A-Trak and Holy Ghost! To Replace Big Boi at Hopscotch

A-Trak will join Holy Ghost!, Future Islands
and Gross Ghost at Hopscotch's City Plaza Show
on Friday, Sept. 6

Last week Hopscotch announced some bittersweet news, Big Boi's City Plaza performance was cancelled due to unfortunate scheduling circumstance. While it's a massive bummer that Big Boi won't light up the Hopscotch stage, the silver lining lies in the fact that Hopscotch had announced that Big Boi would be replaced with two artists on the Friday night bill to make for one massive "sorry this isn't Big Boi" show. Well it turns out that Hopscotch attendees have broken the age old mantra and can now have their cake and eat it too, as the festival announced A-Track and Holy Ghost! as Big Boi's replacements. But most importantly, they've announced a rescheduled Big Boi show with a huge added perk for festival goers.

Big Boi's replacement show will take place at Memorial Auditorium on Saturday, Sept. 21 and the first 1,000 tickets are going to made available absolutely free for Hopscotch wristband buyers. The wristbands will be available at the Sheraton Hotel in downtown Raleigh once wristband distribution begins on Sept. 4. Fans who bought a single-day ticket for the City Plaza show will still be able to attend the festivities on Friday and will also be able to obtain a free ticket for the Big Boi show. For more information on the replacement show check out Hopscotch's official announcement.

Album Review: "Dead Nostalgia" by Junior Astronomers

Dead Nostalgia by Junior Astronomers was released
on July 23, 2013 on Broken Circles Records

Following a band through the release of their first full length is always a glorious occasion for a local music lover, it creates a special connection with a band that allows you to truly observe the dynamic changes a group can undergo. Sometimes members come and go, sometimes sonic changes you'd expect are never made and sometimes they never make it to that fated full length record. But all in all you feel like you're truly invested in the band, and that's the way I feel with Junior Astronomers.

They're the little band that could, they put their nose to the grindstone, work their asses off and consistently release music that evokes a visceral reaction from their listeners. Most people feel strongly about Junior Astronomers and that's because the band pours every fiber of themselves into their music. Dead Nostalgia, the long awaited full length proves this.

Dead Nostalgia has been years in the making, the recording took place last summer at Greensboro's Legit Biz and brilliantly displays the ferocity and frenzy that led the group to this record. Countless tours have taken the band throughout the country and these songs have evolved throughout their years of touring, but it's allowed the band to finely tune the intricacies that make these songs so special and unique. While Junior Astronomers' formula may seem very cut and dry to some listeners--spastic and jaunty guitar riffs that serve as bedding for Terrence Richard's guttural shouts and croons--it's a technically impressive sound that seamlessly combines the grit of a punk rock act while taking the twists and turns of math-rock. Regardless of how you label the band's sound, they're undeniably a band that thrives on raw emotionality and that's what ultimately draws in fans of this Charlotte outfit.