Unofficially Asheville

Megafaun

The Ruby Suns

The Dodos

The Dodos last migration to AVL was a year ago March where they played a pretty full Harvest in-store. This year they got upgraded to The Grey Eagle and the show was packed. It’s nice to see great bands gain a local audience that quickly. Yeah, we <3 our town like that.

First up was the Durham band of brothers, Megafaun. Brothers Brad and Phil Cook and Joe Westerlund used to be in a band with Justin Vernon (you know, that Bon Iver dude). Now that Bon Iver has gone on hiatus, we hope that Megafaun gets the spotlight. They’ve got awesome harmonies reminiscent of Fleet Foxes and a dynamic live presence often jumping into the crowd to finish their songs. I preferred the live show to the record and even then preferred when they left the electronics out of it.

Indie pop New Zealanders, The Ruby Suns, were up second and they gave me a good opportunity to get another PBR and some delicious bread pudding from Twin Cousins.

The crowd swelled and welcomed The Dodos. It was hard to get anywhere near the front, but standing on our toes on a chair in the back, we could see that they expanded from a minimalist two-piece to a stage busting three-piece with that addition of a second percussionist, Keaton Snyder. There is a complete lack of pretension with these guys who were just rocking the t-shirts and hoodies and I mean rocking. High energy, killer show. See them next time when I’m sure they’ll be headlining at The Orange Peel.

If you missed the Short Street Cakes preview at the East West Asheville Artwalk, you better get down to the Mardi Grad Opening Day Celebration. That’s Sunday, February 22 from 10am - 4pm. 225 Haywood with the cute pink and white awning (not pictured). Jodi does mind-blowing things with her cakes.

Top 10 Albums of 2008

After being nudged by Matt from Harvest, I finally came up with my top album from 2008:

Frightened Rabbit - The Midnight Organ Fight
The Dodos - Visiter
The Hold Steady - Stay Positive
Why? - Alopecia
The Felice Brother - The Felice Brother
Ratatat - LP3
Thao Nguyen - We Brave Bee Stings and All
Dosh - Wolves and Wishes
These United States - A Picture of the Three of Us at the Gate to the Garden of Eden
Daedelus - Love To Make Music To

I could link to the albums and get money back from Amazon, but I’d prefer if you went out and bought them locally.

Did you know you can listen to WPVM on your iPhone? Download SHOUTcast Radio from the iTunes Music Store and then search for “wpvm”. Listen to the 128k stream by enabling hi-bit streams in the Settings app.

You can also listen to WNCW using the Public Radio Tuner. Both the apps are free and work on your iPod Touch too.

Ash Pab must have caught wind that Rocky Horror was having its Asheville premier this week and came up with another high school goth favorite. Labyrinth (Jim Henson and David Bowie’s, not Pan’s) will be showing every day at 1 and 4pm at our favorite discount brew & view.

Blue Barnhouse made some beautiful new coasters for The Admiral. It’ll be almost a shame to put my drink down on them…

Haven’t we been through enough? The layoffs, the gas crisis, crooked cops, Tiger Woods.

And now this: The Hollywood Theatre will start showing The Rocky Horror Picture Show every month complete with actors from the Montford Park Players. I thought it was a misprint in the Mountain Express, but Fandango confirms it.

The memories of those countless high school cast party showings had just started to fade…

However, if you want to get your cherry popped, read up on your first time because it can be scary.

Does anyone know of a good local lingerie shop where I can get fitted for an extra-large bustier and fishnets?

Of Montreal is going to be at The Grey Eagle tonight, but it’s sold out. I should have told you earlier… My bad.

Sandlin is the amazing photographer/bartender at the Eagle and he took some photos of them last time they were here.

Asheville’s S.S. Drawing Club is debuting their new handbound book, Newsworthy, tonight at BoBo Gallery. The limited-edition book collects illustrations loosely based on real current events from 2008. The driving forces behind the book were illustrator Julie Armbruster and dressmaker R. Brooke Priddy, who you may know better as Ship to Shore. The opening is from 7:30 - 10pm, but the show will be on display through January.

King Tut will be the special musical guest, which we are very excited about since we haven’t been able to catch them yet. They will also be playing next Wednesday, January 7 at The New French Bar with DC’s Deleted Scenes and Chapel Hill’s Hammer No More the Fingers.

[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]

Still don’t have plans for New Year’s Eve? Here are some ideas:

What’s worse than being stuck on a booze cruise in the freezing cold? Being stuck on a train. The Great Smoky Mountains Railroad is having a gala full of dining, dancing, live entertainment, and nauseating motion.

If you haven’t been paying attention there is a new venue in the area called White Horse Black Mountain. You can rock it americana style tonight with Barrel House Mamas and Dehlia Low. BHM are one of those bands that plays around a lot and we always say we’ll catch them next time. Well, we’ll catch them next time.

If you don’t feel like driving all the way to Black Mountain to see some roots music, Donna the Buffalo hits The Orange Peel for a second night with The Believers. Or you could join the Mountain Music Family Circus at The Grey Eagle with Larry Keel, Steve “Big Daddy” McMurry, Mad Tea Party and David Via.

The Asheville Chamber of Commerce has some other suggestions including lindy hopping and sophisticatedness. Mountain Express has some shoestring suggestions if you are a recently unemployed ACT staffer.

Our pick? If we had a magical transporter device, we’d be in Philly to see Gogol Bordello at The Electric Factory. Alas, we’ll be walking to The Admiral for a 4 course prix fixe dinner and drinking until they run out of liquor. There are two seatings and reservations are suggested.

We’ll see you on the flip side.