Hear Here: Week of June 27

With the amount of incredible shows being announced for North Carolina lately, it looks like we're going to have one of our best years for live music yet in the state.  Between the recently announced free festival in Raleigh, Deja Fest and the other big show announced yesterday, Stephen Malkmus and The Jicks at the Haw River Ballroom in Saxapahaw this week alone has been an exciting one for new shows in the area but there's even more to be excited for believe it or not.  Plus no sense in getting ahead of ourselves with excitement when we've got great shows like Fucked Up tonight at Kings.  Either way, lets get started

Show of the Week: Fucked Up w/ JEFF The Brotherhood, Double Negative on Tuesday June 28 @ Kings Barcade in Raleigh, NC

deja Mi announces free festival in downtown Raleigh with Surfer Blood, Wye Oak, and more

deja Fest, held on July 22 and 23 is a
free music festival held in downtown
Raleigh in cooperation with Hopscotch

deja Mi announced the lineup today for their absolutely free two day festival to be held in downtown Raleigh in cooperation with Hopscotch and it's packed with awesome local and nationally touring artists.  With names like Surfer Blood, Free Energy, and Wye Oak,  Deja Fest will be held on July 22 and July 23 in various venues around downtown Raleigh with the Friday night festivities kicking off at Tir Na Nog, The Pour House, Slim's, Kings Barcade and Neptunes Parlour from 6:00 p.m. to 2:00 a.m.  Saturdays music will be starting at 1:00 p.m. on East Cabarrus St. outside of The Lincoln Theater and music will last until 2:00 a.m. with the afterparty taking place inside of The Lincoln Theater.  Deja Mi is a new media sharing application for sharing experiences via photo and video and Deja Fest will be coinciding with launch of their website and mobile application.

The lineup and schedule for Deja Fest are as followed:

Moogfest drops second round of artists including Moby, The Antlers, Dan Deacon

Moby is among the 11 new artists added to
Asheville's Moogfest held October 28-30

In it's second year, Moogfest seems to be pulling out all of the stops to be viewed as the premier North Carolina music festival this year especially after this awesome second batch of bands has been released.  It was announced this morning that Moby, Amon Tobin, Dan Deacon, The Antlers, and much more will be joining the already stellar lineup on October 28-30 this year.  Headliners for Moogfest are The Flaming Lips, Passion Pit, STS9 and there's still another batch of around twenty artists to be released after these eleven excellent bands have been added.

Hear Here: Week of June 20

An unexpected absence last week means we've got to have an awesome Hear Here this week, so we'll start it off by introducing a new piece to Hear Here which announces noteworthy shows that have been added to the calendar for local venues so that you can become well aware of these awesome shows before they potentially sell out.  Some great stuff is in the works for the late summer/early fall in NC and there's some great shows going on this week too so lets get right to it.

Winoca Fest in Wilmington features Gillian Welch, The Felice Brothers, and more

Gillian Welch will headline Winoca Fest in Wilmington, NC
on August 27, 2011

Tickets for Winoca Fest, the Wilmington, NC music festival put together by Winoca Records went on sale at noon today and their lineup is an excellent mesh of brilliant local talent and nationally touring acts as well.  Headlined by Gillian Welch and The Felice Brothers, Winoca Fest will be held on August 27, 2011 at Battleship Park in downtown Wilmington with tickets priced at $30 in advance and $35 day of.  Winoca Records is home to Bottom String favorites Onward, Soldiers who will also be playing at the festival.

Album Review: "Loud Planes Fly Low" by The Rosebuds

Loud Planes Fly Low was released by The Rosebuds
on Merge Records on June 7, 2011

The Rosebuds have made a name for themselves as one of the most consistently great bands in the North Carolina scene and with Loud Planes Fly Low the band has released their most accessible and arguably best record yet.  The Rosebuds founding members Ivan Howard and Kelly Crisp were recently divorced and while it's clear that the evolution of this relationship was very pertinent in this record, it certainly doesn't fuel it and the band doesn't use it as a gimmick to get attention.  All of it seems incredibly sincere and at times it's almost off putting at how personal the lyrics can sound.  They've truly honed their sound and given themselves that extra bit of "umph" that I personally needed to really become absolved with the bands.  Loud Planes Fly Low feels like it's got much more direction and that they've really found out the perfect way to convey the image they wanted to.  It's a record of rebirth in a unique sense, the rebirth of a relationship after its dissolution.

Midtown Dickens sign to Trekky Records, announce tour with The Mountain Goats

It was announced today that Trekky Records' latest signing is none other than Durham's own Midtown Dickens. Midtown Dickens have been tearing up the North Carolina scene with their energetic, rootsy folk music that has left many a crowd breathless.  Trekky Records own Will Hackney is a member of the band making the signing all the more special by officially adding the rest of the band to the Trekky Family.

Midtown Dickens will be releasing their third album on Trekky Records which according to Trekky's blog will be released in early 2012 and is to be produced by Scott Solter (The Mountain Goats, Superchunk, Spoon).  As if that wasn't enough good news for fans of the band, it was also announced that they'll be joining fellow Durhamite John Darnielle on a west coast tour with The Mountain Goats set to kick off next week.  The dates for said tour are listed below

Album Review: "Brice Randall Bickford" by Brice Randall Bickford

Brice Randall Bickford by Brice Randall Bickford
will be released on June 14, 2011 by Trekky Records

Brice Randall Bickford is a name that you'll surely grow familiar with in the coming years if you're not already.  Bickford was the leading man behind The Strugglers and for his latest album he's dropped the name and created his best effort to date.  Brice Randall Bickford and his band have meshed together brilliantly for years and lived up to their name in terms of popularity, though the band continually put out excellent releases they seemed to gain no more notoriety or popularity anywhere outside of the Triangle.

This new self-titled record being released on his new label (local powerhouses of Trekky Records) opens up a realm of possibilities for Bickford and hopefully this gives the band a chance to drop the woes of their old name and start getting the recognition they truly deserve.  Bickford has crafted yet another brilliant album filled with lush orchestration and powerful lyricism.  The album release show will be held Saturday, June 11 at The Cat's Cradle in Carrboro, NC with a Carolina star-studded lineup featuring names like Phil Cook (of Megafun), Django Haskins (of The Old Ceremony), Lee Waters, and Heather McEntire (of Mount Moriah).  The album will be officially released in Trekky's own LP + CD + MP3 format on June 14.

TRKfest 2011 Announces Lineup

TRKFest 2011 will be on August 13
and will be headlined by Bowerbirds

Every year Trekky Records continues to bring awesome music to the good people of North Carolina whether it be through their excellent artists or through the many events that the label has its hands in.  Arguably the most enjoyable Trekky endeavor though is the annual TRKfest, held at Piedmont Biofuels at 220 Lorax Lane in Pittsboro, NC.  This year on August 13, Trekky Records brings us yet another awesome music festival for a mere $10 suggested donation.  Trekky has brought their favorite NC bands to play yet again and with this year's headliners being Bowerbirds and boasting an undercard filled with Trekky favorites it looks like TRKFest 2011 will be yet another great one.

TRKFest will also feature local arts, crafts, and clothing for sale, make your own tye-dye TRKFest shirt, shadow puppets, and much more.  The event marks more than just a great day of music, it's a joining of the NC music community for an awesome fun-filled day in the sun.  Food and drinks will be available as well from Carolina Brewery, Pie Pushers, Parlez-Vous Crepe, and OnlyBurger.

Hopscotch adds 13th venue and 14 new bands including Titus Andronicus

Titus Andronicus is one of the 14 new bands added
to the Hopscotch lineup

This morning Hopscotch announced fourteen new bands today, plus a new venue for all of these incredible bands to play at.  This new batch of bands holds quite a few surprises, the biggest name being the indie-punk group Titus Andronicus who've been a name in everyones sights for the past year or two, so getting the chance to see them at Hopscotch will be incredible.  The festival also added Merge artist Times New Viking, Vivian Girls, and Bass Drum of Death.

Hear Here: Week of June 6

Summer is in full effect in the tobacco state, we've got blistering heat usually coupled with awesome bouts of humidity but it's all okay by me if we keep get awesome shows week in and week out.  It seemed like all of last weeks shows with national touring acts had practically all sold out before the week of the show, but we've got some great acts coming in this week with tickets still on sale.  The Decemberists and Best Coast will be playing at the Raleigh Amphitheater, and there's some pretty great local bills for this week too.

Show of the Week: Brice Randall Bickford w/ Phil Cook, Django Haskins, Lee Waters, Heather McEntire @ The Cat's Cradle in Carrboro, NC

Moogfest 2011 announces lineup

Passion Pit will headline Moogfest 2011 along with
The Flaming Lips, Tangerine Dream, Crystal Castles and more

Last year's Moogfest sent waves through the Carolina music scene, popping up the same year as Raleigh's Hopscotch Festival, it was excellent to see two stacked lineups for these brand new North Carolina festivals.  This year is much of the same, as the October 28-30 Asheville festival announced their lineup this morning with headliners of The Flaming Lips, Passion Pit, Tangerine Dream, Ghostland Observatory, and Crystal Castles.