When last heard from, the Connells were still in limbo -- trapped with their catalog out of print and unavailable, not even digitally. But the good news is that they're on the market again. Starting today, the Connells' TVT albums are available for digital download through amazon.com. The music will be available through all other major services on Sept. 14.

"It's one of those things where we're really glad it's finally seeing the light of day, but we don't have a lot of control over the timing," says Connells manager Ed Morgan.

The band doesn't have a Triangle show scheduled at the moment, but there should be one before the end of the year. Also, at some point the band hopes to reissue its back catalog on vinyl as well as compact disc.

"We'd love to get physical releases of some of the catalog out there," Morgan says. "But it's an ever-changing marketplace. We'd like to do something special for that, rather than just throwing it out there.

Here's the story on the new amphitheater's grand opening. Also, check out this photo gallery.

ADDENDUM (6/7/10): And here's a review of the first ticketed show there, Backstreet Boys.

By David Menconi
Staff writer

RALEIGH -- Following years of talk and a few frantic months of construction, downtown's new Raleigh Amphitheater opened to the public Friday afternoon. It was just barely ready to go by the appointed hour.

"Of course we're not ready," assistant Raleigh Convention Center director Doug Grissom joked a few minutes before the gates opened shortly after 5 p.m. "But we're opening anyway. The temporary things we've got will work until Monday."

Friday's debut was a low-key event, a free open-house preview that felt more like a cookout than a concert. Doug Van de Zande was among the first attendees inside, and he made a beeline for the beer stand.

"I got the first beer," he said happily.

The 5,500-capacity amphitheater represents Raleigh's latest attempt to boost downtown with an urban alternative to Cary's bucolic Booth Amphitheatre, and a more intimate setting than 20,000-capacity Walnut Creek. Friday's opening had seven local acts on the bill, beginning with gravel-voiced solo folk-blues player Th' Bullfrog Willard McGhee and ending with venerable alternative-pop band The Connells. The show revealed a venue that's still a work in progress with some kinks to work out.

Right up until the moment the gates opened, workers were bustling about setting up chairs and sweeping sawdust from the newly built (as in, that day) decks adjoining the bathroom trailers. The trailers and huge dirt pile behind the stage give the space a temporary feel that won't abate until there are more permanent structures on the site.

On the positive side, the venue already boasts a pretty solid sound setup. Even acoustic music carried all the way to the back of the venue, with nuances clearly audible. The amphitheater sits in a block bounded by Cabarrus, Lenoir, Dawson and McDowell streets, but traffic noise wasn't overly distracting except for the occasional passing train or ambulance siren.

"I like it so far," said Jonathan Lee as he listened to the twangy rock band Small Ponds play. "It sounds good. It's just weird to have something like this right in the middle of town, you know?"

Even when the uptempo guitar-pop band Sleep Control played, the volume was in the family-friendly range. Small children ran around playing on the grassy hillside at the back of the venue.

If the amphitheater's sound is in good shape, however, there are some issues with sightlines. The best view in the house is actually looking out from the stage, which gives a perfect view of the convention center's shimmer wall and the city skyline.

But viewed from the seats, the enormous stage feels out of scale to the surroundings. The roof is so high that it dwarfs the performers and makes them seem tiny. Also, tents over the soundboard and VIP area cut off the view from a lot of the fixed seats at the rear of the venue.

"Yeah, that's a problem," said Raleigh Convention Center director Roger Krupa. "We'll have to do something about that. But it still turned out all right."

The first ticketed show at the Raleigh Amphitheater happens Sunday. It's the Backstreet Boys, one of 12 shows on the scheduled booked by Live Nation. There will probably be another three to six more Live Nation shows there in 2010, along with live theater, a bluegrass festival and possibly ballet.

david.menconi@newsobserver.com or blogs.newsobserver.com/beat or 919-829-4759

A bit of controversy has broken out over the name of Raleigh's new downtown concert venue -- which the city wants to name the Bud Light Amphitheater in a sponsorship deal that would bring in $1.5 million over five years. But state law prohibits public buildings from having the name of an alcoholic beverage in their moniker. So the Alcoholic Beverage Control Commission will have to grant an exception.

The Bud Light naming-rights deal "is not a foregone conclusion," mayor Charles Meeker said at a Monday press conference, noting that the city is soliciting comments about the deal. He also pledged that all future amphitheater business will happen in open session, in response to criticism of the city council giving tentative approval to the Bud Light deal in a closed session.

The Monday press conference's other main order of business was to announce the lineup for a free "open house" preview show on June 4. Seven local acts will play:

5:20 p.m. -- Th' Bullfrog Willard McGhee
6 p.m. -- Small Ponds
6:45 p.m. -- Sleep Control
7 p.m. -- Old Avenue
8:15 p.m. -- MOSADI
9 p.m. -- I Was Totally Destroying It
9:55 p.m. -- Connells

Word is out today about a sponsorship deal for Raleigh's new downtown amphitheater, which the city hopes will be called the Bud Light Amphitheater. But the deal isn't quite as far along as has been reported elsewhere.

"We've reached no agreements yet, which we can't do until the [Alcoholic Beverage Control Commission] gives permission," says Doug Grissom, assistant director of the Raleigh Convention Center. "What we have done is talk to Anheuser-Busch about conditions if we get a sponsorship. Now we're going to the ABC to see if we have the ability to do this."

At issue is a state law that bans alcoholic beverages as part of the name of a public venue. Whether or not to grant an exception will be taken up at the next ABC panel meeting in June. But that means it won't be resolved by the time the venue opens in early June.

"We will open as the Raleigh Amphitheater," says Grissom. "We found that out today."

The venue's official grand opening is June 6 with former teen idols Backstreet Boys. There will also be a free June 4 preview show, possibly featuring Raleigh rock band the Connells -- who opened up Walnut Creek Amphitheatre in 1991.

ADDENDUM (5/15/10): Controversy.

For the past few years, the Connells' back catalog has been trapped in a hellish netherworld -- one in which it may as well not have existed at all. The Raleigh band's music has been unavailable in any form, not even digitally on iTunes, due to an odd set of circumstances. Their former label TVT Records put up its most valuable master tapes and copyrights (including the Connells catalog) as collateral for a $23.5 million loan. Then TVT defaulted on the loan and declared bankruptcy, leaving the music in limbo.

Prudential Securities wound up with the rights and had no idea what to do with them beyond trying to find a buyer, and i's been slow going. But there is finally light at the end of the tunnel. Bicycle Music Company has acquired the rights to the music in question, which also includes Nine Inch Nails' 1989 landmark "Pretty Hate Machine." And negotiations are underway to have the Connells catalog on the market again as soon as possible.

"We're actually talking to labels right now, trying to determine the best fit for distributin and marketing," says Steve Salm, Bicycle's vice president of business development. "Some regional North Carolina labels as well as some bigger independents elsewhere. It should be out in less than a year. We're working with the band to get it out there as fast as we can."

Head on over to the blog Raleigh Philosophical Society, where there is a discussion in progress about songs that namecheck the City Of Oaks in the lyrics -- including songs by the Connells, Corrosion of Conformity, Avett Brothers, James Brown and others.

If nothing else, it's a good antitdote to "Shine, Raleigh, Shine" (the City of Raleigh's regrettable attempt to come up with a "theme song" back in 2007).

(Thanks, Matt.) 

As has been noted elsewhere, Carolina Hurricanes hockey games have quirky traditions unique to the Triangle. And yet the team is missing an opportunity to connect with its home town on an even deeper level, with the music played at the games. Most of what you hear during timeouts at the RBC Center is played-out wallpaper -- which is frustrating because there's so much fantastic indigenous music to work with. For example, isn't it a cool piece of local color that the Durham Bulls play Deep Gap native Doc Watson's version of "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" during the seventh-inning stretch at their games?

So now that the Hurricanes are on the ropes in their Eastern Conference finals series, down 2-0 with games three and four happening in Raleigh tonight and Tuesday, I think it's time to freshen up and localize the playlist. And you know me, I've got suggestions. Here's a few songs to start with. Feel free to suggest more in the comments.

Flat Duo Jets, "Sing Sing Sing" (1989) -- When the Hurricanes score, the celebratory music is Blur's "Song 2" (plus a video of Ric "Nature Boy" Flair hollering, "It's a Carolina Hurricanes goal! Woo!"). Frankly, after three years, it's kind of stale. One potential replacement might be the 1936 Louis Prima standard, as rendered by Chapel Hill's late great Flat Duo Jets. A killer instrumental version that comes on like a runaway train, it would be just the thing to incite riotous celebrations (and I sure do wish I could find a version of it online; but check out "Pink Gardenia" here to get an idea).

Superchunk, "Hyper Enough" (1995) -- Superchunk songs have occasionally graced the RBC Center's Hurricanes playlist, but it's time the group graduated to regular rotation. And here's something to prime Hurricanes power plays, an anthemic fist-waver that stacks Mac McCaughan's yelp over crushing waves of guitars and a chorus perfect for mobs to yell along with: I think I'm hyper enough as it is!

Megafaun, "Lazy Suicide" (2008) -- You know those interludes between periods, when everyone is staring the Zamboni driving in circles to clean up the ice? This is what I want to hear then.

Petey Pablo, "Raise Up" (2001) -- By now, this one is pretty corny; and you sure couldn't play the whole thing without some serious editing, given the plethora of four-letter words in the lyrics. But looping the chorus over and over to turn it into a chant could be fun: North Carolina/C'mon and raise up/Take your shirt off/Twist it 'round yo' hand/Spin it like a helicopter!

Connells, "Stone Cold Yesterday" (1990) -- For the past 12 years, the Hurricanes have taken the ice to Scorpions' "Rock You Like a Hurricane" (a song with some truly unpleasant lyrics, but that's another story). I'd like to hear them give the anthemic "Stone Cold Yesterday" a try -- a song that should've been a gigantic hit back when it was current.

The Old Ceremony, "Papers in Order" (2007) -- Picture-perfect pop, with a jaunty piano hook that practically dares you to sit still. A delight.

Squirrel Nut Zippers, "Put a Lid On It" (1996) -- Hurricanes netminder Cam Ward is one of the best goalies in the NHL, and what he needs is a signature song that plays after an amazing save. So skip that funereal organ riff they play now and try the sassy hook from this song.

Rosebuds, "Get Up Get Out" (2007) -- A game played on ice calls for chilly music, and it don't get a whole lot chillier (or catchier) than this.

ADDENDUM: Here also is Mac McCaughan's arena playlist; plus a bit more on that. 

Here's a show that came in past deadline for the weekly critics picks column, well worth checking out if you're not otherwise occupied -- Mommie, the local childrens-music supergroup, will play a Mother's Day show at 4 p.m. Sunday at Cameron Village in Raleigh. The word from frontman Doug MacMillan:

It is a RECORD RELEASE SHOW! It is FREE! We would love to see you. We have been practicing for this, our guitar player, Bo [Taylor] hurt his left hand, so he will be appearing on the Ace Tone organ for ONE TIME ONLY. Don't tell him I said so, but it sounds even BETTER than before.

We will see you there, bring a chair...to dance on.

For the inevitable back verbiage on Mommie, check here.

My colleague Ryan Beckwith is taking suggestions over at the N&O's political blog about what should be North Carolina's official rock song. A few states do have them, and a dust-up erupted in Oklahoma recently after the Flaming Lips' "Do You Realize??" proved to be a controversial state-song selection with more conservative members of the state legislature.

If they put this to any sort of vote, it's a lead-pipe cinch that James Taylor's "Carolina in My Mind" would win. And that's a lovely song, sure, but way too obvious. I'd put in a vote for something more left-field -- Squirrel Nut Zippers' "Put a Lid on It," say, or the Connells' "Stone Cold Yesterday"; perhaps Let's Active's "Every Word Means No." Or, in honor of the state's growing Latino population, Rey Norteno's "Raleigh."

Over to you, what should it be? Weigh in here, or at Under the Dome.

Just received a delicious little anecdote from my former N&O colleague Bob Langford about encountering a bit of Triangle music in a faraway place, and it's too good not to share. That's below; for some background on this particular song's evocative accompanying video, check here...

So there I am in this little place in Prague finishing up a pretty-much-perfect roast duck. Czech Muzak kind of wafts behind the language and the laughter and the clouds of cigarette smoke. It is, in the literal sense of the word, Kafka-esque.

Now, in the few days we've been here, we've discovered that music in Czech restaurants is usually female singers who either sound like Edith Piaf or are Edith Piaf; male singers from the '70s; or this Czech version of the Beach Boys' "Sloop John B," which is the unofficial anthem of Prague the way "Free Bird" is the unofficial anthem of Alabama.

Then, both me and the guy I'm with kind of look at each other with a "is that what I think it is?" look. Four or five bars later, we're sure. In a little bar down a little street in Prague, they're playing, what else, the Connells:

I was your sorry ever after; '74, '75...

Here's where the story goes almost perfect. The guy I'm with -- Art Howard, Broughton High, class of '75-76. So, the Connells are big in former communist countries. Who knew? Maybe more importantly, wonder if ASCAP knows.