The excellent Chapel Hill music label Holidays For Quince Records, run by Heather McEntire, Jenks Miller, and Hannah Smith, has just released a free compilation for download. Titled Holidays For Quince Records, Compilation Vol. 1, it features 12 tracks, some new and/or previously unreleased, from the label’s varied acts, including the riot-grrrl-meets-sixties-pop of Violet Vector and the Lovely Lovelies, doom metal guitar (and bass and drum) heroes Caltrop, the always ferocious Double Barrel Benefit vets Bellafea, and an epic 16-minute-long track from experimental metal group In The Year Of The Pig, among others. You can stream or download the compilation here and, if you like what you hear, head on over to the HFQ store, buy some records, and support one of the area’s finest cultural institutions

Be sure to tune in for your chance to win tickets to  these great local shows happening through the rest of the month!

Wednesday, February 17
The Urban Sophisticates w/ Kaze, Inflowential, & The Beast @ Cat’s Cradle

Thursday, February 18
Carlitta Durand w/ M1 Platoon, Jocelyn Ellis, Thee Tom Hardy & Jabee @ The Pour House

Friday, February 19
Annuals w/ Gray Young & Bright Young Things @ The Pour House

***In excitement for this show WKNC will also be giving away Annuals CD’s and T-Shirts! WKNC DJ’s will be playing song clips and when announced, be the correct caller with the right song title to win some awesome swag!***

SWASO w/ Violet Vectors and The Lovely Lovelies & The Guns of el Borracho @ Cat’s Cradle

Wednesday, February 24
The Clientele w/ Vetiver @ Cat’s Cradle

Thursday, February 25
State Radio w/ Big D and The Kids Table & Cobalt and the Hired Guns @ Cat’s Cradle

Don’t forget to check out the Rock Report for a complete listing of great shows happening in your area!

Gonna be in town over the winter break? Entertaning guests? Wondering what to fill all that free time with?

Go with live music, of course!

Below are my  recommendations for shows between December 17 to January 11 (N.C. State’s Winter Break)

December 17:

Who: Sea Legs & Old Bricks

Where: WKNC’s Local Beer Local Band atTir Na Nog Irish Pub in Raleigh

I must say it, these are actually two of my favorite local bands. Both bands are new to the scene but I predict they will have quite a name for themselves by this time next year. Catch um while their new so you can be the cool guy who knew them when they were the little people.

December 18:

Who: Fin Fang Foom, Free Electric State, Gray Young

Where: Pinhook in Durham

If you haven’t yet been to the Pinhook, this is your excuse. Not only is it one of my favorite places to drink, they have a killer patio, these local bands are all worth seeing.

December 19:

Who: Holiday Honky Tonk and Burlesque Show

Where: Local 506 in Chapel Hill

Say whhhat? I get to see The Whiskey Smugglers, The Pneurotics and Gambling the Muse all while Miss Mary Wanna puts on a burlesque performance…. I’m sold.

December 20:

Where: Nightlight in Chapel Hill

What: Nightlight Holiday Craft Fair from 2 to 6 p.m.

Okay, so it’s not music. Think of it this way though, its local art and any local art that is presented to me will get a moment of my time. Stop by, especially if you haven’t checked everyone off your shopping list yet.

December 21 to 24:

It’s my birthday week so I would love to celebrate with some tunes! Unfortunately, the world seems to shut down around these dates, I’m not sure why. If YOU want to serenade me happy birthday feel free to find me at one of these shows!

The Cave in Chapel Hill is holding an all day open swap December 22 and 23. You can buy and trade your doodads. Sounds like fun!

December 25:

Where: The Pour House in Raleigh

You can celebrate Christmas day along with Terry Anderson, who will be celebrating his birthday as well. He brings his band, The Olympic Ass Kicking Team to the Pour House. You know there isn’t much to do after the family is done opening gifts and eating food so bring them to sing along!

December 26:

What: The Merch Holiday Party

Where: Local 506 in Chapel Hill

The Merch is a local screen printing and design business whose logos are plastered all over the triangle. They are huge supporters of local music and we love that!  Not sure what the night entails but it should be something great! The party starts at 10pm

December 31st:

Downtown Raleigh

First Night Raleigh

Ring in the new year right! Surround yourself with the amazingness this town has to offer. First Night is offering performances by The African American Dance Ensemble, Crucial Fiya and the Annuals (plus a million other amazing things to see and do). While your downtown don’t forget to stop by Slims to see A Rooster for the Masses.

OR

New Years Eve Party at Local 506 in Chapel Hill

Violet Vector and the Lovely Lovelies, The Love Language and the Dirty Little Heaters share the stage to help you ring in the new year!

January 1:

HAPPY NEW YEAR!  there isn’t much going on this week so make sure to rest up for next week because it is jam-packed with shows to witness!

January 6

Where: The Pour House Music Hall in Raleigh

Who: The Ex-Monkeys are spinnin in downtown Raleigh this night. Great to see if you’re in the mood for a different kind of electronic music to dance too.

January 7

Where: Tir Na Nog Irish Pub in Raleigh

IT BEGINS! RALEIGH UNDERCOVER STARTS TONIGHT!!

This a weekend all local music lovers should look forward too! Your favorite bands will cover the bands that have inspired them. Last years performances  included Valient Thorr covering Parliament Funkadelic, Hearts and Daggers covering The Beastie Boys and Embarrassing Fruits as Pavement. Make sure to be there for at least one night this weekend!

January 8:

Where: The Pour House Music Hall in Raleigh

Who: Your favorite local artists Lonnie Walker, Megafaun and The Rosebuds are all joining together to put on one amazing show. The night will be a prom theme and fun for everyone! If you can’t make it out on the 8th, no worries, Megafaun and The Rosebuds will be performing again, same place same time, only this time the amazing Hammer No More the Fingers will be joining them.

January 9:

Where: The Nightlight in Chapel Hill

Who: Midtown Dickens takes the stage with Joe Romeo and the Orange County Volunteers. Midtown Dickens is a group that consistently keeps a smile on my face. They are a joy to watch and with this year’s release of Lanterns, you wont be let down.

Also right down the street North Elementary will be playing at The Local 506. A classic local group that is worth the short walk!

That is it for now!

The new year seems to be starting out well here in the Triangle!

The Local Beat section of the WKNC blog has been keeping a low profile recently, in part because I’m a control freak and don’t want to tell someone else to do it instead, in part because I’ve been working on a research paper that’s due tomorrow, and in part because I’ve been moving out of a disgusting 6-person college student house all week.

But that doesn’t mean we’re not giving you more than your daily prescribed dose of local music tonight at 5pm.  In fact, we’re ODing on it.

At 5:00 Violet Vector & The Lovely Lovelies and Mike Dillon of Gross Ghost will be by to talk about their show next Friday at Slim’s.

Then at 6:00 Jeff Crawford and Nick Jaeger of The Tomahawks–and every other band you’ve ever loved–will be playing some songs and chatting about the MS Open Eye Series.  They’re playing tomorrow (Saturday 8/1) at the Open Eye Cafe in Carrboro at 8pm (suggested $5 donation to support Zach Terry’s MS Ride team).

And last but CERTAINLY not least is The Proclivities, who’ll be playing The Pour House Music Hall tonight alongside Modern Skirts and Heypenny.  They’ll be stopping by right around 7:00.

And of course, in between all the chatter will be your favorite local music–and there’s so much good new local music right now it’s ridiculous. So tune in at 88.1 FM or wknc.org/listen.  No, seriously: do it.

When I arrived at the RDU airport after six weeks in Prague to the terminal from which I departede, I felt like I had been gone for about half of that, if not less. It was like a time warp.

Then I went to the WKNC studio for my return to the airwaves, and I was reminded just how long six weeks actually is in the world of music. I am trying to catch up with the latest releases as quickly as I can!

On my show last week, I played a new track from Violet Vector and the Lovely Lovelies of their EP II, which was great. I’m looking forward to checking out the latest from Bowerbirds out tomorrow! It will be strange to have to learn words to new songs after singing along to “My Oldest Memory,” “Bur Oak,” and “In Our Talons,” for so long.

Tune in for my show this Wednesday (and every Wednesday for the rest of the summer) from 2 to 3 p.m. as I make up for lost time.

The long-time music critic for The News & Observer, David Menconi, has released the 2009 version of the “The Great 8“.  The Great 8 is an annual list of local music talent that shines above the rest.  This year’s list is wonderfully diverse, with acts from the classic indie format to the old-school 90s punk scene to screamo to hip-hop, and he even threw in a video game music guru (because everyone needs kick ass music to listen to when taking down Bowser).  Not to toot the “WKNC is better than your mother” horn or anything, but 2 of the 8 artists featured this year where apart of 88.1′s Double Barrel Benefit 6 line-up from this past weekend!  If you missed DBB6, you still have a chance to catch some of these bands at a special “Great 8 Showcase” concert at the Local 506 on February 13th, 2009 including 4 of the 8 bands featured (HNMTF, Lonnie Walker, Violet Vector and the Lovely Lovelies, and Double Negative). Here is the full list:

Jason Graves, Raleigh

There are people who do absolutely no work and get all the credit.  Jason Graves does not fall into that category, in fact, he is quite the opposite.  As a video game track composer, Graves says that it does not phase him that his work is simply the background sounds to a usually much more complicated and interesting video game (unless we are playing PaRappa The Rapper, arguably the worst video game of all time).  Graves says that his contributions add to the overall entertainment value of the product, and that can evoke a lot of pride.  Graves also says he tries to tell a story in the lyric-less music he creates and I must say, some of his stuff evokes very strong emotions for being merely background music.  My personal favorites are his Star Trek compositions…THEY ARE EPIC!

Lonnie Walker, Greenville/Raleigh

Being a Double Barrel Benefit 6 performer, naturally, Lonnie Walker kicks ass.  This down-home feeling rock/Americana band signed to Raleigh based Terpsikhore Records has been compared to artists from Bob Dylan to Modest Mouse.

Double Negative, Raleigh

This old-school, hard-hitting, punk rock compilation sounds like, in terms our friend Jason Graves would understand, a band pulled directly off the soundtrack of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater.  Yes, I mean the original Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater from the Playstation/Nintendo 64 era.  If that description is not your bag of chips, maybe you will just have to listen.

Violet Vector And The Lovely Lovelies, Chapel Hill

The second of the Double Barrel Benefit 6 bands on the list.  Pop on steroids with a whipped cream and cherry topping (after bathing in a rainbow shower).  That is my best description of Violet Vector and the Lovely Lovelies.  You can tell that these guys & gals truly enjoy what they do, and it shows in their music.

Alesana, Raleigh

If you could get as far from the type of music we just explored with Violet Vector and the Lovely Lovelies, Alesana would be right there smiling (well, maybe smiling isn’t quite the appropriate word).  This rift crunching, double-bass pedal pounding, mosh-it-out-over-breakfast screamo band is sure to have you with your hand in the air, fist clinched, and head banging all night.

The Loners, Raleigh

The Loners have a unique history in the Raleigh music scene.  They can be considered the diamond in the rough (the rough being the closing of King’s Barcade in downtown Raleigh in the spring of 2007).  After reuniting to play the last show at King’s, the band decided to stay together because of the outpouring of support they receive from the show.  Fast forward almost two years and The Loners are getting set to release their first album since 2002, entitled “Revolution!” (hmm maybe a reference to THE Revolution, 88.1fm…okay probably not, but I can dream).

Inflowential, Raleigh

The beat boxes are crazy, and the live show is amazing!  If you have not seen/heard of this group and you have been in Raleigh for more that a year, then you need to catch up.  Inflowential (not to be mistaken for Kooley High, another hip-hop group that has crossover members) can be seen at  local venues or maybe you remember seeing them place in the top three nationally in mtvU’s Best Music on Campus (a competiton with rising new music artists) last year.

Hammer No More The Fingers, Chapel Hill

Classic indie rock at its best from the town that cranks out indie-alternative like it is a day job.  Its very interesting to see how three driven musicians that grew up in Chapel Hill in the 90′s turn out musically given the crazy musical scene in the town during the past decade or two (I am trying not to dwell to much on a place that is home to the ever so horrible Tar Holes, but it is hard in this case).

Last night WKNC took over Friday Night Request Rock & Chainsaw to bring you live coverage of night 1 of the Double Barrel Benefit #6 from the Pour House in downtown Raleigh.  The show was a success, a massive sellout with a tremendous crowd and kickass music.  As the show will more than likely sellout tonight as well, we will once again be broadcasting the entire show live (trumping Saturday Night Soul and R&B and D-Cutta’s 2.0 Show).

Broadcast starts after the Soulful Renaissance and will air until the completion of the concert.  If you can’t get to the Pour House, feel free to rock on with us tonight over your radio or internet connection.

Doors open at 8pm and get there early as there is a limited number of tickets available at the door.  The show starts at 9pm.

Tonight’s lineup includes: I Was Totally Destroying It, Violet Vector & the Lovely Lovelies, Birds of Avalon, & Polvo.

Last Night around 10pm WKNC’s web server bottomed out and took a nose dive off of the cliff of life, no doubt due to an ecstasy overload caused by our Local Music Invasion.  WKNC webmaster DJ Bridges, our engineer Austin,  & Local Music Czar DJ Stevo spent the entire night resuscitating the website back to life in a miracle intensive care recovery.  If these fellows revive themselves in time to make it to the Double Barrel Benefit, please buy them a beer, bake them a cake, or give them a medal or something.  Bridges is still wandering the hallways in a haze, Im trying to send him home.

Because of our web problems, all blog posts from the last 2 days have been lost.  This means our DBB features on Birds of Avalon, Bowerbirds & Violet Vector and the Lovely Lovelies, as well as several album reviews and promotional posts are no longer available.  There is not a definite timeline on getting these back up, but we will most certainly try, especially the DBB Features, which all of those bands more than deserve for playing at this years event.

In the meantime, if you have not been paying attention (or didn’t read the blog that has since been deleted), yesterday & today on WKNC we will be airing ONLY local music through our airwaves to get everyone pumped for this years Double Barrel Benefit.  Its called the Local Music Invasion.  100% local music on Thursday’s Daytime is going to carry over until today as we will air North Carolina tunes all the way through the Local Beat which ends at 8pm.

Then, beginning at 8pm, we will begin live broadcasting from the Pour House and will air the entire first night of Double Barrel Benefit in its entirety.  A live benefit show coming through our airwaves, nothing is better than that!

However, this will trump Friday Night Request Rock & Chainsaw this evening, but fear not, those shows will resume broadcasting once again next week.

Set your calendars For Friday February 6th, and Saturday February 7th for WKNC’s annual Double Barrel Benefit #6 at the Pour House in downtown Raleigh.  Both nights are loaded with 8 of the best bands in our area for a small price, with all proceeds going to WKNC & NC State Student Media.

Prices are $7 in advance and $9 at the door.  There is a $5 surcharge for all attendees under 21.

Bands on Friday include (in order of appearance):
Lonnie Walker
Lost in the Trees
Schooner
Bowerbirds

Bands on Saturday include (in order of appearance):
I Was Totally Destroying It
Violet Vector & the Lovely Lovelies
Birds of Avalon
Polvo

WKNC will be broadcasting live from the site both nights.

Throughout the next month WKNC will begin featuring exclusive blogs about each of these fantastic bands leading up to the show.  Be on the lookout for those as well as listening to each of these bands on WKNC 88.1 fm.

In addition, the two days leading up to the show, WKNC will play 100% Local Music during its Daytime Format.   More information on this later.

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…