Sep 26 – Oct 2, 2012

Sep 26 - Oct 2, 2012 / Vol. 26 / No. 31

Cover Story

True brew in Charlotte

Forget the ever-so-cool Beer Town USA, Asheville — a nascent beer scene is blossoming in the Queen City, from its artsy fringe in NoDa to gritty, industrial west Charlotte. And more breweries are waiting in the wings. Charlotte and its suburban communities soon may be awash in local suds, and not just that meagerly flavored…

Tricia Childress

CD review: Mexican Institute of Sound’s Politico

If you think our political system’s rotten, try listening to the Mexican Institute of Sound’s powerful take from our neighbor to the south. MIS, neither a group nor an institute, is actually Camilo Lara, the main honcho at EMI Mexico. As a record collector, he amassed thousands of recordings from which he created holiday mixes…

Lew Herman

Capsule reviews of films playing the week of Sept. 28

THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN Perhaps it’s best to think of Sam Raimi’s 2002 Spider-Man and Marc Webb’s 2012 The Amazing Spider-Man as the cinematic equivalents of Coke Classic and New Coke. Despite some alterations to the source material (hey, where’s Gwen Stacy?), the Raimi take earned the trust of most purists, offering a near-perfect Peter Parker…

Matt Brunson

Bizarre crimes from Charlotte police files (Sept. 27 edition)

Prank Caller: Police responded after a woman called 911 in a panic, saying that her child had been abducted. When officers arrived, they found that the woman did not even have a child. She was just trying to file a larceny report and felt that the police were taking too long to answer her previous…

Ryan Pitkin

Pitch Perfect: Rebel yell

PITCH PERFECT *** DIRECTED BY Jason Moore STARS Anna Kendrick, Rebel Wilson With the musical comedy Pitch Perfect, a fat star is born. I called Rebel Wilson a fat star? Yeah, so you twig bitches out there won’t do it behind her back. I’m paraphrasing, of course, but this line of defense is employed by…

Matt Brunson

House at the End of the Street: This property is condemned

HOUSE AT THE END OF THE STREET *1/2 DIRECTED BY Mark Tonderai STARS Jennifer Lawrence, Max Thieriot Watching a talented A-list star like Jennifer Lawrence stumble her way through a grade-Z production like House at the End of the Street can only lead to embarrassment for the performer and misery for the viewer. It’d be…

Matt Brunson

Dredd: Strong arm of the law

DREDD **1/2 DIRECTED BY Pete Travis STARS Karl Urban, Olivia Thirlby Fans of the long-running British comic strip showcasing the character of Judge Dredd were horrified when Sylvester Stallone managed to turn the declarative statement “I am the law!” into a hammy punchline in the 1995 camp version. Those same folks will now be delighted…

Matt Brunson

Home, sweet Homeland

On a scorching afternoon in August, a frantic security guard was sounding off downtown like a broken record. Scuttling over to the entrance of the Green, the park behind Wells Fargo Center, she was instructing people not to cross an imaginary line she’d made with her outstretched arms. Behind her, children skipped about stone fish…

Joanne Spataro

Letters to the editor: Sept. 27 edition

Damn that Tepid Mediocrity! If we are really to believe the Avetts’ brand of simpering folk pap as serving as “America’s Last Great Rock Band,” then America — the world, for that matter — is in serious trouble (Editor’s Note by Mark Kemp, Sept. 20). From the middle class to the middle of the road…

Weekly horoscope (Sept. 27-Oct. 3)

Libra The Scales (Sept. 22-Oct. 22) Your partner or a significant other may upset the status quo of your life. Somehow this triggers your security fears. Old tensions may rise and threaten to overwhelm you. This time calls you to rise beyond your childhood and remember you have better resources now than you did as…

Vivian Carol

CD Review: Antibalas

Fourteen years ago, Antibalas was at the forefront of a burgeoning funk revival. Now, with its self-titled fifth album, the band appears to be on a victory tour with a release that incorporates and embellishes Afrobeat’s mesmerizing rhythmic grooves with the group’s own blend of jazz and soul — the initial touchstones of Afrobeat —…

Chris Parker

Company man: Pat McCrory

Pat McCrory’s famously thin skin, well-remembered in these parts from Charlotte City Council meetings past, has been on full display recently. It seems the mounting questions about his corporate connections and sources of income finally got to him. You’d probably be irritable, too, if someone followed you around everywhere in an owl suit and sporting…

John Grooms

Three angry women in The Smell of the Kill

We never see the guys in Michele Lowe’s bloodthirsty comedy, The Smell of the Kill, but we see their balls. Fed up with their wives continuously traipsing across the living room — Nicky and Molly to see after the infant in the bedroom, Debra to hunt down her purse — they contemptuously roll their golf…

Perry Tannenbaum

Gone country: Pullman Strike settles into twang-rock

People We Know, Pullman Strike’s 2011 LP, has all the swing and twang of a respectable country record. Yet, it still has roots in the sweat-and-PBR of punk and hardcore, as evidenced by the caustic sneer on “Springtime” or the menacing drums and take-this-job-and-shove-it message of “Work.” (Even David Allan Coe’s “Take This Job and…

Corbie Hill

This week’s concert listings (Sept. 27-Oct. 3)

** Bullet points indicate CL’s critics’ picks** Thursday, Sept. 27 Blues/Roots/International Bayou Butch Lucas (Villa Antonio (Ballantyne)) Latin Thursdays (Dream Nightclub, Matthews) Lefty Williams, Marcus King Band (Double Door Inn) Classical/Jazz/Smooth Beats and Keys (Encore Bistro and Bar) John Alexander (Blue Restaurant & Bar) Country/Folk * Ben Sollee, Luke Reynolds (Stage Door Theater) Gunnar Creek…

In flight: Andrew Bird

For Andrew Bird, the gifted violinist and songwriter whose recordings and stage shows are marked by playful complexity, the time had arrived to put aside some of the mystery and encryption that typically comes along with his albums. Break It Yourself, released earlier this year, chronicles that sea-change in approach for Bird, who makes a…

John Schacht

A night in DNC hell

I knew Democratic National Convention week would be difficult. Not only would I be covering protests for CL, I would be doing it alone. Never mind that my birthday was on Monday, which was also Labor Day, or that I had to move into my new house on Tuesday, the first official day of the…

Ryan Pitkin

Call for snark

We want the snark. Give up the snark. We need the snark. Gotta have the snark.— Parliament Snarkaldelic, 1976 Professor George Clinton of the Academy of the High Funk didn’t exactly write those specific words in “Tear the Roof off the Sucker,” but we think the good Dr. Funkenstein would agree with the general thrust…

Mark Kemp

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