Due to the happenings of Hopscotch, I only had a one hour show on September 10 but was happy to have the Small Ponds’ Caitlin and Cary and Matt Douglas as guests on the program as we promoted their new album, Caitlin Cary & Matt Douglas Are The Small Ponds. The album was released the following week at the Pour House and currently the band is on tour up and down the East coast. We chatted about the history of the group, along with many other things. Matt and Caitlin are both amazing, hilarious guests, and the interview was one of my favorites. Give it a listen below:

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September 3 was the Friday before Hopscotch Music Festival, and I was joined by Grayson Currin, music editor of the Independent Weekly who was also Hopscotch Curator. Hopscotch is the biggest music event to ever happen in Raleigh, so I dedicated the entire three hours of the show to chatting with Grayson about everything associated with the festival.  Caitlin Cary (Small Ponds, Tres Chicas), Reid Johnson (Schooner), and Brian Corum (Lonnie Walker) also came on the show, and Reid and Brian played some brand new tunes (which you can download here). What ended up happening was three hours of a fascinating, entertaining conversation with insight into Hopscotch. Listen below:

Hour 1:

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Hour 2:

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Hour 3:

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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.

Yesterday on the Local Beat, we were filled to capacity for our three hour show (a recap with interviews coming soon) and so I had to exclude one of the coolest shows next week, the Love Hangover, which is happening at the Pour House Music Hall in downtown Raleigh once more.  However, because The Love Hangover is just this cool I decided to do a watered down, short version of the Local Beat, for podcast only.  Caitlin Cary and Matt Douglas came in to play some tunes and chat while we got the creator of the Love Hangover, Richard Alwyn to call in from NYC to talk about the history of the show and it’s many new incarnations across the United States.

The Love Hangover is Monday night at the Pour House starting at 8pm and costs only $7.  It features duets that include:

Caitlin Cary & Matt Douglas
Sara Bell & Phil Cook
Alexandra Day & Hunter MacDermut
Karen Kletter & Aly Khalifa
Rachel Hirsh & John Booker

We had some technical problems but were finally able to work out the kinks for what turned out to be a great interview.  Listen below:

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Also, check out the Local Beat ReverbNation player below to hear the two beautiful covers that Matt and Caitlin performed for me and feel free to download them.

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Sorry for sending this blog in late, but some tests and Food Analysis and Statistical Quality Control labs have had me bogged down all week.  I do still pretend to be a student sometimes.

Tonight on the Local Beat however I am tossing all of that to the side for a fantastic lineup which I know everyone of you will be interested to listen in on.

Last time Reid Johnson tried to come on the Local Beat he got stuck in traffic and we had to settle for a quick phone interview.  Hopefully that won’t happen tonight as he and the rest of Schooner are coming on to chat about their most recent release, the Duck Kee Sessions EP, which will be sold only from CyTunes.org.  Schooner has been making the rounds of public radio in support for the album and I am more than happy to be one of the last stops on their radio tour before the release party next Friday, Feb 19th, at the Pinhook in Durham.  Veelee and the Erie Choir are playing as well and The Popular Kids will be doing standup.  Tune in at 5 p.m. to hear more about CyTunes, artwork at the show, and the album.

At 6 p.m. local favorites Wembley will be stopping in to play some live music off of their recent output, Keywords for Robots EP, which is  a fantastic record and gaining some support throughout the state.  If you havn’t heard the new EP since it’s release back in 2009, you are going to want to listen in and drag yourself out of your box to hear these great tunes.

For the last hour of the show a whos-who of local musicians will be sitting in with me.  Mike Robinson and Adam Baker from Annuals and Dan Grinder and Chas from Gray Young, and maybe some members from Bright Young Things will be dropping by to chat about their show at the Pour House next Friday.  All of these bands are releasing or have released new material so far in 2010 so we will check in with them to see what lies in progress for the upcoming year.

Finally, since I could not fit The Love Hangover onto the program in time, I will be sitting down with Caitlin Cary and Matt Douglas (of the Proclivities) for an informal pre-recorded Local Beat “Mini Exclusive” which will not be aired on WKNC but will be podcasted on the Blog instead.  We are going to try and get The Love Hangover creator, Richard Alwyn, to call in from NYC and chat about the show on Monday and hopefully coerce Caitlin and Matt to sing love songs to me.  With any luck this will be posted on the WKNC Blog sometime tomorrow.