Photo courtesy of Tiny Engines

May 19

RED COLLAR (ALBUM RELEASE PARTY) w/ RESTORATIONS, MAPLE STAVE, SIGNALS MIDWEST @ MOTORCO, DURHAM

This week, which features two Charlotte gigs (opening for Less Than Jake last night, and a Treasure Fest set tomorrow) in addition to Saturday’s album release in Durham, is an unusual burst of activity for Red Collar. For a number of reasons, the band’s appearances are not the consistent Carolinas staple they once were. With guitarist Mike Jackson living the family life up in the mountains and the rest of the band still kicking it around Durham, opportunities to see North Carolina’s best barroom punk band — and one of its finest live acts of any stripe — are few and far between. Red Collar’s hard-fought survival is reflected in the sophomore LP Welcome Home, released with help from Columbia’s Tiny Engines. Roaring punk guitars collide with arena rock energy as Jason Kutchma pushes further to the distant poles of his songwriting, exploring shattered dreams and somehow drawing from them the vigor to fight on. “I’ve done nothing wrong,” he rumbles on the fiery ballad “This House,” his voice gathering slowly into a roar. “We’ve done nothing wrong. We’ve done nothing to them.” By the song’s end, he’s caught up in a swell of redemptive guitars, and he declares, “There’s coming a day/ It’s on the horizon.” By finding hope in defeat and providing the musical uplift to make its audience believe it too, Red Collar sits as one of today’s most genuinely uplifting bands. —Jordan Lawrence

CALENDAR

Festival

• May 18-19: Treasure Fest @ Plaza-Midwood, Charlotte

May 17

• Washed Out @ Music Farm, Charleston
• R. Ring @ Lexington Ave. Brewery, Asheville
• Rhett Miller @ ArtsCenter, Carrboro

May 18

• Confessor @ Lincoln Theatre, Raleigh
• Pierced Arrows w/ Don’t @ Lexington Ave. Brewery, Asheville
• Some Army w/ Brice Randall Bickford @ Casbah, Durham
• Washed Out @ Asheville Music Hall, Asheville

May 19

• Ty Segall w/ White Fence @ Kings, Raleigh
• Jack White w/ Alabama Shakes @ The Orange Peel, Asheville
• Pierced Arrows w/ Don’t @ The Cave, Chapel Hill
• Unknown Hinson @ Music Farm, Charleston
• Kenny Roby @ Double Door Inn, Charlotte
• Jeb Bishop/Tim Daisy Duo @ Conundrum, Columbia

May 21

• The Donkeys @ Kings, Raleigh
• Pierced Arrows w/ Don’t, Joint D≠ @ Snug Harbor, Charlotte
• Down w/ Black Tusk @ The Orange Peel, Asheville
• Gogol Bordello @ The Fillmore, Charlotte

May 22

• William Tyler w/ Hiss Golden Messenger @ The Pinhook, Durham
• Damien Jurado @ Kings, Raleigh
• Pierced Arrows @ Tin Roof, Charleston

May 23

• Strange Boys w/ William Tyler @ Lexington Ave. Brewery, Asheville
• St. Vincent w/ Shearwater @ Cat’s Cradle, Carrboro
• Black Dice w/ Prisms @ Local 506, Chapel Hill
• Jeb Bishop/Tim Daisy Duo w/ Regina Hexaphone @ Motorco, Durham
• Justin Townes Earle @ Grey Eagle, Asheville
• The Brand New Life @ The Milestone, Charlotte

Photo courtesy of Shovels & Rope

Charleston country and folk duo Shovels & Rope have the kind of sound that could move a lot of records. Funneling tenacious energy through ragged guitar shambles, the husband-and-wife duo of Cary Ann Hearst and Michael Trent fall easily into the same mold as The Avett Brothers or Mumford & Sons. They’ll soon get their chance to cash in on that potential. Following up their self-titled 2008 debut, the band will release a new LP, entitled O’ Be Joyful, via the Nashville-based Dualtone imprint on July 31. It’s a step up and in the right direction for Shovels & Rope. Their gritty and catchy songs will sit perfectly next to acts like Drew Holcomb and The Lumineers, and the restless road warriors are ready for the new exposure that the Grammy-nominated label could provide.

Below you’ll find a tour montage featuring O’ Be Joyful‘s title track. The band has also released a digital single, entitled “Birmingham,” which you can purchase on iTunes. Both songs find the band injecting electric blues into their attack. With Hearst’s rich country pipes taking the fore, the rock element makes these cuts feel a lot like Lorretta Lynn’s Jack White collaboration, Van Lear Rose, an aesthetic that serves the duo well.

Shovels & Rope will be on the road for much of the summer. You can find their tour dates here.

This weekend Treasure Fest marks its second annual gathering by bringing more than 70 bands to Charlotte’s Plaza-Midwood neighborhood for two very loud evenings. While its lineup covers a wide swath of rock music, from grindcore to surf; indie rock to alt-country, Treasure Fest still holds a punk aesthetic at its core (as reflected by our picks). A full schedule of performances is available here.

At $25 for the entire two-day festival, the bang-for-buck ratio is solidly in favor of attending, but Shuffle‘s ready to do you one better. Enter your must-see Treasure Fest sets in the comments before 11:59 p.m. tomorrow night for a chance to win a free pair of tickets to Treasure Fest. We’ll select one winner, and contact that person via email on Thursday.

However you end up getting there, here are ten bands you won’t want to miss at Treasure Fest. —Bryan C. Reed and Jordan Lawrence

Mike Bell & The Movies

With their four-song EP, Stuck In A TV, Philadelphia’s Mike Bell & The Movies deliver a potent platter of concise, punchy power-pop, driving Lemonheads alt-rock and Buzzcocks punk-pop through the jangly sway of R.E.M. and The dB’s. Still, the quartet’s unfussy production and to-the-point songwriting speaks to a long line of DIY popsmiths. Naturally, the short-form release suits the band well, too. Stuck In A TV makes way for spare balladry (“You’re the Archaeologist”), hook-heavy rockers (“Portland,” “Race Car”), and a charming revision of early-60s teen idol pop (“New World Record”), packing it all comfortably into a fun-size 7-inch. (BR)

Double Negative

Easily among the best contemporary hardcore bands playing anywhere, Raleigh’s Double Negative are eager upsetters, beholden to no purist inclinations. From unexpected influences to a recently shifting roster, Double Negative has been a model of unpredictability. Their latest release, Hits, captures three songs recorded after the departure of drummer Brian Walsby, but before singer Kevin Collins left the band. New drummer Bobby Michaud (Grids, Brain F≠) steamrolls through these new tracks. Live, new singer Cameron Craig, keeps the mania alive, with vicious vocals, more chapped and guttural than Collins’ raspy yowl. Meanwhile, guitarist Scott Williams and bassist Justin Gray continue to mutate their riffs, wrangling scorched metal, gristly noise and mutant blues into violent, volatile sprints. (BR)

Hawks

True to their name, Atlanta’s Hawks soar across the cavernous divides between opposing loud genres with uncanny ease. On the recent Push Over 12-inch, produced by Harvey Milk’s Kyle Spence, the punk outfit dips into Savannah sludge. They move quickly, assuring that their tones stay loose and molten, never allowing them to form any kind of crust. Despite the dense distortion and strung-out tones, Hawks still manage to move like a hardcore band, maneuvering with frightful speed, the sound of hungry monsters beneath the muck. Singer Mike Keenan leaves no doubt as to the band’s aggressive intentions, stripping to his underwear and throwing himself into his audience. Hard to classify and harder to resist, Hawks are a highly evolved hard-rock creature. (JL)

Joint D≠

Better than any of their Charlotte punk peers, Joint D≠ (pronounced Joint Damage) is expert in building up and breaking down tension. Led by Brain F≠ guitarist and abbreviation enthusiast  Nick Goode, the band’s angular tantrums build up layers of nervy feedback and then pummel them into submission with distorted, muscular riffs. Goode bends tones to their absolute limit and then lets loose in serrated assaults as his rhythm section pushes the tempo relentlessly. It’s a viscous and absorbing cycle where  Joint D≠ conjure layers of uneasy noise and then defuse them in moments of unfiltered aggression. A captivating punk-rock stress test, Joint D≠ is likely to give weak-hearted listeners a panic attack. Oh well, that just leaves more room for the rest of us. (JL)

Leather

There aren’t too many brotherly-love vibes coming from this band of Philly ragers. Drawing a staunch reminder of grunge’s direct link to hardcore, the outfit imagines a Nirvana where every song is “Tourette’s,” filing bile-sour vocal takes into burly sandblasted riffs. Sludgy like the Melvins, sinewy like Mudhoney, and dynamic like the Jesus Lizard, Leather holds a torch for the black-and-blues of ’90s noise-rock while staking a solid claim as exemplary practitioners of contemporary punk — well schooled in genre history, but unburdened by rose-colored nostalgia. (BR)

Naked Gods

Boone’s Naked Gods are one of the most captivating live rock acts in North Carolina. Overtaking Wilco’s woozy folk territory with a barrage of tangled guitarmonies, the band attack their songs with uninhibited elation that never harms the precision of their wondrously complex arrangements. Singer Seth Sullivan shouts and smacks the crap out of a tambourine as the band’s two guitarists dual in an arms war of distortion and dexterity. It’s a formula that erupts into tremendous catharses, bouts of energetic abandon where the music takes hold and nothing else matters. It’s a level of transcendence few bands can attain. Don’t miss out. (JL)

NO PÖWER

NO PÖWER is led by former-Grids frontman Rob Davis, a fact that feels a little odd as a lead off here. Certainly fans of Grids will find plenty to love about this relatively new outfit — solid-as-singularity distortion, Davis’ brutal barks. Still, this is a much different band than Grids. With NO PÖWER, Davis is a frontman only, and he takes full advantage, writhing and stomping for the entirety of the band’s whirlwind sets. Where Grids dealt in hard-edged noise rock, NO PÖWER specializes in full on hardcore, blurring feral rhythm beneath brutal distortion. The results, as you can hear below via the band’s Distort 7-inch, are quick but concussive, a feat of speed and strength few other punk outfits can match. (JL)

No Tomorrow

In the midst of a sub-genre’s unexpected coming into vogue, playing it straight seems almost daring. But as D-beat revivalists and revisionists storm the loud-rock realms this year (see new releases by Split Cranium, Black Breath, Struck By Lightning, et.al.), Wilmington’s No Tomorrow marches even more steadfastly to that same drummer. And in so doing, the band proves its mettle not by reinventing the wheel, but by driving it faster and truer than its toe-dipping would-be peers. On its recent split with Connecticut ragers Oiltanker, No Tomorrow delivers a five-song blitz of Discharge/Motörhead fury, extracting every volt of raw power from the well-trod template. (BR)

Red Collar

Few bands are so well-equipped to tackle today’s tough political and economic times. Durham’s Red Collar are a bruised and battered dream of a bar-punk band, grafting jagged riffs onto Springsteen anthemics, arriving at an attack that breaks hearts only to put them back together. With spurs transplanted onto gold-painted work boots, lead singer Jason Kutchma lays down the law, delivering his downtrodden poetry with gravelly shouts. The songs are honest about hard times, making Red Collar’s restless and resilient rock an inspiration, proof that there’s value in putting up a fight — even if you know you’re going to lose. (JL)

Wymyns Prysyn

Another band of noiseniks from Atlanta’s fertile crescent of pigfuck (see also: Hawks, Chrissakes, Sunglasses), Wymyns Prysyn jolt the scuzz-rock paradigm with honest-to-goodness pop hooks and humor. The band’s first release, the 12-song Tres Umbros cassette, offers a smirk-inducing tracklist full of gems like “Moms on Facebook” and “Shy Shitter.” Press play, and it’s a rush of blown-out sidewinding indie (“50 Foot Fakeout”) and snotty garage-punk (“Close Talk Me”). Melody and hooks abound, caked in grime — because mud-wrestling’s a hell of a lot more fun than a grumpy slog through the muck. (BR)

Fair warning: this post will likely make you consider heading back to college. Pierce Freelon, a charismatic MC that fronts jazz-infused Durham hip-hop outfit The Beast, and Stephen Levitin, who makes intellectually stimulating beats as Apple Juice Kid, have been teaching a class together this semester at UNC-Chapel Hill. The class teaches students sample-based music production, history and entrepreneurship. For their final projects, each student had to produce a beat with the results to be rounded up onto a free, downloadable compilation. And as Freelon and Levitin are proud members of the N.C. music community, they decided to have their kids use music from the Tar Heel State in their compositions.

Pretty cool, right? We here at Shuffle sure thought so. That’s why we are proud to present Tar Heel Tracks, the first compilation from the UNC Beat Making Lab. The album will be released in cooperation with ARTVSM, a joint venture by Freelon and Levitin that strives to merge art and activism. The 13 cuts sample a wide swath of N.C. music — from The Avett Brothers to Yahzarah, from Lee Fields to Lost in the Trees. The free album drops on May 13, commencement day at UNC. Below you can check out and download “It Doesn’t Hurt a Bit,” a cut from Tar Heel Tracks produced by Sup Doodle. The track samples “Fight/Flight” by Durham’s I Was Totally Destroying It.

The professors’ ambition doesn’t stop there. This summer, Freelon and Levitin plan to bring their Beat Making Lab to the Congo.  They are partnering with Yolé!Africa, a non-profit organization set up to bring arts education to the area, in an attempt replicate the class with native youths. Funds are currently being raised for the expedition. You can find out more about their campaign and donate here. –Jordan Lawrence

UPDATE: Tar Heel Tracks is now available to download. Click here for a free digital copy, or look below to stream the compilation in its entirety.

“I wonder why I’m in the same damn place, right where you left me, in disarray,” Wood Ear’s Nate Tarr sings on the band’s marvelous piece of organ-fueled, twangy power pop, “Leave My Walls.” The song’s an obvious highlight from the Durham band’s new  seven-song Steeple Vultures, and its opening line practically begs the question: Is that where ya been, Wood Ear?

In our fly-by-data landscape, six years qualifies as a geologic era, but that’s the span between Steeple Vultures and Wood Ear’s debut EP, The Hard Way – and those songs were reportedly put to tape two years prior to that. So for all intents, this is a re-boot, even if the intervening years were taken up, as Tarr says on the band’s website, by circumstance and adult life and the “occasional lack of motivation” — not to mention his wife (and Wood Ear keyboardist) Krystal Black’s bout with breast cancer last year.

But as a statement of repurpose and resurgence, you couldn’t do better than a high-octane cut like “Leave My Walls.” The three-and-a-half-minute track opens with a quick-picked “Pretty Persuasion”-like guitar riff before Black’s organ kicks in, her manic comping offering an immediate connection to Steve Nieve’s best early-Attractions work.

Soon enough, over just that nervy guitar riff, Tarr’s asking why he’s still stuck in this heartache disarray, his voice a downtrodden blend of Jay Farrar’s twang overtones delivered with J Mascis’ laconic phrasing. But as the song gains momentum and the tempo quickens, propelled by drummer Rob Koegler and bassist Frank Andolina, the song’s chorus — “You didn’t leave my walls/you tore ‘em down” — becomes a defiant accusatory roar.

It leads to a late bridge with an old fashioned but brief guitar solo, the opening riff morphing into the type of string-bending noise Bob Stinson might’ve dropped atop a Westerberg rocker. In the end, as the chorus rings over and over, it’s the Replacements’ beautiful-loser lineage that, at least on this track, makes the most sense. And for fans of college and indie guitar rock, that’s a great place for a re-boot.

Steeple Vultures will be released on Churchkey Records June 12, but “Leave My Walls” is available to stream and/or download below.  —John Schacht

With its picturesque waterfront and abundance of quaint shops and tasty restaurants, visitors to seaside Beaufort, N.C. need little  entertainment other than a cool beverage and the ocean breeze. Still, some music couldn’t hurt, and this weekend there will be plenty. The 24th annual Beaufort Music Festival takes place Friday and Saturday and features 16 local and national acts. Most of the line-up is pleasant and tuneful, exemplified by Saturday headliner The Gourds, whose heartland rock sweeps along with wistful melodies and sturdy choruses. Durham show stoppers Shirlette & The Dynamite Brothers promise to be the weekend’s most energetic offering, the band’s sinewy funk adding sensual heft to rapper  Shirlette’s charismatic flow. Silky R&B songstress Carlitta Durand adds an additional highlight to the fest’s healthy slate of N.C. talent, and for those hoping for some truly local flavor, Saturday offers up a separate stage for local bands. The full schedule for the free festival is below. More information is available at beaufortmusicfestival.com. —Jordan Lawrence

Friday

Main Stage Area

5:30-6:30 p.m. Skylar Gudasz and the Ugly Girls

6:30-7:30 p.m. Possum Creek

7:30-8:30 p.m. The Fritz

8:30-10:00 p.m. Old Man Markley

Saturday

Main Stage Area

12:30-1:30 p.m. Kudubai (2012 Battle of the Bands Winner)

1:30-2:30 p.m. Lizzy Ross Band

2:30-3:30 p.m. Carlitta Durand

3:30-4:45 p.m. The Golden Butter Band

4:45-6:00 p.m. Phantom Playboys

6:00-7:15 p.m. Blood Red River

7:15-8:30 p.m. Shirlette & The Dynamite Brothers

8:30-10:00 p.m. The Gourds

Locals Stage Area

1:00-1:45 p.m. Katrina Winters

2:00-2:45 p.m. Kali Staar

3:00-3:45 p.m. Cameron Cotham

4:00-4:45 p.m. Matt Phillips

5:00-6:15 p.m. Sand Dune Cowboys

Photo by Autumn de WIlde

May 15

M. WARD w/ LEE RANALDO @ PAGE AUDITORIUM, DURHAM

At rock clubs, M. Ward’s shows typically include a middle eight (if you will) where the Portland native goes it solo, concentrating on a few of the quieter gems that have been known to wet the eyes of even inured indie crowds: an “Undertaker,”  or a “Chinese Translation,” for instance. Because of the venue here — Duke University’s cozy Page Auditorium – Ward has promised more nuance in general from his five-piece, which includes pedal steel player Chris Scruggs (yes, from those Scruggs). Ward’ll be playing tracks off his latest – and first since 2009’s Hold Time – release, A Wasteland Companion, a record inspired, in part, by the T.S. Eliot epic poem (forecast: dark, with occasional rays of ultimately deceptive sunshine). It may be typical Ward fare by this point, up to and including the Louis Armstrong (“I Get Ideas”) and Daniel Johnston (“Sweetheart”) covers, but at least he’ll play on-stage without his insufferable She & Him sidekick, Zooey Deschanel. In fact, here’s betting that in this setting, he turns in a memorable gig. With Sonic Youth’s Lee Ranaldo opening. —John Schacht

CALENDAR

May 10

• Archers of Loaf w/ Electric Owls @ Grey Eagle, Asheville
• Torche @ Local 506, Chapel Hill
• Mastodon w/ Opeth, Ghost @ The Fillmore, Charlotte
• Ben Sollee @ Kings, Raleigh
• North Elementary @ The Green Bean, Greensboro

May 11

• Archers of Loaf w/ Pipe, Fan Modine @ Haw River Ballroom, Saxapahaw
• Motor Skills (album release party) @ Kings, Raleigh
• The Gourds @ Cat’s Cradle, Carrboro
• Opeth w/ Mastodon @ House of Blues, Myrtle Beach
• The Gourds @ Cat’s Cradle, Carrboro
• Movers & Shakers @ The Milestone, Charlotte

May 12

• Archers of Loaf w/ Pipe @ Kings, Raleigh
• Spiritualized @ Cat’s Cradle, Carrboro
• Sam Quinn & Taiwan Twin w/ Frank Fairfield @ Grey Eagle, Asheville
• Mayer Hawthorne & The County @ Neighborhood Theatre, Charlotte

May 13

• Beach House w/ Zomes @ The Orange Peel, Asheville

May 14

• Lee Ranaldo @ Bull City Records, Durham

May 15

• Horse Feathers @ Local 506, Chapel Hill
• JC Brooks & The Uptown Sound @ Cat’s Cradle, Carrboro
• Jonathan Wilson @ Visulite Theatre, Charlotte

May 16

• Dwarr w/ Black Bananas, Magik Markers @ The Pinhook, Durham
• Shovels & Rope w/ John Howie, Jr. & The Rosewood Bluff @ Casbah, Durham
• Horse Feathers w/ Mount Moriah @ Grey Eagle, Asheville
• Less Than Jake w/ Red Collar @ Tremont Music Hall, Charlotte
• Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeroes w/ Fool’s Gold @ The Fillmore, Charlotte

When I graduated from UNC in 2008, I moved back to my parents’ house in Charlotte to give Shuffle a full-time shot. Even though I was moving “back home,” it felt like I’d left home a couple hours up I-40.

It was during one of my frequent trips back to the Triangle, probably in late-2010, as it became more and more certain that I’d be moving back home, again, to the Triangle, that Red Collar pulled this song out in a live set. It wasn’t the first time a Red Collar song had knocked me sideways; “Used Guitars” buried itself in my brain the first time I heard it in 2006. But this time, it felt like it was about me. I don’t think it was, but it sure as hell felt like it. I was standing in front of the stage at Local 506, a spot I’d practically etched my footprints into during the preceding years, and this band I’d grown so attached to, was greeting me like a prodigal son.

“Oh my god, oh my god/ How long has it been/ Since I’ve seen that smile?/ One year? Two years? Who cares?/ You’re here now.”

One of the perks — it’s usually a perk, anyway — of involving oneself in a local scene is you get to see bands after they step off the stage. That’s certainly the case with Red Collar, who hooked me with their music long before we became friends.

To be honest, it’s a little awkward writing about them, anymore, though I’ve done more than my fair share. The first time I heard Red Collar, they were a new Durham band when being a new Durham band was a novel idea. I sent friends to see them in Chapel Hill dives before I was old enough to tag along, and quickly that stopped being a concern. Red Collar graduated to larger rooms with lower age restrictions months before my 21st birthday.

By the time I could legally raise a can and sing along with “Used Guitars,” I’d seen Red Collar in living rooms with broken P.A.s, the cavernous half-full Cat’s Cradle, a converted warehouse and reclaimed storefront in Durham, and other rooms around town. I’d started writing about music at The Daily Tar Heel, and Red Collar gave me plenty to write about, then.

It’s harder to write about Red Collar, now. What haven’t I already said? And it’s not the same. They don’t play locally as much as they used to, and I don’t go out so much, either. I’ve missed more than a few Red Collar shows I probably could’ve gone to. I know all the songs, anyway.

Then there’s this. After a gap of more than three years since Pilgrim, Red Collar’s second album is finished, ready to meet the world on June 12. And its title track, the one streaming below, shows up like a friend who hasn’t been around in far too long — who cares how long; it’s here now. What’s left to say? Welcome home. —Bryan C. Reed

Today is election day, and will decide the fate of the proposed Amendment. But no matter the result, the fight for marriage equality in North Carolina will continue.

Below, some photos from the event capture what happened on Sunday. It’s up to us to determine what happens after today.—Bryan C. Reed

All photos by PJ Sykes.

Amber Tamblyn

Superchunk (duo)

Tig Notaro

Stu McLamb of The Love Language (and guests)

David Cross

Bob Mould

A rare multidisciplinary collision that packs theater, literature and music into one event rolls through Carrboro, Durham and Raleigh this month. Baudelaire in a Box is a traveling presentation presented by Chicago’s Theater Oobleck collective. The performance, based on French poet Charles Baudelaire’s Les Fleurs du Mal, is part of a series of cantastoria that will adapt each poem from Les Fleurs into a unique performance featuring musicians local to the performance and scrolling images designed and illustrated by Oobleck’s Dave Buchen.

The seven-year series will carry through 2017, in honor of the sesquicentennial of Baudelaire’s death. The N.C. installments will offer the fourth episode in the series, “Bad Luck.” Dexter Romweber, Curtis Eller, JKutchma and New Town Drunks will provide the musical accompaniment for the performance’s 12 cantastoria (story-songs), and perform some original tunes, as well.

UPDATE: New Town Drunks offer a glimpse at the music you’ll hear during Baudelaire in a Box, with this unmastered track, “Ill Starred.” The track is one of the Baudelaire poems they’ll be performing live, and also a preview of the band’s forthcoming full-length, Kiss, due this fall.

• Listen to “Ill Starred,” by New Town Drunks

Dates and venues are listed below.—Bryan C. Reed

• May 25 @ ArtsCenter, Carrboro
• May 26 @ The Pinhook, Durham
• May 27 @ Pour House, Raleigh

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