Arbor Ridge Studios of Chapel Hill has put together a day party for Hopscotch – but this isn’t any day party.  Titled “Saved Haven” and presented in conjunction with Shuffle Magazine and WKNC, the party will present local bands at Tir Na NOg on Friday, September 9 from 12-5 p.m.  Oh, and the bands will be paired together on stage.

That’s right, instead of a set of just Mandolin Orange, it’ll be a set of Mandolin Orange and Josh Moore.  Not just Luego, but Luego and Wylie Hunter and the Cazadores.

The live collaborations are (in reverse order of appearance):

• Mandolin Orange/Josh Moore
• Birds and Arrows/Skylar Gudasz and the Ugly Girls
• Jeff Crawford/Brett Harris
• The Tomahawks/Schooner
• Luego/Wylie Hunter and the Cazadores

Sounds amazing, right?  Can it get any better?  Yes.  While all of this magic is going on, Arbor Ridge is giving listeners a sneak peak into what’s been recorded recently at their studio.

It’s a 2-in-1 day party – collaborations + listening party – and it is a must for Hopscotch.

Local Bands (together), Local Studio, Local Magazine, Local Station, Local Pub

12-5pm, Tir Na nOg, September 9. It will be beautiful.

The Huguenots have been getting airplay on WKNC for nearly four years now, but the group has yet to release anything official but some spare demos. That is until April 8, when the group is putting out their first LP. The Huguenots are known for the super poppy and upbeat music they seem to craft effortlessly and their enjoyable live shows, but finally, the band will release some tangible music. Founding member York Howie came in to represent the band and share a couple unheard tracks from the upcoming album. It had been awhile since I interviewed the Huguenots, so we caught up and took a look back at where it all began at UNC Asheville. York was a wonderful guest and gave us an insightful look into the recording of the album and told us how it all came together.

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You can catch the Huguenots at their album release show at the Local 506 on April 8 where they are playing with the Tomahawks. Tickets are $6

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Tir Na nOg and WKNC are proud to present Local Beer Local Band this Thursday, which will feature music from The Tomahawks and Naked Gods!!! Show starts at 10 p.m., 21 and up, and FREE FREE FREE!

Naked Gods—Mountaineer rockers of “hapless burly-pop prog-punk” from Boone, NC. The same place where Jenna of Jenna and the Jintlemen hails from. They’ve done a split 7″ with the Invisible Hand. A great start to your Thursday evening.

The Tomahawks—If you remember, the Tomahawks played and outstanding Fridays on the Lawn show with the Tender Fruit in November. The band features a mishmash of members from other local favorites Max Indian and Bright Young Things. The Tomahawks will finish up the night with their southern indie roots rock.

Interview with Naked Gods on Thursday from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. on the night of the show. Tune in for awesomeness!

This past Friday (November 19) was a great day for local music in Raleigh. Hopefully most of you dropped by after work or class and came out to the Harris Field lawn to check out our November installment of Fridays on the Lawn featuring The Tender Fruit and The Tomahawks.  Despite the chillier weather, we experienced a great turnout as people came out with blankets and snuggies to enjoy the free pizza and music.

The Tender Fruit was represented solely by Christy Smith, an N.C. State graduate in English, who managed to hold her own as she worked the kick drum and strummed her guitar. Smith’s voice is really something to admire. On the band’s recent album, Flotsam & Krill, I was blown away by her vocal dynamics, especially on track “Get Out of the Car.” Performing live, she was equally as powerful and her set proved to be calming but also a pleasant juxtaposition against the grittier headliners, The Tomahawks. This past August, Indy Week covered an interesting story on Smith, her past relationship with Justin Vernon of Bon Iver, and how Flotsam& Krill is a response to Vernon’s hit album For Emma, Forever Ago. You can check out the article here.

Future Islands

Although the concert was over before 9 p.m., local music fans were in luck as Future Islands were headlining at Kings Barcade in downtown Raleigh that night as well. Well, that is, if they had bought a ticket in advance as the show was sold out. Although I missed the opener NAPS, I was greeted by the familiar and pleasant sounds of Veelee upon walking into Kings. Matt and Ginger focused their set on their newer songs off their latest album The Future Sight. Veelee recently opened for Merge Record‘s powerhouse, Caribou, on Halloween, which is a sign there are bigger and better things awaiting them.

Lonnie Walker was the last band to perform before the headliners came on stage. The bands are well known friends as Walker and Future Islands recently put out a split 7″ together. The crowd at this point of the night were getting into a frenzy. The front part of the stage where I had posted myself had become a dance floor. My head was particularly swaying to many of the tracks on Island’s recent album, In Evening Air. The night was everything to be expected of Future Islands: funny antics from lead singer Sam Herring, stage dancing, and great music.

This week we’ve got some golden giveaways on WKNC!

Be the right caller when the DJ asks for it and you could win tickets to:

10/27: MiMOSA at Lincoln Theatre

10/29: Jason Isbell at Casbah

10/30: Blonde Redhead at Cat’s Cradle

Blonde Redhead (2008)

10/30: Howlies at Slim’s

10/30: Mantras at the Pour House

10/31: Caribou at Cat’s Cradle

Caribou, courtesy of CJ Wood

10/31: Marxtravaganza (featuring Bright Young Things, Tomahawks, Brett Harris, and more!) at Slim’s

annnnd

11/3: MGMT at Raleigh Memorial Auditorium

MGMT backstage (courtesy of Creative Commons)

Remember, you have to listen to win!

This week on the Local Beat should be a fantastic program as we have three great hours of interviews lined up for your listening pleasure.

At 5 p.m., Chapel Hill group the Tomahawks are dropping in to chat about their brand new album Cut Loose. It was recorded at Arbor Ridge Studios, home of Jeff Crawford, who is a member of the Tomahawks, among many others. We are going to try to get the group to play a couple live tracks for us and debut the new tunes!

6 p.m. is bringing back our good friends from Nightsound Studios who are releasing the Local Musical Chairs Compilation. The compilation is complete and available for free download! The official album release however is on November 3 at the Cats Cradle, though as of today there is no word on the lineup for the show.

Back in June, when news of the compilation started gaining momentum, I had Erika Libero from Nightsound and Wylie Hunter and the Cazadores come in to talk about the compilation. Listen to the interview here:

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For the last hour of the program, I am welcoming Steve & Paul from the newly opened Kings Barcade on Martin Street in downtown Raleigh. Kings recently reopened in September, just in time for Hopscotch, after the club closed down several years ago. The announcement of its reopening early in 2010 was met with high anticipation from local residents, and the venue has already booked several high profile shows. Listen to the interview starting at 7 p.m. as we talk about the past, present, and future of Kings!

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WKNC and Tir Na nOg Irish Pub team up to bring you Local Beer Local Band Night every Thursday. These events are always FREE and 21 and up. Starts and 10 p.m. Local beers on tap and local bands on stage. Enjoy!

Thursday, August 19 will feature music from The Small Ponds, Jon Lindsay and The Tomahawks!

The Tomahawks

A favorite local band of mine. I’m terrible at describing music but here it goes… Beatles-y southern rock. Yeah? Do yourself a favor and check out their tracks on the webpage.

Jon Lindsay

Whoa. I’m already hooked on this guy. It is happy and catchy like Belle & Sebastian except it is one guy… one absolutely adorable guy. Be sure to check out his music on his website or just come out on Thursday!

The Small Ponds

This duo is made up of musicians from Tres Chicas and The Proclivities. With a CD Release show in about a month, this show should be a wonderful preview of what is to come. The songs are slow, sweet and downright lovely.

Photographs taken by WKNC photographer Katie Hill

Filthybird

Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.

The Monologue Bombs

Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.

Tomahawks

Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.

WKNC and Tir Na Nog Irish Pub kick June off right with a triple billed Local Beer Local Band – Tomahawks, Monologue Bombs and Filthybird. Even if you haven’t caught a show by Chapel Hill’s the Tomahawks yet, you’ve heard from them. Two of the band’s members – Nick Jaeger and Jeff Crawford – are part of Max Indian, who headlined the first night of WKNC’s Double Barrel Benefit 7 and played one of our 2009-2010 Fridays on the Lawn shows. Cameron Lee and Matt Damron of Bright Young Things (also of FOTL fame) make up two more of the Tomahawks. Fifth member Charles Cleaver has worked with Luego and a few other local bands. Feel free to comment below with other band connections – the point is, these guys are some of the superstars of the North Carolina indie scene.

The Monologue Bombs call Raleigh home. Led by pianist/singer Scott Phillips, the solo act turned into a full band in November.  Filthybird represents Greensboro with what “the Folks from the Pinhook” call “kind of a cosmic americana western eastern totem spirit animal.” What more can you ask for in a FREE local music showcase? Local Beer Local Band kicks off around 10 p.m. each Thursday at Tir Na Nog Irish Pub, with draft specials on North Carolina beer (may I recommend the Shotgun Betty?).

On Deck:

6/10- Goodbye Titan, The White Cascade, Starmount
6/17- Colossus, White Tiger, The Bed of Roses
6/24- Embarrassing Fruits, Whatever Brains

Earlier this afternoon on WKNC Patrick Phelan from Durham based Luego dropped by to debut the band’s newest album, Ocho, which is scheduled to be released June 1st.  Patrick and I played several tracks off of the album and chatted about a variety of things related to the band and the album. Ocho is being released a mere eight months after the debut LP of Taped-Together Stories but the two seem hardly related.  Ocho relies much more heavily on background harmonies and a thicker and deeper sound that is stacked with layer upon layer of grooviness and cool.  The bluesy ruggedness and heartfelt emotion of Phelan’s voice is still present but the album seems to be much more of a family affair and holds a certain friendly attire about it.  Jeff Crawford produced the album at his own Arbor Ridge Studios.  Take a listen to this first sample of the songs anywhere:

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The album has an album release party May 29th at the Nightlight in Chapel Hill. The Tomahawks, who share several band members with Luego, will be playing first and afterwards a “soulful themed” dance party will commence.  Needless to say, this album will continue to be played on WKNC as often as possible from here on out.

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Eight months ago a relatively unheard of band in the area released one of the best albums from the Triangle in quite a long time.  I was so impressed I even listed it as my #3 album of 2009.  As is typical with most groups, a turnaround and rebound from such a great record is generally slow and and .  However, this is no typical band.

With just eight months passing since Taped-Together Stories was released, Durham band Luego is already setting to drop another full length album, Ocho. With quite a bit of hype and publicity garnering attention to this local music supergroup (read: Patrick Phelan, Jeff Crawford, Peter Holsapple, Nick Jaeger, Rob DiMauro, Cameron Lee, and Charles Cleaver among others) one would expect Ocho to be another milestone record for the area.

With that said the first time you will be able to head the record will be tomorrow at 1pm on WKNC.  I will be sitting down with band leader Patrick Phelan to discuss the quickness of the release, the recording process of the album, touring plans, and of course listen to the album itself.

Ocho is set to hit the streets June 1st following an album release party on May 29 at the Nightlight with The Tomahawks and a dance party afterward.  So be sure to listen in tomorrow at 1 p.m. for a listen on whats to come.

Local favorites from Asheville, Arizona, has recently called it quits.  Many know Arizona from their two hit albums Glowing Bird and Welcome Back Dear Children, but there may be no more releases for awhile.  According to a news release the band said the following:

Thank you!
We always appreciated the thought and time people gave us and our music. There’s so much music in the world, and it meant a lot that we were able to share and be a part of the musical emotional world of so many people.

Arizona is on an indefinite hiatus. Creative and philosophical differences sparked an amicable split – all of us care very much about each other and making music – and we’ll all continue to make music. We put our hearts into the music we made as Arizona, and as of now this is the best way to make sure that the people who enjoyed Arizona get to hear as much from us as possible. We’re now working as the following two bands:

New Beard & WAGES

The band has been balancing between Asheville and NYC and it seems the members in New Beard have decided to stay put in New York while WAGES will still continue on in the old north state.   In addition, both bands have EPs about to be released which may have also added to the split.

>WAGES is coming to Chapel Hill in May, playing at the Cave with Schooner and the Tomahawks on the 15th.

Many would call me a hopeless romantic.  I love to send letters and flowers to my girl and pamper her up when I can.  And while I am not a huge fan of Valentine’s Day and its pop culture marketing schemes,, I still feel the urge to go out and buy my sweetie some candy and flowers and make her a nice dinner to show her how much I care.  Another thing I like to do from time to time is make her custom mix tapes based around themes, as it was afterall music that brought us together.  Holiday mix tapes are usually the best and easiest and this Valentine’s Day will be no exception.

North Carolina is a hot pot for music and of course you are going to find some wonderful love songs tucked here and there.  If you had Valentine’s Day creep up on you from the back and take you by surprise today, and your significant other is a fan of local music, feel free to steal this play list as your own.  (You might even want to take it further and take your honey to see all of these artists the next time they play live.)

1. Tift Merritt: Another Country

2. Avett Brothers: I & Love & You

3. The Old Ceremony: God Said I Could Have You

4. Birds & Arrows: Honeymoon Song

5. Nola: Fall Into Me

6. Josh Moore: Rush Down My Spine

7. Benji Hughes: All You’ve Got To Do Is Fall In Love

8. Jeremy Blair From Effingham: I Do & I Don’t

9. Bombadil: Reasons

10. Whiskey Smugglers: Not Your Average Love Song

11. Brett Harris: I’m In Love

12. Mandolin Orange: Oh My Love

13. Stella By Starlight: As Good As It Gets

14. Tomahawks: Just Like One Another

15. Lost in the Trees: Love On My Side

16. Martha Ann Motel: Everything All At Once

Got more to share?  Comment below!

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!