Jun 4-10, 2014

Jun 4-10, 2014 / Vol. 28 / No. 15

Cover Story

Self Aware Records celebrates five years

When Joshua Robbins sat down five years ago to chat with the Charlotte hardcore crew Lowbrow, he didn’t intend on releasing their single. Back then, Self Aware, the flourishing DIY rock imprint he runs with his wife, Sarah Blumenthal Robbins, was just another punk ‘zine, a xeroxed compendium of reviews and interviews covering bands both…

Jordan Lawrence

Bizarre crime from Charlotte police files (June 5)

Water wars: Three senior citizens were all struck with the same projectile at a local Wendy’s last week. A 67-year-old man told police that a female behind the counter threw a cup of water at him. The water, he said, caused him to stumble backward and strike his arm on railing, drawing blood. The 75-year-old…

Ryan Pitkin

A cutting Edge of Tomorrow

EDGE OF TOMORROW ***1/2 DIRECTED BY Doug Liman STARS Tom Cruise, Emily Blunt Admittedly, Bill Murray didn’t have it this bad. Ever since the first trailer broke for Edge of Tomorrow, the movie hasn’t been able to shake the label that it’s basically Groundhog Day dripped through a sci-fi filter. While there’s some truth to…

Matt Brunson

The Fault in Our Stars shines bright

THE FAULT IN OUR STARS ***1/2 DIRECTED BY Josh Boone STARS Shailene Woodley, Ansel Elgort While theaters have been providing 3-D glasses as moviegoers amble into enhanced showings of such hi-tech flicks as Godzilla and Edge of Tomorrow, they’re offering no handouts at venues screening The Fault in Our Stars. That’s a blown opportunity for…

Matt Brunson

Real (Bad) Housewife

“What are you gonna do for work?” That was the first question just about everyone asked as my husband Robby and I announced to our friends that we’d soon be leaving Seattle to move across the country to his hometown of Nashville, Tennessee. I laughed and shrugged, “I guess I’m just gonna be a housewife!”…

Megan Seling

Is Nikki Hill rock and soul royalty?

“Gospel is the root of roots music, right?” Rocking roots-and-deep-soul dynamo Nikki Hill breaks from a tour which brings her band, including husband/guitarist Matt Hill, drummer Joe Meyer and bassist Ed Strohsahl, to Snug Harbor on June 6, to discuss the sacred roots of that most profane music — rock ‘n’ roll. “Driving rhythms, call…

Michael Walsh

Theater reviews: Spoleto Festival, Part 1

Charles Wadsworth, Joseph Flummerfelt, and Emmanuel Villaume no longer wield the batons – or the reins – at Spoleto Festival USA. These have been passed along to Geoff Nuttall, piloting the chamber music, Joe Miller, leading the Westminster Choir, and John Kennedy ruling the Spoleto Festival Orchestra. You can hear the difference these younger musicians…

Perry Tannenbaum

Dinner with Duane Allman, sort of

There once was a time I knew the name of everybody in the Allman Brothers Band. Now, there’s a revolving cast of characters who I’ve never heard of, except for Gregg on keyboards and vocals, Warren Haynes on guitar and, I think, Larry Fine on fiddle. That poor group has lost as many guys as…

Peter Gerstenzang

CD Review: Future’s Honest

The advent of social media has further broken down the fragile wall between an artist and their most ardent fans. One can follow a rapper’s Instagrammed photos at a night club, evening drive Vine videos and even catch late-night recording studio tweets. Honest, the second major label album by Atlanta-based rapper/singer Future, exists for all…

David Turner

Weekly horoscope (June 5-11)

For All Signs: Mercury, the ancient god of business and routine communications, turns retrograde on June 7. It remains so until July 1. This event occurs on varying dates approximately three times each calendar year. While this planet is in retrograde motion we experience frequent changes of plan and schedule. The old teachings, often authoritarian,…

Vivian Carol

A Murmur of Reflection (Sound Studios)

For most of its life, stories about Charlotte’s Reflection Sound Studios began with a Murmur — and rightly so. The 1983 debut LP from Athens’ R.E.M. conspicuously rejected every popular production technique in that oversynthesized and polished-to-a-sheen era and became a template for the college-rock radio movement in the process. The record’s arty song structures,…

John Schacht

CD Review: Young and In the Way’s When Life Comes to Death

When Life Comes to Death, Young and in the Way’s first record for Converge frontman Jacob Bannon’s Deathwish Inc. imprint, tempers the band’s deft mix of abrasive crust-punk and high-test black metal with moody atmospherics and confident production. It ain’t at all a cheery record, all thanatologically obsessed nihilism splayed over taut and razor-sharp odes…

Patrick Wall

The great coal ash cupcake standoff

RALEIGH — Coal ash activists laid siege to the state legislative building Wednesday, some armed with sweets to help get a foot in the door. A coalition including NC WARN, Sierra Club and union organizers brought 170 freshly baked “coal ash cupcakes” to the state legislature’s doorstep to announce that they expect no sweet deals…

Ryan Pitkin

Lime-pocalypse!

We thought they’d always be there for our margaritas and our Mexican food. Our supply of limes — like their garnish-y cousin, parsley — seemed endless. Maybe we took the little green guys for granted. We thought nothing of ordering water with a wedge of lime. For free! Those were simpler times a few months…

Page Leggett

Parking, Charlotte’s solutionless problem

Chantall Sheaffer and her husband went out to dinner in Plaza Midwood one recent Friday evening and decided to park in a lot they’d been using for years. Unbeknownst to them, the owner of the lot had recently hired Randy McElwain’s towing company, Freedom Towing, to enforce a no-parking-after-hours rule after the owner started showing…

Ana McKenzie

Self Aware’s greatest hits

Editor’s Note: Read our story on Self Aware Records here. Late BloomerThings ChangeRelease date: June 27, 2014 (Split release with Tor Johnson Records) It’s fitting that Josh Robbins’ own band will release what might well be Self Aware’s best record yet in the month when the label turns 5. Also including guitarist Neil Mauney and…

Jordan Lawrence

Recent

See all

Gift this article