Crooked Fingers News

"People ask that question a lot: Why did you decide to put out your own records? But it's not like there was anyone else asking to put them out." So says Mac McCaughan in the oral history/scrapbook Our Noise: The Story of Merge Records, the Indie Label that Got Big and Stayed Small .

Merge Records, a small independent label in Durham, is celebrating 20 years with concerts and parties - and maybe even a giant metronome.

Duke Gardens - We'd vowed to keep this section free of Merge Records, but if you're looking for affordable entertainment under the sky on this summer evening, there's no beating this gig : With his essential Amerindie act Archers of Loaf, Eric Bachmann recorded one charging seven-inch for Merge, "What Did You Expect?," in 1994.

An amazing version of Crooked Fingers' "Sleep All Summer" by The National with St.

If you ask Neko Case why her 2006 album, "Fox Confessor Brings the Flood," sold so many copies -- 194,000 in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan -- she'll tell you that she didn't have much to do with it.

Going to a live Mountain Stage show is an overwhelming musical experience -- in a good way.

Some folks wouldn't think twice about driving 250 miles to Charleston, W.Va., to see Neko Case, the flame-haired temptress cougar with pipes like an oil rig.

Now that those snow-plow icebergs along the roads have melted, it's time to start thinking about heading a couple of hours north to Montreal to hear some music without fearing you'll be trapped in a squall on the way there.

Dr. Headbanger Back at the end of February, Lamb of God's sixth album, Wrath, debuted at number one in Canada.

's country-folk material, it might be difficult to imagine that goofy humor would be so widely incorporated into her live gig--but this was precisely the case at last night's show at Nokia Theatre Times Square.

In Section: PRESS Play >> Posted By: Adam Wisnieski The best, and coincidentally loudest, show of the night is LiveFastDie, Nobunny, Rock and Roll Adventure and The Jadewalkers.

CASING THE JOINT: Spare-sounds maven Neko Case has a new record - Middle Cyclone - and is coming to Times Square's Nokia Theater to let you know what it's all about.

FRIDAY: Those of you with your indie street cred cards tucked safely in your back pockets already know about Maria Taylor .