An outsider viewing the events of this past weekend would have little to no clue that they were taking place in the midst of students cramming for finals and stressing out about the end of the semester.  This weekend was a social marathon of sorts, and I feel like I just re-experienced Hopscotch.  It was packed with great music, from old names and new, and lots of camaraderie.  What follows is a recap of the events that occurred.

Thursday:

We [WKNC Staff and friends], had a tacky sweater party to celebrate the LDoC.  Aside from the fact that I was comfortably wearing shorts in December, it was good fun!  Not much else to mention.

Friday – Sylvan Esso/Love Language Winter Formal:

At WKNC, we love great music, but there’s something else you should know: we are [situationally] some of the corniest folks you will ever meet.   On Friday night, we all got dolled up in our spiffiest threads, got our hair just right, got our faces looking lovely, and gathered to take pre-prom pics.  We went all out and did all of the awful poses that plague your high school photo albums and scrapbooks.  It was just as silly as in high school, only this time it felt right.  After one too many photos, we made our way to Kings.  Kings was dressed up for the event, too; streamers and paper ornaments adorned the room, and a photo booth, complete with photographer and a sign that simply stated “prom,” was located near the entrance.  This brings us to the important stuff, the show.

Sylvan Esso:
Sylvan Esso is the Durham pair consisting of vocalist Amelia Meath and electronic musician Nick Sanborn.  They released their first two tracks on an EP earlier this year, and since the first time I listened to it, I was hooked.  The overall sound is new, the lyrics are clever, and Meath’s voice is easy on the ears.  The title track, ‘Hey Mami,’ starts out with an acapella feel, there’s merely her voice and some soft background traffic noise.  As the track progresses, things pick up, and out of nowhere you get hit with this glorious bass line!  They opened the show with this song, and the live performance gave me all of the same thrills, and more!  Sylvan Esso is a name that I believe you’re going to be hearing a lot of in the near future.  Their performance blew me away.  Between Sanborn’s incredible electronic tracks, Meath’s voice (and that pant suit!), and the energy that was bouncing back and forth between them and the audience, it was an amazing night at Kings.  I don’t know if any of you have had this experience before, but sometimes you get a feeling like you’re in the presence of something with great potential…this concert was one of those moments. I think they’re going to go far.  I spoke to Sanborn briefly after the show, and he divulged that their first full album will be released this spring, and that they’re working on getting a few more singles out in the mean time.  So, stay tuned for that.

After the Sylvan Esso set, the crowd was hyped and ready to rock out and keep dancing the night away.

The Love Language:
The Love Language is far from a new band, they’ve been a big name in the Raleigh music scene for a few years now, but they’ve still got it.  Frontman Stu McLamb and his bandmates serenaded the audience with a mixed-tempo set while dressed in full prom attire.  Their set was how I would have wanted my prom to be.  Most of the set was pretty high energy, but there were occasional feel good, slow dance songs thrown in that let you catch your breath between all of the formal moshing.  The band played a mix of old and new songs, from Blue Angel to a new untitled track.  They were a nice complement to the Sylvan Esso performance.  All in all, I and the rest of the audience really enjoyed them!

Friday night was the best prom I never had.  Tons of friends, great music, cool people, and First Friday.  I want to personally thank Kings for putting that show together.  It would have been enough to see the bands in a normal setting, but the prom theme just made the night special.

Saturday – House Shows:

Saturday night, in an unassuming house near campus, there took place one hell of a house show.  The night opened with a solo performance by Emma Lee Nelson.  She rocked a guitar in hand, a drum and tambourine by feet, and a powerful voice that you could feel in your soul as it reverberated around the room.  This one woman band is quite the talent.  

Less Western:
Saturday night was the first live performance by the four man band known as Less Western.  There was a lot of anticipation surrounding this performance from within KNC.  Frontman Kevin Sweeney said that he felt a little strange performing in front of an audience, but that feeling didn’t show in his performance, it was great! Their music falls in line somewhere with bands like Floating Action, Beach Fossils, or Wild Nothing (ala Gemini).  It has a psychedelic feeling that wiggles back and forth over a fine line between somber and happy.  After first impressions from a first show, I’d say that I have a good feeling about their potential.  Check them out here!

We all sang Happy Birthday to Less Western’s guitarist, John, after their set.  He’s 21 now! 

T0W3RS:
Derek Torres showed up and played a solo set of T0W3RS tracks.  It was a fun set, everyone got dancey and riled up for the moshing that was to take place later.  It’s cool to have a slightly bigger name in the local music scene play in this intimate setting. 

Museum Mouth:
Museum Mouth is always a treat.  They bring great energy to all of their shows, and the crowd always turns into a big, sloppy mosh pit.  Saturday was no exception!  Sweaty bodies flailing into each other in the 12×12 space in the living room, crowd surfers dodging ceiling fans, and glasses flying off faces…it was good, wholesome fun!  

I also got to chat with Karl who divulged that a new album wasn’t too far off (Jan-March-ish)! Keep your eye’s open for that and download his solo rap project, OK McQueen’s newest album, LIFE//EX-LIFE.  It is amazing, and if you use the internet, you will love it.

Well, that was my jam packed weekend of KNC folks and music!  I haven’t been this exhausted since Hopscotch, so Sunday was for sleeping and Netflix marathons.  For all of you with exams coming up, good luck!

One last thing, if you’re an NCSU student, are interested in working for WKNC, and think you have what it takes, come to our training class on January 7th!  It’s a great way to get involved in the local music scene, you get to know great music and even the people behind the music.  

The World Is… is a midwest emo band from Willimantic, CT. They blend styles from a wide array of influences, including mewithoutYou, Explosions in the Sky, and American Football. The result is powerful and unique. Their name gives a good hint of what you can expect from their music, melodrama and ambition. Though, they don’t take things too seriously, considering all of the playful edits they make to their name. “The World Is A Beautiful Cat and I Am No Longer Afraid to Meow, Meow, Meow”, for example. They have a pretty sweet bag patch with that (and a cat of course).

This was my second time seeing The World Is (They played in Greenville over the summer). The first thing I remember about both performances was how astoundingly clear everything was. The eight-piece dynamic allows for quite a massive sound. Some of their songs are downright anthems (see “Gig Life” or “Getting Sodas”), and their lyrics are tinged with introspection and nervousness. 

They’re one of the forerunners of the so-called “emo revival,” which is all well and good. I’m down for new ears on these bands. After all, it’s what allows TWIAPB to go on nation-wide tours, and heck, my radio show is dedicated to the genre. I just hope all the extra-attention doesn’t water down the genre because it’s the “cool new thing”.

Anywho, to the real story: The band started things off with, “Blank #9”, an instrumental and the first song off their album. Then Shitty Greg sang the first words of the set with “Victim Kin Seek Suit”, from their EP. Their set consisted of mostly new songs, nearly playing through their whole album in order. Hilariously, one of the guitarists filled the space between songs by speaking backward gibberish into his mic. Still, the crowd was pretty stagnant until, by request, they played the heavy hitting “Eyjafjallajokull Dance.“ Right then a little bit of hell broke loose and pushing ensued. They ended their set with “Getting Sodas,” but not before giving the words, “This one’s your problem.” At last, the crowd had warmed up to them and pushed the stage, with David Bello shouting the lyrics “The world is a beautiful place, but we have to make it that way…” I’m definitely looking forward to the next time they come to NC.

                                                                                                            -DJ Nasty Nate

A couple of weeks ago  (10/9) I was able to bask in the glory of the experimental “poptronic” superstorm that is Baths (Will Wiesenfeld) at King’s Barcade. Opening for Baths were Time Warp and Groundislava.

Though Baths was for sure the highlight of the night, Groundislava came pretty close to eclipsing the headliner. Groundislava is a one-man “cool mix” machine that does mashups and remixes of Katy Perry, Drake, and even Nicki Minaj among original tracks. Where Time Warp, the first opener who was more about relatively toned-down and abstract experimental electronica, got people interested, Groundislava got people dancing.  Plus, that’s the best name ever.

This was the first time I’ve seen Baths live (the last time I tried to see him it sold out) and I was extremely impressed with the show. I’m usually disappointed when it comes to these types of acts because with all of the machines and another person helping with the live mixing, a lot of attention goes more into the vocals and the singer tends to do too much vocally. Will Wiesenfeld stayed true to the songs when it mattered, but when he veered from what we hear on his albums, it actually made the songs even better (if that was possible). For example, during his song “No Eyes” from his newest album Obsidian, the vocals on the album are somewhat toned-down but live he added in some screaming which amped up the tension and angst in the song.

Unfortunately, Baths did not play the most popular song “Aminals” due to some legal issues, but the audience definitely forgave him because he hit all of his other major tracks and the entire show was a huge bundle of fun. Absolutely amazing.

–Reviewed by Hurricane Julia

Yesterday I capped off a great weekend by trekking out to Cat’s Cradle in Carrboro to see a band I’ve been obsessed with for a while – Unknown Mortal Orchestra.

The opener, Jackson Scott, was a young, up-and-coming noisy rock act from Asheville. I had never heard of the band, and like many others at the Cradle I was in for a surprise. During their first song, I spied more than a few stunned faces in the audience – people weren’t sure what to make of the sudden assault on their ears by this trio of energetic, shaggy-haired kids. Faces obscured by their long bangs, they redefined LOUD and played the heck out of their respective instruments. Guitarist and lead singer, Jackson Scott himself, crooned indiscernibly over it all. Despite the somewhat jarring mid-song tempo changes and wealth of discordant sounds, I managed to get pretty into the music, although this is not a band I probably would have listened to otherwise.

After Jackson Scott’s angsty take on noise, we were in for a more danceable jam session in the form of Unknown Mortal Orchestra. While you may know them for their irresistibly catchy hooks and fuzzy low-fi funk beats, what you probably don’t know is that UMO are also pretty great at just jamming for the sake of jamming. I think it’s really cool when a live show delivers something distinctly different; something that you can’t get from just listening to a band’s albums (like Sam Herring’s legendary theatrics at Future Islands shows, for example), and these guys did just that. Between the crazy-intense drum solos and lead singer & guitarist Ruban Nielson experimenting with feedback on three different guitars (not even touching the strings? – mind blown), there were a lot of instrumental excursions that you won’t hear on their albums. Although the band seemed to enjoy immersing themselves and the audience in these more sprawling versions of their songs, they still supplied those unearthly, infectious tunes we were all expecting. Between discovering a new band, and hearing a familiar one play unfamiliar sounds, this was a great show – I hope to see y’all out there next time!