Bottom String Session #12 w/ Bombadil

After an absolutely stunning set at Fletcher Opera Hall, Bombadil has proved that they're hitting the ground running with their big return to the Triangle music scene.  The band announced a November return to The Cat's Cradle for an album release show for their upcoming record, All That The Rain Promises and it's a date that's been marked on the calendars of many in the Triangle and surrounding regions.  Before heading out to the Bristol Rhythm and Roots Reunion the gentlemen in Bombadil invited me into James' home to film some new songs from their album.

The Bottom String will also be covering Bombadil in November as our "You Should Know" band, highlighting some of our areas finest local talents and quickest rising up-and-comers.  We've got our first "You Should Know" with Gross Ghost coming up soon, so keep your eyes peeled.  But for the time being check out these excellent new songs from Bombadil's upcoming full length:

Hopscotch '11 In Retrospect

So after allowing myself a week to really absorb the events that transpired at Hopscotch (that's code for eating snack cakes and lounging around all week because seeing live music all weekend takes something out of us bloggers) I can sit back and appreciate all of the great things I got to experience at this year's Hopscotch Festival.  So here is The Bottom String's Top 6 Hopscotch Moments:

Hopscotch Day 3 Review

The Flaming Lips @ City Plaza

Starting off Saturday was the strangest feeling, a combination of exhaustion and excitement for the day to come even if it's going to be full of sweating, walking, and fighting crowds.  It's mainly okay because of The Flaming Lips though.  Our day started off a little bit late after trying to work out a ticket issue for a friend in need of admission to The Flaming Lips, but once it was all settled out we headed downtown to get on with our last day of Hopscotch'ing.  Choosing between Day Parties today was a doozy, there were so many incredible bands playing at the same time that it was hard not to find something that wasn't jaw-droppingly great.

Hopscotch Night 2 + Day Parties Review

After a jam packed night on Thursday, the beginning of Friday seemed a bit like a blur.  It started off early catching an intimate Dinosaur Feathers performance at Marsh's Woodwinds followed by a filming of the next Bottom String Session with the band.  After that it was off for some Day Party goodness, and while I begin allow me to say that I just stopped following my itinerary completely today.  Oops.  It ended up working out awesomely though with a set from T0W3RS in a crowded Hive being the highlight of the Day Party events for the day.

Hopscotch Night 1 Review

The Love Language played to a packed
Lincoln Theatre for Night One of Hopscotch

Night 1 of Hopscotch kicked off in a fashion that should have been expected, but I still find myself pleasantly surprised at how incredible everything truly was.  Last year's festival was a great taste for what was to come ahead with the 2011 incarnation, the added venues switched things up a bit but the walk time in between everything was practically nothing, so another excellent job at planning to add three more venues and keep walk times down.

Organos drops video for "Same Eyes" and announces video series

Organos is the sort of ambient/experimental folk side project of Maria Albani, bass player for Durham's Schooner, that's been building up steam leading up to the release of her upcoming record Concha.  Concha features members of Broken Social Scene/Feist and Floating Action lending a musical hand, and also boasts a pretty cool project to go along with the record.

8 artists, filmmakers, and musicians from around the United States and Canada will be making music videos for the song of their choice from the record, the first of which has already been released.  "Same Eyes" was chosen by visual artist Jerstin Crosby and the video for it can be found below.  Organos will be playing a set Saturday at Hopscotch Music Festival next weekend at 11:30 @ Deep South along with Andrew Cedermark, The Tomahawks, and Frontier Justice.  Concha is scheduled to be released in Spring 2012.

The Bottom String's Hopscotch Itinerary

Hopscotch Music Festival is exactly one week away and the region is buzzing with excitement for the festival's second year, topped with legendary acts like The Flaming Lips and Guided By Voices (playing what's allegedly their last show of the reunion), Hopscotch is breaking boundaries in the Carolina music scene.  These boundaries aren't being broken just because of the gigantic bands that will be gracing the City Plaza stages on Friday and Saturday, but instead because of how centralized of a focus there still is on local bands and the local scene.  It's hard to choose between so many incredible acts over the weekend, but luckily we've taken on some help from friends and fellow writers (on our sister site Myxem) in Terry McElhennon and Kyle Bement to make sure that we cover as much of the festival as physically possible.  While the age limitations prevent me from checking out everything I want to see (alas, just one more year!), here is The Bottom String's official Hopscotch Itinerary.