On Saturday, Nov. 17, Mystery Roach will be celebrating its 5th anniversary. The show began on Nov. 17, 2007 as a study of 1960s and 1970s Progressive, Garage, Fusion, Psychedelic, and noise on Saturday mornings.  As the things evolved, guests became a part of the show.  I’ve welcomed an eclectic mix of  interesting people from around NCSU’s campus and the Triangle over the past 5 years. We’ve had conversations about beer, insects, bee keeping, educational films, movie soundtracks, ultra-cold neutrons, the suburbs, the roots of punk music, the Mellotron, roller derby, fungus, hot peppers, comic books, oysters, citizen science, censorship, and more. Frank Stasio has even stopped by as part of his parole agreement.

I will be celebrating the 5th anniversary quietly.  No guests in the studio.  I’ll play some of my favorite songs from over the years and read some emails.  Be a 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? What do you do whilst listening to the show? Is it part of your Saturday ritual? Do you have ideas for themes or guests?  Have you noticed any trends over the years?

Thanks for listening. I’m still amazed when I meet excited fans around town.

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!

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

As you may know by now, WKNC will be broadcasting a LIVE, localized version of Orsen Welles’ classic radio drama War of the Worlds.  The event will take place Halloween night from 7:00 to 8:00 pm.

Want to take part in the invasion?  Tweet about it! Update your Facebook status!

During the broadcast, the news about the aliens will become more and more severe.  You can do the same with your Tweets.  Be creative.  Tell your friends you’re freaked.  Tell your friends you’re being chased by aliens.  Describe where you’re hiding or what you see.  Help us destroy the Triangle for Halloween!  If you are listening on the Internet somewhere outside the Triangle, that’s great too!  The aliens are landing everywhere!  We’re all doomed!!

Disclaimer: “Help us destroy the Triangle” means, help us pretend to destroy Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill and beyond using the radio the Internet, and your imagination.  Please don’t do anything stupid and get arrested.  That would be silly.  (And all liability would fall on you, dig?)

This Halloween night, the Martians are invading the airwaves and striking terror in the hearts of WKNC listeners everywhere.

This live, localized adaptation of the Mercury Theater production of H.G. Wells‘ War of the Worlds is the brainchild of Damian Maddalena, who, as La Barba Rossa, hosts WKNC’s Saturday morning 60s and 70s program, Mystery Roach.  Maddalena, along with his Two Cabbage Radio Players, have worked diligently to season the science fiction classic with local flavor.  Sound effects will be performed by Brian Donohoe, member of the local band Starmount.  AV Geek Skip Elsheimer lends his voice to the production, along with a motley crew of WKNC Djs, NCSU students and community members who share Maddalena’s vision and taste for the unusual: DJs Alex Steinbaugh, Caitlin Cauley, Jacob Downey, Liz Cervantes, and Mike Gray, along with grad student Dave Fallest and Magic Babies keyboardist Brandon Whitesell.

The invasion will take place at 7 p.m. on October 31.  You can get ready for Halloween debauchery to the sounds of the Triangle’s destruction, only on 88.1 FM or streaming online.