NewVillager is playing Wednesday night at the Get Down in West Asheville. They are a multimedia art slash “new pop” collective hailing from Brooklyn and San Francisco. I would normally pooh-pooh on such a band, but their new self-titled album has been on repeat for the last week. It’s transcends the labels and is just fun and unpretentious. The video for their single “LightHouse” is similarly fun and full of amazing costumes.
I was a little worried when the show started. The Peel was empty. The opening group was a rap cliche (“Yo yo yo, where the bitches at?”) with a DJ who looked like the kids I went to Hebrew school with seems to spend more time smoking blunts than using this old Dell Latitude.
I began to wonder if I had the wrong idea of Rhymesayers, but after a break Brother Ali came out an introduced this 21-year-old phenom named Fashawn. The crowd swelled and moved to the stage and Fashawn proceeded to kill it. Lyrical, hard-working, honest, and brilliant.
Then Brother Ali took over the stage. He’s a self-described fat, bald, bearded, albino, Muslim rapper, but he transcended all those label. He was able to get the crowd moving like I’ve never seen in Asheville before, “There is not a concert. At a concert, there is a performer, an actor up here on stage. Out there is the audience and we don’t interact. But this isn’t that. This is a party and I came here to fucking party.”
I left around midnight, but the party was still going strong.
Hockey, the band not the sport (I wonder how many times a day they hear that), is playing at The Grey Eagle tonight. Pitchfork nails it saying they sound like “the precise midpoint between the Strokes and LCD Soundsystem.” I’m not sure if they meant it in a good way or bad, but for $8 I’m tempted to check it out.
Looks like they are the only band playing tonight so you could definitely check it out and then do something else afterwards.
Lost in the Trees, a folk orchestra from Chapel Hill, is playing the Rocket Club tonight. From a quick listen they remind me of a film score to an quirky indie drama directed by Tim Burton that doesn’t actually exist. This promises to be an interesting show to say the least.
While the Rocket Club predictably has little information about the show, the dude on the phone said the show would start around 10pm and cost about $8.
Bowerbirds are back tonight at The Grey Eagle. Since they were last in town, they came out with an amazing album, Upper Air. The new songs seem fuller and more intimate, but lack some of the rawness I liked about Hymns For A Dark Horse.
Jagjaguwar artist Julie Doiron will open the show. I don’t know about her, but the couple tracks I’ve heard sound good, she collaborated with Mount Eerie (ex-Microphones) in 2008 on Lost Wisdom, and her 2007 album, Woke Myself Up, was nominated for a Polaris Prize!
You’ve probably got at least $7 to your name so you should go see Those Darlins at The Grey Eagle tonight (Thurs, Jan 7). The bio of these ladies suggests that they like to defy convention and labels, but I’d call it country-twinged garage rock and they are suppose to put on an awesome live show.
If you miss them tonight, you can come with me to see them at Down Home in Johnson City on January 28th.
Also appearing tonight are locals Kovacs & The Polar Bear and If You Wannas. I’ve somehow missed seeing either of them before, but they both sound like a welcome addition to the night.
