On Friday, March 13, we at the Local Beat had a stroke of good luck.  It rained and rained and rained, and the NC State baseball game was postponed until Saturday.  That meant that we got to have our full 3 hour show!  After celebrating with Future Islands‘ “Beach Foam” and an impromptu station-wide dance party, we got down to business.

Red Collar, c/o redcollarmusic.com

At 5:15 I was fortunate to be joined by Mike Jackson of Red Collar via phone from Washington, DC.  The band was excited to be kicking off their several-month tour that includes some shows at SXSW and a Saturday stop at Triangle Brewing Company in Durham for their CD Release Party.  Mike described it as a “house party, with the biggest house we could find”–perfect place for Red Collar to have a CD release show, if you ask me.

Mike and I chatted a bit about the release show, the recording process, and live versus recorded music, in general.  Red Collar has a reputation for putting on a blistering live show, and he affirmed that the CD is “a flyer for the show.”  Check out the two-part interview below.

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At the 7:00 hour, I was joined by fellow DJs Cabbage, Gray Matter, and Mikey P and special guest T Bo, the entertainment coordinator for the Hillsborough Street Renaissance.  We talked about the finer things in life: food and music, both of which were integral parts of the Hillsborough Street Renaissance.  Check out the interview below, divided into 3 parts.

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Be sure to join us this Friday, 3/20 for an abbreviated version of The Local Beat (baseball takes over at 6) with Gray Young, still fresh off the release of their album Firmament, at 5:00 PM sharp.

Gray Young at Slim's Downtown

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Be sure to check out our new speciality show, the Post-Rock Block. As you can probably guess our speciality will be Post Rock, we’ll also play related genres like Krautrock and Shoegaze, the direct descendents of post rock. Many of you probably have no idea just what “post-rock” is exactly. According to the all-knowing Wikipedia, post-rock is:

…a genre of alternative rock characterized by the use of musical instruments commonly associated with rock music, but using rhythms, harmonies, melodies, timbre, and chord progressions that are not found in rock tradition. It is the use of ‘rock instrumentation’ for non-rock purposes.

On the Post-Rock Block you can expect to hear more of the longer, stranger, more experimental tracks that you won’t hear during regular rock programming.

The Post-Rock Block will on Sunday from 6-8PM and will be hosted by myself as well as Bridges, Cabbage, May Day, and Matticus Rex.

Listen, it’s gonna be great!