This week we talk about Record Store Day sales, Xiu Xiu’s latest experiment, and Colin McCoy’s book deal. This week we reviewed The New Pornographer’s Together.
Category: Music News and Interviews
Music news, interviews, features and giveaways
Are you tired of doing laundry on-campus? Are you too busy with finals to do laundry? Are you just too lazy to do laundry? Well, WKNC’s here to help you out! All week during finals we’ll be giving away band and movie t-shirts to help keep you clothed during these stressful times. Here’s what’s up for grabs:
Annuals, red, women’s XL (7)
Annuals, black, men’s XL (1)
Annuals, black, women’s L (2)
Skullbuckle, black, men’s L (1)
Skullbuckle, black, men’s S (1)
Skullbuckle, black, youth S (1)
Blister, olive, men’s L (1)
Blister, dark olive, men’s XL (1)
Cobalt and the Hired Guns, tan, men’s L (1)
Legion movie, white, men’s L (1)
Legion movie, white, men’s XL (5)
Angels & Demons movie, white, men’s S (1)
Tune in and when the DJ asks for it, be the correct caller to win one of these fabulous fashions for your wardrobe!
Earlier this afternoon on WKNC Patrick Phelan from Durham based Luego dropped by to debut the band’s newest album, Ocho, which is scheduled to be released June 1st. Patrick and I played several tracks off of the album and chatted about a variety of things related to the band and the album. Ocho is being released a mere eight months after the debut LP of Taped-Together Stories but the two seem hardly related. Ocho relies much more heavily on background harmonies and a thicker and deeper sound that is stacked with layer upon layer of grooviness and cool. The bluesy ruggedness and heartfelt emotion of Phelan’s voice is still present but the album seems to be much more of a family affair and holds a certain friendly attire about it. Jeff Crawford produced the album at his own Arbor Ridge Studios. Take a listen to this first sample of the songs anywhere:
Local Beat Exclusive with Luego 5/3/10
The album has an album release party May 29th at the Nightlight in Chapel Hill. The Tomahawks, who share several band members with Luego, will be playing first and afterwards a “soulful themed” dance party will commence. Needless to say, this album will continue to be played on WKNC as often as possible from here on out.
Eight months ago a relatively unheard of band in the area released one of the best albums from the Triangle in quite a long time. I was so impressed I even listed it as my #3 album of 2009. As is typical with most groups, a turnaround and rebound from such a great record is generally slow and and . However, this is no typical band.
With just eight months passing since Taped-Together Stories was released, Durham band Luego is already setting to drop another full length album, Ocho. With quite a bit of hype and publicity garnering attention to this local music supergroup (read: Patrick Phelan, Jeff Crawford, Peter Holsapple, Nick Jaeger, Rob DiMauro, Cameron Lee, and Charles Cleaver among others) one would expect Ocho to be another milestone record for the area.
With that said the first time you will be able to head the record will be tomorrow at 1pm on WKNC. I will be sitting down with band leader Patrick Phelan to discuss the quickness of the release, the recording process of the album, touring plans, and of course listen to the album itself.
Ocho is set to hit the streets June 1st following an album release party on May 29 at the Nightlight with The Tomahawks and a dance party afterward. So be sure to listen in tomorrow at 1 p.m. for a listen on whats to come.
This morning on Americana Blues & Co BJ Barham from Raleigh band American Aquarium came in for about 20 minutes to chat about the band’s fifth album release in four years. The album is titled Small Town Hymns and is a much slower down and less rock n roll album than their last release from a year ago, Dances for the Lonely. BJ played some live tunes for us as we talked about the recording of the album, the band’s hectic tour schedule, and the album release party which is going on tonight at the Pour House Music Hall. Jamie McClean and Sons of Bill are also sharing the stage. In addition, the first 50 people to get inside will be given a free pint glass courtesy of Big Boss Brewing Company who created a special brew for the band called American Aquarium Ale. Take a listen to the interview below:
American Aquarium Live on Americana Blues & Co. 5/1/10
1. Record Store Day 2010 broke records (get it?) as being the biggest one yet. Stores across the country reported their biggest sales dates of the year. (via Pitchfork)
2. Xiu Xiu wants your hair. Yes, the art-pop band wants locks of your hair for their upcoming music video. The idea is that you hand them locks of your hair at shows and get some swag from the band. Currently the band is planning on filming themselves lighting the hair on fire while saying the name of the person who the hair had belonged to and inhaling the smoke. Yep. (via Pitchfork)
3. The Kills report that they are three-fourths of the way complete with their follow-up with to 2008’s “Midnight Boom.” The band is planning on completing the album when Alison Mosshart finishes up touring with The Dead Weather. (via NME)
4. Guitarist Johnny Marr has unveiled plans to compose the soundtrack to the upcoming film by Tony Kratz, “The Big Bang.” (via NME)
5. Front man of The Decemberists, Colin Meloy, is set to expand his writing career with a new deal with Harper-Collins. He is set to write three novels that are intended for a adolencent audience, much like his previous work books. (via Pitchfork)
Tonight, on “Saturday Night Soul and R&B”, the legendary R&B group and kings of slow jams, H-Town will be calling in to 88.1FM WKNC, to discuss their new music and latest projects.
Tune in from 9 to 11 p.m. to hear the now-duo explain their six-plus year absence from the industry, thoughts on todays R&B music, dealing with the passing of member Dino and more.
Best known for their hit singles "Knockin Da Boots", “Emotions” and "Part Time Lover", the multi-platinum 90’s group is poised to make a comeback with new single “Knockin Your Heels”, from their forthcoming album, Child Support.
For more information on H-Town, visit here and on twitter.
“Saturday Night Soul and R&B” with host Mir.I.am airs weekly from 9 to 11 p.m.
Categories
Arizona Calls it Quits
Local favorites from Asheville, Arizona, has recently called it quits. Many know Arizona from their two hit albums Glowing Bird and Welcome Back Dear Children, but there may be no more releases for awhile. According to a news release the band said the following:
Thank you!
We always appreciated the thought and time people gave us and our music. There’s so much music in the world, and it meant a lot that we were able to share and be a part of the musical emotional world of so many people.Arizona is on an indefinite hiatus. Creative and philosophical differences sparked an amicable split – all of us care very much about each other and making music – and we’ll all continue to make music. We put our hearts into the music we made as Arizona, and as of now this is the best way to make sure that the people who enjoyed Arizona get to hear as much from us as possible. We’re now working as the following two bands:
The band has been balancing between Asheville and NYC and it seems the members in New Beard have decided to stay put in New York while WAGES will still continue on in the old north state. In addition, both bands have EPs about to be released which may have also added to the split.
>WAGES is coming to Chapel Hill in May, playing at the Cave with Schooner and the Tomahawks on the 15th.
This week we spoke about Broken Social Scene’s bonus EP, the official release of Dark Night of the Soul, Crystal Castles rush release, Phoenix scoring a film, and we reviewed LCD Soundsystem’s This is Happening.
Local bands covering local bands is always awesome, but when the most popular band out of our state in recent years covers a song from one of the best albums in present-day memory we have to take special notice. Scott Avett of Concord band The Avett Brothers did a nice cover on Crackerfarm of old tour-mates and fellow record label buddies Bombadil. The song he covered was a spectacular representation of “Marriage” off of Bombadil’s Tarpits and Canyonlands album.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eew-NyU-H3Y
It is hard to believe it has been a year since Bombadil last performed in concert and even less time since Tarpits was released. Hopefully this will ease your soul until the band can hopefully one day make a comeback.