Friends of The Rant

Gordon interviews Carolina Indie Fest performers the Great Indoors, who hail from Wilmington.    Carolina Indie Fest is set for May 23 and 24 at Hugger Mugger Brewing in downtown Sanford. For more information, visit www.carolinaindiefest.net.

Gordon interviews Derrick Dove of Derrick Dove & the Peacekeepers and Cliff and Garrett Wheeler of the Cliff Wheeler Band. Both are slated to perform at Carolina Indie Fest on May 23 and 24 at Hugger Mugger Brewing in downtown Sanford. For more information visit www.carolinaindiefest.net. 

Gordon interviews Carolina Indie Fest performers Heavy Denim (Durham, NC) and Nor'Easter Tippers & Pypes (Central NC) ahead of Carolina Indie Fest at Hugger Mugger Brewing in downtown Sanford on May 23-24. For more information about Carolina Indie Fest, visit www.carolinaindiefest.net.

Gordon interviews Carolina Indie Fest performers La Unica (Washington, D.C.) and Droze & the Drift (Charleston, S.C.). Both will take the stage at the event, set for May 23 and 24 at Hugger Mugger Brewing at 229 Carthage St. in downtown Sanford. For more information, visit www.carolinaindiefest.net.

Gordon talks with Syracuse, New York's Paper Rabbit and North Carolina's Lipbone Redding about their upcoming performances at Carolina Indie Fest, set for May 23 and 24 at Hugger Mugger Brewing in downtown Sanford. For more information visit www.carolinaindiefest.net.

Gordon, Billy and Richard talk Mexican restaurants, the public school funding debate, and snow days. Happy 2025!

Gordon welcomes Cliff Wheeler back to the podcast to talk about what he's been up to over the past year, as well as the ways Carolina Indie Fest has evolved over the years. The Cliff Wheeler Band headlines night one of Indie Fest on Friday, September 20 at Hugger Mugger Brewing in downtown Sanford.

Gordon and Richard review the month in local government for Sanford and Lee County. Topics include bond financing for a new library, guns at the polls, proposed housing and commercial developments, and the start of the new school year.

Gordon interviews Durham, North Carolina's Bombadil, a folk rock/Americana act who headline night two of Carolina Indie Fest at Hugger Mugger Brewing in downtown Sanford on Saturday, September 21.

We kick off our fall 2024 Carolina Indie Fest performer podcast series with Virginia's Suburban Key Party, who play on Saturday, September 21 at 6:45 p.m. Carolina Indie Fest will be held at Hugger Mugger Brewing in downtown Sanford on September 20 and 21. The festival, which also includes food trucks and craft vendors, is free to the public. For more information visit www.carolinaindiefest.net.

We welcome Central Carolina Community College President Dr. Lisa Chapman as well as Bobby Powell, who was recently awarded an honorary degree from CCCC after completing 32 years of service on the college's Board of Trustees.

The gang talks about the forthcoming Lee County Athletic Park, now less than a year away from completion, as well as our local teacher shortage, and some damage caused by recent storming.

Jeremy Palme, coach of the Sanford Spinners, joins the podcast to discuss the new baseball/softball facility he and partners have opened in Jonesboro. 

The Friends of the Rant podcast returns to regularity with a new format. The first week of each month we'll discuss the cover story from The Rant Monthly and do a recap of the month in local government. The gang also discusses the truly frightening prospect of songs of any genre and topic, generated in a matter of seconds by artificial intelligence. The future is bleak!

Gordon talks with Carolina Indie Fest performers Jive Talk (Nashville synth-driven alt rock) and Tuatha Dea (progressive rock from Asheville mixing Celtic and Appalachian sounds), completing the Friends of the Rant podcast's Spring 2024 artist interview series. Tune in to get familiar with these bands, and come out on May 10 and 11 to Carolina Indie Fest at Hugger Mugger Brewing in downtown Sanford.

On the Friends of the Rant podcast, Gordon interviews Indie Fest performers Julia, an "intergalactic funk" band from Raleigh, and Chapel Hill's Blue Cactus, who play a strain of Americana that brings together country, psychedelia and 70s pop. Julia plays Carolina Indie Fest at Hugger Mugger Brewing in downtown Sanford at 6:45 p.m. on Saturday, May 11, and Blue Cactus plays at 6:15 p.m. on Friday, May 10.

On this week's Friends of the Rant podcast, Gordon interviews Asheville's Chris McGinnis, whose music has been described as “Appalachian absurdity for the 21st Century,” as well as Paleface, whose career in the music industry goes back to the 1980s and who tours full time with his partner and drummer Mo. Both are slated to perform at Carolina Indie Fest at Hugger Mugger Brewing in downtown Sanford on May 10 and 11.

On the Friends of the Rant podcast, Gordon interviews Indie Fest performers the Culper Ring, a self proclaimed “dad punk” band from Dallas, Texas with a knack for big hooks and shimmering production, as well as Greensboro's the Gooseberry Jam, who present a “Southern fried taste of soul set to a backdrop of raw rock and roll.”  The Culper Ring plays Carolina Indie Fest at Hugger Mugger Brewing in downtown Sanford on Saturday, May 11 at 5:30 p.m., and the Gooseberry Jam headlines Friday night, May 10, at 8:45 p.m.

Carolina Indie Fest returns to Hugger Mugger Brewing in downtown Sanford on May 10 and 11, and the Friends of the Rant podcast is back to interview the performers. This week, we talk with Nashville-based Durham native Katie Basden, who melds a diverse array of influences into a soulful take on southern Americana, and Raleigh's Newspaper Taxis, a rock act who bring to mind a mix of British Invasion hooks, post punk energy, and power pop vibes.

The final entry in the fall 2023 Carolina Indie Fest/Friends of the Rant podcast series features Australia-born and Nashville-based blues rocker Kara Grainger and Farewell Friend, a Greensboro-based Farewell Friend, an indie–folk-rock band “known for their unique instrumentation and poetic songwriting.” Farewell Friend takes the Carolina Indie Fest stage behind Hugger Mugger Brewing in downtown Sanford at 5:30 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 30. Grainger follows Farewell Friend at 6:45 p.m.

The Friends of the Rant podcast is joined this week by two Carolina Indie Fest acts, Gooseberry Jam and Jeremiah McKinley, both hailing from the Triad area. Gooseberry Jam, who bring “a Southern fried taste of soul, set to a backdrop of raw rock and roll,” play at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 29. Jeremiah McKinley, “a band of two brothers telling stories through a mix of folk and newer rock and roll” kick the festival off at 5 p.m. on Friday.

This week, Friends of the Rant is joined by Chapel Hill band Heat Preacher, who combine alternative rock, soul, and indie sounds to create their own brand of modern pop rock music, as well as Durham's Shirlette Ammons, a poet and storyteller who uses a wide variety of genres as tools for her work. Heat Preacher plays Carolina Indie Fest on Friday, Sept. 29 at 6:15, and Ammons takes the stage Saturday, Sept. 30 at 4:15 p.m."

What happens when a Friend of The Rant is an actual member of The Rant? Possibly nothing. Possibly an implosion of the space-time continuum.  The Rant's Gordon Anderson sits on the other side of the mic as he talks to Patty Kempton about his band Oort Patrol, their music and their upcoming appearance at Carolina Indie Fest at Hugger Mugger Brewing on Sept. 30.

Durham based singer/songwriter Skylar Gudasz has been called "the Joni Mitchell the south never had." She's headlining day two of Carolina Indie Fest on Sept. 30, and joined the Friends of the Rant podcast recently to talk about her work.  

Ahead of the annual Carolina Indie Fest at Hugger Mugger Brewing (Sept. 29-30), The Rant's Gordon Anderson interviews artists Reese McHenry, a garage rocker with a monster of a voice from the Triangle, and Lee County's own Cliff and Garret Wheeler of the Cliff Wheeler band.

Three bands from the upcoming Carolina Indie Fest — Hustle Souls, Regence and Rhinestone Pickup Truck — take the time to talk to us and become official "Friends of The Rant."

The Friends of the Rant podcast welcomes Paleface and Mo for their third appearance, as well as Adam Pitts of Raleigh's the Pseudo Cowboys. Both acts will perform the first night of Carolina Indie Fest on May 12 at Hugger Mugger Brewing in downtown Sanford.

The members of Mom Rock, a 2022 Rolling Stone "Hot Band" named "one of America's best young bands"  join our revived Friends of The Rant podcast leading up to their performance at Carolina Indie Fest, set for May 12-13 at Hugger Mugger Brewing in downtown Sanford. 

Crystal Bright and the Silver Hands will headline day two of this weekend's Carolina Indie Fest with a variety of European and American world music influences, instruments including accordion, piano, and musical saw, and soaring operatic vocals. Oort Patrol is fronted by Rant co-founder and known criminal trash Gordon Anderson.

This week we chat with Carolina Indie Fest performers Mike Dillon, a New Orleans-based electric vibraphonist/percussionist who leads Mike Dillon's Punkadelick, and David Myers, frontman for China Grove, N.C.'s Big Break.  

It's two bands in one podcast as we talk to Carolina Indie Fest performers Whoop! and Paleface, the latter returning both to Sanford and to the podcast after appearing in Year 1. Indie Fest is Sept. 23-24 in downtown Sanford.  

Musician Cliff Wheeler returns to talk about the return of Carolina Indie Fest and his involvement in bringing it back, and hosts Billy and Gordon talk about their return to the North Carolina Press Association awards banquet. 

Another upcoming Carolina Indie Fest band, Secret Monkey Weekend, shares their unique story before their upcoming performance in September. 

Singer songwriter David Childers has been "chronicling mankind's and his own bouts with devilishness" — mixing rock, country, rockabilly, jazz and more — since his debut in 1998. The former attorney from Mount Holly has played with some of the state's best (recently, the Avett Brothers) and will be one of the 10 featured performers at Carolina Indie Fest, Sept. 23-24, in downtown Sanford.  Childers talks about his music and his career in this week's podcast. 

Sanford Spinners head coach Jeremy Palme joins us to talk about Season 2 of the Sanford Spinners, and hosts Gordon and Billy talk about this week's big news regarding the Prince Down Town motel. 

Oscar Moreno, director of patient services for Central Carolina Hospital, talks to The Rant about new programs and services being offered (and on the horizon) for CCH.  This episode also offers an insight to what's coming at Fonda Lupita's new location and the news this week of a longtime Lee County Schools board member stepping down. 

Kevin Baldes from Lit — the SoCal pop/punk band that had a string of hits in the 90s, including "My Own Worst Enemy" and "Miserable" — joins the podcast to talk punk music, Lit's rise to fame in the 90s and the band's upcoming performance at the Wampus Cat Music Festival in Sanford, May 13-15.  Music aside, the rest of the podcast we talk local news — which, you know, is important. 

Country singer/songwriter Jenny Tolman is one of the 90-plus artists scheduled to perform at the upcoming Wampus Cat Music Fest in Sanford May 13-15. Tolman joins the podcast this week to talk about her music, her songwriting approach, the humor in her lyrics and her influences.  

Nitro Nitra and her band lit up the stage at Carolina Indie Fest, and the rising artist is excited to return to the area for next month's Wampus Cat Festival. Listen to our interview and stick around for frivolity and yuks. 

J.R. Richards, the former lead singer of Dishwalla and current independent solo artist, will be among the many big names performing at the Wampus Cat Festival near Sanford on May 13-15 at Gross Farms II. Richards talks to The Rant about growing up with music, the songs that inspire him, how a massive hit like "Counting Blue Cars" changed his life and his engagement with fans on social media as a solo artist. 

Country artist and Sanford native John Norris — our first in a series of performers for the upcoming Wampus Cat Music Festival — joins the Friends of The Rant podcast to talk about his career and the upcoming three-day festival.    Learn more about John here: https://www.johnnorrismusic.com/about  

Jeff Popka, CEO of Indie on Air Records and organizer of the upcoming Wampus Cat Music Festival, shares details on the May 13-15 event that will include acts like Everclear, Lit, Sister Hazel, Thompson Square, the Swon Brothers, J.R. Richards (Dishwalla) and more than 90 acts. 

Dr. Raj Swamy of Central Carolina Hospital joins the Friends of The Rant podcast to talk about heart month and the remarkable cardiac procedures available to patients in Sanford and Lee County. Swamy is the head of cardiology at CCH in Sanford. He received his undergrad degree at Duke University and his medical degree from the University of Chicago-Pritzker. He specializes in cardiology, coronary intervention, echocardiography, arterial and venous ultrasound, vascular medicine, peripheral vascular intervention, stress testing, cardiac rhythm evaluation and management.

Jimmy Randolph is CEO of the Sanford Area Growth Alliance, but he joins us today wearing another hat — organizer for the Sanford Pottery Exhibition & Marketplace, a reboot of sorts of the old Sanford Pottery Festival which took place here for several years and is set to return on April 30 and May 1 at the Dennis Wicker Civic Center.

Lee County Sheriff Tracy Carter will end 30-plus years in law enforcement when he officially retires on Jan. 1. He took some time to talk about his career and not only his future, but the future of the sheriff's office, on our Friends of The Rant podcast. 

Government reporter and political science authority Richard Sullins joins the podcast to talk about his experience writing for The Rant and his first impressions of local government in Lee County. 

Dr. David Watson, a humanities instructor at Central Carolina Community College, is author of “Truth to Post-Truth in American Detective Fiction.” The book, Sanford native Watson's first, is described by its publisher as examining “questions of truth and relativism, turning to detectives, both real and imagined, from Poe's C. Auguste Dupin to Robert Mueller, to establish an oblique history of the path from a world where not believing in truth was unthinkable to the present, where it is common to believe that objective truth is a remnant of a simpler, more naïve time.”

The Friends of the Rant podcast returns with hosts Gordon Anderson and Billy Liggett talking about Squid Games, Many Saints of Newark, last month's Carolina Indie Fest and other local news stories of interest to your listening ears. 

Carolina Indie Fest headliner Paleface talks with The Rant about his upcoming performance — his first live performance since the beginning of the pandemic — and the musicians who have influenced him in his storied career. 

Full podcast this week as we interview Carolina Indie Fest band HaHa Charade and talk to Beth List about this Saturday's POP!-Con at the Lee County Library. 

A self-styled “astral-pop” and “soul rock” artist from Delaware who has been singing her whole life, Nitro Nitra began a career in music in 2019 after having a “mystical, spiritual awakening” she says freed her from “repetitive loops of mental bondage.” Nitra's goal as a musician is to create a shared experience by lifting her fans up to a place where they can open their minds to new levels of existence and awakenings of their own. Her voice has been compared to Amy Winehouse, Erykah Badu, Tina Turner and Diana Ross.