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Categories
DJ Highlights

Set Highlight: Liminal Spaces with cow ball, “Warm Rain at Night”

A hallway that should feel like any other hallway, but somehow feels...unstable.
Image used under the Creative Commons License. https://tinyurl.com/aaxs3ce7

A liminal space is: “a location which is a transition between two other locations, or states of being.” Liminal spaces like airports or staircases are fascinating to conceptualize and a DJ at WKNC, cow ball, has a new show dedicated to putting a soundtrack to these kinds of spaces. So far, she has done a set about art museums, sparse snow, twilight, and this past week she did a set about warm rain at night. 

These sets truly transcend you into another space, and for an hour bring an otherworldly sense of peace. And cow ball is truly dedicated to bringing listeners to this world with her: finding images every week that correspond with the theme and uploading them to her Spinitron. She describes these sets as “​​an exploration into various moods and atmospheres, often ones best described by images.” On Liminal Spaces, you can expect to hear artists like Broadcast, Hop Along, Stereolab and Sylvan Esso  (although it varies from week to week).

If you missed her “Warm Rain at Night”  set, you can find it on Spinitron, and the songs are also listed below.

  • “Apartment Song” – Really From
  • “Al oeste” – Juana Molina
  • “Yonder Blue” – Tortoise 
  • “Chegada” – Joyce, Baba Vasconcelos & Mauricio Maestro
  • “Find It” – L’Rain
  • “Trouble Found Me” – Hop Along
  • “Hey, Who Really Cares” – Linda Perhacs
  • “You Are Not an Island” – Vanishing Twin
  • “Midnight, The Stars and You” – Deerhoof
  • “Poly Blue” – Jessica Pratt
  • “Orange Moon” – Erykah Badu
  • “Run” – Andie
  • “I Found the End” – Broadcast

You can listen to Liminal Spaces with cow ball every Wednesday at 5 p.m. 

Happy listening,

Caitlin

Categories
Blog New Album Review

“Year Of The Snake” by Softcult EP Review

"Year Of The Snake" album cover
"Year Of The Snake" by Softcult album cover

“Year Of The Snake” has been a long time coming. The first single, “Spit It Out”, was released in July 2021 and the other singles have trickled out since then, building anticipation for the final product that was released on February 4, 2022. And while all of the singles are individually brilliant, hearing them in one coherent order with the flow the artist intended really highlights the sonic intention behind every line.

The energy of the tracks is probably my favorite part. There’s an extremely fine line where music is able to sound effortless and be drowning in feedback-laden guitars without also sounding bored and laconic, and Softcult spends the 6-song EP dancing on that line. Verses are often broken up by instrumental sections creating a disjointed structure that adds to the nervous excitement that defines “Year Of The Snake.” Album highlight “House Of Mirrors” uses a very call and response setup for the chorus – “Who knows? Who cares? (It hurts to see the truth)” before quickly bleeding into the next verse, and both of those were propelled by the staccato guitar solo that happened before it.

Lyrics are also a crucial part of the world Softcult builds on this EP. Lead singer Mercedes Arn-Horn puts a lot of emphasis on vocal deliveries that approach shouting, which sounds really cool over the instrumental, but pay attention to what she’s saying and the songwriting is just as interesting, with lots of clever wordplay that fleshes out the characters and events depicted. “Looking back at a face, barely recognize you // But the eyes are a shade of the same perfect blue //I watched you change into someone new // Saw it all degrade into deja vu” off the track “Perfect Blue” is an entire emotional arc, and this is the chorus, this attention to detail and straightforward yet intriguing method of building imagery in the mind of the listener.

When I listen to music, I imagine a void, a corner of deep space, and the song fills that void with something; a guitar line so memorable I can picture the artist playing it or a moment of songwriting clarity that paints a mental picture. Softcult embraces this darkness and blends perfectly into the void, with instrumentation that is often minimal in scope but feels expansive and evocative, drawing you in alongside the songs about conflict and danger, a film noir made of sound that would make Hitchcock proud.

-Erie

Categories
New Album Review

“That’s Our Lamp” by Mitski: Track Review

Mitski's album cover for "Laurel Hell." It is a picture of her craning her neck backwards and holding her hands out. She is wearing a red turtleneck.White text reads "Laurel Hell" and "Mitski"

Mitski’s sixth album, “Laurel Hell,” came out on Friday, February 4. While I haven’t had time to collect my thoughts on the album as a whole, I know one thing for certain: “That’s Our Lamp” is one of my new favorite songs of all time.

The song opens with bouncy-sounding synths and steady percussion and quickly blossoms into full-blown 80s synth-pop inspired instrumentation. The lyricism is simple, and consists of Mitksi accepting that her relationship with someone has come to an end. 

The crux of the song lies in a collection of lyrics. In verse one, she states “You say you love me / I believe you do / But I walk down and up and down / And up and down this street.” Immediately following this, the first chorus kicks in: “’Cause you just don’t like me / Not like you used to.” Finally, in the second verse and second chorus, Mitski lets go of this love: “We may be ending / I’m standing in the dark / Looking up into our room / Where you’ll be waiting for me / Thinking that’s where you loved me / That’s where you loved me.” The outro then repeats “That’s where you loved me” over and over into eventual oblivion.

These lyrics tap into a feeling that’s hard for me to put into words besides the ones she used to make me feel them. The hopelessness that comes with knowing you’ve grown out of someone’s love, and they’ve grown out of yours. Being in the places where you used to love each other into ecstasy, and feeling foreign in them. Knowing that time is waiting to embrace you with open arms, but not totally being ready to move on from the past– pushing forward anyways.

Mitski brings a new light to this hopelessness, juxtaposing her lyrics with the aforementioned 80s synth-pop backing instrumentals. The end builds and builds, layering in sounds of people laughing and talking, representing that there’s always a new love after old loves and friendships fade away. So it goes.

Mitski is going on tour in support of her sixth album “Laurel Hell,” starting in North Carolina. The first two dates are in Asheville and Raleigh, on February 17 and 18 respectively.

Categories
Playlists

Valentine’s Day with DJ Mozzie

Black and white hearts cover a gray background. In the foreground, there are four red and pink exclamation points.

Howdy y’all! I hope you’ve been doing well. This week, I wanted to put together the ultimate Valentine’s Day playlist for you and yours. I love Valentine’s Day – the pink and red color combination, the fun candy, and getting to express just how much you love the people in your life (although I don’t think you need a holiday to do that). Admittedly, I pulled quite a few of these songs from my Twilight playlist on Spotify, but nonetheless, they make me feel mushy and gushy and grossly in love. Here’s to hoping you get to live out your rom-com dreams this weekend!

Valentine’s Day History

For our history enthusiasts reading this week’s blog, here’s a bit about Valentine’s Day. The specifics about Saint Valentine are quite contested. One legend tells the tale of Saint Valentine marrying young lovers after Emperor Claudius II banned marriage for young men in the name of making them better soldiers. While some believe that Valentine’s Day is in the middle of February to commemorate the saint’s death, others believe it was the Christian church trying to rewrite the Pagan celebration Lupercalia. Valentine sentiments date back to the Middle Ages, while written valentines appeared around 1400. Americans started swapping valentines around the early 1700s, and they became more mass-produced around the 1840s. Now, about 145 million Valentine’s Day cards are sent annually.

  • Stubborn Love by The Lumineers
  • Home by Edith Whiskers
  • Lover Of The Light by Mumford & Sons
  • Flightless Bird, American Mouth by Iron & Wine
  • Falling in Love at a Coffee Shop by Landon Pigg
  • I’m With You by Vance Joy
  • The Night We Met by Lord Huron
  • Sea of Love by Cat Power
  • All I Want by Kodaline
  • Turning Page by Sleeping At Last
  • Even If It’s a Lie by Matt Maltese
  • I’m Happy You Exist by Angus Maude
  • Beach Baby by Bon Iver
  • I Love You Too by Peter McPoland
  • Sweet Creature by Harry Styles
Categories
New Album Review

“Posey Hollow Quartet” by Ably House Album Review

Posey Hollow Quartet Album Cover

It’s not an ordinary day when you stumble upon a hidden gem of an album. The kind of album that you try to talk to your friends about, only to be met by blank stares. The kind of album that you expect to be the magnum opus of an already famous band, only to discover they have less than 1,000 monthly Spotify listeners. That’s the kind of day I had last March when I discovered “Posey Hollow Quartet” by Ably House.

The whole album has an eerie feel, fitting for a band named after a famous haunted house. Many tracks have strange, unidentifiable instruments and distorted, experimental guitar parts that are simultaneously satisfying and suspenseful. Not only that, but the album is incredibly cohesive; I am a strong believer in the art of the album, and Ably House knocked it out of the park with this one. Some tracks blend seamlessly into one another, while others have small breaks in between them for the listener to get a breath.

Along with being an incredibly cohesive album, “Posey Hollow Quartet” encompasses multiple different vibes. “Melancholia,” my favorite track on the album, has a distinct 90s indie feeling to it. Meanwhile, “Balcony” and “Down on the Farm” have the feel of a Revolver or Sgt. Pepper-era Beatles song with a more modern twist. And “Grave Song,” with its rhythmic bassline and impressive guitar solo, reminds me of a psychedelic rock song from the 60s; if you told me it was a cover of a Creedence Clearwater Revival or the Doors deep cut, I’d probably believe you.

I’m still not completely sure how I stumbled across such a diamond in the rough. With its so few monthly listeners and almost no social media presence, I know close to nothing about the band itself, but there is one thing I do know: they created a no-skip gem of an album with “Posey Hollow Quartet.”

Categories
Band/Artist Profile

Songs About Poop, A 23,000 Song Discography and Spotify Revenue

Matt looking at the camera and smiling.
Image used under Creative Commons License, from Wikimedia Commons. Source: Matt Farley's Twitter

Somewhere out there, there is a man with a more extensive discography than you can possibly imagine, with over 23,000 songs. He has 27 Spotify profiles (as far as I know of, there could be more) where he puts out album after album. You might be thinking, “Caitlin, I know who you’re talking about, and his name is John Darnielle.” And while it’s true that The Mountain Goats have an extremely extensive discography, that’s not who I’m referring to.

Continue reading “Songs About Poop, A 23,000 Song Discography and Spotify Revenue”
Categories
Blog New Album Review

“We” by Mythless EP Review

"We" album cover
"We" by Mythless album cover

I’ve noticed that in a lot of the album reviews I’ve done in the past few months I’ve made one specific observation: the lack of a verse-chorus-verse structure. I bring this up whenever I get the chance because it’s usually associated with a more experimental presentation that I notice and appreciate, but by now I’ve probably reviewed more albums that don’t adhere to this standard songwriting practice than do. So strap in as I talk about yet another structurally experimental release, this drone metal EP by Mythless.

Confession: Metal music isn’t one of my areas of expertise, and I had never intentionally listened to a drone metal project before so I didn’t really know what to expect. I was pleasantly surprised to find a very restrained, emotive group of songs, kind of like a souped up Animal Collective sound. Opening track “Dreadless” kicks things off with a frenetic drumbeat and soft keys to propel things forward slowly, for me this was the weakest off the project because it had this one annoying piano line that kept popping up but the rest of the track was quite good; the vocals have a very intriguing cadence that says as much as the lyrics behind them and the way the drum patterns combine to elevate the song.

It only gets better from there, with closing track Glossless being a particular highlight. It has the slow, characteristic buildup of drone but with a driving pace and exciting horns that propel the track forward in a unique and fun way. The chanting vocals suit this instrumental style perfectly and the unceasing motion of the track makes every line feel like a powerful mantra which is the kind of maximalist vibe that I want to see out of this type of freeform, emotionally charged music.

Drone and its various forms has always felt somewhat unapproachable to me, as I got into music through vocal-focused indie rock and this is structurally different in almost every way. But if you’re like me and want to dip your toe into drone music but don’t know where to start, “We” is a pretty great place to begin, it’s accessible and almost like the pop of ambient music where it takes concepts that are definitely unique to the genre and packages them into short bursts of enjoyment. I know I have a long way to go and that this is a genre I’m by no means an expert on, but I know a good EP when I hear one and this definitely fits the bill.

-Erie

Categories
Blog Music Education

Should We Judge An Album By Its Cover?

While CDs are definitely falling out of favor in our general listening habits, WKNC still receives a healthy amount of CDs, of which the album cover quality tends to…vary substantially. I was just informed I had a mailbox and have begun logging all of my submissions, and a piece of advice I received was that most of the time, you could look at an album cover and not bother listening to it. This was interesting to me, someone who got into music in the streaming era when the album cover is just something in the corner of the screen, but when new favorites were found in record store racks the album cover was basically the only window into what the experience would be.

In particular, the inspiration for this blog was the album “Meatcup Just Snack” by Noodle Muffin. Now, with all due respect to Noodle Muffin, this cover is genuinely hard to look at and, while it did certainly make me curious as to how the music would relate to the weirdly Photoshopped teacup full of meat (that’s a sentence), I would still definitely come in with some negative biases.

But why is that? I like to explore the weirder areas of music, what should an album cover have to do with why I would choose one album over another, or wouldn’t that be enticing for a cover to be as weird as possible. Well, to me there are different kinds of weird, and the kind I like the most is an artistically focused weird. A cover with someone’s severed head framed in stylistic lighting is weird but in a cool, evocative way, while a bad photoshop is, well, a bad photoshop. It’s like if there is a certain level of professionalism in the cover, that will be reflected in the quality of production. Noise pop can sound distorted and intentionally dense on a structural level, but when it’s good there’s a level of care and passion that can be felt through all of that.

I ended up looking into Noodle Muffin and found that the cover might have been more intentional than I initially thought. They’re a band that employs crass humor to craft their songs and are very heavily targeted towards the college radio crowd. Interestingly, despite the surreal nature of the album, I didn’t guess that, something about it told me it was a failure of intention rather than a deliberate aesthetic choice. And after actually listening to the album, it’s genuinely well produced, the band has been around for a decade and knows how to put a track together. I judged an album based on a cover and missed. I guess my punishment is opening more mail.

-Erie

Categories
Weekly Charts

Underground Charts 2/8

mood valiant
1HIATUS KAIYOTEMood ValiantBrainfeeder/Ninja Tune
2ILLISMFamily Over EverythingThe CRWN
3NATIVESON91Come Back Down [EP]Spear Head
4HAVIAH MIGHTYStock ExchangeSelf-Released
5JPEGMAFIALP!EQT
6LAVA LA RUEButter-fly [EP]Marathon
7MCKINLEY DIXONFor My Mama And Anyone Who Look Like HerSpacebomb
8PLANET GIZADon’t Throw Rocks At The Moon [EP]Self-Released
9SERENA ISIOMASensitive [EP]Fashionably Early
10YOUR GRANDPARENTSThru My WindowSelf-Released
Categories
Weekly Charts

Chainsaw Charts 2/8

stangarigel
#ArtistAlbumLabel
1STANGARIGELNa Severe SrdcaSelf-Released
2PENSEES NOCTURNESQuel sale BourreauLES ACTEURS DE L’OMBRE PRODUCTIONS
3TRICKLEBOLTVARIOUS ARTISTSSelf-Released
4NOVA SPEISequentisBam&Co. Heavy
5EMPLOYED TO SERVEConqueringSpinefarm
6RUNDGARDStronghold Of Majestic RuinsSignal Rex
7WHEN THE DEADBOLT BREAKSHope Valley Burns: EulogyElectric Talon
8CARCASSTorn ArteriesNuclear Blast
9PREDICTOR…thus spoke death [EP]Iron Bonehead
10ZETARDevouring DarknessSpirit Coffin