Author: Caitlin

Howdy, I'm Caitlin and I'm a senior in Communication Media. My favorite genres of music are pop and indie-rock, though I dabble in most genres. Hope you enjoy my content!

Categories
Playlists

It’s Fall, Y’all (October Edition)

Brown background image with red and orange leaves overlayed with text that reads "it's fall y'all" in the upper left hand corner and "88.1 WKNC" in the bottom left hand corner

As you may have seen previously here on the blog, I started a Fall themed playlist in September that that I said I’d be adding 15 songs to each month of Fall (September, October and November) to celebrate this wonderful season. 

Where the last playlist was melancholia and cold warmth, this section of the playlist is synth and October-chill. Picture it: trick-or-treating in 50 degree autumn chill, decorative skeletons on your neighbors’ porches, apple cider, haunted mansions and the controlled fright of horror movies. 

  • “Texas Choir” — St. Vincent
  • “Elm” — Clever Girl
  • “Caught in the Briars” — Iron & Wine
  • “Tonight I Feel Like Kafka” — Jealous of the Birds
  • “Calling Occupants Of Interplanetary Craft” — Carpenters
  • “monumental shame” — SPIRIT OF THE BEEHIVE
  • “Call off the Dogs” — Marika Hackman
  • “the devil’s dance” — Dafna
  • “Animals” — Big Thief
  • “Lights Out” — Broadcast
  • “22 (OVER S∞∞N)” — Bon Iver
  • “Séquence de Rêve (Parts I and II)” — Whatever, Dad
  • “Love Song” — Vashti Bunyan
  • “Sore” — Emily Yacina
  • “Everyone I’ve Never Met” — Leith Ross

I hope this playlist fulfills your spooky October needs, and I can’t wait to show you what I have in store for November. As always you can stream this playlist on Spotify.

Until next time,

Caitlin

Categories
Miscellaneous

My Year Writing for WKNC

Red background with the WKNC 88.1 logo repeated over and over,

Although my first blog “Best of Phoebe Bridgers” wasn’t published until the end of November, I first expressed interest in being a contributor to WKNC’s blog around a year ago now. I have come a long way since that first blog, and want to reflect on my year writing for the best college radio station in the world (or, at the very least, in my world). 

Firstly, what started as a hobby, has resulted in a complete change in my life. If I never began writing for WKNC, I most likely would have never become a DJ, never been hired as a content creator, or changed my concentration (previously interpersonal communication, now communication media). I’ve slowly but surely dipped my toe into the wonderful world of radio, meeting wonderful people along the way. I’ve gained friends, experiences I’ve only dreamed of, and have fulfilled my dream of writing about music. To think I was just bored at home for the semester, looking for a way to pass the time, and walked unknowingly into this world feels nothing short of a miracle.

I figured I’d pull back the curtain just a bit and let you know what are my favorite blogs I’ve ever written, in case you missed them and are looking for a good read (or 5).

  • Struggle Making Playlists? Have Some Playlist Prompts: This is a semi-recent addition to the blog but a favorite nonetheless. If you struggle organizing your music, I recommend following some of the tips outlined in this blog. Who knows? It just might help you.
  • “Take the Sadness Out of Saturday Night” New Album Review: I, despite being a longtime Bleachers fan, was disappointed in their recent release.  I was very proud of myself for being able to convey that through my writing without being too scathing. Hooray for constructive criticism.
  • The “Rosyln” Mystery: This mystery still bugs me even though I seem to have gotten to the bottom of it. If anyone has any information as to why the name of “Rosyln” by Bon Iver and St. Vincent on the “Twilight: New Moon” soundtrack is a typo, please let me know.
  • How to Find New Music: I know far too many people that say they struggle with this. Finding new music is a delight, so why not find a way to do it that suits your fancy?
  • The Timeless Magic of “The Parent Trap” (1998) Soundtrack: My favorite movie of all time, and a concept I’ve been discussing for years, all wrapped up into one blog. I’m no movie buff, so it’s likely that this may be the last time you see me writing about a movie’s soundtrack.

Thank you WKNC, I’ll write for you as long as you let me,

Caitlin

Categories
DJ Highlights

DJ Profiles: Big Hoss and DJ Lizzo

DJ Names: Big Hoss and DJ Lizzo

Show Name: Girls’ Guide to the Outlaw Spirit

Show Time: Thursdays 9-10am

Show Description: Feelings music – country, rock, Americana, cowpunk, alternative for listeners who enjoy Waylon Jennings, Liz Phair, Guided by Voices, Tom Waits, etc.

Where was the idea for “Girls’ Guide” born?

BIG HOSS: We both had shows originally on our own. And we were like we want to do a show together that would be fun, and the whole concept and the name and our first set pretty much was all conceived on her parents for the porch, one night at the end of summer over that first COVID summer.

DJ LIZZO: Yeah, we were like sitting on the porch, I guess maybe we were making a playlist first. And we were like, and we were trying to think of what to call it. And we spent like an hour just trying to think of a name. And there was this book called girls guide hunting and fishing that Big Hoss introduced me to and we were obsessed with and still are still are. 

BIG HOSS: And then we spent a long time trying to come up with what it was the “Girls’ Guide” to. I think we were going through colors for a while and listing color names we liked. But then we were looking on Wikipedia pages of music we liked trying to find common description words. And one of them was on the “Outlaw Country” Wikipedia page, it talks about the outlaw spirit. Yeah, so we were like, that’s it. 

How do you go about curating sets, is it a collaborative process or more of a trade off?

DJ LIZZO: Yeah, it’s definitely collaborative. Usually, it’s just like, throughout the week, one of us makes a playlist and then we both add songs. And sometimes it’s like, I don’t know we’ve gone through little “Girls’ Guide”phases… like, when was that, last fall?

BIG HOSS: Yeah, last fall we went through a really big, like, 90s girl phase, where we would play Poe and Garbage and stuff like that every week. We definitely have the phases and sometimes we’ll make the playlists together at night. 

DJ LIZZO: Yeah, that’s really that’s really fun. 

BIG HOSS: Those are some of our favorites. 

Do you guys have any guilty pleasure music, stuff that wouldn’t normally make it on “Girls’ Guide”?

BIG HOSS: Yes, but sometimes I’m like “maybe we should put this on the show.” Yeah, we definitely do. Honestly it’s been really hard for me over the past year to not put Lana Del Rey. I don’t feel guilty about it, but you can’t play her on WKNC because she’s too big. But she is one of my top artists. 

DJ LIZZO: Actually the first night we planned out our name, it was like a week after “folklore” by Taylor Swift came out and we were listening to “mirrorball” all night.

How has your show evolved over time?

DJ LIZZO: I feel like in the beginning we had this specific sound in mind. I think a lot of it was like, both of us brought our music tastes from each of our separate shows. So we had an idea of what our sound would be and how our tastes overlapped. 

BIG HOSS: Yeah, I feel like our first set. We were like, this is the perfect set. And for a little while we thought “this is the formula for every other set” and were like, “we need a song that sounds like this and we need a song that sounds like this” and so on. I think over time, we’ve definitely loosened up the boundaries of our show.

What are the stories behind your DJ names?

BIG HOSS: Big Hoss is a country term of endearment and Waylon Jennings was called  that, people always called him “Hoss.” And it’s just like, what you would say to a country man: “Hey, hoss what’s the deal with this?” But I don’t remember how I came up with it,  it just appeared one day. 

DJ LIZZO: I guess not as many people called me “Lizzo” in college, maybe or something, but it was a nickname I’ve had since preschool and I wanted to carry it on into college. So I thought that like it being my DJ name would be good. But, pretty much everyone just calls me “Lizzo” at the station now. 

When I first saw your DJ name was Lizzo, it did not occur to me that Lizzo could be a nickname for something, so for a little while I thought you named yourself after Lizzo, the pop star. 

DJ LIZZO: I think that a lot of people probably think that. Sometimes I forget there’s an actual famous person who goes by Lizzo so that’s what everyone associates the name with. 

Favorite aspect of being a DJ?

DJ LIZZO: I like that I have an outlet for doing things I love, like making playlists or talking about music and  learning more about music. I’ve been given an amazing outlet to do that. And I get to do that with my best friend, it’s so fun.

BIG HOSS: Yeah, it’s something to focus our energy on. We both just enjoy making and creating things, And it’s nice to have something we can gravitate around and have it be the basis of what we’re doing.

DJ LIZZO: And it’s every week we have this thing that we work on together and create together.

BIG HOSS: I like our show being Thursday mornings. It’s nice to have that thing to wake up to and now Thursday is our favorite day of the week.

Do y’all have a favorite phone call you’ve ever gotten?

BIG HOSS: There have been a couple times where somebody will call and follow up with an email.

DJ LIZZO: When anyone calls, the fact that they had they cared enough to call in and tell us means a lot.

BIG HOSS: Yes, especially because you don’t have to do that, listeners can listen and just not do that. For people to take that extra step is very meaningful and we appreciate it a lot. I just remembered my favorite. Last fall, I played “The Highway Kind” by Townes Van Zandt, which is a soul crushing song and it’s a journey to get through because it’s a super harsh song on the soul. Someone called in and said “That song killed me.” I feel like sometimes when you play a song that you have a lot of emotion with, it can just go out there and you feel like nobody is responding. To me, it was proof that people are having an emotional experience with what I play.

DJ LIZZO: You can be connected to on a very intimate level that you’re having through the air waves, it’s so cool.

Do you hope to do radio after college?

DJ LIZZO: I definitely think working at KNC has given me an idea of what sort of job I would want to have post-college. I don’t know that it would necessarily be being on the radio but maybe something where I’m somehow involved with music. It would be cool to do radio as a side-thing still. I know a few people in the workforce that are able to do radio as a hobby and I would love to do that.

BIG HOSS: I’m not going into a career related to radio, but if there are ways I can do it outside of my career I would like to keep doing it, it’s just fun.

DJ Lizzo and Big Hoss have been creating a lot of content recently, including their Instagram for their show @girlsguidetotheoutlawspirit. They also recently attended MerleFest, and posted a few videos to the Youtube Channel as well as created a blog about their experience. Be sure to check that all out, and to listen to Girls’ Guide to the Outlaw Spirit every Thursday at 9am. 

Categories
DJ Highlights

Set Overview: 9/28 “passing by”

As I’ve written about previously, “passing by” is my show on WKNC where I put a soundtrack to life’s big and small moments using the best of indie and rock that airs every Tuesday from 1-2pm this semester. This past Tuesday, I curated a set I really loved, and wanted to share it here on the blog in case you didn’t get to catch it through the airwaves.

The set was centered around Elliott Smith. The show was divided into four themes: his inspirations, Elliott Smith himself, covers, and artists who are inspired by him.

His Inspirations

  • “Summer’s Gone” — The Kinks
  • “Rocky Raccoon” — Charlie Parr, Nicholas Mrozinski1
  • “Bob Dylan’s Dream” — Bob Dylan
  • “No One Is There” — Nico
  • “Parasite” — Nick Drake2

Elliott Smith Himself

“Everything Means Nothing to Me” — Elliott Smith

Covers

“The Biggest Lie” — Bright Eyes
“Ballad of Big Nothing” — Julien Baker
“Clementine” — The Decemberists

Artists Inspired By Him

“Ceilings” — beabadoobee
“How Long” — Palehound
“Big Surprise” — Prateek Kuhad
“Deep Sea” — Snail Mail
“Stranger Things” — Yuck
“It Just Is” — Rilo Kiley3
“Punisher” — Phoebe Bridgers4

  • 1: This is a cover of a song by The Beatles, off their self titled album (known commonly as “The White Album”). Smith cited this song as a huge inspiration for him.
  • 2: Although Smith never explicitly cited Nick Drake as an inspiration, people often draw comparisons and parallels between the two.
  • 3: This song is about Smith’s tragic death, as Rilo Kiley were close to him and opened up for his final shows prior to his passing.
  • 4: Bridgers has stated that this track is about Elliott Smith, and how if she got to meet him, she would have made a fool of herself by being such a big fan.

If you want to listen to my set in its exact order, you can queue the songs based on their appearance on my Spinitron page, or if you’re a Spotify user like myself, you can stream it via the playlist.

Until next time,
Caitlin (a.k.a carbon copy)

Categories
Concert Review

Concert Review: Phoebe Bridgers – Raleigh, NC (09/21/21)

Phoebe Bridgers at her "Reunion Tour" on 9/21/2021 in Raleigh, NC. Photo by Sarah Krementz, used with permission.

On Tuesday, September 21, I had the pleasure of attending the Raleigh show of Phoebe Bridgers’ Reunion Tour at Red Hat Amphitheater. I got my tickets back in July when it was going to be held at The Ritz, but because of the changes Bridgers made to make the tour more COVID-conscious with rising cases (which I covered in “Phoebe Bridgers’ ‘Reunion Tour’ Makes Some Changes”), it got moved to Red Hat. Due to this change, my two friends and I were in the pit. I’m not the biggest fan of pits, especially after avoiding crowds for so long, but with everyone masked and vaccinated, it made the experience a lot better.

Doors opened at 7:00pm, and MUNA came on a little before 8:00pm, and boy, were they great. The electro pop trio gelled together perfectly. Their chemistry, talent, and stage presence combined was truly something special. Not to mention, Katie Gavin, the lead singer, had a spectacular outfit. 

They performed several songs including “I Know A Place” and “Crying On The Bathroom Floor.” They also performed their brand new single “Silk Chiffon” that has a feature from Bridgers, who came on stage to perform it with them during their act.

MUNA was energetic, fun, and electric, and I was worried (albeit very momentarily) that Bridgers’ melancholic sound would not lend itself to the same energy.

That worry faded to dust once Bridgers and her band walked on-stage in a single file line to “I Gotta Feeling”  by The Black Eyed Peas. They then jumped into performing “Motion Sickness” and the screen behind them morphed into beautiful visuals. Don’t be fooled by her whispery-singing, Phoebe Bridgers is a solid vocalist, and she delivered during “Motion Sickness,” at one point holding a rather high note for what felt like ages (but was probably like thirty seconds, an impressive feat).

Her stage talk was frank and honest, and she made comments throughout the show about how humid it was, saying that the air in North Carolina was like clove-cigarette smoke (it rained on and off during her and MUNA’s sets, and torrentially downpoured after). Before performing “Kyoto,” a song about her rocky relationship with her father she remarked “This one’s for everyone who’s ever had to lie to CPS.” Similarly, before “Savior Complex,”’ she said, “This one’s about alcoholism.” 

Uniquely, Phoebe did something she said she had never done before; she let the crowd choose two songs for her. Firstly, she let us choose between “Scott Street” and “Georgia.” How did she determine it? How loud we cheered. The crowd was loud for “Georgia,” but everyone erupted for “Scott Street.” Toward the end of the show, she stated that she enjoyed letting us choose earlier and that we could choose again. This time, between “Georgia” and the boygenius song “Me & My Dog.” “Georgia” lost out again (I love the song, but I wanted to hear the other two just a tad more, so I was happy with both choices).

She closed out the night with a beautiful cover of  “That Funny Feeling” by Bo Burnham. Shortly after the release of “Inside,” Phoebe said on her Instagram stories “every bone in my body wants to plagiarize this.” Instead of doing that, she added it to her setlist, doing what she says in the first verse of “Chinese Satellite”: “I wish I wrote it, but I didn’t so I learn the words / Hum along ’til the feeling’s gone forever.” 

The visuals were stunning, her band was fantastic (especially the trumpeter, JJ Kirkpatrick), and overall, the night just felt safe. The show was very intimate and magical, and for me, an amazing return to seeing live music, after not seeing anyone live for over two years.

If you’re interested in the setlist of exactly what MUNA and Phoebe played whilst in Raleigh, Spotify user Noah East created a playlist that you can stream.

Be sure to also check out Lise Nox’s review of her experience at the Charlotte show.

Categories
Playlists

(More Of) My Favorite Songs Under One Minute

WKNC 88.1 blog

Back in early July, I made a blog about some of my favorite tracks under one minute, whether they are reprises, interludes, or little ditties. Ever since then, songs under one minute keep popping up everywhere I look, so I figured I’d make a sequel to update you all on some more of my favorite songs that are under one minute. Without further ado, let’s get into it.

“boi” by Illuminati Hotties

LENGTH: 0:57

This interlude-esque track in “Kiss Yr Frenemies” is a loud, proud, yet intimate proclamation of infatuation and love.

“Rattlesnake ASMR” by Miniature Tigers

LENGTH: 0:58

Another track serving as an interlude within an album, this track is a lo-fi instrumentation that is soothing enough to lull you right to sleep.

“Minus 3” by Broadcast

LENGTH: 0:48

A bouncy-synthy track on “Tender Buttons” supposedly refers to Trish Keenan and James Cargill losing a third member of their group, and this project was Broadcast’s first with Keenan and Cargill as a duo.

“New Monkey – Keys” by Elliott Smith

LENGTH: 0:42

This is a synthy track which is what it says it is, the keys playing the melody of Smith’s song “New Monkey” which was released posthumously.

“Tåget” by The Radio Dept.

LENGTH: 0:56

This guitar-centered song starts out with bird noises which continue throughout it, giving it an outdoorsy and refreshing feel, and it washes over you as you listen.

“Hable con Ella” by The Marías

LENGTH: 0:33

A nostalgic feeling track with breathtaking instrumentals.

“JMC Retro” by Pavement

LENGTH: 0:42

With lonesome and yearning lyrics, this song leaves you wishing it was longer than 42 seconds.

I added these songs to the playlist I made for my previous blog, and you can stream it on Spotify.

Until next time,

Caitlin

Categories
DJ Highlights

DJ Profile: T-Time

Gradient black and gray background. Text that reads "Dj Profiles T-Time"

DJ Name: T-Time

Show Name: In The Garage

Show Time: Saturdays from 4-6 p.m.

Show Description: The best of garage rock, DIY, and emo.

How did you find out about WKNC?

I knew about WKNC when I came to NC State in 2018. I didn’t end up joining until Fall 2020 just because I was lazy. Then 2020 came around and I needed some human interaction. So I decided to join the radio station. And I guess over the pandemic, I had broadened my music taste quite a bit, so I felt that I was worthy. 

Where did the idea for “In The Garage” originate?

So, the name of the show is a Weezer reference. It’s a song off of the blue album, “In The Garage.” I just thought it was a funny name, and that it was hilarious to have a Weezer reference that most people will probably look past. But the idea of it came just because I had just started getting into like, emo and punk over the like pandemic because before that I had only really listened to Gorillaz, classic rock, and Weezer. So when I decided to just broaden my musical horizon, emo was the genre that I stuck to.

Do your sets generally have specific themes, or are you just going by the general parameters you already have set for yourself?

I didn’t start doing themes until I got on HD-1. The thing with emo is that there’s a lot of discourse in the genre about whether we should classify different waves of emo. I personally like the wave system, you know, First and Second Wave are more like punk and raw kind of stuff. Third Wave is more like commercialized pop punk, you know, the emo that everybody knows. Fourth wave is more harkening back to the First and Second Wave and the Fifth wave is current emo. I like to do themes around different waves. Sometimes I’ll just make a theme based on how I was feeling that week. There’s also a few sub genres there’s, you know, Midwest Emo, Screamo, Math Rock fits in there somewhere. Yeah, but I just loosely base my shows around one of those things.

Favorite phone call you’ve ever gotten during a set?

I didn’t start getting phone calls until maybe about a month ago. And I mean, it’s still, you know, not as frequent as I expected it to be. But it still surprises me when I do get a phone call. I got a phone call once and it was an old man looking for a guy named Aidan. That was really funny. But, I think my favorite phone call was when I gave away Phoebe Bridgers tickets. And the person who called me was super excited. What I did to give them away was I said “Call the station and tell me your favorite emo band and you win Phoebe Bridgers tickets,” and they called in and they were like, “Pierce The Veil! Pierce The Veil!” And I got to be like, “You got the tickets.”

Do you have any guilty pleasure music or any music that you secretly like?

I don’t think there’s any music that I secretly like. Yeah, but I do have music that most people will be embarrassed to listen to. And those would be Weird Al, They Might Be Giants… I absolutely love the VeggieTales silly songs. Like, I’m not embarrassed to say that. But, um, if there was a way to, like, somehow sneak those into my set, I probably would. But yeah, I think I would lose a lot of listeners on that. I guess another guilty pleasure of mine would be like one hit wonders. Especially like from the 80s and 90s. I just think they’re fun.

Do you have a favorite one hit wonder?

I think my favorite one hit wonder would be “She Blinded Me With Science” by Thomas Dolby.

So before this interview I took a look at your Spotify account, could you explain the “Emo Playlist But It’s Only Never Meant” to me? Can you walk me through that?

So I just got bored at work one day, and I was like, okay, “Never Meant” by American Football is kind of a meme in the emo community because it’s… the riff for “Never Meant” is iconic, in my opinion. It’s also kind of been made as a joke. Because I guess it’s very emo and emo is just so melodramatic. This song is very melodramatic. It’s gotten to the point where the band even knows it’s a meme. And I knew that there were a few covers of “Never Meant,”  but I didn’t realize there were that many covers. And some of them are kind of facetious. I think my favorite one off that playlist is the lofi hip hop cover… it’s just so funny to me.

Is there a story behind your DJ name?

Okay, so there was this guy in high school who was kind of a jerk. And he always, like, picked on me or whatever. And he would call me T-Time. He played a lot of golf, so I assume that it was supposed to be a pun or whatever. I didn’t really care at the time. But then when I started my DJ training sessions here, Laura jokingly called me T-Time without any sort of prior knowledge. And I was just like, okay, sure, I’ll go with that.

Favorite aspect of being a DJ?

I like when I’m doing my shows, I become a more exaggerated version of myself. Because I don’t really have a radio persona, per se. I just like putting my personality out there. I like being extremely self aware with the music I play because I know emo is cheesy. I want people to like, know that. I know that emo is cheesy. So I’ll make little jokes and comments about, you know, how cheesy some of what I’m playing is.

Do you hope to do radio after college?

If there’s a way I could, and if the right opportunity arose I would absolutely love to, you know, keep doing stuff like this.

Preferred method of listening to music (vinyl, CD, streaming platforms)?

I mainly listen to Spotify and Bandcamp. Occasionally, I’ll go to the record store, go to the used bin, and find something that looks interesting. And I’ll just get it and listen to it. And see if it’s good. There’s a lot more misses than hits. But I think it’s fun. Because you don’t know what you’re getting. Sometimes record stores will have like these mystery bags of seven inch singles. And I absolutely love those because sometimes you’ll find like, you find like one hit wonders in them and you’re like, oh, I love this. But mainly, I just listen to streaming services. I also have a whole little subsection in my collection of records that probably shouldn’t be on vinyl, but they are. Like there’s one I have, and it’s this lecture by this old dude. It’s like from the 60s I think and it’s him giving a lecture about sex education. There’s another record I have and it’s a seven inch single called “Sounds Of The American Fast Food Restaurants,” and it’s like an ambient album of fast food restaurant noises.

Categories
Playlists

Struggle Making Playlists? Have Some Playlist Prompts

Red and Yellow Ipod in the foreground, plain black background. Red text that says "Let's make a playlist"

Ever since I downloaded Spotify in eighth grade, (which was seven years ago now) I have loved making playlists. I always come up with new ideas or rework old ones or make ones that I never finish or don’t rest until I find the perfect mix I’m looking for. I’ve even spent the last year or so sharing playlists with y’all here on the WKNC blog; making playlists is a huge creative outlet for me.

But I know that my music taste isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, and I encourage everyone to find their own unique tastes (which you can do with the help of my “How to Find New Music” blog). If you want to organize your music but you feel like you never know how to, I’m here to help. The following are some prompts/ideas for you to organize your music. By no means is this foolproof, but these are some ideas that have inspired me in the past.

SEASON

  • Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter: they all have distinct moods and sounds. Find songs that fit the aura of each season. I’m working on a continuous Fall playlist for the blog, and it’s been so fun listening to a bunch of music and deciding what is and isn’t fit for Fall’s aura.
  • EXAMPLE: “it’s fall y’all”

TIME

  • This is how most people I know organize their music. They’ll create a new playlist for each month or quarter (every 3 months) and add songs they discover or really like throughout this period of time and add as they go. It takes some adjusting, and this is not my personal favorite way  to organize music, but it works for a lot of my friends. 
  • EXAMPLE: “this used to be a current playlist”

MY TASTE IN [INSERT NUMBER] SONGS

  • This one is a fun challenge, and the best part is that you don’t even have to find new music to do it. Choose a number: 25, 50, 100, or more. Then, without repeating any artists/bands, choose songs that encapsulate your entire music taste. It’s hard, but so much fun. I’ve done it before with 100, (but I’m currently workshopping it because my music taste has expanded a lot since I first made it), and it took me a whole afternoon to decide what songs to choose.
  • EXAMPLE: “my taste in 100 songs”

BOOKS/MOVIES/SHOWS

  • If there is a story you love in any medium, make a playlist or ten about it. It’s so entertaining to make soundtracks for books/movies/shows you love, and this let’s you live in that fictional universe just a little while longer.
  • EXAMPLE: “Unhoneymooners”

EMOTIONS

  • This one is pretty self explanatory, just choose songs that make you feel things, and sort them into those emotions. Mitski and Conor Oberst make you sad? Put it in a playlist. Liz Phair makes music that fires you up? Angry playlist incoming. Bad Suns and Lily Allen make you feel like you’re floating? Time for a happy playlist.
  • EXAMPLE: “time to despair”

“BEST OF” PLAYLISTS

  • Love an artist or band but you just want to shuffle the parts of their discography that you like? “Best of” playlists are great for that, and super simple to make. No creativity required, just you, thirty minutes, and listening to your favorite songs by your bands determining what makes it into the list.
  • EXAMPLE: “riki loley”

GENRE

  • Only like ten pop-punk songs? Add them all to a playlist, so if you’re in the mood, you don’t have to go to the trouble of queueing them every time. 
  • EXAMPLE:  “Cowboy Era”

MASTER PLAYLIST OF A BUNCH OF ALBUMS

  • Sometimes it’s good to have everything in one place. So as you come across albums you love, add them into this playlist so you have one giant thing to shuffle. Organized chaos.

Hopefully this gave you some inspiration for playlists you can make that won’t result in you using the same 15 songs every time you make a playlist (trust me, I’ve been there).

Until next time,

Caitlin

Categories
Playlists

It’s Fall Y’all (September Edition)

Brown background image with red and orange leaves overlayed with text that reads "it's fall y'all" in the upper left hand corner and "88.1 WKNC" in the bottom left hand corner

September 22 marks the beginning of Fall, and a hallmark of the Autumn season every year for me is the music. I decided, in order to celebrate, that I would create a 15 song playlist for you all that is fall-oriented. Think: folk, bluegrass, melancholia, Elliott Smith, Mazzy Star, Dom Flemons and more. Not only that, but I will be adding to it in October and November as well, so expect 30 more songs where this came from. Happy Fall.

Without further ado, here is the first installment of “It’s Fall Y’all”: 

  • “Rose Parade” — Elliott Smith
  • “All Waters” — Perfume Genius
  • “Well-dressed” — Hop Along
  • “I’m A Dream Fighting Out Of A Man” — Luke De-Sciscio
  • “Oh Sarah”— Sturgill Simpson
  • “Someone Else’s Trees” — Fenne Lily
  • “Lonesome Old River Blues” — Dom Flemons
  • “Five String Serenade” — Mazzy Star
  • “Postman” — SLONK
  • “Apple Tree” — Marika Hackman
  • “Prove It” — Lala Lala
  • “Chesapeake” — Better Oblivion Community Center
  • “El Invento” — José González
  • “Strange Things Will Happen” — The Radio Dept.
  • “Irene” — Twin Peaks

If you love this season like I do, I encourage you to be your most unapologetic self and listen to this while walking around with your warm beverage of choice from your favorite coffee shop, observing the leaves change colors. 

As always, I’ve put this list into a Spotify playlist just for you guys.

Until next time,

Caitlin

Categories
Band/Artist Profile Music News and Interviews

Maude Latour Releases Dazzling New Single, “Clean”

Maude Latour is a New York City based indie-pop artist who has had a semi-recent rise to popularity through TikTok. However, she has been releasing music since May of 2017. With her signature Maude Latour logo on all of her cover art, catchy usernames on social media (@maudelstatus) and polished sound, it seems like she was destined for this.

Recently, she came out with a single titled, “Clean,” a song detailing the difficulty of maintaining the simple mundanities of life after someone important leaves you. The hook of the chorus, laments “I’m even tryna keep my room clean / Every day, I make my bed just to get you out my head.” She explores the aftermath of a relationship, and focusing on yourself after it ends, by keeping yourself occupied and healthy. It’s everything a pop song should be: catchy, relatable, memorable and energetic. 

The music video, directed by Tess Lafia and produced by Eric Barrett, is a great step forward from her other music videos. Coming from someone who doesn’t like watching music videos, “Clean” was fun, quippy, and has great visuals.

Official Music Video for “Clean” by Maude Latour

Latour also released an acoustic version of “Clean” on YouTube, which pales in comparison to the studio version, but is a more intimate experience.

You can find “Clean” on any streaming service, and you can also find Maude on Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok.