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Searched the full chronology of 6,171 dated events and 63 storylines, not only the highlights. Showing 1–35.Back to highlights
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Civil rights era · 1945–1975
- 1950s
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Kemp Nye opens Kemp's Phonograph Records on East Franklin Street
Nye, who had worked for Milton Abernethy, opened a record shop in the store the Smiths' bookshop had just left.
- 1960s
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Fire destroys Kemp Nye's record store on East Franklin Street
Kemp's record shop burned out in 1966. A Burger King later opened in a small store on the site.
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The Cat's Cradle opens in Chapel Hill
Cat's Cradle opened in 1969 as a tiny basement music club near the UNC campus, named for Kurt Vonnegut's novel. After moves within Chapel Hill it settled at 300 East Main Street in Carrboro in 1993, where it became a regular stop for touring acts.
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The Cat’s Cradle and the “Chapel Hill sound” of the
The Cat’s Cradle opened in 1969, Merge Records was founded in 1989, and by 1992 Superchunk, Polvo, Archers of Loaf and the clubs of Franklin Street had national magazines asking whether Chapel Hill was the next Seattle. The Cradle moved to Carrboro in 1993, Ben Folds Five and the Squirrel Nut Zippers followed, and Merge’s anniversary festivals and the Cradle’s 50th year in 2019 marked a scene that outlived the label hunt.
- 1970s
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Cat's Cradle moves to West Rosemary Street
The club left its first home, a basement room near campus, for 405½ West Rosemary Street in Chapel Hill, its second location.
Recent decades · 1976–2026
- 1980s
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Dexter Romweber of the Flat Duo Jets lives in the backyard shack he calls the Mausoleum
At 19, the Flat Duo Jets singer and guitarist was living in a shack he had fitted out behind the Romweber family house in Carrboro, sleeping beside a coffin. The house itself, where his siblings Sara and Joe also played in bands, was known for practices and police noise complaints.
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Frank Heath buys Cat's Cradle
David Robert and his partners sold the Chapel Hill club to Frank Heath and Richard Fox in 1986; Heath became sole owner in 1987 and still runs the club.
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Merge Records is founded in Chapel Hill
Mac McCaughan and Laura Ballance started Merge in Chapel Hill in 1989, the year they formed Superchunk, to put out their own band's and friends' records on 7-inch singles and cassettes.
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Cat's Cradle opens at 206 West Franklin Street
After leaving the small 320 West Franklin Street room known as the shoebox in August 1988, the club reopened at 206 West Franklin Street, its fourth location, where it stayed until 1993.
- 1990s
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Superchunk releases its first album
The Chapel Hill band, whose early singles had launched Merge Records, issued its self-titled debut album on Matador; Merge put out the band's later albums from Chapel Hill and Carrboro.
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Nirvana plays Cat's Cradle
Nirvana played the club's West Franklin Street room ten days after the release of Nevermind; Pearl Jam also played the Cradle in 1991, to about 100 people.
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Local 506 opens on West Franklin Street
Glenn Boothe opened Local 506, an all-ages rock club for emerging and local bands, at 506 West Franklin Street and owned it for about a decade.
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Merge Records moves into an office in Carrboro
After working out of several Chapel Hill houses, Merge took space at 120 East Main Street in Carrboro, upstairs from the Armadillo Grill; it moved to a Chapel Hill house in 1996 and to Durham in 2001.
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Merge releases its first full-length, Superchunk's Tossing Seeds
The Superchunk singles collection Tossing Seeds (Singles 89–91) was Merge's first full-length release and its first CD.
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Polvo releases its debut album Cor-Crane secret on Merge
The Chapel Hill quartet's first album came out on Merge in 1992, followed by Today's Active Lifestyles on Merge in 1993.
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The Chapel Hill sound gains national attention
Spin's December 1992 feature "Robbing the Cradle," its title a play on the Cat's Cradle, looked at Polvo and other local bands as record scouts hunted for the next big thing after Seattle. By January 1993 the Daily Tar Heel counted about six publications calling Chapel Hill the next Seattle, and Details and Time followed that year.
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Entertainment Weekly asks whether Chapel Hill is the next Seattle
A 1993 Entertainment Weekly article proposed Chapel Hill as Seattle's successor and questioned whether Superchunk wanted the role; Rolling Stone the same year floated Superchunk as the next Nirvana.
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Squirrel Nut Zippers form near Chapel Hill
Jim Mathus and Katharine Whalen, who had moved from Chapel Hill to a farmhouse in Efland, started the band in summer 1993, played their first show that November and signed with Mammoth Records in 1994.
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The Cat's Cradle moves to Carrboro
After about six months dark, the club reopened in the former Nice Price Books space at 300 East Main Street, a standing-room hall holding about 750.
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Details magazine profiles the scene as "Chapel Hill-billies"
Details followed Spin with a February 1993 piece on the town's bands, and Time the same year named Chapel Hill as a possible alternative-rock boomtown.
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Cat's Cradle closes its last Franklin Street location
The owners of the building at 206 West Franklin Street sold to a developer, and the club scheduled its last show there for May 19; Frank Heath then spent about six months looking for a new site.
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Archers of Loaf release their debut album Icky Mettle
The Chapel Hill band's first album came out on Alias Records; Merge later reissued it with bonus material.
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WXYC makes the first internet radio simulcast
WXYC streamed its radio broadcast over the internet on November 7, 1994.
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Ben Folds Five release their debut album
The piano trio, formed in Chapel Hill around 1993, issued its self-titled first album on the independent Caroline label, then signed with Sony's 550 Music, which released Whatever and Ever Amen in 1997.
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Squirrel Nut Zippers release Hot on Mammoth Records
The band's second album and its single "Hell" reached the national charts during the swing revival, and Hot went platinum.
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Disney buys Carrboro's Mammoth Records
The Walt Disney Company announced its purchase of the Carrboro-based independent label for about $25 million, and founder Jay Faires signed a long-term employment contract.
- 2000s
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Merge Records marks its 20th anniversary with the XX Merge festival
The label held four nights at Cat's Cradle and a finale at UNC's Memorial Hall, with film screenings at the Ackland Art Museum and a free show at the Orange County Social Club in Carrboro.
- 2010s
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First Big Star's Third concert is staged at Cat's Cradle
Stamey served as musical director for a live staging of Big Star's 1975 album Third, which debuted at Cat's Cradle in Carrboro before later shows in London and at South by Southwest in 2012.
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Cat's Cradle opens the Back Room
The club added a second room holding about 200 people beside its main hall at 300 East Main Street.
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Merge Records holds its 25th anniversary festival in Carrboro
Merge marked 25 years with a festival built around Cat's Cradle, ending with an outdoor show in the club's parking lot that organizers expected to draw about 3,000 people after the indoor nights sold out. Passes were sold through the Cat's Cradle website.
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Merge Records holds its 30th anniversary festival at Cat's Cradle and in Durham
More than 30 acts from the label's roster played MRG30 over four days. The Carrboro nights were at Cat's Cradle, where Superchunk closed the Thursday bill at midnight, and the opening night and after party were in Durham. Fans held a potluck and kickball game at Wilson Park in Carrboro on the Friday.
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Cat's Cradle marks 50 years with an anniversary concert series
The "Cat's Cradle Turns 50" series put 50 acts on stage over six nights at the Carrboro club.
- 2020s
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Cat's Cradle plays its last shows before the pandemic shutdown
Destroyer played the main room at 300 East Main Street on March 11, 2020, and Songs From the Road Band played the Back Room on March 13, the club's last shows before COVID-19 closed it. Heath said he began rescheduling on the night of March 11, when the NBA suspended its season, and the March 14 shows were cancelled.
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North Carolina musicians release Cover Charge to benefit the Cat's Cradle
Twenty-five North Carolina acts, among them Superchunk, the Mountain Goats, Tift Merritt and Iron and Wine, recorded cover songs for an album to raise money for the closed Carrboro club. Musician and UNC professor Florence Dore organized it, and Heath said presales were running better than expected.
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Merge Records marks 35 years with four shows at Cat's Cradle
Merge celebrated its 35th anniversary with four shows at Cat's Cradle in Carrboro, the club that had held its earlier anniversary festivals, in the same year the label was named to the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame.
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Compiled and maintained by the Friends of the Orange County Public Library from county records, the sources named on each card, and the index’s event pages. Last updated October 1, 2026.
