WKNC 88.1 FM - North Carolina State University Student RadioWin them before you can buy them as WKNC gives away tickets to see Dave Matthews Band with homegrown heroes The Avett Brothers Wednesday, April 22nd at the Time Warner Cable Music Pavilion at Walnut Creek. All this week our DJs will be playing song clips from the bands. If you can correctly name the song title, you can win a pair of lawn tickets to the show.
Tickets go on sale this Saturday, Jan. 17 at LiveNation.com.
Last Sunday our most recent session was recorded. The band, Pink Flag, performed wonderfully, even without vocal monitors; a minor oversight on our part. The events leading up to the session didn’t go so smoothly. The day started off normally enough, I was riding my bike to the coffee shop to enjoy a caffeinated beverage and learn how to use my new digital camera which I had bought the previous day when I heard our esteemed local music czar Stevo shouting “Phil Collins” at the top of his lungs from a pickup truck. I decided I should skip the coffee shop and head straight to the studio to help in the loading and unloading of equipment.
After taking our recording equipment across campus to Caldwell hall we were greeted by locked doors. This was only a minor setback as a quick call to the campus police got is in within a half hour. We offloaded the equipment, and began hooking things up. It became apparent quickly that the Mackie Onyx firewire interface would not work with my linux notebook, yet another minor setback. Luckily we had a macbook at our disposal with which to do the recording.
Upon Connecting the vocal microphones and we noticed an annoying click noise in the headphones. It became apparent that the noise gate feature in the brand new vocal compressor was, ironically, making noise. We’d have to do without the vocal compression.
It was when noticed that our drum mic kit was missing that the shit really hit the fan. After searching the Caldwell lounge, and the Truck we used to transport the equipment, we frantically rushed back to Witherspoon, but alas, our mics were nowhere to be found. This was a major setback. We realized that our only option was to, as quickly as possible, procure replacement microphones. We rushed to my apartment, and got in my weathered, but mostly functional 1994 BMW 525i and began our journey to Sam Ash, leaving behind a cloud of tire smoke. In a mere 14 minutes we made it across Raleigh to the music store where a Samson drum mic kit was waiting for us at the front desk, after a few minutes we made our criminally fast journey back to campus where the band and our recording engineer were patiently waiting; disaster narrowly, albeit expensively averted.
Upon our return, our recording engineer, JC set up our brand new drum mics, and the rest of the session went without a hitch. After the session was over and we were returning to the studio we noticed our old drum mic kit on a chair in the lobby.
M.C. talks with Windhover editor-in-chief Joe Wright about N.C. State’s award winning literary magazine. The program also features a recording from the Nov. 22 Windover open mic night.
Tune in to hear State of State Mondays from 7-8 p.m. or subscribe to the weekly podcast. Wolfpack Women’s Basketball preempts State of State for the next two weeks, but the program will return with a new episode Feb. 2.
Wu-Tang Clan members, Ghostface Killah (aka Dennis Coles) and RZA (aka Robert F. Diggs), will be joining DJs Matticus Rex & Special K on WKNC this afternoon around 4:30-4:45pm.
Wu-Tang Clan is playing the Lincoln Theatre tonight, with The Movement, with the show scheduled to start at 8:00pm. Though according to TriangleRock.com:
A couple of things: just because it says the Wu-Tang Clan, this does not mean that you will actually get to see the Wu-Tang Clan.
There is *one* guarantee: the 8:00 p.m. listed start time is, ahem, overly optimistic. Add about 6 hours to that & you’ll be getting closer.
Be sure to tune in for the interview!
Welcome to my first installment of the (at least biweekly) Local Music Picture Blog!
A Tin Djinn and Goner rocked out WKNC & Tir Na Nog’s Local Beer, Local Band last night (1/08/09), and if you weren’t there, you missed something great. The night started off with A Tin Djinn who lost a lot of their equipment recently in fire, but it didn’t stop them from jamming out with a strange mix of music that can only be described as truly unique. I couldn’t figure out if I wanted to get up and dance or sit back and chill with a cold brew. And if you can get past the polka-dot jump suit, face paint, and trench coat combination, A Tin Djinn may be the band for you.
A Tin Djinn: If you were to take The Pixies and Queen, extract their DNA and then cross breed them in some strange animal orgy, you would get A Tin Djinn. Think mellow, not quite hard rock… hard rock.
Goner: Think a high energy funk-tastic rock show, that urges you to get up and move. Goner has played Local Beer, Local Band several times now and they bring a set full of energy and excitement that you can’t help but want to get up and thrash around to, even though it isn’t the type of music you associate encouraging mosh pits.
Gods, in general, seem to have bad tempers. Seriously, mythology old and new, monotheistic or polytheistic, seems to be filled with countless tales of pestilence, death, and destruction, and for what? Some poor guy somewhere forgot to slaughter a goat? The nerve. One little slip up, and instead of thinking, “Well, they’re not gods after all, I should expect a transgression here and there,” they’re all, “Release the Kraken!” or “I’m gonna dump my frog collection all over their asses!” They act more like little children than all-knowing deities. “It’s my ball and I’m going home, and oh, by the way, I’m gonna kill the first born child in every house. Oops.”
Why do I bring this up? Because one of my favorite songs for this week’s show (1/10/09) deals with an angry god and his desire to rain down fire. It’ll get stuck in your head. You’ll listen to it over and over and over and over. Ask my wife. She’ll verify my claims.
The song: “Fire,” by Arthur Brown, off the album The Crazy World of Arthur Brown.
You’ll recognize this song on one level or another. It’s been sampled and re-sampled. It’s been covered and uncovered, and for good reason–it’s a great tune. Let’s call it, “catchy psychedelic lounge.” I donno. Call it whatever you want, just make sure to listen to it. While you’re at it, the rest of the album is worth a listen, too.
Now watch your ass, deities have bad tempers. (And frog collections.)
-La Barba Rossa
Our friends at newraleigh.com gave the Dance Dance Revolution some love this week:
This Sunday I endured a long drive back from Atlanta at the end of the holiday weekend, and, serendipitously, I’d left my iPod in a friend’s car back in Cobb County, Georgia. So with no CD player, I cruised from station to station for six hours, suffering endless plays of “Heartless” and “Womanizer” in between classic rock and oldies. (Don’t judge; it’s all you can do through South Carolina to avoid Christian “rock” and pop country.) Then, on the last leg of the trip, scanning the stations outside Chapel Hill, my ears were suddenly greeted with a bit of bliss. “Finally!” I said to myself, then, “Of course!” as I looked at the dial. “This is 88.1 and I am listening to Dance Dance Revolution.”
Check out at the full article at New Raleigh
Be sure to check out our new speciality show, the Post-Rock Block. As you can probably guess our speciality will be Post Rock, we’ll also play related genres like Krautrock and Shoegaze, the direct descendents of post rock. Many of you probably have no idea just what “post-rock” is exactly. According to the all-knowing Wikipedia, post-rock is:
…a genre of alternative rock characterized by the use of musical instruments commonly associated with rock music, but using rhythms, harmonies, melodies, timbre, and chord progressions that are not found in rock tradition. It is the use of ‘rock instrumentation’ for non-rock purposes.
On the Post-Rock Block you can expect to hear more of the longer, stranger, more experimental tracks that you won’t hear during regular rock programming.
The Post-Rock Block will on Sunday from 6-8PM and will be hosted by myself as well as Bridges, Cabbage, May Day, and Matticus Rex.
Listen, it’s gonna be great!
Ladyhawke’s self titled debut album is the cure for rainy day and/or back-to-school depression. Her sound is like something straight out of the eighties: spunky, upbeat pop that I highly recommend putting on your Ipod for the walk to class. It will put some dance in your step.
Death Cab for Cutie frontman Ben Gibbard and actress/She&Him singer Zooey Deschanel ended 2008 by confirming their engagement. Several sources(including Pitchfork) have publicized the new indie duo.
Deschanel is featured in the movie Yes Man, which is in theaters now. As for the groom, Gibbard’s latest studio effort with Death Cab for Cutie, Narrow Stairs, was released in May 2008. How adorable.
