Australia is home to an amazing indie rock and indie pop scene, one I had not discovered until a few years ago. Despite a few Australian artists breaking into the American mainstream over the years such as Vance Joy, Troye Sivan, and Natalie Imbruglia, I had not explored the depths of the Australian music scene. Without further ado, let me highlight some of my favorite songs by some of my favorite Australian artists.
Welcome back to the “Behind the Cover” series! This week, I’ll be diving into the story behind one of the most iconic album covers in the history of classic rock: “Led Zeppelin IV.” I first heard about the cover’s origin in rock journalist Brad Tolinski’s book, “Light and Shade: Conversations with Jimmy Page.” Filled with interviews and stories about the guitarist’s life, one of the points Toliksni touches on in the sixth chapter is the making of “Led Zeppelin IV.”
The Backstory
By 1971, Led Zeppelin was quickly reaching international success. Fans around the world worshipped them and their hard-hitting, experimental rock, but critics weren’t as adoring. They chalked the band’s fame up to “hype, not talent.” Their first three albums, especially “II” and “III”, had the band’s faces plastered all over the record sleeves, leading harsh music journalists to believe that Led Zeppelin was nothing more than a fad.
The band and Atlantic Records had a steady, gracious relationship up until “IV’s” release. They gave the foursome full creative control over every aspect of their music, including the album covers. The band took a “retreat” to Headley Grange, a two-hundred-year-old mansion in the English countryside, to record the majority of their upcoming album. Free from distractions at the remote, crumbling house, the band used the natural acoustics at Headley to experiment with new sounds in their creative seclusion. It was rumored that their fourth album would be otherworldly.
Needless to say, Atlantic Records was devastated when they found out the album would have no name, no cover title, and no artist credits. It is now known as “Led Zeppelin IV,” but it was originally meant to have no title at all. The record label tried to convince the band that they were “committing professional suicide,” but their choice was final. They wanted to show the world that Led Zeppelin was more than a trend.
The Cover Art
The final cover design shows an antique painting of an old man with a bundle of sticks on his back, hanging on a peeling wall. This painting was found by lead singer Robert Plant in an antique shop. It spoke to the band because of its reference to the “destruction of the old,” which they contrasted with the photographs of skyscrapers on the back cover. The entirety of “IV” and its cover is very much an ode to balancing traditionality with the new.
The inside is just as fascinating and mysterious as the outside. Depicting the Hermit, an ancient figure used in Tarot, it is meant to represent “a seeker aspiring to the light of truth.” The record sleeve has a gorgeous Arts and Crafts style typography, spelling out the lyrics to “Stairway to Heaven.” (Jimmy Page, the producer and guitarist, actually found a clipping of the typeface in a vintage magazine and hired a designer to remake the entire alphabet.)
Led Zeppelin IV inside cover (taken by me)Led Zeppelin IV record sleeve (taken by me)Led Zeppelin IV front and back album art (taken by me)
This is truly one of my favorite album cover stories. I think it’s so interesting how the band used it as both a representation of the music and as a reaction to their critics. They wanted to let the music speak for itself, and by god it did.
When Deana Lawson took this portrait, titled “Binky & Tony Forever,” she had no idea that it would become the cover of one of Dev Hynes’s most prolific albums. Lawson specializes in photography depicting identity, love and materiality, particularly in Black culture. Her work is beautiful and honest, showing levels of intimacy that are both soft and powerful.
In 2016, the year “Freetown Sound” was released, “Fader” magazine interviewed Lawson on the album cover’s creation. She described how “Binky & Tony Forever” was originally a personal project, and it would be seven years before Dev Hynes used it for his album artwork. Binky, the woman in the photo, was a makeup artist she met on a shoot. Anthony, the man, was a friend of Binky’s. Lawson went in knowing she wanted to capture the idea of “physical intimacy” with a young couple. Usually, she shoots her subjects in their own environments, but for this particular photo shoot, they were actually in Lawson’s bedroom. She chose to keep everything on the walls the same except the Michael Jackson poster, which she says invoked her “own memory of popular culture while [she] was growing up.”
Lawson chose them as subjects partially because of their heights. Though Binky was quite short and Anthony quite tall, their positions demonstrate a deep level of respect and closeness. The way he’s embracing her gives off the sense that they are equals, and there’s no toxic power dynamic in their relationship.
The striking tenderness of this visual is perhaps what drew Dev Hynes to the photograph. After seeing “Binky & Tony Forever”, he asked if he could use it for the cover to “Freetown Sound.” Though Lawson was hesitant to release one of her pieces into such heavy circulation, she came around after hearing Dev Hynes’ unreleased album. She felt “like his mission, his intention, and his aesthetic” fit hers perfectly.
One of my long-time favorite bands, Skegss, has finally released another album. Skegss is a group of three guys from Byron Bay, Australia. The group formed in 2013 when childhood friends Johny Lani and Ben Reed started playing together as a duo around local venues. They soon paired up with Noa Deane and Tony Cregan and released their the singles “LSD” and “Rock ‘n’ Roll Radio.” However Noa left the following year in pursuit of a surfing career, leaving Johny, Ben, and Tony to run the show.
Since then they have released three EP’s and three albums. My personal favorite is their self-titled debut EP, however their two most recent albums are close contenders. Rehearsal is their most recent one to date and includes 13 surf-punk-garage styled rock songs on the album. It starts off with “Down to Ride” and “Valhalla,” which are both upbeat, fast paced songs that set a good tone for the album. However, my two favorites of the 13 are “Bush TV” and “Savor The Flavour.” They perfectly incorporate the iconic Skegss style and listening to them makes me feel like an angsty teenager again. Another honorable mention off the album is “Wake Up,” which is a bit of a slower song. That being said, I feel like this band doesn’t make slow, sentimental songs like this all that much, which makes it all the more meaningful.
Fun fact about this band, they actually had their cover art for the EP “50 Push Ups for a Dollar” stolen by Lil Yachty and Reese for their single “Do It.” Go ahead and look it up, the comparison is laughably similar.
That’s all for this week, hope you guys enjoy the music. -The DJ Formerly Known As Chippypants
As a senior at NC State in my final months before graduation, I have been reflecting on everything I’ve done the past few years and the times that have been most special to me. WKNC has been a huge part of my life as a student. I hope that I can help encourage any student who’s looking to become a part of a group on campus to consider joining WKNC as a DJ or student worker.
Community
Joining WKNC is a great way to make friends on campus. Especially if you are a younger or transfer student, being new on campus can be difficult. I have made many friends during my time at WKNC that I continue to keep up with and will still even after I graduate. Making connections at WKNC is easy and is a perfect way to broaden your community at NC State.
Experience
Whether you’re working as a DJ or a student worker, WKNC provides valuable working experience and important skills. As a content creator, I have honed my writing and graphic design skills, become better with deadlines, and have broadened my music tastes. If you love music, working at WKNC is perfect for you.
Flexibility
Being a DJ or worker at WKNC is perfect for students with busy schedules. DJs have flexible hours to choose from and WKNC workers can typically choose their schedules. The management at WKNC is extremely nice and flexible. Jamie and Laura have been so helpful for me from the start and are amazing to work with, and generally allow flexibility in scheduling and let students choose their hours.
Whether you’d like to work for WKNC, become a WKNC DJ, or simply enjoy WKNC’s radio channel and online content, you will not regret being a part of this great environment.
What’s going on Butcher Crew?! It’s your Master Butcher, The Saw, and today we will be talking about my favorite scenes that have come from some of my favorite horror movies. It is not a secret that I am a big horror fan, I have to be… I run a Butcher Shop! I also rate movies based on their gore factor, which is a fun hobby of mine when I am not busy in the shop.
There have been some killer (no pun intended) scenes that make me go “oh that’s awesome,” what cinematic masterpieces these movies are. I like the adrenaline that horror movies give me, I like being on edge and trying to guess when jump scares will occur. Horror movies remind me of death metal and studios should totally use death metal songs in their movies, it would work great.
In no particular order, here is a list of some of my favorite scenes within the horror genre:
Halloween – 1978
This scene is awesome. Period. When Michael Myers looks at the guy and tilts his head over to look at his most recent victim is still bone chilling every time I watch this movie.
The Exorcist – 1973
Fun fact: when this movie first came out in theaters, half of the audience left after Linda Blair spun her head all the way around. Although this may seem pretty tame to us horror fanatics now, back in the day, this was terrifying! This movie is what helped launch the horror genre into something scarier.
Evil Dead – 2013
You want to talk about a movie that has a 10/10 gore factor? Then you need to watch the 2013 remake of The Evil Dead. I swear this movie has nothing but gore, and this girl who gets possessed is scary. She makes my skin crawl.
Hellraiser – 1987
You already know that I had to put my boy in here! Honestly, any scene where Pinhead talks is my favorite. He has some of the best one-liners and this is one of my favorites! I love to use his quotes in the Butcher Shop.
Hereditary – 2018
This movie is probably one of my favorite recent horror releases. This movie did something different within the horror genre; they focused more on psychological horror. By that I mean, they put more emphasis on making the overall movie appear dark and you can empathize and feel the emotions that the characters are going through. This movie did a fantastic job at making the audience feel the tension throughout the entire movie. The scene where the mom continuously bangs her head against the ceiling is so eerie.
“Horses” is easily Patti Smith’s most iconic album. Filled with a glorious fusion of poetry and rock n’ roll, her 1975 release is an early punk masterpiece. Her bold feminity adds a sort of mystique that makes “Horses” stand out against similar albums of the time.
The cover is a testament to her bold beauty and authenticity as an artist. It was shot by the legendary Robert Mapplethorpe, one of Smith’s dearest companions and the subject of her memoir “Just Kids.” She always knew Mapplethorpe would shoot the album cover for “Horses;” Their friendship was so extraordinary and his reputation as a photographer was skyrocketing. Smith recalls that she “had no sense of how it would look, just that it should be true.” The only thing Mapplethorpe asked of her was to wear a clean shirt with no stains on it.
After a trip to the Salvation Army, Smith found a pile of white button-downs. The one she chose had an RV embroidered on the breast pocket, which she says reminded her of the movie “Barbarella.” The portrait was taken in their friend’s apartment, bathed in natural light against a blank wall. Smith tried several poses before throwing her jacket over her shoulder “Frank Sinatra style,” leading to the portrait we all know and love today. In total, Mapplethorpe only took twelve photographs.
“When I look at it now, I never see me. I see us.”
Patti Smith, “Just Kids”
The true beauty behind the “Horses” cover is Mapplethorpe and Smith’s connection. After crossing paths in New York during the cultural explosion of the mid-1960s, they formed a life together by exploring art in all its forms. Though they drifted apart as their careers took them down different roads, they always managed to find each other again.
To read more about their relationship, you can read the book review I wrote on “Just Kids.” If you haven’t heard “Horses,” give it a listen!
WKNC 88.1 FM recently partnered with Prison Books Collective to host a book drive. From March 15 to March 26 individuals could drop off books in labeled bins outside of WKNC’s studios on the NC State University campus.
Thanks to WKNC’s audience, the drive was able to collect 125 books for Prison Books Collective, a Carrboro-based nonprofit that distributes paperback books and zines to incarcerated people across North Carolina and Alabama.
The collected books spanned a wide range of genres including Black history, biographies, self-help guides, legal texts, language dictionaries, and a multitude of science fiction of fantasy novels. More information on how Prison Books Collective serves incarcerated individuals, with the aid of community donations, can be found at PrisonBooks.info.
WKNC has its own relationship with the North Carolina prison system, as inmates across the state tune in every Friday night to listen to Penitentiary Rock. This segment broadcasts song requests mailed in from inmates to the show’s host, Uncle Paul. Uncle Paul not only plays the requests but reads inmate letters on-air, which has helped the development of the show’s popularity amongst inmates, who even use the show as a means to communicate with one another via shout-outs in their letters. Thus, a partnership between WKNC and Prison Books Collective seemed natural. WKNC is grateful to be able to give back to a community so often overlooked by mainstream media and one that has supported WKNC for decades.
Within the pandemic in particular, these individuals have had little-to-no access to visitors and have faced increased restrictions placed on the small amount of literature that may be available in the prison. Ivy Shelton, Prison Books Collective’s Outreach Coordinator, commented that, “COVID-19 has limited the operations but, Prison Books Collective (PBC) has been working hard the past year to fulfill book requests. PBC has continued to send 35-45 packages of books on average a week to individuals based on letters of request. The book drive WKNC 88.1 is hosting makes PBC’s continued work possible. Paperback donations from the WKNC 88.1 book drive will make a difference in someone’s life.”
WKNC would like to thank the audience for their continued support, both for the station and the recent donation drives.
WKNC 88.1 FM is 25,000-watt student-run non-commercial radio from North Carolina State University featuring indie rock, electronic, metal and underground hip-hop. WKNC is on social media @WKNC881.
Student radio station WKNC 88.1 FM HD-1/HD-2 received its first-ever award from College Media Business and Marketing Managers (CMBAM) in an awards ceremony at the organization’s annual convention on March 20.
A donor announcement for Live Nation’s Greensky Bluegrass concert produced by Romir Seth was awarded first place best audio ad or underwriting spot.
WKNC also received an honorable mention for best self-promotion audio ad for an underwriting and social media promo written by Gab Scaff and produced by Tegan Kelleher.
The radio station took a second honorable mention for best non-advertisement multimedia project for a station tour produced by Minh Pham with Laura Mooney and Erika Bass.
A recent episode of a musical podcast reminded me of a movie I hadn’t seen in years. O Brother Where Art Thou played on repeat in my house growing up. A loose retelling of the Odysseus myth in turn of the century Mississippi, the soundtrack included some of the first music I ever heard as a child. It was a movie so beloved by my parents that I mentally assumed it was an artifact of Southern culture as old as they were, from the nebulous time of “the 1900’s” before I was born. I was shocked to realize the movie came out in 2000 and was made by two Midwestern Yankees. The movie has been so thoroughly co-opted by southerners that it simply felt like it had always existed, and while I may have been wrong about the movie, this impression certainly held true for the soundtrack.
The music from O Brother Where Art Thou was recorded by folk music heavyweights like Ralph Stanley and Allison Krauss, but the songs themselves are as old as dirt. They include traditional hymns like “I’ll Fly Away,” and “Down to the River to Pray,” “Angel Band,” staples of the Carter Family like “Keep on The Sunny Side” and “In the Highways,” as well as numerous traditional pieces.
However, it’s their use in the movie that makes this compendium of standards so memorable. A song like “Didn’t Leave Nobody but the Baby,” which my mother sang to me as a child is put to unconventional use when sung by the Sirens analog to seduce Odysseus and turn John Turturro into a frog. “O Death,” is sung in a similarly memorable (though admittedly problematic- see the podcast for details) scene where the Klan sings the song prior to an attempted lynching. These individual scenes and songs match the episodic nature of the Odyssey, and the attachment of images and narrative to folk songs has made some forgotten folk music rise from the ashes to be reincorporated into modern Southern culture.
The O Brother Where Art Thou soundtrack is a meticulously researched and expertly performed work. If you haven’t seen the movie or heard these songs, I highly recommend them, and if you haven’t heard the music in a while, take another look, the album is rewarding time and time again.
