Ben Meyercord's Live Music Picks for Friday August 7th

Hello Dear Readers,

I love the combination of Summer and not working three days in a row. It often makes me feel like a kid. Like I can do anything. Which for me would be to see a lot of shows. Which I do. I ended up making two shows last night. Though to be fair one of them might not have counted because it was only one band and I played in that band. But after Y La Bamba played I hung out for a bit mainly because there were too many people to comfortably maneuver gear around. I initially planned on headed over to see Black Heart Moon. But because our set started later than I thought I missed their set and instead headed straight over to Holocene to catch the Nurses release show. That was such a good show. The Slaves opened up playing gorgeous slow ambient pop. You know how Grouper makes slow ambient folk. It is pops equivalent. Then Inside Voices played an amazing set in the entrance room with the audience encircling them. They lighted themselves with a series of construction lamps they place on the floor. Then Nurses played the most ambitious and best sounding show that I have ever seen them play. They had their friend form Explode into Colors design their stage which was covered in white sheets including some that sloped down to make an inverted arch which had some very cool, dare I say psychedelic, corresponding images projected on them from two different projectors. They also had matching costumes that were made by the same person in Explode into Colors (I don't remember which one). Actually members of Explode into Colors joined Nurses on stage for a more rhythmically advanced rendition of their song "Lita". Pretty cool. It honestly felt very special show. I am very glad I was there. NEways, here are the shows happening tonight.

Friday, August 7th

Ella Street Social Club is having a Ezra Carey, Oh Captain My Captain, and Montaghue Post. The show is a Bladen County Records related. They tend to do good work over there at Bladen County. They put out recordsfor all the bands playing (except Monarques cause they don't have one yet) and they will be putting out Alan Singley's new album "Feelin' Citrus" very soon. This will debut the new line up of Oh Captain. I heard that it is very different but very good. Plus it is the debut of former Oh Captain My Captain's guitarist Josh Spacek's new band Monarques. I have yet to see Ezra Carey, but I like what I have heard on his myspce page. The show is $5 and starts at 8 PM.

Worksound is having a show with Hot Victory, Mustaphamond and Paper/Upper/Cuts. I have wanted to check out Hot Victory for a while. From what I understand it is two awesome drummers and a knob twidlin' keyboard player doing some very cool music that a reasonable person could get down to. I have been meaning to see Papi aka Paper/Upper/Cuts for a while too. He performs really a mixture of really cool live electronics and drums (solo). It looks really awesome from the footage I have seen. The show is for the opening of The Future in Retrospect show at Worksound which features the art of E*ROCK, RYAN JACOB SMITH, AIDAN KOTCH, CASSIE ADAMS-HARFORD, TARA JANE O’NEIL, ADAM BAZ, NAS CHAMPAS, VALENTINE FALCON, ROBERT KHASHO, AND PETER LAVIGNE-CHALEK. The show is FREE? It starts at 9 PM.

The Artistery is having a show with The Ocean Floor, Bad Weather California (Colorado) and Twig Palace. I have only seen The Ocean Floor perform once but it was really good. You may recognize Lane as being the drummer of Church but make no mistake he is much more than a drummer. his music is really good modern non-top 40 pop. The show is $6 and starts at 8 PM.

Doug Fir is apparently having a last minute show with Leonard Mynx and Haley Bonar. It is not listed on the website and I heard of it via a text message. It will be a rare solo set by Leonard which probably means more of his folky side as opposed to the more rock/poppier side I have been seeing lately. On the other hand I feel that Haley Bonar leans on the pop side of the folk-pop tag. It is good though. Especially considering this show is FREE. It supposedly starts at 8 PM. Sharp.

If you are at a show tonight and see a dude with a beard who answers to Ben Meyercord, please tell him "Hi".

-Ben


Papi aka Paper/Upper/Cuts plays at Worksound tonight. sweet.