The Fifth Annual Mystery Roach Covers Show is here! On Saturday, August 25, I’ll be playing original tracks from the 50s, 60s or 70s along with a cover version from any decade and style.

If you have any requests or suggestions, post them here, on the Facebook fan page, or email them to me.

Below are the playlists from the previous four years to give you an idea of what this year’s show will be like.

Tune in to Mystery Roach every Saturday from 8-10am on WKNC for Progressive, Fusion, Psychedelic, Garage and noise from the 60s and 70s. (The 50s are fair game for the cover show as well.)

Cheers.

-La Barba Rossa

2011 Show

2010 Show

2009 Show

2008 Show

Tune in to Mystery Roach this coming Saturday, Nov. 19, from 8-10 a.m. for a discussion about oysters.  The conversation will cover their biological history and underwater soundscapes with MEAS graduate student Ashlee Lillis, and their cultural/economic history with historian Matthew Booker (Both from NC State). I will add cooking tips throughout the show and playing songs loosely based on an ocean theme. (Still up in the air about Octopus’s Garden. Sorry, Ringo.)

Get in on the conversation (musically and otherwise) by calling the Mystery Roach Hotline (919-322-8863), posting on the Facebook Fan Page, or sending an email.

Talk to you then.

-La Barba Rossa

On Saturday, Nov. 12, Mystery Roach will be celebrating its 4th anniversary.  Since the first broadcast on Nov. 17, 2007, the show has explored 1960s and 1970s Progressive, Garage, Fusion, Psychedelic, and noise every Saturday morning from 8-10 a.m.  Additionally, La Barba Rossa, the show’s host, has welcomed an eclectic mix of guests from around NCSU’s campus and around the Triangle.  There have been conversations about beer, ants, film, the suburbs, the Mellotron, roller derby, fungus, hot peppers, comic books, censorship, and more. Frank Stasio has even stopped by for beard care advice.

Be part of the show by calling the Mystery Roach Hotline (919-322-8863), posting on the Facebook Fan Page, or sending an email. What do you like about the show? What do you hate about it? Have you noticed any trends over the years? What do you do whilst listening to the show? Is it part of your Saturday ritual? Do you have any requests?

Thanks for listening over the years!

On Halloween night, 8-9 p.m., WKNC will rebroadcast our adaptation of the Mercury Theatre production of H.G. Wells‘ War of the Worlds.  This performance was originally done live on the air Halloween night in 2009.

Damian Maddalena (aka: La Barba Rossa), host of WKNC’s Saturday morning 60s and 70s program, Mystery Roach, formed the Two Cabbage Radio Players in 2009 in order to present this science fiction classic.  The Two Cabbage radio players adapted the original script, adding local flavor and some modern updates.

The Two Cabbage Radio players are made up of former and current WKNC staff, as well as members of the local community.  Along with Damian Maddalena are WKNC staff members Alex Steinbaugh, Caitlin Cauley, Jacob Downey, Liz Cervantes, and Mike Gray, physics graduate student Dave Fallest, Magic Babies keyboardist Brandon Whitesell, AV Geek Skip Elsheimer, and Foley sounds by local musician Brian Donohoe.

The re-invasion will air at 8 p.m. on Oct. 31. Celebrate Halloween with the sounds of the Triangle’s destruction, only on 88.1 FM or streaming online.

Click here to visit the Facebook event page.

Late last week I sent an email out to the WKNC staff to ask them to tell me what their grievances in music are. It’s not quite Festivus yet, but as the school year starts and stress starts to build up, I thought now would be an appropriate time. I left things pretty open. The idea was simple. All they needed to do was send me any pet peeve they had in the music world. From fans, to artists, and everything in between, I received a little bit of everything. Out of all the emails that I have sent to our good-looking staff, this one warranted the greatest response. Below are the musical pet peeves in order that I received them.

Do you have a musical pet peeve? Air your grievances in the comment section below.

La Barba Rossa: Down with the hippie twirl!

DJ Stutterz: People who squeeze in front of you at a show like they are moving and then stand two feet in front of you the whole show. Also people who obnoxiously yell cover song titles in hopes of them being played. People at electronic shows who are more concerned with their glowsticks, glowing/flashing light things, fairy wings then they are with the actual music. I understand that it’s fun to dress up and all but I hate it when there is more focus on the guy twirling a glowstick ball then there is the actual music.

R. Cory Smith: I cannot stand sirens in music. Like that sh*t at the beginning of Drake and Lil Wayne songs. God, that’s awful.

Kyle “El Generalissimo” Robb: When people use “techno” as a blanket term for all electronic music. That 8 foot tall guy at every show who always seems to stake out a spot directly in front of you. You can try leaning to one side, but his subconscious ESP will tell him he needs to lean the same direction.

The Cosmic Cowboy: My pet peeve: the genre of music dubstep.

Mason: Anybody who craps on music on the simple merit that it’s “too mainstream.” At WKNC, we play different music because it’s an opportunity we have as a non-commercial station. We don’t have to worry about corporate giants standing over our shoulders wagging money in our faces. It’s not like all main-stream music is horrible… only some of it is. Music snobbery drives me insane. Just because music doesn’t fit our particular daytime format doesn’t mean that a person who listens to it is an idiot. PS, I freaking love Beyoncé’s new album, Brittney’s ‘new’ album, and Kanye West. I’ve also recently begun to enjoy (I’m behind the times) TLC and Mariah Carey. There is nothing wrong with me. I just appreciate good classics and respect pop hooks from heaven.

Cannibal Cory: I hate it when I listen to a death metal song and can’t eat people at the same time.

Dr. J: My musical pet peeve would be people who, in my opinion, think it’s cool to think Johnny Cash is cool. What do they know about Johnny Cash? I’ve listened to Johnny Cash my entire life. Name me six Johnny Cash songs, poser.

.jose jose.: I hate it when people talk sh*t about an artist during the show and then go tell them how much they loved it afterwards.

Cioffi: Scorpions.

One Cool Dude: When people say, “I listen to everything but rap and country.”

DJ Shorty Fernarnar: Anytime you go to a concert for your favorite band, and the person sitting next to you doesn’t even listen to the band, they’re just going to go. So, they act obnoxious and disrespectful while you’re trying to listen to your favorite tunes.

Emmaroo: Not to bash on musicians, but could they please stop creating epic buildups that make me want to pee my pants with anticipation and then present a mediocre “hook” of no musical merit. Or who have such a great start to end with an inconsequential chorus. Just to throw some bands under the bus: Foals, After Glow and one Andrew Bird Song the name of which escapes me right now. I think it’s from Andrew Bird and the Mysterious Production of Eggs? I can’t remember but it pisses me off. Also when people ask if I’ve heard of a fairly mainstream band and when I say no instead of going “oh it’s awesome! you should listen, you’ll enjoy it” they make a face and utter something along the lines of “where have you been?” or “are you kidding me how have you not heard them?!”.  If you’re that surprised I haven’t heard of the band then just assume I have and don’t ask.

Mollypop: Off beat clapping. Like, I understand you’re excited. I understand you’re drunk. But there is NO NEED to clap when 1) the band hasn’t encouraged the clapping and 2) when you’re off-beat. F**kers.

DJ Saber: Tweeted this as it happened today in class because it really irks me when people blast their music through their headphones IN A DEAD SILENT AREA. Of course I love music, but not when it’s squeezed out of someone else’s ear bud. The result is comparable to screaming child who won’t calm their sh*t. It’s a terrible noise. It’s completely unnecessary to turn your music up on full blast in a quiet place.

Shorty Shorts: Long car rides, like a hour or more, of someone’s musical taste imposed on me (if I don’t like it, of course).  I love the music I listen to, but I like to be conscious enough not to make others listen to it if they don’t want to.  Sure, taste in music is subjective. I get that, and I don’t care what you listen to, but if you make me listen to it… for an extended amount of time… I’ll hate you.

The Voice of Reason: If I go to a show, I dread seeing folks stand about like the sedated undead. It happens so often as to not be a pet peeve anymore, but it’s disheartening to bop around while folks shuffle their feet like having fun is a felony.

Psychonaut: Bands who save their best songs for the encore. Not that I don’t enjoy hearing those songs, but because it invalidates the whole idea of the encore. An encore is supposed to be for a band that does a great job and entertains the crowd enough that they want more and more. Instead, they’ve become a farce where it’s essentially the band just taking a break and enjoying a forced round of applause and cheering from the crowd.

DJ Bunch: People who keep moshing during a slow breakdown. Give it a rest for 30 seconds, douche! Also, fat people who try to crowd surf (particularly when the crowd has a disproportionate amount of rail-thin teenagers).

Filthy Rich: Ke$ha. In addition to Ke$ha, another one of my pet peeves is when I’m at a show and people in the crowd start shooting video with their phones. Not only are they waving their arms an inch away from my head and obstructing the view of the stage, they’re not really focusing on the show if they’re concentrating on making a shitty video. Then, that shitty video will end up on YouTube as a noisy blur that doesn’t do the band justice. (Unless, of course, it’s Ke$ha.)

DJ Bullcity: Dubstep fanboys that spend twice as much time analyzing dubstep, where it came from, and what qualifies as dubstep, then actually listening to it.

DJ LiViD: When people whistle to a song.

DJ Dylan-ger: When you specifically make a party playlist of seven hours of music to play off your iPod speakers, and then someone comes along and changes it to Lil Wayne, or any other music you could hear at ANY party but your own. And when you try to change it back: “No one knows your music!” Shut up and enjoy my jams I handpicked just for you.

DJ Elly May: I hate when I tell someone specifically that I love a song on the radio in the car and turn it up and then they proceed to talk over it. Helloooo! Shut up!

Captain SKAmerica: Just because you prefer a band’s older material, you are automatically referred to as a hipster. Also that one girl at every punk and ska show that stands at the front in the mosh pit and gets mad when people run into her. If you’re in the pit, you’re gonna get hit. Get it through your head.

Adam Kincaid: Bands, especially local bands, who think they are “too popular” for our station. F**k you. If we can have half of the national touring acts we do come in for interviews you can drag your ass five minutes down the road for a chat once a year. Especially if you owe your local popularity to WKNC’s programming. Our LOCAL listeners want to hear from their favorite popular LOCAL acts because they feel a sense of ownership and pride in making your music as well known as it is. I also can’t believe no one has mentioned people talking during shows. Shut the hell up about your ex-boyfriends cousins best friend who glared at you at a coffee shop 2 weeks ago and remember she was the one who was wearing that super expensive shirt like she was hot shit and like, OMG, that mole on her arm is sooooooo gross. I’m trying to enjoy myself without hearing your coffee talk. If you have to scream over a concert to have a conversation you are in the wrong place.

Chocolate Rice: iTunes.

DJ C.E.O: When people decide that they want to sing along with me! I quickly tell them that this is not a duet. When people are skimming through their iPod looking for a song and skips all the good songs! Just pause it until you’re ready to play something instead of teasing me! When people (mainly my mom) play the same song over, and over, and over again. When I go see an artist live and they let the audience sing a full song. Especially if it’s one of my favorites. When I go to a show and the sound system is POOR. When I go to a party and the DJ takes me on an emotional roller coaster by playing really fast songs followed by really slow ones. Like WTH?

Sarahnade: The chord progression GCD in recorded music. When someone wants to show me a song then talks over it. Quiet music when loud music is equally/more appropriate people at a show who are are completely stoic.

It: I really dislike it when I’m driving in the car and someone can’t just listen to one song all the way though and changes it right when I’m getting into it. Also, people who try to talk to me during concerts; I can’t hear you, I didn’t come to the venue to hear you and unless something crazy is going on you are just hurting my ears by yelling in them.

Chuck: My biggest musical pet peeve is people talking at quiet shows. Story time: July 22, 2009. XX Merge at Cat’s Cradle. The Magnetic Fields begin their (wonderful) set. Live, the band tends to go all acoustic, so it’s pretty quiet. The bands starts, yet above the music everyone can hear lots of loud chatter at the bar in the back. The entire crowd then shushes them and the venue becomes completely silent, allowing for the music to be the only thing anyone heard. It was great.

DJ Ones: My biggest pet peeve comes from my time in the music director world. It irks me so much when someone sends an album to the station that is in terrible packaging. Instead of a proper CD case with clear listings of the track, artist, and album name, they send you this thin slit that hugs the CD. When that thing goes into our library it disappears beside properly packaged CDs. The labels and artists that get the most spins are usually those with the best packaging.

The Fourth Annual Mystery Roach Covers Show is coming soon! On Saturday, August 28, I’ll be playing original tracks from the 50s, 60s or 70s along with a cover version from any decade and style.

If you have any requests or suggestions, post them here, on the Facebook fan page, or email them to me.

Below are the playlists from the previous three years to give you an idea of what this year’s show will be like.

Tune in to Mystery Roach every Saturday from 8-10am on WKNC for Progressive, Fusion, Psychedelic, Garage and noise from the 60s and 70s. (The 50s are fair game for the cover show as well.)

Cheers.

-La Barba Rossa

2010 Show

2009 Show

2008 Show

The winners of the Mystery Roach t-shirt contest have been chosen. Congratulations to Cliff S. and Mark S.!

Many entered, but only two were deemed edible by a couple of chickens. If you did not win, but you would like a shirt, send an email to La Barba Rossa for more information.

Click here to watch the Mystery Roach T-Shirt Contest selection process.

This Saturday, 11/20/2010, A/V Geeks founder Skip Elsheimer dredges deep into the mucky recesses of our collective pop culture subconscious to find some of his favorite novelty songs. (His words.) In addition to the joke songs we all know and love(They’re Coming To TakeMe Away, Junk Food Junkie) and parody songs (Another One Rides the Bus, 99 Dead Baboons), we’ll be listening to songs
that reflect the fads of the day (The Streak, Convoy, Pac Man Fever), odd 70s patriotic rap songs, answer songs and more!

Tune in Saturday morning, 8-10am.

Talk to you then.

-La Barba Rossa

Banned Books Week: Celebrating the Freedom to Read is an annual American Library Association event observed during the last week of September.  Banned Books Week celebrates free and open access to information and intellectual freedom.  NCSU Libraries celebrates this annual event with Banned Books Soundwave,  a website offering sound clips of excerpts from banned books read by members of the NC State community including faculty, administrators, and students.

Marian Fragola, Director of Program Planning and Outreach for NSCU Libraries, will discuss Banned Books Week and the Banned Books Soundwave project on Mystery Roach.  We’ll also listen to some banned songs and hear a few recordings from the Banned Books Soundwave project.  Should be a fun morning.

Tune in, Saturday 9/25/2010, 8-10am.

Talk to you then.

-La Barba Rossa

It is time once again for the Mystery Roach Covers Show. This Saturday, August 28, I’ll be playing original tracks from the 50s, 60s or 70s and also the cover versions from any decade and style.

If you have any requests or suggestions, post them here, on the Facebook fan page, or email them to me. I will be finalizing the playlist on Friday afternoon.

Below are the playlists from the previous two years to give you an idea of what this year’s show will be like.

Tune in to Mystery Roach, every Saturday from 8-10am on WKNC for Progressive, Fusion, Psychedelic, Garage and noise from the 60s and 70s. (This week the 50s are fair game as well.)

Cheers.

-La Barba Rossa

2009 Show

2008 Show

WKNC honored three staff members with employee of the year awards as part of the annual Student Media End of Year BBQ April 29.

La Barba Rossa reps WKNC.

Damian Maddalena, a doctoral student in forestry and host of the Saturday morning program “Mystery Roach,” was honored in part for his work on WKNC’s adaptation of War of the Worlds, which aired live on Halloween 2009. Maddalena’s contributions to that project included working to rewrite the original script, recruiting actors and leading regular rehearsals, securing appropriate copyrights, and executing the live broadcast.

According to Mike Alston, a senior in civil engineering and WKNC’s 2009-2010 general manager, Maddalena was chosen for his “groundbreaking innovation and execution with the War of the Worlds adaptation. Damian continues to have one of the most popular shows on WKNC with ‘Mystery Roach’ and has been great representative and promoter of the station in Raleigh community.”

Maddalena has hosted “Mystery Roach,” a collection of progressive, fusion, psychedelic, garage and noise from the 1960s and 1970s, Saturdays from 8-10 a.m. since he joined the staff in fall 2007.

Alston also selected Eric Scholz, a junior in mechanical engineering and coordinator of WKNC’s Sessions@KNC recording project, as one of WKNC’s employees of the year. “Eric has done some outstanding work with Sessions@KNC, helping local bands with free recording sessions,” Alston said. He also labeled Scholz the “all around go-to-guy with the new concert series Fridays on the Lawn.”

Scholz came to WKNC during the spring 2009 semester and his first recording session of Chapel Hill’s Simple was released by the band as a five song EP, “WKNC Sessions Live.” Scholz has also recorded local bands including Aminal, North Elementary and Death to the Details.

Eric Scholz (left) and Mike Alston at the Death to the Details Sessions@KNC recording Nov. 1, 2009. Scholz, Alston and Damian Maddalena were named WKNC Employees of the Year for 2009-2010.

Tommy Anderson, a senior in political science who took over as WKNC general manager on April 1, then honored Alston as the third WKNC employee of the year. “I am fairly certain that everyone knows what a great job Mike did in his year as our general manager,” Anderson said. “We all owe him a huge debt of gratitude.”

Under Alston’s leadership, WKNC launched the on-campus concert series Fridays on the Lawn, partnered with local record label Terpsikhore and recording studio Flying Tiger Sound to produce the “Hear Here” local music compilation, hosted four sold-out concerts, expanded the station’s promotions department and revised its new DJ hiring process.

Listen to Mystery Roach this Saturday May 1 from 8-10 am.  In recognition of Free Comic Book Day — May 1 — join us as we explore all things comic books!  Comics collector Don X will be here to discuss obscure comics characters from the Seventies, the “secret origin” of a comics collector, and how comics of the Sixties and Seventies planted the seeds for today’s comic storylines.

Should be a fun show.  Talk to you then.

-La Barba Rossa

With only a few days left before the Krispy Kreme Challenge, many of the deejays are beginning to mentally prepare for the arduous task. The benefit for the North Carolina Children’s Hospital has two physical challenges that competitors must overcome. The first is the two mile run from the NC State Bell Tower to the Krispy Kreme Store on Peace St. and then the two mile run back to the Bell Tower.

The second is the overwhelming 12doughnuts each runner must eat before returning back to the starting line, all within the hour. Over the past weeks, many deejays have been spending time outside the studio and on the track, building their frail skinny deejay bodies into lean athletic beasts. Others have taken more unconventional approaches such as avoiding physical exercise altogether and have just been binge eating. (For many this hasn’t been much of a lifestyle change.) With fighting style will win out? One can only wait to see the results this upcoming Saturday.

Now to meet the brave deejays willing to take on the Krispy Kreme Challenge. Each has selected a top playlist of songs they will wield to push them to the brink during the race.

Agent “Glazed and Confused” Orange

• Death From Above 1979 - “My Love Is Shared”
• Mindless Self Indulgence – “Tom Sawyer”
• Muse - “Knights of Cydonia”

May “Hot and Ready” Day

• Jay Z- “Run this Town”
• Muse- “Time is Running Out”
• Florence & the Machine- “Dog Days are Over”

DJ Audity

• Metric – “Satellite Mind”
• Metric- “Help, I’m Alive”
• Cut Copy- “Hearts on Fire”

DJ Jenna

DJ Hot Tamale

• Drake- “Best I Ever Had”
• Coldplay- “Life in Technicolor ii”
• The Who- “Baba O’Riley”
• The Killers- “Mr. Brightside”

DJ “Original Glazed” MICK

• Dan Deacon - “Build Voice
• Akron/Family- “MBF”
• My Morning Jacket- “Anytime”

DJ Two “Baker’s Dozen” Sheds

ASH “Gotta Eat’em All” G.

• The Juliana Theory- ”We’re at the top of the World”
• Kid Cudi- ”Day ‘N’ Night”
• Linkin Park- ”New Divide”

DJ “Doughtnut Hole” Nicole

• Amanda Blank- “Make It, Take It”
• Duck Sauce- “Anyway (Armand Van Helden and A-Trak Remix)”
• Thieves Like Us- “Fass”

Mz “Hot-N-Now” Kelly

• Thin Lizzy – “Cowboy”
• Built to Spill- “Goin Against My Mind”
• Anything from LCD Soundsystem
• Anything from The Light Pines

DJ “Donuts and Coffee” Cioffi

DJ Riff “Ka-Tose Intolerant” Raff

• DeadMau5- “Ghosts ‘n’ Stuff “
• Kanye West- “Stronger”
• Vampire Weekend- “Run”

DJ Special “Tasty Fingers” K

• Animal Collective - “What Would I Want? Sky
• Gray Young- “Tilling the Wind”
• Flo Ride- “Sugar”

Eye on the Triangle’s own Saja “It’s Fresh” Hindi will be doing live air breaks on site during the race periodically through La Barba Rossa’s Mystery Roach show. The race is this Saturday (February 6) on Double Barrel Benefit 7 weekend. This year the challenge will boast 6,000 eager competitors. Be sure to check for the WKNC banner at the finish line this year as WKNC is partnering with the Krispy Kreme Challenge as a Silver Level Sponsor.

Be sure to listen only on 88.1FM or streaming online.

If you missed the show in summer 2008, now is your chance to make up for it.  Zappa Plays Zappa is coming back to the Lincoln Theatre and WKNC has two pairs of tickets to give away!

Mystery Roach, your two-hour study of Prog, Fusion, Psychedelic, and Garage on Saturday mornings, will be holding an essay contest!

The rules are simple.  La Barba Rossa, host of Mystery Roach, will be accepting essay submissions from now until Tuesday January 5th.  Winners for the January 13th performance will be announced on Mystery Roach Saturday morning, January 9th.

Suggested entry length is about one page, but you can be a genre-bender, if you like—-write Prog-Prose.  One sentence?  Sure.  10 pages?  Why not?  You can submit essays via email, but snail mail is encouraged. (See below for mailing address.)  Extra points for mailing it. Extra points for artistic style in penmanship and envelope.  Imagine that?  Send a letter.

Essay topics  (Please stick to these, all others will be disqualified.):

1. Why I want these tickets. (Option to include discussion of why your desires supersede all others’.)
2. The best Zappa album/song/era is _________.  Explain.
3. Zappa Plays Zappa, is (or is not) “meta.”  Discuss.
4. My first summer job, and its horrifying/hilarious consequences.

Email responses can be sent to: mysteryroach@wknc.org. It is preferred that you send it as a file attachment (pdf, doc, txt) but sending it in the body of an email is OK too.

Snail mail can be sent to:

WKNC 88.1 FM
ATTN: La Barba Rossa
Campus Box 8607
343 Witherspoon Student Center
Raleigh, NC 27695-8607

I look forward to reading your entries.

Cheers.

-La Barba Rossa

On Saturday, November 14,  Mystery Roach will celebrate its second birthday.

I will be using the playlist from the first show.  (With a couple of exceptions.)  Check it out.  Call in, email , or reply to this post with your comments.

See below for  the playlist from November 17, 2007, the maiden voyage of Mystery Roach, WKNC’s 2-hour study of Prog, Fusion, Psychedelic, Garage and noise on Saturday mornings.

Talk to you Saturday morning.

-La Barba Rossa