As I’m finishing this post from Austin, TX, our 5-day journey to SXSW is now complete. Our last two stops en route to Austin were Memphis, TN and Denton, TX.

On Monday morning, we woke up in Asheville. Shane and John went exploring for a bit, while Anna and I hung at the house – she made copies of some Quilt cassettes, I put together blog post about Fredericksburg, and we made Ezekial toast with kale.

So far on this tour, every space we’ve visited has been a house. Sunday, we encountered a typical roadblock for these sorts of DIY environments, but it didn’t ruin our experience in North Carolina.

Over the eight-hour drive from Fredericksburg to Asheville, all of the QUILT-curated mixtapes continued to ‘kill it.

Touring on a DIY circuit makes the music world seem small and interconnected. By coincidence, QUILT happened to be booked, through a friend of a friend, on the same house show in Fredericksburg, VA as Sore Eros, Pop 1280, and Cult of Youth – all of whom are playing a house show I helped coordinate at SXSW.

When we think of the House of Blues, we don't normally think of a cheap night out on the town. But for five nights a week throughout the month of May, the HOB is offering free local music in its Front Room (the part generally reserved for dining). I'm not exactly sure what can be attributed to this rare fit of generosity, but I'm not complaining -- and when you see what's on the roster, neither will you.

Quilt embodies the antique charm of its namesake and as such has me recalling all sorts of memories that may or may not be real. The song “Commodity Spectre” from its March Appropriation release feels like a lucid stroll through a dream led by faint apparitions from times past (again with the weird memories).

Quilt

This week in the fishwrap, you can read Brodeur's take on five local new-ish bands to keep an eye on. And that's all well and good, but maybe some of you are reluctant to trek all the way to a show without knowing a little more about what you're going to hear when you're there. So, for you auditory learners out there, here are all five bands captured in digital form: