This week on the Local Beat should be a fantastic program as we have three great hours of interviews lined up for your listening pleasure.

At 5 p.m., Chapel Hill group the Tomahawks are dropping in to chat about their brand new album Cut Loose. It was recorded at Arbor Ridge Studios, home of Jeff Crawford, who is a member of the Tomahawks, among many others. We are going to try to get the group to play a couple live tracks for us and debut the new tunes!

6 p.m. is bringing back our good friends from Nightsound Studios who are releasing the Local Musical Chairs Compilation. The compilation is complete and available for free download! The official album release however is on November 3 at the Cats Cradle, though as of today there is no word on the lineup for the show.

Back in June, when news of the compilation started gaining momentum, I had Erika Libero from Nightsound and Wylie Hunter and the Cazadores come in to talk about the compilation. Listen to the interview here:

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For the last hour of the program, I am welcoming Steve & Paul from the newly opened Kings Barcade on Martin Street in downtown Raleigh. Kings recently reopened in September, just in time for Hopscotch, after the club closed down several years ago. The announcement of its reopening early in 2010 was met with high anticipation from local residents, and the venue has already booked several high profile shows. Listen to the interview starting at 7 p.m. as we talk about the past, present, and future of Kings!

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Can you believe it is already August?! Seven months of the Local Beat come and gone already in 2010 and almost exactly a year since I took over as host of the program. However, this Friday’s show just might be one of the best ones yet.

At 5 p.m., we are starting off the show with Mount Moriah, a band I have been raving out for over a year since I first saw them at their second show ever back in May 2009. The group is releasing their first LP after debuting their first song “Lament” on the Holiday’s For Quince Compilation Vol. 1, which has been getting airplay on WKNC.  The album is entitled Letting Go and is officially being released at the sold out show this Saturday July 31 at the Pinhook with Midtown Dickens and The Mountain Goats.  The 12″ vinyl record will be released on the streets on August 3. We should have plenty to talk about and hopefully you will hear some new tunes!

I Was Totally Destroying It is coming in for the second hour. They are also playing Saturday evening at Cherry Bounce Festival in Raleigh but we will mostly be talking about their new 7″ single “Get Big,” which should be in the running for best album artwork of the year so far. We also have quite a bit to talk about, including their Sound Around app, their contribution to the Musical Chairs Compilation, and their U2 cover band. It should make for an entertaining hour!

For the final hour I am having in Wylie Pamplin and Alex Iglehart from Chapel Hill-based Calico Haunts who are making their radio interview debut. Calico Haunts put out one of 2010′s best records with their After All album in the fall of 2009. They have just finished a new record and are planning to leak a couple of new tracks on the show! In addition, we will chat about their first ever Raleigh show at the Berkley Cafe with the Dead String Brothers on July 31.

As always the Local Beat starts at 5 p.m. and runs through 8 p.m. every Friday on WKNC.  Feel free to follow us on Twitter (@WKNCLocalBeat), ReverbNation, and Facebook.

Below is a recap of last Friday’s Local Beat where we invited in the local Musical Chairs Compilation’s Wylie Hunter and the Cazadores, Jason Adamo, and Wesley Wolfe.

For the first hour of the show Erika Libero from Nightsound Studios came by with Wylie Hunter and the Cazadores to chat about the local Musical Chairs Compilation that is currently underway. Nightsound is about to begin recording for the compilation, which should take about three weeks before the songs are mastered and released in September. We talked about the behind-the-scenes process of creating the compilation as well as the bands who will be on it. The master list of the covers are below:

• Butterflies covering Erie Choir
• Erie Choir covering Luego
• Luego covering Birds and Arrows
• Birds and Arrows covering SWASO
• SWASO covering The Pneurotics
• The Pneurotics covering New Town Drunks
• New Town Drunks covering Soft Company
• Soft Company covering Lizzy Ross Band
• Lizzy Ross Band covering Pecosa
• Pecosa covering Wylie Hunter and the Cazadores
• Wylie Hunter and the Cazadores covering Puritan Rodeo
• Puritan Rodeo covering I Was Totally Destroying It
• I Was Totally Destroying It covering North Elementary
• North Elementary covering The Big Picture
• The Big Picture covering Butterflies

Wylie Hunter and the Cazadores played some live tracks for us off of their record that is coming out in August. Check those out in the playlist to the right and download them on the Local Beat ReverbNation page. Listen to the interview here:

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Jason Adamo and Doug Casteen came in for the second hour of the show to talk about Jason’s new album Transistor, which was released back in July. Jason has been playing live in the Triangle for almost a decade now and has set up a temporary residence at the Pour House on Monday evenings. Transistor is a new sound for him that is much more rock n’ roll and a little deeper than his past recordings. It was recorded in Pittsboro with John Briggs and cowritten with John, Doug, and Jason’s bother Chris. Jason and Doug played some live tracks for us in studio, which you can listen to in the widget above or download them on the Local Beat ReverbNation page. Also, be sure to watch Jason’s new music video below for “Raleigh Nights” that is going to be played by the Carolina Hurricanes this next season at every game.

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For the last hour of the evening, Wes Wolfe came in the studio to chat about his new record Storage, which was released from Odessa Records back in April. You might recognize Wes from defunct local group the Grasshoppers who split up back in 2006, though he is now recording and playing live solo. Wes played nearly every instrument on the new record and recorded it in his own home.  He was a soft spoken and humble interviewee, but we had a lot to talk about:

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The Local Beat this evening with a variety of guests for tonight’s show.

We’ll start at 5 p.m. with several different bands and representatives from the Local Musical Chairs Compilation who are coming by to chat about the project and its progress. In case you are uninformed about the project, it is a compilation of local bands covering other local bands. Each group is picking their cover at random at the Open Eye Cafe on July 24.  The bands are then recording at Nightsound Studios who is heading the project and accepting a donation to fund the release of free CDs. Just recently, the project passed its goal mark of $1,100 and still has eight days left!

At 6 p.m., singer-songwriter and Raleigh native Jason Adamo is slipping in to chat about his newest release, Transistor, which was recorded with John Briggs in Pittsboro NC. Listen in for some debut airing of the new material!

7 p.m. is bringing in Wesley Wolfe who has just recently put out his second album and first through Odessa Records. The album is called Storage, and we will be playing some tunes off that for the hour. Feel free to download his track “Who’s Going To Truly Love You” here.