6 I The Blue Banner 11U0.2011
Arts & Features
G-Side
surprises
listeners
Beckett Bathanti
sbathant@unca.edu - Staff Writer
Album Review
In a recent article in Spin,
the two emcees who form the
criminally underrated Hunts
ville, Ala., rap duo G-Side
sound tired. Tired of receiv
ing blog and local love, but
being unable to generate sales
outside of Alabama. Tired of
a perpetual grind in a broke,
static city, pouring their heart
and soul into intelligent,
street-smart music that con
tinues to fall on the deaf ears
of the hip-hop community.
Mali Boi and CP make up
the production team Block
Beattaz that has handled
most of the production on Is
land and G-Side’s first album
of 2011, January’s One: The
Cohesive.
Where One: The Cohe
sive faltered, with too many
features and a reliance on
overly airy beats and lacklus
ter R&B hooks. Island excels.
If Lex Luger’s signature ac
celerating synth chime is like
a spaceship starting up before
crash-landing in the middle of
the trap, the swooshing “Slow
Motion Sounds’’ tag the mark
of the Block Beattaz that
opens up Island is the sound
of a spaceship taking full
flight and going into orbit for
the length of the album.
Initially, it was strange to
hear the clear, ringing May
bach Music drop over an ee
rie, Block Beattaz beat a min
ute into “Gettin It.’’ However,
it doesn’t take long to realize
that Ohio rapper Stalley, Rick
Ross’ newest signee, has a
lot more in common with the
world-weary, cautious con
fidence of G-Side than the
bellowing braggadocio of the
Maybach Music founder.
Riding around Asheville,
listening to Island with a
friend of mine, she paused af-
See REVIEW on page 8
Beirut visits Asheville for the first time
Anne Louise Bouchard
albaucha@unca.edu -
Asst. A&F Editor
Beirut, a band based out of
New Mexico, makes their first
appearance in Asheville next
week.
“I was really excited to hear
that Beirut was coming to Ashe
ville,’’ said Amelia Capaforte, a
junior at Asheville-Buncombe
Technical Community Col
lege. “The closest they have ever
come is Greensboro, so this is a
really big deal.’’
The band, led by singer Zach
Condon, started in 2006. ■
“I started listening to them
my senior year of high school,’’
said Nambi Ndugga, a French
student at UNC Asheville. “I’m
looking forward to getting to see
them live.”
The band is on tour promoting
their latest album The Rip Tide,
released this past August.
“All of Beirut’s albums
have been really impressive,”
said Zach Monard, a classical
guitar student at UNCA. '"The
Rip Tide is really sticking out to
me.”
The junior said it is hard to be-
Photo courtesy of Beirut
Natives of New Mexico, Beirut will perform in Asheville for the first time next Monday. Begin
ning in 2006, Beirut creates music influenced by many different styles of international music.
lieve how close the members of
the band are to his age.
“The lead singer was bom in
1986 which makes him barely
older than I am,” said Monard.
“As a music major, I think it’s
an inspiration. They have al
ready released so much music.”
Beirut’s world influence
makes them unique, Ndugga
said.
“You can hear a Brazilian in
fluence,” she said. “They sound
very international.”
Monard said he agrees with
Ndugga.
“They do sound very worldy,
yet they are from New Mexico,”
he. said. “Their first show was
in the UK and since then, they
have toured all over Europe.”
Capaforte said she thinks the
band will put on a good show.
“I’ve seen some YouTube
videos of them and I saw them
on David Letterman,” said the
20-year-old. “I think the show
at The Orange Peel is going to
be really beautiful.”
Beirut, known for such hits as
Elephant Gun and Nantes, will
play at The Orange Peel next
Monday.
Indigo Girl Amy Ray performs solo show at Grey Eagle
Auburn Petty
atpetty@unca.edu - A&F Editor
After being part of the Grammy-winning
Indigo Girls since high school, Amy Ray
started writing and recording material for a
solo project in 2000, she said.
“I had some music that I’d written that
didn’t really fit in with what the Indigo Girls
were doing. I realized at that point I could
play with other bands that I was friends
with and collaborate and kind of do punk
and rock music,” Ray said. “It was just like
a hobby, just for fun.”
Ray’s solo music is quite different from
the music that made The Indigo Girls fa
mous.
“It’s a different collaboration. My solo
stuff tends to be influenced really heavily
by punk rock and rock music, so it’s much
more electric,” Ray said. “The players I
play with have stylistically come from that
background.”
However, The Indigo Girls are known for
their up-front harmonies and a more acous
tic, folky sound.
“With Emily, a harmony is like very up
front, very in-your-face harmony,” Ray
miiisiciRemw
said. “It’s equal. It’s like a real duo. We’re
harmonizing in kind of like a compromise.
Call-and-answer kind of guitar parts are re
ally important.”
Ray said writing for her solo project is
a lot different than writing for The Indigo
Girls.
“My solo writing is a little more graphic
and edgy, and maybe intimate,” Ray said.
In the folk-rock duo, Emily Sailers and
Ray each write their own songs indepen
dently.
“They become part of both of us, so
there’s less of that kind of close, kind of in
timate, graphic kind of writing,” Ray said.
It’s not a surprise to hear that fans of the
folk-rock duo are not the biggest fans of
Ray’s electric, punk-influenced solo music.
Despite this, Ray’s solo albums still proj
ect some of the same vibes as an Indigo
Girls’ album. A listener would find it easy to
identify the singer as Ray in both an Indigo
Girls’ track and a solo track.
Ray has a very distinct voice, and her solo
music has a unique sound.
Ray said her side project started upon col
laborating with the Butchies.
“A lot of the bands I worked with were
on the rock or punk side of things, and I be
came friends with a lot of - I was a fan of
- a lot of musicians that were playing a lot
of different music,” she said.
This relationship spawned three studio
albums and a live album, with another to
come.
“I had enough music to make a record, so
I decided to go ahead and start making re
cords and put them out on my own label,”
Ray said. “It just kept going well, so I just
kept doing it. Every couple years, I go on
tour by myself for a while.”
Ray will perform at Asheville’s The Grey
Eagle on Dec. 9 as part of her solo tour.
Although Ray’s solo project does not
draw as much of an audience as The Indigo
Girls, she said she still finds the experience
fulfilling.
“I’ve just found that it really gives me a
way to express a completely different side
of what I do,” she said.