All Photos by Aggie Donkar Unless Noted Lonnie Walker I’ve seen Lonnie walker 6,654 times now. More than anyone has seen any band in the entire world. Hell, I’ve seen Lonnie Walker more times than the number of shows Lonnie Walker has played. Chew on that for a second. So while Lonnie Walker’s set in City Plaza … Read more
Sunday marked the close of yet another Hopscotch Music Festival for those of us in North Carolina. It’s normal day of reflection here in the south, being the Sabbath and all, but it’s a time for us music junkies to look back at the now-gone-weekend of booze and debauchery, instead of praying out those sins … Read more
Via NPR Hopscotch begins tonight! I gotta keep this short because I’m about to make the three hour drive back to Raleigh, but short and sweet is always good. Waxahatchee is the project of Katie Crutchfield. She makes wicked awesome, acoustic-y pop punk with just enough grit to keep you on your toes. Her newest … Read more
Courtesy of Hopscotch Music Festival Given the name one might assume that Sylvan Esso is some sort of mystical Eastern European troubadour, but that couldn’t be farther from the truth. The side project of Mountain Man‘s Amelia Meath and Megafun‘s Nick Sanborn, the duo makes music wholly unlike either of their original bands. A combination … Read more
Image courtesy of Jeffery Vash What were you doing at age 17? I think for most kids that age it takes all the energy they can muster just to get through their last couple years of high school and keep from going completely insane (hormones are a hell of a drug, y’all). When I wasn’t … Read more
Don’t you just love songs that come completely out of left field? Those seemingly out of place, yet totally amazing tunes that catch you off guard at first, but quickly become the most intriguing part of the artist’s catalog. Yeah, those are my favorite kind of songs. Magik Markers are a noise rock band from Hartford, CT, … Read more
Well y’all, Hopscotch just announced their lineup for the 2013 festival, and we are beyond excited. Uber-excited if you will. True to form, they’ve handpicked new and old (more seasoned) performers across pretty much every musical genre in existence. From rap to bluegrass, they molded a festival this year that in my opinion, will be … Read more
The Roots : Photo by Aggie Donkar Jane Jane Pollock Going to a bar you frequent, usually after 10:00 pm, in the middle of the day is always a weird feeling. But walking in to a sun-drenched Kings Barcade at around two in the afternoon proved to feel just like home. Especially given Jane Jane … Read more
Gross Ghost : Photo by Aggie Donkar Day One: Thursday Brief Setup: Raleigh’s Hopscotch Music Festival is curated by Pitchfork contributor, and hometown artsy-newspaper editor Grayson Currin. It’s the only festival of it’s kind – featuring tons of the best local acts, wedged between a plethora of up-and-coming bands that will soon be indie-household names. The … Read more
The first night of the Hopscotch Music Festival can be tough. If you don’t take the entire day off – you spend the daylight hours working your normal 9 to 5, then do your best to turn into the 21 year-old you, and stay up and alert until after 2:00 am. In the past, those … Read more
For the final installment of our Tuesday Hopscotch Music Festival preview, we bring you one of the most interesting babies our research birthed – Louisville’s Nerves Junior. We literally took a whip to ourselves, Illuminati style, for not knowing about them earlier than this. We wasted a whole year of our musical lives – the … Read more
Photo by Agatha Donkar Spider Bags are one of the most changeable bands of the Triangle scene; they can be just about anything. Under the direction of frontman, songwriter, and guitarist Dan McGee, the three piece has just released their third full-length LP, and while there are constants in ever songs — the stalwart rhythm … Read more
After covering the two previous Hopscotch Music Festivals, and mapping out the blog’s schedule for attending this year’s festival, I can safely say that the biggest reoccurring theme, outside hangovers and sleep deprivation, seems to be CME, or continuing musical education for the non-acronym inclined. See, what you guys may not realize is the festival … Read more
Ever look around a meeting and wonder what’s going on inside the heads of the people who surround you? They appear to be mentally present, and cognizant of the meaning of the words they are nodding their heads to, but I have a feeling that most of them are either: A) recounting the previous night’s … Read more
Photo by Joe Appaluccio NY multi-instrumentalist, Steve, has been touring the world with Yeasayer and tUnE-yArDs for a minute now behind his new LP, Positive Force. His reception has been met with more than positive reviews. That alone is reason enough to check him out, no? In addition, Steve wrote, performed, recorded, and mixed Positive … Read more
Music nerdom can sometimes be frustrating. Sure – you have the typical irritation points, like when you see that Maroon 5 sold out the local Bud Light Lime Dome, or that the massive pool of Top 40 fans were amazed and horribly irritated when Bon Iver won a Grammy, despite their not knowing who the … Read more
I’ve listened to Exitmusic’s debut LP, Passages, twenty times probably. And I’ll be damned to find out this morning, when prepping this little post, that the voice I’ve been listening to on record is the same voice I’ve heard hundreds of times on HBO. See, Aleksa Palladino, who is one-half of the the duo comprising … Read more
Photo by Derek Branscombe I woke up on an island this morning, but not one of those deserted kinds – it’s the inhabited kind we have here in the southeast, packed with equal parts Yankee and redneck. Anyway, I got out of bed, wanting something to soundtrack my morning. Everyone else in the house was … Read more
As a music blogger, it’s a bit tough to admit this – the reason I picked up Gross Ghost’s new LP, Brer Rabbit, is it has a really pretty cover. There. My soul is now free. Luckily, my post-purchase experience with it was even more pleasurable, even beyond the clear vinyl that the awesomely-designed sleeve … Read more
Each and every track that has either been leaked or officially posted from Dan Deacon’s soon-to-be-released LP, America, is freaking Awesome with a capital A. Today’s Jam of the Day, “LOTS,” is no exception. It walks the line between an all out rock assault and one of those songs that sounds like something I would … Read more
Photo by Agatha Donkar Lilac Shadows lists just four words on their Bandcamp page in regards to their Shallow Madness EP. Bright. Dark. Quiet. Loud. And from what we’ve heard, the description is fitting. It’s this ability to mix opposites that sets our Jam of the Day apart from other shoegaze wannabes attempting to make … Read more
Photo courtesy of the band It’s an age old story: a songwriter’s band takes a break, but the songwriter keeps writing songs. When JKutchma’s primary vehicle, Durham punk stalwarts Red Collar, took a break to deal with life two years ago, J kept writing, and took the songs on the road by himself. Eventually Red … Read more
Not many things make me want to turn back the clocks to the days of avocado appliances, orange shag carpet, and faux-wood paneling on the walls. That shit sounds downright lame, regardless of the fact vinyl was still the preferred means of both obtaining music AND covering the seat cushions in your car. But Escort … Read more
Summer is coming. Matthew E. White will make it his. Just surrender now. But if your hand and ears must be forced, they will not be led by extreme means. Instead, you will slowly succumb to beats that sneak along and a voice that quietly kills, seemingly possessed by the ghosts of history’s most powerful … Read more
I’m a firm disbeliever in serendipity, fate, and generally anything else that could be used for either the premise of a teen novel or a chick flick. Call it soulless, but that melarkey is for the birds. However, last week, while reading a list of “new” bands a friend sent me while doing Hopscotch Music … Read more
Photo by Sarah Jurado With its psychadelic guitars and haunted, echoing vocals, “Nothing Is The News” opens Damien Jurado’s Maraqopa with five and a half minutes of the bleakest, loneliest landscape possible. It’s a track for watching the sun rise over a barren but beautiful desert alone, a song that sets the tone for Jurado’s masterpiece … Read more
Apparently, growing up in the rougher neighborhoods of Sacramento not only makes you tough as nails, but it also preps you for the day you decide to start making music. For Terra Lopez, a little quiet isolation in the LBC, and a long night of drankin’, apparently doesn’t hurt as well – since after boozing … Read more
Atlanta based Wowser Bowser recently bleeped on the official Speakers in Code radar, via a little reconnaissance work our secret agents were doing on Raleigh’s Hopscotch Music Festival lineup. From what we know thus far, they give high energy performances, their music contains complex layers of instruments, and the diversity of musical genres they feature … Read more
Continuing our weekly Jam of the Day post featuring an artist that will be playing this year’s Hopscotch Music Festival in Raleigh, we are are pleased to bring you Balam Acab’s remix of Lana Del Rey’s breakout single,”Video Games.” As if “Video Games” wasn’t already heartbreaking and addicting enough, Balam Acab, in a genius move, … Read more
The idea of the slow burn isn’t appealing to everyone. Especially today in an age where everything is immediately obtainable. But with music, and specifically song craft, slowly sinking your hooks into someone’s soul is something that is oft-tried, but rarely as effective as the artist had intended. In attempting the slow burn, many artists … Read more