Mobile
In 1989, I was two years out of North Carolina, living in Brooklyn, working my way up the music-journalism ladder that would ultimately lead me to Rolling Stone and MTV. That year, one of my first big stories for a national publication was a feature on Charlotte's Fetchin Bones, who were already bona fide rock stars to lil' old me.
It was a mind-blowing time to be a music freak from Carolina. R.E.M., which had recorded its earliest albums in Charlotte, was on the brink of superstardom. The Bones, who still lived here, were on a major label. And Antiseen were the underground scuzzrockers du jour, whose noisy, dissonant, feedback-laden punk was part of a movement that would soon be dubbed grunge and land Nirvana at the top of the charts.
That year, CL's zany and provocative — not to mention smart and talented — music critic Fred Mills documented the successes of both the Bones and Antiseen in a combined review of their latest albums. Mills knew cutting-edge Charlotte music like nobody's business, and in the following excerpt, he even employed the word "grungy" back when we still used it as an adjective to describe a sound, not a marketing term to pigeonhole a genre.
"The grungy, Neanderthal, distorted, culturally subterranean sound of [Antiseen] oozes from the grooves of the one album: unruly, undisciplined, and raw. The vibrant, rollicking melodicism of [Fetchin Bones] is polished and professional ... and ripe for airplay. Fetchin Bones is headed to the high-profile, prestigious New Music Seminar this week; Antiseen is embarking on a low-paying, couch-and-floors minitour. Polar opposites? Maybe, maybe not."
And where are they now? Fetchin Bones frontwoman Hope Nicholls owns Boris & Natasha's and still performs adventurous music with her husband and old Bones bandmate Aaron Pitkin. Antiseen still slogs out the scuzzrock in local clubs, though lead howler Jeff Clayton's put on a few pounds. Mills is the editor of the excellent online music 'zine Blurt. All three are essential components of Charlotte's rich music history.
Speaking of...
Latest in 25th Anniversary Issue
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The Kid
Jun 2, 2016 -
Creative Loafing turns 25!
Jun 21, 2012 -
Angels in America
Jun 21, 2012 - More »
More by Mark Kemp
Calendar
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UniverSoul Circus @ Ver El Mobile Village
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AllMachines
- Through Dec. 30, 12-9 p.m.
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AllMachines - Raymond Forklift
- Through Dec. 30, 12-5 p.m.
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TheDiscountCodes
- Mondays-Sundays. Continues through Dec. 31
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From the Eye of the Hurricane: Labor, Land, and the Great Sea Island Storm of 1893 @ Native American Studies Center
- Fri., May 23, 12-1 p.m.
