Published: Sun, Dec. 02, 2007 12:00AM

Modified Sun, Dec. 02, 2007 07:23AM

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Schooner, "Hold on Too Tight" (54 40 or Fight): Maybe the best indie-rock record to emerge from Chapel Hill in 2007, glorious chiming guitar-driven pop long on atmosphere and intrigue. Promise fulfilled.

Southern Culture on the Skids, "Countrypolitan Favorites" (Yep Roc): Next year will mark 25 years of existence for this Triangle institution. The Skids are still the last word in greasy earthiness, especially if you like punch lines with your roots rock. This is a set of covers by the Kinks, T. Rex, Lynn Anderson and other unexpected subjects. You just haven't lived until you've heard a banjo version of The Who's "Happy Jack."

Third of Never, "Moodring" (Jam): The Who might never make another record, but that's OK because Kinston's Third of Never picks up on that thread of classic rock and weaves a right pretty tapestry. Front man Jon Dawson has a flair for anthemic hooks, and Who sideman Rabbit Bundrick provides validation in the form of sparkling keyboards. There's even a nifty cover of Pete Townshend's "Let My Love Open the Door."

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"Broken Bones," "Irrational Fear" and "Too Much Hair!" by Donald Davis (August House Audio): Storytelling came naturally to retired Methodist minister Davis, who grew up with 27 chatty aunts and uncles in Waynesville in Haywood County. The endearing stories in these collections range from Davis' inheriting the trouble gene from his mother to digging a hole in the ground, creating a little brother trap. Hear the author read on the audiobook versions, each of which runs less than 50 minutes.

Inch magazine (Bull City Press): Even an overstuffed stocking can hold this Durham-based quarterly. Tiny poems and tiny stories are elegantly spread over eight 4.25-by-5.5-inch pages. Good stuff, too. Issue 5, for instance, includes Michael Chitwood and Phillip Memmer. And it's a tiny price: $4 a year. www.bullcitypress.com.

"With Hidden Noise: Photographs by John Menapace" (Duke University Press): Menapace influenced generations of North Carolina photographers, both with his work and his teaching at N.C. State University. This volume includes 60 images selected by curator Huston Paschal for a 2006 retrospective at NCSU's Gallery of Art & Design. With a poem by Jeffery Beam.

"Dear Jesse" (Sovereign). This landmark 1998 documentary, recently released on DVD, is couched as a "letter" from North Carolina filmmaker Tim Kirkman to his state's anti-gay U.S. senator, Jesse Helms. Dignity informs every frame of this film, and as Raleigh-native Armistead Maupin has noted, Kirkman "never takes a cheap shot at his all-too-easy target." While plumbing prejudice through interviews with local luminaries such as Allan Gurganus and the state's first openly gay mayor, Mike Nelson of Carrboro, Kirkman delves into his own life to make an eloquent statement about the true meaning of equality and respect.