a hurricane. This band is straight up, unabashed, rock and roll. Not that pansy shit that earns pretty boys millions of dollars on television, but the kind that you want playing when you enter a bar, already drunk, looking for either a fight or a fuck. Or both. The riffs are hard and heavy and full of fire baby; The T’s know just how you like it.Live from this show: Unknown Song(s) by The T’s - YouTube | MP3
Islands (above): 8:00pm, Cherry Bounce Stage, Saturday
If ever there was a band perfectly suited to encompass the balance between the tumultuous weather of day one and the lovely blue skies of day two, then Islands is that band. After getting off to a slow start with a few small missteps during their opening song “The Arm”, Islands fell right into the groove mixing sunny tracks from their debut Return to the Sea with the “dark and stormy” prog-pop of Arm’s Way. They had the kids up front frenetically dancing and singing along the entire time, teased the audience with a minute long cover of Foreigner’s “Cold as Ice”, and ended their set with an eleven minute long version of “Swans”. Not quite one of the best Islands shows I’ve ever seen (definitely missed the rap during “Where There’s A Will, There’s A Whalebone” and really would’ve been happy to hear “I Feel Evil Creeping In”), but this is Islands we’re talking about. And I’ve seen them like a hundred times anyway. Which is to say, every show is a pleasure. And I was happy to have them playing a free show to enthusiastic fans in my hometown. It was a real treat.
Superlatives
Best food: J. Betski’s sausages
Best shelter from the rain: The Raleigh Times
Best beer: that Belgian wheat beer in a can that Raleigh Times was selling on the street
Best thing about Raleigh’s new convention center: the interior
Best new band: Lonnie Walker
Best performance: Annuals
Best idea ever: bringing two extra shirts on Friday
Best picture I took: little girl rocking out to The Bleeding Hearts
Best thing about Raleigh Wide Open 3: seeing downtown Raleigh packed with people enjoying music and food and walking everywhere. It was almost like a real city for two days! Keep it up Raleigh.
If you’d like to see even more EF pictures taken at this year’s Raleigh Wide Open (crowd shots and other scenic pics) head on over to EAR FARM’s Flickr Page.
*slideshow created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.
*pictured above: Islands performing on the Main Stage
Seven years ago I ventured out to the Village Voice’s inaugural Siren Music Festival. I’d only been living in the city for twelve days, I didn’t have a whole lot of extra spending money, and I didn’t know anyone who’d be there except for the eight bands on the bill. It was my first visit ever to Coney Island and I had a blast; vowing to return again and again. I can’t say that I’ve attended every year since, but I have managed to make it out to enough Sirens to know that EAR FARM owed it to ourselves to cover this year’s Siren Music Festival with a few extra voices and cameras. What follows are brief opinions of the concerts we saw, a few MP3s for you to download, and slideshows of each band that performed at Siren this year. Special thanks go out to our guest contributors for helping us be everywhere at all times, and big ups to The Village Voice for yet another fantastic festival. Note: for individual photo credits, click on each picture or head over to EF’s Flickr page.
Dragons of Zynth (above): 1:00pm, Main Stage - “War Lover”
Dragons of Zynth seemed a natural choice to open the Siren floodgates: a neon burst of fuzzy soul and clamoring rock psychedelia that hung low and spread satisfyingly throughout the thick early afternoon haze. It’s a sound that rode largely on bassist Autry’s entrancing grooves and singer/keyboardist Aku’s textured croon. Not a bad way to suffer through 175 degree heat and humidity. - Mike Grimes
These Are Powers (above): 1:30pm, Stillwell Stage - “Little Sisters of Beijing”
“I know you, not your name but your game.” So says Samantha Mathis to mysterious pirate radio shock-jock Christian Slater in Pump Up the Volume. It was a testament to familiarity without recognition, and watching These Are Powers pogo through a set of yelps, gurgling electronics, splintered basslines, and tribal rhythms (fed through synthetic devices), I couldn’t get this line out of my head. It’s as though they took all the small parts of High Places, M.I.A., Kudu, Chairlift, and about a dozen other bands that don’t necessarily work and tried to force them together. - Mike Grimes
Parts & Labor (above): 2:00pm, Main Stage - “Fractured Skies”
If there was a band not named Broken Social Scene that I was most looking forward to seeing for the first time, then Parts & Labor was that band. They’ve built a solid following over the years, thanks largely to their ability to get loud and constantly accelerate without losing a grip on melody. On Saturday, bolstered by the recent addition of guitarist/noisemaker Sarah Lipstate, the band scaled peaks of new wave influence only to dive right off and come crashing down in thunderous washes of four-piece nouveau punk. Parts & Labor provided the perfect body-moving soundtrack to broiling under the midday sun next to an eighty-one year old roller coaster. One of the best performances of the day.- Matt Tyson
Film School (above): 2:30pm, Stillwell Stage
Back at the Stillwell Stage, Film School did their best to prove that swelling shoegaze anthems can blossom in the unkind setting of an unmercifully hot and bright daylight festival stage. It wasn’t the ideal setting for them, but they impressed in their impassioned connection with their material. Not the most innovative or engaging sound, but a solid set nonetheless. - Mike Grimes
The Dodos (above): 3:00pm, Main Stage - “The Ball”
It’s 3pm, which means the first band of the day I’m dying to see is finally going on! (20 minutes later) It’s 3:20 which means the first band of the day I’m dying to see must be going on any second! Poor Dodos. Flying in (no pun intended, could dodobirds even fly?) for Siren before heading to the Pitchfork Festival on Sunday, they played without their own backline, prompting a series of unspecified technical difficulties. Hurried and perhaps a bit frazzled, they finally went on about 20 minutes late with singer/guitarist Meric Long exasperatedly turning to drummer Logan Kroeber and shrugging, “Fuck it, let’s just try ‘Ball’!” at which point they launched into an otherworldly version of “The Ball” and all became right in the universe. For about twenty minutes. At that point, not even a handful of songs into the set, they were forced to end their set to the protests of the entirety of Coney Island. It may have been the best twenty minutes of the day though. - Mike Grimes
Annuals (above): 3:30pm, Stillwell Stage - “Brother”
As my hometown’s representation in the 2008 Siren Festival, Annuals seemingly stored up some trademark North Carolina heat and brought it with them to Coney Island; they were on fire. I haven’t seen the band this tight, epic, or on top of their game… ever. The new songs they played showed well-defined growth and intent, the songs from their first album pleased the appreciative audience, and the individual performances from each member of the band reached a level not seen by most other musicians that day. I’m just sayin’ - if you were miserably hot standing there at Siren this year, blame your heat stroke on the radiant heat coming from the Stillwell Stage around 3:30pm.As a bonus, check out the sketch of the band done by my good friend Franz. In his words: “I knew that the only way to draw everyone in the band was to draw like a madman from the moment they started playing. If the music is no good, my drawings will look like crap and I’ll quit early on. And then they began, my pen started to go crazy. I found myself just barely having enough time to draw all 6 of them. Annuals drove me to draw faster and damn the torpedoes of sweat that threatened to ruin each drawing! The music even convinced me to add some color once the drawings were in the computer. And I had to match the frenetic pace of the music and the drawings with just scribbles of color. Overall, it was good times.” Click the image below for a larger version. - Matt Tyson
Times New Viking (above): 4:00pm, Main Stage - “(My Head)/R.I.P. Allegory”
At their best, Times New Viking remind me of what I love most about early ‘90s lo-fi rock: The songs are fun, the guitar is fuzzy and they steer clear of anything resembling production value. But halfway through the set, their songs start sounding really familiar and the whole thing begins to feel like a gimmick. Case in point: Chugging Jack in 100-degree heat does not make you seem hard-core; it makes you look like somebody who really wants to seem hard-core. - Rebecca Wilson
Jaguar Love (above): 4:30pm, Stillwell Stage - “Bats Over The Pacific Ocean”
I thought maaaybe I’d like this band so I gave them a chance… after all, their drummer (Jay Clark) is one of my favorite musicians of the past ten years or so. One of my favorites when he’s playing guitar in Pretty Girls Make Graves. Playing drums in Jaguar Love? Notsomuch. - Matt Tyson
Ra Ra Riot (above): 5:00pm, Main Stage - “Each Year”
Ra Ra Riot has already been through the ringer and back again. They’ve achieved an ultra-high indie buzz quotient in the past and have survived the departure of their original vocalist Shaw Flick as well as the tragic accidental drowning of original drummer John Pike. Through it all the band has maintained their unique ability to exude goodness and deliver chamber pop that’s consistently refreshing. I’m aware that that’s an amazingly over-used adjective but I stand by it in this case. Refreshing! On a day like the one we had this past Saturday (98° F), refreshing was precisely what I needed by 5:00pm. - Matt Tyson
Beach House (above): 5:30pm, Stillwell Stage - “Gila”
Live, Beach House is spooky and mysterious, even in the middle of a blazing Coney Island afternoon. Victoria Legrand’s vocals are less dreamy and more down-to-earth than I expected, while a real drum kit also helped to draw their lovely songs down from the ether. Beach House is one of those bands that oozes sincerity during a performance, making their warm, lush songs even more likable. - Rebecca Wilson
Islands (above): 6:00pm, Main Stage - “The Arm”
When you’ve seen Islands as many times as we have, you realize they have their “on” days and their “off” days. Saturday they were most definitely switched to ON. Instead of wilting in the heat or succumbing to the myriad of technical difficulties (busted mic stands, bizarre sound levels, waves of feedback) that plagued performers all day – “technical difficulties” being the phrase of the afternoon and evening – they seemed to invite it as just another element of chaos to throw into their sharply honed stage act. I guess that’s what happens when bad luck follows you around everywhere; you get used to it.That being the case, Nick Thorburn and crew instead focused on proving themselves to those unprivileged enough to never have experienced Islands before, which meant a smattering from their usual bag of tricks: an eccentric entrance (Nick wearing the Dodos’ beaten trashcan over his torso), a guest MC for “Where There’s A Will There’s a Whalebone” (with Nick looming behind him armed with sparklers), wry stage banter (“I suggest taking your pants off, it feels fucking awesome”), and all around rocking set. This isn’t to suggest it felt stale in any way; rather it was one of the more buoyant and lively sets they’ve delivered. - Mike Grimes
The Helio Sequence (above): 6:30pm, Stillwell Stage - “Blood Bleeds”
The set from Portland duo the Helio Sequence was a welcome change of pace among a long stream of bands boasting crazy sound effects and big ensembles. Their deceivingly simplistic pop-folk-rock is the perfect reminder that straight-forward doesn’t mean boring. Brandon Summers and Benjamin Weikel contrasted catchier pop songs from their latest release, Keep Your Eyes Ahead (”Lately,” “Hallelujah”) with longer, experimental songs from earlier in their catalog (”Don’t Look Away,” “Harmonica Song”). They were the perfect aesthetic transition between the hazy, twinkling dream pop of Beach House and the bombastic rock ensemble of Broken Social Scene. - Taylor Long
Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks (above): 7:30pm, Main Stage - “Cold Son”
We could say that SM & the Jicks closed out the Main Stage’s festivities with a set as sloppy and loose as the rickety Cyclone looming off to the side, but that analogy would be about as lazy as one of his solos on Saturday. I don’t know what happened since the last time we saw them, but it was clear that Malkmus didn’t feel like embarking on any extended guitar solos on this occasion. Which didn’t mean they avoided the long jams that permeate Real Emotional Trash, but rather in doing so they ventured more into shifting rhythmic patterns and creating squawking walls of noise.And guess what? It was still a completely rocking set. We can’t say it enough: when you have Janet Weiss as your drummer, you can do no wrong. Malkmus must have gotten the memo, choosing to defer to her graceful pummeling on more than a few occasions while saving the true gusto for crowd favorites such as “Jenny and the Ess-Dog”, “Phantasies”, “Pencil Rot” and - most inexplicably awesome - an encore cover of Eddie Money’s “Two Tickets To Paradise.” - Mike Grimes
Broken Social Scene (above): 8:00pm, Stillwell Stage
My first time seeing Broken Social Scene (finally) was a tiny bit of a letdown. No wait. No letdown. They were amazing. But I mean, I was secretly hoping for one of the ladies of BSS-past to make an appearance (ideally Leslie Feist… likely Amy Millan… but maybe Emily Haines?) for a song or two. No such luck. So I’d gotten my hopes lifted by my own imagination. Idiot. Well, nearly as awesome -or, just kind of cool at the very least- was the performance of “7/4 Shoreline” that included vocals from a “random girl they just met an hour ago”. True? Watch it HERE and see what you think. I think she did a pretty good job.The audience did not, apparently, build up their own expectations in the same manner as I did. They were overwhelmingly appreciative and clappy and engrossed in the entirety of the all-male Broken Social Scene’s set. There were people perched on the tops of vending machines and precariously wobbling fences and the press/photo area nearly reached mosh pit status. Everyone was moving and yelling and fist-pumping and singing along. A highlight of the day? The highlight of the day. - Matt Tyson
In all that’s 10 very positive reviews out of 14 bands that played the 100% free, nearly 100° show at Coney Island this past Saturday. I’d say that makes Siren 2008 a blisteringly hot and sweaty and noisy success. If you’d like to see even more EF pictures taken at this year’s Siren Festival (crowd shots and scenic Coney Island pics) head on over to EAR FARM’s Flickr Page.
*above slideshows created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.
With 2008 now more than halfway completed, we here at EAR FARM wanted to take a look at our favorite albums that’ve been released thus far this year. To do so we’ve broken down ten favorite albums (each) from both Mike and myself with a blurb, a link to purchase, and a sample song from each one. We’re aware that there are lots of good records we’re missing here, so we invite each of you to offer up your own favorites of 2008 in the comments. And remember: with full-length records from New Kids on the Block, Coolio, Miley Cyrus, and many other favorites still to be released later this year, you can bet our lists will look a lot different when we return in December to recap our overall Top Albums of 2008. For now, let’s take a look at EAR FARM’s favorites of the first half of the year… Read more