july 2010 | a free publication
We sit down with electro-pop band Cassis Orange to discuss the inspirational power of loneliness.
Folk singer Manquillan Minniefee, film maker Tony Murnahan, The Ra Ra Riot and more...
Fayetteville’s Premier Live Music and Event Center
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What’s inside JULY 2010 | VOLUME 1 | ISSUE 6 Publisher
Paddy Gibney
paddy@fayettevillefeed.com
Director of Public Relations Chesney Wilson
chesney@fayettevillefeed.com 214.886.8860
Editor
James Johnson
jjohnson@fayettevillefeed.com
Head Correspondent Jaymie Baxley
jaymie@fayettevillefeed.com
Photo Editor
Raul Rubiera Jr.
raul@fayettevillefeed.com
Art Director Jeff Nihiser
jeff@fayettevillefeed.com
Business Manager Jessica Corona
jessica@fayettevillefeed.com
Operations Manager Megan Warner
megan@fayettevillefeed.com
Contact us at 706.421.FEED The Fayetteville FEED is published twelve times annually by Fayetteville FEED Publishing. Address: P.O. Box 87950, Fayetteville NC 28304, Phone: 706-421-3333, Web site: www.fayettevillefeed.com Postmaster send address changes to: The Fayetteville FEED Publishing, LLC, P.O. Box 87950, Fayetteville NC 28304. Postage paid at Fayetteville, NC. Application to mail at Periodicals Postage Rates is pending at Fayetteville, NC and at additional mailing offices. Published twelve times a year. Audit applications submitted. ISSN applied for. No part of this magazine may be reproduced without written permission. Copyright 2010. All images Copyright 2010 Jupiterimages Corporation, The Fayetteville FEED, and Raul Rubiera Jr., unless specified otherwise. Publication of an advertisement in The Fayetteville FEED does not constitute an endorsement of the product or service by The Fayetteville FEED, Fayetteville FEED Publishing. All manuscripts submitted should be accompanied by a self-addressed envelope and sufficient return postage. While reasonable care will be taken, the publisher cannot be held responsible for unsolicited manuscripts and photographs. The Fayetteville FEED is a registered trademark used by Fayetteville FEED Publishing, LLC All rights reserved. Printed by Angstrom Graphics, Hollywood, FL.
2 | The Fayetteville FEED | July 2010
12 Cassis Orange
4 6 8 29 30 32 38 40 42 43 44 48 50
FEEDback From the Editor Music and Events Dancer Todd Baker Something to waste time The Big Debate Ra Ra Riot Release Review Book Review In Me Wick! Game - Red Dead Redemption Thoughts From A Broad From the Publisher
18
Manquillan Minniefee
24
Tony Murnahan
July 2010 | fayettevillefeed.com | 3
FEEDback We can’t print everything we get, but we at least look at them. Send your praise, your pity, and your prattle to P.O. Box 87950, Fayetteville, NC 28304 or comments@ fayettevillefeed.com
Spray It, Don’t Say It I would like to say how very impressed I was with the quality of your magazine. How long have you been around? I’ve never seen an issue before. I found it very informative on an extremely broad scale...I totally agree with the comment you made in your “Downtown Fayetteville: The Theme Park” article that we need a free expression tunnel. I was amazed at the results this has produced at NC State. My oldest child is in her second year there, and she explained the whole concept to me in great detail. They have absolutely no graffiti anywhere on the whole campus - because everyone knows where they can go to vent! Mind you, it seemed to me that there was a little friendly competition going on between NC State and Duke at the time...something to do with a game... and there was a lot of venting going on...I agree that it would totally discourage vandalism here but
more than that, it would be a great place for local artists to showcase their work if they felt that they could not do it any place else, especially teenagers. It seems sad that passion should be quenched so early in life because there is no appropriate outlet for it, don’t you think?
Caroline Neal, via e-mail Thank you, Caroline. If people want to see an art space like that downtown, they have to make themselves heard. City council meetings are great places for kvetching, fist shaking, name calling and occasionally getting things done. One local business owner had expressed concern to us regarding the suggestion of an art wall, citing a reluctance to “waste tax dollars”
FEED fan Aimee McKinney Davis sent us this compromising photo of her dog...We’re less concerned with why a dog is reading a magazine, and more with why a dog is drinking wine. You know it’s a problem when you’re drinking alone.
4 | The Fayetteville FEED | July 2010
on said wall … Yup. Wasting tax dollars by allowing a pre-existing wall to be painted by citizens … If you let the silliness of that statement sink in too deep, you’ll give yourself a nose bleed. However, if it will ease the hearts and minds of certain business owners, then perhaps someone who owns a building downtown would like to volunteer a wall on the outside of their building for this artistic experiment? This could serve as a great promotional tool for their business by making it a city landmark, and of course, potentially save tax payers billions of dollars that would have otherwise been wasted on...um...we’re getting blood on our keyboard, so let’s just move on. ~FEED
Random Displays of Affection Congratulations Fayetteville FEED on another fantastic issue. Did anyone ever tell you that FF is possibly the cultural vanguard of the Long Emergency, the Great RESET, the Transition, the Flashpoint, the Mid-Course Correction; whatever jolt you wish to heed...Hearings are underway throughout the month. Downtown and convenient. Repeat the message. Ask the question. Best wishes,
Donald Belk, via Facebook Thanks Don...If we’ve excited just one local eccentric, then we’ve done our jobs...Please don’t kill us. ~FEED
Diggin’ Betrayal The following are just some of the responses we received for our story on the Fayetteville-based metal band Betray Your Own, in our June issue. Raleigh is a hard crowd to please man! We are finally getting a small buzz
over there ourselves! Keep up the great work guys (and) never give up!
Thomas Lions For Lambs, Via Web site Awesome group of guys. Their sound is brutal and intense. They were definitely born to do what they are doing. Words can’t describe how much ass their live shows kick. Keep at it fellas! You rock!
Terry 888 Squires, Via Web site The photos turned out so great! Not really a big metal fan but after being buried by these guys … I had to check ‘em out. They DO stand out, something that is pretty hard to do with Fayetteville’s metal scene. Great article! Great music!
Laney Branch (the photo assistant who agreed to let FEED photographer Raul Rubiera Jr. bury her for the Betray Your Own shoot), Via Web site
The Question How does one go about getting their music noticed by the Feed?
Dan Myler, Via Facebook Dan, we get this question so often it hurts our teeth, so let’s get this out of the way once and for all. The truthiness of the matter is – we cover artists based on how interesting they are. Originality is a big ol’ factor, and of course actual skill is high up there as well. Most importantly, we are less likely to cover an artist who forces themselves down our throats, ‘cause at the end of the day we’re just spiteful old queens. Keep promoting your work, keep being original and eventually you’ll stand out so much that we’ll be begging to do a story on you. July 2010 | fayettevillefeed.com | 5
From the editor America, F**k Yeah! by James Johnson
Photo: Chris Chun
James Johnson
The sun is out in full force, your favorite TV shows are in reruns, and casual Friday has slowly devolved into an excuse to not wear pants to the office – all signs that the month of July is upon us and with July comes Independence Day, also known as America’s birthday. Happy birthday, Uncle Sam, we got you the same gift we get you every year: beer and explosives – do we know you, or do we know you? In the spirit of recognizing the big hunk of land mass we call home, I wanted to say a few things about being a patriot. Someone cue up my soaring trumpets and fetch my pet eagle, things are about to get schmaltzy... Since the invention of modern P.R. reps, Fayetteville North Carolina has been known as the most patriotic city in America, far surpassing less patriotic towns, such as Manteca, California (their annual Flag Burning Festival has become far too commercial). Still, the question remains: are we? By definition, patriotic means to feel or express love for one’s country – and as our city is one pumped full of American soldiers, it seems safe to say, “Yeah, if these guys are willing to risk their lives in the name of our country, they probably love it something fierce.” Still, no matter how many flags you wear on your lapel, or Toby Keith lyrics you have tattooed on your back, our city doesn’t always feel so “patriotic.” By this I mean there are two rather large groups in our town which make me feel that we still have a lot of work to do to earn that title. The first group are the townies (I’m one of ‘em): the people who have lived in Fayetteville for most of, if not all of their lives and have never themselves worked in the United States military. These people are really no different from any person in any other town in America – but their lives in Fayetteville have actually made a number of them less patriotic than your average American. A lot of them, though not all, quietly (sometimes vocally) resent the military. Weird, right? It seems that many
6 | The Fayetteville FEED | July 2010
townies feel forgotten. The city governemnt falls over backwards to make soldiers feel pandered to, half the businesses in town offer soldiers and their families military discounts, and young recruits oftentimes behave like the muscle headed jocks most of us thought we’d have seen the last of in high school. Many townies feel like second class citizens, or worse yet – the school nerds, who though hard working, never receive the celebratory parades and trophy cases that the school jocks do. Nerds, as we all know, are bitter creatures. What many townies fail to realize is, that it isn’t the fault of the soldier that people throw them parades – and that for all they go through and all the sacrifices they make, a few discounts here and there is the least we could do. The other group suffering from a lack of patriotism is, ironically, the American soldier. Again – weird stuff. Our country is just a collection of states, states are just collections of cities, and if you claim to love your country, you have to love the sum of its parts, namely the cities and more to the point Fayetteville. Whether your stay here is a year or six years, it would make your life and the lives of every soldier and townie living here a lot better if you chose to treat Fayetteville like it were your hometown. Don’t refer to the town by degrading names, defend it when you hear someone else doing so and get involved in the community. Part of being a patriot is loving your country, no matter what part of the country you happen to be stationed in. Now let’s all grab some beer and some explosives and show the rest of the country how it’s done.
Schedule Each month we scour the Internet for shows and events, but we just know we’re missing something. Shoot us an e-mail and set us straight: Comments@FayettevilleFEED.com. We trust that the information we have received is accurate when we publish it, but anything can change.
The Rock Shop Music Hall
128 South King Street, Fayetteville, NC, 910-321-7625 July 7, 8 p.m.
July 9, 6 p.m. July 10, 8 p.m. July 11, 8 p.m. July 14, 6 p.m. July 15, 8 p.m.
July 16, 8 p.m.
OTEP, I Wrestled A Bear Once, Stray From The Path, Bury Tomorrow, Phuket Underwater Bound N Gagged, Salvacion, GOLLUM, Broadslab Dark Water Rising National Recording Artists PSYCHOSTICK, Loudwater Fury, Look What I Did, After 11 Indulge Fashion Show National Recording Artists THE INDEPENDENTS, The Villians, The Missfits, The Shotdowns THE CRASH & BURN TOUR w/ Team Cybergeist featuring members of Dope, Stone Sour, Saliva, Fractured Fairytales, Sister Kill Cycle
July 17, 8 p.m. July 18, 6 p.m.
July 23, 7 p.m.
July 24, 6 p.m. July 28, 8 p.m. July 30, 8 p.m. Aug. 1, 8 p.m. Aug. 2, 4 p.m.
Aug. 3, 7 p.m.
Aug. 7, 8 p.m. Aug. 8, 8 p.m.
Nephilym, The Fifth, Messenger Of Hope, Valhalla, Untold Brutality Records Presents Thou Shall Burn, Within Us All, Embracing Tomorrow, Attracting The Fall, Sole, Within The Fear KARMA CULTURE MARKET Presents National Recording Artists GREEN JELLY and SCHMEGMA, Born Empty Legacy Kills, Blameshift, Evans City Saints, Several Devils Band The Vicious Guns Dear Enemy, Driven BATTLE OF THE BANDS, Aquience, Fearless In Red OVER THE LIMIT TOUR w/As Blood Runs Black, Oceano, Arsonists Get All The Girls, The Tony Danza Tapdance Extravaganza, Thick As Blood, Burning The Masses, Circle Of Contempt, Blind Witness, This Is The Apocalypse, Betray Your Own THE SEXTREME BALL 2010, Lords of Acid, My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult, Blownload, DJ Deathwish, Fractured Fairytales Rock 103 presents Vanilla Ice and Schmegma The Rocketz, Hotrod Hillbillies
Itz Entertainment City
4118 Legend Ave., Fayetteville, NC, 910-826-2300 July 2
July 3 July 4
July 7
July 8 July 9 July 10
8 | The Fayetteville FEED | July 2010
Party Night, Dance Club open with Live Music by The Dickens, Ladies Night Party Night, Dance Club open with Live Music by The Dickens Live Unplugged/Acoustic Music by DL Token in the Cigar Bar “All Request Show” with DJ Shawn on The Patio, Shows at 7 & 10 p.m. in The Comedy Zone Pre-band request show on The Patio, Live acoustic music by David “The Piano Man” Parker of Myrtle Beach in the Cigar Bar All Request Show with DJ Shawn on The Patio Party Night, Dance Club open, Ladies Night Party Night, Dance Club open
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Schedule July 11
July 14
July 16 July 17 July 18
July 21
July 23 July 24 July 25
July 28
July 30 July 31
Live Unplugged/Acoustic Music by DL Token in the Cigar Bar All Request Show with DJ Shawn on The Patio, shows at 7 & 10 p.m. in The Comedy Zone Pre-band request show on The Patio, Live acoustic music by David “The Piano Man” Parker of Myrtle Beach in the Cigar Bar Party Night, Dance Club open, Ladies Night Party Night, Dance Club open Live Unplugged/Acoustic Music by DL Token in the Cigar Bar All Request Show with DJ Shawn on The Patio, shows at 7 & 10 p.m. in The Comedy Zone Pre-band request show on The Patio, Live acoustic music by David “The Piano Man” Parker of Myrtle Beach in the Cigar Bar Party Night, Dance Club open, Ladies Night Party Night, Dance Club open Live Unplugged/Acoustic Music by DL Token in the Cigar Bar All Request Show with DJ Shawn on The Patio, shows at 7 & 10 p.m. in The Comedy Zone Pre-band request show on The Patio, Live acoustic music by David “The Piano Man” Parker of Myrtle Beach in the Cigar Bar Party Night, Dance Club open, Ladies Night Party Night, Dance Club open,
405 Hay Street, Fayetteville, NC, 910-437-9905
July 16, 9 p.m. July 23, 9 p.m. July 30 9 p.m.
S.I.N.N , Modern Day Slave, Verrat Bob Funck & New World Heroes, Swift Robinson, Just Monroe A Fragile Tommorrow, Matt Lindstrom Band, Tattermask, This Last Dance The All Ways, Cherry Case, Sleepset, Enemy Of Mine A Few Inches Short, A.Z., Ordain, Disco Machine Gun
Huske Hardware
405 Hay Street, Fayetteville, NC, 910-437-9905 July 7, 7 p.m. July 14, 7 p.m. July 21, 7 p.m. July 28, 7 p.m.
10 | The Fayetteville FEED | July 2010
6577 Fisher Road, Fayetteville, NC, 910-423-6100 July 3, 8:00 p.m. July 3, 8:30 p.m.
Chris Harlan Hed PE, Kutt Calhoun, Johnny Richter, Big B, BLESTeNATION July 8, 9:00 p.m. Cool Kid Collective July 23, 8:00 p.m. Chris Harlan, The Omega Project, Saint Diablo July 23, 10 p.m. Cool Kid Collective July 29, 10 p.m. Cool Kid Collective
Paddy’s Pub 2606 B, Raeford Road, Fayetteville, NC, 910-677-0055 July 1, 10 p.m. July 2, 10 p.m. July 3, 10 p.m. July 4, 10 p.m. July 8, 10 p.m. July 9, 10 p.m. July 10, 10 p.m. July 11, 10 p.m. July 15, 10 p.m. July 16, 10 p.m. July 18, 10 p.m. July 22, 10 p.m. July 23, 10 p.m. July 24, 10 p.m. July 25, 10 p.m. July 29, 10 p.m. July 30, 10 p.m. July 31, 10 p.m.
Autumn Nicolas, Paddy & Bill Autumn Nicolas, Paddy & Bill Paddy & Bill Ethan Hanson Autumn Nicolas, Paddy & Bill Autumn Nicolas, Paddy & Bill Paddy & Bill Ethan Hanson Autumn Nicolas, Paddy & Bill Autumn Nicolas, Paddy & Bill Ethan Hanson Autumn Nicolas, Paddy & Bill Autumn Nicolas, Paddy & Bill Paddy & Bill Ethan Hanson Autumn Nicolas, Paddy & Bill Autumn Nicolas, Paddy & Bill Paddy & Bill
The Doghouse
3049 Owen Drive, Fayetteville, NC, 910-339-2404
Via 216
July 2, 9 p.m. July 9, 9 p.m.
Jester’s Pub
DL Token Ethan Hanson Brad Stockholm Kenny Huffman
July 1, 10 p.m. July 4, 2 p.m. July 5, 9 p.m.
Dollar Night, Live DJ Johnson Kinlaw Open Jam w/Silver State, Guy Unger, JD and All Your Favorite Musicians in Fayetteville July 6, 9:30 p.m. Karaoke w/DJ Scotty July 7, 8 p.m. Mike Odonell July 8, 10 p.m. Dollar Night, Live DJ Metallica Tribute Band Magnetica July 10, 8 p.m. w/Pyromatic July 11, 2 p.m. Johnson Kinlaw July 12, 9 p.m. Open Jam w/Silver State, Guy Unger, JD and All Your Favorite Musicians in Fayetteville July 13, 9:30 p.m. Karaoke w/DJ Scotty July 14, 8 p.m. Mike Odonell July 15, 10 p.m. Dollar Night, Live DJ Swampdawamp w/Big Daddy Drive July 17, 8 p.m. July 18, 8 p.m. Johnson Kinlaw July 19, 9 p.m. Open Jam w/Silver State, Guy Unger,
JD and All Your Favorite Musicians in Fayetteville July 20, 9:30 p.m. Karaoke w/DJ Scotty July 21, 8 p.m. Mike Odonell July 22, 10 p.m. Dollar Night, Live DJ July 24, 8 p.m. Motley Crue Tribute Band Carnival of Crue w/ Reflections II July 25, 2 p.m. Johnson Kinlaw July 26, 9 p.m. Open Jam w/Silver State, Guy Unger, JD and All Your Favorite Musicians in Fayetteville July 27, 9:30 p.m. Karaoke w/DJ Scotty July 28, 8 p.m. Mike Odonell July 29, 10 p.m. Dollar Night Live DJ
SpeakEasy
3983 Sycamore Dairy Road, Fayetteville, NC, 910-323-2400 July 2, TBA July 9, TBA July 16, TBA July 23, TBA July 30, TBA
Erik Smallwood Autumn Nicholas Erik Smallwood Autumn Nicholas Erik Smallwood
Cats Cradle
Times listed are for doors opening, shows begin one hour after
July 4, 10 p.m. July 5, 9 p.m.
July 6, 9 p.m.
July 8, 9 p.m. July 9, 9:30 p.m. July 10, 10 p.m. July 11, TBA July 12, 9:30 p.m. July 13, 9:30 p.m. July 14, 9:30 p.m. July 15, TBA July 16, 10 p.m. July 22, TBA July 25, TBA July 27, 9:30 p.m. July 28, 9:30 p.m. July 29, 9:30 p.m.
George Preston Herrett, Lactose Quervo David Karsten Daniels CD Release Show, Fight The Bull, Bright Young Things New Town Drunks, Fantastico! Sun The Shivers Cage, Hate Your Guts Twin Tigers Davin McCoy Tom Maxwell Future Islands, Ear Pwr, Nuclear Power Pants, Fat Camp Joe Pugg and The Hundred Mile Band, Rayland Baxter Bats & Mice, Cinemechanica Chairlift, Motorskills Tweakbird, Caltrop, Death Came Down The Mountain Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti, Magic Kids
Local 506
506 W. Franklin Street, Chapel Hill, NC 27516, 919-942-5506
300 E. Main Street, Carrboro, NC 27510, 919-967-9053 July 2, 8 p.m.
PO PO The Heartless Bastards, The Builders And The Butchers, Peter Wolf Crier July 10, 9 p.m. Chatham County Line, Birds & Arrows July 11, TBA Teen-Beat 26th Anniversary Performances: Unrest, True Love Always, Bossanova, MC: Patrick Bryant July 13, 9:15 p.m. Rasputina, Larkin Grimm July 16, 9 p.m. SOLD OUT, Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros, We Are Each Other w/Aaron Embry July 17, 9 p.m. The Love Language CD Release Party, The Light Pines, Shit Horse July 22, 8 p.m. John Hiatt and the Combo July 29, 8 p.m. Mat Kearney July 9, 9 p.m.
Islands, Steel Phantoms, Active Child Victor Wooten Delta Spirit, David Vandervelde, The Romany Eye Sleigh Bells, Nerve City,
July 1, 9:30 p.m. July 2, 9:30 p.m. July 3, 8:30 July 5, TBA July 7, 9:30 p.m.
We Landed On The Moon Lightning Bolt, Clang Quartet, In The Year of The Pig The L In Japanese Dance Party, Jeremy Jay - CANCELLED Andy LeMaster of Now It’s Overhead Saint Bernadette, Joe Roberto, Peverty Hash
July 2010 | fayettevillefeed.com | 11
12 | The Fayetteville FEED | July 2010
Story by James Johnson Photos by Raul Rubiera Jr
A bustling overpopulated metropolis on the forefront of global commerce and technological innovation and a quiet, rural town distanced from progressive civilization, where derelict houses stand great lengths apart. Though thousands of miles and several time zones separate Tokyo, Japan from Stedman, North Carolina, the two disparate cities are connected by a bridge. A bridge reinforced by the cold reflective beams of loneliness. This bridge exists entirely in the head of Autumn Ehinger, front woman of the rising electronic indie-pop group Cassis Orange, and there’s a line quickly forming at the toll booth. July 2010 | fayettevillefeed.com | 13
14 | The Fayetteville FEED | July 2010
The 5’4”, 100 lb. school teacher wears her geek chic black rimmed, bejeweled eyeglasses like a badge of honor - these are glasses that can only be earned through long nights of studious reading and paper grading. Ehinger seems to take pride in being the queen of quirk, as evidenced by her sense of humor. While first impressions might lead one to assume Ehinger is somehow awkward or uncertain, the 25 year-old is, if anything, entirely self aware and comfortable with whom she is. That self awareness shines through the most in her music, which is both playful and poppy while incredibly introspective. For Ehinger, Cassis Orange is more than a band she’d created in her head; it is therapy with a beat. “I lived in Japan for seven months before moving back to Stedman, where my family is,” explained Ehinger. “(Cassis Orange) is kind of like a fake band. That is, it tries to sound as full as it can, but is kind of a bedroom project, that came from this feeling of moving around a lot and being isolated...I don’t think I’m a lonely person, that is, I don’t enjoy being alone - it just happens.” The name Cassis Orange is derived from a popular cocktail drink in Japan, which Ehinger felt perfectly describes the music. “(The drink) is really popular in Karaoke booths,” Ehinger said. “The music has this dichotomy between being really friendly and really lonely - and so does the drink.” The result of Cassis Orange’s ode to loneliness was a keyboard-laden, four-track, self-titled, indie pop E.P. that upon being released onto an unsuspecting Internet, became a blogosphere sensation, garnering glowing reviews from such high-falutin’ sources as The Fly Buzz, Andrea Inspired, Set and Drift, and most notably the uber popular Delicious Scopitone. The E.P.’s unexpected popularity inspired music lovers from across July 2010 | fayettevillefeed.com | 15
Lost in Transition
the world to purchase physical copies of the CD, an accomplishment made all the more impressive by the fact that the entire E.P. was made available for free online. In a gesture of gratitude for those who chose to pay for the E.P., Ehinger put the discs in hand made packages, with personalized art on the front cover. “I wanted it to be very intimate,” said Ehinger. “I wanted to paint every cover. I think people will get that. The music is kind of endearing, and it is all pretty kitschy and so are the packages.” To satisfy her need to have Cassis Orange fully realized, Ehinger set out to construct a live performance out of an album which she had created largely in studio by herself. This would be no small feat when one considers that in the fast paced track “Still No Home,” Ehinger plays keyboards, piano, harmonium, glockenspiel, Casio beats and drums - by herself. So Ehinger called in the help of college friend, Tres Thomas III, who had worked with her during her years as a student in Chapel Hill as part of the band The Ex Lovers. “She had all these new ideas and she wanted to take it on tour...When she sent me the new stuff, I got a bunch of cool ideas in my head and I couldn’t say no,” said Thomas, who had to drive five hours from Washington D.C. in order to make any rehearsals or shows. Thomas said he wanted to re-interpret ideas over Ehinger’s ideas. “It was pretty exciting for me,” he said. The tour took place over the spring and included shows in Chapel Hill, Richmond, and even D.C. before finally culminating with a performance at Chapel Hill’s Local 506 opening for Ehinger’s personal favorite band, Casiotone for the Painfully Alone. “People have been really receptive to it,” said Ehinger. “Which is surprising, I guess and really nice. What’s weird is that a lot of artists that I personally am a fan of have said really nice things about it.” In the upcoming months Ehinger plans to move yet again, this time to Durham and hopes to continue the Cassis Orange project with a new E.P. To download the debut E.P. or find out more information, check them out online at www.MySpace.com/ Cassisorangemusic. Cassis Orange is giving away their self-titled E.P. for the low low price of free. Download it here: http://tiny.cc/cassis.
16 | The Fayetteville FEED | July 2010
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at Fayetteville Hooter s Every Saturday in July July 2010 | fayettevillefeed.com | 17
18 | The Fayetteville FEED | July 2010
Story by Jaymie Baxley | Photos by Raul Rubiera Jr
A few days from now, Manquillan Minniefee will vanish. Today, however, the native singer/ songwriter is strolling through downtown Fayetteville on a sweltering June afternoon. July 2010 | fayettevillefeed.com | 19
An Old Timey Tune for June
His dusty jeans, supported by a pair of cloth suspenders, are rolled up past his ankles. His battered acoustic guitar dangles from a length of splintered rope. Minniefee is surveying the scene, looking for a potential audience. After scanning the area for a few moments, he spots a young couple walking toward a restaurant. He approaches them and offers to play a song. They act uninterested at first, but eventually come around. Minniefee plays a rustic, original composition entitled “Stephen Clark Waters.” The song is a sepia-tinged postcard from an America eight decades past, an America oblivious to and unaffected by, modern progress. The couple look perplexed. It’s not because they’re not enjoying the performance, they seem to genuinely like what they are hearing. It may be because they can’t understand why a short, skinny, 22 year-old is behaving like he survived the dust bowl. At an early age, Minniefee was introduced to what he now lovingly refers to as “old timey music.”
...I have so much fun playing and singing this music. I connect with it for some reason, “I went to this hippie school up in the mountains, about 45 minutes outside of Asheville,” he recalled. “And every morning before we started classes all the students would gather in one room and we’d sing old folk songs out of this book called ‘Rise Up Singing’ while one of the teachers would play guitar chords along with the song.” Those daily sing-alongs inspired Minniefee to study classical guitar. After he decided he had become proficient enough with the instrument, Minniefee began writing songs influenced by his love of American mountain culture. “I wish so hard that I was a mountain man, I love being out in the mountains and out in the wild. I love that philosophy of just doing what you have to do to survive and taking care of your family. That’s where a lot of my tunes come from, ” he said. The reoccurring references to farming and whiskey in Minniefee’s lyrics may strike some listeners as disingenuous coming from the mouth of a man just barely old enough to drink, but Minniefee claims that he isn’t concerned about how people react to his words. “I try to block that out of my mind because I have so much fun playing and singing this music. I connect with it for some reason,” he said. He is, however, concerned with how people react to his presence on stage. Minniefee freely admits that he is a bashful person and has trouble interacting with crowds. To remedy this, he concocted the persona of “Jimmy McMinnie.” Before shows, Minniefee introduces himself as “McMinnie” and occasionally mentions the character in his songs. “It’s kind of like a Ziggy Stardust/David Bowie thing. It’s partially showmanship but most of it is me having this fear of … yeah … I get really nervous when I’m on stage,” confessed Minniefee. “I worry a lot about what people think about me and my music in person. When I introduce myself as someone else it’s easier for me to come out of my shell and be more charismatic.” Minniefee’s anxieties about performing live are sort of surprising considering the leaves dangling from the branches of his family tree. His mother is an accomplished theater actress, his brother is a professional dancer and his father is a pianist. Minniefee’s alleged shyness also comes as a bit of a shock considering what an exuberant guy he is in person. He loves to goof around and he tends to punctuate every sentence with a
20 | The Fayetteville FEED | July 2010
An Old Timey Tune for June
big, toothy grin. His sunny disposition, however, often contradicts the dark undercurrents of his music. Two of the songs (”Put that Woman at the Bottom of a Lake” and “Stephen Clark Waters”) featured on his recently released debut E.P., Dirty Boots, are about murder, albeit murder portrayed with a touch of gallows humor. Minniefee tested out several of the songs included on Dirty Boots with audiences while busking in downtown Asheville. “During the summer time, it’s very ‘hustle and bustle’ up in Asheville. There are people out enjoying the sunshine, so it’s a lot of fun to just go out on the street and bust out your guitar and start playing,” said Minniefee. “Plus, I make money doing it, which is great.” As of this writing, Minniefee’s family and friends are unsure of his exact whereabouts. He tries to avoid the Internet, phones and other modern means of communication, which makes getting in contact with him a challenge. Those close to the singer say they aren’t really worried, though. According to a friend, Minniefee will typically disappear for weeks on end without telling anyone. He suspects that Minniefee is somewhere in the mountains. Back downtown, the final notes of “Stephen Clark Waters” are lingering in the air and the couple is clapping. “That was really good!” the man exclaims. Minniefee removes a guitar pick from his teeth and flashes a big, exhilarated grin.
For more information on Manquillan Minniefee (or his alter ego, Jimmy McMinnie), find him online at www.MySpace.com/JimMcMin.
22 | The Fayetteville FEED | July 2010
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CR EATING A SCEN E With Ton y Mu r nahan h Photos by Rau l Rubiera Jr. Written by Jam es Joh nson wit June 22, 2010 DAY TIM E. SCENE 1: FADE IN. EXTERIOR, k-type) is hur riedly moving ng note: a short Ben Aff lec Writer JAM ES JOH NSON (casti laptop and holdin g his a black bag containin g his a restau rant dow n the street, clutching tin g area just in front of sea a at s ive arr He . ear cellphone to his er his breath. He is 45 a few choice curse words und MUR NAH AN. on Hay Street and lets out eville-based fil mmaker TON Y ett Fay h wit iew erv int an minutes late for , JAM ES (on phone) , , here, finally, but it looks like you re not. I m Hey Ton y? I m n do you want to reschedule? really sor ry about this. Whe phone) , TON Y (co mpressed voice over moved locations. We re dow n we , – , wor ry – I m here with JOE (STAUFFER) Hey, don t ital and the library. area bet ween Docks at the Cap k par s thi in e, lik , eet the str are you over there? JAM ES: JOE is with you? Why , TON Y: You ll see … DAY TIM E SCENE 2: THE PAR K, EXTERIOR, ER and TON Y the aforem entioned JOE STAUFF JAM ES arrives to fin d that expensive tardiness and have two rather have taken advantage of his tly testin g. h mics, which JOE is cur ren cam eras set up, com plete wit mic, and JOE sits JAM ES dow n near a Before anything can be said, han d. al. TON Y gestures with his then looks to TON Y for approv e to the left. TON Y: Move just a little mor ectly , asked before noticing that he has been maneuvered dir s iew. he erv as s int m the JAM ES doe ention, it appears, is to fil int The . era cam a on. of h ng pat goi into the t what is omfortable upon realizing jus JAM ES becomes imm ediately unc , belong on cam era, or in the sun , t JAM ES: I m a writer – we don . t do this the traditional way jus s Let … ter for that mat END SCENE
24 | The Fayetteville FEED | July 2010
July 2010 | fayettevillefeed.com | 25
Creating A Scene
Fayetteville-based filmmaker Tony Murnahan is anything but traditional. Though still young Murnahan has lived multiple lives, first as a musician, touring with the wildly popular math rock band The Kickass and more recently, a burgeoning music video director. The transition was smoother than one might expect. While on tour with The Kickass, Murnahan became fascinated by the work of Broken Wings Productions creative director, Joe Stauffer, who had been documenting The Kickass’s live performances. “After I quit touring, I still wanted to do something connected to music and I figured filming live shows would give me that,” Murnahan said. “That way I’d get to go out to shows, hang out with the bands and keep the sleeping schedule I’d become used to.” Murnahan sold much of his musical equipment so that he could afford the very basics needed for creating film and then approached Stauffer, who works out of Wilmington, about showing him the ropes of recording live performances. Thus Murnahan’s own production company, Stwrongtone Media, was born. “(Tony) definitely learns sh*t every day,” said Stauffer. “I mean, if you want to be good at it, you have to be good at a lot of sh*t. He started from the ground up but then so did I.”
26 | The Fayetteville FEED | July 2010
Though Murnahan is quick to credit Stauffer with everything he knows, Stauffer is unwilling to carry the title of mentor, stating that he considers Murnahan an equal. “We just kind of work on projects together and so we grow and learn together as well,” Stauffer said. After filming countless live performances, Murnahan quickly started to become bored with the limitations of stage shows – and began to look at doing work in the world of high concept music videos. This led to collaborations with a number of local artists including Erik Smallwood, Cardiact, Karma, Klassified and his most frequent collaborator, neo soul artist Sir Ben Marx. “(Marx) is really open to a lot of ideas,” said Murnahan, who has so far filmed seven different videos with Marx. “I can call him last minute and he takes action. I don’t have to tell him two weeks ahead of time. I can call him at midnight and he’ll be ready … Those have been my best videos, the ones that are spontaneous.” Aside from high concept videos, Murnahan had also experimented with short films, mostly falling under the horror genre. On a lark, Murnahan with friend and screenwriter Dustin Lewis created a short film called The David Long Story, about a frustrated film director turned
serial killer. Stauffer, so impressed by the film’s concept, suggested that Murnahan reshoot the short with a bigger budget and then finally expand it into a feature length film. “Dusty began work on a script. He worked on it every day, taking it everywhere he went until it was done. Once finished, it ended up lying around for like a year before anyone even read it. I think we were afraid of it,” said Murnahan. “It was pretty tense stuff.” The film, titled Pieces of Talent is currently in pre-production, with a cast already in place. Stauffer has been named director. The exact release date is still unclear. “I never understood why credits were so long after movies,” mused Murnahan. “That was until I started working on them. It takes a lot of people to tell a good story.”
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The 20-year-old, mostly self-taught, dancer has been busting moves for audiences in Fayetteville for the past three years. He can currently be seen in music videos alongside local neo-soul artist Sir Ben Marx and on the Rock Shop Music Hall stage, where he regularly performs. We recently caught up with Baker and talked about dance crews, dancing while painting, studying dance and...well, we pretty much just talked a lot about dancing.
doesn’t just cut a rug, he maims it. Story by Jaymie Baxley | Photo by Raul Rubiera Jr
FAYETTEVILLE FEED: There are a few
videos online of you simultaneously painting and dancing, how difficult is that to pull off?
Todd Baker: After my first try I got pretty good at it, but overall it’s a pretty hard process. You have to plan a lot of things out beforehand. With painting, you have to have an idea of how the piece is going to look afterward and you have to go with any mistakes you might make.
F.F.: You perform regularly at rock venues,
are rock audiences more receptive to your art than other audiences?
T.B.: Well, honestly, I have more rock fans. I’d say rock audiences, not hip-hop enthusiasts, are my biggest fan base. F.F.: You obviously have to be in pretty good shape to be a professional dancer, what is your daily exercise regimen like?
T.B.: I start working out at 10 a.m., every day. I begin with basic stretches and contortionist training, and then I do a full body work out, then cardio. Sometimes I do this twice a day. F.F.: You are, for the most part, self-taught. In the future, do you plan to study performance art? T.B.: Not really. I’ve always wanted to prove to people that you don’t need a degree and you don’t need to be rich to be considered successful. I plan on opening my own art studio eventually, so I may take business classes but otherwise, I don’t think I need to go back to school. F.F.: You’ve led several local dance crews, how do dance crews typically start? T.B.: Most crews start with one or two people saying “hey, let’s dance,” then more and more people join overtime. It’s surprising, but most dancers come from gangs and mean streets. One of the best ballet dancers I’ve ever met is a real big, mean looking dude who could bust your face in. F.F.: What do you have on the horizon? T.B.: I’m sort of going through my connections and auditioning for various TV shows. I plan on touring up and down the coast with my current crew over the next year. I recently appeared in one of SBX’s music videos and I’ll be appearing in more music videos soon. July 2010 | fayettevillefeed.com | 29
Shouldn’t You Be Working?
ACROSS
2. General fired by Obama 4. Owner of The Rock Shop 5. The mayor 9. Beer for wimps and “healthy” people 12. Spanish slang for flatulence 14. German liqueur 17. Famous porn star 19. Entertainment city
Answers on page 51
30 | The Fayetteville FEED | July 2010
DOWN
1. Uncut penis 3. Fayetteville rock band 4. Sexual intercourse or dancing 6. U.S. goal scorer vs. England 7. Annoying horn at World Cup 8. I Kissed a Girl and I Liked It 10. Where is my Preparation H? 11. Greatest beer in the world 13. English asshole 15. Fayetteville is proud of them 16. Bragg Boulevard is famous for them 18. Something to be sucked on or pierced
in e s s u B B ig . s v t n e m n ver o G g Bi
nson es Joh m a J y b Intro 32 | The Fayetteville FEED | July 2010
s
y, a D ce o n t e d e n m ti pe e d d o n o I g a f o e b it ’d r t i i p s t gh e u h o t h our t t p e In k we h as h c i h w at h t t h g the n i t highli n e d n e indep n r a d o s country te, a b e d l a u t c e l l e t n first place: i also known as “that thing we do
when we run out of bullet s.”
Honestly – this idea stemmed from one of those “Godzilla vs. Optimus Prime” type moments. Take two FEED contributors who are both known for being impossibly bright, and who both have completely opposite personal ideologies, then lock ‘em in a cage together and make the survivor buy everyone pizza. In this case, we are referring to contributing writer Ash Smith and photographer Albert Stichka. Smith is a passionate and very vocal libertarian libertarians, for those who haven’t read the pamphlet, believe in “individual liberties,” which is another way of saying; they like their government bite-sized and out of their way. Stichka, on the other hand, is an American socialist – the nasty buzz word that was frequently tossed around during the last presidential election. American socialists basically feel that government exists to ease the burden on the people and that it is big business that society should be worried about. Feel free to write in to the FEED and let us know who you think made the most persuasive argument – or add fuel to the fire for all we care. No matter what, somebody’s buying us pizza.
The Big Debate
Give Us Liberty or Give Us... By Ash Smith
Both medicare and social security are going bankrupt, we are involved in two wars with no end in sight, we are facing the worst economy since the 1930s and we can’t control a major oil leak in the gulf because our politicians and major corporations would rather worry about how they look on the evening news than actually work to solve the crisis. Have I left anything out? Oh yeah, and as a nation we currently owe $54,000,000,000,000 in debt. That’s $175,000 per person. We’re in bad shape. Yet, republican or democrat, liberal or conservative, the answers given to us by government are always the same: “Give us more power and we can stop that problem,” or “give us more money and we’ll be able to fix or avert that crisis.” You’d think that we would have wised up by now, instead of electing the same bureaucrats who continually dig us into deeper holes. There is an alternative to this mess and the endless cycle of economic recessions, wars and the loss of your inalienable rights and civil liberties. That alternative is libertarianism. Libertarianism is more of a philosophy than a political party or political ideology. It’s a way of looking at the world. Libertarians believe that people are entitled to life and liberty, and that no other person or entity (e.g. the government or a corporation) has a right to take away those things. We know what life is, but what is liberty? To us, liberty is the freedom to live your life in any peaceful way that you choose. The government, nor your neighbors, should be allowed to tell you how you can live your life if you aren’t harming anyone else. They shouldn’t be able to tell you who you can marry, where you can live, what to do with your own money or property, or whether you can have trees covered in old skateboards outside of your business (cough, cough). Those are personal decisions for the individual. Libertarians also embrace the idea that you should be able to keep what you create or what you earn, your property. For instance, The FEED sells advertising 34 | The Fayetteville FEED | July 2010
space in their magazine and online (their property). They hope to make a profit so that they can grow their business, hire more people, and provide a service to the community by being a premier hub for artists, musicians and cool stuff about Fayetteville. Libertarians think that taxes should be kept very low so that businesses like The FEED can have more money to expand and
provide those services to the community. We believe that if you take their profits by taxing them ridiculously in the name of creating more government-run programs, that you actually hurt more people than you help. Instead of using their profits to hire more employees, The FEED would have to pay taxes to support unemployment benefits for the employees they couldn’t hire because of taxation. Does that make sense? Yet big-government advocates use that flawed logic continually. They say that if we just give our government more tax dollars or more power, that it could solve all of our problems. They’ve been saying that for years, and look where it’s gotten us. Government is involved in every business in America and every aspect of your life, and yet the problems seem to be getting worse, not better. However, we see that industries with very low government involvement, like internet sales, seem to thrive. That is why libertarians believe that small government is essential to the recovery of both our economic and civil liberties. Besides, do you want the same people who run the post office (which runs continually in the red) or the Department of Motor Vehicles (which makes me want to shoot myself) to make the important decisions about your life for you? Libertarians are the only group that consistently respects your choices as an
individual and that continually opposes war. Furthermore they are the only group that has consistently touted small-government. Conservatives and republicans sometimes posture as small -government advocates, but seem to not see a contradiction when they call for bloated military budgets, undeclared wars and bans on personal decisions like gay marriage and recreational drug use. They’d rather have discipline and security than freedom. Liberals and democrats don’t want the government to infringe on their civil liberties, but are more than happy to tell people what they can or cannot do with their own property. They are eager to use their “superior” judgment to determine who should get what, and in what fashion. This can be seen in calls for smoking ans in privately -owned restaurants and bars, calls for higher taxes, and the constant denigration of the wealthy. Both liberals and conservatives claim to embrace liberty, but both see fit to exclude certain types of liberty with which they disagree. Libertarians believe that you can’t pick and choose which aspects of liberty that you embrace. You either embrace it as a whole, or not at all. I encourage FEED readers to do your research, and look at the pros and cons of libertarianism to see if it’s right for you. You can learn more at www. LPNC.org, or feel free to contact me at CumberlandLP@yahoo.com.
For the People and By the People By Albert Stichka
Oftentimes these arguments devolve into a simple philosophy of “government = bad.” These are usually backed by baseless arguments centered on statements like “look at the job they’re doing now, I mean, come on.” Government is not by definition corrupt, inefficient, and inept or any number of things it’s become characterized as. It is essentially an organization that exists to offer people things they would find more difficult to secure on their own - things like roads, schools, hospitals, police, military, protection from disasters natural and man-made. They exist to assist us and they exist because they offer
sufficient help and request such a sufficiently small price that the people are content to continue living under their government. Does government function perfectly? No. Are all forms of government able to function in a stable manner? No. Are all people helped by all governments? No. Does this mean that smaller government is always the answer? Only if you’re basing your arguments on subjective evaluations of a system that has kept you and your parents alive with a reasonable standard of living. There are several governments in the developed world that I feel function better to secure the well-being of their constituents, but all in all the one that we have here in America isn’t doing so bad that we need to throw all our babies and bathwater out into the street. Essentially what my problem is with arguments about small government in every case, no matter the case, is that those arguments seem to be coming from jaded individuals who want to boot government out of their lives as a concept in general. I hate to break it to you, but people with children in schools, people with medical or financial problems, people who are made victims by other people - they all need the government. It seems like it is always the people who already have their needs met who make the case that the government should shrink away. In a worse case, those people who are depending on the government and who would have nothing without the government are themselves sometimes so jaded by the inconveniences of their first world lives that they too decry the idea of increased or consistent government involvement - not realizing that the common alternatives in these arguments are far less appealing. The government’s motivations are varied, if you put things under a microscope, but for the sake of simplicity their goal is “to remain the government.” We have built into our system various methods to demonstrate to those in power that they need not emain in power.
We have a populace so bored and needy for conflict that the notion that someone’s parents weren’t born in this country or gas costs 50 cents more than it did a few weeks ago is enough reason to assemble in the streets and threaten a revolution. Beyond that, the system of elections and political involvement makes it possible for any sufficiently motivated person or persons to make their influence felt. Is this system perfect? No. Do we get lied to? Yes. But we still have freedom of speech and we still don’t have a clear alternative for a government more stable than the one we have while still being controlled by the people. So what is the alternative offered by the people who cry for small
government? Who takes over the tasks that, for my part, I believe the government should control? Well, the idea I find most repulsive is that of libertarianism. Private industry and the free market are proclaimed by far too many to have the efficiency and motivation to get things done. Well let me make the crux of my point painfully clear. Being motivated by profit will not lead to keeping people safe. How many examples do we need in the modern era before we understand what should be a simple concept? If someone controls a company and that company can make slightly more money by not helping, potentially harming or killing some number of people then that company will hurt, put at risk or kill those people. It happens all the time. The consequences of those actions very rarely if ever stop the person who got rich and who had the control from continuing to be rich. The free market will fail to keep people safe again and again and again until it is made less
free - until it is policed by someone not motivated by profit. The government has people in it motivated by money. There is corruption, I concede this, but those people stand to lose something if they hurt the people. They stand to lose the power that let them get everything they have. Those entering government know that by acting in a way that hurts their people they risk being kicked out of government. People entering a corporation, on the other hand, know that if they act in a way that increases profit they will be valued and allowed incredible leeway to hurt. It’s so simple I don’t even know how to explain it to people who don’t seem to understand. A private industry has very little reason to even pretend to be altruistic, except to achieve tax cuts or to convince the people that they are worth trusting. They don’t exist to help people. They don’t exist to provide a service. Companies exist to produce profit. Governments exist because people want and need them to exist to avoid a state of anarchy. Sometimes the government makes choices that hurt the people, but at the end of the day the government is an organization given legitimacy by all of the people; the corporation is an organization given legitimacy by itself and by money. The government is working to achieve greater levels of faith and happiness in their people - to secure those things its people want. The corporation has one end goal: Money.
36 | The Fayetteville FEED | July 2010
July 2010 | fayettevillefeed.com | 37
Crowd Control with
Ra Ra Riot By James Johnson | Photo by Doron Glid
38 | The Fayetteville FEED | July 2010
Syracuse New York-based indie rockers the Ra Ra Riot are currently wrapping up their promotional tour for their critically acclaimed debut album, The Rhumb Line, just as their second album, The Orchard, gets set to hit stores August 24. We caught up with the Riot’s guitarist Milo Bonacci to learn more about the band’s past, future and how it feels to be the darling of music critics everywhere.
Fayetteville FEED: You guys seem to have come into success rather quickly. How long after your band formed did you start becoming aware that this would become your careers?
F.F.: The critical consensus on your late album was overwhelmingly positive. Rolling Stone even ranked it as one of the best albums of 2008. Has this response surprised you at all?
Milo Bonacci: Hm, I don’t know … I think that it is widely agreed upon that after we performed on CMJ Music Marathon in 2006, we had sorta a turning point. That was about 11 months after we formed, and suddenly we started noticing other people were interested in us, industry types and lawyers. After that we started to really invest ourselves.
M.B.: Nah, I don’t think so … I think for the most part we stay out of it. We don’t follow any blogs really or pay much attention to what people are saying, so from our perspective it doesn’t seem like much has happened. It is all sort of noise in the background.
F.F.: Lawyers? Lawyers just up and called you? M.B.: Commonly, lawyers are one of the first relationships that a band has to develop when they start becoming serious. F.F.: Can people attending your current shows expect to hear some of the unreleased stuff performed? M.B.: Yeah, we’re playing a couple of new songs – though they’re still works in progress. F.F.: Touring vs. working in the studio? M.B.: It definitely depends – on how long you’ve been doing either or. I don’t know, I like both parts of it, I think it is important to keep a balance. I think there are fun parts to both. F.F.: Any cool road stories? Murder any drifters? M.B.: People ask this a lot and nothing comes to mind right away – being on the road is surprisingly non-exciting. We’re going to a hockey game tonight. This is our day off – one of the three days we get off during this tour. We keep busy.
F.F.: We heard that you like vinyl records. Why do you think records have had such resurgence in popularity as of late? M.B.: Well lately as a band we’ve been buying a lot of records over the past month or so. If we get any free time in whatever city we’re in, we will seek out a record store in the area. I think everybody gravitates toward vinyl because it is something physical. F.F.: Do you think vinyl is just a fad right now, or that does it have some staying power? M.B.: Well, I think for people who care about albums and listening to full records, I think vinyl is going to continue to be really popular. But obviously there are going to be people who only care about mp3s, but I think vinyl’s popularity is just going to keep growing. F.F.: You’ve received a lot of praise for your live performances, any thoughts on how you could translate that onto an album? M.B.: I don’t know – working in the studio and working live are two totally different mediums. You can definitely try to achieve that type of energy in a recording and you should. But you have to make them each different things as good as they can be.
July 2010 | fayettevillefeed.com | 39
Music The Gaslight Anthem: “American Slang” 2010, Sideone Dummy Records Review by Jaymie Baxley
Jaymie Baxley is the head correspondent for the Fayetteville FEED.
On the lovely “Here’s Looking at You Kid” from the Gaslight Anthem’s 2008 breakthrough The ’59 Sound, front man Brian Fallon wonders about the whereabouts of an old flame. “I heard she lives in Brooklyn with the cool/ and goes crazy over that New York scene /on 7th Avenue,” he sings. To record their followup, American Slang, the New Jersey based band relocated to New York city and, while Fallon may not have reconnected with the girl, he did meet “the cool.” His romanticized anthems of teenage anguish now unfurl with big city swagger. “The Diamond Church Street Choir” opens with finger snaps and a slinky guitar riff lifted from Iggy Pop’s “The Passenger” while “The Queen of Lower Chelsea” struts and stutters toward Pretenders territory. City living, however, hasn’t turned the Gaslight Anthem into a bunch of detached, hip-cats. Instead, it’s made them
Photo: Sabine Ahrens
40 | The Fayetteville FEED | July 2010
Do you more confident and really, what’s cooler than that? Tracks like “Bring It On,“ “The Spirit Of Jazz“ and “Stay Lucky “ sport heart-on-sleeve, stadium sized choruses that evoke Bruce Springsteen at his most bombastic. From “Born to Run” to The Outsiders to Catcher in The Rye, the mythologizing of adolescence is as American as apple pie. So, it seems appropriate that this album, full of earnest punk songs about boys and girls who treat the city as their oyster and every burgeoning romance as a crusade, should be released just weeks before Independence Day. As Falon sings in “Old Haunts”: “God help the man who says ‘I remember when…’” With American Slang, the Gaslight Anthem have claimed the high ground abandoned by the Hold Steady, The Killers and just about every other Springsteen influenced, indie rock band out there.
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Books Big Hair and Plastic Grass Book by Dan Epstein
Review by Tasina N. Ducheneaux
Tasina likes to read. Tasina is also quite critical. You can reach Tasina at tasina@fayettevillefeed. com .
I hate sports. I never watch them on TV (in fact, if you ever want to hear me curse like a dock worker, come hang out at my house when some stupid sporting event messes up the TV schedule). I don’t care about the Olympics. The World Cup is causing Twitter to crash and infuriating me every time I try to log on. I think it’s criminal that athletes make millions and teachers make nothing, etc. That being said, I’ve always loved sports movies, sports books, and any kind of sports stories. Does this make sense? No. Big Hair and Plastic Grass is a look at the game of baseball during the 1970s. Let me say right up front that if you are any kind of a baseball fan at all, you will absolutely love this book. Though I do not recommend purchasing this for your Little League player as it is filled to the brim with sex, drugs and rock-n-roll. But even if you’re not a baseball or sports fan in general, the book is a lot of fun. The author, Dan Epstein, chronicles the game against the setting of the changing times of the ‘70s. As culture in America loosened up and got a little crazy, so did the game of baseball. The “big hair” in the title refers to how after years of clean-cut baseball players and hair length requirements, Afros and handle-bar mustaches became the norm – reflecting the changes in dress and style in the general population. Other culture changes happened in both the mainstream and the sport as well. This decade saw more and more African American and Latino players join the ranks, as well as the first black baseball manager. Despite these positive changes, legend Hank Aaron received hate mail and death threats as he got closer and closer to tying and eventually breaking Babe Ruth’s career home run record. Reading the headlines today of Mark McGwire’s shameful admission of using performance enhancing drugs is quite a contrast to the use of any and all substances by players in the ‘70s. Dock Ellis famously pitched a no-hitter while tripping on acid (on a scorecard he is listed as Ellis, D – get it?). Players admitted in the press to using everything from amphetamines to marijuana. It’s hard to imagine today’s stars fessing up to such behavior barring a congressional hearing. Baseball sure seems to find the most interestingly named players of all the sports. And if they can’t find a given name that’s colorful, they’ll stick a fun nickname on someone. This is the decade that saw: Catfish Hunter, Rollie
42 | The Fayetteville FEED | July 2010
Fingers, Vida Blue, Mike “Super Jew” Epstein, Ron “The Penguin” Cey, Boog Powell, Bill “Spaceman” Lee, and Blue Moon Odom – just to name a few. “Yankee Panky” was a term coined to describe the very public wifeswapping activities of two players on that team. Courtesy: Thomas Dunne Books Future superstars of the sport started out in the ‘70s as well. Famous players such as Nolan Ryan, Steve Garvey, Reggie Jackson and Pete Rose all began their careers in this decade. Another surprise about this book was the low salaries players received back then. In the early part of the decade, the average player was paid $12,500 a year. Quite a contrast to the multi-million dollar contracts that are so common today. Baseball also got a little more commercial during this time in order to drum up ticket sales and TV revenues. A lot of really groovy uniforms popped up in this era – which makes sense when you realize that for the first time color TV sales outperformed black and white models. Crazy mascot antics and 10 cent beer nights were also used to bring in fans. (My ex-husband just took our son to his first major league game and complained about paying $9 for a rather pedestrian beer. It’s hard to imagine paying 10 cents these days.) The one criticism I have of the book is that it gets really bogged down in the numbers. I know baseball and its fans are worshippers of statistics. But for someone like me, it gets really tedious. I don’t care about R.B.I.s and E.R.A.s and don’t even know what most of those things mean. I found myself skimming through the parts of the book that got so detailed. Despite this one weakness, I found this to be a great read. If you are at all interested in history or pop culture, you will really like this book. Play ball!
4/5
July 2010 | fayettevillefeed.com | 43
Games Red Dead Redemption: A tale of western justice Review By D’Juan Irvin | Screenshots from RockStar
D’Juan Irvin is the owner and Editor-In-Chief of GAMINGtruth.com, where he and his staff write regularly about gaming and the gaming industry.
Early on in Red Dead Redemption, you get a small taste of what the wild, wild west was all about. You take control of John Marston, a former outlaw, whose wife and son have been abducted with promises of grave things happening to them if he doesn’t remove his former gang from power. Needless to say, John isn’t too excited about this new quest, but for his family’s sake he gives it his all. At its core, Red Dead gives us a glimpse of the kind of world the wild west was. Large expanses of desert in between towns and cities are host to an entirely autonomous ecosystem with more types of animals than most games have characters. It’s easy to tell that Rockstar spared very little from their latest free-roam epic, due to the sheer volume of things to do in this game. You can hunt any of the 36 types of animal in the game and skin them to earn pelts, meat, claws, feathers and skins. From armadillos and snakes to bears and cougars, there are all kinds of animals for you to earn loads of money from. The more dangerous the animal, the more money you’re given for selling their pelts and meats to store owners. You can’t truly hunt animals or outlaws without proper
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weaponry though, and there’s no disappointment there either. You have an armory at your disposal consisting of pistols, rifles, sniper rifles, shotguns, thrown weapons, a hunting knife, your fists, and for possibly the first time in video game history, a working lasso. There’s plenty of time to get better with it too, because if it moves, you can rope it. In true Rockstar form, there’s almost never a time where you don’t have options. While the story is linear, you still have the ability to take the missions out of order and at your own pace. A lot of the time, you’ll be dropped into the thick of a crime while on your way to start a mission. Make no mistake; the crimes in this game are plentiful. With so much to do, it’d be a shame if the controls were lacking. Luckily, the controls are very easy to get used to; especially if you’ve played a Grand Theft Auto title (the other famous franchise RockStar develops). Red Dead comes with a bullet time-esque mode called “dead eye,” that slows the game down and allows you to target as many enemies as you can, then take them all out at once. Cars were very rare in the west so your primary means of transport is by horse and Rockstar went all out in creating the best horses seen in video
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Red Dead Redemption
games to date. Not just the mechanics, while they are the best I’ve seen, they also have a breed selection that borders on insane. They took horses as seriously as they did the cars in the GTA series and show it by having 20 breeds of horse in Red Dead. Each breed has different stats for speed as well as stamina. The host of characters is quite impressive as well. There’s the swindling “tonic” salesman, the power drunk revolutionary, ruthless general and the warrior woman, each with their own storyline. If this doesn’t seem thorough enough, Rockstar has created a host of challenges and multiplayer modes.
With up to sixteen players, you can branch off into your own “posse” to complete objective-based game modes, which Rockstar doesn’t slack on either. There aren’t many good video games based on westerns, but the latest Rockstar masterpiece has broken that mold and created a new standard. Any developer working on a western title now has some pretty huge shoes to fill, as Red Dead Redemption is one of the best games I’ve ever had the privilege to play. I’d highly recommend giving it a try.
4.5/5
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Thoughts From A Broad General Election and Going Postal by Debbi Voisey
‘Ello Govna! month’s In continuing this theme, Independence Day d be an ul wo we thought it nt to see me ri pe interesting ex try is being just how our coun ry country we viewed by the ve r independence fought to gain ou Kingdom. from: The United -based wordsmith K. U. We went to FEED’s Debbi and friend o’ the an update Voisey to give us oppressors er rm on how our fo arison to are doing in comp t, things ou s us. As it turn as we t en er aren’t as diff though . .. t gh may have thou on the g in iv dr they’re still e road... wrong side of th - Editor
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Things have been a little crazy over here lately. When I first agreed to write stuff from my English perspective, I thought I was going to be the sane one with the genteel British life that showed you Americans just how mad you all were (I’m just teasing) but you know what? We’re not so different and the only thing that separates us is geography. I always knew this really but the last month has proved it to me. First of all, we had an election. It was something we were all ready for. God knew we needed a change after 13 years of new labour. Gordon Brown (never elected as our Prime Minister) had about as much personality as a dish towel, and was a poor replacement for the charismatic Tony Blair. But even Blair, before him, had been branded a war criminal, along with Bush for his part in the invasion of Iraq. Our local politicians were revealed, one by one and in quick succession, to be fiddling their expenses and buying houses for pet ducks, or pay-per-view porn for their husbands with our hard earned tax pounds. We’d had enough. But in our clamor to get labour out, we were so divided that no party had an absolute majority of seats and so we had a “hung parliament” (I used to think that meant they would all go to the gallows, but alas, that was not the case!) and the conservatives - who had the most seats overall - formed a coalition with the liberal democrats. So, our new Prime Minister is David Cameron (conservative) and his deputy is Nick Clegg (liberal). They promise to clean up politics in Britain, so watch this space but...don’t hold your breath. And then, something happened here on Wednesday 2 June, in a sleepy, peaceful part of the county of Cumbria, in the North West of England. A taxi driver named Derrick Bird went berserk and shot dead 12 people and injured 25 more in a killing spree that lasted 3 and a half hours. If you want to know the details, Google them. I’m sure there are lots of theories
and opinions as to why someone does that. I’m not judging...it’s not my style. But, when something like this happens, it is shocking. It rocks through the country like an earthquake. Over here, we say “It’s getting more like America every day,” and I guess this kind of gun crime is something we hear about happening in the U.S., not in Britain. We don’t have guns here. People don’t carry them. That’s an American thing. But, quite obviously, that is not the case. Some people here do have guns (Bird was a licensed owner) and - as in your country - when they are in the wrong hands they are the most terrifying of weapons. It would be easy to say gun ownership is bad. Hell, I look at the gun shop ads in this very publication and the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. It’s a culture I don’t understand and I’ll admit that it scares me. But I do know that simply making it illegal to own a gun will not stop people from buying them, and I do know that when a stranger comes into your house in the dead of night with the intent of doing you harm, moral standpoints and indignation will not save your life. So, a guy on the rampage with a gun in Cumbria is something that, in a gruesome way, cements us Brits to our American cousins. It proves that people are people, with the same flaws and fears; that we all bleed and die; and that we can all, indeed, be arseholes and lunatics!
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Debbi Voisey is a writer and is from the United kingdom. Debbi works in Stoke, England, loves to travel, and is currently writing her first novel.
July 2010 | fayettevillefeed.com | 49
A pint with the publisher
Paddy Gibney is also the owner of Paddy’s Pub and can be found there reveling and singing most any evening. He can be contacted at www.paddygibney.com.
A girl named Stephanie walked up to me tonight and put a gift in my hand. She said God told her to do it and that she didn’t know why but, He told her I needed it and that everything was going to be okay. She walked away and I didn’t see her again. It was a rosary. Essentially, she had given me Catholic prayer beads. I put it around my neck with a wonderful sense of humility mixed well with a sense of “what the f**k?” Earlier today, a friend of mine named Mark who serves as a New York cop emailed me a message that contained a story about a recently deceased young man whose parents had found an essay he wrote about a dream he had. He dreamed he died and found himself in a room with endless files documenting his time on Earth. Each file had his signature attached. The files that were most shameful and embarrassing had his name crossed out and were replaced with Christ’s signature. I must admit, it made me cry. Up until this moment, I didn’t know what to write about this month but, it seems pretty clear to me now. Faith gets confused with religion so often. Most reasonable people feel the same way. Even Albert Einstein said that the quest is to think like God thinks. As impossible as that may seem I think the designer of any puzzle would fill it with clues as to how it can be solved. There are signs everywhere and they are obvious. They are void of religion and other man made shite. Everybody recognizes them, even those who intellectualize the possibility of a God. For some reason I find myself thinking a lot about such things at this stage of my life. There has to be a reason. There has to be a reason for The Fayetteville Feed. I believe there is a
50 | The Fayetteville FEED | July 2010
good reason for it especially when considering the ridiculous way I have found myself at the head of it. The magazine you are holding in your hands represents the effort of many people. Some of those people are no longer working with us. Some who still are working with us are wondering why and just where this thing is going. The community, that means you, will have varying opinions about us and our intentions. Well, we’re not megalomaniacs, liberal loons or conservative zealots. We are people just like you, who want to create something bigger than ourselves individually. This is our sixth issue and, I finally feel we are getting closer to our goal of achieving something unique and special. That’s the point of it all – whether you believe in a God or not, you do have to hold yourself to a higher standard, and believe in what you’re doing. We hope that with each issue, we get another step closer to the unachievable. I hope you will support this endeavor and the possibilities it represents for our community and the world beyond ... now that’s megalomaniacal! Having the option to choose which religion a person follows, or even which magazine they read is all part of being free. This month, we are celebrating our country’s independence, and so on behalf of The Fayetteville FEED staff, I wish to offer our thanks to our military boys and girls overseas and their families at home for giving us that very freedom. We’re proud of you all.
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1009 Marlborough Road | Fayetteville NC 28304 | 910.964.2954 To appear in an upcoming issue of the Fayetteville FEED, send photos of yourself doing unspeakable things with our magazine to: jjohnson@ fayettevillefeed.com. We’ll even give a free t-shirt to the lucky so and so who submits the best pic. So, your death metal band is preparing to head into the studio to record their first album when your tambourine player announces that he’s leaving the group because he just found Jesus. What are you going to do? Tambourine players are hard to find! Beginning next month, the Fayetteville FEED will offer a free classifieds section for bands seeking additional members, venues, roadies and more. Send your solicitations to: Jbaxley@fayettevillefeed.com.
KUDOS FOR KINDNESS
Submitted by reader Lindsey Graham
There are commendable things going on around town and our local bars are reaching out by supporting significant causes. In June, Spirits Pub hosted one of Fayetteville’s first organized bar-crawls, “Walk (or stumble) For Lupus!”. Paddy’s Pub, Bourbon Street East, Via 216, Angry V’s Saloon and Spirits Pub sponsored the crawl to raise awareness and dollars for the Lupus Foundation of America, Inc. Debbie Bender, a manager at Spirits, organized the event after being inspired by a local girl who was diagnosed with lupus when she was only 17 years-old. Bender, along with 85 other compassionate, booze-soaked pub-crawlers, stumbled their way around the participating Raeford Road bars. Their $15-$20 entry fees were donated to organizations dedicated to finding the cause of, and cure for, lupus. The response was fantastic, benefiting all involved. Bender says she plans to organize another bar-crawl in the fall. For more information on how you can help, go to www.lupuslinks.org or www.falconchildrenshome.com. For an expanded version of this story visit FayettevilleFEED.com Crossword puzzle answers from page 30
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