As we make our way to the Hear Here CD release show Aug. 29 at Cat’s Cradle (also my birthday!), listen to 88.1 as our top-notch Local Lunch crew debut songs from the 17-track compilation. This Friday, Aug. 14, Mikey P and guests Mike Robinson from Terpsikhore and BJ Burton from Flying Tiger will unleash Kooley High’s “Can’t Go Wrong” and Lonnie Walker’s “Feels Like Right.” The freshness will continue through next week, so stay tuned. Local Lunch airs Mon-Fri from noon to 1 p.m.
Author: WKNC Admin
If you have been listening to WKNC lately, you probably know about Hear Here, a new local music compilation from Terpsikhore, Flying Tiger Sound and WKNC 88.1 FM. The 17-song CD features new tracks from Americans in France, The Beast, Birds of Avalon, Blount Harvey, Colossus, Hammer No More the Fingers, Inflowential, The Kingsbury Manx, Kooley High, Lonnie Walker, The Love Language, Motor Skills, The Never, The Old Ceremony, The Rosebuds, Static Minds and Sunfold.
Hear Here will be officially released Aug. 29 at the Cat’s Cradle in Carrboro. The event will feature performances by Annuals, Birds of Avalon, Hammer No More the Fingers and The Never. Tickets to the release show are $10 and include a copy of the album. Proceeds from Hear Here will go to support Raleigh’s Visual Art Exchange, a non-profit dedicated to serving emerging artists. Local artist Ryan Cummings produced all of the artwork for the album, which showcases some of the Raleigh landscape.
Hear Here and its release party are going to be awesome; just ask New Raleigh, Music.MyNC and Scan.
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88.1 WKNC Pick of the Week 7/29
Megafaun’s Gather, Form, & Fly Earns 5/5 Stars
Mike Alston
“I can read a painted picture;
Of life as it was in the past;
Why did I think it would last?
When all the colors keep on shifting.”
As Megafaun acknowledges in “Impressions of the Past,” the colors have certainly shifted since Wisconsin band DeYarmond Edison moved to North Carolina just a few years ago. They parted ways in 2006, and member Justin Vernon achieved national renown under the name Bon Iver. The three remaining members started a new band, calling themselves Megafaun.
Their first release—2008’s Bury the Square—was remarkable but also remarkably short, at just six tracks. So for a while, a Megafaun live show has been an experience in extrapolation, the band performing songs that are uniquely their style, but haven’t been available in recorded versions until now. And the word “style” is far more applicable in this context than “genre” would be. As has been explained in virtually every other piece written on Megafaun, they have no easily definable genre. Megafaun is ostensibly a folk band, sure, but saying their music is informed by folk music is akin to saying modern man is related to monkey. Somewhere along the line, we received opposable thumbs; somewhere along the line, “freak folk” was born.
“Freak folk” might best be explained anecdotally. Before I ever saw the band perform live, I saw banjo player Phil Cook perform Duke Ellington’s “The Single Petal of a Rose” on piano at an event in Chapel Hill. On the way home, I found out Megafaun was playing in downtown Raleigh and drove straight there to find Cook helping his band set up to perform and then bring the house down. The next time I saw them, guitarist Brad Cook played with the rest of the guys before handling bass duties for the Rosebuds in the very next set. Those nights spoke volumes in terms of the talent and dedication this band possesses. Their musical influences and tastes are all over the map, but they channel them to make ground-breaking music. They are so talented that writing and performing a verse-chorus-verse radio single would likely be mind-numbingly boring to them.
Anything but mind-numbing, however, are the unique and strangely beautiful touches on this album. All thirteen tracks bring something different to the table, including but not limited to the sounds of crickets chirping on one track and water dripping on another. Those along with beautiful harmonies and all sorts of musical exploration make Gather, Form, & Fly less a vehicle for a few songs and more a coherent (dare I say it) masterpiece. As with all of the best albums, the work should be experienced as a whole rather than as individual parts with an assigned track listing. Christy Smith of the Tender Fruit makes a guest appearance on “The Longest Day,” where her words ring true with respect to DeYarmond Edison’s split: “Cause I ain’t never seen a night that didn’t have a dawn.” The dawn has come for Megafaun, and what a bright dawn it is.
88.1 WKNC DJ Pick of the Week is published in every Tuesday print edition of the Technician, as well as online at technicianonline.com and wknc.org.
Big congrats to one of our favorite local bands, Lonnie Walker, for being nominated as Ear Farm’s Band of the Week! Lonnie Walker has been making a name for itself this past year, having been named one of the News and Observer’s Great 8 Local Bands, playing at WKNC’s Double Barrel Benefit, Raleigh’s Artsplosure Festival, and oh yeah, releasing an amazing album “These Times Old Times” which won our listener’s top vote for best album so far of the summer.
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Tooth To Perform Last Show
Mark your calendars for September 11 and plan on heading to the Duke Coffeehouse in Durham for an album release party for Durham’s own, metal band Tooth. They will be releasing a 12" EP alongside fellow metal act The Claw (of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania). Also playing that evening will be Grappling Hook and Curtains of Night
A press release from Churchkey Records is as follows:
With the good news of the EP’s release, there is also sadness, and fond remembrance of a friend and brother who has passed. The Claw’s side of this EP is the last recorded work of lead vocalist Mikey Brosnan, who was killed by a drunk driver while crossing the street in his home town of Philadelphia in November 2008.
The release also marks the end for Tooth, which will play its final show on Sept. 11.
The album is limited to 300 copies and includes mp3 downloads. The album will also be released digitally on Churchkey Records’ website. You can pre-order the album here.
Check out the followin mp3s available for download:
Tooth: “Suicide Myth Tooth: “Suicide Myth”
The Claw: "Grief Is For The Living” The Claw: “Grief Is For The Living”
As if Facebook and Twitter status updates aren’t enough for most people, you can also update your Gmail status so people can know when you are eating lunch with your favorite Americana, Blues and Co. host or if you are working and don’t wish to be disturbed. About a month ago, our illustrious general manager announced “New Megafaun=AMAZING” to anyone he has ever emailed. It’s good to know he was right.
New Raleigh reports Durham-based Megafaun’s new release, “Gather, Form and Fly,” earned a four-star review in Rolling Stone magazine. A live album from Jimi Hendrix Experience only had three and a half stars.
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Geet Bazaar Giveaway
This weekend on Geet Bazaar (Desi Radio, 88.1 FM, Sunday 10 am to 12 noon) you can win FREE tickets to hear Sunidhi Chauhan, Javed Ali, and Hard Kaur live in concert Aug. 14 at Raleigh Memorial Auditorium. We will be giving away lots of tickets during the broadcast. Listen to the Geet Bazaar this Sunday to find out how to call in and win tickets.
Geet Bazaar is a South Asian Radio Program based on listeners’ requests, broadcast every Sunday from 10 am to 12 noon on WKNC 88.1 FM (or live webstream at wknc.org). Email your requests to GeetBazaar at WKNC dot org.
In last week’s poll to determine our listeners’ favorite local album released this summer, Lonnie Walker’s “These Times Old Times” took the lead, beating out Bombadil’s “Tarpits and Canyonlands,” Bowerbirds’ “Upper Air,” Birds of Avalon’s “Uncanny Valley,” and Bronzed Chorus’s “In the Spring.”
Megafaun’s “Gather, Form & Fly” came in second. The album was released last month.
To hear any of these albums, be sure to tune in for the Local Lunch Monday through Friday from noon to 1 p.m. on WKNC. Check back to the WKNC Blog for weekly polls.
The music line-up for the Trinumeral Music & Arts Festival has been announced. Headlining is The Glitch Mob, a hip-hop group that incorporates live remixing and electronic music production sometimes labeled “glitch hop.” We mentioned the Glitch Mob in January when Pandora labeled them “post-modern hip-hop.”
Regardless of how they are labeled them you will dance to their beats. Yes you will.
As always, Tir Na Nog Irish Pub and WKNC 88.1 FM have put together a great schedule for Local Beer Local Band. Join us this week as we celebrate DJ Cantona’s birthday with music by Maple Stave, Auxes and (Double Barrel Benefit 4 alumnus) Fin Fang Foom. It’s FREE and our friends 21 and up can enjoy tasty local beer specials.