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 !

Okay so I admit I’ve had IED’s new cd for a while and never wrote a review on it. It actually hasn’t left my cd player in the kitchen, which is reserved for music to rock out to while cooking, a high honor in my house. In any case, a reader of Stillnotdead has beat me to it! Eli Culp recently got the cd at Throwdown Fest on January 10th and wrote this review of the cd. Check it out and let’s hope we hear more from Eli in the future!!

Whole-Hearted…Yet Half-Assed

Queen City hardcore ska

IED
Intelligence, Equality, Debauchery.

Although often viewed as the younger brothers to the Charlotte punk scene IED have obviously and relentlessly taken the scene by full force with their full length album: Whole-Hearted…Yet Half-Assed. Clocking in at just over twenty five minutes the album captures the essence of any live IED show. Its very rare that a band can transfer their energy from a live show to a recording, but IED has come very close. The album is full of raw, uncut energy. Each and every song is just as hard hitting as the last. This album blew away any expectations I had at ALL. First of all I wasn’t sure how good the sound quality would be. I mean how good can the sound quality for a punk album be without sounding to overproduced? Right? In this case quite good. The only thing that would be bothersome to the majority of people is that its almost impossible to understand anything Justin is saying, except of  my favorite track S.W.A.N., unless one is familiar with the lyrics, which brings me to my next point: the album packaging. When I got my copy from Kevin at the Throwdown Fest I was expecting to get an unmarked cd in an empty Suicide Machines case. Instead I got a cd case wrapped in plastic. I know right! Crazy! Also the album artwork is more professional then I think anyone was expecting. The cover picture depicting the lighter side of IED, while the back shows the side of them you probably wouldn’t want to run into walking down the road at night. On the cd insert there is a copy of the lyrics for all of us who are unable to make out what is being said. On the whole Whole-Hearted…Yet Half-Assed is a very good album for the majority of people who are into punk music. Obviously it isn’t made for everyone. I have a strong feeling that IED will be getting quite a bit attention from all over the state with this album. Lets hope so, not just for them, but for Charlotte as well.

Eli Culp

Here are a few shows that I wanted to add to the mix. Check them out cause they will be massive fun!

The Milestone Club 10/30/09 DBDD presents: South Side Punx, Brainworms, Jojo Taterhead Revival and Snacktruck- Dead Bodies Don’t Drown suffered a horrible loss earlier this year with the passing of Stuart Chamberlain, however they vowed to carry on the tradition of great shows and are getting down to business with this pre-Halloween bash. Advertised as “the party that won’t end until Halloween” , this bash will feature local punk rockers South Side Punx who will do their best to rock the house with their near riot inducing sing along anthems. Also appearing on the card is Jojo Taterhead Revival, a great ska/reggae band formed from the ashes of DSS. Also on this show are a couple of bands off of Rorschach Records. Brainworms are a Richmond , Va band that reminds me of the Meat Puppets early stuff. At times it’s quirky, other times it’s a noise fest, either way it’s straight up awesome! Snacktruck are also from Richmond, Va and the first song I clicked on was a strange instrumental that one minute sounded like the Ventures and the next minute rock forward like a really strange prog rock song. I get the feeling from listening to the first couple of songs on their myspace that these guys tend to be more than a little math rock. Cool stuff, will be interesting to see how this plays out live. It’s a riff-a-thon complete with off beat (on purpose) drums and no vocals that I can find on the first few songs anyway. It’ll be a very interesting night at the ‘Stone. Doors are at 8pm and admission is $5 for over and $7 for under. 18+ only.

The Milestone Club 11/2/09- A Wilhelm Scream w/ Living with Lions, The Riot Before and We Shout Goodnight- A Wilhelm Scream have toured with the likes of Rise Against, Strung Out and Lagwagon and in fact just got off tour with Hot Water Music. Now they are invading the Ghetto Fortress in a last minute booked show. This is a really good opportunity to check out a band that Alternative Press hailed as “the new heirs of the skate punk scene!” Personally I think these guys have a rocking sound. High energy tempo riffs with gruff vocals screaming out the lyrics over the top of the wall of guitars. Anybody that has a song called ” Bulletproof Tiger” has got to be cool in my book! Also on the bill is Living with Lions who have a little more melodic, mid tempo feel to them. However the song I listened to had a massive sing along “Woahohwoah” chorus so that should bring plenty of opportunities for sing alongs. The Riot Before are from Richmond, Va ( another band? What’s that 3 in one weekend?) And claim to be so not punk that it’s punk. Of course you can expect them to be punk with statements like that. Truthfully they rock pretty hard though. They lack the “really big wall of sound” that the headliners have but that’s a good thing. A little more stripped down but very melodic, these guys aren’t above doing a few acoustic sounding numbers. My favorite song is the very catchy, uptempo ” Youcantsexydancetopunkrock”. Fun stuff for sure. Charlotte band We Shout Goodnight opens the show and they claim they are “Charlotte Punk Rock” in big day glow letters. Truthfully this is more new punk than old punk but it’s still really uptempo melodic stuff. Seems more rock than punk but it’s good stuff and it kind of reminds me of another Charlotte band, The Junior Astronomers. This should be an epic night of rock at the Milestone Club. I highly encourage those of you who feel up to getting you ass rocked on a Monday to get out to the show and check out these awesome bands. The way things go in this town it will be a long time before most of these bands ever come through again. Doors are at 8pm and admission is $10 for over and $12 for under 21. 18+ only please.

Ryan Dead