The fall semester is on the brink of starting, and it made me a bit nostalgic as I’m beginning my last semester here at NC State University. I came to Raleigh from a small town in eastern NC so I didn’t know much about what I think is the triangle’s most redeeming quality — its music scene. So, we made a bucket list for all you music lovers out there so you don’t miss out on anything.  It’s in no particular order.

Enjoy — and feel free to add your stories and suggestions in a comment!

1.             DJ at WKNC | You can also help out with promotions, production, web, engineering, sports and public affairs. You’ll be first in the know about anything music. We hold interest meetings each semester (even summer!) for NCSU students. This fall’s interest meetings will be held August 20 at 5:30 p.m. and August 21 at 8 p.m. in 201 Witherspoon Student Center.

2.             Bike to First Friday | You can venture to First Friday, a monthly arts event in downtown Raleigh, by starting at NCSU’s Bell Tower at 7PM with fellow bikers. Be careful not to drink too much free wine if you’re biking back.  ”Go to first friday – there’s usually live music performances outside!!” — DJ Trillian

3.             Go to Hopscotch | Hopscotch Music Festival will be September 6-8 this year. “An annual festival held in downtown Raleigh that showcases some of the finest live acts that the state has to offer.  Put on by Raleigh’s Independent Weekly Magazine, this festival boasts an eclectic lineup of local and touring artists from all walks of music, indie-rock, hip-hop, folk, electronic, and pretty much everything in between.  This year’s lineup features The Roots, The Jesus and Mary Chain, Yo La Tengo, Built To Spill, Danny Brown, The Mountain Goats, and much more!  With free shows starting at noon and lasting until around 5:00 p.m. each day, there’s no reason not to check out this unique festival experience right here in Raleigh!”  -GRZA

4.             Heck, hit all the venues. | Let’s be honest, we’re lucky to live here. In Raleigh you have Kings Barcade, The Pour House, Lincoln Theatre, Slim’s, Berkeley Café, Tir Na Nog Irish Pub, Dive Bar, NC Museum of Art, Southland Ballroom, Deep South, Disco Rodeo, Five Star, Raleigh Amphitheatre and concert halls. Chapel Hill/Carrboro area has Cat’s Cradle, Local 506, Nightlight and The Cave. Durham is home to Motorco, Pinhook, Casbah, American Tobacco Campus and DPAC. And of course, the “other” schools’ concert halls and auditoriums. They’re all great. “Attend any and every Future Islands show.” –May Day

5.             Attend Fridays on the Lawn | This is WKNC’s bi-semester free concert event. It’ll always feature local music, food and swag. Usually on Harris Field (rain locations are necessary sometimes), you’re encouraged to bring some friends and a blanket. This is open to the public, and dogs are welcome, too!

6.             There’s also Music on the Lawn at American Tobacco in Durham | Grab a beer from Tyler’s and enjoy some live music. There’s also dance, movies and jazz events that take place here.

7.             Explore SparkCon | This year, SparkCon will take place September 13-16 in downtown Raleigh. In its 7th year, it will encompass everything from music and film to fire dancers and bartending competitions.

8.             Camp out at Shakori Hills | Located in Pittsboro, Shakori Hills Grassroots Festival happens twice a year, fall and spring. The fall festival will be October 4-7. Camp out with your friends in the woods, make new friends, and wake up to the sound of banjos. Paint your face, dance, cook over a fire…..also, get a Veggie Thing. It’s amazing. “A stellar 4-day music festival in Pittsboro, NC that boasts everything from bluegrass to soul to funk.  Filled with good vibes and good times, this family friendly festival is loaded with diverse music, yoga, and dance workshops that take up the few minutes of the day that don’t have wonderful tunes permeating throughout the farmlands.  A guaranteed beautiful weekend that rolls around twice a year.”     -GRZA

9.             Dance at Rowdy, Rowdy Square dances | “This is a good way to experience square dancing with young folks, and hear some good ol’ music! Be on the lookout for these dances!” -Cosmic Cowboy

 10.          See a band in the Brickyard | The past few years during Shack-a-thon (fundraiser for Habitat for Humanity), WKNC has hosted acoustic performances from local artists. You can also catch the occasional student strumming a guitar, playing accordion or one of NCSU’s a capella groups performing. 

 11.          Picnic for a show at Duke Gardens | Beautiful, serene, and BYOB. Share a blanket and dinner with some friends while watching local bands perform into the sunset. Make a friend at Duke so your tickets are cheaper.

 12.          Listen to a pianist in Caldwell Lounge | If you’re a student in CHASS (College of Humanities and Social Sciences), you’ve probably already done this. There’s a piano set up in Caldwell Lounge that is frequented by talented students. So while you’re between classes, cramming for a test or taking a lunch break, it’s nice to spare a second to listen.

 13.          Grab a beer at Local Band Local Beer | Local NC brewskis on tap and local bands on stage. This 21+ free event happens every Thursday night at 10PM at Tir Na Nog. 

 14.          Read The Independent Weekly | It’s an alternative weekly (free) newspaper that has all the best music, arts and political news. It also keeps you up to date with what events are going on around the county.

 15.          Join a drum circle at Pullen Park | Channel your inner hippy.

 16.          Celebrate Christmas with Trekky Records | Trekky Christmas puts a new spin on classic songs by featuring their bands and mix-matched members.

 17.          Rock out at Bull City Metal Fest | If you’re a metal head, it’s a must. Two days of heavy metal in downtown Durham, pulling national and local acts.

 18.          Enjoy a performance at DPAC | It’s nice and classy. See ballet, theatre or music here. The last one I went to was BB King. Badass.

 19.          Go to a concert at Memorial Hall | Another very nice venue that will get various acts. It’s can be a bit pricy, but it’s worth it.

 20.          End August with Stars in the Round at Shakori | “Great if you don’t have 4 days to devote to camping. Usually 3rd weekend in August” – Mollypop

 21.          Catch the Diggup Tapes show series | It’s a free show series at Kings each month. This is 18+.

 22.          Go to both nights of Double Barrel Benefit | “For people new to the triangle there is no better time than right now to clear your calendar for the next Double Barrel Benefit. It’s going to be the 10th anniversary, and it’s going to be all kinds of awesome.” -DJ Ones

 23.          Party with the triangle’s finest at Indy Week’s “Best of” Party | Each year, Indy has its readers vote on the best in the triangle. In June, they throw a party to celebrate the winners and finalists. In other words, hear the best music, eat the best food, drink the best drinks and get acupuncture.

 24.          Run in the Krispy Kreme Challenge | This annual charity events challenges its participants to eat a dozen donuts mid-race.

 25.          Drink a PBR during PBart | I’m sure you’ll drink one regardless. But PBart has bands and PBR-themed art on showcase, as well as the occasional ropes performers.

 26.          Buy records on Record Store Day  | Internationally celebrated, it’s the third Saturday in April. Labels put out special limited edition releases and stores have in-store performances, swag and discounts. There’s usually a line so go early.

 27.          Compete in the pants off dance off at TRKfest | Okay, so you don’t actually have to take your pants off. Trekky Records has a day set aside each summer to share its music with the triangle. Not to mention this also means local beer, food trucks and local arts vendors.

 28.          Drive to Haw River Ballroom | “Beautiful venue.  if you have time before the show, go to the Haw River General Store before hand for the best gourmet food you’ll find at a convenience store. Seriously.” – Mollypop

 29.          Dance at Discovery and Dirty Mega | Lights, glow sticks, photo booths and dancing until the lights come on. Then a little more of each.

 30.          Give the saxophonists on the corner of Martin/Fayetteville St. money to play “Careless Whisper“ | His rendition is on point. It’ll get stuck it your head, but I’m not sure that’s a bad thing. 

It seems as if September is the month of festivals in our area. Following Hopscotch last weekend is SPARKcon in downtown Raleigh this weekend, and the following weekend is the Carrboro Music Festival in Carrboro. With Hopscotch out of the way we now have time to cover these longtime favorites in our area.

At 5 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 16, I will be joined by Gerry Williams, the coordinator for the 14th annual Carrboro Music Festival. The CMF has a long tradition and was one of the first music festivals in our state, starting before Hopscotch, Troika, Artsplosure, and SPARKcon, when it was called The Fete De la Musique. In 2002 the festival changed its name to what it is today but the goal remains the same: feed music to the masses. The event is taking place on Sunday, Sept. 25, and will feature 180 different acts at 25 venues. Join Gerry and me as we look to the past and the future at this great event.

At 6 p.m. musicSPARK organizer Stephanie Brinson is stopping by to chat about the SPARKcon art festival in downtown Raleigh. SPARKcon began six years ago and musicSPARK has been one of the central SPARKs throughout its duration. It started Thursday night and will continue through Sunday evening. This year’s musicSPARK is free for the first time and is very different from previous SPARKs. Listen in with Stephanie and me as we chat about this year’s event.

Continuing on with the SPARKcon trend at 7 p.m., I will be joined by Nikhil Shah of Locus Recordings, a start-up record label from Raleigh. Nikhil is providing the music for “Wear What You Are,” one of the fashion shows of fashionSPARK  happening on Friday evening. This one will mainly exhibit Raleigh Denim, which will be featuring 17 new “looks” in City Plaza at 8 p.m. Nikhil is also providing the music mixtape for the afterparty at the Flanders Art Gallery, which will be following the fashion show. The afterparty is from 9 p.m. to 10:30 p.m.

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!

Because of SPARKcon on September 17 we were limited to only one hour once again for the Local Beat. However, that hour was dedicated to SPARKcon as editor of “The Word” Kestrel Lemen joined us to talk about the giant art festival. As many were, I was extremely overwhelmed by the massiveness of all the different sparks, but Kestrel broke it down one by one for us. Give the interview a listen below:

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Monday’s episode of Eye on the Triangle focused on the Raleigh-Durham divide and how various people view the two cities, in addition to a couple of segments on SPARKcon, and more.

VIP:
In this week’s VIP segment, Adam Compton interviewed Durham Mayor Bill Bell and Caitlin Cauley spoke to Triangle residents Josef Komenda and Rachel Nabors. I also spoke with our resident Triangle expert, who many of you may remember as WKNC’s general manager last year, Kyle Robb, about the history of the two cities and what he thought about Caitlin and Adam’s interviews. To hear the full segment, listen here:

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HEAR THIS:
In Hear This, Kelly Reid gave listeners a sneak preview into the SPARKcon music lineup, which you can listen to here:

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For the full lineup of MusicSpark events, click here. To also listen to an interview Kelly conducted with Telekensis, check out this blog post.

COMMUNITY CANVAS:
In Community Canvas, Mike Alston gave listeners a look into SPARKcon arts, and interviewed Sarah Powers, who works with Visual Art Exchange, to talk about the call for artists at ArtSpark For more on ArtSpark, click here. To listen to the full segment of Community Canvas, listen here:

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WOLFPACKER OF THE WEEK:
Jacob Downey sat down with the student of the week, Scott Richardson, former membership president of the N.C. State Chapter of Toastmasters. Richardson discussed his involvement with the organization and the leadership opportunities it provided him with. Listen to the full monologue here:

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SOUNDBYTES:
Caitlin Cauley went around campus asking students what they thought about the University’s athletic program. Listen to what they had to say here:

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Send all your comments, suggestions and nominations for Wolfpacker of the Week to publicaffairs@wknc.org, and check out tomorrow’s blog post about next Monday’s show at 7 p.m.

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This Thursday at Tir Na Nog is the Sparkcon Kickoff show. Sparkcon is
a annual DIY festival that showcases Raleigh’s top artists. This show
has a great local lineup: Starmount, Aminal Music, The Jackets and
Bright Young Things. Starmount is a psychedelic, down-tempo, four
piece band headed by Greg Elkin, who has produced albums for many well
known local artists (including Goner- YEAH!). Aminal and The Jackets
will bless the stage with a heavy dose of Americana-Indie rock
followed by Bright Young Things, which will crush you with its pop
sensibility.

This event will also provide local beer tasting from Foothills beer, a
Winston Salem brewery.

Tune in Thursday at 7  p.m. for an interview with Bright Young Things.

Listen to Mystery Roach, Saturday September 12 from 8-10am on WKNC for a discussion with Aly Khalifa and Mary Ellis, two minds behind SPARKcon.   Aly is one of five “bobbleheads” that facilitate the event.  He, along with four others work with the organizers of each individual SPARK to help ideas become reality.  Mary is is the lead organizer of MusicSPARK, the musical aspect of the festival.  MusicSPARK will feature a large, diverse group of  94 Local Bands in 15 Raleigh Venues.

In all, SPARKcon will include more than 1200 performers from gaming to dancing to street painting to poetry reading.  Check the full schedule for details.

IdeaSPARK will kick off SPARKcon Thursday night at 6:00pm at the Marbles Kids Museum with
Pecha Kucha, a rapid fire presentation of ideas where each presenter has 6 minutes and 40 seconds to communicate their SPARK using 20 slides and discussion.  After that, head down to The Pour House, where WKNC will be hosting Local Beer Local Band as part of MusicSPARK.  The show will feature local acts: Bright Young Things, Animals, The Jackets, and Starmount.

Talk to you Saturday morning, and see you at SPARKcon.

-La Barba Rossa

I’m the general manager, not a music director. So if you send me an e-mail telling me to listen to your music, I’m not going to do it. In fact, I’m not even going to forward it to the music director, because I don’t want to waste my time.

But inevitably, I still receive e-mails from people like this:

From: Jaylyn Ducati and the Sirens

Subject: “heyyyyy!”

Jaylyn Ducati AND her Sirens...Yes, it's her fault if I've not responded to your e-mail in a timely fashion.

Body: “check out my new single! <3″

Now, I’m not here to comment on the quality of Ms. Ducati’s music, because I haven’t listened to the .mp3 she attached to her e-mail.  And I don’t care how hot the Sirens’ hot pants are, I’m not one to succumb to such flattery as an emoticon heart.  Ms. Ducati got the delete treatment that so many others have gotten before her.

But every so often, something lands in my inbox that’s worth reading.  Such was the case a few days ago when a SPARKcon representative e-mailed me asking WKNC to pass the word along: it appears that SPARKcon is in the planning stages for its fourth annual event.  If you’re asking, “What is SPARKcon?” then let me save you the trouble of Googling it:

SPARKcon is a showcase of creativity, talent and ideas of ‘The Creative Hub of the South,’ the Triangle NC.  A 100% volunteer effort organized with an ‘Open Source’ approach, SPARKcon is a ‘creative potluck’ of SPARKs or creative themes such as art, music, film, fashion, etc.  Each SPARK is put together by individuals who are deeply embedded in that specific local scene.  Using a combination of networking and open calls for participants, organizers create diverse and representative events to show off local talent and connect disparate creative scenes.  SPARKcon grows every time a new person gets involved with a SPARK category, creating their own event, or joining in to help an existing one.  It’s an open-source, ‘for the people, by the people’ approach with an intentionally dynamic focus.’

That information comes from the SPARKcon homepage.  Either way, they’re accepting submissions for musicSPARK now through July 20th.

For more information on the specifics, head over to the musicSPARK webpage or check out the .pdf file below.

http://www.sparkcon.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/sp09_musicspark_call.pdf