'Ville Wave

If you check out this KUAF interview with Chris Selby about his return to booking shows in Fayetteville, at some point you’re probably gonna say, “God damn I love that guy.”

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25 plays

My Apologies | thomas-weber-mandelhog

The rehashing of one of my first songs ever, which turned eight years old last month.

Here’s just one of many gorgeous paintings by Emma Steinkraus. I can’t believe anyone can make this well.
Artist statement:
  “Using fabricated landscapes and interiors  pieced together from personal photographs, Google images, and 15th  century Netherlandish paintings, I create spaces that explore a series  of tensions between, for example, the rewards and limitations of  domesticity, or the desire for contact with a natural world that I take  part in destroying.  Most fundamentally, I attempt to diagram the  tensions within intimacy to reveal the complex ways a relationship  oscillates between closeness and inward loneliness, division and  reconciliation.   I try hard to understand how closeness is created,  sustained, and, occasionally, undermined or lost — in the hope that I  may learn how not to lose it.”
See more here: http://emmasteinkraus.com

Here’s just one of many gorgeous paintings by Emma Steinkraus. I can’t believe anyone can make this well.

Artist statement:

  “Using fabricated landscapes and interiors pieced together from personal photographs, Google images, and 15th century Netherlandish paintings, I create spaces that explore a series of tensions between, for example, the rewards and limitations of domesticity, or the desire for contact with a natural world that I take part in destroying. Most fundamentally, I attempt to diagram the tensions within intimacy to reveal the complex ways a relationship oscillates between closeness and inward loneliness, division and reconciliation. I try hard to understand how closeness is created, sustained, and, occasionally, undermined or lost — in the hope that I may learn how not to lose it.”

See more here: http://emmasteinkraus.com

Ecce Aux Arc! Currently residing in Atlanta, Georgia, Fayetteville native Marshall Trotter has perfected the quirk of bedroom pop. This album, lush and endearingly disjointed and decorated with jangly, often ethereal layers, is a real joy to sit through. I’d recommend it to anyone that’s into weirdness buoyant and triumphant.

Here are yet more lovely photos taken by the lovely Sabine  Schmidt, actually still a Fayetteville resident. Love these quaint portrayals captured in and around our lovely Ozark homestead. Tim Earnst, eat your  heart out.
Check out more photos here:
http://schmidtphotography.wordpress.com/2011/09/07/three-times-three-plus-four/

Here are yet more lovely photos taken by the lovely Sabine Schmidt, actually still a Fayetteville resident. Love these quaint portrayals captured in and around our lovely Ozark homestead. Tim Earnst, eat your heart out.

Check out more photos here:

http://schmidtphotography.wordpress.com/2011/09/07/three-times-three-plus-four/

Man, I’m tellin’ you, Fayetteville native and now-New Yorker Masa Lowe (Chris Masullo) has birthed a sweetly mellow, swimmy, glimmery gem in this EP. Chris and I have known each other for some ten years now. In fact, he and I played together in one of my first bands, back in the eighth grade. I think it’s fair to say we’ve both come a long way, and this bit is a well-supported testament to that assertion.

Mr. Masullo is well versed in theater, which is somewhat apparent in much of his vocal phrasing. Put that together with the honey-thick electronic stylings and you’ve got quite an unstoppable combination on your hands. Twelve thumbs up for this one. Forgive me, Chris, but I didn’t know you had it in you. Pleasant surprise, I must say.

The Kicker Knot - Acid Test (rockin version)
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60 plays

Here’s a real nice little bit from Brian Wolf - I guess he’s still The Kicker Knot - who currently resides in Little Rock, Arkinsaw. Brian used to play in my Memphis Pencils and we traveled to New York together to play CMJ. Good memories with this chap. In fact, he was there for some real crazy, tough times. He’s now happily married to a real sweetheart and I’m so glad he’s still committed to making rad music.

I’ll admit I haven’t heard much of Brian’s newer material, but this seems, like a lot of the stuff I’ve been posting lately, to be somewhat of a departure from the minimalist, jangly and tropical psy-folk he was doing earlier, within the bounds Fayetteville. Now that he’s yonder - and I know it’s not really fair to draw comparisons - it’s a good introduction, I think, to let you know that Brian’s gone from sounds more informed by earlier Dirty Projectors to those more similar to Woods.

Anyway, I really dig it and I think you will too if you have any sense in yer damn brain, ya crazy kid.

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Here’s a little somethin’ nice by the dear Meggie Green. I think it’s brilliant and deserves many a repost. Way to go, Meg!

Here’s “Distance,” Molly Long’s second release as Poppy Red. Although she now lives in Denver, is moving to France and hasn’t lived in Fayetteville since something like 2007, she’s still as much a Fayetteville lady as any. (Shit, we went to preschool together.) This bit features Jimmy Spice of the duo Liquid Skulls as producer and, as far as I can tell, principal adder-on of subtle layers. I talked to Jimmy about it last night, saying “Other than the obviously Mollied tracks, I can’t tell who did what, and I like that.” His response was “I just made it sound weird.” A good enough description, if you want to know how it differs from Poppy Red’s first release, “Scraps.” The other feature that really makes this one stand out from the last is the maturity of the vocals. There are moments in “Your Weakness” when Molly’s voice is so strong and clear that I drop everything else I’m doing for to bliss out, brah. With that said, drop everything you’re doing and bliss out, brah!

EP by Swimming

I have to post this again because, well, its just that good. I don’t know whether I’ll be keeping this project going once I move to Austin (who knows though), and this one deserves to be at the top if I don’t continue. Sometimes I can’t believe I actually know and play music with these guys. Best band in the ‘Ville in my opinion, and by far the one with the best vocalist. Bryan Kupilas (The Wandering Lake, see below) is in no small way the apple of my envy. I’ve listened to this several times all the way through, which for me is saying something, especially about a local band. I implore you to peep this and pay your fair share for such merry fare. Great work, guys.