This week on The Local Beat we only have one guest to welcome. At 6 p.m. Jeff Crawford of Arbor Ridge Studios is coming on to chat about a new project. In addition to being active in over five dozen bands (only a slight exaggeration) and heading popular local recording studio Arbor Ridge Studios, Jeff is also the music director at The Gathering Church in Durham. The Gathering Church has been meeting since 2009 at Creekside Elementary School and has become well known for its worship services with Jeff’s musical talents taking stage. In 2010 the church released Christmas Nights: Music From The Gathering Church to great fanfare. Now, just a little over a year later, a new album is being released: Hymns From The Gathering Church. The album features a plethora of well-known local artists performing their takes on traditional Christian hymns.  Phil Cook (Megafaun), Heather McEntire (Mount Moriah), Seth Kauffman (Floating Action), Mandolin Orange, Skylar Gudasz, Ryan Gustafson, Brett Harris, Nick Jaeger (The Tomahawks), Mark Simonsen (The Old Ceremony), and James Wallace all contributed to the record.

Join Jeff and I on The Local Beat as we take a listen and chat about this new album.

As always, the fun starts at 5 p.m. and will last until 8 p.m.! Be sure to follow the Local Beat on Twitter or Facebook and download tons of free local music on our ReverbNation page!

Arbor Ridge Studios of Chapel Hill has put together a day party for Hopscotch – but this isn’t any day party.  Titled “Saved Haven” and presented in conjunction with Shuffle Magazine and WKNC, the party will present local bands at Tir Na NOg on Friday, September 9 from 12-5 p.m.  Oh, and the bands will be paired together on stage.

That’s right, instead of a set of just Mandolin Orange, it’ll be a set of Mandolin Orange and Josh Moore.  Not just Luego, but Luego and Wylie Hunter and the Cazadores.

The live collaborations are (in reverse order of appearance):

• Mandolin Orange/Josh Moore
• Birds and Arrows/Skylar Gudasz and the Ugly Girls
• Jeff Crawford/Brett Harris
• The Tomahawks/Schooner
• Luego/Wylie Hunter and the Cazadores

Sounds amazing, right?  Can it get any better?  Yes.  While all of this magic is going on, Arbor Ridge is giving listeners a sneak peak into what’s been recorded recently at their studio.

It’s a 2-in-1 day party – collaborations + listening party – and it is a must for Hopscotch.

Local Bands (together), Local Studio, Local Magazine, Local Station, Local Pub

12-5pm, Tir Na nOg, September 9. It will be beautiful.

Beat the July heat by cooling down with a nice cold North Carolina brew this Thursday, July 14 at Tir Na nOg. You’ll want to double check their selection when you get there, but feel free to scope out their beer menu in advance.

For the local band part of the equation, this week features Brett Harris and The Tender Fruit. Durham-based Harris has been on the scene since 2007 and hooked up with WKNC in September 2010 to play during Habitat for Humanity’s annual Shack-a-thon on the NCSU Brickyard. He also stopped by our studios earlier that year to talk with Adam Kincaid during “The Local Beat.” Our friends down the hall at Wolf TV graciously recorded that performance, available for your review below.

WKNC fans will also recognize The Tender Fruit from their February 2010 performance at Double Barrel Benefit 7 and November 2010 Fridays on the Lawn show with The Tomahawks.

Local Band Local Beer is a weekly collaboration between WKNC and Tir Na nOg. It starts every Thursday after 10 p.m. and is free and 21+. Coming up:

• July 21 – Birds and Arrows, Free Electric State and Gray Young
• July 28 – Nests and Lilac Shadows
• August 8 – Big Picture and Kid Future

For years, Tir Na nOg Irish Pub has hosted events to benefit local organizations like Hopeline, The Haven animal shelter, InterAct and countless others. Just Thursday they collected donations of food and $960 in cash for the Triangle chapter of the American Red Cross to help those affected by the tornadoes that ravaged Raleigh and other parts of the state April 16. The nOg Run Club also raised $600 on April 18 for the Triangle Red Cross.

Ten musicians/bands will grace the Tir Na nOg stage Tuesday to help raise money for burial costs and other necessities for the families of four children who were killed after a tornado hit the Stony Brook North Mobile Home Park – just five miles from the Pub. There is no cover charge for the event, but donations are strongly encouraged. According to a statement on the Tir Na nOg Web site, the restaurant will also be honoring storm victims and volunteers with free hamburgers (donations encouraged for all others).

The event begins at 5 p.m., with music to start at 5:30 and follow this schedule:

5:30 p.m. – Stella Lively
6:00 p.m. – Brett Harris
6:30 p.m. – Richard Bacchus
7:10 p.m. – This House on Fire
7:50 p.m. – Jack The Radio
8:30 p.m. – Maldora
9:10 p.m. – Anitbubbles
9:50 p.m. – The Olympic-Ass Kickin Team
10:30 p.m. – A Rooster for the Masses
11:10 p.m. – Hank Sinatra

If you are unable to attend this event, there are a number of other way to help tornado victims. From now until May 20, IndieNC is sponsoring an online fundraiser to benefit the Boys & Girls Clubs of Wake County. The Pour House has scheduled a two-night “We Are Raleigh” benefit for the Triangle Red Cross May 25 and 26, with details and performers to be announced. If you know of any additional benefit efforts, please post them in the comments below. You can also visit the City of Raleigh Web site for information on where to give and get help.

Full disclosure: WKNC and Tir Na nOg have been partners since March 2007 to present the weekly Local Beer Local Band free concert series.

This Thursday through Saturday, December 3-5, The Pinhook in Durham will be hosting The Great Band Swap—based on a 2007 concert.

The format: three nights, four local bands a night, and every artist must cover at least one song by one of the other three artists that night.

The Pinhook website (http://thepinhook.com/) provides the following line-ups and descriptions

Thursday, December 2 features the anthemic punk rock of Pink Flag, the soulful, old-school pop of Brett Harris, the classic-rock hooks of The Pneurotics, and the shambolic majesty of Dry Heathens. The WXDU deejay team.

Friday, December 3, local legend Billy Sugarfix leads the way with his whipsmart catalog of charming, confessional pop. Juan Huevos brings ebullient homemade hip-hop, and Durham duo Joy In Red squares off with Raleigh art-garage outfit Antibubbles. Deejay sets will be provided by WXYC.

Saturday, December 4 is the wildest bill, hitting most of the genre extremes in indie rock. Cassis Orange provides distilled electro-pop with a subtle Japanese edge. Mosadi Music is hard-edged, political hip-hop with searingly tight live instrumentation. HOG takes heavy-metal and stretches into psychedelic dirges and molten, fleet fingered hooks. And Embarrassing Fruits channels the finest guitar rock of the past 20 years, mixed with lyrics about girls, partying, and small-town ennui. The WKNC crew will spin records.

As listed, after the performances local college radio stations WXDU (Duke University), WXYC (The University of North Carolina), and, of course, WKNC (North Carolina State University) will provide the music by deejaying.  I will be representing the station with my co-host and valiant General Manager of WKNC 88.1. It should prove to be a most interesting and entertaining local happening each night and overall, and may earn a status as an annual event.

This week we’ve got some golden giveaways on WKNC!

Be the right caller when the DJ asks for it and you could win tickets to:

10/27: MiMOSA at Lincoln Theatre

10/29: Jason Isbell at Casbah

10/30: Blonde Redhead at Cat’s Cradle

Blonde Redhead (2008)

10/30: Howlies at Slim’s

10/30: Mantras at the Pour House

10/31: Caribou at Cat’s Cradle

Caribou, courtesy of CJ Wood

10/31: Marxtravaganza (featuring Bright Young Things, Tomahawks, Brett Harris, and more!) at Slim’s

annnnd

11/3: MGMT at Raleigh Memorial Auditorium

MGMT backstage (courtesy of Creative Commons)

Remember, you have to listen to win!

Come down to WKNC and Tir Na Nog’s Local Band Local Beer on Thursday, October 14 to see AMINAL, BRETT HARRIS, and THE HONORED GUESTS! The show is FREE. Ages 21 and up. 10 p.m.

Don’t forget to visit the fancy shmancy new Local Beer Local Band website! Loaded with show schedules and a download-able mixtape!

Aminal

“If pop music is a wild animal, then this Chapel Hill trio’s domesticated it, teaching it to sit up, roll over and lay in their lap. Their songs amble with unhurried grace and purr with ineffable charm. Frontman Patrick O’Neill has a gift for vocal melodies that insinuate themselves into your confidences so completely that, after a couple of listens, you’re ready to buy them a round of drinks. The songs boast a woozy ebb and flow fueled by a vibrant rhythm section that’s capable of unspooling the sound with the measured skill of a master angler loosening and locking his reel.”

- Hopscotch Music Festival

You might have missed these guys at Hopscotch because they were playing at the same time as Best Coast. No worries, catch them this Thursday!

Brett Harris

“…equal amounts of jangle and drift, pop and pontification, like a Nick Lowe and Randy Newman acolyte dreaming in FM ballad Technisound.”

-Grayson Currin, Independent Weekly

“…Durham’s version of Paul McCartney.”
-Zach Hanner, Shawna Kenney & John Staton, Wilmington Star News

Brett Harris recently played on NC State campus for Shack-a-thon. A week-long camp-out to support Habitat for Humanity.

The Honored Guests

“Perfection is better in concept than practice, as most anyone who’s lived with a perfectionist will tell you. It nearly brought down the Chapel Hill band The Honored Guests until they learned to scale their ambitions and expectations to a place where the means of playing music were as important as the ends of making the perfect record.

That struggle is encapsulated not only in the title of the Guests’ third album, Please Try Again, but also in the songs themselves. Sure, the album suggests The Flaming Lips’ Soft Bulletin with its richly layered songs, oddly shaped and resolutely catchy arrangements and dreamy countenance. But rather than being infused with hope, Please Try Again comes shadowed by a sense of frustration and dissipation, tracing a psyche at war with itself.” – The Independent

All of the above bands will be in the station this Thursday from 7-8 p.m. for an interview. Tune in!

For those of you unfamiliar with the Habitat for Humanity annual tradition, Shack-a-Thon, it is a week-long fundraising event for Habitat for Humanity of Wake County. Campus organizations build a shack and live in it all week, 24/7, panhandling for donations to Habitat.

WKNC is present this year at Shack-a-Thon, providing publicity, T-shirt making, cornhole, and a concert by Durham local Brett Harris. He will be performing September 23 at 7:30 p.m. in the WKNC Shack/Stage.

Brett Harris will be performing at 7:30 on Thursday 9/23

Come and check out the awesome shack in The Brickyard near Bostian Hall!

Pictures will be up soon. Stay tuned to hear about all the shenanigans occurring this week. As always, listen to WKNC for updates, live streaming from Shack-a-Thon, and the best in independent music!

Photographs taken by WKNC photographer Katie Hill

Mount Moriah

Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.

Brett Harris

Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.

In advance of their show tonight (Thursday), Heather McEntire of Mount Moriah and Brett Harris will be stopping by at 7pm.  I’ll be asking them the tough questions about new music and such, so be sure to tune in at 88.1FM or wknc.org/listen.

Looking for great local music? You never have to look further than Thursday nights at Tir Na Nog Irish Pub for Local Beer Local Band. This Thursday, May 20, WKNC and Tir Na Nog host Durham’s Brett Harris, Mount Moriah from Chapel Hill and Raleighites Jack the Radio. As always, the fun starts at 10 p.m. and it’s free.

The show poster isn’t one of ours, but it’s damn good.

Every now and then, I am reminded that I am student by a sudden kick in the groin from copious amounts of schoolwork and I am down for the count for a little while.  That has recently happened to my Local Beat producers and me who have spent the last three weeks either out of town or slaving through text books and notecards trying not to completely fail at graduating on time (I myself am already a year behind).  Because of this we want to apologize for running about four weeks behind schedule with our weekly Local Beat podcasts.  Fortunately, instead of having 12 interviews to edit, we have only missed three, and here they are below (also, check out the ReverbNation player at the bottom of the post to listen to and download all the songs played live):

March 26: Brett Harris
March 26 was the first live Local Beat I had been able to do in a month because of NC State Baseball broadcasts and Durham rock/pop singer Brett Harris dropped by for what turned out to be one of my favorite interviews in a long while as we talked about his brand new album Man of Few Words, an LP that could possibly break my top 10 for the year.  We talked in depth about the recording of the album, the multitude of artists that assisted him in recording, and compared everything to his past couple of EPs. Brett played two live tracks for us that you can watch in the videos below and download in the ReverbNation player at the bottom of the page.   Brett released the album at the Nightlight on April 2nd with Luego and Bright Young Things for what turned out to be an amazing show.  Check out our conversation:

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The Local Beat w/ Adam Kincaid: Brett Harris “Unspoken (Live)” from Wolf TV on Vimeo.

Local Beat w/ Adam Kincaid: Brett Harris “Man of a Few Words (Live)” from Wolf TV on Vimeo.

April 2: Free Electric State
One of the hottest bands in North Carolina graced my program three weeks ago.   Free Electric State is blowing up in the local press and media for their blazing rock n’ roll live shows and the hype surrounding their debut LP following in the heels of their first two song demo from ’09.  And though FES is a relatively new band, most of the members are not knew to performing or songwriting and it certainly shows with this latest output.  We spent the hour talking about Caress and the differences in the band now from a year ago.  We also touched on the recording process and Duck Kee Studios and the involvement of Churchkey Records who is releasing the album.  The album release party was April 16th at the Pinhook with Beloved Binge and A Rooster For The Masses although the album itself will not be released until April 27th.   Take a listen to the interview below and also watch the newest muisc video for the song “6 is 1″ from Caress as well:

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April 9: Mandolin Orange
Every now and again I hear a record that I cannot for the life of me stop playing and Mandolin Orange’s recent release Quiet Little Room is just one of those.  Soft, quiet, simple, and yet catchy and beautiful all at the same time,  Andrew Marlin and Emily Frantz really outdid themselves on this debut full length.  Following their locally acclaimed debut EP they put out this past year Andrew and Emily spent late nights alone in the studio mastering and perfecting Quiet Little Room with Andrew’s songwriting skills and Emily’s finishing touch.  The couple came in to chat about the new record and the past year, but mostly to play plenty of songs for me and you.  Listen in below and be sure to check out the album release party coming up the May 1 at the Local 506 with friend Big Fat Gap and Ryan Gustafson:

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

The Local Beat will be back tomorrow night for the first time in a month!  The show will be short, however, as our NC State Baseball team begins a three game series against Miami starting at 6:30 p.m., broadcasting beginning at 6:00 p.m.  Durham native Brett Harris will be joining me for the only hour of the show to chat about a new album that he is preparing to release.

Be sure to tune in at 5:00 p.m. for the Local Beat and Brett Harris!

Many would call me a hopeless romantic.  I love to send letters and flowers to my girl and pamper her up when I can.  And while I am not a huge fan of Valentine’s Day and its pop culture marketing schemes,, I still feel the urge to go out and buy my sweetie some candy and flowers and make her a nice dinner to show her how much I care.  Another thing I like to do from time to time is make her custom mix tapes based around themes, as it was afterall music that brought us together.  Holiday mix tapes are usually the best and easiest and this Valentine’s Day will be no exception.

North Carolina is a hot pot for music and of course you are going to find some wonderful love songs tucked here and there.  If you had Valentine’s Day creep up on you from the back and take you by surprise today, and your significant other is a fan of local music, feel free to steal this play list as your own.  (You might even want to take it further and take your honey to see all of these artists the next time they play live.)

1. Tift Merritt: Another Country

2. Avett Brothers: I & Love & You

3. The Old Ceremony: God Said I Could Have You

4. Birds & Arrows: Honeymoon Song

5. Nola: Fall Into Me

6. Josh Moore: Rush Down My Spine

7. Benji Hughes: All You’ve Got To Do Is Fall In Love

8. Jeremy Blair From Effingham: I Do & I Don’t

9. Bombadil: Reasons

10. Whiskey Smugglers: Not Your Average Love Song

11. Brett Harris: I’m In Love

12. Mandolin Orange: Oh My Love

13. Stella By Starlight: As Good As It Gets

14. Tomahawks: Just Like One Another

15. Lost in the Trees: Love On My Side

16. Martha Ann Motel: Everything All At Once

Got more to share?  Comment below!

Only something so important and profound could bring me out of my food science/chemistry induced blogging slumber the day before a microbiology exam: Troika Music Festival.   Not only is this the biggest and baddest three- day long local music extravaganza in North Carolina but this is the best line-up they have ever had.  I just had to wet my paws on this one.

Troika this year is just not fair.  It’s not fair at the amount of awesome shows the will be happening and the amazing bands that will be playing each day.  It isn’t fair because there is only one of me.  I want to be at every show and hear every song by all the bands playing.  I hate you Bonnaroo Troika, yet, I love you.

Because I can’t be everywhere at once, I have mapped out the path I will try to take as I wind my way around downtown Durham to every show.   The weather might be a tad chilly but it should be nice enough to walk or ride your bike around downtown Durham and enjoy all the shows you can. This listing is just where I plan to be (subject to change). Feel free to modify my path and comment below.

Adam’s Top Troika Bands of 2009
1. Mount Moriah 2. Luego 3. Megafaun 4. Schooner 5. Caltrop 6. Pistil 7. All Your Science 8. Birds and Arrows 9. Future Islands 10. The Tender Fruit

Thursday Night
7 p.m.
Of course I will be starting off Troika as I did last year: Broadcasting on WKNC live from the Festival Kickoff in Durham Central Park.   The Beast is going on first, followed by Megafaun. If you don’t make this, you don’t like local music.

8:30 p.m.
After the Festival Kickoff this gives me plenty of time to walk on over to the Durham Performing Arts Center for one of my favorite up-and-coming band, Ghost Cats of the South.  This new folky sounding indie group from Durham caught my ears over the summer with their demo and I have yet to see them live, though I have yet to hear a bad thing.

9:45 p.m.
For the next hour I have to head over to the Pinhook for House of Fools and Aminal.  Aminal played LBLB a while back and wowed the audience as well as myself.  Plus, I have had their two EPs they put out earlier this year on constant rotation in my house.

10:45 p.m.
Since I saw Max Indian last Friday, and I saw Bowerbirds before its members left for Europe a couple of weeks ago I am going to drop back by the Duke Coffeehouse to catch the last two shows there for the night.  EAR PWR and Future Islands are two bands my feet have been craving recently. (I will make it up to The Moaners somehow).

Friday Night
If I didn’t have a radio gig (The Local Beat, people!) on Friday I would probably be heading to The West End Wine Bar from 7 to 8:30 p.m. for what could be one of the best shows of the night.  Tea and Tempests, Liza Kate, and Birds & Arrows back-to-back-to-back.  I’ll try not to think about what I am missing there for what should be a chilled-out good time, especially since I have not heard Tea and Tempests before.

8:45 p.m.
I saw the Huguenots fairly recently, otherwise I would be hitting them up at the Trotter Building.  Instead I am going to drop by The Pinhook to see The Scientific Superstar.  Probably one of the stranger groups in the area (they base their songs off of the comic books that go along with their albums) I have yet had the pleasure to see what they do in front of a crowd.

9:45 p.m.
Jews and Catholics are always a must for me when they play in Raleigh (which isn’t often enough) so I am sure to swing by Broad Street Cafe for the first time in ages. Depending on how far I mind walking, I also wouldn’t want to miss Brett Harris either who is playing at the same time at the Trotter Building.  Decisions, decisions…

10:15 p.m.
Assuming that my hearing is almost gone by this point, I may have to skip Caltrop, which is still ringing in my ears from the last time they melted my face off and stop by the Duke Coffeehouse instead for the Pneurotics.  Even though I interviewed them about their latest release, Second Skin, I have not had the time to see them live when they have played.  I can’t wait to hear the new songs in front of an audience that includes more than just me.

11 p.m.
I Was Totally Destroying it has been playing A LOT recently and  sounds tighter than ever.  Plus, I am always down to hear some more of their new tracks from Horror Vacui.

11:30 p.m.
My last show before I call it a night will be to see All Your Science who is playing late night at Bull McCabe’s.   I havn’t seen them since Troika last year when they completely won me over.  It’s been too long.

Saturday
Assuming that my beloved Wolfpack are not getting destroyed early by Maryland on Saturday it seems unlikely I will be leaving the game at Carter Finley early.  If I did however, I would NOT miss Mount Moriah (playing at 2:30 at the Trotter Building), possibly my favorite band in the Triangle right now.  You have got to hear them.

9 p.m.
The Bronzed Chorus put out one of my favorite albums of 2009 with I’m The Spring and I have never seen them live.  I hear they really put on a good live show though so I will be getting over to the Trotter Building first and foremost to watch them play Saturday evening.

9:45 p.m.
Once the Bronzed Chorus is done I will be sticking around to watch Maple Stave.  Though I would love to see Veronique Diabolique since I couldn’t make it to their show last weekend.  This could be a tossup.

10:30 p.m.
I just saw Schooner last Friday (who completely ruled) and I have seen them probably more than any band in North Carolina, so instead I will be going to Luego for the second time in as many weeks.   Luego is just one of those bands I cannot get enough of.

11:30 p.m.
The Butterflies are one of those bands I just have never been able to get around to seeing live.

12:15 a.m.
Pistil is by far the best band playing late on Saturday and one I havn’t been able to see in quite some time as well.  I will be ending my night at Bull McCabe’s once more to round off Troika.

For video footage of Troika bands, check out WRAL’s entertainment vlog.