by: Lisa Hunyh

B-Side Breakdown
Also featuring, The Crunch and Keaton Lange,
presented by Hawkstream Radio
March 4th • $1-$3
http://hawkstreamradio.wordpress.com

On days when the weather is pleasant, songs of all different rhythms and sounds can be heard throughout the Campus Commons at UNCW. Students can be seen walking to class, bumping to the beat or eating on outside benches, mouthing the lyrics to the songs. The source behind the music and what is called “Campus Live” is Hawkstream Radio, the official student radio station of UNCW, providing its streaming database of news, entertainment and educational programs through the Web: http://hawkstreamradio.wordpress.com.

Hawkstream Radio is a distinct part of UNCW’s Student Media, run by the students themselves. Although Hawkstream’s founding history goes back years before, the station has only been in existence for two years, and the product produced only since November of 2009. Now, sophomore Jon Chittendon, the station manager and music liaison, heads the station, its streaming schedule and oversees changes to the Hawkstream’s Web site—its sole method of reaching listeners.

Currently, the site is launching a new layout, one which executive board member Taylor Herbert is designing. This fresh and innovative layout will feature multimedia effects, such as live video stream, pictures and bios of the DJ’s, and allow viewers to actually see into the Hawkstream’s office while recording.

In an interview within the station’s office, the origin to the mania occurs, Jon Chittendon lays down the foundations of Hawkstream and its plans for the future:

encore: Is the Hawkstream Radio currently working on a convergence with the rest of student media, such as The Seahawk and Teal TV?

Jon Chittendon: Not just student media but the UNCW community and town, as well: local bands, media and literary services, downtown venues—we are open to all of it. We run The Soapbox’s schedules every week, and in return our music liaisons actually go to their shows, interview artists there and then talk about it later in Hawkstream’s talk shows.

e: What is Hawkstream focusing on doing for this school year and the next?

JC: Our primary focus is developing our product and making it more listener-friendly: all live, hopefully call-ins, and Campus Live a couple times a week. Since we are an on-campus radio station, we don’t have to target ourselves to an indie-rock, punk music, or whatever. Our common theme is that it is music from fellow students—you aren’t listening to a company playlist. We try to make it make sense, too. We don’t put techno shows at 10 in the morning.

e: Explain the regular talk shows that go live on the station.

JC: The main talk show is “Overtime Blitz,” which has three people in all. The “The Big D Comedy Show” is on Thursdays, and the “Inferno News Rave” talks about the news and current events, then plays rave music for Friday nights. We can break the norms as a campus radio station. I even have an idea where one night we try to do all theme songs, (starts singing the “Doug” theme song from Nickelodeon).

e: How many DJs do you have currently?

JC: Thirty DJs; with all the staff—from management to promotion to music combined (including the DJs and executives)—we have 40 members. What is cool about being an executive is that you can still come and have an hour show.

e: How is Hawkstream spreading awareness about the station?

JC: We find people through word of mouth, we have been advertising as of now, and [we] have a Facebook page.

e: What do you want your listeners to take away from Hawkstream?

JC: Our main goal is music. We want to be a reliable source of cool music for students, by students. If we had a mission statement, it would be: “Tunes, man!” I mean, this is for the students. This is their station. We want them to put something on it. There are time slots open, and there are always possibilities to be an artist liaison.

Hawkstream Radio will be hosting a show at the Soapbox on Thursday, March 4th at 9:30pm, opening with the acoustic band Keaton Lange, The Crunch at 10pm, and B Side Breakdown plays at 11pm. Doors open at 9pm, and DJ FTA will also be featuring music late night.!

by: Sarah Boggs

Hammer No
More the Fingers
Also featuring Demon Beat and
The Spalding Grays
March 5th • $5
Soapbox Laundro Lounge
255 N. Front Street

Less is more. Isn’t that how the cliché goes? Well, for Durham-based indie band Hammer No More the Fingers (HNMTF), it’s an operational motto. Only three members deep, this energetic punk-emo-pop-rock collection has a surprisingly full sound. It’s like The Click Five meets Foo Fighters meets Modest Mouse—if they’ve been eating a batch of “special” brownies and reading poetry. Sort of.

With influences like Burning Airlines and Tom Petty, HNMTF’s songs would certainly be at home on local college stations, or classic road-trip mixes that we listen to with our windows down when we need to remember what it’s like to be young and free of obligations. Their beats are infectious and addicting, and the fullness of three vocalists infuses each song with a richness we wouldn’t expect from so few band members.

Joe, Jeff and Duncan, the three young Durhamites who make up HNMTF, have been in cohort since the ripe old age of 5, with Duncan joining the mix at age 13. Having played in a series of bands together, they decided to try things for real after graduating from college. Since, their progress has been slow and steady, tortoise-style, resulting in an EP released in 2007, a full-length, Looking for Bruce, in 2009, as well as embarking on 100s of gigs, and even a tour in the UK.

“It’s really great to have international support like that,” guitarist Joe Hall told encore about their recent overseas tour. “They were all so welcoming, we had a great time.”

Having such an extensive history together definitely helps the guys when it comes to writing music. “We all write together. One of us starts off with a beat or a few chords, and we just build on it until we come up with something,” Hall said. “It’s gotten to the point now where we pretty much know exactly where to go with a song. We tweak it until we like it, Duncan adds the lyrics, and we play it until we know whether or not it’ll really work for us.”

And it does work.

The song “Nobody Knows” is so enlivening it almost could make a listener want to burst out of her skin. “Radiation” is another winner, catchy and fun with some seriously heartfelt lyrics.

“Duncan wrote ‘Radiation’ after reading a story about a girl who rode her motorbike through the Chernobyl site,” Hall revealed. “That’s how he usually works; he’ll read something interesting and just set it to music in his head I guess.”

As with any other up-and-coming band, HNMTF still has trouble getting exposure. “I’d say our biggest challenge is getting out there, booking shows, getting the attention we want,” Hall admitted. “Writing and performing: That’s the easy part. It’s the promoting that’s tough, the business side. Forward motion is an every day goal.”

Hall said that goals are one of the many commonalities the guys have to unite them. “We have the same frame of mind, we want the same things. We spend a lot of time together, so the tension is definitely a factor, but all in all we’re great friends. It just so happens that we’re in business together.”

And for HNMTF, business is good.

“Of course, we love to perform, but we also really enjoy recording,” Hall said. “The pressure is a lot different when money is on the line, but we go in there as prepared as we can be and just get it done.”

This three-man ensemble is recording its next album next week in Baltimore, and is hoping for a release date some time this fall. “No promises,” Hall added, “the business is so unpredictable, but that’s what we’re hoping for.

Hammer No More the Fingers—a name inspired by Duncan’s grandfather, who “brought back this nail hammering guide thing from China, [with] instructions in broken English [reading] ‘hammer no more the fingers’—will be playing their own brand of quirky and unique sounds this Friday, March 5th, at The Soapbox at 10pm. Tickets are $5 at the door; doors open at 9pm.

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by: Sarah Boggs

That 1 Guy
Also featuring Toubab Krewe and Applesauce
February 26th • 8pm • $10-$12
Soapbox Laundro Lounge, upstairs

Performer, magician songwriter, inventor, musical Renaissance man. He plays the bass, the handsaw, the cowboy boot, and his seven-foot tall harp-shaped collection of pipes, gears and noisemakers he’s coined “The Magic Pipe.” Mike Silverman, better known as “That 1 Guy,” isn’t any typical street corner one-man-band. His lyrics are nonsensical, his music unconventional and his performances—concerts fused with magic tricks and call-and-response audience participation—are anything but ordinary.

“People hear ‘one-man-band,’ and they automatically think Dick Van Dyke from Mary Poppins. I wanted to get away from that—redefine the convention,” Silverman tells encore.

Consider it done.

That 1 Guy began as so many other musicians do, a student of his jazz-musician father in Southern California and, later, a student of bass at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. A regular music nerd, he formed a band at 15, and played area weddings and bar mitzvahs until the limitations of band life and playing the bass drove him to set out on his own.

“The logistics of touring with five other people just became too much, it stopped making sense,” Silverman says. “So I decided to free myself, take an opportunity to do what I wanted without having to consult five other people. It was really liberating.” His efforts have landed him three albums and several ambitious tours, performing over 200 gigs a year.

In addition to giving up bandmates, he gave up the bass, too, for good. He started experimenting with sound and with different instruments, going as far as to consult a guitar-maker about the type of instrument he would need to produce the music he had in his head.

“I knew the job I wanted it to perform, so the function really dictated the form of the instrument,” Silverman says about his inventive process. “I guess you could say [the creative process] was kind of the opposite of songwriting. I knew what I wanted it to be, the end, [but] coming up with it that was a challenge. In songwriting you just start with an idea, a word or whatever, and go with it and see where it takes you.”

Typically, the word he starts with is something unorthodox, something one wouldn’t expect to hear in a song. For instance, take “Packs a Wallop”: It uses the rhythm of the children’s game Duck, Duck, Goose as its back beat. “I like music that makes me laugh,” he says.

His songwriting isn’t the only aspect to have benefitted from his independence as a performer. Because he doesn’t have bandmates to consult about set lists, his shows are largely improv.

“I typically let the crowd’s energy dictate my gigs. I like to have a lot of audience participation, call-and-response type thing. I feed a lot off their energy, so the shows are never the same,” Silverman says.

Add a few card tricks into the mix, along with some ad-libbed lyrics, and usually an exceptional show follows suit. “I broke the string on the Magic Pipe once. It was the most obvious and absurd thing that could go wrong—but I didn’t have a spare,” he explains. “So I just laughed, did a few more card tricks, and had to postpone the gig. I felt really stupid, and the crowd didn’t find it nearly as funny as I did. I always travel with several spare strings now.”

While That 1 Guy thrives off his live shows, recording albums proves less than agreeable for this self-proclaimed “musical weirdo.” “It’s just really ... painful. Recording is very serious business, whereas performing is just fun for me. When I perform in front of a crowd, it’s all just in-the-moment stuff, but in the studio there is so much more pressure. I don’t like the serious stuff,” Silverman says.
However uncomfortable he may be in the studio, his agony pays off. His album sales are impressive, and his shows are often standing-room only. He performed in an Australian music festival in front of 50,000 fans, most of whom knew every bizarre word to his songs. “They really seem to like me over there. I got to be on TV and everything,” Silverman says.

Despite his overseas popularity, That 1 Guy often has trouble convincing Americans that different doesn’t necessarily mean bad. “I didn’t set out to be a weirdo,” he says, “but I don’t really mind it. I’ve found a niche for the kind of music I want to play, and that’s hard to come by in this industry. . . . As long as I get to keep doing my own thing.”

While his tour boasts over 200 dates, he still struggles getting his foot in the door at venues he’s yet to visit. When asked about the challenges of doing things differently, Silverman responds it’s just as much an asset as a hindrance. While some may have trouble appreciating his unorthodox approach to musicianship, he’s created quite a reputation for himself, especially at festivals. “I’ve played all over the country, and I’m excited to [keep doing so] this year.”
Play on, soldier! And don’t forget the strings!

by: Sarah Boggs

The Punch Brothers
February 18th • 8pm • $6–$20
Kenan Auditorium • (910) 962–3500
www.uncw.edu/presents

At last! The Punch Brothers have made their rounds and found themselves in the Port City, ready to perform their hypnotic and addictive bluegrass harmonies to the Wilmingtonian masses. Led by prodigious mandolinist Chris Thile, the Punch Brothers pack a hit of haunting melodies that is sure to leave their listeners longing for more.

Comprising Chris Thile on the mandolin, who released his first of five solo albums at age 13 and is best-known for his involvement with bluegrass band Nickel Creek, he makes up only a fifth of the quintet. Gabe Witcher, a life-long friend of Thile’s, adds his talent as a coveted violinist, having worked on award-wining soundtracks for movies like Brokeback Mountain and Toy Story. Noam Pikelny is the band’s sought-after banjoist, whose solo album In the Maze made a significant mark upon the world of three-finger-style five-string banjo playing. Chris Eldridge studied guitar at the Oberlin Conservatory and was a founding member of The Infamous Stringdusters, a critically acclaimed bluegrass band. Paul Kowert, the Punch Brothers’ bassist and most recent addition, joined the band in 2008 after having studied classical bass with renowned bassist Edgar Meyer.

The Punch Brothers, named after Mark Twain’s short story “Punch, Brothers, Punch!” is celebrated for its high-energy, diverse arrangements of bluegrass instrumentals, as well as jazz-like improvisation and flow. Their mesmerizing performances have earned the band a Grammy nomination for Best Instrumental Performance for their first album, How to Grow a Woman from the Ground.

Although the band wasn’t officially formed until 2006, the boys have an extensive web of relationships tying them all together, inevitably moving them to perform and record together.

“I think it’s safe to say we all admired each other,” Punch Brothers guitarist Chris Eldridge explained to encore last week. “[We] enjoy playing together and were waiting for the chance to actually do something serious as a group.”

Such a breakthrough came with mandolinist Chris Thile’s separation from his wife in 2005, which elicited a waterfall of creative energy—energy that eventually evolved into a long-form, through-composed piece that is now known as “The Blind Leaving the Blind,” a 40-minute, four-movement bluegrass piece that recounts a man’s emotional turmoil through the ramblings of a group of friends at a bar. Originally Thile’s ambition, the song was written in part by each of the band members, leaving room for creative freedom within the performance so that it is new each time it’s played.

“I still discover new surprises within ‘The Blind Leaving the Blind,’ after having played it for over four years now,” Eldridge said. He also explained that although the song is lengthy and technically difficult, he was never intimidated by it.

“Having grown up with an aural tradition and approach to music-making, it was a fundamentally different kind of project than I had ever embarked upon. But once we started actually learning it and getting it to a place where we could play it, it became rewarding on a different level because it is such a rich and beautiful piece of music.”

Bluegrass music, as clichéd as it may have become in some circles, is one of the most flavorful ingredients in the American musical stew. Its multifaceted and quick-paced melodies stir up undeniable emotions in listeners, whether pleasant or not, and The Punch Brothers’ repertoire is no different. Eldridge explained why the combination of instruments—banjo, fiddle, guitar, bass, mandolin—works so well together, and how The Punch Brothers use them to produce their signature hypnotic sound.

“There is a long tradition of these instruments fitting together in a musically complementary way,” he said. “Since we all grew up playing bluegrass, we all have an intuitive understanding of how that fit can work. However, as we’ve gotten older and broadened our tastes and scope, we’ve tried to understand the inner workings of how other genres of music can work; it turns out all good music is basically the same. It all has strong melody, harmony and rhythm. So if we come up with parts that pass the test of being rhythmically, harmonically and melodically sound, then we will work with those parts to make them compelling and strong.”

The Punch Brothers will be performing tomorrow evening (Thursday the 18th) at 8pm in the Kenan Auditorium as part of the UNCW Arts in Action Performance Series. The performance is part of the last leg of their most recent tour for the album Punch, wherein “The Blind Leaving the Blind” can be heard, as well as the energetic “Nothing, Then,” and the more classical “It’ll Happen.” Tickets for the performance are $20 to the public, $16 for senior citizens and UNCW employees, $8 for non-UNCW students, and $6 for UNCW students. The Punch Brothers will also be playing Bonnaroo in June.

by: Adrian Varnam

Black Joe Lewis and the Honeybears
Also featuring Cedric Burnshide, Lightnin’ Malcolm and Leslie
February 21st • 8pm • $10
Soapbox Laundro Lounge, upstairs

With Austin, Texas, well known for being the “live-music capital of the world,” it’s rare that anyone is surprised when an up-and-coming band calls the city “home”. In fact, it may even help the acclaim since the competition to be heard is so fierce. Although blues, R&B and soul band Black Joe Lewis and The Honeybears is one of hundreds, if not thousands, to come from Austin, they posses something that comes from a deeper part of America and from an earlier time in its musical history.

With a live show that is talked about long before they arrive, and a record that’s as alive and hoppin’ as seeing them in person, this band needs to be experienced to be believed. Recently, I caught up with Honeybears guitarist Zach Ernst and spoke with him about meeting Joe Lewis, his experience of being in the band, and what life is like both in the studio and on the road.

encore: I’ve read how you got hooked up with Joe after booking him for an event on campus at the University of Texas. What about him and his sound attracted you?
Zach Ernst: Well, before that I picked up his record—his first release—and really thought it was great. It was a lot rawer, a lot dirtier than the blues stuff that was going on in Austin at the time, and it was really a lot more in line with the stuff that I liked. So I probably sat on it for about a year and hadn’t met him or talked to him, and whenever the opportunity to meet him came up, we discovered that we had a lot in common in the artists we liked, like Hound Dog Taylor, Lightnin’ Hopkins and Bunker Hill. We just kind of hit it off from there.

e: Was it that he had a sound that was different from other bands you played in, or was it something about him in particular?
ZE: Well, this is the first band that I’ve ever been in. I had taken lessons when I was young and stuff, but that was it. I met him more from the perspective of being involved with talent booking at the University of Texas, and I was a music journalist for The Texan, the student newspaper. So at the time, I was more into blues music as a writer or talent buyer. The thought of putting together a band wasn’t really my first idea. I just approached Joe as a fan or someone who wanted to put him on a show.

e: Really? Was it what you expected?
ZE: It’s been great! You know, I literally knew one bass player and one drummer, and I called them and said, “Hey, do you want to play with this guy, Joe?” So it all came together pretty quickly—well, right away. So we’ve caught some lucky breaks and been together for about three years now. Right out of the gate, we had some positive support that got us going really quickly.

e: How does that now-distinctive sound of Black Joe Lewis come together?
ZE: Well, mostly, Joe and I will come up with something together first, or Joe will by himself. And then if it clicks, we’ll bring it to the band. Within 30 seconds of playing it with the band, we usually know if it’ll work or not. There have been a lot of songs that didn’t work, but for whatever reason, the ones that do come together quickly.

e: What do you think it is about the sound that appeals to people?
ZE: I think it helps that we’ve been on the bill with a lot of different kinds of bands—it’s been a pretty widespread appeal, I guess. I think we’re a pretty good opening act, so we’ve been able to get out in front of a lot of different kinds of bands and put out a pretty eye-opening show that a lot of people weren’t expecting to hear. That and the fact that Joe’s pretty approachable. We’ve found that people just like Joe—for his stage presence and who he is personally. He and his music appeal to a broad section of people.

e: You’re known for having an exciting and energetic live show. As a band how difficult was that to capture in the studio with your first album?
ZE: We definitely recorded as much live as we could. We find that Joe definitely performs best with a live band behind him. And to capture the energy that we’re going for, recording live is the only thing that works for us. I think we captured it pretty well on the record, but a lot of those were first takes. We rely on that off-the-cuff energy.

Joe sings songs differently every time, so we want to capture a song in a way that we think is good and move on. I think it turned out well; it’s got a great sound and energy to it. I don’t think anyone would go to one of our shows after hearing it and be surprised. It’s definitely a fair representation of what we do.

e: Do you have a lot of opportunity to work on that sound on the road?
ZE: Well, we’ve definitely had a ton of shows. It seems like we’re playing shows all the time, especially since the record came out. It’s definitely shaped us and made us into a better band. When you’re working all the time, like we’ve been, I think it’s the only way to get better.

e: The band’s risen to a pretty nice level of recognition in a relatively short amount of time. What do you attribute the success to?
ZE: Honestly, I think we’ve gotten really lucky, and we’ve been at the right place at the right time. We got some good tours early, we got a label on board that was looking for new artists at the time, and just had a lot of lucky coincidences when we first started out. I think with us having a fully realized sound and an identity with a high-energy show that people respond to has helped, too. So with a good sound and a lot of luck, we are where we are, I think. We’re still pretty shocked that we get to do this for a livin’—it’s been a trip.