The year is 2012, I’m 11 years old and in desperate need of braces. However, I have five baby teeth that won’t budge and thus the dentist is going to rip them from my skull. I’m young and scared, and am told that for the duration of this appointment I can listen to music really loud in my earbuds so that I don’t have to hear the tools that are ravaging the insides of my mouth. I have an iPhone 4 and a pretty hefty iTunes library that I had been building for the last couple of years on my iPod touch. I ponder what to listen to, but eventually land on One Direction’s then-brand-new album “Take Me Home.”
As I’ve touched on in previous blog posts, I was a huge fan of One Direction (or as we called it back then, being a Directioner). I was solid in my choice and thought it would be a good time to memorize some of the lyrics better since it had just come out the month before. I don’t remember how long the extraction of my teeth took, but I do remember getting through all of the songs at least once and also being told that some of my teeth were “stubborn.” Did the album succeed in drowning out the dentistry noises? Absolutely not.
I also remember listening to the album a lot in the week or so after my teeth were pulled in the recovery process. This is my first vivid memory with an album that I chose of my own volition, and I hope to share more memories with albums in the future.
On Saturday, March 26, 2022, the super fun and energetic alt-rock band Mom Rock played at the Pour House in Raleigh, NC, and I had the pleasure to be there. Straight from good old Boston, MA, Mom Rock is, as of March 2022, going on their Reunion Tour “everywhere but [on] the West Coast”, where they’re headlining 24 shows all around the US. While I knew that the audience at the Pour House is usually a pretty engaged one, I wasn’t expecting vocalist and guitarist Josh Polack to admit that we had been their best crowd so far.
Mom Rock was headlining that night, but two bands came before them to do their opening. The show started out with old school grunge band Lawn Enforcement. To put it shortly, I am as big of a fan of their name as I am of their music, and I hadn’t heard of either of them before. The raw passion they emulated on stage called for a great start. Then came Late Notice, a six piece indie rock band. Their friends and fans tend to follow them everywhere they play live, whether it’s on the NC State campus or in front of an ordinary house — and it’s pretty heartwarming to see. I’ve never been disappointed by a Late Notice live appearance, as I’ve seen them play a couple of times myself. I really enjoy their subtle blend of indie rock and hip-hop, and how the different vocalists take turns on stage singing and freestyle rapping.
When the first two bands were done, it was already 10:45pm. It was also around that time that Mom Rock arrived on stage, all dressed up in their bright blue jersey shirt, reading the band’s name in an old school white font on the front. I had the chance to exchange a few words with vocalists Curtis Heimburger and Josh Polack at the merch table a few hours before they got on stage. I took a picture of them posing with their “got milf?” shorts, and I could tell that their show was going to be a perfect reflection of their personality: super fun and electric. They were both rocking long, curly hair, glittery make-up and big black lines on their face. Drummer Wilson Reardon and bassist Tara Maggiulli stayed a bit more discreet in the back of the stage, although still perfectly aligned with the band’s style and energy.
They opened with the upbeat “25” from their 2021 EP “a song with a happy end”. “No one knows just who they are at 25”, goes the chorus. One thing Curtis and Josh knew how to do, though, was sharing their bright and bubbly energy with the audience. I was front row the whole time, and I was taking in all of it. When they weren’t sliding their feet like crazy and shaking their legs to the sound of their own guitars, they were either jumping high in the air or escalating the huge speakers in front of the stage. Mom Rock was the kind of band that was all about giving. They were truly dedicated to use every single one of their body parts and every single inch of the stage to dance, jump, sing or scream. At some point, Curtis even ended up lying down on stage, his acoustic guitar almost smothering him.
From time to time, Curtis would disappear — either in the crowd or upstairs, depending on the song — letting Josh take over. At other times, Josh would be the one merging with the front row, while Tara was pulling off eccentric dance moves and stroking her bass. And sometimes, Curtis and Josh would play the guitar (acoustic or electric) back to back, as close to each other as they could. They played a few of their hits, like “Conversation” or “Intheinbetween” (a personal favorite of mine), and even ended up including a few covers here and there, like “You Belong With Me” by Taylor Swift or “The Middle” by Jimmy Eat World. “Grand Romantic Life” was probably the song that got me dancing the most, as it’s both one of their most listened-to singles on Spotify (so I obviously already knew it), and one of their most upbeat songs yet. By the end of the show, Josh was sitting at the edge of the stage, singing their folk-rock ballad “if i had better friends”, and he had the crowd singing in unison in a heartfelt communion. When everyone asked for an encore, Josh happily got back on stage and said, “I’m down for an encore, but it’s up to them now”, as he stared at his fellow band members backstage. They came back for one last song, and right before leaving the stage, Josh held up their white “got milf?” shorts, and other fun and colorful pieces of merch to show everyone.
After the show, I came up to Curtis like I had a few hours before. “You guys were amazing on stage”, I said, and a few compliments and thank you’s later, I offered to record a radio ID for the station. “That would be awesome!”, he shouted with a big smile on his still-very-glittery face. Wilson joined him, and I let out the loudest laugh when neither of them could figure out when or how to speak, after several failed (yet rehearsed) attempts. We all couldn’t stop laughing. Finally, we got one just right, and as I thanked them for their time, I walked away with a smile, knowing that I’d just had the best nights in weeks. I’m always excited to see smaller bands play live and to support local music venues. I’m even more excited when the music sounds amazing and the band happens to be this cool in person. I really look forward to Mom Rock releasing an album and headlining even bigger shows in the near future.
Credit: North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences; Flikr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
Howdy y’all! After a brief identity crisis, it felt only right to bring back museum maddie. dj mozzie served me well, but sometimes you have to bring it back to your roots. I wanted to share the songs that got me through the month of March! I’ve been really into some folksy-indie jams. With the final stretch of the semester here, I encourage you to keep making sure you are spending time doing what makes you happy. Go for a hike, sit down with your favorite book, spend time with your dearest friends, go to the farmers market, or take a nap! I’m currently reading Savage Appetites, a book about true crime by Rachel Monroe and listening to the Crime Weekly podcast to destress. Take care of yourself and try out some new songs!
That’s Life Honey by Boy Scouts
Santa Barbara by Angelo De Augustine
Angelina by Lizzy McAlpine
A.M. RADIO by The Lumineers
Astral Projection by Yumi Zouma
The Lightning I by Arcade Fire
I’d Have to Think About It by Leith Ross
Northsiders by Christian Lee Hutson
Light of a Clear Blue Morning by Waxahatchee
Nothing’s Gonna Happen by The Staves
Fall, Fall, Fall by Caamp
Ready or Not (feat. Sierra Ferrell) by Shakey Graves
Food and music is one of those life combinations that can truly change how you experience both mediums. Lyrics and rhythm of music combine with the smells and tastes of cooking to create a moment rather than just a meal or a song. Film makes a considerable impact on the way people see food, and music inspires and drives culinary artists just like food inspires artists to create their art.
There’s no other artist I would want to start my food rant on than MF DOOM. DOOM’s lyrical insanity is one aspect of his art that I find so enjoyable. It’s those lyrics, and then there’s his production quality that drives my respect for MF DOOM even higher. “Mm.. Food” is fifteen tracks of foodie bliss. Yes, even the fifty second long, “Gumbo”, is masterful. DOOM combines food references, personal allegory, and humor. Just look at the lyrics to “One Beer”:
“He went to go laugh and get some head by the side road
She asked him autograph her derriere, it read
“To Wide Load, this yard bird taste like fried toad turd
Love, Villain””
He’s talking about himself, uses humor, and weaves food puns throughout the entire song. It’s truly incredible to me how much DOOM shows his love for food with his genius of production and lyrical mastery. This article isn’t only about MF DOOM, but he serves as one of my favorite examples of food and music combining to make something special.
Representation of food in film has been and probably always will be a leading influence on what culinary artists create. Look at the difference between the ramen scene from “Tampopo”and the timpano scene from “Big Night” (warning: there are a few curse words).
Both scenes showcase the beauty of food, but in “Tampopo”the music is sweet and used as more of a background to the ramen master’s lecture on how to enjoy ramen. In “Big Night”the music brings up the tempo of the scene to help make the tension extreme and more palpable. Both scenes are extremely popular for how they represent food, and they both inspired me to create more dishes from Japan and Italy because of how they are portrayed.
Have you ever been cooking aggressively, headbanging, and listening to Gulch? Is that just me? When I work on dinner or other dishes that involve lots of effort in a short amount of time, I instantly flip on anything that makes my blood jump and hair curl. Sauteing onions and green beans while songs like “Self-Inflicted Mental Terror”, “Thong Song”, and “Ghost” pop up while tossing french fries in a tablespoon of oil and you immediately start thrashing and whipping the fries around a large bowl to make sure they are all well coated. This is what music does to cooking. It makes it fun. It makes it lively. Music adds more flavor to cooking than a teaspoon of salt.
Maybe you don’t cook. Even if you get takeout or find yourself eating at a restaurant, there needs to be a good ambiance and delightful music. It feels like a waste of food if not enjoyed with musical accompaniment (at least to me, if you enjoy silence with your meals then please go on doing so). I find myself listening to calmer music while eating compared to the boisterous blastings while cooking. I find myself putting on Adrianne Lenker or Silver Jews for most of my meals. They both set a calm tone with their vocals and smooth instrumentals, which allows for a calm embrace of a nice fresh meal and some relaxing music.
I hope some of these words are able to inspire you to cook more or even listen to “foodie music”! Cooking is an important part of keeping myself mentally healthy, so I thought it might bring some light into your kitchen too (or some crazy flavor combinations).
Whether you’re a long-time WKNC fan or you just started listening this morning, I bet you’ve wondered what your DJ name might be if you were a DJ here at WKNC. There have been thousands of DJ names over the years: some creative, some weird and all awesome. The day is finally here where you can determine what your DJ name would be if you were one of us… and who knows? One day you might be. And when asked how you came up with the name “DJ Baby Spoon” you can know it’s because your name is Paula and you were born on October 1.
This graphic will also be posted on our Instagram, so let us know over there what your assigned DJ name is.
