Merge 35 – Saturday
Merge 35 will take place July 24–27, 2024, in Carrboro, North Carolina. The 4-day festival will celebrate the music we love with an astounding lineup of more than 25 bands! A limited number of single-night tickets are now available. Saturday: Eric Bachmann Greg Cartwright The Clientele Hiss Golden Messenger Imperial Teen David Kilgour Mike Krol H.C. McEntire M(h)aol Dawn Richard & Spencer Zahn Stay tuned for more information including additional bands, daytime activities, and assorted hoopla, but trust us—this is a party you won’t want to miss! Website | Bandcamp | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Spotify | YouTube | TikTok
CKY
Once upon a time, CKY burned it all down, with a raucous, anarchic, hard rock sound soaked in the skate-punk culture that birthed them and a hard-partying lifestyle onstage and off that decimated relationships and reputations in its wake. Chad I Ginsburg, the band’s guitarist and singer, steps into the frontman role with charisma, charm, and bravado, confidently delivering a diverse performance as he claims a position that was clearly rightfully his to own. He’s joined in enduring partnership and musical and personal chemistry by fellow CKY cofounder, Jess Margera, the drummer whose extracurricular work in projects like The Company Band (with guys from Clutch and Fireball Ministry) expanded CKY’s horizons as much as Ginsburg’s solo work has as well. Guns N’ Roses, Metallica, and Deftones have all personally invited CKY on tour, cementing a legacy as a hard-charging live act. CKY built a worldwide fanbase of dedicated acolytes, friends, and supporters, lovingly dubbed the CKY Alliance, with a broader group of musicians, athletes, and other creative types in the CKY family, both literally and figuratively. Carver City (2009) debuted at #4 on the Hard Music charts. It was the second CKY album to debut in the Top 50 on the Billboard 200: An Answer Can Be Found (2005) hit #35 upon its release. But if anything, The Phoenix is a spiritual successor to CKY’s breakthrough, Infiltrate•Destroy•Rebuild (2002), with a hint of the appropriately titled debut, Volume 1 (1999). “We’re grown adults now with an eagle-eye perspective on who we are, what we do, and how to do it right,” Ginsburg declares, with matter-of-fact certainty. “None of us are out there in the clouds. We’re pretty well-grounded people that have an honest perspective on where we’re at.” The totality of the CKY experience is perhaps best summarized by a quote from enigmatic comic book legend, author, and self-proclaimed magician, Alan Moore. “My experience of life is that it is is not divided up into genres; it’s a horrifying, romantic, tragic, comical, science-fiction cowboy detective novel. You know, with a bit of pornography if you’re lucky.” Website | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | YouTube | TikTok
of Montreal
When creators f<ck with how we experience time and space, great fictions emerge: Clive Barker’s Imajica, Andrei Tarkovsky’s sci-fi classic Solaris, and Godard’s Alphaville. But what happens to artists when the flow of time gets f^cked up IRL? When an hour stretches into eternity, and the voices in your head begin to echo through empty rooms?If you’re Kevin Barnes, the creative visionary behind of Montreal, Freewave Lucifer f<ck f^ck f>ck happens.Isolation and uncertainty loomed throughout the genesis of the band’s latest studio album. “The experience of just trying to keep my head above water and navigate through the last couple years played a huge role in this record,” says Barnes.These expansive selections contrast markedly with the focused pop of 2020’s UR FUN, which was crafted for visceral thrills and the concert stage. As it was for countless musicians around the world, the inability to tour eliminated one of the linchpins of Barnes’ creative process. “I didn’t know if we’d ever tour again, so I didn’t consider that side of things.” Denied social interaction and diverse experiences, Barnes delved inward.Barnes contemplated how time functions in music and experimented accordingly. These new songs, dense with ideas but short on repetition, feel epic in scope despite reasonable running times. Like the staircases of M.C. Escher’s Relativity, the discrete sections of “Marijuana’s A Working Woman” and “Blab Sabbath Lathe of Maiden” crisscross and pivot, confounding the senses yet commanding attention.The imagery and sentiments that bubble forth from Barnes’ lyrical wordplay prove equally disorienting. “Is it important to say black chrome rodents?,” asks Barnes on “Après The Déclassé.” Phrases borne of free association took on new meaning when introduced into a song. “It’s like collaborating with my subconscious in a way. It feels deeply personal, even though I don’t necessarily understand it at that moment.”“Marijuana’s A Working Woman” juxtaposes oddball funk a la Zapp or Rick James with nods to Alice Anne Baily’s 19th century spiritualism. “Modern Art Bewilders” zigzags between baroque psychedelic idyll and synthpop tantrum, equal parts Sgt. Pepper’s and Gary Numan. Other influences woven throughout include realist painter Edward Hopper, fantasy author Ursula K. Le Guin, cinéaste Pedro Almodovar, and erotic illustrator Toshio Saeki.Barnes likens their compositional process to making collages from seemingly unrelated source materials, combining them in provocative ways to reveal new meanings. “I wasn’t working with specific themes that I wanted to try and stretch over a three-minute pop song. It was sewing together a lot of fragmented thoughts,” which ties in nicely to the ‘freewave’ aspect of the album title’s meaning. As Barnes explains, “Freewave is my term for wild and intractable artistic expression. Lucifer is the angel of enlightenment and elucidation. Fuck is something we say when things are going really well, or really badly.”Website | Bandcamp | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Spotify | YouTube | Soundcloud
Kim Gordon – The Collective Tour
There was a space in Kim Gordon’s No Home Record. It might not have been a home and it might not have been a record, but I seem to recall there was a space. Boulevards, bedrooms, instruments were played, recorded, the voice and its utterances, straining a way through the rhythms and the chords, threaded in some shared place, we met there, the guitar came too, there fell a peal of cymbals, driving on the music. We listened, we turned our back to the walls, slithered through the city at night. Kim Gordon’s words in our ears, her eyes, she saw, she knew, she remembered, she liked. We were moving somewhere. No home record. Moving.Now I’m listening to The Collective. And I’m thinking, what has been done to this space, how has she treated it, it’s not here the same way, not quite. I mean, not at all. On this evidence, it splintered, glittered, crashed and burned. It’s dark here. Can I love you with my eyes open? “It’s Dark Inside.” Haunted by synthesised voices bodiless. Planes of projections. Mirrors get your gun and the echo of a well-known tune, comes in liminal, yet never not hanging around, part of the atmosphere, fading in and out, like she says – Grinding at the edges. Grinding at us all, grinding us away. Hurting, scraping. Sediments, layers, of recorded emissions, mined, twisted, refracted. That makes the music. This shimmering, airless geology, agitated, quarried, cries made in data, bounced down underground tunnels, reaching our ears. We recalled it – but not as a memory, more like how you recall a product, when it’s flawed.She sings “Shelf Warmer” so it sounds like shelf life, it sounds radioactive, inside our relationships, juddering, the beats chattering, edgy, the pain of love in the gift shop, assembled in hollow booms, in scratching claps. Non-reciprocal gift giving, there is a return policy. But – novel idea – A hand and a kiss. How about that. Disruption.I would say that Kim Gordon is thinking about how thinking is, now. Conceptual artists do that, did that. “I Don’t Miss My Mind.” The record opens with a list, but the list is under the title “BYE BYE.” The list says milk thistle, dog sitter…. And much more. She’s leaving. Why is the list anxious? How divisive is mascara? It’s on the list. I am packing, listening to the list. Is it mine, or hers.She began seeking images from behind her closed eyes. Putting them to music. But I need to keep my eyes open as I walk the streets, with noise canceled by the airbuds rammed in my ears. quiet, aware, quiet, aware, they chant at me. What could be going through Kim’s head as she goes through mine? -Written by English artist Josephine Pryde Website | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Spotify | YouTube
Get Back! A Final Tribute to the Beatles
This is a seated show.Get Back! A Final Tribute to the Beatles Featuring Danny Gotham, Willie Painter and Rebecca NewtonGraymatter, the Bennys, the Goodloves, Al Dawson, Dave George, Sam Frazier, Jeffrey Dean Foster, Lauren Myers, Leslie Land, Keith Buckley, Taz Halloween, Emma Davis, Lance White, Carter Minor, Todd Jones, Alison King, Abby Sheriff, Bob Vasile, Kimmie Wilson, Tom Meltzer, Rob Sharer, Janet Place, Isabedl Valls, Kris Whitenack, and More!
Speed Stick, Pipe
The Carrboro, NC supergroup Speed Stick is an ever-evolving project among a group of friends—Ash Bowie (Polvo), Charles Chace (The Paul Swest), Laura King (Bat Fangs), and Thomas Simpson (The Love Language)—whose musical achievements reach back as far as the 1990s. But as its live shows attest, the band does not want to rehearse old accomplishments. On stage, Speed Stick wants to shatter epochs. Step into a world of thunder where lighting strikes rewire nervous systems. Ride waves with peaks that precede disquieting calms. Float in spaces where dark and light collide to set blood afire. To participate in a Speed Stick show is to enter a space of bodily and psychological endurance. Off-kilter guitar riffs shadow the raging intensity of drums; blistering drum beats dance to the feedback of guitars.The songs for Volume One were created in unusual fashion over the course of a year. Initially, Speed Stick only consisted of two drummers. They distributed nine studio tracks and a single live track to select musicians. The musicians’ task was simple: draw inspiration from the beats in order to create music that spreads laterally and horizontally like a rhizome. Indeed, Volume One has utterly discarded the yoke of genre by instead tethering intricate, interlocking drums to myriad creative personalities: Mac McCaughan (Superchunk), Kelley Deal (The Breeders, R. Ring), Mike Montgomery (R. Ring), Stuart McLamb (The Love Language). But no one can stop with just the album. Your ears will yearn to see the shapes of sound and your eyes will beg to taste color. For what Volume One heralds is that the supergroup Speed Stick is the super show of shows.Bandcamp | FacebookThe rock band Pipe is a cold-cock polar ice bath in the middle of a historically hot summer, a ferocious roar that shakes us out of a stupor we didn’t know we were in. They know it too. They’ve been doing it for more than three decades. Their interpretation of punk is lean, economic and direct. Pipe leaves more of an impression with a 90-second song or a 25-minute show than perfectly good bands do in their whole careers. Come help Messrs. Alworth, Garrison, Kenlan and Liberti celebrate their first new album in 26 years. Despite being nine years in the making, their new self-titled 11-song set sounds remarkably unlabored, not to mention modern and 100% organic. Local faves Shark Quest will open. –Gavin O’HaraWebsite | Facebook
Rose City Band
Rose City Band’s country psychedelic rock evokes the wide-open spaces of the American west and free spirits who call it home. The project of acclaimed guitarist and vocalist Ripley Johnson, Rose City Band has extended beyond the studio and lives in tandem as a live ensemble featuring some of the finest players in contemporary rock: pedal steel guitarist Barry Walker, keyboardist Paul Hasenberg, bassist Dewey Mahood (aka Plankton Wat) and drummer Dustin Dybvig. Garden Party is a celebration of summer and all it brings: communal gatherings, the respites offered by nature, and an appreciation for even the simplest beauty, from 12-foot sunflowers to a contorted carrot planted in the spring. Freedom, contentment, and joy were the sources for the songs. From the soaring guitar solos, to the driving rhythms, the elegant pedal steel lines to the organ grooves, Garden Party has a live band’s energy captured in exquisite detail. At its inception Rose City Band focused on what songwriter Johnson calls “porch music”. Recorded largely at Center for Sound, Light, and Color Therapy in Portland and mixed by John McEntire, Garden Party features guest appearances by Moon Duo bandmates John Jeffrey on drums and Sanae Yamada on synths, as well as Rose City Band live performers Hasenberg on keyboards and Walker on pedal steel. With the musicians in his life in mind, Ripley’s porch has opened up for each player to step into. Despite being tracked primarily as a solo endeavor the recordings capture the twists and bends of a fully realized ensemble, and in a nod to bands such as the Grateful Dead it doesn’t stop there. “The songs won’t really be finished until we play them on the road,” says Johnson. Garden Party’s carefree attitude is layered with subtle turns and melodic gems which push the easygoing spirit towards transcendence. The interplay of Johnson and Walker’s guitars is nothing short of radiant. Opening track “Chasing Rainbows” finds the two casting out lines back and forth, carefully weaving around and through one another before basking into a wash of texture and twang. “Slow Burn” drives Johnson’s signature cosmic sound into the roots of the earth, twisting more grounded phrases and homespun bends around the rollicking rhythm section. Walker’s range as a pedal steel player is on full display throughout with classic licks dancing in tandem with Johnson’s voice. Album centerpiece “Porch Boogie” was written with the live ensemble in mind while Johnson was out on one of his regular walks, with only rhythmic ideas setting the pace for an extended groove that the group could stretch and relax into. The shifts in tone and feel on “Mariposa” and “Moonlight Highway”’s transition into “El Rio” are indicative of the expansive and unexpected directions Rose City Band are able to roam as the players follow one another from tender ballads to folk rambles to loping riffs. The sizzle of “Moonlight Highway” translates the unpredictable and invigorating energy of the band’s road gigs into a song tailor made for dancing, speckled with the gleaming starlight of night drives across the country.Bandcamp | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Spotify
Homeshake
It’s the early 2000’s. A music video plays on a nearby loop on the Much Music TV channel. A man stands in a room, the background is nothing, non existent, as if in a void. The camera rolls and does not stop. He is shirtless. Sparse guitars begin as the camera sways effortlessly through the abyss, never taking its omnipotent gaze off the man. He is shirtless, cut from stone like a statue from antiquity. Flawless in all regards, but we have not seen everything yet. The music ungulates towards an apex as the camera begins to lower its gaze. Revealed are two lines few have seen before. Angular muscles beginning at the navel and ending at the thighs. A new style of music video is formed, a unique take of R&B is created, the artistry of D’angelo is now truly whole. Peter sits at home transfixed to the screen. He is amazed as his perception of what is possible in music has changed. Peter is now on the precipice of a new dawn.Morning has broken. “Wake up, grandma why don’t you put on a little makeup.” Or so he thought the lyrics went to the new music video playing. Chop Suey by System of a Down. Peter is flabbergasted again. More new styles of music, more new guitar riffs! He sits, mouth open, with a copy of Guitar World magazine open to the tablature of Chop Suey. Reading the fine print with a magnifying glass he is now completely stunned, knocked flat onto his back, when he learns a guitar can be tuned much lower than he had expected! Drop C in fact. A tuning he uses to this day. “Time to go to school young man. This essay isn’t going to read itself,” he thinks to himself clutching his homework. At school a classmate of Peter reads his essay aloud for marks. They stumble through the quote “Be careful when staring into the abyss because the abyss will stare back into you.” After class, amazed at his friend’s penmanship, Peter does a secret handshake with the author to celebrate the success of the essay. A ‘home-shake.’ That was the moment he Realized how to unite his new inspirations. An artist is born. -written by an interested third partyWebsite | Instagram | Twitter | Spotify | YouTube
¡Tumbao!
The Electrifying Latin Fusion Phenomenon ¡Tumbao! returns in 2024 for its biggest year yet.Coming off from a record-setting tour for the nine person Psychedelic Latin Fusion ensemble – having shared the stage with Grammy Award winning acts like Kabaka Pyramid, Proyecto Uno, and legend Mavis Staples, with performances at stages such as the Grassroots Festival Circuit, The Smithsonian, a featured artist at Jazz in the Garden in Washington, DC – the band has reached a new height of popularity, expanding its fanbase beyond its original Latin American and East Coast roots. Bringing the sounds of Latin America and the world with what many have described as Psychedelic Latin Fusion,the band is adding dates throughout the United States east coast and South America for what is to be their biggest tour year to date. Website | Instagram | Facebook Elora DashAt the Nexus of R&B and neo-soul, Elora Dash emerges as a multifaceted artist—a musician, vocalist, vocal coach, producer, and multi-instrumentalist. Her voice effortlessly scales the heights and explores the depths, while her music resonates with an adventurous spirit that captivates listeners. Drawing inspiration from luminaries such as Hiatus Kaiyote, Erykah Badu, and Lauryn Hill, the 5 piece ensemble embarks on a musical journey, skillfully blending elements of jazz fusion, neo-soul, and R&B to craft music that is both innovative and soul-stirring. Her acoustic gem “Disappointed,” was unveiled in November 2022 and her latest single, “Love You More,” was released on October 27 giving a sneak peak into the band’s upcoming album. Noteworthy in her discography is the 2020 release, “Self-Actualization,” a 9-track instrumental collaborative lofi mixtape that features artists from across the country. Anticipation builds as Elora Dash gears up for 2024-2025 tour dates and a new recording project set to be released late 2024. Gustav Viehmeyer Gustav Viehmeyer is an internationally recognized jazz guitarist and composer. At age 17, after being invited on stage with jazz legends Bucky Pizzarelli and Frank Vignola, Gustav decided to pursue a career in music. Since then, Gustav has performed at the Sarasota Jazz Festival, the Sarasota Film Festival, Jazz on the Bay, the Naples Motorfest, and the One Valley Bluegrass Festival. He has toured with Cirque Maceo performing with his Gypsy Style guitar act. An international Composer, musician and guitarist, Gustav has the rare gift of merging soulful pleasures through music. His playing is free spirited, wild, intensely passionate and executed with skillful precision. Gustavs guitar music is rooted in the style of Django Reinhardt, The Sinti Virtuosos and a love for film composition.
Mdou Moctar
There is a beauty in listening to music made in the spirit of energetic transformation. When the sounds transform the air and the listener. This record transports the listener into the heart of the music of Mdou Moctar. The blending of intention and motivation creates a burst of sound that embraces and shakes and invites one to dance! It invites one to breathe. It invites one to be in solidarity with the music. It invites one to be in touch with the human condition. What does it mean to be free in these times? Can the world be liberated from the colonial mindstate that has caused such harm and mistrust? Can we mourn our losses yet build anew to form something more astounding, more fantastic? Funeral For Justice says we can. A sound that carries weight makes an impact. A sound that carries time transcends time. We are not only listening to music but we are living through it. We are living with it. We are living in it. The artist sees history and makes poetry from it for the present. Mdou Moctar’s Funeral For Justice requests your presence. Show up open to the celebration of life, loved as it should be loved. Experience the exaltation and exuberance. The words speak of ascension, awareness, sorrow, apathy, knowing, and growth. The guitars speak of power, energy, jubilation, transcendency, immediacy, and tradition. The drums and percussion mark the pulse of now as well as a timeless dance that involves us all, as it did those that came before us. The wires that carry the message feel alive with fire and purpose, explosive with possibility. This “funeral” is an acknowledgment. This “funeral” is abundant. This “funeral” overflows into the street filled with dance. This “funeral” stretches late into the night, kicking up the dirt, with the hum of a generator, an ever present member of the rhythm section. This “funeral” is a clarion call for reason and a belief that change is possible. So join Mdou Moctar in this funeral for justice, knowing rebirth is possible. A new justice is possible. With your voice, your heart, your dance, your stomp, a new justice is born. Mdou Moctar welcomes you with joy and open arms. Be here. Feel here and do, alongside this music. Don’t stand alone, join with others and do. Fight for liberation. Stand against oppression, alongside this music and do! – Damon Locks Funeral For Justice is the new album by Mdou Moctar. Recorded at the close of two years spent touring the globe following the release of 2019 breakout Afrique Victime, it captures the Nigerien quartet in ferocious form. The music is louder, faster, and more wild. The guitar solos are feedback-scorched and the lyrics are passionately political. Nothing is held back or toned down.The songs on Funeral For Justice speak unflinchingly to the plight of Niger and of the Tuareg people. “This album is really different for me,” explains Moctar, the band’s singer, namesake, and indisputably iconic guitarist. “Now the problems of terrorist violence are more serious in Africa. When the US and Europe came here, they said they’re going to help us, but what we see is really different. They never help us to find a solution.”Website | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook
