This week on The Local Beat we only have one guest to welcome. At 6 p.m. Jeff Crawford of Arbor Ridge Studios is coming on to chat about a new project. In addition to being active in over five dozen bands (only a slight exaggeration) and heading popular local recording studio Arbor Ridge Studios, Jeff is also the music director at The Gathering Church in Durham. The Gathering Church has been meeting since 2009 at Creekside Elementary School and has become well known for its worship services with Jeff’s musical talents taking stage. In 2010 the church released Christmas Nights: Music From The Gathering Church to great fanfare. Now, just a little over a year later, a new album is being released: Hymns From The Gathering Church. The album features a plethora of well-known local artists performing their takes on traditional Christian hymns.  Phil Cook (Megafaun), Heather McEntire (Mount Moriah), Seth Kauffman (Floating Action), Mandolin Orange, Skylar Gudasz, Ryan Gustafson, Brett Harris, Nick Jaeger (The Tomahawks), Mark Simonsen (The Old Ceremony), and James Wallace all contributed to the record.

Join Jeff and I on The Local Beat as we take a listen and chat about this new album.

As always, the fun starts at 5 p.m. and will last until 8 p.m.! Be sure to follow the Local Beat on Twitter or Facebook and download tons of free local music on our ReverbNation page!

Saturday, at the Piedmont Biofuel facility in Pittsboro, was the third annual TrkFest put on by Trekky Records.  TrkFest has quickly become one of the most important local music events in the area and a group of WKNC folk made it out in full force.  It was terribly hot and humid outside while the sun was out, but not one single person complained, and I believe everyone had a fantastic time.  I was lucky enough to sit next to Rich and Mimi McLaughlin of the Pneurotics, and we had a fine view of both stages.

We missed Vibrant Green and Ezekiel Graves but got there just as Yardwork started up, and those guys put on a fantastic set to start our day.

After a excruciatingly hot but fascinating tour of the entire Biofuel center, we caught the last half of Ryan Gustafson’s set.  I have seen Ryan about six times now, but this was only the second with a full band, and he was awesome, as usual.

We had to escape the heat, so we headed into the shade during the Butterflies set.

Veelee went on next.  Their sound has evolved so much in the past year while still keeping with their same general style.  One song that stuck out to me was a new track named “T’morrow;” that was the first in their set.

Mount Moriah went on next and, as usual, played an incredible set.  I cannot describe how much I love this band and how excited I am for their new album to come out.

Midtown Dickens played one of my favorite sets of the evening.  Megafaun came on for a couple of songs, and Kym and Catherine are always entertaining but even more so for this event.  Fun, outgoing, and fresh is the best way to describe them.

It has been awhile since I saw Embarrassing Fruits play, but with a new album in the works, theses guys were as tight as ever as expected.

Hammer No More The Fingers has never been anything but a pleasure to see.  They are one of the most technically sound and entertaining groups in the area.  For a couple of songs they brought up Drew Anagnost and Leah Gibson from Lost in the Trees on the cellos and Brad Cook of Megafaun jumped on bass.

Lost in the Trees literally blew the crowd away playing second to last.  I was surprised that they could cram onto the smaller of the two stages, but it ended up being truly magical.  I feel like every time I see them live they sound different, which is always refreshing.

Megafaun ended the show as they always do: reeling the crowd in with their unique charisma and then putting them into a manic frenzy with their exceptional live performance.  I took several videos of the group playing some brand new songs with a variety of different musicians, all off of their upcoming album, but the sound quality came out too poor to post them.  Needless to say, every time I see Megafaun play, they retake the top of my list of local bands.

It has been longer than a month since we have had a live Local Beat, and, since February, we haven’t had a full, three hour show (mostly due to NC State Baseball).  I have spent the past month recovering from throat surgery and also doing some summer traveling, but it is finally time to get back into the amazing local music scene here, and tonight’s show is going to be one for the ages.

We are dedicating the first two hours to Trekky Records and their kickass annual summer event TrkFest.  The event happens tomorrow, June 26, and this year there will be two stages of live music as well as the usual crafts, food, and beverages including:

• Pants-off Dance-off
• Coffee Sack Race
• Cool Kids Yoga Session
• Musical Chairs Cake Walk
• Sprinklers and Water Things
• Tour of Piedmont Biofuels
• Free Haircuts
• Shadow Puppets
• Bliss Tent

I know I am going to get a haircut that I so desperately need and jam out to my favorite local musicians that include:

• Megafaun
• Lost in the Trees
• Hammer No More The Fingers
• Embarrassing Fruits
• Midtown Dickens
• Mount Moriah
• Veelee
• Butterflies
• Ryan Gustafson
• Yardwork
• Ezekiel Graves
• Vibrant Green

This is the 3rd annual TRKFest, and tonight, on the Local Beat, we will be chatting about all of the old and new things about the festival, the bands, and hearing some live music from some of the performers tomorrow.

At 7 p.m. my favorite local band Bombadil will be dropping by for what is the first time in well over a year.  As many of you may know, Bombadil has been on recent hiatus as some of the members have moved away and Daniel Michalak has been dealing with some health problems. With that said, this is their first interview as a group in quite some time, and one of the first since their Tarpits and Canyonlands hit the streets back in 2009  (If you remember, the album was my #1 album of the year).  The entire band is going to try to make it and and perhaps play their first live music together since last summer. It is seriously going to be awesome.

by Jacob and Spaceman Spiff

A rare moment of "calm" mid-show

On Friday evening, the paragons of the independent age of music, Superchunk, played a night for the fans at the stage they helped build at the Cat’s Cradle.  The show was a warm-up for the summer music festival season and an east coast tour in the fall that will coincide with the release of their first full length album in nine years Majesty Shredding.   Fears that the show would highlight a laid back set from Superchunk stemming from the inclusion of Ryan Gustafson on the bill were quickly alleviated by Gustafson’s inclusion of friends from the Drughorse Collective to add a full band sound to his twangy pop.  Gustafson’s set was fantastic, the crowd was dancing and bobbing heads in approval as he performed his catchy songs with heartfelt conviction.

Superchunk took the stage at 10:00 p.m. brimming with intensity, vitality and volume.  Mac McCaughan owned the stage with moves that would put most Guitar Hero avatars to shame, Laura Balance is still a master of control with the bass, Jon Wurster’s drums told the packed house when to dance and when to jump, and—self-deprecating humor aside—Jim Wilbur’s guitar knew the potpourri of songs spanning the bands 20+ career better than anyone in the room.  What really set the show apart was that the majority of the set wasn’t forged to promote an album or conform to the bands comfort zones, but it was instead fueled and filled with requests taken by the band over email from the previous week.  It was a thrill to hear “Slack Motherfucker,” “Precision Auto,” and “Water Wings” in the same evening, and fans responded with great fervor.

As the night wore on, the magnetic energy in the room became tangible.  Superchunk was good enough to preview two songs from their new album Digging For Something and Everything at Once.  John Darnielle of The Mountain Goats, who will be a guest on Majesty Shredding, came out to lend backup vocals to “Digging For Something” and was in the envious position of getting to dance around on stage with Superchunk.  An easy highlight of the evening, the fast and furious “Everything at Once” may be giving fans’ favorite songs a run for their money.  The only downside of the night was that it took the tech crew at the Cradle the first three songs of Superchunk’s set to blend the audio levels properly, but this may be a testament to the band’s rowdy enthusiasm. For an hour and a half they rocked hard, and we were all mesmerized.

John Darnielle and Mac singing together on Digging For Something

Mac owning the stage

Superchunk’s setlist:

1. Tower

2. For Tension

3. Skip Steps 1&3

4. Learned To Surf

5. Digging For Something (ft. John Darnielle)

6. Ribbon

7. Sidewalk

8. I Guess I Remembered It Wrong

9. Florida’s On Fire

10. Water Wings

11. European Medicine

12. Package Thief

13. Everything At Once

14. Precision Auto

Encore:

15. On The Mouth

16. From The Curve

17. Slack Motherfucker

Encore 2:

18. Hyper Enough (ft. John Darnielle)

19. Throwing Things

Every now and then, I am reminded that I am student by a sudden kick in the groin from copious amounts of schoolwork and I am down for the count for a little while.  That has recently happened to my Local Beat producers and me who have spent the last three weeks either out of town or slaving through text books and notecards trying not to completely fail at graduating on time (I myself am already a year behind).  Because of this we want to apologize for running about four weeks behind schedule with our weekly Local Beat podcasts.  Fortunately, instead of having 12 interviews to edit, we have only missed three, and here they are below (also, check out the ReverbNation player at the bottom of the post to listen to and download all the songs played live):

March 26: Brett Harris
March 26 was the first live Local Beat I had been able to do in a month because of NC State Baseball broadcasts and Durham rock/pop singer Brett Harris dropped by for what turned out to be one of my favorite interviews in a long while as we talked about his brand new album Man of Few Words, an LP that could possibly break my top 10 for the year.  We talked in depth about the recording of the album, the multitude of artists that assisted him in recording, and compared everything to his past couple of EPs. Brett played two live tracks for us that you can watch in the videos below and download in the ReverbNation player at the bottom of the page.   Brett released the album at the Nightlight on April 2nd with Luego and Bright Young Things for what turned out to be an amazing show.  Check out our conversation:

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The Local Beat w/ Adam Kincaid: Brett Harris “Unspoken (Live)” from Wolf TV on Vimeo.

Local Beat w/ Adam Kincaid: Brett Harris “Man of a Few Words (Live)” from Wolf TV on Vimeo.

April 2: Free Electric State
One of the hottest bands in North Carolina graced my program three weeks ago.   Free Electric State is blowing up in the local press and media for their blazing rock n’ roll live shows and the hype surrounding their debut LP following in the heels of their first two song demo from ’09.  And though FES is a relatively new band, most of the members are not knew to performing or songwriting and it certainly shows with this latest output.  We spent the hour talking about Caress and the differences in the band now from a year ago.  We also touched on the recording process and Duck Kee Studios and the involvement of Churchkey Records who is releasing the album.  The album release party was April 16th at the Pinhook with Beloved Binge and A Rooster For The Masses although the album itself will not be released until April 27th.   Take a listen to the interview below and also watch the newest muisc video for the song “6 is 1″ from Caress as well:

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April 9: Mandolin Orange
Every now and again I hear a record that I cannot for the life of me stop playing and Mandolin Orange’s recent release Quiet Little Room is just one of those.  Soft, quiet, simple, and yet catchy and beautiful all at the same time,  Andrew Marlin and Emily Frantz really outdid themselves on this debut full length.  Following their locally acclaimed debut EP they put out this past year Andrew and Emily spent late nights alone in the studio mastering and perfecting Quiet Little Room with Andrew’s songwriting skills and Emily’s finishing touch.  The couple came in to chat about the new record and the past year, but mostly to play plenty of songs for me and you.  Listen in below and be sure to check out the album release party coming up the May 1 at the Local 506 with friend Big Fat Gap and Ryan Gustafson:

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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.

You may or may not have heard of the local music collective that calls itself Drughorse. If you haven’t, this may be due to the fact it is not one group, but rather a collaborative of several different local bands. Mount Moriah, The Love Language, Twelve Thousand Armies, Josh Moore, The Tomahawks, plus others all claim to be a part of this mysterious and secret gang of musicians. However, it seems the veil is slowly being lifted as a Drughorse EP is hits the streets tonight at the Local 506 in the form of an EP called Drughorse One.  Only three bands are presented on the EP, The Light Pines, Max Indian, and Ryan Gustafson.  It makes for an excellent Local Beat Mini Exclusive.

Carter Gaj of Max Indian and Tom Simpson of the Light Pines came in to chat with me about this new six-song EP as well as the Drughorse “Cartel.” The guys played four covers of songs by 4 different Drughorse associated bands, which are free to download at the Local Beat ReverbNation page and you can listen to them to the right in the music player. Album artwork, the recording of the EP, and details to certain songs were all topics of conversation. I also spent a great deal trying to pry and gather details about this mysterious musical franchise from the fellas but didn’t find out very much — just that it seems to be a bunch of amazing musicians who hang out and share bands with each other. It is a seemingly exclusive club and begs interest and intrigue to all outsiders. The new EP is absolutely fabulous and will leave you begging for the new Drughorse related albums set to be released this coming year.

Take a listen to the interview:

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Be sure to head out to the Local 506 tonight. Doors are opening around 9 p.m. and it only costs $7!

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A new month means new ticket giveaways and that’s exactly what WKNC 88.1 FM has for you! Be sure to tune in or listen online for your chances to win tickets to these great shows coming up this week:

Wednesday, February 10
Holy Ghost Tent Revival w/ The Woes & The Moneynotes @ The Pour House

Holy Ghost Tent Revival

Thursday, February 11
House of Fools w/ Ryan Gustafson & Medusa Stone @ The Pour House

House of Fools

Also, be sure to check out the Rock Report for a complete list of local shows happening in your area!

Two Fridays ago on the Local Beat was one for the ages. It had been almost a year since the last time The Old Ceremony marched through out station’s doors and the first time that I had ever interviewed them but what a show it turned out to be.  Django Haskins and Mark Simonsen joined me for an abbreviated version of The Local Beat from 5 to 6 p.m. to chat about their upcoming release of their double-EP and their show that evening at the Pour House. Premiering some of their new material for the first time on radio ever we heard acoustic versions of brand new songs such as “Wither On The Vine”, “Worlds Too Much”, and “Never Felt Better” (check out the ReverbNation player to the right for those) as well as the mastered copy of the title track of the double-EP titled “Tender Age”.  Django and Mark also played “Ole” off of their first album followed by the remix version off of The Old Ceremony Remixed album that came out last march.  We chatted about everything from the new album and it’s current status to Django’s move from NYC to the Triangle almost a decade ago and his fascination with mandarin.  We also briefly touched on their music video for Til My Voice Is Gone which won an award at the LG Film Festival for best video in the Music/Fashion category:

Listen to the podcast of the interview below for the entire conversation:

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NC State Women’s Basketball                                                                                                   .
The show was cut short due to an ACC women’s basketball game between N.C. State and Wake Forest which N.C. State won on a last second buzzer beater!  Congrats to the Wolfpack!

Show at the Pour House                                                                                                      .
Later in the night I headed on over to South Blount Street in time to see Ryan Gustafson take the stage to open for The Old Ceremony and Asheville based band Floating Action.  Many might know Ryan as the head of now defunct band Boxbomb, but if that is all you know then you really need to grab his new solo album Donkey.  Donkey barely missed my top-10 list for best albums of 2009 but it really is a remarkable record.  This was my first time seeing him live playing the new songs and he definitely lived up to my self-imposed hype.  Mark Simonsen joined him for the entirely of his short set and Django went on stage to harmonize during an epic version of “Soul Train”.  Ryan is playing next Friday at the Duke Coffeehouse with Max Indian and the Light Pines (as part of the threesome’s mini tour).  That is going to be a hell of a show.

Next on the bill was Floating Action, a group I knew very little about.  They reminded me of a surf rock jam band with an incredible slide guitarist.  They were very stoic on stage, but really grabbed the crowd well.

TOC came on a little after 11pm and jumped into a searing set of songs off of Walk on Thin Air. Most notable to me were “Til My Voice Is Gone” and “The Disappear” which I had never heard them play live since this was my first time seeing them in over a year (a mistake I will not make again).  TOC was as tight as ever and perfectly on point with the crowd, which was enormous by the time they took the stage, who sang along to all of the songs and was one of the best audiences I had been a part of in recent memory.  There is little doubt why they are one of the premiere bands in the area as their live performances always outdo their already fantastic recorded material.  The Old Ceremony is unfortunately not currently scheduled for any more dates in our area in the near future but next time they come around be sure to get out and see them perform.

I apologize for the picture quality as I lost my camera about an hour before the show in the black hole abyss of my car. I hope the pictures from my cell phone can do some sort of justice.

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Members of the local music collective Drug Horse Cartel will be on WKNC Thursday, December 10, around 3:30 pm. Nick Jaeger (Max Indian, The Tomahawks), Ryan Gustafson, Jeff Crawford (Max Indian, The Tomahawks), and Josh Moore will be on to discuss the various bands and solo acts associated with the group and their upcoming Holiday Show this Friday at Local 506, so be sure and tune in!

The Troika Music Festival is a three-day music festival in Durham, NC and features several local bands. Attending is a great way to support the local scene!

Local bands on this year’s line-up include The Love Language, Bowerbirds, Dexter Romweber Duo, Birds of Avalon, The Moaners, Red Collar, Future Islands, Hamer No More The Fingers, Lonnie Walker, Embarrassing Fruits, Max Indian, and many more. For a complete list, check out the schedule!

New this year is “Rock, Paper, Scissors”, on Saturday, November 7, from 12:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m., which features a unique market of art and handmade wears from local artists and crafters.

Come out to support the local music and arts scene November 5,6, & 7.

This Friday’s Local Beat has to be one for the ages.  My fourth week on the show is gearing up to be the best so far with special guests Superchunk, Ryan Gustafson, and the Pneurotics.

Mac McCaughan and Laura Ballance of local legend Superchunk are calling in at 5pm to talk about their new book based on their label Merge Records: “OUR NOISE: The Story of Merge Records, the Indie Label that Got Big and Stayed Small“.  The book is set to be released Tuesday, September 15 via Algonquin Books.  Mac and Laura will be traveling across the state to promote the new book and play some tunes of their own at the following bookstores:

Local blog Triangle Music did an excellent short review on the book which you can read here.

You have been hearing Ryan Gustafson‘s solo work on WKNC for a couple of weeks now, but at 6pm on the Local Beat Ryan is stopping by to chat about his CD Release party tonight at the Local 506 with two amazing bands, Mount Moriah and Mandolin Orange (show is $5 and starts at 9:30pm).  His album, Donkey LP, has certainly proven to be one of my favorites this summer and Spencer Griffith of The Indepdent Weekly gave the album an admirable review which you can check out here.

The Pneurotics Second Skin on next Friday!

The final hour of the show brings The Pneurotics on to chat up another new album and another Local 506 release party; this one their own.  The album is titled Second Skin and is set to be released Friday, September 18th at the 506 with The Travesties and Rat Jackson taking the stage as well (show is $8 and starts at 9:30pm). 

So tune in to the Local Beat every Friday evening from 5pm-8pm.  If you are out of the area be sure to listen online!

Ryan Gustafson

Boxbomb vocalist and guitarist Ryan Gustafson will be in the WKNC studio today for an interview at 1 p.m. Durham’s Gustafson has been working on a solo project and will be performing tomorrow, August 6 at Local 506.

Tune in to hear him fill us in on life as a solo artist and what’s next for him in his music career.

Check out his music here.

Max Indian at the Nightlight in May Photo by Mike Gray

Max Indian will be joining me, DJ Caid, in studio today at 1pm right after the Local Lunch.  Max Indian will be in to talk about their show this coming Friday with The Tomahawks and Ryan Gustafson at the Local 506.  The show starts at 9:30pm.

Tune in for more information!