>>> Special thanks to Josh, Peggy and everyone at Stella Blue for hosting the event this year!!!

… note: this is a very nice article the appeared in todays issue of Mountain X-press

Bele Chere isn’t for everybody. Luckily, it won’t be the only party happening this weekend.

While throngs of visitors fill the streets of downtown, Stella Blue will host the ninth annual Anti Bele Chere, a showcase of underground music that began at Green Eggs and Jam — now Static Age Records — as a way to promote bands that probably wouldn’t stand a chance of making it onto the official event’s roster. The party is slated to host more than 20 acts, including The Enemy Lovers, Hillside Bombers, The Go Devils and Ironside, all of which are regulars at the club.

“Those bands all support Stella Blue,” says organizer Josh Rosenstein. “They come out to the shows, and they play here throughout the year. We actually had to turn down a few bands this year because we’ve already got so many.”

But even the Anti Bele Chere will have a strong out-of-town element. This year, it also serves as the official reunion for the defunct Decline of Western North Carolina record label, home to a slew of Asheville underground talent in the mid ‘90s, when the city’s now-bustling music scene was in its infancy, and local rock shows were often limited to basements and house parties.

“I came into Asheville in ‘93, and when I got here, there wasn’t really anything going on besides Vincent’s Ear,” recalls Decline of WNC co-founder Bob Rest, who today lives in Atlanta and operates an all-Asheville, underground web-radio site known as Decline Radio (declineradio.com). Rest struck a deal with Club Metropolis (where Club 828 is now) to put on shows underneath the club.

Rest, along with The Mathmatics’ Milton Carter, soon formed Decline of WNC to promote bands like The Mathmatics, Tripod, The Merle and Acme Music Company, releasing three local music compilations and giving birth to a scene that still influences Asheville music. And while most of the performers this weekend — Drunken Prayer, We Have A Meth Lab, Dark Ridge and A Bigger Hammer — are new incarnations of mid-’90s mainstays, several of the original lineups will perform intact, including Glaze, Vic Crown and Friday’s headliner, Valve.

It will be the second year for the reunion — Broadways hosted last year’s Decline event — and Rest expects to see plenty of familiar faces.

“There’s going to be a lot of old-school people coming in from out of town. It’s going to be kind of nice, like the ‘90s again for two days,” Rest says. “Last year, people that hadn’t seen each other in ten years were coming out of nowhere,” he remembers. “We had a really great turnout. All these old-school people came from all over the country just for these little local bands.”

But to many, Rest included, they were more than just “little local bands.” Many who were around for the Decline era speak with wistful nostalgia of a paradise lost.

“The years that I lived in Asheville and the friends that I met and the art and cool things that happened, just in that time that I was there, they changed my life,” says Valve guitarist Jeff Cannon, who will be coming all the way from Florida for the reunion. “It certainly was magical. And I sense that from other people who have moved away or gotten older and have families and stuff. There always seems to be agreement on that.”

Even the venue has significance, especially to Rest. He managed what would become Stella Blue in the late ‘90s, known at the time as 31 Patton.

“In my mind,” he says, “it’s my old bar. I’ve got a lot of history and emotion around that place. I’m glad we’re doing it there this year.”

“Decline was sort of based around this building,” adds Rosenstein. “They did a lot of shows here when it was 31 Patton, and one of the bands I’m in, Vic Crown, was with Decline, so we used to play here. Bob Rest would book my band at 31 Patton, and now I’m booking his band [We Have A Meth Lab] at the same place.”

So whether you’re feeling nostalgic or you want an alternative to the chaos in the streets, Stella Blue welcomes you to the other Bele Chere party.

Dane Smith can be reached at dsmith@mountainx.com .

what: Decline of WNC reunion / Anti Bele Chere party
where: Stella Blue
when: Friday, July 23 and Saturday, July 24

Friday, July 23
Valve
Drunken Prayer
Krek Tones
Hillside Bombers
We Have A Meth Lab
Glaze

Saturday, July 24
Summer Time Whiskey Band
Billy Sugarfix’s Carousel
Electrolux

A Bigger Hammer
Dark Ridge
Vic Crown
Skull Thunder
Go Devils
The Ages Within
Dissent
Ironside
Enemy Lovers
Mother Soul
Crank County Daredevils

This is my life in a nutshell: the out-of-work music writer, the hardened critic, the aging hipster, the asshole, and even the balding, self-loathing, pseudo-Jew asked by former Ashevillian/head BFO-er/Decline conspirator Bob Rest to give a CD by his latest band, We Have a Meth Lab, a listen and a review.

“Give it a good review” he says, adding later on for me to compliment his band’s musicianship. I download the un-mastered version of his album and prepare myself for it.

These days I hardly listen to a lot of rock and roll. My life (and musical habits) seem to dwell upon old-school soul testimonials by long dead black dudes and newfangled noodlings by white men nerdier than I am in all sorts of jangly, though sometimes distorted and vaguely jazzy post-punk outfits. Rock and roll- and especially punk rock is something best left to the masses. Sure it gets your heart racing and your head bobbing, but its so fucking populist, and populism (as we all know) is for everyone else. Musical douche bags such as myself like stuff arty or less white, and we love using cuntastic phrases like limitations of the genre when talking about rock and roll.

With that long-winded and highly pretentious qualifier out the way, I can honestly say that despite my self-righteous leanings I loved We Have a Meth Lab’s The Meth Lab for Cuties LP. It’s good shit.

What Bob and his band (Tex Greenfield on Guitar and Unleaded on Drums) do well is play honest-to-goodness drunk punk rock. Fugazi or Refused this isn’t. Instead, We Have a Meth Lab are closer to the fast, loud, and rude sounds of the Meatmen. The guitars are over distorted and the bass is overdriven to a near fuzzy sound and the drums are full of spastic and wonderful rolls and fills that were either created by a thirteen year old or a highly skilled thirtysomething who is just remembering what made drums fun.

That’s the thing about The Meth Lab for Cuties LP, the band has ignored what makes music feel important or significant. Instead, they are just playing stuff that is fun. Laughs are had listening to this music and laughs were probably had making this music.

Despite the band’s Atlanta ZIP code, old-school Asheville fans will recognize some of the tunes as holdovers from the BFO. But these songs’ inclusion (along with covers of tracks by Asheville bands like Choking Victim and The Mathmatics) isn’t because Rest and company are creatively tapped out, instead the songs sound tighter, heavier and better than they did in their Asheville heyday (although “Julie Song” could really use Milton Carter’s backing vocals).

Another great moment on the CD is the cover of “Summer Breeze”, which isn’t exactly a rehash of the Isley Brothers’ version of the song. It’s tougher, funnier and drunker.

For fans of “serious rock” or whatever we call it these days, We Have a Meth Lab might be a bit too fun, and a bit too sloppy, but for fans of visceral, warts and all punk rock, it’s just like the epic Compound parties in 1996 never ended. Rest is there with you, drunk as fuck and hitting on your girlfriend, and his band is playing some kick ass tunes the entire time.

The Pixies are coming.

Tickets are on sale next weekend for a show by the rock band The Pixies, Sept. 12 at Thomas Wolfe Auditorium. The band has sold out almost 40 shows on three continents since the fall of 2009, and the tour is a celebration of the 20th anniversary of the band’s “Doolittle” album.

The Wolfe show (like all on the tour) will be recorded and made available immediately after the performance at the merchandise table.

The group (Black Francis, Kim Deal, Joey Santiago and David Lovering) is performing all of the songs from “Doolittle” and various related B-sides. The album includes “Debaser,” “Wave of Mutilation,” “Here Comes Your Man,” “Hey,” and “Gouge Away.”

Tickets are $40 and $49 and on sale July 9 at the Civic Center box office, and through Ticketmaster at outlets, online at www.ticketmaster.com or by calling 800-745-3000.

>>>> Stolen from the Mtn X-press website<<<<

by Alli Marshall on 06/26/2010

Related topics: music, band, podcast, Morgan Geer, The Merle

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Morgan Geer (Chris to some, Saint Christopher to others) brings his current band, Drunken Prayer cross-country this summer, from Portland to Asheville, for a month’s-worth of shows.

Geer returned to Asheville last summer, reuniting his bands The Merle and The Unholy trio. Read about those shows here and here.

His 2010 itinerary is more extensive, including:
• The Big Crafty pre-party at the LAB on Saturday, July 10
• a Grey Eagle show with The Whappers on Friday, July 16
• Saturday, July 17 with The Unholy Trio and Rafe Hollister at The Watershed in Black Mountain.
•  Drunken Prayer plays the Decline of WNC showcase at Stella Blue onFriday, July 23
•  a Broadway’s appearance with The Merle onSaturday, July 24
• and Drunken Prayer is back The Watershed on Friday, July 30, with The Mad Tea Party and The Trainwreks.
There’s also talk of a reunion show with The Merle and The Goodies on Saturday, July 31: We’ll let you know as soon as that’s finalized.

In the following podcast, Geer talks to Xpress about his month-long Asheville residency, plans to move back to WNC, his current project and what it means to be in a 90s band.

 Mogan Geer podcast

 

Download audio file 

The classic original 3 piece of Woodroe,
Mike, and Reed will be touring and
performing songs from Animosity,
Technocracy, and some NEW stuff!
More dates soon.

07/30/10 Asheville, NC @ Stella Blue
07/31/10 Raleigh NC @ The Pour House
8/08/2010 Los Angeles, CA @ Echo and
Echoplex -The Power of the Riff Fest
8/10/2010 San Francisco, CA @ DNA Lounge
8/12/2010 Seattle, WA @ o’s

Corrosion of Conformity (C.O.C.) was formed in Raleigh, North Carolina by bassist and vocalist Mike Dean, guitarist Woody Weatherman and drummer Reed Mullin in early 1980s.[1] Their hardcore punk-oriented 20-track debut Eye for an Eye—the only album featuring the vocalist Eric Eycke—was released in 1984 (later re-released by Caroline Records during 1990).[2] Soon after, Eycke left the band and C.O.C. continued as a three-piece with Dean and Mullin sharing the vocal duties on the 1985’s follow-up Animosity.[1] In 1987, COC recruited Simon Bob Sinister away from their fellow Carolina band and Death Records labelmates, Ugly Americans. The band’s 1987 release, Technocracy featured the hectic thrash musicianship of COC with a cleaner vocal style than they had in the past.

you can get tix to the Asheville show here:

http://www.inticketing.com/events/109243

HOTTEST NEWS!
The SugarFoot Serenaders, an ABSfest favorite, have been booked as the Afterparty Band for this year’s Saturday Night Spectacular! Asheville’s Acrobatic Parlor Music Sweerthearts will make you swoon, with their nostalgic, feel-good dance music, girlish charms, and sassy acrobatics.

The Afterparty is included in the cost of a Saturday night ticket. For folks arriving after 10:30pm, the Afterparty is only $5!
Hear and see them at www.myspace.com/oldhorsey

About ABSfest

ABSfest 2009 was our most amazing year yet! Attendance was epic, the performers were magnificent, and the afterparties were hot and heavy. A thousand thanks to all of our staff, artists, and sponsors for making this three-day festival possible, keeping Asheville freaky, and making ABSfest a national destination for stupendous burlesque and sideshow artists.

Now that the glare of sequins isn’t quite so blinding, plans are cookin’ in the ABSfest kitchen for 2010. Our headliners this year are Michelle L’amour & Paolo Garbanzo.

Neo-Burlesque and the flourishing Sideshow Arts are part of the Vaudeville Revival, a huge international movement with festivals around the world. Neo-Vaudeville explores women’s empowerment, satirizes mainstream ‘normalcy’, and offers unforgettable, interactive, good old fashioned American entertainment to those bold enough to pass thru those striped curtains to the midway beyond…

You may email our event team at absfest2010@gmail.com This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it with questions.

About Future of Tradition Productions
ABSfest is a Future of Tradition production. FoT has been a force in shaping and sustaining the arts in Western North Carolina since 1999. Founded as a Center for Folkarts, FoT for many years housed traditional and evolving visual, movement and music artists under one roof. Many long-standing groups in Asheville’s nationally known artscene had roots there, particularly in the fire and circus arts, bellydance, African and Latin dance communities.

In 2006, FoT shifted primary focus to event production. The most comprehensive programs are Triboriginal: Tribal Dance, Music and Culture Camp, now in its fiftth year, and the Americana Burlesque & Sideshow Festival, with new projects in the works.
Visit www.hardestworkingwomaninshowbusiness.com for more information.

Press Passes
If you are member of the Press or cover Asheville events, you won’t want to miss this!

Free Press Passes Available to Any journalist who want to cover one of the most entertaining shows of the year. Respond quick to get one of our few exclusive VIP Press passes to the entire 4th Annual Americana Burlesque Festival (June 11-13 2010)- starring Michelle L’Amour and Paolo Garbanzo. 3 days of action packed entertainment, shows, workshops, shopping, burlesque and circus performers from all over the globe. VIP Press Passes are very limited – and are available now This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

The Shows are THAT good. If you’re busy, change your plans. You don’t want to miss this one.

Press People: contact Producer Onca O’Leary at lamadameonca@gmail.com This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or by phone (828) 232-2980 for more details and information.

Follow the Americana Burlesque Festival:
on Twitter: www.twitter.com/absfest
on facebook: Americana Burlesque & Sideshow Festival