Blog: Mann's World

I caught part of the Tornado benefit at Tir na Nog on Tuesday night. Specifically, it was my first time seeing Maldora, which had been described to me a "Patty Hurst Shifter with Lutie on bass." That's obviously true to an extent given that Chris Smith and Marc Smith are still the guitarists and primary vocalists. It's been a while since I saw PHS, but I thought with Lutie they sounded more energetic and together than they had in a while. Maldora from Mann's World on Vimeo .

Yes, I'm slowly coming back to life. Part of social resurrection (appropriate for this Holy Week) is going to see space rockers White Hills (above) with Kolyma at Kings on Monday night (April 25). There's also a band called Arbor Myst on the bill. I don't know what to say about that. White Hills have an album, "H-P1" coming out on Thrill Jockey on June 21. Here's "The Condition of Nothing" off that album, and a video for the same song. Go see the show! White Hills - "The [...]

New Raleigh has a great write up , but here are the details: Lineup All Tiny Creatures, Andrew Cedermark, Annuals, Apache Dropout, Apex Manor, Apple Juice Kid, Bandway, Barn Owl, Beach Fossils, Beans, Bird Peterson, Black Lips, Black Twig Pickers, The Body, Bombadil, Braids, The Budos Band, Bustello, Caltrop, The Caribbean, Carlitta Durand, Cassis Orange, Charlie Smarts, Cheyenne Marie Mize, Chip Robinson, Cold Cave, D&D Sluggers, Dan Melchior und Das Menace, David Daniell, Dawn Golden and Rosy Cross, Des Ark, Dinosaur Feathers, Disappears, The Dodos, Drive-By Truckers, Duane Pitre Sextet, Dustin Wong, Dylan [...]

Check it out! Red Fang's latest, "Murder the Mountains," is streaming now on Band Camp!

Thanks to the N.C. Arts Council for letting me write about my favorite local music venues. You can read what I have to say here . You'll start seeing me out and about again soon. My self-imposed exile is about to come to an end.

This is not an April Fools joke: The new Hammer No More the Fingers cd, "Black Shark," rocks! It's also no joke that they'll be at Motorco tomorrow night for a CD-release party. Check out what the Indy's feature on them , and check out my favorite song from the CD, "It's About Caring." Hammer No More the Fingers - "It's About Caring"

Nate from USX posted on the band's Facebook page today that their new album will be out May 31. I messaged him for details and here's what he had to say: "cd on Neurot, vinyl will be on I'm Better Than Everyone Records. Title is "The Valley Path", just one track 40 minute record. Should have album pic soon." One 40-minute track! Should be some spacey stuff. Looking forward to it!

The first thing I want to do is apologize because this post will not do Sunday's Agalloch show at Kings justice. If you know me, or are just friends with me on Facebook, then you know I had to have my 15 and 1/2 year old dog, my beloved Mr. C, put to sleep Tuesday night. So I'm not in the mood to do much blogging, but since this show was so amazing, I needed to go ahead and post the video. I do want to thank Dr. Jennifer Frey from Peaceful Passings . If you find [...]

Well, this heavy-music week sure had gotten off to a great start because Agalloch put on one of the top shows I've ever seen in my life last night at Kings. More on that in my next post. To round out the week we have the Metalliance Tour tomorrow night in Greensboro, Batillus/Hull/Caltrop at Reservoir on Wednesday, Devour/Arabrot/Wizard Rifl e at Kings on Friday and The Body at Motorco on Saturday. I'm sure there's something happening on Thursday too. I hope you're following my lead and resting up tonight. [...]

Unlike most people, I kind of like the traditional drinking holidays -- the ones where all your friends post on Facebook that they're going to stay home and leave that particular night to the amateurs. St. Patrick's Day has always been one of my favorites. On Thursday I there was a really cool celebration at Big Boss (which will always be Horniblow's in my mind) with food trucks and bands. My companion wasn't feeling well, so we left before The Trousers played, but I did get to see Skullbuckle for the first time. Despite [...]

This week, there are at least four contenders for Show of the Week, but I'm going to have to give the nod to Portland atmospheric black metal band Agalloch (above), who will be at Kings this Sunday, March 20 with Worm Ouroboro and Aerial Ruin. But before we get to Sunday, there's the Big Boss party at Horniblow's on St. Patrick's Day, with The Trousers, Skullbuckle and The Hammertons. Get there early because it starts at 7 p.m. If you're up for a drive, one of the [...]

(Backwoods Payback) I've been a bit MIA lately. Not really going out at all since the Cough show. There are lots of reasons for that, one of which is that I'm now heavily involved in The Beehive Collective , a giving circle composed of young (ish) Raleigh women (mostly) who support progressive causes. If you're Facebook friends with me, or if you follow me on Twitter, you've seen my appeals to new members during our Membership Drive. If you're interested in knowing more about us, let me know. [...]

(Buzzov*en) This has been an unexpectedly busy week, so I'm just now getting around to posting about Wednesday's Buzzov*en , Cough , Lurch show at Casbah. K-Lloyd, Kirk Fisher's solo project, didn't play. No word on why he didn't. See more photos from the show . Buzzoven - "Kakkila" from Mann's World on Vimeo . (Cough) Cough [...]

This week's show of the week is undoubtedly Buzzov*en with Cough (whose "Ritual Abuse" was one of my favorite albums of 2010), Lurch and K-Lloyd, Wednesday at Casbah. Nate from USX has an interview with Kirk Fisher from Buzzov*en on his blog. K-Lloyd is Kirk's solo project, so make sure to get to the show early to catch it. Also this week: Thank You will be at Nightlight on Thursday and the Berkeley on Friday. Check out their song "1-2-3- Bad" here . [...]

• Thank You - 1-2-3-Bad

(Colossus) Wow! What an amazing evening! There are so many great things to say about all the bands on night two of the Bull City Metal Fest that I don't even know where to begin. Let's just say that I'm really looking forward to next year's festival. In order to conserve space on my cam, I only got video of a few of the bands. (Monsonia) (Monsonia) [...]

(Music Hates You) OK, first things first, I miscalculated. THIS is my 1,000th post on Mann's World! Now, a quick wrap up of the first night of the Bull City Metal Fest. I got to the Casbah around 9 to find MAKE nearly done with their set. Apparently the show had been running a little early all night. It was my first trip to the Casbah , and I can say that it's a very nice, fairly spacious club with good sound and an efficient stage set-up (which I guess contributed to things running early). [...]

I don't even know where to start with the Bull City Metal Fest . Mostly I'm just really glad that I live in an area that can sustain a two-day predominantly local metal festival AND have 160 confirmed guests (as of this writing) on the Facebook event page. That's impressive, and I heartily give thanks to Steve Gardner, who is now booking the Casbah, for making it happen. Those of you who are in the local alt-country circle will recognize Steve's name. He's been promoting Americana house shows [...]

Concord-via-Brooklyn singer Paleface will also be in town Thursday at the Pour House. He and drummer/girlfriend Monica Samalot have a new album out on Ramseur Records called "One Big Party." Here's my favorite song from the record, "She's So." Check it out! Paleface - "She's So"

That's what Monotonix singer Ami Shelev says in this article (thanks to Robby for alerting me to this). Guitarist Yonatan Gat didn't mention that when he answered five questions for this interview. Their PR guy, Dean, forwarded this statement when asked about it: Reports that they are breaking up are a little exaggerated. What's really going down is Haggai, the drummer, has a kid on [...]

It's been a while since I gave you some .mp3s. Today I have three, all of which sound completely different. The first is from Skullbuckle , who were active in Wilmington several years ago, and have recently reformed and are releasing their debut album. Their album release shows are Feb. 4 at the Pour House and Feb. 5 at the Soapbox in Wilmington. Skullbuckle - "Underwear" Download The Red Planets is a new, surfy instrumental solo project from Gary [...]

• Skullbuckle - Underwear
• The Red Planets - The Birdbee's Revenge
• Ungrained - Up from Drown