Hammer Again The Fingers

We made it out to Local 506 last night to catch The Broken West, an LA band on the Triangle's own Merge Records. TBW played a solid set, bass heavy, dual guitar, keys, drums--straight-up rock. Among their influences they list Tom Petty and Echo & the Bunnymen. I would go along with that, though their live set sounded a bit different to me than the selections on MySpace, denser, and the vocals were a bit too low in the mix to be heard over the full instrumentation.

What made the night for me was another strong performance by local heroes Hammer No More The Fingers. As I said to the band, it's all about the songwriting, and these guys just know how to scratch my indie rock itch. I have already reviewed their debut EP and interviewed lead man Duncan Webster, so I don't have much new to add here, except that you can't afford to miss these guys! Duncan admitted he was a bit nervous that people from Merge were in attendance, but he need not fear, because (watch this!) I will now employ the Jedi mind trick: MERGE RECORDS WANTS TO SIGN HAMMER. It's that easy.

This weekend, don't forget, is Carrboro Music Festival. CMF features musicians from all over the area, this year including 160 different performances at 22 venues. Huge! What is best about CMF is that you can wander around and sample so many different styles and artists that you would not normally get to hear live. Some are amateurs and others are seasoned professionals. See you there!