Author: WKNC Admin

Categories
Playlists

My top 10 tunes for summer road trippin’

My Chevy Cavalier has truly made the rounds this summer. In the past month alone, I’ve been all over the state – to the mountains, the coast, and everywhere in between, as well as to visit friends in Virginia. You’d be surprised to hear how loud I can bump the bass in that little car. I’ve got a stack of mix CDs I’ve made to make time on the interstate pass by quickly, and of all the songs that have accompanied me on the roads, there are definitely some I will always identify as “summer 2009 road trip songs.”

Here are my top ten:

  1. Telekinesis – All Of A Sudden
    This song is catchy belong belief and perfect for summer!

  2. Kings of Leon – Taper Jean Girl
    This song isn’t new or anything, but there’s this “uhhh huhhh” after the opening chords that gets me every time. I could listen to this one on repeat for a whole car trip, I’m pretty sure.

  3. Bombadil – Sad Birthday
    Bombadil created a song with a super upbeat tempo and really depressing lyrics, and the outcome was a great success.

  4. Empire of the Sun – Walking On A Dream
    This song is for me what MGMT’s Kids was last summer – fantastic.

  5. The Love Language – Lalita
    My steering wheel becomes my drum set every time I hear this song.

  6. Lonnie Walker – Pendulum’s Chest
    Bet you thought I was going to choose Summertime…well, I almost did. Am I cheating on this top 10 to say Lonnie Walker’s entire album, “These Times Old Times” is on my summer road trippin’ list?

  7. Bowerbirds – Beneath Your Tree
    I’m sure if Bowerbirds heard my rendition of this song in the car, they’d add me to the band. (That is a total lie, but I can dare to dream!)

  8. Thao With The Get Down Stay Down – Swimming Pools
    No explanation necessary; this song is summer in music form.

  9. St. Vincent – Actor Out of Work
    This song is more up-beat than I’m used to hearing from St. Vincent, which is one of the reasons it made this list. The lyrics make me laugh, because I know several people who I would describe as “actors out of work.”

  10. The Avett Brothers – Die Die Die
    This just happens to be favorite Avetts song at the moment, and a good one to sing along to on I-40!

Which songs would you add to the list? I’ve still got miles to cover before school starts, and I’ve always got room for more CDs in my car.

Categories
Concert Preview

XX Merge Coverage Coming To WKNC Blog

Didn’t score tickets to XX Merge? Well, I was lucky enough to get tickets to Wednesday and Friday nights of the music festival and will be bringing you reviews and pictures from both nights. The festival will be going down this week, July 22 to 25 at Cat’s Cradle (in the words of Conor Oberst: Souled Out!!!) and July 26 at Memorial Hall at UNC Chapel Hill (those tickets are still available). There will also be several activities going on during the day, such as a cookout and showings of documentaries on Merge artists, as well as a free show at the Orange County Social Club on Saturday featuring Radar Bros., Tenement Halls, Matt Suggs, Portastatic, and The Music Tapes.

And for coverage of the festival, check back into the WKNC blog later in the week.

Categories
Music News and Interviews

Max Indian In Studio Today!

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Max Indian will be joining me, DJ Caid, in studio today at 1pm right after the Local Lunch.  Max Indian will be in to talk about their show this coming Friday with The Tomahawks and Ryan Gustafson at the Local 506.  The show starts at 9:30pm.

Tune in for more information!

Categories
Weekly Charts

WKNC’s top 30 albums from the past week

Here are the top 30 records at WKNC from the past week, compiled by Daytime Music Director Jenna St. Pierre:

1. Bowerbirds – Upper Air
2. Dirty Projectors – Bitte Orca
3. Deradoorian – Mind Raft
4. Ha Ha Tonka – Novel Sounds Of The Nouveau South
5. Double Dagger – More
6. Stardeath and White Dwarfs – The Birth
7. Grizzly Bear – Veckatimest
8. Mew – No More Stories [EP]
9. Portland Cello Project – The Thao And Justin Power Sessions
10. Invisible Cities – Houses Shine Like Teeth
11. You And Your Effects – You And Your Effects
12. Deer Tick – Born On Flag Day
13. Still Life Still – Pastel [EP]
14. Megafaun – Gather, Form, And Fly
15. Wilco – Wilco (the Album)
16. St. Vincent – Actor
17. Phoenix – Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
18. Black Moth Super Rainbow – Eating Us
19. Lonnie Walker – These Times Old Times
20. Magnolia Electric Co. – Josephine
21. Portugal. The Man – The Satanic Satanists
22. Sonic Youth – The Eternal
23. Passion Pit – Manners
24. Bronzed Chorus – I’m The Spring
25. Veelee – Three Sides
26. Throw Me The Statue – Creaturesque
27. Empire Of The Sun – Walking On A Dream
28. American Folklore – American Folklore
29. Boogie Boarder – Pizza Hero
30. Talbot Tagora – Lessons In The Woods Or A City

The following are albums recently added to our library, which you can look forward to hearing on the air:
Cymbals Eat Guitars – Why There Are Mountains
Yacht – See Mystery Lights

Categories
Music News and Interviews

WKNC Giveaways

WKNC has some new and exciting tickets to giveawathis coming week! Check out the shows going on July 19 to 25 for which WKNC will give away tickets:

Sunday, July 19:
Lost In The Trees playing @ Cat’s Cradle

Scream The Prayer Tour @ Lincoln Theatre

Wednesday, July 22:
Roger Clyne and The Peacemakers @ Lincoln Theatre

Dark Party (Eliot Lipp & Leo 123 w/Mux Mool) @ The Pour House

Saturday, July 25:
Annuals & The Old Ceremony @ NC Museum of Art

The Bleeding Hearts with The Dielectrics & Stonefox @ The Pour House

In addition to these great shows, WKNC is also giving away tickets to following shows:

Robert Cray Band July 23 @ Koka Booth

The Big Surprise Tour w/ Old Crow Medicine Show August 10 @ Koka Booth

Coldplay August 6 @ Time Warner Cable Music Pavilion

Be sure to listen in to WKNC 88.1 for your chance to win some of these great tickets! Also, be sure to check out The Rock Report for a complete list of local shows near you!

Categories
DJ Highlights Local Music

Local Lunch and Local Beat preview 7/17/09

Exciting stuff happening on both the Local Lunch and Local Beat today.

First, the Local Lunch: our good friend BJ Burton from Flying Tiger Sound Studios is coming by to DJ with Mikey for today’s Local Lunch.  He’s bringing with him exclusive local tracks “that no one’s ever heard before”:

“Second Bird of Paradise” by The Rosebuds

“Seasons” by Lonnie Walker

I don’t know exactly what Mikey and BJ’s plans are, but those songs will be presented to the world for the first time during the Local Lunch today.

Then, looking ahead to the Local Beat, we’ll be chatting with Shayne from The Future Kings of Nowhere about playing the Hopeline Benefit show at Tir Na Nog tonight, about moving to New York, and about some of his memories from time spent in the Triangle.  He’ll be performing several new songs in studio, as well.

And, of course, we’ll be spotlighting some of the AWESOME new local music that’s been released locally.  Good stuff all around.

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Categories
New Album Review

88.1 Pick of the Week 6/11

Phoenix’s Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix earns 4 out of 5 stars
May Chung

The French quartet’s fourth studio album rips off not only Mozart’s name sake but also his unadulterated style. Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix is a composition of catchy ballads, orchestrated with dance pop ditties and heavy synths. The throwback to German romantic composers is the sort of puckish impudence that moves a limb or two. As it should.

Arguably, the album’s opener, “Lisztomania” is this summer’s belting roll-down-the-car-window hit for the Vampire Weekend crowd. “Darling I’m down and lonely” Phoenix’s front man, Thomas Mars croons in his ever-disaffected manner. Gloriously infectious, it is this kind of melodious case of the travesties that defy (or perhaps reinforce?) the Stokes comparisons. It only takes one spin to know why.

The use of falsettos (none more prevalent than in “Fences”) doesn’t seem to hurt either. They seem to be very popular in recent indie releases (think MGMT, Passion Pit). Still, they didn’t just land an SNL on high octaves alone. “1901” and “Rome” add to the ridiculously vivid guitar melodies. Both warrant continuous plays: the first, grandeur of hooks and likely successor to the season jam; the second, complete with snare hits and a riveting outro. So encouraging, it almost seems a shame not to live it up.

But the album’s best hit yet is “Lasso.“ From a whole album devoted to the eternally lovelorn, this one tears a new heartache. Where would you go with a lasso?” Mars inquires, “Could you go and run into me?” Is he wooing a cowgirl? No matter, the nostalgia is enough to encourage any silly old unpretentious fool to try his hand at love—only to be left listless and unfulfilled.

“Love Like a Sunset” has a reminiscent Air-like quality, which not surprising since it was Mars who was the voice behind “Playground Love.” (Incidentally, the song was used in The Virgin Suicides, directed by Thomas’s domestic companion and baby’s momma, Sofia Coppola). Over three-fourths through, the song diverges into a dreamy territory, though it is quite satisfying. It’s actually the sultriest bit of fun to come from the French since Charlotte Gainsbourg.

Dance me, Amadeus. Though Phoenix have been a staple in indie rock for quite some time, Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix is an innocently new beat, and is a craft in its own right, having been already labeled by many as one of the best records of the year.

Reports of their death have been greatly exaggerated. This Phoenix refuses to die.

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.

Categories
New Album Review

88.1 Pick of the Week 6/18

The Black Crowes’ Warpaint earns 4 out of 5 stars
Tyler Haggard

With 2008’s Warpaint, The Black Crowes redefined their already hazy musical parameters with a country/blues/hard rock release that broke a seven-year studio silence for the Georgia boys. With the addition of slide guitar virtuoso Luther Dickenson (North Mississippi All-Stars) filling the shoes of fan favorite Marc Ford, and keyboardist Adam MacDougall stepping in for long-time member Ed Harsch, the new Crowes sound succeeded in hitting that difficult mark of inventive roots rock.

April’s Warpaint Live confirms what die-hard fans (and band members) have preached throughout the Crowes’ 20+ year stint of making the good noise: The Black Crowes are a band to be experienced live. Members have honed their improvisational chops to a razor’s edge, and almost every track on this release outshines its studio doppelganger.

Recorded on March 20th, 2008 at the Wilhelm in Los Angeles, Warpaint Live catches one of the many shows the Crowes played immediately after Warpaint’s studio release, featuring the new album in its entirety followed by a set of covers and selections from the Crowes’ back catalogue. Singer Chris Robinson’s vocals are noticeably grittier than on the source material, adding a raw texture that perfectly compliments the lumbering blues trudge of “Walk Believer Walk” and the rock’n’roll gallop of “Goodbye Daughters of the Revolution.”

Brother Rich Robinson’s guitar plays the same role it always has: blurring the line between rhythm and lead, a term Keith Richards dubbed “the ancient art of weaving.” The second thread in that tapestry, provided by Dickenson’s velvet or molten (depending on the song) slide licks, sounds just as home with the psychedelic, Zeppelin-esque “Move It On Down the Line” as it does with the feel-good dijembe trot of the studio closer, “Whoa Mule.” Hearing how far Dickenson had come in the short interval of the studio recording and this live offering shows the new guitarist quickly establishing his niche in the band.

The album isn’t without flaw. Just as on the studio release, “God’s Got It,” a cover of an old Reverend Charlie Jackson staple, is too repetitive in lyric and structure to be redeemed by hot axe play. Likewise, the lyrics of “Evergreen” seem cliché and stifled- “Evergreen, evergreen, prettiest thing I’ve ever seen” smacks of bad high-school poetry, not Robinson’s usual eloquent stanzas. Thankfully, all is forgiven with “Oh Josephine,” boasting some of Chris’ finest ballad lyrics to date coupled with the most soulful solos of the entire album.

The second disc holds a few stellar covers, stand-outs being a dead-on rendition of The Rolling Stones’ “Torn and Frayed” and a kick-in-the-teeth romp through Moby Grape’s “Hey Grandma.” Rounding out the auxiliary disc is the never-released Crowes original, “Darling of the Underground Press,” a better version of which is tough to find, even in the Crowes’ leviathan live archives.

If Warpaint was a wry smile from the ever-changing Black Crowes, Warpaint Live is that same smile, sans brushing for about a week. All the more reason to don your Warpaint and join the jubilee.

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.

Categories
New Album Review

88.1 Pick of the Week 6/25

God Dethroned’s Passiondale
Rich Gurnsey

The Dutch death-metal band God Dethroned has been producing dark, heavy music since their formation in the early 1990s. Traditionally, most of their lyrical content revolved around anti-Christian sentiment, but recently they have found new inspiration for their music: a war-torn Belgian village called Passendale.

God Dethroned’s eighth studio album, Passiondale, is a ferocious concept album that plunges the listener deep into the mud-filled trenches of one of World War I’s bloodiest battles. The album begins with the foreboding intro track, “The Cross of Sacrifice,” complete with ominous guitars and the muted sounds of marching soldiers and distant artillery fire. The relative calm is soon broken by the explosive, blackened death metal blockbuster “Under a Darkening Sky,” which definitely gets the adrenaline pumping. This is one of the best songs on Passiondale, and the perfect track to set the tone for rest of this intense and emotional album.

“No Man’s Land” keeps up the furious pace with help from returning drummer Roel Sanders, who played on the band’s Grand Grimoire and Bloody Blasphemy albums. Sanders’ mad machine-gun-blast beats are the perfect complement to guitarist and singer Henri Sattler’s enunciated growls, which detail the atrocities of combat via ghastly lyrics such as “Only the rats grew fat on attrition, glutted with the flesh of dead soldiers.”

The highlight of the album is “Poison Fog,” a harrowing account of comrades being exposed to deadly mustard gas, told from the perspective of a surviving soldier. The bombastic music and vocals create an atmosphere of deep fear and panic. Likewise, the addition of clean singing and melodic breaks with swelling keyboards and melancholy guitar solos add to the music an element of sympathy that is rarely seen in the death-metal genre. These thoughtful moments contribute to the overall sophistication of the album.

By contrast, “Drowning in Mud” is a fast, brutal auditory depiction of trench warfare that has singer Sattler cautioning, “Don’t stick your head out. The sniper never sleeps.” Things slow down a bit for the mid-tempo title track, which is haunting and melodic, but the speed is immediately regained with “No Survivors,” which features more blast beats and blistering guitar solos.

The album nears its end with two fine examples of melodic death metal: “Behind Enemy Lines” and “Fallen Empires,” both of which showcase God Dethroned’s expert musicianship. Ultimately, the 38-minute album comes to a close with a mournful instrumental, “Artifacts of the Great War.” This moment of sensitivity nicely bookends this hard, bullet-riddled album.

Although Passiondale doesn’t serve as a history lesson, God Dethroned seems to have come awfully close to capturing the raw emotions of combat. The band has also come awfully close to recapturing the level of quality songwriting that was attained with its Bloody Blasphemy album. Fans of God Dethroned should be pleased because,with Passiondale, the band has reached yet another peak.

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.

Categories
New Album Review

88.1 Pick of the Week 7/9

These Times Old Times, 4.5 out of 5 stars
Jake Mueller

Lonnie Walker: if you haven’t heard of them by now you should have. This local band has recently dropped their debut album, These Times Old Times, through Terpsikhore Records and it does not disappoint. Their effortless mix of Americana with indie rock has gained quite a following and the local music scene is taking notice. This one-time Greenville solo project from front man Brian Corum has evolved into a five piece messenger of rock with a style that falls somewhere between folk and roots while not forgetting to add that hint of twang every North Carolinian knows and loves.

Songs draw you in, lulling you into a comfortable complacency, then seem to fire into a high energy surge of distortion and rhythm before dropping out and leaving you wanting more. Tracks like Grape Juice and Wider than White bring a more conventional rock feel, or at least as conventional as you can expect from this band, while others, Ships and Pendulum’s Chest, crescendo into emotional songs leaving you with an almost helpless feeling before bringing you back to where they started. Compass Comforts is a rambling tune rolling in and out of crashing vocals and wild guitar. Needless to say one can feel the energy through their speakers.

The album itself seems to flow almost like a book with the songs being its chapters, seamlessly moving from one to another. Each song has its unique hook and distinctive sound yet the album as a whole share a common theme and direction. As each song ends I was egger to find out where the music would go next. All of this combined with their lo-fi style gives the music a sense of instant credibility, naturally fitting in with many styles of music while remaining original. Perhaps one of the most original qualities of their music is Corum’s vocal style. Try to imagine Bob Dylan on speed and you can get a feel for what the band sounds like. It is almost as if every word is being pushed out, adding a special sincere edge to his lyrics.

I suggest you get hip and listen in on the new sound Lonnie Walker brings to the triangle. With their local roots and instant listening appeal they are surely here to stay.

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.