This week we talked with NCSU urban entomology experts, featured our Wolfpacker of the Week, talked NCSU Football, and heard another installment of the Gardening Minute and the Restaurant Review.
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Author: WKNC Admin
I think we can consider last weekend’s first annual Hopscotch Music Festival to be a runaway success. Never before has the city of Raleigh had such an incredible musical event within the confines of downtown. The crowds were terrific (I have yet to hear of anything about someone getting out of hand with authorities), the venues were spectacular hosts, the bands were on point, parking was never a problem, and let’s face it, besides a weak drizzle Saturday night the weather was terrific! You have to hand it to Greg Lowenhagen and Grayson Currin, as well the many volunteers and others who helped out for the spectacular organization and attention to detail the festival was able to achieve. And while it is not set in stone that Hopscotch will continue, in most people’s minds, especially those of the organizers, it certainly will.
So that begs the question, what things can be tweaked to make the festival an even better experience? I have a couple of small things that would have improved:
- Promote the day parties: In my opinion one of the best things about the festival were the numerous free day parties that took place across town. Unfortunately, these were not heavily promoted to the masses and for most out-of-towners they missed out. Friday night I was standing next to a group of festival goers who had driven eight hours for Hopscotch and they had no idea they had already missed out on two days worth of free music before the night even began. Instead they had stayed in their hotel rooms the entire day watching TV and waiting for the official Hopscotch to start. Saturday I caught them hopping around having a blast and they thanked me profusely for informing them of all the day shows going on.
- More options besides music: While this never bothered me since I am all about the music, I think it would be interesting if perhaps the festival has more attractions. Perhaps movie screenings, food discounts, daytime downtown museum/brewery tours, or a giant hopscotch game people have to follow from one venue to the next on the sidewalk? It would just be something extra to entice people who only care about maybe 4 or 5 bands to get a ticket and not feel bad about the price.
- Better schedule grid on pamphlets: Another minor concern was the grid on the schedule that was handed out to all concert attendees. The schedule was difficult to read and I know many complained about having a hard time knowing when certain bands were going to start. It wasn’t too difficult but a better visual would have been better.
- Android and Blackberry app: Yeah yeah, I know iPhone’s are king, but there are just as many if not more people in our area with smart phones containing android software and blackberry mobile devices. It would have been awesome to have had a Hopscotch app on my phone. Instead I had to rely on a calendar from GoGo Raleigh, which was nice, just not as nice.
- Social Media Incentives: With social media websites like Foursquare and Facebook getting involved with location based software, it would have added a little spice to let users going to the festival receive badges or maybe even some sort of prize for checking into certain spots, the most venues, etc. Not only is this a fun game for people attending, but it provides fantastic and free promotion for the event and venues hosting bands.
The complaints I have seem so trivial and minor that I hardly see the point in posting them. What about you? Do you have any comments or suggestions for the future of the festival? Comment below!
Thursday, September 16 is going to be the first Local Beer Local Band Night with WKNC’s Alumni Mikey P. as official booking agent! Sorry for the late arrival of this blog for I believe I am still recovering from Hopscotch. That does NOT mean that I will pass up free music at Tir na nOg Irish Pub for Local Beer Local Band Night! FREE, 21 and up, starting at 10 p.m.! Inflowential and HaLo will be the main acts this Thursday night with Ill Digits controling the jams all night. Local brewskies will be flowing from the taps!
“Inflowential successfully mixes blues, rock, hip-hop, and reggae to create music with broad appeal. Its kinetic live show has been a draw for fans.”
David Menconi – The Raleigh News & Observer
“Inflowentia lslides comfortably across genre labels, using their live instruments and jazzy undertones to create tracks with an energy and power that feels fresh. A group with great promise…”
Aylin Zafar – Urb Magazine
HaLo aka MR. BEN READY
If you have heard Kooley High’s new album, Eastern Standard Time, then you should recognize the up and coming rapper HaLo (pronounced like”Hah-Low”) who is featured on several tracks. Connected to 9th Wonder and Kooley High’s M.E.C.C.A. Records, HaLo is a witty, up-beat emcee who has arrived on the scene with the mission to delight, electrify and ignite seas of listeners. Currently collaborating with producers such as Foolery, The Sinopsis, and Khrysis, you’ll be sure to hear more from this Raleigh rapper in the future.
Once upon a time, Dj Ill Digitz hosted the Midnight Snack for WKNC. You should know him now for his work with Kooley High and his radio show on K 97.5 in his hometown of Raleigh NC. Digitz is one of the few deejays playing real hip hop on commercial radio waves.
And!! Be sure to tune in Thursday from 7-8 p.m. to hear our beloved Mikey P interviewing our acts this week!
See you Thursday, friends.
Local music badasses Superchunk will play at the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University this Thursday (9/16). Ray will be giving away a pair of tickets sometime during her show, so listen up!
The local shows keep rolling, after a successful weekend of Hopscotch Musical Festival, and the upcoming SPARKcon, the Triangle is the place to be!
We have a lot of giveaways for you this week. You know what that means—listen to WKNC throughout your entire day and you could win tickets to:
9/15- Jay Clifford at Cat’s Cradle
9/16 – Shooter Jennings at Cat’s Cradle
The Small Ponds at The Pour House
9/17 – Holy Ghost Tent Revival at Lincoln Theatre
Old Ceremony at Cat’s Cradle **CD release party!
Urban Sophisticates at The Pour House
9/18 – Billy Bragg at Cat’s Cradle
9/19 – Drive-By Truckers at Lincoln Theatre
On-going movie tickets—The American and Resident Evil: Afterlife at Crossroads 20 in Cary
Even if you don’t win tickets, stay up to date on all local shows with our Rock Report!
Every year the Mercury Prize is awarded to an act who is considered to have put out the best British album within the past year. This year, after much anticipation among British music aficionados, The XX have been declared the winner for their album XX. Facing a tremendous amount of competition from acts including Mumford and Sons, Laura Marling, and Paul Weller, The XX came out on top at the end of the wait.
After it was announced that The XX won the prize on September 7, band member Oliver Sim went on to say “Thank you so much, we’ve had the most incredible year.“ He later added, “Everyday we’ve woken up to something incredible.”
The XX now join a group of artists that include Klaxons, Franz Ferdinand, and Arctic Monkeys.
88.1 WKNC’s Pick of the Week 9/10
written by Sarah Hager, WKNC DJ
As I opened Citizen of the Empire’s self-titled and self-released debut, the CD insert caught my attention. Where the copyright information should be, I read, “No Rights Reserved.”
“We prefer to make our lives a work of art as opposed to ‘making a living’ from our art. Reproduce and distribute in any form by any means. Share with your friends and enemies alike.” I will say, after listening, I’ll be sure to do just that. The seven-track album starts off with a slow, ethereal guitar riff with subtle crash symbols. This track, entitled “Insurrection is Our only Weapon against the Machine of Alienation,” is a perfect way to get the listener ready for the remainder of the album. Citizens of the Empire seems to be a very politically-oriented band, giving links to Zeitgeist, among other online movies, as well as titling the tracks according to their views. I immediately realized I would get a fuller experience if I turned the music up and let it replace all other things I was thinking of. Closing my eyes, it was easy to lose myself in the music. The fourth track, “Power is not to Be Conquered, It is to Be Destroyed” is by far the strongest. It’s immediately up-tempo and forceful. Continuous riffs throughout make it fun and interesting for the duration of its six-minute length. “Everything We Possess will in turn Possess Us” is another example of exciting riffs, but this time sprinkled over the seven-minute track contributes to such a full-sounding post-rock song. The ending song, “We Pay for Our Lives with Our Deaths,” is a strong finish to the album. Its intricate guitar is weaved into enough vice that when the song finishes, all you want is more. I was surprised to learn Citizens only consists of three members—Andrew Carson playing drums, Patrick Seawell on bass, and Jacob West shredding guitar. This three-piece is from Minneapolis, MN. Citizens fits in perfectly with bands such as Mogwai, God is an Astronaut and Explosions in the Sky. While your mind won’t be blown to pieces, it will be fully satisfied by the instrumental rock laid out for listening pleasure.
“88.1 WKNC Pick of the Week is published in every Friday in the print edition of Technician, as well as online at technicianonline.com and wknc.org/blog.”
88.1 WKNC’s Pick of the Week 9/3
By Charlie Burnett, WKNC DJ
Side projects by members of great bands tend to go one of two ways. Either they’re just as great as the actual band, like Wilco-offshoot Loose Fur, or bland and forgettable, like Mick Jagger’s entire solo output. Guitarist for country-rockers My Morning Jacket Carl Broemel’s debut solo record, All Birds Say, falls into the former category.
When performing with My Morning Jacket, Broemel can often be found flailing around the stage during up-tempo barn-burners, or adding texture to one of the band’s hazy ballads. For Broemel’s solo record, however, he trades in his electric guitar for an acoustic set of lilting country-folk numbers perfect for the segue into fall.
With a warm voice similar to My Morning Jacket lead-man Jim James, Broemel effortlessly works his way through breezy, relatively simple songs that, generally put, fall into the folk-rock genre.
The instrumental title track, “All Birds Say,” proves an apt starting point for the record. A sunny, classical, guitar melody eases up to a piano-bass-drums combo that gently fades into second track “Life Leftover,” a laid-back folk song about not taking for granted the short time we are given on earth.
Tucked into a dreamy country number called “Carried Away,” a subtly moaning lap steel guitar matches the weary chorus: “Don’t get carried away in the past, it’s not there/Don’t get carried away in the past, it’s not fair.” These lyrics are merely one example of the subtly poignant style of Broemel’s songwriting.
Elsewhere on All Birds Say, simple truths such as “Seems impossible to get ahead/When you are only making just enough,” from “Enough,” and the close detail of the gentle shuffling “On The Case,” with its descriptions of dusty, unfinished books and weeds “growing in beds by the water,” display Broemel’s lyrical prowess.
All Birds Say may disappoint some My Morning Jacket fans looking for another record of balls-to-the-wall, country-rock anthems and psychedelic balladry. Those willing to accept the fact that All Birds Say is a slower, more easy-going affair, however, will find a perfect fall record full of lilting, country-folk songs focused on the simple truths and nuances of everyday life.
88.1 WKNC Pick of the Week is published in every Friday in the print edition of Technician, as well as online at technicianonline.com and wknc.org.
88.1 WKNC’s Pick of the Week 8/27
By Michael Jones, WKNC DJ
Every once in a while you stumble across a band that perfectly defines a specific type of music, and with Best Coast’s debut Crazy For You, they prove that they are one of those bands.
Best Coast has debuted with a stellar entry into a surfer rock genre that has seemed to dominate much of the indie rock music scene over the past year. The band has gone so far to describe their sound as a girl lying on the beach in the 1990s wearing a bathing suit from the 50s.
Best Coast is the musical collaboration between vocalist Bethany Cosentino, multi-instrumentalist Bobb Bruno and their touring drummer Ali Koehler. Coming out of Los Angeles, California, Best Coast has produced immense hype, recently being named the best new band of 2010 by the British publication NME, and are also set to play at this year’s Hopscotch Music Festival in downtown Raleigh this September.
The band kicks off their album just as you might expect. The starry-eyed, love-longing vocals of Cosentino come out in their best fashion with the track Boyfriend. Cosentino emphasizes her desire for a man and her contempt for another woman vying for his attention. “If I could only get her out of the picture / Then he would know how much I want him,” demonstrates her love for this guy she desires to return her love. Finally, toward the end of the fantastic track, Cosentino dives into some of the more dreamy elements of Best Coast when she thinks up a series of romantic and beautiful activities they would share.
The entire album is not compiled solely of sweet, romantic songs. The title track Crazy For You demonstrates Cosentino’s push-pull tendencies toward her significant other when she delivers the lyrics, “I want to hit you then I kiss you / Want to kill you then I miss you.” Bordering on sentiments that reflect both insecurity and defiance, she is consistently second-guessing herself.
Best Coast is able to capitalize on their marijuana-influenced, beach pop tunes with their track The End. This slick entry into the album shows the appearance of being laid-back – yet somehow worried – about the relationships that Cosentino describes throughout the album.
Each track appears to be a unique entry into a specific feeling that the Best Coast is getting across in a way that creates diversity and breeds excellence. Songs like Goodbye demonstrate the band’s ability to dip into the harshest areas of cynicism, while Bratty B shows that she can change in order to be with her loved one once again.
As the album comes to a close, Best Coast delivers track after track that show Cosentino second-guessing and coming to frustrating conclusions about wanting to be with this mystery man. However, she seems to acknowledge forces outside of her control are preventing them from being together.
At the end of the day, Best Coast’s Crazy For You provides a stand-out entry into a surfer rock genre that may seem oversaturated to some, and if hitting the top 40 for an independent band’s debut record proves anything, it is that they have the potential to be one of the next big names in pop.
88.1 WKNC Pick of the Week is published in every Friday in the print edition of Technician, as well as online at technicianonline.com and wknc.org.
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EOT40 The Record 9/7/10
Jacob takes us to Duke University’s Nasher Museum to tour their new exhibit on the record.