Ash Bowie

It speaks to the strength of the bands in the Triangle that a few LPs we'd considered shoe-ins for this list—Spider Bags' barnstorming Goodbye Cruel World, Hello Crueler World ; Cesar Comanche's brazen Die in Your Lap ; Ryan Gustafson's broken-dream Donkey LP —appear nowhere here besides this paragraph. Read More

Our main list of the year's best albums doesn't just appear out of thin air. Read More

It was our little private snob hype… but it gathered quite a crowd from all North Italy. Read More

Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore once remarked that North Carolina quartet Polvo was the one band meeting the promise of the limitless possibilities of rock guitar. Read More

D ave Brylawski, one of two guitarists in the rock band Polvo, has the perfect collegiate smile that makes good jokes better. Read More

CHROMEO , DESTRUCTO at Club 740; THE METERS EXPERIENCE at the Mint; LEDISI at El Rey Theatre; DARK STAR ORCHESTRA at Henry Fonda Theater; N'DAMBI at Amoeba Music; JANU & THE WHALESHARKS, RED ARROW MESSENGER at the Bootleg Theater; FRAN HEALY & ANDY DUNLOP (TRAVIS) at Largo at the Coronet; WILLY PORTER at McCabe's; UNIVERSE, LACO$TE, GOOD LUCK AT THE GUNFIGHT, JOGGER, THE DELTA MIRROR at Mr. T 's Bowl; METRONOMY , DESTRUCTO, FOOL'S GOLD at the Roxy; BATTLE OF THE BANDS FEAT. Read More

About halfway through Polvo's triumphant appearance at the Bell House last night, someone in the crowd yelled out, "It feels so good to be 20!" Read More

The two guitars that front the indie rock band Polvo often sound downright alien, what with the weird tunings, serpentine riffing and stop-start unpredictability. Read More

In an article published in USA Today on June 30, 1993, Chapel Hill, N.C., was declared one of three music scenes most likely to become the "next Seattle." Read More