Promoting and strengthening the artistic and cultural development of Orange County, North Carolina
The Alliance for Historic Hillsborough and Mike’s Art Truck are pleased to present another special exhibit of folk art at the Alexander Dickson House in Hillsborough, NC. Highlighted by the work of Savannah artist Rudolph Bostic, “More Outsider Art in the Visitors Center” is the second in a series of shows featuring “outsider” art from... Read More →
The PIT Chapel Hill is proud to present the very first Franklin St. Comedy Festival! 3 sketch groups, 25 improv groups and 50+ comedians join us for this inaugural event. This festival is focused on bringing together the very best of North Carolina comedy with local, regional and national comedians. This year’s headliner is JUDAH... Read More →
Beach Bunny is the singer-songwriter project and stage name of Lili Trifilio, with tunes reminiscent of alt-pop and “sadgirl” music, beginning in 2015. Adding musicians Matt Henkels (guitar), Jon Alvarado (drums), and Anthony Vaccaro (bass) to her live performances in 2017, Beach Bunny is a Chicago act you don’t want to miss. From people falling head over heels for Lili’s sweet voice and catchy composition style, her latest release Crybaby took Chicago by storm. Drawing inspiration from heartache, her brother fighting cancer, struggles of being a female in the scene, and everyday obstacles – you can listen to Beach Bunny on almost every streaming platform. Described as “Zooey-Deschanel-meets-the-Beach-Boys-type vibe” by Crafted, stay tuned for what’s to come from Beach Bunny this year.
La Dispute has never been a band prone to settling. The five-piece from Grand Rapids, Michigan, is responsible for some of the most uncompromising, experimental hardcore music of the last decade. From their 2008 debut (in their current formation) Somewhere at the Bottom of the River Between Vega and Altair, to 2011’s Wildlife, to 2015’s Rooms of the House, La Dispute have continually pushed themselves to find new ways to portray some of the most difficult and universally affecting subject matters. Casting a wide stylistic net that includes – but isn’t limited to – jazz, blues, spoken word, screamo and prog rock, La Dispute have developed a sound that, while constantly evolving, is unmistakably theirs. A lot of structural change has taken place around the band since Rooms of the House that has forced them to adapt. La Dispute has always kept a tight grip on their own reins. Their first two records came out on Californian independent label No Sleep – trusted home to many of the bands they cut their teeth alongside – while Rooms of the House was released through their own label, a subsidiary of Vagrant records. After Vagrant was bought out by BMG in 2014, the band found themselves looking for a new home, ultimately finding one in Epitaph. Their fourth full-length, Panorama, is the first fruit of this new relationship. Recorded between November 2017 and August 2018, Panorama is in many ways a continuation on a theme. It’s a highly ambitious and deeply affecting body of work that filters narrative storytelling through a personal lens, like a set of Joan Didion essays set to music. It’s heavier and weirder than previous efforts, taking the intensity of Wildlife and the patience of Rooms of the House and using them as pillars upon which to build something new. And, in doing so, they have broken through their own ceiling and set a new one. Panorama has not been without its challenges, both creatively and practically. Only three members were living in Michigan when they started writing, with drummer Bradley Vander Lugt now living in Australia. Out of necessity, the incubation period for ideas began with back and forth over the internet, but the bulk of the writing had to be done together in their hometown of Grand Rapids. So, finding a time when Brad could make the trip with his family, they blocked three months off to write and rented a studio space to work 9-5 through the week. For over two months, they worked in separate rooms on individual tracks based on a rough concept and outline that Jordan had put together. They had around seven tracks finished when they came to the decision that no one was happy with them. With only the weeks before Brad was due to fly back to Australia left to work with, they scrapped everything and started all over again. “In general, I think working apart when we were all there together was a waste, but I think we had it in our heads that there was a direction we should be going. That we needed to pick up where the last record left off and push further in the direction of quieter, more structured songs, but that never felt right,” Jordan says in retrospect. “Feels a bit silly to say, but when we started over we all more or less just went by instinct. What happened felt right, and that’s really where the record started.” Links: Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram
Zebbler Encanti Experience (aka “ZEE”) is an audio/visual collaboration between video artist Zebbler and electronic music producer Encanti, based out of Boston, USA and Valencia, Spain. The Experience is an immersive performance of mapped visuals on three custom winged projection screens, synchronized with heavy peak-hour psychedelic bass music, resulting in the creation of a fantasy world for audiences to lose themselves in. ZEE have seen a considerable amount of road time in the last few years, serving as integral members of multiple tour teams. The architect behind the projection mapped projects for Shpongle and EOTO, and assisting with Infected Mushroom’s stage construction, Zebbler has toured the United States nonstop producing visual shows and performing as a VJ at hundreds of high profile events. In addition to ZEE performing as direct touring support for EOTO in venues throughout the country, and performing in Shpongle Live band during their first few shows in the United States, Encanti has carved out some time to teach electronic music production to graduate students in Valencia, Spain wing of Berklee College of Music. Links: Website | Facebook | Instagram | SoundCloud
Uniontown — The Honey Pumpkins — Idle Hand No cover, but donations are encouraged
In 2017, Alexandra Sauser-Monnig began recording a set of songs… …about a breakup that had yet to happen. Her partnership had drifted into a comfortable state of indecision, stalling when it came time to make big life moves or chase new horizons. She had the sense that she needed to slip the relationship in order to pursue everything else life might have in store-more music, more adventures, a general sense of the unknown. Those feelings drifted steadily into a set of songs that lamented the inevitable loss but, more important, outlined the promise of the future. Recording the ten tracks that became her stunning solo debut, Dawnbreaker, under the new name Daughter of Swords gave Sauser-Monnig permission to go. Dawnbreaker began as the first phase of Sauser-Monnig’s return to music after stepping to the sidelines for the better part of a decade. Her college trio, Mountain Man, rose to quick acclaim for their peerless harmonies around 2010, but the friends slowly drifted apart, following their own interests to different coasts and concerns. While working on a flower farm as a farmhand, though, Sauser-Monnig realized that she missed the emotional articulation she found in writing songs and singing them and resolved to start again. She pieced together an album just as Mountain Man-now newly gathered in the fertile Piedmont of North Carolina-began to regroup for its second LP, 2018’s aptly named Magic Ship. Working with Sylvan Esso’s Nick Sanborn, Sauser-Monnig shaped what began as quiet reflections into confident compositions, crackling with country swagger and a sparkling pop warmth. They were, after all, preemptive odes to the next phase of life. Calling the ten tunes of Dawnbreaker breakup songs is to hamstring them with elegiac expectations, to paint them as sad-eyed surrenders to loss and grief. Sure, there is the gentle opener “Fellows,” a hushed number that explores the turmoil of being unable to reciprocate the feelings of a wild and shy, tall and fine man. And there’s the blossoming country shuffle of “Easy Is Hard,” where Sauser-Monnig stands in the yard and sees her lover leave, his taillights fading into the night sky; she can’t sleep, so she gets up to turn the lights and stereo on, to “feel my soul coming down.” Even there, amid the throes of a life convulsion, there is a wisp of hope and possibility, framed by the way “the dim light change into dawn, rosy blue, pink fawn.” The very heart of Dawnbreaker is not the impending breakup that inspired many of its songs but the sense of liberation and breaking out that the breakup inspired. Buoyed by the insistent patter of a drum machine and rich acoustic guitars, Sauser-Monnig finds herself in search of new thrills during “Gem,” whether pondering the fleeting nature of existence at a waterfall’s edge or watching the shapes of mountains seemingly dance beneath her headlights. The muted, harmonica-lined boogie of “Sun” begins with a vulnerable confession, a revelation of loneliness; it is, however, a low-key anthem for the open road, about giving oneself over to the infinity of solitude and an endless strip of asphalt. Sauser-Monnig captures these scenes with a painter’s eye and delivers them with a novelist’s heart. Links: Website | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | Bandcamp
Arts on Market is a bi-annual celebration and shopping event featuring local and regional artists, artisans, bakers, and makers. We are excited to welcome local makers to the Southern Village green, where visitors can bring their whole family to enjoy an afternoon of art, entertainment, and shopping. Arts On Market Fall event occurs Sunday November... Read More →
Nominated for thirteen Tony Awards including Best Musical, this triumphant masterpiece bursts forth with show-stopping splendor and unbridled passion. Prepare to be swept away by the diverse rhythms of the turn of the 20th century as three intersecting narratives capture the rich complexity of the American experiment past, present, and future. Cultures clash, people change,... Read More →
Nominated for thirteen Tony Awards including Best Musical, this triumphant masterpiece bursts forth with show-stopping splendor and unbridled passion. Prepare to be swept away by the diverse rhythms of the turn of the 20th century as three intersecting narratives capture the rich complexity of the American experiment past, present, and future. Cultures clash, people change,... Read More →
Nominated for thirteen Tony Awards including Best Musical, this triumphant masterpiece bursts forth with show-stopping splendor and unbridled passion. Prepare to be swept away by the diverse rhythms of the turn of the 20th century as three intersecting narratives capture the rich complexity of the American experiment past, present, and future. Cultures clash, people change,... Read More →
Join our artists in finding winter comfort in those things we most treasure and enjoy. Meet and talk with the artists, enjoy light refreshments, and a free arts and crafts activity. This show, featuring work from local artists Kevin Flynn Bell, Katherine Chang, Beverly Currence, Michi Doan, April N. Dukes, Karin Dungee, Mark Kingsley, D.... Read More →
Nominated for thirteen Tony Awards including Best Musical, this triumphant masterpiece bursts forth with show-stopping splendor and unbridled passion. Prepare to be swept away by the diverse rhythms of the turn of the 20th century as three intersecting narratives capture the rich complexity of the American experiment past, present, and future. Cultures clash, people change,... Read More →
Nominated for thirteen Tony Awards including Best Musical, this triumphant masterpiece bursts forth with show-stopping splendor and unbridled passion. Prepare to be swept away by the diverse rhythms of the turn of the 20th century as three intersecting narratives capture the rich complexity of the American experiment past, present, and future. Cultures clash, people change,... Read More →
Short-form improv scenes based on audience suggestions. Everything is made up on the spot, and the content is appropriate for children and adults… and adults who act like children!
Nominated for thirteen Tony Awards including Best Musical, this triumphant masterpiece bursts forth with show-stopping splendor and unbridled passion. Prepare to be swept away by the diverse rhythms of the turn of the 20th century as three intersecting narratives capture the rich complexity of the American experiment past, present, and future. Cultures clash, people change,... Read More →
Daughter of Swords (Mountain Man’s Alexandra Sauser-Monnig) is joined by the Dawnbreaker band (Nick Sanborn, Ryan Gustafson, Jeff Crawford and Yan Westerlund) to perform her celebrated new album. Presented by Cat’s Cradle.
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