All these bands were playing the Cat's Cradle.

What's so fascinating about it and why I think he was so valuable to that scene is,

my memory of that scene and those bands was it and Chapel Hill in general.

You have to remember the context.

He's not living in, you know, Robeson County, North Carolina.

He's living in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, which again is in the South, but not of the South, in so many ways, right? Even though they had until recently

a Confederate statue on UNC's campus, Chapel Hill was very self-consciously progressive and forward

thinking. You remember Mr. Cigar, what he used to call it, a pat of butter and a sea of grits.

Right. And Jesse Helms, the Republican Senator, wanted to put, you know, joked about fencing in Chapel Hill so that they couldn't infect the rest of the state.

Chapel Hill had a sort of progressive attitude that I think at times could almost feel a little a historical.

And I was guilty of that sensibility also.

And similarly, that generation of indie rock bands in Chapel Hill were so forward-thinking,

like, no one is going to listen to Polvo and think it's roots music. Like, it's like mathematical

music from space and stuff, you know, or archers of loaf. Like, that's not the four tops.

You know, it's just a completely different project.

And they had their influences, like Sonic Youth or whatever, like those influences were not

from like 30 and 40 years ago.

Dexter was always drawing from a deeper well of American music.

And he was playing, I mean, they had originals, but most of their sets at that point

were cover songs, you know? No other Chapel Hill band is going to go up on stage and sing a fucking

buddy Holly song at the Cats Cradle. You know what I mean? Or do it ballad by the Andrews sisters.

You know, that's just not what Zen Frisbee was up to or whoever, you know, like all these

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