Melissa Swingle Playing The Saw

With the rare instance of the expatriated Alex Bowers visiting from his new home across the pond came a spontaneous show at The Cave. Even more spontaneous seemed to be Melissa Swingle's appearance as she walked in half way through the set with a saw and bow in hand, went directly on stage and did this. Enjoy!




Alex Bowers on piano there, RJ Ventre on the standup double upright giant bass, Dan Hall on drums, and of course Melissa Swingle of Trailer Bride, The Moaners, and The Melissa Swingle Duo...playing the saw. Earlier in the evening the backing trio of Alex, RJ, and Dan played some spunky western jazz along with Ashley Hayes on acoustic guitar and Wendy Hayes on vocals. Sometimes you walk through The Cave to get to Franklin Street. Sometimes you don't make it out the other door. - Carrboro Ninja

FTW - Church Key First One's Free @ The Pinhook, The Human Eyes @ kINGS, and Who Not to Miss at Carrboro Music Fest

Tin Can Sailor performing at Motorco Garage on Thursday Aug 30th.

California Wives, Stars, Diamond Rings @ Cat's Cradle Wednesday 9/26
The big sound of California Wives' chiming indie guitar and smooth vocal harmonies should shine its brightest on the big stage at Cat's Cradle Wednesday night. This Chicago band has earned plenty of press since they started touring heavy last year. Wednesday they will take a shot at engaging the home crowd with immersible indie pop.

Farewell Blowout and Potluck @ The Cave Friday 9/28 5:00 PM
Being present when history occurs is an endearing opportunity for anyone who seeks a strong relationship with the local music culture. Rarely do we have a chance to make plans to attend history, but you can put it on your calendar right now. Current owner Mouse celebrates his last day at The Cave, passing the torch to the Slims team. The festivities kick off at 5:00 PM with a potluck. Music begins at 7:30 PM featuring round-robin style performances by Taz Halloween, Mark Simonsen, and Billy Sugarfix. 5:00 PM/pass the hat

The Human Eyes, Heads on Sticks @ Kings Friday 9/28
The Human Eyes strikes chords of retro pop and avant-garde electronica simultaneously. Their May 2012 album Guiding Eyes For The Blind is a confident envoy into the shimmer and shine that made "synthesizer" a buzz word in the eighties. Heads on Sticks primes from the same pump and blends in a bit of funk. 9:00 pm/$5

Frontier Ruckus, Magnolia Collective @ Local 506 Saturday 9/29
This is a Cat's Cradle presents billing at Local 506 and will be a honey of a roots rocker. Both bands blend Americana and indie to form an excitable brand of Southern rock. Local 506 and Cat's Cradle promoters strive to be matchmakers between locals and touring bands, and this billing has potential to go all the way. Doors at 8 PM/$10

Mount Carmel, Effingham @ Local 506 Monday 10/1
Mount Carmel is on tour out of Columbus, Ohio and hell bent to bring their surly take on blues rock to the indie underground. Next Monday the trio plugs in and rips through their riff drenched anthems in Chapel Hill. Durham indie folk-rock band Effingham opens with their patented high energy, short duration set of story teller rock. doors at 8:30 PM/$9

Church Key Presents Wood Ear, Some Army @ The Pinhook Saturday 10/6
This is another installment of Church Key Records highly successful "Churchkey Presents First One's Free" music series which occurs the first Saturday of the month at The Pinhook in Durham, is free, and has presented fantastic talent on stage since the series kicked off in June. Some Army, having secured their place in the hearts of the local scene with their sweet soft rock indie, has been quite ambassadorial lately...on the road promoting their sound outwardly. Wood Ear are masters of dark Americana sound scapes and could single handedly keep the spirit of rock and roll country from dissipating from the collective minds of the local culture, if it ever came to that. 10 PM, Free

Sunday 9/30 is the Carrboro Music Festival which is one of our last great all-play festivals featuring local-only bands. Its a feel good event for the community and musicians alike with a day of trans-Carrboro performances. SCNP selects from a large list and makes a few recommendations:

Rachel Kiel 1:00 Music Loft
Kiel's 2009 album Table Manners didn't reach the heights that it should have, as evidence by the fact that she isn't in Nashville drawing royalty checks from "Lights On" and negotiating big things with big labels. We'll selfishly keep her big talent to ourselves on Sunday.

Onward Soldiers 4:00 Milltown
Wilmington natives that have been given a key to our house and a permanent invite to come up and stay, Onward Soldiers are a favorite guest. Southern rock meets indie with distinctive vocals and well thought out guitar arrangements.

Saints Apollo 5:00 Southern Rail (Front Porch)
one of the best new harmony driven acoustic acts this year has to offer. Sweet airy songs with a beautiful mingle of voices and softly rendered keys and strings.

Morning Brigade 5:00 Music Loft
Fresh, clean, exciting, hooky...there is plenty to adore in Morning Brigade. Their music is a well rounded wall of sound with a gritty yet refined lead vocal.

Tow3rs 5:00 Milltown
Tow3rs continues to create unique and passionate electronic pop that reaches beyond the boundaries of the genre. Tow3rs sound scapes build more than just colorful rhythms, mystique is generated somewhere within the haze. Fun to listen to, fun to watch.

Magnolia Collective 6:00 Milltown
Carrboro darlings and favorites of SCNP, it's no secret why this band's raucous folk rocking charisma makes our list twice...MagCo is a performance that should never be missed.

Battlestar Canada 6:15 2nd Wind Sports Saloon
Street smart eclectic folk pop glorifying pulp-ish stories of urban decay. This Durham two piece brings a full on electronic wall of sound with the help of synth and loops.

Tin Can Sailor 7:30 Cat's Cradle
Tin Can Sailor is a sleeping giant of indie rock potential. A couple years in to being a band, but just now coming of age with focus and direction on tight arrangements and mind engaging lyrics. Their small cult following could and should multiply on Sunday as they lay it down at a prime time on a prime stage.

The Pinkerton Raid 8:00 Jessee's Coffee and Bar
With energy still sizzling from their east coast tour, this Durham three piece will plug in and continue to cook up their witty brand of heavy pop.

jphono1 - Living is Easy

John Harrison's arts is always a mind expanding challenge to convention and these forty pages of art and nine tracks of atmospheric acoustic pop found bound by a single release titled Living is Easy...is the sort of collapsed dichotomy between art and life that John's audience is conditioned to expect from his studio. Known for twisting the heaviest and darkest sounds from a synthesizer in his mainstay electronic rock group North Elementary, John takes a lighter more experimental approach to the same machine on this solo effort jphono1. Throughout the album, there is an acoustic guitar, John's whimsically philosophical voice, and a synth zipping, zapping, and echoing in playfully thoughtful arrangements. The occasional looped atmospheric sound of birds chirping or stars shooting promotes a bridge between the two mediums of Living is Easy, which are sound and print. Graphic artist Regina McCoy chose from a pallet of art works, images captured during times of the album's creation, and lyrics scribbled on scratch paper to frame up Living is Easy the book, and each page within it offers a rich and delectable dive into the colorful life of the artist.

The commission can be per-ordered right now for $12 book and $5 CD (which is mind numbingly cheap for an effort of this quality) and shipping will begin on or around Feb 7. The entire album is available for streaming and/or download at the artist's website jphono1 as of right now also. To kick things off, a massive album/art release party is on the books for February 16th at The Cave in Chapel Hill. The party will begin at 7 PM and will feature 30 minute sets by nine performers beginning with Mark Edwards and ending with Chapel Hill folk rock darlings Magnolia Collective. Sara Bell of Regina Hexaphone, Neven Carswell of Wembley, and Inspector 22 are among the performers billed. Join the facebook event.

--Carrboro Ninja

images from "Living is Easy" the book

Show Review: Monarchs, Anna Rose Beck, Jordan & the Sphinx

The Cave, Chapel Hill
Sept 29, 2011

As I walked down the middle of the dark and gritty ally that serves the seedy rear entrances to the four-hundred block of Franklin Street diners and pubs, I noted the mild weather. "Could have brought a jacket tonight." I thought. The heat had finally begun to lower the flag of Summer. It's foot soldiers just days before had gathered in force at every corner of Chapel Hill. Humid, cloaked in vapor, and standing steadfast, they peered over the tops of the tin covered flat roofed buildings skirting the length of Franklin Street and glared down upon the oppressed who traveled in groups from bar to bar quietly protesting the occupation with cut-offs and tank-tops. On this night however, the soldiers of the heat were in retreat and their grasp loosened. A soft breeze rustled the first fallen leaves across cool pavement under my feet was I walked. The streets were soon to be reclaimed and those who diligently maintained life and culture performing during the hottest of days on sweaty out door stages and sticky narrow rock clubs now celebrated out loud with smiles and new found energy. My night was spent with such folk, at The Cave in Chapel Hill where alt country songstress Anna Rose Beck gave redux of her July performance at a sweltering Nightlight and soulful Southern Rock young sons Jordan & the Sphinx emerged from shelter to pick up their smoldering guitars and perform a controlled burn on stage.

Jordan & the Sphinx embody blue collar rock and roll. This is a husband and wife fronted band and together they work hours which I doubt either have, or will ever, count. For seven days a week they punch out late from work only to wearily pick up guitars and punch out rock and roll even later. Playing shows, hosting shows, running sound at shows, going to shows... no matter how tired, they earn their life back after dark and revel with its creatures. At front, Jordan Dupree is a vastly underrated entity. The only thing better than the sweetly formed crunch of distortion from his Peavy tube amp is his deft and skilled maneuvers on his vintage six string. Thursday night's set however, was a stripped down acoustic and percussion performance. Jordan on the guitar, Robert Cantrell slapping the cajón, and Adrienne Christina was shaking a tambourine, laying down Motown-esque R&B harmonies, and for one killer moment....ripping hearts out with a harmonica. The sparse arrangements gave Jordan & the Sphinx opportunity to showcase their best instrument; Jordan. He is vocally set, no need to change a thing. Gravelly yet piercingly clear, commanding range yet happy staying close to home. His louds are soft and his softs are emotional. He is an eyes closed singer...its being drawn from within.

Up second was Anna Rose Beck who is both fun and mysterious to watch. Her arrival to the gigging circuit of the alt country Americana scenes Chapel Hill, Durham, and Raleigh, NC was hastey. Her transition from a senior at Duke having just picked up guitar and plucking it sparingly at open mic, too head lining her own cd release party was the course of a short year and a half, time which consistently moved her forwarded and has resulted thus far in creation of a well known and appreciated brand. There is mystery to observe in Anna Rose Beck's lyrics also. Born in the twilight years of the decadent eighties, her cheeks still glow with girlish youth under the lights of the stage, but her lyrics sing of experiences matured well beyond her years. Mysterious also in her confidence. So comfortable in her approach to a microphone and so underscoring with her hushy middle soprano intensity that you will seek explanation for how one so fair can reach so far.

With youth in one hand and car keys in the other her approach to what ever is next is being sought with just as much fervor. West to Ashville, east to Greenville, and points as far south as Georga have been recent drives for solo appearances. Midway through the set Anna also made mention that she was flying out to Austin in the A.M.

Speaking of the devil...Thursday's eye opening headliner, Monarchs, is on tour out of Austin and breezed through with a fresh and exciting indie rock-a-billy meets vintage swing mash up sound that I fancied is probably what's cool in Austin right now...and if so then they are probably the band which made it that way. Monarchs is fronted by the magnetic Celeste Griffin, a working man's Jenny Lewis...just as talented but likely will work harder just to proove her salt in smaller clubs. This is not to say that Monarchs are a poor man's Rilo Kiley however, if they finish out this tour with the same dazzle and spark displayed Thursday night, then they could be moving onto that block...might be moving into that house.

This is how the streets were taken back from the Summer heat Thursday night. We emerged from The Cave to a vacant chill and walked freely through the darkness up Franklin Street to find the day's last toast. Victory was celebrated at The Station and the mercury was still dropping as we drifted homeward well after last call. --Carrboro Ninja


click to stream:

Monarchs "Arm's Length"

Jordan & the Sphinx "Too Bad, So Sad"

Anna Rose Beck "Begin to Sing"




Monarchs















Jordan & the Sphinx




Anna Rose Beck






faces in the crowd

Chris Jones (left) being his normal cool self with Slingshot Cash band mate Jon Ackley

The Tornado pumping cool outside air into The Cave

Anna Rose Beck violinist Omar Ruiz-Lopez poses with Christina Kestler (left) and Jessica Stein just minutes before midnight and his b-day which was observed at The Station after the show.

Show Review: Reign Lee at Black Flower

Black Flower, Raleigh
October 27, 2009

This was a touch into the atypical for my norms, sitting long side in a plush Hollywood style half circle booth, feet up and sipping a Maker's to a quaint acoustic pair of exotic tigress' on a cold rainy Tuesday night in Glenwood South's newest rock haunt, Black Flower . Gracing the microphone were Ontario born and Hong Kong native singer-songwriter Reign Lee and her wise-cracking brit side kick Sue Sherman who were elegantly shredding down the parts of Reign's bountifully arranged electric album Broken Skylines into ballad-esque parts proportioned for a meandering fall US tour as a duo.

suspension of reality

Then and Now, The Return of The Honored Guests
Show Review: Future Islands
The Pneurotics CD Release Party Images
Show Review: New Town Drunks, John Howie, Jr. and the Sweethearts, Taz Halloween

Reign having played twenty-four hours prior in Chapel Hill at The Cave with a couple of locals caught my attention and I marked to return the following day in Raleigh to watch and listen, this time with a hood pulled over my brow blinding the distractions...quite in opposite of the night before where the welcome ruckus of loud friends and whose turn it is to buy a round pulled attentions away from the more important darkening delivery of a bright presence adorning the stage. Given the chance to listen was to be given reward as the most interesting and enjoyable aspects of Reign's show are those subtler ones that are only discovered when the listener is in the same mind space as the performer. Soothing baritone demeanor tells you a story with calm anticipation of its cracking and shooting squalls of vocal range as Reign drives a point through the mic like a stiletto. Nuanced to the untrained eye is the lanky, clever, and delicate Sue Sherman's fret board aerobatics so complexly arranged and executed upon a subtle acoustic guitar that my mind processed its potential and transformed its input from acoustic warmth into vintage tube grind as if I had just upgraded the circuits in my head with the latest Line 6 guitar amp modeling software. Sue was working the scales like a possessed seamstress and my mind was wrapped in the threads.

Their set ended with modest applause from those few whose eyes followed the show and the chattery excitement of the walk in crowd who were lured from the street by Black Flower's intriguing rock venue meets night club atmosphere. Shortly there after Reign, Sue and I sat down over scotch and hand rolled cigarettes with Black Flower co-owner/manager Jamie Saad and chatted the night away. Having been my first visit to Black Flower my initial comment to Jamie was, "Impressed." As my glass sat on an ornately decorated booth table top next to bold black-flowered wall designs both designed and administered by the prolific Raleigh art-trepreneur Adam Peele, I noted that while this is indeed a fully chartered local rock venue, the high def plasmas on the wall and red velvet ropes out front made claim to it being a special one also. Everyone reading this blog, present company included, has a fondness for the authenticity and edginess of our favorite dingy unkempt and rocked out bars but the same crowd may also agree that the "something special" that is happening with the music scene around this town will continue to drive more talent to the stages and the followings must grow along with them. This means friends and folks who don't currently spend their entertainment pesos on local music need to be enchanted to do so and these favorite friends of ours may not feel so comfortable as you or I in stepping through the gates of the parallel universe that is The Cave. Black Flower being inspired by the creativity and ingenuity of the local music culture and with a focus on promoting the local music culture with every fiber of their being...while at the same time being posh and inviting the opposite sub-cultures, has the potential to introduce our music to new audiences.

Jamie's effort is to expand upon the expectations of a music venue. Black Flower now in operation for a year, has aspirations around the stage that are true as an arrow in favor of pushing, pulling, and promoting small local talent to reach their next level what ever it may be. An Internet Cafe model with click-and-mortar musician e-tailing is being planned and will cater to a local musician culture which is dizzy from trying to reach their local audience with the amazon/itunes planets should it be developed and launched. Pure focus on original local bands in sacrifice of the cash machine cover band racket that engulfs Glenwood South proves that their heart is in the right place and gives a new property to the indie music sub-culture in this crowd swelled part of the Raleigh monopoly board. Keep an eye on the Black Flower music calendar and support them as much as possible, from what I gathered Tuesday night they're here to support us. --Carrboro Ninja


Reign Lee



Sue Sherman



Black Flower bar

the signature pen work of local designer-clothing label artist Adam Peele such as this ornately designed booth table top can be found throughout Black Flower's decor, both on-line and in-side. Visit Adam's webstore to view his Ahpeele designer clothing line; http://www.ahpeele.bigcartel.com