NEW CRYSTAL CASTLES TRACK FROM FORTHCOMING ALBUM

"PLAGUE" ,  an early release from Great Britain's elctro-emotional duo whose sound was once described as "ferocious, asphyxiating sheets of warped two-dimensional Gameboy glitches and bruising drum bombast that pierces your skull with their sheer shrill force, burrowing deep into the brain like a fever" by Jack Shankly, a writer for Brit website Drowned in Sound.   An acquired taste for many, but top of the menu for young fans of the overwhelming presence of electronic music with a message.  Get a sneak peek at their upcoming 3rd record to be released later this year

  

This Weekend at WHITE COLLAR CRIME

FRIDAY Raleigh's favorite talented and tasteful jam rockers, Strange Lady, hits the stage at White Collar to perform a variety of kick ass songs from Phish, Ween, Grateful Dead and more.  Webb Bostic and the boys put on what some describe as a "miniaturized version of seeing your favorite band live".  When Strange Lady comes to play, they blow the place apart.  Get down to White Collar Crime FRIDAY NIGHT and dance your ass off.

Saturday evening Charleston's own Gaslight Street will take the stage.  Campbell Brown leads his southern funk and rock band through every song with  precision and authentic bluesmanship.  Get ready for The Allman Brothers with a horn section.   This performance is something for all you guys and girls who stay at home on Saturday night for no good reason.  The fun of funk and jam bands is something I put away years ago and I don't know why.  Gaslight Street reminds me of my younger days when whatever music got my head boppin' was the music for me.

Be at White Collar Crime Saturday night for this special performance.   



Singer / songwriter of the highest ilk, MAC LEAPHART opens.

CHUCK PROPHET AT THE BERKELY CAFE TUESDAY 7-17

The one and only Chuck Prophet is gracing Raleigh with his presence Tuesday night.  His roaring guitar play is something  that can only be compared to  the brilliantly gritty  words he uses to express his take on  love, war, friendship and the human condition in general.  Often likened to Bruce Springsteen, Prophet has his finger on the pulse of blue -collar middle Americans and sings righteously to the their state of mind. Be it the downtrodden desperation of " You and Me Baby (Holding  On)" or the upbeat reminiscent joy of "Summertime Thing", Prophet sinks into your soul and sticks like glue.  He possesses that uncanny ability to take listeners on a journey into the careless  wonder of childhood, through the the trials and tribulations ( both bad and good) of adolescence, on to the stark reality of being a cynical  grown up and back again.  Live, we get to see just how great of a guitar man, story teller and band leader Chuck Prophet is.

See CHUCK PROPHET at THE BERKLEY CAFE TUESDAY NIGHT. 

ROGER WATERS: THE WALL- MONDAY NIGHT! HOLY SHIT!

Founding member of Pink Floyd, Roger Waters, has successfully held on to his dream of sharing his  masterpiece with the world, again .  The Wall is a double album and feature length film born from the creative mind of Waters with assistance from guitarist David Gilmore and the rest of Pink Floyd band in the late 1970's.    The film and it's songs follow a story line which parallels one man's struggle through stardom, insanity and being a demigod with the slow construction of a mental wall which separates himself from the normal, functioning world. Horrific flashbacks, some in cartoon form, from his troubled childhood are woven  throughout the picture which are now household symbols to anyone who's ever heard of Pink Floyd or The Wall.   The child grows up to rock star and full on  Hitleresque  leader who spews racist and fascist propaganda  to his adoring fans and followers.  The music is spectacular and the film stands today as an enigmatic projection of musical and cinematic brilliance.


    

Roger Waters left the band with The Wall in his pocket, shopping it all over the world with whatever financing he could scrape together while Pink Floyd continued on selling out stadiums.  It was stated on a recent episode of 60 Minutes regarding Waters' new tour that, at one point, he was performing The Wall (among other solo efforts) to audiences of less than 2,000 while Pink Floyd was selling out Giants Stadium.  Admittedly, a healthy dose of Schadenfreude fills me here as Waters was and is a raging egomaniac who essentially dismantled one of the greatest bands to ever exist. However, in 1990 he put together a truly spectacular event at which The Wall was presented most majestically and timed perfectly  in accord with the world climate.  It was 1989 and the Berlin Wall had fallen, freeing East Germany and everyone else suffering behind the soul crushing oppression of the Iron Curtain.  Waters was approached by rock merchandising persona, Mick Worwood about performing The Wall to benefit the  Memorial Fund for Disaster Relief.  Hesitantly, he agreed under the condition that this performance was in no way associated with Pink Floyd.  And so The Wall: Live in Berlin was on track to come alive in 1990 at Potzdamer Platz , a no mans land on the East side of the crumbled Berlin Wall.   The show was pure magic.




The likes of Van Morrison, Cyndi Lauper, Marianne Faithful, Brian Adams, members of The Band ( and among others) offered their voices. Several actors including Albert Finney and Tim Curry took on the characters, perfectly filling the empty spaces where the original Pink Floyd once played and the  film actors appeared.  The stage production for The Wall: Live in Berlin was like nothing ever seen before, bursting with animation, pyrotechnics and props. History was made with more than 200,000 people in attendance.

Something along those lines is going down at The PNC Center Monday night. I'm not expecting Van the man to be there or anything.