Good afternoon!

We have some great giveaways that are going like HOT CAKES!

October 21: The Love Language at Kings

The Love Language at Local 506, courtesy of Mike Gray

October 22: Goner at Kings

October 23: Airiel Down at Lincoln Theatre

October 23:   Gray Young at The Pour House

Chas and Dan Gray Young in the WKNC Studio

October 23:  The Moaners w/ Embarrassing Fruits at Kings

October 24: Small Black at Kings

October 26: Muse w/ Metric at the RBC Center

Metric (courtest of creative commons)

Remember, you have to listen to win!

At 5 p.m., Gray Young is coming by for an hour to talk. The band has several shows coming up this month, including one tonight at the Berkley Cafe with the Loners, Goner, and Asheville band Knives and Daggers, and one tomorrow at the TTWD Fest where they are playing at 4 p.m.

Rat Jackson has an album release party for their new release Midnight Get Right with Aminal and Red Collar at the Broad Street Cafe on August 7. The new album is reminiscent of Rat Jackson’s live show, which is energetic, straight-up rock n’ roll, and I have a feeling the second hour of the program is going to be just that.

At 7 p.m., there will be a pre-recorded interview with  Graveyard Fields. Frontman for the Carrboro band, Brian Risk, came in last week with Pete and Andrea Connolly (of Birds & Arrows) who are also in the group.  We talked about the creation of the band and their debut EP Saturn’s Moon, which has been out for a couple of months. Two of the members of the group, Carol and Jon, are expecting their first baby at any moment right now, which made for some interesting conversation.

As always feel free to follow the Local Beat on Twitter, Facebook, or ReverbNation.  If you can’t tune into the show tonight, then stay tuned on the WKNC blog for our weekly recap of the evening.

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.

There are always lots of awesome shows going on in the Triangle, but October seems to be just stuffed full of them. Below is a limited preview of some of the hippest, hottest acts to catch this month.

WKNC gets a lot of praise for our weekly Local Beer Local Band series at Tir Na Nog, but a good chunk of the credit belongs to Chris Tamplin. Help thank Chris for putting up with us Thursday, Oct. 1 as Local Beer Local Band doubles as Chris’s Birthday Local Band Bash. Prabir and The Substitutes and Goner are on the bill and rumor has it there may be a magician.

The much anticipated Hear Here finale show is Saturday, Oct. 3 at The Pour House. Motorskills opens, followed by Inflowential and The Love Language. Tickets are not available in advance so be sure to get there when doors open at 8 p.m. Once inside $5 will get you a copy of the Hear Here CD; there are less than 90 shopping days before Christmas so feel free to stock up.

St. Vincent was one of the hottest groups on 88.1 this summer. They open for Andrew Bird Wednesday, Oct. 7 and Thursday, Oct. 8. at the Cat’s Cradle. Both nights are sold out. If you aren’t one of the lucky ticket holders, personal favorites Everclear play Oct. 8 at the Lincoln Theatre.

Saturday, Oct. 10 is I Was Totally Destroying It’s release party for Horror Vacui at the Cat’s Cradle. The $7 advance and $10 door prices include a copy of the CD. If that isn’t enough to get you there, how about supporting bands Lonnie Walker, Des Ark, Rat Jackson and Lake Inferior?

Baltimore-based J. Roddy Walston and the Business is one of those bands you love as though they were native sons. Mike Roy joins them for their CD release party Wednesday, Oct. 14 at The Pour House.

Berkley Café hosts Lonnie Walker, Goner and Gray Young on Friday, Oct. 16. Try not to rock so hard you miss Luego’s CD release party Saturday, Oct. 17 at the Local 506. The Tomahawks and The Huguenots will be there too.

Raleigh’s Cherry Bounce Music Festival starts Sunday, Oct. 18 and runs throughout the week at various local venues. I’ve been sworn to secrecy about the line-up, but I can tell you to tune in to Local Lunch on Thursday to find out more.

Experimental prog rockers The Mars Volta invade the Disco Rodeo on Friday, Oct. 23. They’ll be in Charlotte the day before if you’re a really big fan.

A bunch of KNC staff saw Charlotte’s Benji Hughes in April and they’re still talking about it. See him for yourself as he performs with The Light Pines Saturday, Oct. 24 at the Local 506.

Fridays on the Lawn continue Friday, Oct. 30 with Max Indian and Schooner. It’s a totally free show on Harris Field, right in front of our radio home in the Witherspoon Student Center (corner of Cates Ave and Dan Allen Drive) at N.C. State. WKNC and the Union Activities Board put on the show with support from Student Government and the Inter-residence Council.

Check out WKNC’s Rock Report for more shows and feel free to leave comments about who’s on your to see list for October.

While it was a beautiful day in Raleigh, NC  (and a perfect day for First Friday), the rain seemed to follow our baseball team all the way to Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts.  It’s been a rough year for the Pack, and the constant rain delays turned into double headers can’t have helped their focus or consistency.

NC State baseball, circa 2009 (c/o Norman Rockwell)

While it might have been frustrating for baseball fans, it did mean that the Local Beat received an impromptu extra hour–back to the 5-8 timeblock!  A little before the 6:00 hour, Brian Walsby, drummer of Double Negative and renowned comic artist, and Charles Cardello, co-founder of Bifocal Media, joined us in the studio.  We talked a little bit about the Manchild 4 comic and Melvins CD release party.  Walsby described Double Negative as a cross between Cat Stevens and Bread.

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A little later on, Scott Phillips of Goner, Scott Williams (also of Double Negative) and Chris Jones (of The Loners) stopped in.  We talked about party/show events as well as the growth of Raleigh as it relates to the cultural scene, and the unofficial pre-party dining location, The Remedy.  But mostly, we chewed the fat.

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From left: Scott Phillips, Scott Williams, Brian Walsby, Charles, Chris Jones

So once again, the party is at Tir Na Nog tonight (Saturday the 4th) and will feature the following lineup:

Des Ark

The Loners

Goner

Double Negative

With the $10 price of admission comes food, a copy of the 4th installment in Walsby’s Manchild comic series, and a previously unreleased Melvins CD entitled Pick Your Battles, which features live music from two shows: one in Berkeley, Ca, in 1989, and the other in Boston, Ma, in 2008.

After the crew left, we played “Automobiles,” a cut off of the new Hammer No More the Fingers album Looking for Bruce.  They are releasing the album tonight at the Duke Coffeehouse alongside the Dry Heathens, the Future Kings of Nowhere, Deleted Scenes, and The Beast.  This is all part of what they’re calling “Viking Storm.”

Hammer No More the Fingers album "Looking for Bruce"

So whether you’re in Raleigh or Durham tonight, you have a pretty epic event to attend.  Decisions, decisions.

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On a baseball-shortened (6pm – 8pm) Local Beat tomorrow (Friday the 3rd), we will be having Scott Phillips from Goner and Chris Jones from the Loners.

Goner and the Loners represent two of four bands that will be rocking Tir Na Nog Saturday night for the Brian Walsby Comic / Melvins CD Release party.  If you want more info, check here.

Flyer for Brian Walsby / Melvins Book & CD Release Party, c/o Double Negative's Myspace

We’ll be talking about the release party and local music in general.  If you have any questions to ask the bands, shoot them to me here or call in during the show at 919-515-2400 or 919-860-0881.

See you out on the airwaves!

Welcome to my first installment of the (at least biweekly) Local Music Picture Blog!

A Tin Djinn and Goner rocked out WKNC & Tir Na Nog’s Local Beer, Local Band last night (1/08/09), and if you weren’t there, you missed something great. The night started off with A Tin Djinn who lost a lot of their equipment recently in fire, but it didn’t stop them from jamming out with a strange mix of music that can only be described as truly unique. I couldn’t figure out if I wanted to get up and dance or sit back and chill with a cold brew. And if you can get past the polka-dot jump suit, face paint, and trench coat combination, A Tin Djinn may be the band for you.

A Tin Djinn: If you were to take The Pixies and Queen, extract their DNA and then cross breed them in some strange animal orgy, you would get A Tin Djinn. Think mellow, not quite hard rock… hard rock.

Polka Dot Jump Suit? Check. Face paint? Check. Trench Coat? Check. Ok, looks like you're fit to jam.

A Tin Djinn Jammin'

Goner: Think a high energy funk-tastic rock show, that urges you to get up and move. Goner has played Local Beer, Local Band several times now and they bring a set full of energy and excitement that you can’t help but want to get up and thrash around to, even though it isn’t the type of music you associate encouraging mosh pits.

When you go to a show, one of the best things you want to see is everyone facing the stage.

Goner's Scott Phillips reminds you to smile.

Goner's Greg Eyman on bass and Chris Dalton plays drums.

If you could see through the bass head, you could see the intense focus on Goner's Chris Dalton's face.

Goner's Greg Eyman on bass.

The Independent Weekly has chosen their top 40 tracks from the Triangle music scene from 2008.  The list features brief summaries of each band and their song, plus free downloads of all 40 chosen songs.  Very cool.  To access the list click here.

Some notable gems that even we at WKNC missed include Lois Deloatch‘s traditional piece of “Down By The Riverside,” a fantastic jazzy/blues number,  Michael Holland‘s country tune “Ballad of Eric Rudolph,” and Kooley High‘s hip-hop track ”Kool With It” from the Summer Sessions.  Be on the lookout for these tunes to hit the Local Lunch & other WKNC formats in the near future.

A couple of songs I might have been able to survive without out that made the list include Bryce Clayton Eiman‘s static laced “The Black & The Black” and ambient/indie band Boyzone with their song “Six Hunkth,” but its no secret I shy away from ambient/experimental tunes, and you gotta make everyone happy, right?  I am also a tad bit confused on how Oregeon folk singer David Karsten Daniels made the list.  I understand he plays the Triangle frequently, but would appreciate any knowledge on his relation to the Triangle.

Some notable exceptions include Greg Humphreys, Lonnie Walker, Tift Merritt, & Violet Vector & the Lovely Lovelies.  But alas, only room for 40, and I think the Indy always does a fantastic job with these sorts of lists.  By the way, does anyone consider Ryan Adams, Hotel Lights, or Roman Candle local anymore?  Just a thought…