The Out! Raleigh family friendly street festival will take place Saturday, May 4 on Fayetteville Street’s City Plaza in downtown Raleigh. WKNC DJs Jacob and Benny Mac preview the third annual event with two members of the Out! Raleigh festival leadership team: Kellie Burris, Executive Committee & Vendor Relations, and James Miller, LGBT Center of Raleigh Executive Director.

From the Facebook event page:

Out! Raleigh celebrates North Carolina’s LGBT community, families, friends and supporters in a family-friendly atmosphere. The day-long festival will feature a main stage performance area for regional and local musical groups as well as local dignitaries and speakers. A KidsZone will provide free activities and educational entertainment for young children. All of Fayetteville Street from the State Capitol to City Plaza will be closed for the event, allowing businesses and non-profit organizations to set up vendor spaces to interact with the visiting public. Businesses and restaurants in the surrounding downtown area will be encouraged to welcome and support the festival attendees.

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The first ever Mountain Oasis Electronic Music Summit has just announced their lineup for 2013.  The festival takes place in Asheville, NC on October 25th through the 27th.  Mountain Oasis is programmed and produced by AC Entertainment, the company that helped put together MoogFest.  Towards the end of last year, Moog Music and AC Entertainment split up when Moog declined to renew its licensing agreement with AC.  Mountain Oasis now takes the place of MoogFest as AC Entertainment’s presence in North Carolina.  The Mountain Oasis festival will take place the same weekend and location as previous MoogFests.  This however will not be the end of MoogFest.  Moogfest just recently announced a new partnership with Paxahau along with a new logo. Along with it they stated that MoogFest will not be taking place in 2013, but will return April 25th through the 27th in Asheville for MoogFest 2014.

So set aside all your worries, North Carolina will not be losing a music festival.  Instead we will be gaining another one and after looking at the intial lineup announcement, it looks to be a damn good one.  The lineup, despite not being completed yet, is full of some big names and rarities.  Neutral Milk Hotel will be playing one of their first shows in fifteen years together at this year’s festival. Trent Reznor will be playing twice with How to Destroy Angels as well as Nine Inch Nails who are just coming off their hiatus. Other notable artists include Animal Collective, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Chromatics, Tricky, Zola Jesus and JG Thirwell, Pretty Lights, Bassnectar, and Bosnian Rainbows. Many more artists will be announced in the coming future. The festival will also feature talks, seminars, panels, interactive experiences, exhibitions and more by artists and other esteemed members of the musical community. Tickets will go on sale Thursdau, May 2nd at 12:00 pm Eastern Time. Stay tuned for more details as the full lineup will be announced.

WKNC’s DJ Jacob had the opportunity to sit down in studio with Nathan Price, co-founder of DiggUp Tapes, on Friday, April 19. The two discussed forming the band The Mark Tobeys, DiggUp’s cassingles series, DiggUp on tour, Record Store Day on April 20, and what’s next for the record label/show promotion company.

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Hopscotch Music Festival has announced their full lineup for this year’s music festival. The festival will house close to 175 different bands across 15 different venues in downtown Raleigh. This year’s festival features the best from the Triangle music scene as well as a healthy mix of other national and international acts. As always, City Plaza (the mainstage) features some great talent. Local 90s-esque indie rockers Gross Ghost kick off Friday night at City Plaza followed by WKNC’s favorite new wave synth-gods Future Islands. Big Boi will finish off the night at City Plaza.  Local indie-pop newcomers The Lollipops will open the night at City Plaza on Saturday. The Breeders (Kim Deal of the Pixies) will honor the twentieth anniversary of their hit album Last Splash by playing it in its entirety.  British rockers Spiritualized will headline the night at City Plaza with their stunning breed of space rock.

While City Plaza may appear to be the mainstage of Hopscotch, there are many other amazing shows that take place.  As the headliner finishes up their show at City Plaza, concerts all around downtown Raleigh at Hopscotch’s 14 other venues are just beginning.  While there are way to many incredible bands to highlight in this post, other notable acts playing around Raleigh include Local Natives, John Cale, Sleep, Earl Sweatshirt, Low, Kurt Vile and the Violators, Action Bronson, Matthew Dear, Oblivians, The Rosebuds, Califone, ADULT., Merzbow, Chatham County Line, Mikal Cronin, Pere Ubu, Marnie Stern, Pig Destroyer, Ryan Hemsworth, WOLD, Pissed Jeans, Matmos, Charlemagne Palestine, Wolf Eyes, Holly Herndon, Purling Hiss and Mount Moriah.  To see the full list of bands along with profiles for each band go here.  Tickets are available here.  Stay tuned for more Hopscotch information and coverage.

Hopscotch Music Festival is the largest music festival in North Carolina.  This year Hopscotch will host nearly 175 bands at 15 different venues across Raleigh.  The festival will take place September 5-7th, 2013.  In addition to the 175 bands on the bill for the festival, there will be dozens of day parties every day featuring many more bands.

Hopscotch, now in its fourth year of existence, promises to continue its rise in popularity and is beginning to solidify itself as one of the great music festivals of the East Coast.  Hopscotch’s first announcement came a couple months ago when they revealed that The Velvet Underground co-founder John Cale, who more recently has had a very successful career as a solo artist and producer, would play Hopscotch 2013.  A month later they announced that stoner, doom metal band Sleep would be making their first appearance in North Carolina in over 20 years at the festival.  Experimental electro-pop genius Matthew Dear was the next to be added to this year’s bill.  Then one of the most surprising announcements came.  The Breeders began as a side project for Kim Deal of Pixies and Tanya Donelly of Throwing Muses.  It then grew into so much more.  The Breeders are active again with Kim Deal at the helm joined with her sister Kelley Deal along with Jim MacPherson, and Josephine Wiggs.  This is the same line-up that recorded the critically acclaimed album Last Splash that they will perform in full at this year’s festival.

Even with just four acts announced,  this year promises to be better than all of the previous years.  The full lineup will be announced tomorrow April 24th at 10 am.  Be sure to check here for the unveiling of the lineup.  Don’t forget to get your passes for this year’s festival as soon as possible here.  We look forward to seeing you all out and about at this year’s festival!

Be sure to check out Hopscotch’s upcoming Road Shows here.

Record Store Day is now in its sixth year of existence.  Throughout its six years, it has garnered more and more interest as vinyl sales numbers continue to ramp up in a world that seems to be going more and more digital.  In addition to being a day to celebrate record stores with special sales, m0re and more bands and artists have been creating limited edition releases specifically for sale at record stores on this hallowed day.  In its first year, there was only about ten special releases.  Last year featured over 400 different limited edition Record Store Day releases.  This year promises to be the best yet with even more releases as well as having the always enthusiastic Jack White at the helm as the Offical Record Store Day Ambassador of 2013.  He has been quite busy doing some really incredible things in preparation for this day.  You can check out the full list of releases for this year here.  So be sure to get out there to support your local record store and treat yourself to something special!

Here’s a list of Record Store Day participators in the Triangle:

Raleigh
Nice Price Books and Records, Raleigh
Edward McKay Used Books and More
In The Groove Records
Schoolkids Records

Durham
Hunky Dory
Bull City Records
Offbeat Music
Nice Price Books & Records

Chapel Hill/Carrboro
CD Alley
All Day Records

If you are located elsewhere you can look up participators in your area here.

Apart from this week being my birthday (C’est La Bri turns 21 on Saturday y’all!), it’s also another great week for spring shows in the Triangle.

4/17 (Wed): Bleached/Hunters/Gross Ghost at Pinhook

4/18 (Thurs): Bob Mould/Barren Girls at Cat’s Cradle

4/18 (Thurs): WKNC presents Local Band Local Beer with North Elementary/Antique Firearms/Natural Science at Tir Na Nog

4/19 (Fri): T0W3RS/Estrangers/Cassis Orange at Kings Barcade

4/19 (Fri): WXDU presents Letha and Dan Melchior Benefit feat Greg Cartwright/The Dirty Little Heaters at Pinhook

4/20 (Sat): Schoolkids Records presents METZ etc as a DAY SHOW for Record Store Day

4/20 (Sat): Pet-Tich-Eye NC music collaborative project at Motorco

Check back next Wednesday for another weekly update on some of the Triangle’s biggest shows!

-Cest La Bri

Hillsborough Street is the cultural hub that separates NC State’s Campus from the rest of Raleigh. It is a host to many different great restaurants and shops. This Saturday the vendors are coming together to present the Triangle with a music festival for Earth Day. Music starts at noon and will go until 2am at various venues up and down Hillsborough Street. The event features every kind of music “from alternative rock to Top 40 covers and New Orleans rhythm and blues.” Several local artists featured on WKNC will be performing including Lizzy Ross Band, Greg Humphreys, as well as Once and Future Kings. Nationally-acclaimed garage noise rock band METZ will also be in attendance as they play at Schoolkids Records at 3:30pm before their show at the Local 506 that night. There will also be many other different events and discounts from vendors all day. More information as well as concert schedules are available here. Be sure to check out this event and celebrate Earth Day!

Come join us next Friday, April 12th, at 6pm for WKNC’s final installment for the semester of Fridays on the Lawn. It’s going to be a grand ol’ time with two incredible indie rock acts: Lonnie Walker and Oulipo. Fridays on the Lawn is WKNC’s free outside concert series. It will be located on Harris Field in front of the Witherspoon building.

Lonnie Walker, who played for WKNC’s 45th birthday party last year, is returning from some recent time off and we couldn’t be happier. Lonnie Walker started out in Greenville, North Carolina and songwriter Brian Corum later relocated to Raleigh with his band. They have since played a countless number of shows including at Hopscotch Music Festival and have really made a name for themselves in North Carolina’s local music scene.

Lonnie Walker frontman Brian Corum at WKNC’s Double Barrel Benefit 6, Feb. 5, 2009. Photo by Michele Chandler.

Oulipo, a young band from Raleigh, has also played for Hopscotch Music Festival as well as WKNC’s Double Barrel Benefit X. The band is signed to local label DiggUp Tapes and describes themselves as being in the art pop/ rock genre. Oulipo has been compared to Panda Bear with their synthetic vocals and very abstract pop sound.

Oulipo

Bring a blanket and some friends while you enjoy some free food and listen to these great bands. Join the Facebook event for more information as the event approaches!

Every year, Independent Weekly holds a vote for the best of that year in the Triangle.  Voting for the Best of 2013 has already begun.  Vote for your Triangle favorites in the six different categories: Wine & Dine, Out & About, Goods, Services, Media and Comments section.  Voting will end April 15th.  Be sure to get in your votes for all sorts of awards such as best local brewery, best restaurants, best place to people watch, best venues, and most importantly best radio station.  So get out there and vote to give your favorites in the Triangle the chance they deserve to be recognized!You can vote here.  Here are the categories that we are in the running for:

 
Best College Radio Station
Best Non-Profit Radio Station
Best Local Internet Radio Station
Best Commercial Radio Station (if you’re feeling really crazy and want to stick it to the man)
Best Radio DJ- Vote for Adam Kincaid the host of The Local Beat Fridays 5-8pm
Best Local Blog

When you think of a house show, you typically think a grungy basement with beer cans strewn everywhere. This show was quite different. This concert was put on by Common Chord Concerts, a self-proclaimed “network of music-lovers in Charlotte and surrounding communities that share an interest in original acoustic, Americana and folk/rock music.” Common Chord has only been in existence for a couple months, but has put on some incredible shows so far with a strong line-up of shows in the coming months.

After walking into the Common Chords founder’s wonderful home, I knew this show would be anything but ordinary even by Bombadil’s standards. The atmosphere was very light-hearted as show-goers brought snacks to share and mingled with the band members and other fans. The turn-out for the show was quite impressive for this being Common Chords’ third event. As 8 o’clock approached, everyone made their way into the living room area where the band had set up their equipment. Some moved to the kitchen and others to the balcony to get a better view as everyone geared up for the concert that was about to take place in the living room.

Everyone cheered as the band members made the transition from socializing to taking the makeshift stage space in their usual eccentric clothes. James announced that it had been a while since they had played a house show and they were really looking forward to the intimate opportunity. This show was to be my first time seeing them as a three-piece since their guitarist Bryan was off finishing his graduate studies and unable to join. They are each incredibly talented songwriters and musicians, so I was interested to see how their show would hold up with the absence of a band member. I was not disappointed. The performances were incredible and the atmosphere made for some great story-telling about the origins of the songs. The narratives made for one of the most intimate shows I had been to as Daniel shared his hardships of trying to continue writing songs while he was suffering from nerve damage several years back. The stories covered everything from sweet tea to cross country unicycle rides as the entire audience listened and laughed along.

There seemed to be no real set list as they continuously called out songs to each other as well as asking the audience for requests. They played a good mix of songs that spanned their entire career. From “Jellybean Wine” and “Johnny” to new songs such as “Have Me” and “Boring Country Song” from their upcoming album Metrics of Affection due out July 23rd. Everyone in attendance was singing along and enjoying the incredible performance. To make the night even more personal, they relocated to the kitchen to perform an a cappella version of “Get to Getting On.” At one point, Daniel made Stuart perform his new solo piano song “What Does It Mean” as he joined the crowd in the rows of folding chairs and couches. Although they seemed to have played every song in their repertoire, the show ended all too quickly with an extraordinary performance of “Honeymoon.” They barely finished bowing before someone in the kitchen started chanting encore. As a form of payback, Stuart then joined the ranks of chairs as he made Daniel give a stirring rendition of “Marriage” as everyone sang along. After the applause faded, they took their places at their instruments one last time for the song “We Were Meant to Be.” After thanking the audience and the hosts, the house once again transitioned from venue to house party as everyone milled around and socialized after the mutual experience. Although it was not quite your typical concert, the unique atmosphere made for one amazing night with the always impressive Bombadil.

Hopscotch Music Festival just recently announced their upcoming Hopscotch Road Shows shown above. Several other music festivals such as Bonnaroo have begun to do this. This is Hopscotch’s first attempt to bring some of their past festival favorites on the road to some new areas to try and spread their influence. Hopscotch is now going into its fourth year of existence, and it continues to grow. Hopscotch 2013 takes place September 5th-7th all across downtown Raleigh. While the line-up has not been announced yet, they just recently revealed that the co-founder of The Velvet Underground, John Cale, will be performing at this year’s festival. The rest of the line-up will be announced in late April. With the additional effort being to put into road shows and the success of past years, this year’s festival promises to be the best yet.

Each of the road shows host an incredibly strong line-up. All of these bands have performed either at past festivals or at day parties. Most of these acts hail from North Carolina and are no stranger to putting on incredible live shows. With each show only being $5, there is no way that you have any better to do on these nights. So be sure to check out the road show nearest you and stay tuned for the full line-up announcement for Hopscotch 2013 in late April!

Birds and Arrows began back in 2007 as a husband and wife duo.  Andrea Connolly wielded the guitar as Pete commanded the drums.  On appearance, most people might have shrugged off the music.  With two people who are stuck together for better or worse, how much could their music really have to offer?  Their first batch of EPs easily dismissed these notions.  The instrumentation seemed to amount to so much more than just a couple on stage.  Their vocals complemented each other perfectly and made the music so much stronger than bands who enlist a whole army on stage.  In 2009, cellist Josh Starmer joined the line-up adding a whole other dimension to their already incredible sound.  His cello lines swimming in and out of the music along with their sweet, melodic voices.  Their calming breed of chamber indie-folk is an incredibly refreshing sound to fans of any type of music.

 
Since their inception, they have toured heavily throughout the Carolinas as well as several stints up and down the east coast. They have performed at several WKNC events including last year’s Double Barrel Benefit as well as Local Band Local Beer.  In their six years of existence, they have perfected their live show engaging a wide variety of audiences.  They make those who have no experience with folk music sway with their beautifully arranged music and their smooth, infectious melodies.  Their third full length Coyotes, is due out March 19th.  This album promises to be their best effort to date.  They recently released the music video for their first single “Firefly” from the upcoming album in Shuffle Magazine. Their tour dates for their upcoming east coast tour are here.  Be sure to check them out Thursday, March 14 at 6pm as we interview them live at WKNC for our Local Artist of the Month segment!

http://birdsandarrows.com
http://www.facebook.com/birdsandarrowsmusic

Thursday, February 14th- Art Lord & the Self-Potraits, GOOGOOLOO, and Lonnie Walker at Kings Barcade, 9pm

While there are many great shows this week that can all be seen here at the Rock Report, there is one show that rises above all the rest. As you probably know, we here at WKNC worship the North Carolina bred synth-pop fanatics Future Islands.  But what you might not know is that Future Islands was not the first endeavor of Samuel Herring, William Cashion, and Gerrit Welmers.  Before Future Islands, the three of them were in a band with Adam Beeby called Art Lord & the Self-Potraits.  They played their first show 10 years ago on Valentine’s Day.  The band toured vigorously around North Carolina as well as a tour with Dan Deacon up and down the East Coast. After 2 years of existence, they laid the Art Lord to rest and started Future Islands.

This Valentine’s Day, Art Lord & the Self-Potraits are getting back together for a 10 year anniversary of their first show to release a double LP retrospective off Friend’s Records entitled The Definitive Collection.  This release is their first vinyl release to date and compiles songs from their four albums.  The show is at Kings Barcade this Thursday at 9pm. Brian Corum opens with a special solo Lonnie Walker set followed by GOOGOOLOO. Art-Lord and the Self-Potraits will then close out the night which is sure to be one of the best shows of this year.  So grab your loved one and come on out to the show.

—
You can check out one of the remastered tracks that will be on the upcoming release here. These songs were all remastered by Talk Normal’s Sarah Register.

Check out a synopsis from Samuel Herring of how Art Lord & the Self-Potraits came to be below:

“AT THE BEGINNING OF THE 1980’S, THE SPECTRUM OF MUSIC AND ART WERE BEING BLOWN WIDE OPEN. THE WORLD WAS CHANGING AND THE PEOPLE WANTED A STAR, AN ICON, TO CHALLENGE THEIR MODE OF THINKING. SOMEONE THEY COULD FOLLOW, WHETHER TO WATCH THEM ASCEND OR PLUMMET INTO THE HISTORY OF TEXTBOOK LORE.

AT THE AGE OF 18, LOCKE ERNST-FROST, WOULD BE SUCH A MAN. PROPELLED INTO BEING—LOCKE—THE SELF-PROCLAIMED, GERMAN LORD OF ART (FROM GERMANY, OHIO), THE NEW YORK ART SCENE BY STORM. GIVING HIS ONE OF A KIND VIEWPOINTS ON THE BANALITY OF LIFE, HE TORE APART THE AMERICAN POP CULTURE IDOLATRY, AND CHASTISED THE WORLD AUDIENCE’S FOOLISHNESS FOR FALLING FOR SUCH SIMPLE TRICKS.

HOWEVER, THIS PROVED TO BE TOO GREAT OF A CHALLENGE FOR THE YOUNG MAN. WHILE THE WORLD HERALDED HIM AS THE SAVIOR OF ART, HE REALIZED THAT HE WAS BECOMING THE THING THAT HE DESPISED. THE SPOTLIGHT WAS TOO GREAT, THE LEVEL OF OBSERVATION TOO HIGH. HE WANTED TO ESCAPE THE LIFE HE HAD CREATED. AND SO, AT THE RIPE OLD AGE OF 19 HE BANISHED HIMSELF FROM THE SPOTLIGHT, TO A BUNKER IN ZURICH, NEVER TO BE HEARD FROM AGAIN.

FLASH FORWARD, FEBRUARY 2003, LOCKE ERNST-FROST EMERGES FROM THE BANKS OF THE TAR RIVER, IN THE SMALL, COLLEGE TOWN OF GREENVILLE, NORTH CAROLINA. IT HAS BEEN TWO DECADES SINCE THE ART LORD HAS SPOKEN, AND NO ONE KNOWS HIS NAME. THE MYTH. ERNST-FROST HAS BEEN IN SECLUSION FOR THE LAST TWENTY YEARS TRYING TO CRACK THE AESTHETIC CODE. HE HAS SPENT EVERYDAY, SINCE HIS RETIREMENT, DREAMING, SCULPTING AND PAINTING THE MOST BEAUTIFUL THING IN THE WORLD. HIMSELF. AFTER BEING SET AWAY FOR SO LONG, HE BELIEVED IT WAS TIME TO FINALLY STEP OUT OF THE DARKNESS, AND SING TO THE WORLD HIS TALES OF WOE.

AFTER AUDITIONING MUSICIANS FOR HIS PROJECT, HE REALIZED IT WAS FRUITLESS. NO ONE WAS GOOD ENOUGH TO PLAY FOR HIM. DETERMINED, HE GAVE LIFE TO THE ONLY BEINGS WHO WERE WORTHY TO STAND ON THE STAGE BESIDE HIM, FOUR TEARS DROPPED ON CANVAS, AND HIS SELF-PORTRAITS WERE BORN. TOGETHER, THEY SET OUT, LOCKE, #1, #2, #3, AND #4. FINALLY, THE ART LORD AND HIS SELF-PORTRAITS, COULD TELL THEIR STORY TO THE WORLD…HOW HARD IT IS, TO BE, SO GREAT.”