Jan 15-21, 2014

Jan 15-21, 2014 / Vol. 27 / No. 47

Cover Story

What a band wants

A tub of hummus. Tube socks. Wild Turkey. Ammunition. “Smokeable herbs for relaxation purposes.” A cardboard box to kick back in. “Equestrian or midget porn.” A private area for a Satanic pre-show ritual. These are all real-life, Charlotte-based examples from the weird world of concert riders, the contractual clauses where musicians’ quixotic whims, dietary compulsions…

John Schacht

CD review: Mogwai’s Rave Tapes

There are two Mogwai records saved on my phone right now: Rave Tapes and A Wrenched Virile Lore. The former is the Scottish band’s second Sub Pop release, out today; the latter is a remix album of 2011’s Hardcore Will Never Die but You Will, all the way down to the anagrammed title. These two…

Corbie Hill

Theater review: Boeing Boeing

In a Parisian flat not far from Orly Airport, a slick playboy is juggling three fiancées, all of them stewardesses — Gloria from the US, Gabriella from Italy and Gretchen from Germany. How does Bernard manage to keep all three ladies unaware of each other’s existence in Boeing Boeing, you might ask. Well, as you’ll…

Perry Tannenbaum

Bizarre crimes from Charlotte police files (Jan. 16)

Same Ol’: If The Blotter ever had a favorite strip club, it would be Daisy Dooks on Scott Futrell Drive. The venue popped up in reports so often during 2013 that it made both the Best of Charlotte and Best of The Blotter issues that wrapped up the year. Although it seems to have recently…

Ryan Pitkin

Academy rewards

When the nominations for the 86th Annual Academy Awards were announced yesterday, the results were, for the most part, pretty predictable. And because of that, we’re guaranteed to have an Oscar race that should prove to be wholly unpredictable. As expected, the three films that have been the presumed frontrunners over the course of the…

Matt Brunson

CD review: Watch Husky Burn’s Garnet

If Explosions in the Sky can help set a dramatic tone during love stories and dramas, Charlotte instrumental trio Watch Husky Burn offers the perfect soundtrack for car or on-foot chases and perhaps a jet flying between mountains and under bridges. Comprised of guitarist Phil Strickland, drummer Nate Wilkinson and bassist Mark Hadden, the group…

Jeff Hahne

Weekly horoscope (Jan. 17-23)

For All Signs: The planets Venus and Mars were aligned in April of 2013. Venus, the ancient goddess of love, carries broad feminine and romantic symbolism. Mars is the warrior god and prevails over masculine territory. That alignment suggests the conclusion of one relationship and the beginning of another. Alternatively, the conjunction speaks of the…

Vivian Carol

Where to find it: LaFrieda’s beef

Although Pat LaFrieda Meat Purveyors of North Bergen, N.J., has been doing business in the New York City area since 1922, when grandfather Anthony LaFrieda opened a butcher shop in Brooklyn, it took the glamour of star chefs like Mario Batali using LaFrieda meats at his restaurants in the 1990s to begin the momentum to…

Tricia Childress

The flip-side of feminism

There is a photograph that has gone viral of a father with a baby strapped to his chest, standing in front of the bathroom mirror and brushing his toddler daughter’s hair. The Internet has lost its collective mind over this image, with many Facebook and Twitter users seeming to believe this dude deserves a Nobel…

Ailen Arreaza

Catch you on the Flipside in Fort Mill

Flipside Café, which has been up and running for several weeks in a shopping strip near the North Carolina line, is not the kind of restaurant we’re used to seeing in Fort Mill. In this renovated space, Flipside has a Portland feel: small, independently owned, with foods locally sourced and an owner who will not…

Tricia Childress

CD review: Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks’ Wig Out at Jagbags

Wooden Wand’s James Toth wrote a piece recently for NPR decrying the lyrics in a lot of today’s popular rock songs. Toth — a frequent contributor to websites Stereogum and Aquarium Drunkard — aimed his wrath at critics, too, for giving a pass to the slapdash stanzas and crap couplets that Haim, Best Coast and…

John Schacht

Stray from the pack

Webb Athay has the Boy Scouts of America in his blood. Like his father and his grandfather, the Davidson County resident earned his Eagle Scout badge and became a troop leader and was involved with the Scouts for more than 33 years. But on Dec. 31 — the last day before the Scouts enacted the…

Sara Patterson

Recent

See all

Gift this article