Okay I’m straight up reeling on the back to back news that Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson are both dead! Those are two big icons and we lost them both. Regardless of what you thought of Michael’s recent problems, you have to admit back in the day he ruled. Straight up, sudden ending to a strange life. Farrah was the ultimate girl next door 70’s icon and most of the younger readers won’t get it but if you grew up in the 70’s you’ll know what I mean. Both will be missed.

In other news I got a flyer from a friend the other day and thought I would post it.

Rucus, the Napalms, Hypercritical Bliss @ Dilworth Coffee Saturday night!

It’s for a free show this Saturday at Dilworth Coffee, just south of the Buster Boyd bridge on 49, south of Charlotte. Check it out:

It features our friends Rucus as well as Hypercritical Bliss and the Napalms. It should be a lot of fun. For those of you who follow the forum, DJ Thirteen is actually in Hypercritical Bliss, who are an acoustic band. Rucus also regularly post on the forum and are a thrash band of considerable fury. The Napalms as you might can guess are a hardcore/thrash band as well. If you like heavy, fast music side by side with acoustic diddys then check out this fun, free show!! By the way, they get cool points for using the picture of embattled ( read that as douchebag) SC governor Mark “I love Argentina” Sanford! Anyway the show starts at 7pm so be sure to check it out if you are in the area.

Ok, on the this week’s edition of “Next Week”!! This week you’ll notice that several music venues will be absent from the column. That is due to the fact that several of them are closed for the holiday. Most notably the Milestone Club will be closed until July 8th as well as Rodi in Gastonia. Other clubs are taking the weekend off but we do still have some shows to talk about so away we go!

Luau at Commonwealth House July 3rd!!

I don’t normally talk about too many house shows but the Commonwealth House is no ordinary house. Otherwise you wouldn’t find a huge Luau being held there on July 3rd. This awesome ( or should I say “Jawsome”?) shindig boast a kick ass musical lineup including IED, The Not Likelys, Dirty South Skallywags and Andy & The Jivers. As always there will probably be extra bands. It’s also super cheap at $3! The super kickass flyer you see to the right was designed by John from the Not Likelys and is cooler than any flyer I’ve seen in a long time. Expect the mood to be laid back at this Luau and though not required, it is highly encouraged that you come in a cheesy hawaiian shirt or grass skirt, whichever you choose. Starting time is supposedly 6pm! Have fun!!

Penguin Pig Pickin' Saturday July 4th at the Penguin!!

Saturday July 4th brings about the grand daddy of all July 4th celebrations the 9th annual Pig Pickin’ @ The Penguin. Has it really been almost 10 years since they started throwing this show at the Penguin?? Time flies! This year boast a super kick ass lineup that is not to be missed. I’m not familiar with the two openers, Black Lashes or M4 Messenger but the Dead Kings bring it with their trademark metal/punk show and Biggy has promised me they are not gonna hold back just because they are on a big time show! I hope not, because the Dead Kings put an emphasis on showmanship that few bands understand. Wilmington’s The Needles have been around a while. ( The last time I saw them was at the Steeple! Remember that place?) High energy punk/rock n roll is the name of their game! Headlining the whole deal is Charlotte’s own legendary Belmont Playboys. This makes it Mikes Hendrix’s second year headlining the Pig Pickin, as last year he headlined with his other band, Jeff Clayton and the Mongrels. Anyway the Playboys are the kings of Charlotte greaser rock and will rock the place to the ground with their patented grimy rockabilly. It’ll be a blast. As usual it’s free and there will be beer and food from the Penguin ( that won’t be free, but it will be good!)

As if that weren’t enough there are actually a couple of other show worth mentioning!

• Amos Southend has Hank Williams III on July 4th! Love him or hate him, he’s the son of Hank Jr and grandson to legendary Hank Sr. He definitely has the hell raising ability of Jr. mixed with a good dose of punk rock to boot! It will be an ass kicking show with the musical equivalent of fireworks for sure! Doors are at 8pm. It’s $15 in advance and $18 day of the show. As usual Amos charges a $3 surcharge for anyone under the age of 21! 16+ only.
• Charlotte’s own Benji Hughes isn’t taking any time off for the holiday as he’ll be playing a 2 night stand at Snug Harbor on July 3rd and 4th! Benji as you may know has been receiving national attention for his new cd ” A Love Extreme”. He’s appeared on Letterman and had coverage in Rollingstone. If you come expecting an acoustic songwriter show you may be thrown for a loop. With the new record Benji has taken on an almost Beck like transformation. Eschewing most of his acoustic persona for an electronic, beat oriented sound. It’s been compared to Beck alot because honestly, that’s what it sounds like. It’s taken some getting used to after older projects like Muscadine but musicians have the right to evolve and frankly this new electronic stuff goes down like smooth ear candy. Course the fact that you hear all these smooth vocals and look up and realize that the voice is coming from someone who looks like Captain Caveman’s stunt double is half the fun. His openers on the first night are hipster faux metal lords the Poontanglers and the second night are white trash country punkers the Trouble Walkers. Either night should be a lot of fun!

4 bands for $4 bucks at the Milestone Club!!

Well that’s it for this week. I’m not sure what day next week’s edition will come out on because of the holiday and because of that I wanted to mention our own Stillnotdead Local Music Stimulus, taking place on July 10th at the Milestone Club. We’re featuring 4 bands for $4!! The show will feature the awesome Biggy Stardust & his Wretched Hive, The Not Likelys and new bands Machete and Greasy Kitty! Door are at 8pm and it’s $4 for over 21 and $6 for under! 18+ only. Be sure to come out and hang with the Stillnotdead crew. It’ll be a lot of fun!!

Have a fun and safe 4th from all of us at Stillnotdead.com!! See you next week!

Ryan Dead

This week I am filling in for Ryan who is on vacation celebrating his 2nd wedding anniversary.   CHEERS!

The Milestone brings us some excellent shows next week. Thursday the 25th GREEN GOBLIN, a great punk band from Florida are playing with THE HAVE NOTS. These guys kick ass I saw them a while back with South Side Punx and When It Hits, it was an awesome show. On Friday  the TROUBLE WALKERS, THE MANGLES, and 2013 WOLVES will be playing.  This show will definitely be a great show and it’s only $5(over 21).

THE BODY BAGS  will be playing at Tremont on Thursday the 25th with GILLOTINE, HATE THE STATE, and  UNDER A NIGHTMARE.  This show will bring a good mix of Horror Punk and Metal it’s $8(over21). On Saturday  ”There Will Be Metal”  Tremont plays host to SENECA, A STAINED GLASS ROMANCE, COLUMNS, EVE OF THE END, and SWAMPWITCH only $8(over21).

Saturday Snug Harbor brings us THE BELMONT PLAYBOYS, Charlotte’s own Psycobilly Rockers and JIMMY AND THE TEASER’S.   I just listened to them on their myspace, great stuff.  I’m sure this show will be lots of fun.

On Wednesday July 1st Snug Harbor will be taken over by Afterbirth Casserole for Harry Egypt’s Extreme Karaoke. It’s $5 and on the the flyer I got it says it will feature PLANET PISS, a prize wheel, PROJEXORCISM projects 8mm while you sing, a damned good time, and a pizza party. Awesome!! Thats all folks!

John-TNL

Okay so to start with this week we have some news about Tremont Music Hall. Longtime manager Blue recently resigned siting “health reasons” and Lisa Barr will now be handling most of the Tremont managing duties. Good luck to Lisa, hopefully this is the beginning of some fun days at the Tremont! I’ve already been informed that Tremont is no longer going to go completely 18+, although there will be certain shows that will be 18+, they will also continue to host all ages shows. I think that’s cool since we don’t have any other all ages venues in this town for some reason.

Speaking of Tremont, they will be hosting a great indie vibed show on June 19th as they host The Lights Fluorescent, Hammer No More the Fingers, Lucid Colony and Controlled Storms. You guys know I’m a fan of The Lights Fluorescent and some of you have even seen HNMTF at the old Cracksoup venue so that should be enough to tell you that this will be a fun show. Doors are at 7pm and the cost is $8 for over 21 and $11 for under.

New York Dolls

It’s not often you get to see a band that was part of the evolution of punk but that is definitely the case when Amos Southend host the New York Dolls on Monday June 15th. The New York Dolls brand of glam punk influenced hundreds of bands from Guns and Roses to local favorites, Babyshaker. They recently reformed and have been out on the road. You shouldn’t miss this chance to check out bonafide legends, although they may be gettin a little old to wear makeup, they will still put on a great show! Doors are at 8pm and the cost is $20 in advance and $25 at the door.

The Not Likelys and Cutthroat Shamrock 6/18/09 at the Milestone Club!

Milestone has a great weekend coming up next week, starting on Thursday night. It might be a work night but show up at the Milestone Club anyway to check out The Not Likelys and Cutthroat Shamrock with Miracle Dolls and Chapel of Thieves. The Not Likelys were most recently seen rocking out at the Rock for Peace benefit but return from their charity work to blast the Milestone with their working class punk/ska. Cutthroat Shamrock is a great band that reminds me of the Tossers with a little Flogging Molly thrown in. In other words, they rock the celtic/ acoustic/ punk thing rather well. Also on the bill are Miracle Dolls and Chapel of Thieves. Doors are at 8pm and admission is $6 for over 21 and $8 for under!

Superdrag and 25 Minutes to Go at the Milestone Club!

The very next night June 19th, the Milestone host Superdrag with 25 Minutes to Go and Emotron. Superdrag walk a fine line between pop punk and pop rock but have their fair share of followers including Jonathan of 25 Minutes to Go. Speaking of 25 MTG, they’ve been on some high profile shows lately. First Antiseen, then this show. The gods of local music are definitely smiling on them lately! Of course when you rock like I heard they rocked at their cd release party it’s easy to see why they are earning some high profile shows. In the meantime, Emotron will open the show and if you’ve never caught him, now would be a good time. Let’s just say he has way too much fun with a casio keyboard. Doors are at 8pm and it’s $15 dollars for this one!

PBR Fest at Revolution Pizza 6/20/09

Got this flyer courtesy of the Stillnotdead Forum, which by the way you should check out! Anyway, it’s PBR Fest and it’s being thrown June 20th at Revolution Pizza and Ale House, which I believe is in NoDa. Anyway it features Zeus, Appalucia, Dirty South Revolutionaries and Rekless Youth. I’m told all the misspellings were done on purpose. Anyway that’s quite an eclectic lineup with the metal fury of Zeus and the old country feel of Appalucia, mixed with the hardcore/punk sound of DSR and the punk rock of Rekless Youth. It’s a little bit of everything for everyone. Oh yeah and two more selling points on this show, it’s FREE and there is $1 draft beer! That’s it I’m sold!! Pizza, rocking music for free and $1 draft is one heck of a way to throw a party! The shindig kicks off at 7pm!

Zombie Bazooka Patrol at Snug Harbor 6/21/09!

Okay so I saw this bands name and thought it sounded interesting and boy was I surprised when I say these guys myspace page. They are called Zombie Bazooka Patrol and they’re playing Snug Harbor on Sunday June 21st with the Wiggle Wagons and K-Mack. The thing about these guys is that they play a kinda rockabilly, pop kinda music but they write their songs and dress as if they were real life zombies! It’s kind of a goofy gimmick but it’s a lot of fun! Click on the photo to the right to go to Snug’s site where you’ll find a link to their myspace page. Opening are K-Mack, who have a folk rock/ska kinda vibe and the Wiggle Wagons, whose myspace player was malfunctioning to I don’t know what to say about them. Anyway the show is listed as starting at 9pm so show up and hopefully keep your brains in your head!!

Well that’s it for this week! Next week I may have a guest writer for the week. We’ll see. In the meantime, enjoy the shows and send me reviews or pics from them! If you want your show to be mentioned in the Next Week column be sure to send me a flyer!! See you guys on the forum!!

Ryan Dead

This week it seems like the local clubs have tried to hedge their bets by throwing all different types of music onto one show without worrying about genre or music type. Is it a good thing or a bad thing? You be the judge!!

On Sunday June 14th Tremont Music Hall plays host to Leftover Crack and the Casualties with Trash Talk. Surprisingly NYC’s Leftover Crack is headling this show with their brand of uptempo punk/ska with a hint of metal thrown in for good measure. I really appreciate these guys pleading for unity on their myspace site. It’s a basic message of “quite fighting each other and fight the real enemy” that could go over well on our little music scene as well. If you’ve never heard of the Casualties then you have no business going to this show! Also veterans of the NYC hardcore/punk scene, these guys like their punk with generous amounts of Oi. Honestly the brightly colored mohawks can get a little cartoonish but the music is spot on high energy oi flavored punk with buzzsaw guitars and scream along choruses. Opening is Sacramento California’s Trash Talk. I don’t quite see how they match up with the rest of the show. These guys will be fun though. They take the hardcore/thrash approach and feature some really heavy ass riffs. Plus they are the only band on this tour that has the balls to put full songs on their myspace page instead of snippets. Just be warned, if you don’t like metal style hardcore the opener may piss you off. I’ve also heard that the Body Bags may be opening but I haven’t seen that online so take it for what it’s worth. That will official make it a mix of everything. In the meantime, doors are at 7pm for this one and tickets are $15 and although it doesn’t mention it on the website, I’m sure their is a $3 surcharge for under 21.

On Friday June 12th be ready for an unusual night of music as the Milestone Club

Grids 7 inch release party!

welcomes Grids 7 inch release party featuring Yardwork, Grids, Moenda, Tenspeed and DJ George Brazil. Yardwork are a light airy popish indie band that some friends of mine from the 90’s would have dug. Think maybe Air mixed with a little more pop. The Grids have a new 7inch that is incredibly hard to spell so I’m not going to try right now. From the one track they have up they seem to be a harder edge but still lo-fi version hardcore. Moenda I couldn’t get a feel for from their myspace page but it features Davey Blackburn, who has been in multiple indie bands over the years. Also in the mix is minimalist jazz group Tenspeed. These guys like their jazz low and strange with inharmonic moans and off kilter melodies intertwining to make strange and sometimes beautiful music. Also on the show is DJ George Brazil. Doors are at 8pm and it’s $6 if you over 21 and $8 if you’re under.

The following night the Milestone Club will host another unusual show on June 13th with Studio Gangsters, South Side Punx, The Lesser Pauls and Andy the Door Bum. Studio Gangsters have banging catchy beats and one thing on their mind. Let’s just say don’t let your girl go to the show alone. If you are smart you’ll save your money from the Casualties show and just go see Charlotte’s own South Side Punx. Their ripping brand of QC street punk has all the sing along chorus’ with out the cartoon mohawks and it won’t cost you $15!! The Lesser Pauls seem to make it a chore to tell to much about them from their myspace page but suffice it to say that they are an upright a guitar and drums and female vocals and they are not rockabilly. They are low key and cool. Just when you think we couldn’t get anymore variety on this show we add Andy the Doorbum. Andy plays acoustic by way of death metal. The anger and emotion in one of Andy’s songs could destroy and entire room full of “solo acoustic songwriter” types. This show will be fun and confusing at times but what the hell this is the Milestone Club so pull up a stool, tip a High Life and let the good times roll! Doors are at 8pm and admission is $6 for over 21 and $8 for under.

Well we have a short edition this week, be on the lookout next week when I’ll talk about a show featuring the Not Likelys and kickass celtic band Cutthroat Shamrock and the legendary New York Dolls are coming to town! Also I’ll tip you guys off, a tenative lineup for Punk Rock and Scissors Fest is posted on the Milestone website! Be sure to look it up if you want a partial version of who is playing this yearly fest! See you next week!

Ryan Dead

KP Soloman 5000 @ Snug Harbor June 7th!!

Just got this flyer in from our friend Kyle aka KP Soloman 5000 for a show he is playing this Sunday night at Snug Harbor! It’s an early show and what else are you gonna do on a Sunday night?? I highly recommend this show based on the strength of KP’s set alone! Plus the Smokers are playing so it’s bound to be fun!! If you are lucky KP may play some acoustic versions of 25 Minute to Go songs!! Oh yeah did I mention the show is $3 bucks?? You can’t beat that for cheap entertainment in this tight economy!! Viva Snug Harbor!!