Raucous and rowdy punks Pipe, fresh off of their immensely entertaining set at XX Merge last week, are gearing up for another show in the Triangle. They will play the Broad Street Cafe in Durham on Saturday, August 15. The show will start at 10pm and The Dry Heathens will open. Tickets are just $5.
Los Angeles indie rockers Sea Wolf are gearing up to hit the road in September to support their new album White Water, White Bloom. The tour will come to the Nightlight in Chapel Hill on Wednesday, October 21. Tickets for the show are on sale now for $10 via etix.com. Port O'Brien and Sara Lov will open the show.
Raleigh rockers American Aquarium are gearing up for grueling couple of months on the road. They will kick off a two-month plus tour at Depot Fest in Raleigh on August 6 and will play a show almost every single day between then and October 2. The tour will see the band mostly hitting the south really hard with the exception of a swing through the southwest and up the west coast. Check out the dates below.
Dinosaur Jr. bassist and fantastic songwriter Lou Barlow has a new solo album due out via Merge Records on October 6 titled Goodnight Unknown. We have the seventh track from the album below available for you to download. It is a fantastic tune titled "Gravitiate."
Local North Carolina songwriters and dB's leaders Peter Holsapple and Chris Stamey closed out this year's magnificent Duke Gardens summer concert series.
Just when you though the Merge related posts would slow down, here comes some more. Local heavyhitters Superchunk have announced a show Durham next month. They will play a show in Central Durham Park dubbed "Music For Fences" that will benefit The Coalition to Unchain Dogs. The group helps raise awareness of animal welfare and the money from the show will go to build fences so dogs do not have to be chained up.
The Avett Brothers Daytrotter session that they record at the South By Southwest music conference in March has finally been released. The group only played one song, "Laundry Room," from the band's forthcoming album I and Love and You, set for release on September 29. Go here to download or stream the session.
We're getting back to our regular programming here after a big week of XX Merge coverage. Our first news back is that indie rockers Built To Spill have announced a big North American tour from September thru November. The band will stop at none other than the Cat's Cradle in Carrboro on Sunday, October 18. Tickets are on sale now via etix.com for $20. Swiss group Disco Doom will open the show.
Here we are. We've reached the end of our XX Merge coverage. The final band of the three-band bill Sunday night at Memorial Hall was the classic pop styling of She & Him. Zooey Deschanel and M. Ward took the stage with a four-member backing band including Becky Stark of Lavender Diamond on backing vocals (we recently covered her on The Decemberists' tour).
So here we are. The final night of XX Merge at Memorial Hall. The line-up was solid and the show was great. Let's get started.
The unfortunate task of following M. Ward's excellent performance on the fourth night of XX Merge at the Cat's Cradle fell to Dan Bejar, aka Destroyer. He delivered an nice solo set accented by his unique singing style. The set included music from his various Destroyer albums. The song "Streets of Fire" stood out in the set. He recorded it for the 1996 Destroyer album We'll Build Them a Golden Bridge and he recorded it again with The New Pornographers in 2005.
The headliner of the night four of XX Merge was M. Ward, but he didn't close the night. He was the fourth of six bands. It was a bit odd and you'll also notice a lack of quality photos with this post because his tour manager put the kibosh on photos for his set. I did manage to snap a few crappy ones from the side during the encore though.
Third on the schedule on night four of XX Merge at the Cat's Cradle was The Ladybug Transistor. The set saw the return of bassist Julia Rydholm who played on Friday with The Essex Green. The band played great set of melodic pop songs which included the song "Always on the Telephone."
After a hot outdoor set at Orange County Social Club, XX Merge-goers gathered two hours later for the fourth night of the festival at the Cat's Cradle. The night started with a surprise introduction of the first band by Death Cab For Cutie frontman Ben Gibbard. He popped out for about five second to introduce Telekinesis.
Local legends and founding members of the dB's Chris Stamey and Peter Holsapple will conclude Duke's Music in the Gardens summer concert series this Wednesday, which means we've got one more ticket giveaway for you!
The fifth band to play at Orange County Social Club on Saturday was Los Angeles group Radar Bros. The group played a mellow set for the crowd, opening with the song "Papillon" from the album The Fallen Leaf Pages. They played two new songs, dubbed works in progress, before a wonderful cover of Rufus Wainwright's "Oh What a World."
The third band to take the stage at the free XX Merge show at Orange Social Club was Matt Suggs (formerly of Butterglory). He played a great set comprised of solo tunes and old Butterglory songs. Suggs was joined by Zach Holland on guitar for a few songs and Mac McCaughan played drums during most of the set.
It was a warm humid day outside Orange County Social Club on Saturday, but six XX Merge artists marched through the heat to play great sets.
The headliners on night three of XX Merge were none other than one of the label's biggest bands, Spoon. The band played a set, heavy on their early albums including "Chicago at Night," "Lines in the Suit" and the show closer "The Fitted Shirt," all from their 2001 Merge debut Girls can Tell. They also played the new song "Got Nuffin" from their new EP of the same name as well as another new song called "Is Love Forever?"Fourth on the bill for the third night of XX Merge at the Cat's Cradle was local quartet Polvo. They played an ear shredding set for a packed room. Folks seemed to eat it up, but the band personally were not able to win me over. They played a tight set though and were the perfect follow-up for the unbeatable Lambchop performance because you just couldn't compare the two bands.
The third band on the third night of XX Merge completely stole the show and no one was ever able to top it. That band was Lambchop. The band played a groovy set that featured ten members including a horn section. The entire crowd were enthralled with the set and band leader Kurt Wagner seemed taken aback numerous times by the thunderous applause in between songs.
Night three of XX Merge kicked off with the night's emcee, Jon Wurster of Superchunk. He told the crowd that the "XX" sign was left over from Merge's brief foray into the world of adult cable programming. He said his favorite show was "Hot Girls in Chuck Taylors." On that note, he introduced The Essex Green.
Last, but certainly not least, the one and only Superchunk closed out night two of XX Merge. The band triumphantly took to the stage to roaring applause and cheers and launched into "Cool" from the band's 1991 7" (MRG014).
The fifth band of the night traveled quite a way to play the XX Merge Festival. I speak of the New Zealand group the 3Ds.
The third band to take the stage (after an extremely long set change) on night two of XX Merge was Guv'ner. I give them tons of credit for getting up there after not playing for a decade, but they win the least prepared band of XX Merge award. The band's set was filled with mistakes and seeming confusion, especially from Pumpkin Wentzel.
Here we are again. Night two of XX Merge didn't go quite as late as night one, but there was still a hell of a lot of music.
Closing out a long night of seven performers at the Cat's Cradle was Conor Oberst & the Mystic Valley Band. Unfortunately, by the time they took the stage a little after 1am, there were only about 200 or so troopers left at the club. That didn't stop the band from ripping through a raucous 14 song set.
Here comes part three of our coverage of night one of XX Merge. The next band to take the stage was The Magnetic Fields, who killed during their 40-minute set. The band opened with the song "California Girls" from their latest, non-Merge album before launching into a plethora of amazing songs including "All My Little Words," "The Book of Love" and "Papa Was a Rodeo."
Continuing our coverage of the first night of XX Merge, the third band to play Wednesday night was New York septet Oakley Hall. The group tore through a brief, energetic set of wild pop tunes and were even joined by Nate Walcott of the Mystic Valley Band for ones song. They ended with a cover of Nick Lowe's "I Love My Label," which they dedicated to Merge. How appropriate.
XX Merge night one is over after seven hours and we're starting to bringing you our coverage. To keep the post lengths reasonable, I'm going to divide them up, including just a couple of bands in each post.
The venerable Leonard Cohen has announced a new round of US dates in October and November of this year, and he's coming to Durham! He'll play the Durham Performing Arts Center (DPAC) on Tuesday, November 3. Tickets for show are set to go on sale on Friday, August 7 at 10 AM here for a plethora of prices: $252, $127, $87, $59.50 and $49.50.
Indie rock veterans Yo La Tengo are releasing a new album and hitting the road the support it this fall. First, the album. It's titled Popular Songs and will be released by Matador Records on September 8. Download a song from the album, "Periodically Double or Triple," below.
If you're like me, you won't be at Cat's Cradle tonight. Or tomorrow, Friday, or Saturday. (Tickets are still available for Sunday, so no whining there.)
We've come to the last video of our Merge Video Retrospective series which means that the XX Merge celebration kicks off tomorrow night, which is immensely exciting. Since we started the series with Superchunk's video for "Throwing Things" from their 1991 album No Pocky For Kitty, we're going to the other end of the spectrum, bringing you Merge's newest artist. The video is for "Tokyo" from Telekinesis' self-titled debut album, just released in April. The song is a great, catchy pop song from a band that proves that Merge still has more great bands to discover and release far beyond this 20-year anniversary.
Norwegian electro-rockers Datarock are gearing up for a North American tour in support of their new album Red, released digitally in June. The duo are best known for the song "Fa-Fa-Fa" featured in commercials for Apple, Coca-Cola and various video games. The tour will kick off on August 28 in Montreal, Quebec and will stop in Chapel Hill at Local 506 on September 20. Advance tickets are on sale now for $10 via etix.com.
Just because there are no events, last minute or otherwise, on the XX Merge calendar today doesn't mean there's an absence of celebration.David Huppert and videographer Pete Bell explore how a couple of college kids from the Triangle defied the odds and formed one of the most successful alternative rock bands and independent music labels in the world, Durham-based Merge Records.In case you miss it, the segment is scheduled to hit the web tomorrow.
As we sat and waited for The Rosebuds surprise show at The Jackpot in Raleigh, we were starting to wonder how the show was going to go down. And then suddenly, we see Ivan and Kelly walk through the doors, playing "Silja Line," accompanied by two cameramen and a sound guy.
This is the next-to-last video of our Merge Video Retrospective. For this one, we go back to Merge heavy-hitters Arcade Fire. It is for "Black Mirror" from the group's sophomore album Neon Bible. It is a dark, beautiful and even a bit creepy black and white video that I won't even attempt to explain.
Word is spreading that The Rosebuds will be playing a last-minute, free acoustic show tonight in Raleigh. It's all scheduled to go down at Jackpot at 1303 Hillsborough St. at 9:30pm. The place opens at 9pm. The word is that the show will be filmed as a part of the XX Merge festivities going on this week. That's all we know right now. We'll see you there if we can get in.
Mellow troubadour Joshua Radin is hitting the road this fall, playing a plethora of shows across the country. The second leg of the tour will kick off on October 28 in Los Angeles and make it's way to the Lincoln Theatre in Raleigh on November 15. The fantastic Watson Twins will open the show. Tickets will go on sale Friday, July 24 at 10 am via etix.com for $16. Check out all of the upcoming dates below.
We're winding down the Merge Video Retrospective here, but we still have a few to go. Tonight's video is for "What's an Ocean For?" from White Whale's 2006 debut album WW1. The video is as simple as it comes. It's a black and white performance video with a few bizarre things happening towards the end.
This one's for everyone who couldn't get tickets to XX Merge! We're giving away a pair of tickets to see Eric Bachmann of Crooked Fingers and Archers of Loaf fame this Wednesday at Duke Gardens.
And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead have announced new fall dates and will return to the Triangle for the second time this year. They will hit the road in September with Secret Machines opening each night. The tour hits the Cat's Cradle on Tuesday, September 15. Tickets will be on sale "soon" for $12 via etix.com.