For those who may have missed the 2009 event, Raleigh Undercover is basically The Great Cover Up — which was formerly held at Kings Barcade — re-branded as Raleigh Undercover and moved to Tir Na Nog. The move didn’t come without controversy as a handful of The Great Cover Up’s long-time fans found the move disrespectful.

However with the change in venue also came a change in name, and Tamplin says the inaugural event at Tir Na Nog was a “massive success” despite the controversy.

“We raised over $7,000 last year for The Beehive Collective,” Tamplin said. “I really hope we can pull those numbers off again this year. With it being on a Thursday through Saturday, with a possible Sunday, I am feeling good about it.”

While 2009’s proceeds from Raleigh Undercover benefited The Beehive Collective, the 2010 event will benefit bipolar awareness and other local charities.

“We are definitely doing something for bipolar awareness since I have lost a couple of friends in the past year due to this illness,” Tamplin explained. “I will probably do more than one charity this year due to the needs of so many not being met because of the economy. We are probably going to do at least two charities, if not one for each night.”

Admission to each day of the event is $5, and Tamplin promises “at least five bands per night.”

Some of the shenanigans 2009’s acts got in to were The T’s taking on Bryan Adams, Valient Thorr covering Funkadelic, Embarrassing Fruits playing Pavement, Bright Young Things covering Oasis, The Whalewatchers taking on INXS, Left Outlet playing Queen and I Was Totally Destroying It tackling My Bloody Valentine.

“Christmas Like No Other” by The Trekky Yuletide Orchestra

Now in its fourth year, the 2009 edition of Christmas at the Cradle will take place Dec. 15 and feature performances from a solo Dexter Romweber, Stuart McLamb and Missy Thangs of The Love Language, Des Ark, Whatever Brains, Organos, Veelee, Birds and Arrows, Mount Weather, and of course the Yuletide Orchestra. Hosting the jubilant evening is Billy Sugarfix, and festivities are set to begin at 7:30 p.m. at Cat’s Cradle.

“We think we have the best bill we’ve ever had and can’t wait to see how these excellent bands interpret Christmas tunes,” Trekky’s Will Hackney explains. “As always, we’ll have The Trekky Yuletide Orchestra, our 25+ member Christmas super-group, as well as free snacks and drinks, a charity raffle with prizes from wonderful local businesses, classic holiday films, and a visit from the Bearded One himself, Santa Claus.”

Tickets for the show are $8 in advance or $10 at the door; all proceeds benefit the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.

What that means is you can grab a lossless digital copy of Taped-together Stories for a whopping zero dollars, or you can pass along as much as you feel the album is worth.

While it’s certainly of note that the legendary Peter Holsapple is a member of the outfit — as is the always excellent Jeff Crawford — the real reason you should toss a few bucks Luego’s way is the album is flat out phenomenal.

I can’t really say I’ve heard many bad albums coming out of the Triangle this year, but Taped-together Stories really is among my top-10 local releases of 2009.

“Held Up” by Luego

For the uninitiated, frontman Patrick Phelan possesses a certain charm and pop sensibility rivaling Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy. This especially rings true in the tracks “Held Up,” “Attaboy” and “When I Lie.”

Coming up the band has a couple of local dates before Phelan heads overseas for a solo European tour. Luego will perform at Slim’s Downtown in Raleigh on Nov. 19, followed by a gig at Duke Coffeehouse on Nov. 20. On Jan. 7, the band will stop in for a performance right here on Sessions at Studio B.

The show is set to begin at 7 p.m. and run up until 10 when WKNC takes over with its weekly Local Beer, Local Band.

From the album’s stellar 12-band lineup, five acts will serve as the entertainment at the release party — including The Desmonds, Anthony Neff, The Proclivities, Jubal Creech and Big Bang Boom.

A second Holly Raleigh show is planned for Nov. 21 at Marbles Kids Museum with Sandbox and Mommie after the Raleigh Christmas Parade.

The album will be available for sale at the shows with all proceeds benefiting the Community Music School. It will also be available at various businesses throughout the Triangle.

Via New Raleigh: Love Language In Rhythm video

Another, lesser-known tie? Future Islands bassist William Cashion sits in with Lonnie Walker’s Brian Corum and Annuals‘ Zack Oden in the enigmatic Felix the Drum Machine, while Jackpot deejay Brian Shaw takes lead vocals.

Word now comes that the Greenville expats have signed on with Thrill Jockey Records, who will support the release of the band’s forthcoming sophomore LP. Prior to the album’s release, Future Islands is working with NYC art collective Free Danger to release a limited 12″ vinyl.

“Little Drummer (Jones Remix)” by Future Islands

Post Office Wave Chapel is a four-track vinyl limited to 500 copies that is set to see the light of day via Free Danger on Dec. 17; while the Future Islands’ full-length, In Evening Air, will be released through Thrill Jockey in spring 2010.

As always, Future Islands will pay the Triangle a visit quite frequently on its up-coming tour; including a performance Nov. 21 at Local 506 in Chapel Hill, Nov. 27 at The Berkeley Cafe in Raleigh and then back to Chapel Hill with a show at The Cave on Dec. 4.

Cashion’s has a gig coming up with Felix the Drum Machine on Nov. 26 at Slim’s Downtown with Triangle newcomers NAPS.

With The Foreign Exchange on one end of the tent and The Love Language on the other, the two bands battled through four rounds; including a covers round, a takeover round, a clash round and finally a wild card event.

For the first round, each band performed their own unique cover of Prince’s “Take Me With U” from the classic album Purple Rain. The face-off resulted in an early lead for The Love Language as they won over the audience and earned one point.

The second round had each band playing their original tunes with the other band having to finish the second half of the song on cue while finishing it in their own style. This round ended in a tie and The Love Language holding a 3-2 lead over The Foreign Exchange.

VIDEO:
The Love Language takes on “Daykeeper”
The Foreign Exchange takes on “Lalita”

That lead didn’t last long with The Foreign Exchange besting the indie-pop band in The Clash round, bringing the score to 5-3 as the R&B group successfully adapted their songs to three different genres — bossa nova, reggae and disco.

For the Wild Card, each band invited a secret musician to join them on stage to be a part of their performance. The Foreign Exchange selected trumpet player Stan Graham. However it was Motor Skills emcee and Gross Ghost frontman Mike Dillon who helped The Love Language claim another victory.

VIDEO:
The Love Language feat. Mike Dillon

The victory wasn’t quite enough to bring The Love Language back to the top as The Foreign Exchange took top honors with a final score of 5-4.

“It feels dope. It feels great to win,” The Foreign Exchange frontman Phonte said. “Some of the styles we did today we’re probably going to end up doing in our shows.”

Hopefully the Red Bull folks were pleased with the bands, audience and support of local music so we can see more of the Soundclash events come to the City of Oaks. Maybe Colossus vs. Kooley High, I Was Totally Destroying It vs. The Beast (sister vs. brother), or Lonnie Walker vs. Blount Harvey.

“To help celebrate Merge’s 20th Anniversary the band showed up in one of their largest lineups in recent memory — 11-strong, including multiple guitars, keyboards, piano and a horn section,” Merge’s Christina Rentz wrote in a press release.

The Durham-based label will release Lambchop — Live at XX Merge through its online store as a digital download as well as a limited-run CD. Orders through the Merge Store also include a download of the concert film in either high definition ($12.99) or standard definition ($9.99).

Live at XX Merge is set to be released digitally Nov. 17 with the physical copies scheduled to be shipped Nov. 24.

Word of mouth from those who attended XX Merge shows that Lambchop’s July 24 performance at Cat’s Cradle was the highlight of the music festival.

“Lambchop performing live is always a powerful proposition, but on this night they started quietly with ‘I Will Drive Slowly’ from their first album and accelerated from there, each song seemingly faster and more intensely played than the last, building to a furious finale of ‘Up With People’ and an epic ‘Give It,’” Rentz explained. “By the end of their set, everyone in the packed Cats Cradle — band and audience both — was levitating a few inches off the ground.”

For those who want to catch Lambchop in person, Kurt Wagner and crew will perform at Duke’s Reynolds Industries Theatre in Durham with Alejandro Escovedo. Unfortunately it looks like it’s sold out, but Craigslist is always a viable option.

Tickets for the show are on sale through eTix for $15 in advance or $17 the day of the show.

RJD2 burst onto the DJ scene with the release of his 2002 album Deadringer, and followed its release with the release of the EP The Horror. Since 2003, RJD2 released two largely commercial LPs — 2004’s Since We Last Spoke and 2007’s The Third Hand.

“Ghostwriter” by RJD2

His next affair, The Colossus, is expected on Jan. 19, 2010 after being pushed back from a 2009 release and will see the light of day through RJD2’s own RJ’s Electrical Connections label.

The album will feature a cast of contributors including Kenna, Heather Fortune, Aaron Livingston, The Catalyst, Illogic, NP and Durham’s own Phonte Coleman. Coleman is set to appear on the track “The Shining Path.”

Tour Dates

Just last week, he shipped out the now sold out pink 7″ featuring “Oblivion” on the A-side and “People Need Sunshine” on the flip. Now it turns out he’s releasing yet another single — this time an instrumental track.

Unlike the previous digital singles Adams released through PAX.AM, the ever-prolific songwriter released “Fortress of the Spider Gods” as a free stream. The track is available at Adams’ Soundcloud page along with various demos, as well as at his homepage.

“Fortress of the Spider Gods” by Ryan Adams