Ghostt Bllonde Signs to Negative Fun Records

Ghostt Bllonde at WKNC's DBB 10 Day Party

Since around this time last year I've been touting the word of Ghostt Bllonde. What was once the project that rose from the ashes of Coastal Vision has swiftly snowballed into one of the region's most exciting new acts. Marc Kuzio's frantic, angst-ridden lyrics have resonated with countless listeners across the state, turning Ghostt Bllonde's shows into sing-along laden outings that are liable to get crazy quick. It's hard to imagine how a band can keep gathering so much steam, but Ghostt Bllonde is clearly determined to do just that. Earlier this morning it was announced that Ghostt Bllonde would be joining the Negative Fun roster in 2014 for multiple releases with the Raleigh/New Hampshire based label.

Negative Fun garnered a lot of local attention after their Hopscotch Day Party at Legends this year, and since then they've been following a similar trajectory to Ghostt Bllonde by putting on free First Friday events at Legends to help gain local visibility. The opening installment of their Let Feedback Ring series actually featured Ghostt Bllonde as the headliner, which should have been the first indication that something special could come to fruition between the two parties.

Throughout 2014 Ghostt Bllonde will release a handful of singles and demos which will lead up to their second full-length, currently slated for a late 2014 release. However, the footwork leading up to this full-length sounds equally enthralling, releases include a 7" split for a part of Negative Fun's Home and Home series (one side from North Carolina, one from New Hampshire) and an EP of demos on Negative Fun's new tape label imprint Antiquated Technology (run by Negative Fun's Chris DeFusco and local journalist/musician Corbie Hill).

To celebrate this slew of good news, Ghostt Bllonde will be headlining a stellar night at Kings Barcade on Friday, Jan. 3 with Hammer No More The Fingers and Museum Mouth. This three act lineup serves as an excellent start to the new year, giving local fans an even mix of one of the areas most revered local indie-rock acts and two quickly rising newcomers. It's hard to believe that a year ago the band was debuting their staple track "Love is Loathing"on The Bottom String and now they're already prepping for their second full-length, but when you're filled with that much unbridled energy it's gotta go somewhere!

Album Review: "Blanko Basnet" by Blanko Basnet

Blanko Basnet will be celebrating their
album release at The Pinhook in Durham this Friday
with Speedy Ortiz & Organos

The joys of following your local music scene most certainly come in bunches. Sometimes you get to see a band's gradual ascent to stardom and you can become incredibly attached to these artists and the work that they produce. Other times you see bands fall by the wayside--for some reason or another--sometimes it's a break-up and others just take hiatuses to focus on separate projects. It's kind of like when you're young and your parents split up, you love them both equally but you naturally gravitate to the one that does cooler shit with you.

That's the way I feel about the current situation with Hammer No More The Fingers. Hammer has long been a favorite local band of mine, they were one of the first local acts I really got into, I booked them for a local festival, I traveled to see them, I learned the songs by heart. It was fantastic to feel a connection with a band like that, but as time has passed on Hammer has begun to oversaturate the market a bit. Black Shark and the Pink Worm EP were both fantastic releases, but it began to feel like a lot of the same music on a different day. Is it still awesome? Definitely. But there's definitely a yearning for some innovation and that's what Blanko Basnet feels like.

Blanko Basnet is the new project from Joe Hall of Hammer No More The Fingers and it's got enough of the vintage Hammer sounds to make it feel familiar whilst exploring vastly different sonic territories. While some tracks definitely feel like they have the typical Hammer bounce to them, there's enough of a dynamic switch that Blanko feels entirely new. The songs feel more explorative, there's much more jagged chord changes and spastic rhythmic switch-ups that keep things interesting for the listener. Hall's melodies typically follow the centric guitar lines but the tracks are in a constant state of flux, so by the time you've become attached to a particular section you find yourself humming along to an entirely new rhythm.

The Bottom String's Top 10 North Carolina Albums of 2011

It was a fantastic year for the Carolina music scene in 2011 and after taking a bit of time to let it all soak in I think I've fumbled the list around enough to have determined what I feel are the ten best albums to be released in North Carolina from 2011.  In a year that saw both of North Carolina's newest and brightest festivals garner massive national attention thanks to picking up some of the hottest and most talented artists in the national scene, we also saw the local scene continue to pump out fantastic releases.  Between Mount Moriah's long awaited full-length, a sophomore smash from Carolina rap favorites Kooley High, the return of Bombadil and much much more, we have had an incredible year of music in the tobacco state.  So without further ado, let's get down to the Top 10!

Around The Triangle: Bottom String Session #16, Local Beer Local Band, Hammer No More The Fingers, Architecture in Helsinki

Photo Credit: Agatha Donkar

It's been busy times for The Bottom String lately with holidays and exams lumping themselves together, but we're jumping back on the train to keep bringing the goodness to ya!  We've got our You Should Know with Gross Ghost coming up this week as well as two new Bottom String Sessions, plus the beginning of our Year End lists!  For starters though we'll backtrack some and provide some awesome captures from the past few weeks with Architecture in Helsinki at The Cat's Cradle, Local Beer Local Band with Gross Ghost and Lilac Shadows, as well as Hammer No More The Fingers, Lonnie Walker, and Free Electric State at Nightlight.

Also after the jump is our Bottom String Session with Sinful Savage Tigers from the backyard of Andrew Marlin.  A stellar set of songs from an excellent upcoming folk band from Carrboro, Sinful Savage Tigers performed "Natural Ghost" from their debut release as well as "Ballad of John Grove" off of their latest album, "The Last Night Of The Revels".

Hear Here: November 16 - November 25

Mike Dillon of Gross Ghost from our "You Should Know"
session

Last week held one of my favorite shows of the year with Bombadil's glorious album release show at The Cat's Cradle so it's going to be pretty hard to follow that up with something better, however there is a show from one of my favorite bands at the Cat's Cradle this week so let's see how that plays out.  With a show I've been waiting ages for from Manchester Orchestra  at The Cradle on Thursday, much of the week falls back behind the shadows of my favorite band (yes, yes, now you know that Manchester Orchestra is one of the bans I fanboy over).  However, Chapel Hill is loaded with shows this weekend as well as a few gems popping up in Raleigh and Durham.

Show of the Week: Manchester Orchestra w/ White Denim & The Dear Hunter at The Cat's Cradle on November 17, 2011