Infiltration and Movement, Vol 4. week of 2.24.10

Felix Obelix Album Cover

Today's lesson: Never use the term "ninja" when speaking in public.

Available Assignments:

2/24 WED (506) Where the Buffalo Roamed, The Last Tallboy, Charming Youngsters - In a town full of folk rock heros hunting Southern Rock villains, Where The Buffalo Roamed politely keeps to themselves save they are forced to take sides. PS, this show starts in 20 minutes. chop chop. 9:30 PM, Free - Carrboro Ninja

2/25 THR (The Pinhook) Tender Fruit, Nervous But Excited, Humble Tripe - I didn't make it to Day two of Double Barrel to see Tender Fruit but I saw the pics and it appears Cristy has unsheathed the Danelectro. 9:30 PM

2/25 THR (Tir Na Nog) The Jackets, Small Ponds, & Starmount - Chris Tamplin promotes the Tir Na Nog Local Beer, local Band series and has been on a roll lately with bookings and great shows. Continuing the momentum this Thursday. 10 PM, Free

2/25 THR (506) Birds and Arrows, Lucky, Mandolin Orange - Mandolin Orange and Birds and Arrows redux their shimmering performances of three weeks ago at the 506 Haiti Benefit.

2/25 THR (The Station) Free Electric State - I almost want to get a pair of headphones with Free Electric State in the left ear and Birds and Arrows in the right ear. I would either go crazy or I would go sane, but I would hate to have to choose between these two fine Triangle bands. - Wild Bill Heroic

2/26 FRI (Broad Street Cafe) Rat Jackson, I Was Totally Destroying It, River City Ransom - Rat Jackson has successfully created a new music sub genre which I refer to as Indie Rock-a-billy.

2/26 FRI (Pinhook) The Proclivities, Mosdai Music, Shipwrecker - The Proclivities brought a great show to Tir Na Nog last Thursday, expect the same Friday at Pinhook.

2/27 SAT (The Cavern Tavern) John Harrison, Doug Keith - Out of towner Doug Keith pairs up with North Elementary front man Harrison for some soul rock at the Cave. This is important: Doug and John are playing the early show at The Cave, 7:30 PM...With more than a couple exceptional shows happening on Saturday night in Chap Hill, this will be the de facto pre-party. Straight 8's w The Gasoline Stove play late. 7:30 PM, $5.

2/27 SAT (506) The Whiskey Smugglers, Aminal, Saint Solitude - Speaking of folk rock heros and Southern rock villains, this show will be a deadly shootout between the two factions. Load up and get yourself in the fray. Reaction from Wild Bill Heroic: His solo show was the shit, he created pop masterpieces like you'd typically expect a powerpop trio to pull off... only he did so with a post rock-style pedalboard! Loops and loops and loops and loops, layers and layers of loops, endless strata of snapping and squealing telecasters and rumbling keyboards. Feedback falcons perched in full view of the dead-eyed gargoyles atop, feedback violins tucked into alcoves in a great cathedral of intelligent artpop. Now he has a band, so let's get in our stupid cars this weekend and see if the new incarnation is as radass as the solo Saint Solitude. Here's hoping.

2/27 SAT (Nightlight) Felix Obelix (CD Release) The Strugglers + string section - this will be the most creative thing that happens in Chapel Hill this Release) weekend. $8 admission gets you in the show AND a copy of the CD AND a letter to your future self. Note from Wendy Spitzer:

Yes, there will be an interactive project called "Letters to Your Future Self". All attendees of the night will get, with admission, some stationery and a self-addressed stamped envelope. Attendees are invited to write a letter to him or herself, put it in the envelope and seal it up. I will hold onto the letters for 8 months and mail them in October 2010. So if you come to this show, in addition to the Felix Obelix record, you'll get a letter from your past self, eight months from now.

2/27 SAT (Tir Na Nog) Beggar's Caravan - Beggar's has been hiding in the shadows rumored to be working on new material. Running Tir Na Nog on Saturday night 10:30 PM

2/27 SAT (The Space) All Your Science w/ poets Stacy Szymaszek, Stephanie Bolster - The Space is at 715 Washington Street in Durham. AYS is the most elusive band on the planet. Here is your look!

3/2 SAT (The Cave) Songwriters Open-Mic w/ John Saylor. - barring none this is the finest open mic in the land. Late show, 10 PM, free.

One song/one listen: Monsonia

by Wild Bill Heroic

I know no one's going to lose any sleep here, but I meant to put one of these up on Friday. I have been troutscrewingly busy, Itellyouwut. I spent half the week off-planet for no good or obvious reason.

***

So I want something either really heavy or really epic to do for this week's one song/one listen. That's kind of the mood I'm in and that's the kind of writing I want to do right now. I want something I can really space into, or maybe space out of. Shit, I don't know. This is a very indecisive time to be a Heroic. Daddy Heroic would be ashamed if he knew.

So I'm going to check the show listings, find someone who's playing in the next three months who I've been meaning to check out
and
select...

Monsonia?

Monsonia.

Sure. I've been meaning to see what they're all about. I know they've shared the stage with some supreme radness in the past. So before I smumble any other craps out my mouth I'm going to do some listening and some writing. And maybe then I'll go to bed.

I promise you, this is the first time I've heard this jam. Headphones on & here goes...

Monsonia - Asshaus (link)

Starting off with some drop-D guitar. Not too wild yet, kind of laid-back, but it walks like a crocodile. It slithers low across the landscape, like you couldn't see it move except for the rustle of the high grasses. Now a bleared voice comes through, drunken and contagious, and by the time the great throat of the guitar strikes again the song's grown some in size. Now it's a family of crocodiles and we're on the roof of the house, watching them stomp wavering snake shapes in a field.

Now the lead-in to the great throaty guitar line is a scream. The drunken voice gains terminal velocity and encourages the guitars to chungle right along like gigantic dump trucks - the huge dump trucks with tires the size of houses. This song is filled with menace. Now the voice is back, screaming and tiny, insignificant in the path of whatever is coming to destroy. The menace is almost palpable, things in the room that should not scare me are scaring me now. This is a conduit to the subconscious, to the reptile brain, to the part of us that is fueled by wide-eyed diesel.

Show Review: The Proclivities, North Elementary

Tir Na Nog, Raleigh
February 18, 2010

by Carrboro Ninja

Last night The Proclivities settled their brand of smooth textured rocky-pop into Tir Na Nog's Local Beer Local Band and let the energy build up around it like batteries being plugged into a charger. The Proclivities exuded a charmed grasp upon the elements of their music and performed an intensely finespun round of songs. The Proclivities appear to be in control of their craft and how it is formed on stage. Stretched out and at arm's length in one hand is strong stepping guitar rhythm and held opposite with the other hand is hip, smart, and bouncing bass jaunt, when brought down together, The Proclivities weave a decoration of hooks and textures that form up their songs. The materials that make up a woven basket with an ornamental vignette are not foreign to the eye, you understand that reeds were woven and the beads were arranged and when crafted by a master weaver you may appreciate is as a work of art. The Proclivities trademark their sound in much the same fashion. A steady rocking current is formed up as the main vessel and a vignette of slow rolling electric lead guitar is ornately stitched upon it. Matt Douglas' intensely contemplative story-telling microphone voice lulls the arrangement over a back beat which is so in-the-pocket that every craigslist hopeful would update their drummer wanted ad to read "must sound like Matt McCaughan" after a single listen. Being loud and intense is a norm for good indie rock, being subtle and intense is a mark of achievement and The Proclivities were awarded its honor last night.

With a similarly soft spoken front man but a polar opposite inclination toward the proper use of an electric guitar, North Elementary held the stage just prior to The Proclivities. John Harrison resides in this physical world but a portal to a parallel plane constituted with discord and tumult lies just at his feet sealed in analog circuits and stomp boxes. Upon a refrain or outtro when John wishes to summon forth beasts from this dimension you will see him kneel down and rip the portal asunder revealing a hive of screeching demons and feedback monsters. North Elementary is like the calm, cool, good hearted neighbor who chats you up as if nothing is amiss while holding back with tightly gripped chains a pair of snarling and growling pit bulls who seem to want to devour your liver.

Tir Na Nog has cultivated a meaningful and successful concert series and yesterday's show was its choice representation. Stu McLamb warmed things up with a solo teaser trailer to The Love Language's upcoming number two album, the a fore mentioned bands played impeccable sets and the energy in the house kept it hot. Promoter Chris Tamplin will try to maintain the momentum next Thursday with an Americana/roots dig of The Jackets, Starmount, and The Small Ponds. The Small Ponds feature The Proclivities front man Matt Douglas along with Tres Chicas siren Caitlin Cary.

Profiles related to this post:
The Proclivities:
North Elementary:
Starmount:
The Jackets:
The Small Ponds:
The Pneurotics:
Tres Chicas:



more images from last night

The Proclivities




North Elementary

John Harrison ripping asunder a portal to the demon guitar sounds world

one demon breached the portal and cleverly disguised itself as a ceiling fan

Stu McLamb


people

2/3 of The Pneurotics; Chris Burzminski (drummer) and Mimi McLaughlin (bass)

Norse viking Mary Taylor Valand taking time off from raiding to catch a show

Sarah Johnson gives a big smile for the camera

New Raleigh ink slinger Lady Jane

approaching Tir Na Nog from the huge ass Moore Square parking deck

Infiltration and Movement, Vol 3. week of 2.15.10

poster by John Harrison

Today's lesson: You are always being observed. Always.

Available Assignments:

2/17 WED (506) American Aquarium, John Howie Jr. and the Rosewood Bluff - American Aquarium just finished cutting a new record at Fat Possum in Mississippi and have been burning rubber behind it ever since. The venerable John Howie Jr leads another posse of unsuspecting souls right into the bottleneck pass of heartache. - Hidden Tiger

2/18 THR (Tir Na Nog) North Elementary, The Proclivities -Tir Na Nog's weekly homegrown concert series Local Beer, Local Band presents a couple of local greats this week. And if I am wrong about this then fuck it, but I believe there will be a solo set by Stu McLamb at 9 PM.

2/18 THR (The Cave) La Snacks, Transmography, K_niv_es Austin, TX steers its college town conestoga into our quiet hamlet with a triple bill at the tavern. In celebration of the melting snow, Transmography cometh to create a mental image of a sharp shovel cutting through the sludge. La Snacks gets it on with their mid-nineties Matador records loving selves, and mystery electronicites K_niv_es remind us why we loved them so as A Problem of Alarming Dimensions. - Hidden Tiger

2/18 THR (Blue Bayou) Radar Clowns of Sedation - Pied piper of Mebane, Pete Pawsey, summons all the rats and children from of the upper counties to the Blue Bayou for free a show. His backing band of drowsy clowns will stand you up, just so his soulful British blues harp can smack you back down. Take it like a man. - Hidden Tiger

2/18 THR (Nightlight) Applesauce, Zeke Graves -The country blues duo of Applesauce is Mark Holland and his graveled hurt-speak vocals and Pete Waggoner trying to make you tear up by bending guitar strings. 9:30 PM $5. - Carrboro Ninja

2/18 THR (Reservoir) Colossus, Mortal Man, Salvacion - Holy crap, this looks wild. Buildings might be toppled (trampled?). All virgins within a ten mile radius of the Res are going to get their first true 'gasm from the vibrations in the very bedrock. METAL. MEH-TAL. METAL, MËTÄL... and not just any metal, but some of this is ridiculous hero metal! You absolutely have to love the glorious middle ground between the Hell's Angels and a level 12 paladin with a +3/+3 longsword of truth. You have to. I'll hear no disagreement. - Wild Bill Heroic

F you all if you can't find a show to attend on Thursday - Carrboro Ninja

2/19 FRI (The Pinhook) Schooner, Erie Choir, Veelee -This is the Schooner Duck Kee Sessions ARTWORK release party for their new album which was released exclusive to Cy Tunes on Feb 9. A who-is-who of local artists such as Catherine Edgerton and her TELL TALE mixed media goodness have each created exquisite artwork for this project. This Friday at show time will be the first that the art is available with download codes attached. Show begins at 9 PM with stand-up comedy by The Popular kids. $5.

2/20 SAT (506) Dirty Little Heaters, Red Collar, Pink Flag - This is the Dirty Little Heaters CD Release show and Reece has the field lined with artillery. Pink Flag and Red Collar are what we call guitar-important and if you haven't been moved by the time they end their sets, Reece's Fender will pin your shit against the wall. Be ready. 10 PM $7

2/20 SAT (Nightlight) The Whiskey Smugglers, Popsie's Field, Lizzy Ross and the Little Bear that Barks, Black Swamp Bootleggers - This show will be from 5 PM to 9 PM and is part of the Carrboro Home Brew Fest. Pre-sale tik's are sold out but their website is promising more tik's sold at the door. tik's pretel? $10. http://worldhomebrewfest.eventbrite.com

2/20 SAT (Nightlight) Monsonia, Actual Persons Living or Dead, Le Weekend - Le Weekend hasn't done a show since the deadly shark attack last September. We welcome them back with respect and reverences. 10 PM $5




more Schooner art, this one by Chip Hoppin at The Merch in Carrboro

One song/one listen: Fin Fang Foom

by Wild Bill Heroic

So I'm going to try and do this every Friday... I'm going to listen to a song I've never heard before (to the best of my knowledge) and you're going to get my reaction to the song in realtime. Same rules as last time. The gods of websearch will lead me to my chosen band's page and I'll pick a song... by title. I then put on my headphones, turn the volume to a sadistic level, and let fly. I stop the sentence I'm on when the song's over, even if it doesn't make any sense.

See? That's the beauty of the thing - it might end up an F5 gibberish tornado! A CROSS-EYED GOD FINGERPAINTS A KANSAS TOWN TO SMITHEREENS. And there's nothing I can do about it! Plus, I'm rocking a head cold right now, so be prepared for some grade-A wooziness-impacted writing. Maybe I'm just exhausted. You'd think I'd be able to tell the difference by now.

ANYWAY

This week I've selected Fin Fang Foom. These guys are everywhere - especially Eddie. I think there must be at least three of him. I wouldn't be surprised if he's been photographed in two places simultaneously. Get me proof of this and I'll make you a grilled cheese.

Don't ask me why, but I've never seen Fin Fang Foom live and have not given their music a fair listen before today. Let's rectify that.

I promise you this is the first time I've heard this jam. Headphones on & here goes...

Fin Fang Foom - Magnetic North (link)

That's a pretty guitar tone. Wow, that's a really pretty guitar tone and now here comes some bass. Shit, I can barely follow the bass. These guys are technical as hell. The timing alone could confuse a Nobel laureate, and there's not even drumming yet... there it is.

Holy shit, That comes together nicely. Very nicely. Very pretty, very clipped and precise. It's like looking out your window, your dingy window, at a cold morning across city rooftops. It's like riding the back of a pigeon through the city and you're looking over the top of its head, between its wings, as it goes... then the build and now we're moving a lot faster. Can't tell what the vocals are doing, but I dig. kind of like a middle ground between Sunny Day and Slint. Not as bizarre as Slint, but it's in there somewhere.

Now they're getting kind of mathy - an abrupt math phrase then back to the original speed. "Why waste your time?" is the first line I understand and this is some good mood rock. In fact, I'm typing too fast for what they're doing.

And now we're back to the pigeon's back as it ducks and weaves through alleyways and we're two inches tall, the city is no longer something we can manage or even understand. Fire escapes rise beyond us like the Sierra Mountains and the pigeon climbs higher. Smokestacks are our volcanoes. Traffic probably doesn't exist, it doesn't effect us, it's like a rushing river of idiot metal below wherever our ride takes us.

Whatever's happening, it's awesome, but it's going to take more than one listen for me to have any idea what the structure of that song was. This is some delightfully complicated shit. I'm confused as hell - and loving it.

Retro Review: The Band "The Band" circa 1969

--Carrboro Ninja

In 1969 The Beatles and The Rolling Stones were laying the foundations which would incite bar room quarrels for decades to come over whom the best-ever rock band was and the Motown nebula was spawning R&B stars by the dozens. The face of popular music was being crafted as one of the most artistically influential and culturally imperative eras of all time yet for every standard, there develops and alternative. Bursting from the mainstream fray there came pioneers who blazed a trail of experimental jazz fusion, deep south blues, and country rock, a trail which would later be paved and well traveled by all who embarked for the new genre of music to which it lead...Southern rock.

No album so singularly possessed the DNA building blocks of what would come to define Southern rock as did the 1969 self-titled release The Band. The first two tracks right out of the gate canter with a mash-up of New Orleans jazz and notey high stepping honky tonk. The prevalent horns and thick-cut guitar licks of "Across the Great Divide" are the first to establish a style for the album and weigh it heavily with jazz tone. "Rag Mama Rag" follows with a polar-opposite beatnik country tempo layered with fiddle and dance-hall piano to pull the listener head-over-heels in the other direction.

Given a retrospective 2010 viewpoint, the two influences stand gallantly apparent...as if looking at an old picture of an unacquainted night and day at the same party. If these first two tracks were jazz and honky tonk walking through the door, the third track, "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down", was the introduction that lead them to becoming inseparable friends within the Southern rock culture. "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" simmered down the flash and fervor of the album's beginnings into a common blues thread to sew a cloth of tragedy which could only be donned by a Southerner. Adding even more textures to their American quilt of influence, "Up On Cripple Creek" introduces slap base funk and screams of the time and place Motown inspirations which thrived around The Band as they constructed the album.

Within this collage of 1960's pop music trends, the parts and pieces for a new genre were present. The vessel that granted the genesis to Southern rock was the success and acclaim of "The Night...", "Up on Cripple Creek" and the album in whole which occupied a top 10 spot on the Billboard album charts for 1969. The current respect for the album by publishers of lists is far and wide having been named #45 on Rolling Stones 500 Greatest Albums of all time as well as recognition as one of the 100 best albums ever by Time Magazine and aptly so, The Band has stood as a blue-print for Southern rock music across the decades, a blue print that is being unrolled and studied even today.

album back cover


Post Script;
Thursday 2/11/2010 a trio of local bands represent well the modern class of Southern rock as it is currently being revived and played in Raleigh, NC. Tir Na Nog's weekly home grown music series "Local Band, Local Beer" hosts Raleigh's Bright Young Things, Durham alt-country/rock Luego, and a group from Boone, NC whose sound is eerily reminiscent of The Band circa 1969, Naked Gods.

Infiltration and Movement, Vol 2 week of 2.8.10

Today's lesson: If you are captured, escape.

Available assignments:

2/9 TUE (The Pinhook) Barton Carroll, Wood Ear -The word "songsmith" gets used in the first sentence of every notice Seattle's Barton Carroll gets, so I'm not going to even mention it. Crisp and clear lyricism for a cloudy midweek. Durham's own porch rockers Wood Ear to kick out the bolts. - Crouching Tiger. $5, 8 PM

2/10 WED (Slims) Birds & Arrows, Deleted Scenes, Oblio -Birds and Arrows knocked 200 people off their feet last Saturday night at the 506 Haiti Benefit with their better-than-the-real-thing remake of "Don't Come Around Here No More" They are worth trying to stand up to again. - Carrboro Ninja. 9 PM.

2/11 THR (The Cave) Jimbo Mathis and the Tri-State Coalition, The Small Ponds, Laura Cortese -You know the side, world--motherfucking--wide. I am personally driving a van around the state of North Carolina kidnapping orphan children to bring them to this show. And yes, that's the opening gambit of my campaign for Senate. - Crouching Tiger.

2/11 THR (Tir Na Nog) Bright Young Things, Luego, Naked Gods - Tir Na Nog-Local Beer, Local Band and I was told Naked Gods sound like The Band circa 1969 which is ironic...check this blog tomorrow to see why.. 8 PM.

2/12 FRI (Pittsboro General Store) Straight 8s -In a some dark cave up in SW Virginia there's a grisly, old cuss whose been dancing like a goddam machine to rockabilly for 60 straight years. In fact the fate of the very universe depends on his constant, determined motion. The Straight 8s are in heavy rotation on his victrola. Go forth to Pittsboro and multiply. - Crouching Tiger.

2/12 FRI (The Cave) Demolition String Band, the Moaners, Pneurotics - Pneurotics fronted by quite possibly the best natural guitar player alive or a man destined for hell due to his deal with the leader of the underworld, and The Moaners a Chapel Hill duo crafted from a solid piece of ice that makes everything around it a little bit cooler, and Demolition String Band which is a near favorite of each of the first two. - Carrboro Ninja

2/12 FRI (The Soapbox) MAX Indian, Ryan Gustafson, Light Pines - Josh Pope is a fucking super star. 'nuff said.

2/12 FRI (Broad Street Cafe) Jeremy Blair From Effingham, Sequoya -Jeremy Blair From Effingham is a pack of highly evolved wolves who retreated from the wilderness in search of the meaning of life and write folk rock songs about their journey. Sequoya continues to play their delicious album Sleep and Dream of Fire. 10 PM

2/13 SAT (The Pinhook) New Town Drunks, The Kinksmen - Valentines Day Mardi Gras Party in Durham, NC which which means free beads and the ability to look your friends in eye the next day, but probably with a delicious hangover. 9 PM, $5 (pay-up bitches!)

2/13 SAT (Slims) The Moaners, Demolition String Band, Chip Robinson - Day two for The Moaners and DSB, this time picking up Chip Robinson

2/13 SAT (Berkley Cafe) Lonnie Walker, Gross Ghost, Onward Soldiers - yes...Yes....YEEESSSSS! 8 PM.

2/13 SAT (Broad Street Cafe) Brett Harris - Brett brings more bad ass guitars to the Broad Street Cafe stage and plays songs from his new album. 8 PM.

One song/one listen: Organos

by Wild Bill Heroic

So there's been a ton of buzz about this Organos project... a ton, a serious ton. It's the future of the internet, things can be local and viral at the same time. COOL!

I'm naturally curious, so I'm going to head to her/their myspace or reverbnation or whatever the search gods lead me to first, pick a song I like the name of, and write a stream-of-consciousness reaction to said song. When the song is over I'll finish the sentence I'm on, even if I have to do so abruptly, and that'll be that. Genuine, instant reaction. Who likes free jazz? I do! I do! Skronk! Bleek! Florp!

I promise you, this is the first time I've heard this jam. Headphones on & here goes...

Organos - October (link) 

Acoustic shuffles starting off, but holyshit I wasn't expecting that discord. Like a mad chord wandering among pretty chords and now there are these big fucking things walking in the background. They're like goddamn AT-ATs from Star Wars. She's "aaaah"-ing among these marching beasts, and that's all I can tell the percussion section is, it's a bunch of war machines but they're not headed to war. They're headed to the beach. They've packed their Martin 00s and they're packing umbrellas and they're getting sand in their beer. Here comes some more percussion, more recognizable stuff like hand drums and hand claps. Now the focus is off the war machines on vacation, and her "aaaah" on its own slides out with a final, pretty, chord that denies the intentional offset of the contrast chord.

Rickenbacker "Cresting Wave" No Longer the Most Beautiful

You've got to be drop dead special if you are going to keep company with these guys. You are lining up against the most storied, highest quality, most beautiful models ever to take the stage...sorry Jeff I'm not talking about you and your awesome beard, I'm talking about the gorgeous line-up of guitars that you and Luego brought to the stage last night at Broad Street Cafe.

I have publicly stated my opinion before that the Rickenbacker "cresting wave" series of six-string and bass guitars are the most beautiful instruments in the world and Jeff Crawford's gloss black Jetglo 4001 bass is one of the sweetest examples one can see around town. Also on stage last night was Brett Harris' Telecaster Thinline, with its artful single f-hole design and thick chrome humbuckers, it is an instant impulse buy for any guitar player that accidentally walks past one at a guitar shop. To round out a threesome of archetypal American guitars, Patrick Phelan was strumming what is quite possibly the most beautiful acoustic guitar ever made, a workhorse Gibson J-45 in antique finish. Between those three guitars alone there was enough glossy tonewood on deck to make a mahogany tree blush but the standout that thieved the spotlight and redirected the attention of everyone in the room was an exceptionally bewitching custom hollow body electric guitar which had been recently hand crafted by Larry Jaeger and on this night...played by his son Nick.

This guitar is special. Its chrome appointments flowed like sailboats on a lake of varnish so pristine you could almost take a swim in it. Its elegant lines and sleek symmetry shimmered with an extra-dimensional quality that could make a Lamborghini jealous. And this was just to look at it...the sound was just as angelic. Having been seen on stage with numerous classics, such as a Gibson 335, Nick is no stranger to magnificent guitars nor is he shy for getting tone out of them. The spongy stretchy hot lick guitar solos Nick is known for needed no tuning, but this custom hummed with a special sense of angry, like a cat purring and growling at the same time. I guess there is always one better, Nick has found it in this rig.

Having been allured by this guitar's form and enlightened by its tone, it's safe to consider Larry Jaeger a master luthier and its exciting to know that his art and craftsmanship; being formed on the most micro of levels, can and does upstage the best of what the heritage of American guitar manufacturers has to offer.

click to enlarge

Nick Jaeger with the custom hollow body electric built by his dad.

far right: Larry Jaeger watching Nick perform with the guitar he crafted

Luego, left to right: Nick Jaegar and his custom Jaeger hollow body, Brett Harris with a Fender Telecaster Thinline re-issue, Patrick Phelan wielding a Gibson j-45, Rob DiMauro on drums, Jeff Crawford with a "cresting wave" Rickenbacker bass, Charles Cleaver on keys.

Post Script Jaeger Guitars myspace page

Infiltration and Movement, Vol I - Week of 2.1.10

Today's lesson: Accomplish the mission, failure is not an option.

Available assignments:

2/4 THR (Broad Street Cafe) Anna Rose Beck - This is Debut night for recent Duke grad singer-songwriter Anna Rose Beck who may be brilliant, we'll learn more tonight. Anna plays the early show at 8 PM, Americana-roots-stompin-music Luego at 10 PM

2/5 FRI (The Pour House MAX Indian, Bellafea, Veelee, The Light Pines -WKNC 88.1 Double Barrel Benefit #7 Day 1. The last time I watched Josh singing, it was at Kings and something about a bear. Finally I get a chance to see side project-ville that looks more like old school-ville and sounds like it could be new school-ville.

2/5 FRI (Slim's) Patrick Phelan (Luego)- Sly dog Patrick Phelan scores and early show at Slim's as part of First Friday. May as well call this the Dbbl Barrel Benefit pre-party

2/5 FRI (Local 506) Free Electric State, Retribution Gospel Choir, Rat Jackson - The hypnotically beautiful simplicity of FES in the same room with the in-your-face Indy rockabilly of Rat Jackson....Yes, Please

2/6 SAT (The Pour House) Roman Candle, Spider Bags, Midtown Dickens, The Tender Fruit(s) -WKNC 88.1 Double Barrel Benefit #7 Day 2. Roman Candle making a brief stop AT HOME before launching back out into space.

2/6 SAT (Nightlight) Mountains, Horseback, Tape, Ghost Hand - additional notes from Wild Bill Heroic: "That looks like a droned-out, noise-through-the-roof, pop your eyeballs out of your head with molten rock goodness like an extra in Beetlejuice, good time." PS, Tape is from Stockholm in case you are looking for foreigners to scam. 9:30 PM.

2/6 SAT (Local 506) A grand-master Haiti Relief benefit at 506 on Saturday. 6+ bands performing Dylan and Petty covers. Bands on the bill thus far include: Birds & Arrows, Big Fat Gap, Gambling the Muse, Mary Johnson Rockers, Mandolin Orange, THE Pneurotics, Semi-Formal, It is rain in my face. 9 PM

2/6 SAT (The Cave) The Sinful Savage Tigers, Mandolin Orange - go on with your bad selves Mandolin Orange, two shows in one night! ...murderous, The Sinful Savage Tigers string trio brings it home. 10 PM

Mad-Libs with Missy Thangs!

In a futile attempt to understand what is going on inside Missy Thangs' head, Wednesday we google chatted through a side splitting Mad-Lib. Through the course of the conversation I learned that Missy's band Soft Company is making a few off-season trades to acquire members from The Huguenots and Violet Vector and the Lovely Lovelies, that The Love Language for whom she plays keys is hard at work on their legitimate business , and that she knows the difference between adjectives and adverbs quite well, quite well indeed.

The syntax of my chat with Ms Thangs;

me: you have a mathematical personality, did you know that = yes+maybe?
missythangs: well duh!
me: har har
missythangs: haha sup?
me: reading up on what the difference between an adverb and an adjective is
missythangs: ahhh speaking of mathematical
adverb = -ly
simply!
me: smip+ly
missythangs: hah. my manager just told me i look like peppermint pattie from charlie brown
sup wit that?
me: sounds like he's trying to control your ego. kick him in the knee
missythangs: haha
haha
i ran out of gas to heat the house yesterday
me: i'm looking on your reverb page and i don't see any more shows...did i completely miss the soft company business for this month...
missythangs: it's the temperature of a wine cellar in here
me: oh damn...burn pizza boxes
missythangs: a nice 50 degrees
my wine is perfectly chilled hahaha i'm FREEZING. but the wine... perfecto!
soft company biz is still rollin
me: the always resourceful missy thangs
missythangs: hah
we were asked to play a few other shows but i had to hold off to wait and see what happened with LL biz
we have a new band, and new songs, new album, new label, new hairstyles
we bizy
me: legitimate biz
missythangs: yeah definitely
that and i'm starting a new project called chalet fir
my girl
chalet
me: i was informed there may be a line up change...no one said anything about hair styles though...whoa
missythangs: hahah
naw kiddin
me: whew cause.....
missythangs: !!
me: cause because
did you have a show last sat at Nightlight or did it snow out like everyone else
missythangs: yes!!!!!
we did and it was awesome!
there were over 35 people!
which honestly.. it doesn't get that full on a summer weekend night
my new band is so great i love them so much and am so grateful
me: hot damn and ggrrrrrr...i wanted to be there (hiding of course...in the shadows)
missythangs: they are tigers of love!
i wish you had made it.. but the roads were almost impossible to drive on
me: yes tigers...symbolic of cunning and survival...rather than the lion, symbolic of lazy as shit
hey
you like mad-libs?
missythangs: hahah
why i yes.
i do!
me: SO I DO OMG
missythangs: what a coincidence!
that we are here!
both ready for mad libbing!
maddening!
rarrr!
(not a lion)
me: well since we are here both ready for mad mad-libbing...guess what i have?
oh yes
missythangs: yess????
the suspense.. it's killing me!
me: the best of mad libs! over 400 pages
missythangs: OH SHIT!
me: and i have one piked out for aaayou
missythangs: piked!
good thang i did hundreds of these as a kid
me: i'm not going to tell you the title...that would be too easy
missythangs: i'm so ready
haha
perfect
me: hheheh, i'm giddy...ok....give me a "noun"
wait, i need a pen
missythangs: hahah
okay a noun
get a pen!
me: awesome, got it
missythangs: umpire
thass my noun
me: and a good one

after that there was a lot of
missythangs: hope that's not offensive! and is that how it's spelled?
and some
me: omg my sides hurt. and wtf does that even mean?

Ladies and Gentlemen, Mad-Libs with Missy Thangs: