Apr/100
Event : Melanaster w/Rio Bravo 05.15.10
Saturday, May 15th 2010 The Melanaster Band will join Wilmington-based progressive rockers Rio Bravo for an intimate show at Asheville’s Hookah Bar.
Rio Bravo is a virile quartet of young rockers that recalls Radiohead, Band of Horses and Muse. They’re embarking on an East Coast tour, and this will be their first show in Asheville. We’re happy to be sharing the stage with them! More at the band’s MySpace page.
Essential info : The Hookah Bar at 38 N French Broad St, 9PM | $6.
Rio Bravo – “Tear Me Up” (Live)
“ Rio Bravo is a four piece indie rock and roll group hailing from Wilmington, NC. This local rock sensation is tearing up the scene and gaining new fans with every show. RIO BRAVO is poised to take over the world… Whether it is touring the US, benefits for TOMS shoes, Invisible Children, or packing out downtown bars and club, this band it definitely leaving it’s mark. Tracks like “So Young” and “Honesty” display the quartet’s diverse musical range and artistic scope. Fans of Rio Bravo will also go on and on about how amazing the band is live, and about their amazing stage presence in any venue. In Short, Rio Bravo puts on a real live rock show that should not be missed! Make sure you catch RIO this Spring on their East Coast Tour! “Mar/100
MountainX Feature on Asheville’s Electronic Music Scene
Last week, The MountainX ran a cover feature called “The Body Electric,” focused on Asheville’s burgeoning electronic music scene. The articles cover Asheville’s place in the world of electronic music (The Body Electric), the subgenres and styles of DJing (DJ Heroics) and the critical role of promoters and venues in growing the scene (Predicting the Weather).
Featured performers and interviewees include: Sonmi Suite, Panther God, Telepath, Cleofus Williams, Brett Rock, DJ Bowie, and Marley Carroll, in addition to promoters and artist collectives like Under One Beat and Low Frequency Ops.
Here’s an excerpt:
”
At first glance it might seem that Asheville is stacked in favor of roots music, what with a guitarist on every corner and an Americana band in every bar. But there’s also much to suggest Asheville as an electronica hot bed, despite that scene’s apparent underground status.Exhibit A: Asheville is where Robert Moog — pioneer of electronic music and inventor of the Moog synthesizer — worked as a research professor of music at UNCA, based his electronic musical instruments manufacturing company and lived out his final years.
Exhibit B: Asheville has (perhaps in spite of itself) embraced live band-electronica fusion acts like Telepath (since moved on to Philadelphia) and electronic music/arts festivals like Trinumeral.
Exhibit C: Take a walk around downtown and check out the posters affixed to power poles and displayed in shop windows. Every other one is for a DJ show. Same thing with Facebook events. Many electronic artists eschew conventional publicity methods in favor of new media. Not seeing many electronica shows? Go online.
Exhibit D: Even the rootsiest of venues is booking electronic acts. The Rocket Club is home to a free weekly Super Dance Party (Wednesdays at 10 p.m.), with DJs Crick Nice and Adam Strange (GFE) and DJ Mark Davis (who has been spinning underground dance music in Asheville since the ’80s). Mo Daddy’s welcomes its first-ever hip-hop show with local artist Foul Mouth Jerk, PyInfamous from Crystal Springs, Miss., and Charlotte’s One Big Love on Friday, March 5. The Grey Eagle hosts Baltimore duo Beach House on Friday, April 30.
But even with new developments — and nearly everyone seems to agree the local electronic scene has grown exponentially in the past few years — electronic music isn’t a new phenomenon. Its roots reach back to ’70s-era disco, dating the genre older than not just its current practitioners, but many of their parents.
Fueling Asheville’s newfound fondness for electronica is certainly the live band/electronic fusion — anything from the live instruments-meets-computers of The Nova Echo to live sequencing of engineered loops and beats as performed by Freepeoples Frequency. But more than sonic accessibility, it’s technical accessibility that brings new fans to the multifaceted genre. Music makers no longer need to be piano or guitar virtuosos — computer proficiency and a desire to create are the instruments of this under-represented but increasingly available art form.
Want to know more about local electronic music? Read on … “
Mar/100
Event : The Melanaster Band with Mobley and If You Wannas! 03.13.10 Asheville NC
Saturday, March 13th, join The Melanaster Band, If You Wannas, and Austin-based rockers Mobley for what promises to be an unforgettable night of killer music. I’ll let these bands speak for themselves (press below), but suffice to say we’re very excited to be sharing the stage with these two crews.
Essential info : Club 828 at 64 N Carter St, 9PM | $8. Facebook Event.
Special note : Mobley features a remarkably creative interactive music video on their website. Check it out!
MOBLEY
Originally founded in North Carolina by lead singer and songwriter Anthony Watkins II and later joined by bassist Tim Shelburne Jr., Mobley took its current shape during the summer of 2008. A cross-country move and 7 months of practice and preparation later, they’re hard at work trying to prove themselves as one of Austin’s most promising young bands.The songs draw from a wealth of influences, often tied together with only as much thread as is necessary for coherence. What results is a repetoire that, by virtue of its diversity, truly transports the listener. Nowhere is this fact more clear than when you see the band live. It’s a set comprised of contrasting moods and moments: an anthemic blitz of guitars and wired synths; a falsetto croon slinking out over drum-bass groove straight out of ‘73; a music box lullaby bursting into chamber pop or keening alt-country or glitzy dance rock. All of these sounds are complimented by a stunning video/light component and performed by musicians that command the stage with a presence that belies their youth and a vigor that proves it.
Infectiously energetic, meticulous in their passion, and unmistakably honest, Mobley has crafted a distinctive brand of indie rock that is smart, catchy, and melodic. Give them a listen… you’re likely to agree.
IF YOU WANNAS
When listening to the If You Wannas, the most immediately noticeable thing isn’t what they do well, but how they manage to click all cylinders at once. This band is a tight rock ‘n’ roll machine which takes its nods from both Fugazi and My Morning Jacket, the rhythm section of Trevor Stoia and Jacob Baumann create a level of tension and terseness that simultaneously grates against and gels with guitarists Ryan Cox and Gavin Conner’s laconic country infused strum and whine. It’s a cacophony that you can sing and dance along with, and it’s all by design.“We go for hooks,” says Cox. “I try to write what I would want to listen to, and that’s a three-minute-long song. We want people to go home and remember something on the way home.”
Jan/101
Event : Melanaster at the Rocket Club in Asheville
On Friday, January 22nd, Melanaster will rock Asheville’s Rocket Club with Open Windows and Do It To Julia. Show starts at 9PM with Julia, $7. Facebook Event.
This is a fantastic bill, and made more special by the fact that we’ll also be celebrating:
• JAG and Gabe’s birthday
and
• Lydia’s going-away party
Join us on the west side to defrost, have a drink, and tell the people you love them. Map.
Dec/090
Video : The Melanaster Band – Bird Hand (Live @ E-Lo)
Debut show, 09/24/09 at the Emerald Lounge in Asheville.
Marley Carroll (keys, vocals), Billy Cardine (dobro), Barrett Smith (guitar), Jake Wolf (bass), Ryan Lassiter (drums).
Nov/091
Event : The Melanaster Band at the Hookah Bar 12/11
Design by Troy Lehman
On Friday, December 11, The Melanaster Band joins local trip-hop luminaries Paper Tiger for a show at Asheville’s Hookah Bar (map).
From the press release: “Since re-defining themselves as Paper Tiger, the electronic trip-hop duo formerly known as RubySlippers & MINGLE has been well received by crowds at Trinumeral 2009, has opened a sold out show with UK producer Bonobo and played a short set opening for producer Mark Farina. Paper Tiger have hit a stride in creating original lounge/trip-hop, and are quickly establishing themselves as a duo in the Asheville music scene.”
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