Album Review: Schooner - Duck Kee Sessions

When a band goes into the studio for a "session" album, there's always a worry that the studio may figure too prominently into the compositions and overwhelm, rather than enhance, what the band does well. This isn't the case with the Duck Kee Sessions

Schooner has always been about simple, loose southern pop with hints of strangeness simmering beneath. The heat is turned up on this EP and the hints begin to boil, occasionally bubbling up to the surface to compliment the other sounds.

Schooner's new EP to be CyTunes exclusive

Local rockers Schooner are giving exclusive rights to their next release release to charity. The 6-song EP dubbed Duck Kee Sessions will be released on Tuesday, February 9 exclusively via CyTunes. For those unfamiliar with CyTunes, check out our December 2008 post about the music service. All proceeds from the site benefit the Tisch Brain Tumor Center at Duke University.

The band will have a release show for the EP at The Pinhook in Durham on Friday, February 19 with Erie Choir, Veelee and The Popular Kids.

Check out the EP's track list below as well as a download of the lead-off track "Feel Better." You'll also find Schooner's upcoming dates and radio appearances down there too.

Pipe's 1992 debut EP available on CyTunes

Chapel Hill punks Pipe are making a lot of local news lately. They played XX Merge last month, they announced another local show at Broad Street Cafe and now they have digitally re-released their 1992 debut EP Ball Peen. The band have made the EP available via CyTunes, the download service started in honor of local music supporter Cy Rawls who passed away last year after a battle with cancer. You can buy the full 6-song EP for $5 or individual songs for $1 each.

You can also stream the EP on The Independent's site.

The band's show with The Dry Heathens in Durham at Broad Street Cafe is going down this Saturday, August 15. Tickets are $5 at the door.

CyTunes is live now!

CyTunes wasn't scheduled to launch until midnight tonight, but the site is live now. Here's the current list of artists who have contributed songs for download.

• All Night
• Cantwell, Gomez & Jordan
• Chew Toy
• Cy Rawls' Sweet Militia
• The Dirty Little Heaters
• Double Negative
• Evil Wiener
• The Ex-Monkeys
• The Experts
• The Flute Flies
• Geezer Lake
• Greenades
• Hammer No More the Fingers
• I Was Totally Destroying It
• Joby's Opinion
• Johnson, Eubank, Morrow, Pence
• Josh Zaslow
• Lesbian Afternoon
• The Magic Babies
• Mercury Birds
• The Nein
• North Elementary
• Polvo
• Razzle
• Red Collar
• The Rosebuds
• Ryan Pound
• Shake Some Action!
• Sorry About Dresden
• Starmount
• Stratocruiser
• Superchunk
• Tractor Hips
• Wes Phillips

That's quite a launch. More songs will be added regularly, but that should be plenty to get people started. Oh, and the launch party at Local 506 starts in about 25 minutes. You'd better hurry.

CyTunes to launch Friday night

The digital download service CyTunes, created in memory of local music supporter Cy Rawls, is set to launch on Friday night reports The Independent. The site will go live at midnight following the CyTunes launch party at Local 506 featuring The Flute Flies and The Magic Babies.

The service will feature complete live sets from Superchunk and Polvo as well as unreleased music from Hammer No More the Fingers, The Flute Flies and two dozen other bands. All of the money raised from the digital sales will be given to the Tisch Brain Tumor Center at Duke Medical Center which treated Rawls.

Go to CyTunes.org to see a countdown to the launch.

Flute Flies, Magic Babies play CyTunes show

The new mini-supergroup The Flute Flies and The Magic Babies will play a free show to launch CyTunes. The show will be the first live performance by The Flute Flies. In addition to sets by the two bands the show will also feature Rockin' Amonia Karaoke and DJ Viva.

The show will take place at Local 506 on December 12 at 9 PM. Find out more on Flute Flies here.

Ivan Howard, Reid Johnson, Zeno Gill form Flute Flies

Ivan Howard (of The Rosebuds), Reid Johnson (of Schooner) and Zeno Gill (of Pox World Empire) have joined forces and started a new project called The Flute Flies. The project was started in order to raise money to pay the medical expenses of the late Cy Rawls. Rawls' friends have laid the groundwork for a service called CyTunes which will feature original music recorded specifically for this cause. The service has not launched yet, but you can read an update on the project here.

You don't have to wait to hear new music from The Flute Flies though. The group have uploaded three songs which you can hear now via MySpace. They're quite good.