Driving through Chapel Hill this weekend, I could not miss the unmistakable explosion of the local population as we welcome students for the fall semester! This time of year also means that local artists of all varieties are gearing up for the arts festival season.

This weekend, August 21-23, Raleigh features Arts on the Edge, part of Arts Alive on Lichtin Plaza at the Progress Energy Center. Arts on the Edge is described as "a 3-day contemporary arts festival celebrating the vibrancy and variety of today’s art scene. From debut performances by the state’s leading theatre companies to concerts by progressive musicians to performance art that tests boundaries (and gravity!), Art on the Edge invites the audience to explore the richness of contemporary art." That sounds like a great time, but I predict the law of gravity will win in the end.

ProgDay is scheduled for Labor Day weekend, August 30-31, an international festival of progressive

Here is your chance to help out an ailing friend of local music and have a great time. Cy Rawls has been diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor. He has been undergoing chemotherapy and radiation treatment and has no medical insurance.

It has been wonderful to hear about so many events coming together to benefit Cy. You can visit his blog (cyrawls.blogspot.com) for a calendar of events and updates on Cy's treatment. Some shows of interest:

Polvo, CGJ, Double Negative, Fin Fang Foom, Magic Babies
Cat's Cradle, Sunday, August 17th, 7:30-11:30PM
$15

Superchunk, The Rosebuds, Birds of Avalon
Cat's Cradle, Friday, August 29th, 9:00-11:30PM
$25

In case you missed recent shows by Greensboro band INVISIBLE last week, you have a great opportunity to catch them at a free show tonight (Monday, August 11th) at Local 506 in Chapel Hill! INVISIBLE plays a unique blend of experimental music, including a one-of-a-kind instrument: a "Selectric Piano", that "links a IBM Selectric typewriter to a keyboard--each character corresponding to a note." As the Selectric plays, it also projects the text on a screen. Each typewriter key is attached to a solenoid that depresses a key on the keyboard. Guaranteed you have never seen anything like it!

Their instruments also include drums, bass, guitar, and of course, various other electronic delicacies, so their sound ranges from electronic infused rock to other-worldly.

For those looking for more conventional music, you may still be able to get tickets to Smashing Pumpkins, playing in Charlotte at Ovens Auditorium on Friday, August 15th, and at Raleigh Memorial

The Allman Brothers and coming to Raleigh. The Allman Brothers will be performing with Phil Lesh and Friends on Friday October 3rd at the Time Warner Cable Music Pavillion. Tickets for the concert go on sale this Friday at 10am at the Hardee’s Thickburger Box Office, livenation.com, and by phone at 919-834-4000.

A lawn 4-pack of tickets to the show is priced at $66 plus service charges and fees.

BitWorks Music artist Photon composes and arranges compositions using many different instruments and tools. He has scored pieces for dance performance (DC's Next Reflex Dance Collective) and released a multimedia album on BitWorksMusic.com under the name "Unit Vector".

Today he reviews the composition tool Band-in-a-Box, from PG Music.

"Like a lot of people, I always thought that Band-in-a-Box was nothing more than a glorified drum machine, but after playing with the demo I can say it is a lot of fun. Adding and substituting chords is really easy, and I'm no chord expert. Then I read this:

The amazing “Chords from MP3″ feature (Audio Chord Wizard) automatically figures out the chords from any MP3, WAV or WMA audio file, and displays them in Band-in-a-Box. Just load in any MP3 file and you’ll instantly see the chords. The Audio Wizard also figures out tempo, bar lines, key and fine-tuning from the MP3, WAV or WMA audio