Last week on the Local Beat was a lot of fun, as we had two bands in the studio for 2.5 hours of good conversation. Maria Albani, bass player of Schooner, came in to chat about her new solo project Organos at 5 p.m which is having a debut album release for the brand new EP, Limbs, this Friday at the Pinhook in Durham (it is already getting airplay on Satellite Radio).  Organos is an interesting band in which Maria plays an assortment of unorthodox instruments such as spoons, glass, cardboard, boxes, shaker eggs, and sticks among other interesting sounds to create a unique yet immensely satisfying minimalist folk rock sound.  On the album Maria performed most of the parts herself but live Organos is a whole different animal.   A mini local super group of sorts, Organos live claims the likes of Reid Johnson (Schooner), Wes Phillips (solo, North Elementary, Rosebuds), Theresa Phillips (North Elementary), Nathan White (Nathan Oliver), and John Harris0n (Nathan Oliver, North Elementary), not to mention Maria herself.  In our conversation Maria, Theresa, and I chatted about the album, the band members, the show, and also her past bands which include Pleasant, Tennis and the Mennonites, Un Deux Trois, & The Pox Family Singers.  Listen to the podcast below:

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Organos is playing at the Pinhook this Friday, February 5 alongside Birds and Arrows and Ye Old Shoppe (with members of Wild Wild Geese).  The show is at 9:30 p.m., and you get a free copy of the album with price of admission!

At 6 p.m., local bluegrass favorites The Hotwires stepped in to chat about an assortment of different topics, but mostly to encourage our listeners to head to the Haiti Relief Benefit show at the Pour House Thursday, February 4th.   The Hotwires are playing in the middle of the show after Andy Bilinski, Roger Gupton, and the Debonzo Brothers, and before Chatham County Line, Filthybird, and A Rooster For The Masses.  The show is $12 and all proceeds are going to the Red Cross in support of Haiti Relief efforts.  The fellas and I spent quite a bit of time chatting about bluegrass as a genre, the history of bluegrass, as well as their upcoming album which is hopefully going to be released at some point this spring.   We even got a little touchy when talking about their old band name, No Strings Attached.  They also brought in some instruments and played some live tunes for me.  Check out the reverbnation player below to listen to the songs or listen to the entire podcast:

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I also interviewed Hank Smith for this past Monday’s Eye On the Triangle program here on WKNC about the benefit. You can listen to that segment here.

Now that we’ve caught up on the last few blog posts — we promise to be a lot more timely from here on out — make sure to check out the blogs and podcasts from previous episodes, and get ready for some exciting new features on EOT for the rest of the semester!

There are a lot of events going on this week and throughout the weekend, so make sure to check the segments out for more info, and choose which (or all!) of these great events to attend.

NEWS
News anchors Jack Boyer and Evan Garris gave listeners the top headlines for the week, with a guest appearance from Tom Anderson about an incident an N.C. State student faced during the big snowball fight at UNC. For more on these stories:
Hazardous weather outlook
Student dies in off-campus incident Friday morning
N.C. Sen. Burr has $4.3M for re-election bid
High Speed Rail to connect Charlotte, Raleigh, RTP and Washington DC
Obama proposes $3.8 trillion budget focused on jobs
82nd academy awards to feature 10 Best Picture nominees

For the video of the incident Tom was describing: Snowball fight

And a picture of the pet of the week as promised:

For the full newscast:

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SPORTS
Correspondents Tyler Everett and Taylor Barbour gave us an analysis about the past week and week ahead:
To listen to the full sports cast, click here:

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EDITORIAL
We debuted our new segment, Evan Garris’ editorial. This week’s topic was the Citizens United vs. the Federal Elections Commission. Here is an excerpt from Evan’s editorial:

“Until now, corporations did not have the ability to give unlimited amounts of money to political campaigns. Such conduct was seen, and rightfully so, as a danger to democracy. This case was originally centered on broadcasting rights to a politically-charged documentary that vociferously criticized the 2008 presidential campaign of Hillary Clinton. However, for reasons unknown, one or more of our all-seeing, all-knowing justices decided to take a more fundamental approach and focus on the “personhood” or corporate entities and whether or not their ability to finance political campaigns and advertisements is a form of free speech.”

If you missed it, be sure to check out the whole thing, here:

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[DISCLAIMER: Once again, Evan's opinions do not reflect those of WKNC 88.1, Student Media or NCSU.]

This is YOUR chance to tell us how you feel! Do you agree with Evan, disagree or have a completely different view? Let us know at publicaffairs@wknc.org, and if you want, we’ll read your response on air during our next show!

VIP
I talked to organizers of the fourth annual Krispy Kreme Challenge in the studio live about preparations for the 6,000 runners this Saturday that have one goal: run from the Bell Tower to the Krispy Kreme in downtown Raleigh, eat a dozen doughnuts — and run back, all in under an hour. The challenge, which started out as a friendly competition between friends, has become a tradition that has attracted national attention to N.C. State, earning spot number 85 in Sports Illustrated’s “102 more things you gotta do before you graduate.” Proceeds from registration go to the North Carolina Children’s Hospital.

Listen to what the organizers had to say here:

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COMMUNITY CANVAS
In Arts Correspondent Kieran Moreira’s interview with Leandra Ashton and Owen Young of Aquila Theatre, the actors discussed their upcoming shows scheduled for Feb. 2 and 3 at Stewart Theatre: William Shakespeare’s As You Like It and Henrik Ibsen’s An Enemy of the People, preparation for the two  plays and their excitement about coming to Raleigh.  “The Aquila performance approach is a technique developed by Peter Meineck that combines text and physical action based in a theory of theatrical unity. The technique is aimed to create an aesthetic environment where the performer can create and recreate a role in a consistently changing theatrical atmosphere,” according to the Web site’s history. The theater tours to about 70 cities and towns a year.

Due to the weekend’s snow storm, a buy-one-get-one-free discount is available for the shows from Arts N.C. State’s Center Stage. Listen to Kieran’s conversation with Ashton and Young here:

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HEAR THIS
Because of all the events going on this weekend, we had an extended, two-part Hear This segment this week in place of Wolfpacker of the Week, which will return next week.

For the first part, Local Beat host Adam Kincaid interviewed Hank Smith from The Hotwires about the Haiti Benefit Concert at the Pour House this Thursday, Feb. 4.

Doors open at 7 p.m., and all proceeds go to relief efforts for Haiti victims through the American Red Cross.

Check out Adam’s interview with Hank:

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For the second part of Hear This, General Manager Mike Alston joined me in the studio to talk about WKNC’s 7th annual Double Barrel Benefit Show this Friday and Saturday night!

Mike talked about the focus on local music for this year’s benefit, the amount of time and effort put into the show to make it the best it can be and the benefit of the show for the station.

Check out the info Mike gave listeners about the benefit:

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SOUNDBYTES
And we can’t ignore this past weekend’s “Snowpocalypse.” Despite the inches of snow and ice that layer the streets and sidewalks in and around the campus, students with classes after noon slid their way to their seats, shoes caked in snow. On Monday’s Soundbytes, Correspondent Alison Harman brought you some of these brave Alpinists’ stories. Listen here:

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As always, e-mail us with thoughts, gripes, ideas or even compliments to publicaffairs@wknc.org and keep on nominating for Wolfpacker of the Week!

It seems people in all walks of life are doing what they can to help the devastated nation of Haiti.  This includes some local bands and venues that are putting on some benefit concerts.

At the Cats Cradle on January 23 will be an interesting show with two new bands Kick the Future (Debra DeMilo, Terry Anderson, Jack Cornell and Terry McInturff) & The Bipolar Bears (Robert Kirkland, Scott Davison, Terry McInturff and Ron Bartholomew) as well as HWYL, Kitty Box and the Johnnys, Charles Pettee, Puritan Rodeo, The New Town Drunks, and The Moaners.  The show starts at 6 p.m. and costs $10.

At the Pour House on February 4, there will be an additional benefit show, this one starting at 6:40 p.m.  A Rooster For the Masses will headline alongside Chatham County Line, Filthybird, The Hotwires, Roger Gupton, Debonzo Brothers, and Andy Bilinski.  This show is $12.