Okay, I know you will all be rocking the cookouts this weekend since it is Labor Day, otherwise known as “Summer’s Last Hurrah”! And really you have to ask, “Where has the summer gone?” I mean, it seems like yesterday we were talking about Memorial Day and now the kid’s are back in school, college is back in session and the early mornings are starting to feel righteous. But oh well, no use crying about the end of Summer. Besides Halloween is right around the corner and that’s my favorite time of the year!  In the meantime, there are some awesome shows coming up this weekend so put down the charcoal and gather round to see what’s going on this week in our special Labor Day edition!

Over at the Tremont Music Hall they are starting the holiday weekend early on Thursday September 2nd with LA, California’s Autolux, with Gold Panda and Cement Stars. Autolux seem to specialize in building an incredible wall of sound. Some songs drift on like ambient waves of sound in the middle of an ocean of tranquility while in other songs the waves crash into the shore with a spectacular effect. Heady stuff indeed! Gold Panda I’m not so sure about. It’s all manipulated riffs and beats and loops and it’s extremely trippy. I think this is how the rave sounds when you’re on a ton of drugs. Charlotte’s Cement Stars are more to my taste with some nice 80’s sounding synth, smooth harmonies and breathy lyrics. Honestly at times these guys remind me of the Petshop Boys and maybe straying as far modern as Radiohead. Should be a great atmospheric show to chill out to after a long week. Doors are at 8pm and admission is $10 in advance and $12 at the door with a $3 surcharge for under 21. Plus it’s an all ages show!

Friday September 3rd at Tremont Music Hall they host F-Dux with Edifide, Ghost Unknown, Hoodlumz and The East Derrelycs. East Detroit’s F-Dux honestly seems like a white DMX to me. Lyrics of murder and mayhem aren’t my cup of tea but he pulls it off well with some great production. Charlotte’s own Edifide seem like the odd man out on this bill. These guys appear to have taken a different path and actually apologize for obscenities on their previous releases, vowing to try to keep obscene subject matter and language off their newer stuff. I have to give it up, I really dig their flow and beats, and I have to give props to them for trying to be positive role models. Ghost Unknown, also from Charlotte, is a little farther out there lyrically and I’m not sure I totally dig it but it’s not bad. Also of interest is Hoodlumz who surprised me by being from Mooresville, NC. That’s right Racetown U.S.A., and I mean that in a Nascar type way. Hoodlumz are two white guys and a white girl who could use a little better production on their recordings but it will be interesting to see what they develop into. As it stands all I heard on the myspace was short clips of each of them spitting a verse individually, but they do get props for sampling Whitesnake’s “Still of the Night”! Also playing are the East Derrelycs, which I didn’t find a link for on the Tremont site so I apologize for not talking more about them. Doors are at 8pm and admission is $7 bucks plus a $3 surcharge if you are under 21. This show is also all ages.

This Friday September 3rd Snug Harbor host Lamb Handler w/ the Matt Kurtz One and Zoe Vette & The Revolvers. Lamb Handler are one of my favorites on the local scene, playing a smooth rock and roll sound that has recently been sprinkled with elements of country. Don’t let the jangle fool you, these guys are still the shepherd’s of rock in Charlotte! Also on the bill is the indescribable Matt Kurtz One. Imagine someone kicking out the jams like the MC5, but only having one member in the band. That’s right, one man to play drums, guitar, bass, keyboard and vocals, and he pulls it off rather well. I was really jamming off the videos on his myspace, you should definitely check it out. Also on the show is femme fatale Zoe Vette & The Revolvers, with a grrrlll power message and flaming crotches, what’s not to love. This will definitely be a hard rocking show and a really good time at Snug Harbor.

Thurday September 2nd the Milestone Club welcomes Greg Ginn and Gary Piazza with  Buck Mountain Stranglers and  Great Architect. In case you live under a rock Greg Ginn is the legendary guitarist for Black Flag and still records on SST records. The band nowadays plays country-ish instrumentals and is pretty out there. Still it’s a chance to check out a man who was a pioneer of American punk. Opening on this show will be handled by the hilarious Buck Mountain Stranglers and Great Architect.

The rest of the weekend at the Milestone Club who is a big 3-day festival the entire weekend. It’s the Appalucia Gun Club Weekend aka Lolappalucia, aka Buck Boswell Fest or “My Cold Dead Hands” fest. Whatever you want to call it, it’s going on all weekend at the Ghetto Fortress. It starts with a bang (pardon the pun) on Friday night September 3rd with 2013 Wolves, Hectagons, The Overmountain Men and Leadville Social Club. Saturday the 14th things definitely take a wilder turn with Gore Gore Luchadores, PPR, Appalucia, IED and Nesh. Sunday night the whole thing goes into overdrive with Andy the Doorbum, Babyshaker, 25 Minutes to Go, The Bout It Boyz and For Disaster. Whew! That’s a ton of bands on a holiday weekend. I think you should get a medal for going to all three nights of it and surviving. But at least you have Monday off…. Doors are at 8pm all 3 nights and admission is $8 for over 21 and $10 f0r under on Friday night and $6 for over 21 and $8 for under on the other two nights. And no there is no package deal to get admission to all three nights. Now that’s a show where you get more bang for your buck! Or is it more Buck for your buck! Just picking Buck!! Sorry couldn’t resist the pun!

Well that’s it for this week! You guys have a safe and happy Labor Day weekend and we’ll see you next week!

Thanks for the support!

Ryan Dead

It has been brought to my attention that a Zombie outbreak is close at hand! Indeed I’ve done researched and confirmed that this Friday in addition to it’s usual infestation by yuppies and bankers, downtown Charlotte will also be swarming with the undead! This Friday will mark the 4th annual Charlotte Zombie Walk, which was started by Drew Badger, rockabilly expert and all around scary man extraordinaire. As usual it’s all for charity and the Redcross will have a blood mobile onsite and taking donations from about 4:00 until 8:30pm. After that the actual Zombie Walk kicks off around 9:00pm and will proceed to cover as much of downtown as they feel is prudent. The staging area is at Phil’s NYC Deli & Tavern at the corner of Tryon and 5th street uptown. Phil’s will be offering food and drink specials for those who donate blood and trust me, that’s a good deal. I’ve ate at Phil’s and it’s a wonderful place and has a mean cheesesteak!

Also you don’t have to be dressed as a Zombie to attend, there will be expert makeup artist on hand to zombify you once you get there! It should be a blast, especially to watch people react to the “Zombies” walking around downtown. Badger told me a story of one year they encountered a gospel choir at the corner of Trade and Tryon and from what he said hilarity ensued. This year it should be quite a spectacle indeed as they have almost 200 Zombie participants confirmed. Come, give blood and have a bloody, great time for charity!!

You can check out their myspace page by clicking the image to the left and check out Badger’s Haunt Consulting and everything else he has going on at www.rabidbadger.biz !

Dear Charlotte Hip Hop a grievous error has been committed on your part by missing this past weeks show. I know it was Friday the 13th and some of you might be superstitious, but by not attending The Prayers for Atheists, Height, and Thought Criminals show you have sent me and other music lovers a message. The first part of that message is that there is in fact no Charlotte hip hop community but instead there is a hip hop scene. I understand that I am not the expert when it comes to beats and flows but I know a good live show when I see it. This was by far one of the best hip hop shows at the milestone of the year and yes I have attended almost all of the other shows that came before it this year. Now a lot of you are pretty decent people but you have the tendency to whine about your solidarity or the quality of the other performers during a show. But when presented with a good weekend show you simply don’t care. Because you are a scene you only attend shows at which dancing the robot gets you in for free or that your friends band is playing. There’s is nothing wrong with seeing your friends play but when you whine about not seeing good music or that certain MC’s only sound good on their CD than maybe you should branch out and catch acts that actually preform. I know this a rant and will cause many of you to not like me but I don’t give a shit because hip hoppers it is time to put up or shut up. If you want good shows come and see them if you want a frat party to show off your sweater vest and pristine shoes than don’t complain about seeing the same acts every time you go to a show. You messed up big time by missing this and I know people have other stuff to do. But as Johnny said “You can run on for a long time” and that sooner or later for quality Hip Hop might be sooner than you think.

Random aka Mega Ran is a bit of an anomaly in the rap world.  He does albums under both his primary moniker “Random” and also under his Mega Ran alias covering a broad spectrum of styles and themes.  He is a rapper, but he’s also a public school teacher, and the first rapper to ever get a licensing deal through a major video game company (Capcom).  His current release “Forever Famicom,” a collaborative effort with Panacea’s producer, K-Murdock, is a hip hop album with beats comprised from samples of classic game music from the 8-bit NES and 16 bit SNES, without ever coming across as gimmicky or formulaic.  Random will be appearing with K-Murdock along with the ThoughtCriminals and Bleubird on July 11th at the Milestone in Charlotte.

First of all, could you tell people who you are and where you’re from?

Random:  I’m Raheem Jarbo, aka Random, aka Mega Ran.  Teacher, rapper, hero.  Born and raised in Philly, currently melting away in Phoenix, AZ.

K-Murdock:  My name is K-Murdock. Im a producer/audio engineer from Washignton, DC.

You both have family here, have you spent much time in the Carolinas?

Random:  Yes, as a kid I spent many summers out there, and we even lived in Rock Hill for my 8th grade school year.  That was the year I got into sports, but it was also the year I began drawing new ideas for Mega Man video games in my sketch book.  I swear someone must’ve found that book, because I saw plenty of those idea come to life…  haha

K-Murdock:  My father’s side is split between Charlotte & Rock Hill, SC…  there’s actually a Murdock Road in Rock Hill where all my fam has built homes on, its crazy ’cause the property is humongous.  I havent been but maybe three or four  times over the last 15 years only because i was always closer to my mom’s side of the fam, plus my country cousins usually come visit the city more often!

You guys come from a more “traditional” hiphop background before you got to this point in your careers.  What kind of stuff influenced you guys coming up?

Random:  I was influenced heavily by soul music.  I loved Marvin Gaye, The Temptations, O’Jays, Earth Wind and Fire.  Eventually I got into hip hop, but soul music is heavily influential to my style.  My first release, The Call, reflects that best I think: I tried to combine hip-hop, jazz, soul music, classical and gospel on that one, the best I could.  Each record reflects a different mood.

K-Murdock:  Anyone who knows me, knows I’m a huge Native Tongues follower…  Tribe, De La…  Love ‘em all.  I love the Roots and Outkast, too.  Over the last few years, I have opened my ears to artists in other genres and really love the music groups like The Flaming Lips and Plaid make too… its inspiring.  But, bar-none, hip-hop is all in my blood, the spirit of creativity and individuality is what it and all those aforementioned artists meant to me.

Random, how has being a teacher affected your music and vice versa?  Do you feel compelled to keep teaching no matter what, do you think if music took you far enough you would step away from that world for awhile, or is that something you want to hold on to no matter what?

Random:  Well, teaching doesn’t really affect my music, but music has definitely affected my teaching.  I learn new techniques for classroom management every time I’m on a stage.  Teaching and making music are so similar at times, I almost can’t imagine doing one without the other.  I know that in order to do what I want to do in music, I may have to step away from education, but I’ll always be a teacher, whether in the classroom or on the mic.  There is no career more fulfilling and rewarding.

K-Murdock, what instruments do you play?  I swear I heard live guitar on at least one or two tracks on Forever Famicom.

K-Murdock:  I’m a “modern musician”, which is a cool way of saying I play instruments like samplers and drum machines!  I never had formal training, I play most of my synth parts by ear and just knowing basic melody and chord progression, but i plan on learning how to play bass or piano at some point!  The guitar you spoke of on the album was played by a close friend in Canada named Matt Howatt!

What’s your favorite NES game?

Random:  Of all time?  I’d say Super Mario Bros 3.  I can still play that today and get sucked in as much as I did 20+ years ago.

K-Murdock:  If i had to pick one, I’d say Bionic Commando.

Are there songs that you guys wanted to use for this project that you couldn’t get to work or that you thought you might save for a followup?

Random:  More Mega Man! Haha…  No, I made a few suggestions to Kyle on games I wanted to use, but he did a great job utilizing old and new games…  I can think of many we didn’t use…  Castlevania, Rad Racer, Jackal, etc…  but theres always time for that.  I can’t say for sure if there will be a follow up, but if so, we’ve got a ton of ammunition!

K-Murdock:  I really wanted more Konami games represented, so i went though all three Castlevanias, Contra, and Rush & Attack but nothing grabbed me, or it had already been used before.  Simon’s Quest had a few REAL DOPE loops though!

What’s next for you guys, individually and collaboratively?

Random:  Well immediately is this tour through the south, afterward I hit the west coast for Comic Con, then back to school in August.  I want to get started on writing a book next year.  I have another album done, “Language Arts,” and I’ll probably release that sometime next year, but for now, it’s all about Forever Famicom.  People are saying it’s both of our most complete works, and that’s a total honor.  I know I like it a lot!  Haha!  Make sure you guys check it out.

K-Murdock:  Individually, another side project called The Ebony Bed and a 10 year retrospective album I’m doing that will include unreleased music i did while in college back in 2000.  As far as me an Ran goes, I think its only right we revisit some classics from Nintendo’s rival next.

Random, would you like to expand on what the book will be about?

Random:  The book I want to work on will be on the parallels of video game and hip hop cultures…  it’ll explore the effects of video games on urban culture.  I do a panel presentation on these from time to time on my various travels to different conventions, so I think expanding on this would make a great read.

Mega Ran & K-Murdock will be performing songs from Forever Famicom (and selling copies of it as well!) at the show at the Milestone on 7/11.  Check out TheMilestoneClub.com for more details!

Check out http://megarankmurdock.bandcamp.com/ to hear the Forever Famicom LP.

Eastland Mall (1975-2010)
by Chris Peigler

Eastland Mall closes it doors on June 30, 2010.  I’m not going to go into the why’s and what for’s.  I just thought I’d take this chance to tell you what it meant to me as a youth.  I grew up in Concord which looks like a suburb of Charlotte now, but at the time it still had a small town feel.  If you were a teenager and lucky enough to have your own car the easiest place to escape to was Eastland Mall.  The abandoned gas station on the corner of Central and Sharon-Amity used to be a Shell station that did a lot of business.  The landscaping was different before they built what used to be the Harris-Teeter below the Shell.  The landscaping was key because pre-Harris-Teeter you could not see from the road beyond the service station to the outer reaches of the Eastland Mall parking lot.  What was the landscaping concealing on certain nights back in 1980-81?  My friends and I getting drunk in our cars.  At the time there was no Mall Security cars patrolling the area and we knew the cops couldn’t see us from the road.  So, we’d drive over from Concord with our liquor, walk up to the Shell station to buy mixer and get wasted in the parking lot.  Then, we’d go into the mall and do, I don’t know, whatever it was that we thought was fun back then.  The mall was always filled with attractive girls who didn’t know us because they didn’t go to our school.

So, Eastland Mall provided us with two very important things to a lot of teenage boys:  the opportunity to get wasted in the parking lot and lots of attractive girls to view or meet or get rejected by.  But, for me, and even then at the height of my immaturity, these were not the most important things it provided.  Eastland Mall was another important step on the ladder to my lifelong musical passions.  It may seem bizarre to consider these days, but at the time it was hard to find fucking Rolling Stone mag in Concord.  I used to read it at the main branch of the Concord library, but you’d almost never see it in any stores.  Once my mom bought me a copy of CREEM which was another music rag that I loved, but you couldn’t find it in Concord that often either.  I fondly remember buying a copy of CREEM with The Clash on the cover at the Eastland Mall Eckerd’s in the spring of 1980.  The Clash were my introduction to punk rock.  The first album of theirs that I bought was their third one,  London Calling,  in June 1980 at a department store (Brendle’s) in Concord and a few months later I found their preceding album Give’em Enough Rope at a musical instrument store in Concord called Music Mart that also stocked LP’s.  For some mysterious reason they stocked a small amount of major label and major-label distributed punk/new wave stuff back then.  I still remember laying out of school the day I turned 18, going to Music Mart and buying the first Undertones album.

But, Eastland Mall offered me more punk rock than I could find in Concord thanks to a chain store called The Record Bar.  I recall buying my first Ramones LP there (Road to Ruin) in the fall of 1980.  A few months later I bought Rocket to Russia there also.  I was always eager for the chance to go to Eastland to see what other obscure and sought-after records were waiting there for me to spend my after-school job money on.  That fall my aunt Evelyn asked me what I wanted for Christmas that year and I gave her a list of three albums that I told her she could find at the Record Bar: The Clash’s self-titled first album, Neil Young’s Time Fades Away, and The Kinks’ Misfits.  I remember she told me that she took the list to the person at the counter and they asked “who are you buying these for?  They’ve got great taste!”  Luckily for me, Evelyn couldn’t wait until Christmas to give those records to me and I was rocking them in my bedroom before Thanksgiving!

I won’t bother to list all of the other records that I scooped up at The Record Bar, but I still have a really good memory of what I bought and where I bought it during those heady days.  The only person from Concord I was ever able to successfully indoctrinate with the punk rock bug was my friend Bobby Tucker.  I think it was around early 1982 that I got him to go to The Milestone with me for the first time.  We both worked at the same steakhouse and every two weeks after payday we would drive over to Charlotte on Saturday morning to go record shopping.  Bobby would buy one album and I would buy four, five, six.  You get the idea.  I had discovered Grapevine Records on Independence in the spring of 1981.  It was almost a supermarket of punk rock/new wave stuff!  That was our favorite place to go, but in the summer of 1983 it was sold to the bland, corporate behemoth Camelot Music and very quickly went downhill.  The only bright spot I remember from when Camelot took over was the time I bought The Dead Kennedys’ Plastic Surgery Disasters there.  The clerk ringing me up was this thoroughly mainstream girl who took one look at the album cover, turned up her nose and went “EEEWWWW!!!!”  In early 1983 Bobby and I found out about The Record Exchange which was then on Wendover.  That store won over my heart once The Grapevine was no more although The Record Exchange went more corporate and lost most of its appeal to me by the end of the decade or so.

However, in the early ’80s, despite all the other stores with their obscure records pulling at my heartstrings and my wallet, I do recall that Bobby and I always ended up at Eastland before we headed back to Concord.  I’m not exactly sure why, but it always felt like a natural end to our day and the trip would have been incomplete without it.  By 1983 the Record Bar had raised their prices over the other stores and I mostly used it for their bargain bin finds.  I remember how stoked I was to find marked down copies of such records as The Undertones’ Hypnotized and Captain Beefheart’s Doc at The Radar Station there toward the end of my love affair with the place.  I probably bought my last record there in the late ’80s.  By that time, I mostly went by the store to talk to former ANTiSEEN bassist Dale Duncan who was employed there.  After that, Eastland Mall faded away for me, but, for a while, it was a little capitalist oasis even for perpetual marketplace malcontents like me.

Xup, folks?  Ryan is busy serving a short bid in a little venue I’ll just call County Jail, so I’ll be covering things this week until he can post bail.  At a glance, it might look like a slow week…  if you’re fucking BLIND!  Lets find out what’s going on this week…  TOGETHER.

On Friday June 4th, The Rogue Nations are headlining an interesting-sounding event at Tremont Music Hall with two other groups, The Smokers and Supermarket Fantasy.  The groups are covering (in the same order I just named) Angry Samoans, The Misfits & Screeching Weasel.  It’s only seven bucks to get in.

Saturday June 5th, The Milestone is hosting Doug Stanhope.  This isn’t really music, but this is a show with a very punk rock edge that I think you will either enjoy or absolutely hate.  I love Stanhope.  He’s jarring as hell, loud and pissed off and half his comedy comes off just as much as an outward attack than as straight up comedy.  If you like Bill Hicks, there’s at least a good chance you’ll enjoy what Stanhope does.  Highly recommended.

Jucifer prepare to extract someone's organs.

Sunday June 6th, the Milestone is featuring Jucifer, Machete and The Gloominous Doom.  From what I’ve heard, Jucifer are super fucking loud metal duo.  I have not had the pleasure of catching them live, but I enjoy loud groups with female lead singer/guitarists, and they appear to be wearing Death Eater masks from Harry Potter on their myspace.  Machete are also super fucking loud, they are also a duo and the music seems slightly weirder than Jucifer.  The Gloominous Doom have an awesome fucking name and do a nice metal/reggae hybrid.  Pretty awesome from what I hear on their myspace.

Monday June 7th, the Monday Night Mic Fights will be returning to Jeff’s Bucket Shop!  I haven’t been to the Bucket Shop in quite a while, but it’s a cool little spot with no cover.  There are freestyle battles, featured performers, and a DJ spinning all night.  This Monday my homie Ty Bru and his boy Tenacious will be doing sets, as well as Ike Turnah, Charles Herron, JJ Bass, Wolly Vinyl and more.  Should be fun, glad to see this event has finally found a new home!

Anyways, that’s all I got.  Some cool shit going on this weekend, so check it out.  If you have something you think I should know about or you wanna play Magic or Xbox or whatever, feel free to email me at mikalkhill at gmail.  Otherwise, I’ll see you at a show.

Peas!

-Mikal kHill
PS:  Ryan is not really in jail.

MC Frontalot is somewhat of an anomaly in the indie rap world.  Extremely independent and with a fairly rabid fanbase, the 36 year old MC raps about such unusual topics as Character Stat sheets, computer hacking, obscure browser-based MMOs and other nerdy topics.  Some songs are equal parts song and puzzle, the bonus track on his last LP being a tricky test of the listener’s L337ness who’s solution is required in order to figure out how to access the song itself.  All that is secondary to the most important thing about Frontalot’s music:  It’s good.  His flow is concise and on point, his beats tend to make heads bob and his touring band (Vic-20, Blak Lotus & The SturGENiUS) are a tight musical unit that blends styles as effortlessly as the production on Front’s LPs.  I asked Front a few questions after catching their performance at the Local 506 in Chapel Hill.  I went on to BEAT BLAK LOTUS AT MAGIC:  THE GATHERING.

Obviously you are tied to a lot of nerdcore rappers, you invented the term and work with a number of nerdcore rappers on your LPs and shows.  When you were a kid was there an awkward “gangsta” phase that you’re hoarding demos from somewhere?  Have you ever had some sort of doommetal sideproject that most people might not expect?

Nope, I was always pretty geeked out. I think maybe my early stuff was
more abstract and obtuse, if that’s possible. But it was never hard or
mean. I did record various weird pop and rock songs for songfight.org
under a variety of band names. But no metal, thank goodness.

What are some rappers, nerdcore & non-nerdcore, that you find yourself listening to frequently?

I love Del, Busdriver, Brother Ali, Mr Lif, Mos Def, and Blackalicious.
In nerdcore:  YTCracker, Beefy, Schaffer, Dual Core, Random, are all putting good
albums out lately.

How involved are you with the production aspect of your albums?

I mix them myself. I had help this time from Brendan Brown of Wheatus.
Nate Van iLL works closely with me on the vocal comps. Gm7 and Baddd
Spellah co-write with me while the grooves are developed and as the
arrangements take shape. But I tend to make all final choices about
what stays where and how.

I know you have played the Milestone previously, any interesting stories to tell?

There was a small tragedy when MC Lars wrote something about how nice
nerdcore is on the big graffiti wall, but he accidentally wrote it
over Michael Stipe’s big REM tag. I will have to annotate that this
time through.

What is your favorite videogame of all time?

I usually say Lode Runner for C64, but today I am going to go with the
split decision between Shadow Of The Colossus (PS2) and Psychonauts
(PC/XBOX).

I know you have toured with basically the same crew for quite a bit, what’s rehearsal like?

We tend to rehearse in short bursts before important shows and tours.
There’s no regular practice. The boys are too busy and at the moment
living too far apart.

What LP’s of the non-hiphop variety are you bumping at the moment?

The new Mike Doughty disc Sad Man Happy Man is fantastic.

You can catch MC Frontalot, along with Quantum Foundry, The ThoughtCriminals & Kbaz at the World Famous Milestone on Thursday, April 8th!

-Mikal kHill

April 7th, 2010

Well it’s hardly seemed like spring this week, more like summer. The heat’s been nice but the ton of pollen is more than a little irritating. In any case there are plenty of shows coming up this weekend so get out and brave the pollen to check out what’s going on in Charlotte.

The Milestone Club- MC Frontalot, The Thought Criminals, Quantum Foundry and Kbaz- 4/8/10- !  I’m actually a big closet hip hop fan! I love Tribe Called Quest, Public Enemy, Wu-Tang and many others. That’s why I’m really glad that Charlotte is slowly building a great hip hop scene. Quantum Foundry is a smooth duo bringing a great flow over some really smooth grooves. Fans of Tribe Called Quest will definitely dig it. The Thought Criminals area dynamic, explosive live hip hop band. Think Parlament meets Wu-Tang with a dash of Outkast. And yeah the band is nothing to f**k with but don’t let that over shadow the fact that Thought Criminals have 3 of  the most talented MC’s in Charlotte. If you don’t believe me check out the video on the mainpage of Stillnotdead.com! In the meantime MC Frontalot is an innovator who has founded and claimed his own spot of the hip hop world, nerdcore. He takes the stage in full glasses and pocket protector and geeks it up for the masses. Kbaz also performs on this awesome show at the Milestone Club. Doors are at 8pm and admission is $8 for over 21 and $10 for under.

The Milestone Club- Babyshaker cd release party featuring Babyshaker, The Choke and 2013 Wolves- 4/10/10- Babyshaker has a great new cd which was recently reviewed for Stillnotdead by Chris Peigler. This glam rock/ punk outfit started the party over 10 years ago and it’s still going with good reason. While adapting and evolving as any band should Babyshaker has managed to maintain a swagger and growl that most bands can’t pull off. Celebrating their cd release with them are NYC punk/ garage band, The Choke as well as local power duo 2013 Wolves. Doors are at 8pm and admission is $3 for over 21 and $5 for under 21.

By the way I’d like to mention that Friday night is Neal Harper’s Birthday! We would like to wish Neal a happy 30th birthday from everyone at Stillnotdead.com! The show/ party is Friday night the 9th and the show will feature a bevy of bizarre acts such as Shat, Emotron, Fatcamp, Matt Kurtz One and the standup comedy of the Elderstatesman.

Also I would like to mention that Bone Thugs and Harmony are playing Amos Southend on Saturday April 10th. The show will also feature opener Dow Jones and is $20 in advance and $23 at the door. All lovers of hip hop should attend this one, if you have the cheddar to afford the door charge.

This weekend Elwood’s Music Hall has Gigi Dover with The Big Love w/ Summer Night Shade on Friday April 9th. Also on Saturday night April 10th they host the Charlotte Music Association’s Blues Showcase. I can’t think of anything better than a plate of bbq and blues music playing in the background. Good stuff!

Charlotte Cash Bash- April 9th and 10th at Puckett’s Farm Equipment- It’s spring and Charlotte’s thoughts turn to… Johnny Cash?! Yep you can bet on it! The Charlotte Cash Bash is back for it’s 7th year of tributes to the man in black, Johnny Cash! This year both nights of the event are back at Puckett’s Farm Equipment, which can best be described as the rockabilly version of the Milestone Club. If you’re coming either night, come early, it’s bound to be crowded! Each night is packed with the best of local and regional rockabilly. Friday starts off with a band with Asheville’s The Go Devils and continues with South 85, the Defilers, Jem Crossland & The Hypertonics and ending up with the Truckstop Preachers. As if that isn’t enough the second night kicks off with The Tremors and keeps it going with Sean K. Preston, The Bo-Stevens, The Straight 8’s and John Howie Jr. Both nights should be awesome as you’ll get to see the best of local rockabilly playing originals as well as their takes on songs by Johnny Cash. Here’s to hoping for 7 more years from Cash Bash!

Btw, I’ve got a new blog over on my design site. I’ll be talking about web stuff, personal stuff and probably some music too. Check it out the design site at www.snddesigns.com and check out the blog at www.themcginnisproject.com . 

Well that’s it for this week, hope you guys get out and enjoy some of the great music that is playing this weekend. I’m honestly having a hard time figuring out which shows I’m gonna attend. So much music so little time. In any case maybe I’ll see you this weekend! Keep supporting music!

Ryan Dead

If you have some old Tremont Music Hall flyers send them my way. I’m looking for old flyers, preferably big shows but I will take whatever. I need them for a project I’m working on. Anyone who has one drop me a line at snddesigns01@gmail.com.

Thank you in advance!!

Ryan Dead

Luke with his favorite guitars

Luke Warm (1959-2010)

by Chris Peigler

Luke Warm, former guitarist for The Rogue Nations (2006-2009), My So-Called Band (1995-1998) and The Pink Things (2009) passed away on Monday February 1, 2010.  He died while helping a family in need.  Luke had recently befriended a single mother with two handicapped children who were on welfare.  The family had no car and Luke would drive them to a local church who gave the family free food through their Loaves & Fishes program.  When Luke drove them to the church on Monday and got out of the car, he slipped on some ice and hit his head so severely that the internal bleeding ultimately killed him.  Funeral services will be held at Forest Hill Church (www.foresthill.org) on Monday February 8th at 2 PM.

I first met Luke in the summer of 1982.  At the time The Milestone had a bulletin board inside the club.  I had posted a notice looking for musicians to start a band with me.  Karen Mann, whose older brother Bill Mann had played drums with Luke in The Innocent Bystanders (1980-1981), saw my notice and knew that from the musical influences I had listed she should call and try to get me together with Bill and Luke.  All three of us got together for the first time shortly thereafter.  Luke and Bill were a few years older than me.  They were in their 20s while I was still in my teens.  They had miles of playing experience that I did not have and were the best musicians I had ever played with.  I was floored by them.  I’m sure I was fairly green and came off more than a little weird to them at the time, but they were impressed enough that they kept coming back.  I was thrilled about our new band, but I couldn’t get them to be as excited about it as I was.

In the fall of 1982 Luke accepted a job offer in Asheville and moved away.  I was completely depressed about his departure, to say the least, and felt I had to let go of my dream band.  But anyone who knows me well knows that when I think I’ve found the Holy Grail it’s hard for me to just give up without a fight.  In the spring of 1983 I called Bill and asked if he had Luke’s address in Asheville.  I quickly made Luke a tape of my most recent songs and sent it off.  I was rewarded for my efforts when Luke called to say that he loved the new songs and to tell me when he would be in Charlotte visiting his family.  He wanted to get together with Bill and myself to play those songs and whatever cover songs we were in the mood for.  Thanks to my persistence our fledgling little band was slowly reviving itself.  By the fall of 1983 Luke was coming to visit once a month and we would always get together to play.   My friend Van Eaton had talked me into buying one of the early home 4-track recorders that had only recently come out on the market.  Each month Luke, Bill, and I would record rough demos of my songs on the 4-track.   None of us gave serious thought to playing shows at the time; everybody was too much of a perfectionist to think that real bands could get away with only practicing once a month.   We had finally decided on a name, Intensive Care.  I was unaware of the British punk band of the same name at the time.   I kept working diligently to try to convince Luke and Bill that they should take our band more seriously and that there was a place for us in the then wildly expanding and exciting punk rock underground.  Luke, however, was thinking the place for him was Southern California.

In September 1984 Luke and his then girlfriend Rhonda loaded up their two cars and moved to San Diego.  I had already been dreaming of moving to the West Coast myself and had gone to visit some of my punk rock friends in Reno that same year.  At this point I was seriously considering moving out to San Diego as well, but I didn’t want to make the move alone.  So, of course, I needed to convince Bill to move there with me, right?  Then we could carry on our band in the more punk rock-friendly locale of Southern California.  Bill, however, was not so easily swayed and I had to finally lay my dream band to rest as the months went by and the reality of my meager prospects for moving to California hit home.  I reconvened a new Intensive Care and Bill continued to play with me in that band until 1990.

You may think that Luke played in a lot of bands in Southern California.  He did not play in a single band the entire 9 years he lived there!  That’s when I realized that Luke wasn’t that motivated to do much with his massive talent.  Maybe he needed the constant pushing and encouragement from someone as unrelenting as I am to get him on stage and in the studio.  Of course, we kept in touch the entire time he was in California and I managed to see him every time he came to Charlotte for his yearly visit.  Sometimes he, Bill, and I would get together to play too.

Luke’s father died tragically and unexpectedly in February 1992.  After that Luke decided to start looking for a job in Charlotte so that he could move back home.  By the end of 1993 he had that job and returned to Charlotte.  When the band I was in during this period broke up in early 1995 Luke let me know that he was ready to play with me again.  This time we wouldn’t just be a band who practiced and never played shows.  We would do the band seriously this time.   On August 25, 1995 the original line-up of My So-Called Band played our first ever show at The Milestone.  After all of this time, I had truly been rewarded.  The people who saw our band were able to see the same great talent that I had always seen in Luke.  Finally, we should have been able to achieve my adolescent punk rock dreams.  Real life, though, kept getting in the way.

Our self-titled CD (with a bonus 5-song EP in the first 500 copies) came out in September 1997, but the making of that album had been plagued by various problems that wore us down.  We began to feel that our drummer Patrick Korson was losing interest.  He left the band in February 1998.  We quickly replaced him with our friend Mike Williams.  We got along great with Mike.  He and Luke stayed in touch until the end.  But, Mike’s heart didn’t seem to be in it either.  Chris Bean joined the band just in time for us to record our second CD, the 5-song President Lust EP.  I thoughtChris and Luke would really get along great, but they never clicked.  During the summer of 1998 Luke began to suggest we add a second guitar player.  We tried out several people and finally settled on your Still Not Dead webmaster, Ryan Dead.   Once Luke was satisfied that Ryan was fully on board,  Luke left the band in December 1998.  He couldn’t bring himself to tell me that he was quitting.  He left a note on top of my amp in our practice space.  One of my friends told me that Luke called her right after he quit.  She said that she could tell he had our album playing in the background as they talked.  Obviously, he had mixed feelings about leaving.

In 2000 Luke took the bold step to start his own band, Luke Warmz’ Reception (www.myspace.com/urinespaceman).  He had never been a bandleader before.  He told me that it was a lot harder than he had imagined and that he didn’t know how I had managed to put up with the task all these years.  The band put out a self-titled CD.  I’ll have to ask his mother if there are any copies left.  If I can get my hands on them then I will gladly give them out to whoever wants one.  Luke Warmz’ Reception played only two gigs (both of them with My So-Called Band) before breaking up at the end of 2000.

Not long after, he surprised all of his friends by getting married to a woman he hadn’t been dating all that long.  She had two children from two prior marriages.  I was surprised and pleased when I visited their house and found the kids calling Luke, Dad.  From what I could tell, things seemed to be working out pretty well for him.  We didn’t talk all that frequently, but I would sometimes see him at My So-Called Band shows and, later on, at Rogue Nations’ shows.  When My So-Called Band broke up in October 2005 I did attempt to once again coax Luke into my new band, but he told me that he was not motivated to play anymore.

In September 2006 when The Rogue Nations’ original guitarist Eric Seitlin  was proving to be way too busy with his various karate, boxing, and extreme fighting hobbies, we knew we had to get somebody else.  I called Luke just because I saw a copy of the Luke Warmz’ Reception CD in a bargain bin and I wanted to kid him about it.  In the same conversation I mentioned that we were needing a new guitarist.  Luke said he was available and interested.  I was stunned.  He had been living the domestic life and showing no interest in playing in bands for such a long time that I had completely written him off.  Three weeks later he was playing his first Rogue Nations show at Sector 7G in Augusta.

The next year and a half were pretty damn amazing.  We played lots of good shows and recorded our first album.  With Keith Barnes on drums and Luke back on guitar, I had a dream band once again.  I can remember some of those packed-out SKNet shows we played where the crowd was going wild and we were sounding good.  It was such a tremendous high, but, of course, other realities were about to crash down around us.

Out of respect for his privacy I won’t go into all of the details about Luke’s private life that caused him so much grief.  I don’t feel it’s out of line to reveal that when his marriage fell apart in the spring of 2008, it nearly crushed him.  He had especially grown attached to the two stepchildren and I think that losing them was the most painful blow of all.  As for his participation in our band, he told Keith and I that he could go on auto-pilot and maintain playing the songs that he already knew, but that he wasn’t feeling motivated to learn new songs at the time.  We told him that we understood and tried to give him plenty of time to see if he could pull out of the depression that was engulfing him.  Toward the very end of 2008 he appeared to have turned a corner and we went into 2009 feeling that he was going to pull through.  Our album finally came out, but by the spring he had sunk back into the depths of depression and was cancelling shows that we had booked.  He never quit the band and we never kicked him out.  He just drifted away.  Keith and I were very lucky when we found Mike Earle and decided to keep the band going.  It was what Luke wanted.  He didn’t want us to break up because of him.  I loved telling Luke about the similarities between he and Mike; both being huge Atlanta Braves fans, for instance.  The last time I spoke to Luke right around Christmas he apologized for not making it out to see the new line-up yet.  The last time I called him was the weekend of January 9th to try and get him out to see us at The Throwdown Fest that Sunday.  I only got his voice mail and he never made the show.  That means the last time I saw Luke was The New York Dolls show last June.

It was Luke’s childhood friend Otis who called me to let me know about Luke’s death.  I talked to Otis three times that day.  The first two times were serious and somber, but the last time we were laughing our heads off.  I was asking his permission to close this memorial with one of my favorite Luke stories and that set off a chain reaction of Luke tales that we started trading off.  Otis summed it up by saying “you know there’s no way we could ever explain this guy to anybody!”  He was right, of course.  There is a code that certain close friends have with one another and if you weren’t there at key times to be part of the bond, it just isn’t quite the same.  In the spirit of that unique code of friendship, here’s the story Otis gave me permission to tell.

The last week of April 2008 was sheer torture for Luke.  That was the week that his wife and two stepchildren were packing up and moving out of the house they had shared with Luke since 2002.  We were having our album mastered that week and I tried desperately to get him to get out of the house and to come to the studio, but he wouldn’t budge.  At some point he had some sort of breakdown and wound up in the hospital.  Luke’s mother, the doctors, and nurses all thought that Luke was speaking pure gibberish and not making any sense with the things he was saying to them.  Otis arrived at the hospital and when he heard the things that Luke was saying, he understood perfectly.  Luke, overwhelmed with pain and misery, was reaching out the best way that he could in times of crisis.  He was talking purely in song lyrics.  Knowing Luke’s tastes, the lyrics were probably some combination of Velvet Underground, David Bowie, Iggy Pop, and Lou Reed.   Otis knew all of the songs Luke was quoting so he understood exactly what Luke was trying to express.  Otis knew the code that all of the others there did not.  Even though Luke, Otis, and I were all pretty different people in many respects, we all knew that code and shared a connection because of it.  Luke and I were really lucky to share that same code, to find each other in this lifetime, and to play in a few dream bands together.

“Take a good look at my good looks, then close your eyes.  Keep the picture in your mind cause I’ll be gone”-

New York Dolls 2006