If you haven’t been brought to your front door by the knocks of canvassers urging you to vote early yet… well, you may be the only one. But the efforts to encourage early voting here in the triangle have taken a more enjoyable turn, and a turn away from your front door.

This Friday, October 26, Durham’s Central park will host a midday early voting rally. The rally will kick off at 11am and will feature three amazing acts and delicious soup to warm your heart and soul. Mac McCaughan (Superchunk, Portastatic), the triangle’s own Spider Bags, and Titus Andronicus will all play to urge potential voters to get out and vote early. If you missed Spider Bags at Kings on September 20, let’s just leave it at you don’t want to miss these guys again.

Early voting kicked off in NC on October 18 and will continue until 5pm on November 3. NC State’s own Talley Student Center is an early voting location this year, but there are 20 other locations through Wake and Orange counties housing early voting this year. To find your early voting location, check out the early voting websites for Wake and Orange counties. And don’t forget — even if you’ve forgotten to register to vote here in NC, you can still register AND vote in one stop at early voting.

Have your voice heard and get out to hear some awesome bands this election year!

Wow, has it really been a month and a half since I posted the last Local Beat preview blog?  With the enormous amounts of schoolwork and two jobs (plus all the amazing local music concerts I have been going to) I have not had much time to give to blogging recently.  I hope you forgive me.

This week on the Local Beat we have a full lineup planned out.

Greg Humphreys is coming on the show for the first hour. It has been a very long time since Greg has been on the show and you might recognize his other bands Hobex and Dillon Fence. However, Greg has been a prolific solo artist as well with two solo albums, one live album, and one duo album with Gibb Droll since 2008. His newest album, Realign Your Mind, is a more studio-recorded album than his last release Trunk Songs. Greg and I will talk about the album and play some tunes which you have not yet heard on WKNC.

Greg is also playing some live shows coming up so be sure to check those out as well:

• Oct 6: The Casbah, Durham, NC
• Oct 7: Visualite Theatre, Charlotte, NC
• Oct 8:  Grey Eagle Tavern, Asheville, NC
• Oct 9-10: Shakori Hills Festival
• Oct 16: Local 506, Chapel Hill, NC

Songs of Water has released my favorite album of 2010 so far with their output The Sea Has Spoken.  Songs of Water is a eight-piece group out of Greensboro, NC, and their newest release is mostly beautiful, harmonious instrumentals the meld through worldly genres varying anywhere from Celtic, Oriental, Latin, Americana, blues, tribal, flamenco, bluegrass, and everything in between. Rich, deep, and powerful, it’s one of the most kickass local albums I have heard in some time, and I am happy to say they will all be cramming into our small studio to play some live tunes for us. If you are heading to Shakori Hills next week, be sure to check out this group as they play on October 7. Check out the great write-up they got on the Shakori Hills website:

From the woods of North Carolina comes Songs Of Water, an experimental musical fantasia based half in impressionism and half in realism. With a sound both ancient and modern, they dive into an ocean of exotic instruments to create their gorgeously contemplative instrumental vignettes. Utterly beautiful and meticulously presented, they draw deeply from the pool of World music including folk, Celtic, African, Middle Eastern, classical and jazz influences. Founded upon both composition and improvisation, no two performances are exactly alike.

A couple of the fellas and ladies from Minus Sound Research are coming in for the final hour of the show. Minus is an “art exhibition, now in its fifth year, featuring pieces from local North Carolina musicians. The artists will present their creative visions through sculpture, photography, drawings, serigraphy, woodwork and painting.” Some new artists in the exhibition this year include:

• Billy Sugarfix (Billy Sugarfix)
• Casey Cook (Americans in France)
• Wendy Spitzer (Felix Obelix)
• Mac McCaughn (Superchunk/Portastatic)
• Casey Burns (The Nein)

The exhibition is running through the entire month of October at the Carrboro Arts Center and will be featuring artwork from participating artists from past and present exhibitions. Including the artwork be sure to check out the live music at the center on October 8 and 9 featuring: Shark Quest, The Kingsbury Manx, The Moaners, North Elementary, Organos, Free Electric State, Americans in France, & Birds and Arrows.

As always the Local Beat starts at 5 p.m. and runs through 8 p.m. every Friday evening on WKNC.  Listen live here and be sure to follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and ReverbNation!

Sunday, October 4th kicks off the first day of the Future of Music Coalition Policy Summit in Washington, DC and WKNC will be there.  Mike Perros, better known as Mikey P,  and myself, Kelly Reid, known on air as Mz. Kelly, will be attending the Policy Summit, in search of the future.

Pun aside, there is relevance—the music industry has been going through a serious transformation as technology changes the way music is heard, enjoyed, received, bought, and participated in.  Right now there is a big gap between the fast paced advancement of technology and the transformation of the laws that direct the way the technology is used with respect to music and its listeners.  Technology advances with lightning speed but the law, and how it is interpreted in the courts, moves with a much, much slower pace.  There lies the need for The Future of Music Coalition, an organization that participates in the intersection of music and law, serving to inform and through information, provide a bridge to the gap of music and law.

Why does any of this matter?  Well because it affects music in so many ways:  the way musicians are represented, the way they are payed for their music, the way radio stations like WKNC operate, how music is heard in restaurants or at live shows, it even affects the ability to get a full list of search results when one uses Google.

For ones like Mikey P and myself, deeply in love with music and not quite sure of the future of the music industry, the 2009 Policy Summit is an opportunity to hear many important and experienced individuals give their take on what’s happening now and what the forecast for the future is.

Featured speakers include Democratic Senator of Minnesota, Al Franken, and FCC Chairman, Julius Genachowski. And of course, the Triangle is strongly represented featuring Jed Carlson, COO of ReverbNation, Mac McCaughan, co-founder of Merge Records and musician in Portastatic and Superchunk, as well as Fiona Morgan, journalist for the Independent.

To follow the trek to, through, and back from the Policy Summit you can follow Kellyisthere on Twitter.

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…