The Revolution is giving away some truly phenomenal tickets this week! Whether you’re layin’ out ‘n’ listenin’ or stayin’ in, have your phone handy. This week 88.1 FM Raleigh is giving away tickets to:

6/2 Holy Ghost Tent Revival @ Kings Barcade

6/9 Sondre Lerhe @ Cat’s Cradle

6/9 All Tiny Creatures @ Kings

6/9 Women Helping Women @ Cardinal Club

6/10 Kingsbury Manx @ Kings

6/11 Decemberists with Best Coast @ Raleigh Amphitheater

Thomas Jefferson once said ‘Every Generation Needs a New Revolution’, so listening to Eighty-Eight point One is essentially in our constitution.

Yo, Yo Yiggity Yo.

If you like/love/can-admit-an-appreciation-for, The Decemberists, Best Coast, The Morning After, Corrosion of Conformity, Beggars, Dance Music for Nerds, Caltrop, Americans in France, Jews & Catholics, Red Collar, Dangerous Ponies or Grace Potter & The Nocturnals, then you should LISTEN UP to WKNC 88.1 this week, because we’ve got giveaways right now for every single one of these shows. You should be listening right now.

Below is the list of shows. Read up and get down as you listen to The Revolution, waiting to see if you can win tickets to your show!

6/11 Live Nation presents The Decemberists w/ Best Coast @ The Raleigh Amphitheater

5/25 The Morning After @ Pinhook (Durham)

5/26 Corrosion of Conformity @ Cat’s Cradle (Carrboro)

5/26 Beggars (w/ Colossus and White Tiger and the Bed of Roses) @ Casbah (Durham)

5/27 Dance Music for Nerds @ Pinhook

5/27 Caltrop @ Kings Barcade (Raleigh)

5/28 Americans in France album release party @ Kings Barcade

5/28 Jews & Catholics @ Pinhook

5/28 Red Collar @ Casbah

5/29 Dangerous Ponies @ Pinhook

5/29 Grace Potter & The Nocturnals @ Lincoln Theatre (Raleigh)

Hopscotch, the Independent Weekly‘s annual music festival in downtown Raleigh will be releasing the lineup for their September 3-day festival on Wednesday, April 20th. Greg Lowenhagen of Independent Weekly will be on-air with our very own Chuck from 11-noon to talk about the show and this year’s line up.

Last year hosted names like Panda Bear, Public Enemy, The Rosebuds,  Sharon Van Etten, Megafaun, Best Coast and more than 100 other bands.  This year is sure to be even better; full of national acts as well as great local talent.  Tune in to find out who!

Tickets will go on sale as the lineup is released on April 20th. Free 3-day wristbands were given out at local record stores for Record Store Day April 16. Stay tuned to WKNC and keep reading Independent Weekly to find out ways you can win tickets.

For more musical fun, Hopscotch is hosting a few free local shows throughout Raleigh on Thursday, Friday and Saturday (4/21-4/23) in celebration of their lineup release!

The Decemberists have a busy summer ahead of them. Lucky for us, their whirlwind “Popes of Pendarvia World Tour” will bring them straight from Bonnaroo to our fair city for a Saturday, June 11 performance at the Raleigh Ampitheatre. Best Coast will join The Decemberists for this and at least three subsequent shows.

Because WKNC is so awesome, not only do we have five pair of tickets to bestow upon our lucky listeners, we have them well before the tickets actually go on sale. If you aren’t one of the lucky ones, you can pick up your own pair starting Friday, March 18 at 10 a.m. via Live Nation.

Giveaways are a win-win-win situation for everyone involved. You get to listen to the great tunes at WKNC, the DJs get to talk to you (we LOVE calls)  and you can win tickets to some awesome shows! Win, Win, Win situation.

This week, you could win tickets (you +1) to:

1/27: Alejandro Escoveda at Cat’s Cradle

Alejandro Escovedo, courtesy of Allogist

1/28: American Aquarium at King’s

1/28: Robbie Fulks Duo at Casbah

1/29: American Aquarium at King’s

American Aquarium, courtesy of elawgrrl

1/29: Best Coast at Cat’s Cradle

Best Coast, courtesy of la-underground

1/29: Kickin’ Grass Band at The Pour House

The Kickin' Grass Band's self- titled album was released in 2008

Just be the correct caller when the DJ asks for it, and you could win!

Tune in to WKNC online or 88.1FM on your dial!

WKNC Pick of the Week, December 2, 2010

By John Gomes, WKNC Daytime deejay

It’s that lovely time of the year where we put up Christmas lights, enjoy egg nog shakes at Cook Out and look back on the year that was. 2010 proved to be an eventful year, despite all the terrible moments — earthquakes, oil spills, that bad call in the Maryland football game — this year saw the release of some good albums. I highly recommend my personal Top Five list for your listening pleasure over break.

1) Yeasayer—Odd Blood

Yeasayer's Odd Blood

The sophomore release from this eclectic group is a warm, pop-infused masterpiece—a curious departure from the darkness of their 2007 debut album. Yeasayer introduces huge, pulsing synths and primal rhythms into their sound, resulting in some infectiously upbeat and organic numbers. Odd Blood isn’t one-dimensional, however. The album features a couple of heavier, darker tracks to balance out the pop sound. Yeasayer remains experimental as ever, exploring everything from R&B to Middle Eastern dance music. The end result is a well-rounded, highly enjoyable album. (Bonus points for the band self-producing it.)

2) Arcade Fire – The Suburbs

Arcade Fire's The Suburbs

Possibly the most anticipated album of the year, Arcade Fire’s third release garnered universal praise. Like Odd Blood, The Suburbs represents a new sonic direction for Arcade Fire—gone are the Baroque sounds and grand crescendos that defined the band’s sound. Instead, the album maintains a latent energy throughout every song, steadfast rhythms layered with rich textures and tones. These elements form the perfect vehicle for the album’s main concept — innocence and coming-of-age set in the backdrop of suburbia. Poignant and poised, The Suburbs is Arcade Fire’s best release yet.

3) Best Coast – Crazy For You

Best Coast's Crazy For You

Though many artists are doing the retro surf-rock thing nowadays, Best Coast does it best. The group is led by Bethany Cosentino, whose approach is refreshingly simple — reverb-heavy guitars, easy chord progressions and honest lyrics about boys, her cat or getting high. Sure, it seems like a third-grader can write these songs — “One day I’ll make him mine / And we’ll be together all the time” — but there is beauty in the simplicity. The songs on Crazy For You are little pieces of pop perfection — they’re sweet, short, and will stay in your head for days. Put this album on and you’ll feel like you’re on a beach.

4) Broken Social Scene – Forgiveness Rock Record

Broken Social Scene's Forgiveness Rock Record

Broken Social Scene is a rather apt name for the group whose massive lineup continuously changes. With so many band members playing so many instruments and adding so many sounds and textures, Forgiveness Rock Record is inevitably orchestral and grandiose. Each song exhibits a different dimension of beauty, from the majestic climaxes of “World Sick” to the melodic angularity of “Art House Director.” Though not as cohesive as previous albums, Forgiveness Rock Record is still classic Broken Social Scene — lush, resplendent and larger than life.

5) Caribou – Swim

Caribou's Swim

Dan Snaith, who operates under the name Caribou, is an electronica artist and British mathematician. Naturally, you wouldn’t expect those two things to go together. Swim evokes the same reaction with its out-of-left-field collection of tracks. Flip-floppy synths, divine bell chimes, and even jazzy flute flourishes all coalesce atop powerful, danceable grooves while whispery vocals echo and modulate in and out of your consciousness. This is not your father’s electronica album. Each and every song evolves into something surreal at the end, with elements of rock, jazz and psychedelica thrown in the mix. Out of all the albums on this list, Swim sounds the most transcendental.

88.1 WKNC Pick of the Week is published in every Friday in the print edition of Technician, as well as online at technicianonline.com and wknc.org.

Recently Anastassia brought to my attention that Target has released a free mixtape that includes a wide range of artists including a collaboration between Best Coast and Wavves, Coconut Records, Bishop Allen, Darker My Love, and more. The bands featured on the mixtape have recorded individual tracks, unique to the collection that Target has put on its website. The tracks are avaliable to download right here. To get an idea of the cheerful winter season vibes throughout, check out the Best Coast/Wavves track below.

88.1 WKNC’s Pick of the Week 8/27
By Michael Jones, WKNC DJ

Every once in a while you stumble across a band that perfectly defines a specific type of music, and with Best Coast’s debut Crazy For You, they prove that they are one of those bands.

Best Coast has debuted with a stellar entry into a surfer rock genre that has seemed to dominate much of the indie rock music scene over the past year. The band has gone so far to describe their sound as a girl lying on the beach in the 1990s wearing a bathing suit from the 50s.

Best Coast is the musical collaboration between vocalist Bethany Cosentino, multi-instrumentalist Bobb Bruno and their touring drummer Ali Koehler. Coming out of Los Angeles, California, Best Coast has produced immense hype, recently being named the best new band of 2010 by the British publication NME, and are also set to play at this year’s Hopscotch Music Festival in downtown Raleigh this September.

The band kicks off their album just as you might expect. The starry-eyed, love-longing vocals of Cosentino come out in their best fashion with the track Boyfriend. Cosentino emphasizes her desire for a man and her contempt for another woman vying for his attention. “If I could only get her out of the picture / Then he would know how much I want him,” demonstrates her love for this guy she desires to return her love. Finally, toward the end of the fantastic track, Cosentino dives into some of the more dreamy elements of Best Coast when she thinks up a series of romantic and beautiful activities they would share.

The entire album is not compiled solely of sweet, romantic songs. The title track Crazy For You demonstrates Cosentino’s push-pull tendencies toward her significant other when she delivers the lyrics, “I want to hit you then I kiss you / Want to kill you then I miss you.” Bordering on sentiments that reflect both insecurity and defiance, she is consistently second-guessing herself.

Best Coast is able to capitalize on their marijuana-influenced, beach pop tunes with their track The End. This slick entry into the album shows the appearance of being laid-back — yet somehow worried — about the relationships that Cosentino describes throughout the album.

Each track appears to be a unique entry into a specific feeling that the Best Coast is getting across in a way that creates diversity and breeds excellence. Songs like Goodbye demonstrate the band’s ability to dip into the harshest areas of cynicism, while Bratty B shows that she can change in order to be with her loved one once again.

As the album comes to a close, Best Coast delivers track after track that show Cosentino second-guessing and coming to frustrating conclusions about wanting to be with this mystery man. However, she seems to acknowledge forces outside of her control are preventing them from being together.

At the end of the day, Best Coast’s Crazy For You provides a stand-out entry into a surfer rock genre that may seem oversaturated to some, and if hitting the top 40 for an independent band’s debut record proves anything, it is that they have the potential to be one of the next big names in pop.

88.1 WKNC Pick of the Week is published in every Friday in the print edition of Technician, as well as online at technicianonline.com and wknc.org.

We are back from the summer break and this week we focus on new releases from Arcade Fire and Best Coast.

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The debut album from the lo-fi pop band Best Coast, titled Crazy for You, is now streaming in its entirety. After creating a large amount of buzz with the release of several 7” singles and EPs, the band is set to release their debut with Wichita Recordings next week. The band will be performing at this year’s Hopscotch Music Festival at Tir na nOg on September 9.

The Independent Weekly announced the line-up for its first Hopscotch Music Festival today.  The festival will take place in downtown Raleigh on September 9, 10 and 11 2010. Headlining the festival are Public Enemy, Panda Bear and Broken Social Scene. A plethora of local favorites will be playing as well.

Here’s a list of the bands scheduled to play the festival, with more to be released April 12:

9th Wonder & Friends, Active Child, All Tiny Creatures, American Aquarium, Americans in France, Atlas Sound, Balmorhea, Bear in Heaven, Best Coast, Birds of Avalon, Black Congo NC, DJ George Brazil, Broken Social Scene, Brutal Knights, Richard Buckner, Burning Star Core, Cannabis Corpse, Caitlin Cary’s Small Ponds with Tres Chicas, Collections of Colonies of Bees, Cults, Greg Davis, Double Dagger, Double Negative, The Dynamite Brothers, EAR PWR, ExMonkeys, First Rate People, Followed by Static, Ben Frost, Fucked Up, Future Islands, Golden Boys, The Golden Filter, Goner, Gray Young, Ryan Gustafson, Hammer No More the Fingers, Harlem, Harvey Milk, Horseback, John Howie Jr. & The Rosewood Bluff, I Was Totally Destroying It, Javelin, Jeb Bishop Trio, Juan Huevos, Kill the Noise, The Kingsbury Manx, Kooley High, Kylesa, The Light Pines, Lonnie Walker, The Love Language, Lucero, Luego, Max Indian, Erin McKeown, Megafaun, Midtown Dickens, The Moaners, The Monologue Bombs, Motor Skills, Mountains, Jon Mueller, Marissa Nadler, No Age, Ocean, Old Bricks, Panda Bear, Pattern Is Movement, Pictureplane, Plague, Pontiak, Public Enemy, The Rosebuds, Schooner, Sightings, spcl gst, Spider Bags, Thien, Tigercity, Tortoise, Treasure Fingers, US Christmas, Sharon Van Etten, Veelee, Vincent Black Shadow, War on Drugs, Washed Out, Weedeater, Whatever Brains, Keith Fullerton Whitman, Yip-Yip.

Tickets go on sale April 1. For more information, check out this article from the Independent Weekly.