WKNC 88.1 FM - North Carolina State University Student Radio
| Artist | Record | Label | |
| 1 | BUTCHER BROWN | #KingButch | Concord Jazz |
| 2 | CAKES DA KILLA, PROPER VILLAINS | Muvaland [EP] | Classic Company |
| 3 | MASEGO | Studying Abroad [EP] | Capitol |
| 4 | PLANET GIZA | Don’t Throw Rocks At The Moon [EP] | Self-Released |
| 5 | RICO NASTY | Nightmare Vacation | Sugar Trap |
| 6 | AJ TRACEY | Flu Game | West 10 |
| 7 | FAT TONY | Exotica | Carpark |
| 8 | GREENTEA PENG | Man Made | EMI |
| 9 | SHYGIRL | ALIAS [EP] | Because |
| 10 | PINK SIIFU AND FLY ANAKIN | FlySiifu’s | Lex |
| Artist | Record | Label | |
| 1 | CARIBOU | Suddenly Remixes | Merge |
| 2 | LEON VYNEHALL | Rare, Forever | Ninja Tune |
| 3 | MAGDALENA BAY | Mini Mix Vol. 2 [EP] | Luminelle |
| 4 | ROCHELLE JORDAN | Play With The Changes | Young Art |
| 5 | BICEP | Isles (Deluxe) | Ninja Tune |
| 6 | BLUE HAWAII | Under 1 House [EP] | Arbutus |
| 7 | CECILE BELIEVE | Plucking A Cherry From The Void | Self-Released |
| 8 | CFCF | Memoryland | Self-Released |
| 9 | DREAMWEAVER | Cloud9 | MagicCrafters |
| 10 | FIT OF BODY | Punks Unavailable [EP] | 2MR |
TOP CHARTS
| Artist | Record | Label | |
| 1 | JAPANESE BREAKFAST | Jubilee | Dead Oceans/Secretly Group |
| 2 | EX OLYMPIC | XO | Self-Released |
| 3 | LOUNGE SOCIETY, THE | Silk For The Starving [EP] | Speedy Wunderground/PIAS |
| 4 | BACHELOR | Doomin’ Sun | Polyvinyl |
| 5 | SHYGIRL | ALIAS [EP] | Because |
| 6 | MAN ON MAN | Man On Man | Polyvinyl |
| 7 | HIATUS KAIYOTE | Mood Valiant | Brainfeeder/Ninja Tune |
| 8 | BLACK MIDI | Cavalcade | Rough Trade/Beggars |
| 9 | TOBI | Elements Vol. 1 | Same Plate/RCA |
| 10 | FREDDIE GIBBS AND MADLIB | Piñata (Deluxe Edition) | Madlib Invazion |
| 11 | ILLUMINATI HOTTIES | “Pool Hopping” [Single] | Snack Shack Tracks/Hopeless |
| 12 | KING GIZZARD AND THE LIZARD WIZARD | Butterfly 3000 | KGLW |
| 13 | FAT TONY | Exotica | Carpark |
| 14 | JEWELER | Tiny Circles | Self-Released |
| 15 | L’RAIN | Fatigue | Mexican Summer |
| 16 | LAVA LA RUE | Butter-fly [EP] | Marathon |
| 17 | PLANET GIZA | Don’t Throw Rocks At The Moon [EP] | Self-Released |
| 18 | A PLACE TO BURY STRANGERS | Hologram [EP] | Self-Released |
| 19 | BUTCHER BROWN | #KingButch | Concord Jazz |
| 20 | CHAD VANGAALEN | World’s Most Stressed Out Gardener | Sub Pop |
| 21 | DAWN RICHARD | Second Line | Merge |
| 22 | SQUID | Bright Green Field | Warp |
| 23 | FLYING LOTUS | Yasuke | Warp |
| 24 | DRY CLEANING | New Long Leg | 4AD/Beggars Group |
| 25 | GOAT GIRL | On All Fours | Rough Trade/Beggars |
| 26 | HELVETIA | Essential Aliens | Joyful Noise |
| 27 | POM POM SQUAD | Death Of A Cheerleader | City Slang |
| 28 | JULIEN BAKER | Little Oblivions | Matador/Beggars Group |
| 29 | ORMISTON | Hammer Down | Lisbon Lux |
| 30 | RHYE | Home | Loma Vista |
TOP ADDS
| Artist | Record | Label | |
| 1 | SPELLLING | The Turning Wheel | Sacred Bones |
| 2 | SNAPPED ANKLES | Forest Of Your Problems | Leaf |
| 3 | TASHAKI MIYAKI | Castaway | Metropolis |
| 4 | PEARLY | Mellon [EP] | Eto Ano |
| 5 | SEND MEDICINE | By Telepathy And Reputation | Very Possible |
| 6 | BABEHOVEN | Nastavi, Calliope [EP] | Self-Released |
| 7 | TURNSTILE | TURNSTILE LOVE CONNECTION [EP] | Roadrunner |
| 8 | COMA CULTURE | Camouflage | Repost Network/Gourmet |
| 9 | DEUCE | DEUCE | Dinosaur City |
| 10 | SLEEPMAKESWAVES | These Are Not Your Dreams | Bird’s Robe |
| Artist | Record | Label | |
| 1 | WINTER ETERNAL | Land Of Darkness | Hell’s Headbangers |
| 2 | CRYPTA | Echoes Of The Soul | Napalm |
| 3 | DISTANT | Aeons Of Oblivion | Unique Leader |
| 4 | HAMMER KING | Hammer King | Napalm |
| 5 | GOATS OF DOOM | Shiva | Purity Through Fire |
| 6 | BURNING WITCHES | The Witch Of The North | Nuclear Blast |
| 7 | SCHISMOPATHIC | The Human Legacy | SelfMadeGod |
| 8 | MONSTER MAGNET | A Better Dystopia | Napalm |
| 9 | SLAUGHTER TO PREVAIL | “Baba Yaga” [Single] | Sumerian |
| 10 | BORN OF OSIRIS | “White Nile” [Single] | Sumerian |
This is part three of a series on the birth of avant-garde music. You can read this article alone or view part one here.
Last time we covered some music that wasn’t very good, this week we’re going one further to discuss some music that isn’t very music. Yup, in the 1940s and 50s classical music lost its mind and the boundary between high art and experimental was all but erased. Hope you like four minutes of utter silence and naked people playing the cello with guitar picks, because it’s time to talk about John Cage and Fluxus.
So, my main criticism of modernism was that it didn’t untether itself fully from the classical tradition. This was a fairly common criticism, especially as early modernists like Schoenberg who retained some sense of harmony gave way to incredibly complex, mathematical composition methods like Stochastic Music and Markov Chains. Classical music was rapidly turning into a race to the bottom for who could create the most mathematically intricate yet aesthetically bankrupt composition method. A change was sorely needed.
Long ago, my main interest in music heavily focused on pop music. While there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that, (stuff is usually popular for a reason) my music taste has really strayed away from that as I’ve gotten older. I recently found a picture of an old journal entry from when I was 16 that chronicled my favorite albums from the time, and I wanted to reminisce on them and share how I feel about them nowadays.
I still deeply love this album, and revisit it annually, but it’s no longer in constant rotation like it used to be. Bleachers was a gateway into more of the “indie” music that I am into nowadays. This album will forever be my favorite thing that Jack Antonoff has put his magic touch on.
This journal entry is from June of 2018, and that album came out in late May 2018. I most likely last listened to that album in August of 2018. It was definitely a temporary love, but I remember it being good pop music.
This album definitely is a product of its time. It just feels very 2016. It was one of the first albums I ever deeply fell in love with, and eventually even went on to see Jon Bellion in concert. It’s definitely not something I would still listen to nowadays, but it meant a lot to me back then.
This is still one of my favorite albums of all time. If you like “Brazil,” the most popular song off of this album, then you should definitely give the rest a listen.
This isn’t even their best album (in my opinion their first album takes the cake). Again, definitely not something I currently listen to, but it was important to me back then.
This is an extremely underrated pop album. While I rarely ever revisit nowadays, I still love it dearly. Maybe the nostalgia I have associated with this album makes me see it through rose-colored glasses, but it was the first album I properly listened to from beginning to end all on my own.
This is another underrated pop album, and I don’t think nostalgia is fueling my views this time. Broods’ 2019 release “Don’t Feed The Pop Monster” is an album I revisit more often than this one, but both are amazing and in my opinion, stand the test of time.
This is the best pop album of the 2010s. I felt that way then, and I still feel that way now.
I remember wanting to make both sides of the list even, so I kind of added this one as a last-ditch effort. I loved this album in 2013, but I seldom revisited it when I wrote this entry 3 years ago and don’t now.
What I said about “+” applies here, except I do revisit this one nowadays.
There isn’t anything wrong with the albums I don’t listen to anymore, they just belong in that period of my life. I can’t help but wonder what I’ll think of my current favorite albums three years from now. Only time will tell.
Until next time,
Caitlin
Okay, this topic is a little bit of a landmine, but you may have noticed that Courtney Love has been floating around in the news lately. We here at WKNC aren’t usually much for covering straight-up celebrity gossip, but the history of Love’s public image is personally fascinating to me, and the topic seems to be floating back into relevance for the first time in decades. We’ll try to keep things mostly above board.
Let’s start with the story that got this article rolling. Olivia Rodrigo, pop princess extraordinaire, has a concert film coming up, and for the promotional image, she recreated Love’s classic “Live Through This,” album art. That is a pretty cool callback, Rodrigo’s music is a teeny-bopper version of Love’s in a lot of ways, especially “Good 4 U,” and it’s nice to see her promoting a classic album by a pioneer of female-led rock.
Courtney Love did not agree with that assessment.
Yes, Love took to Instagram, remarking that it was rude for her and the photographer to not be consulted, and despite Rodrigo vocally stanning her, was generally dismissive and unhappy with her. This is, at least arguably, defensible, at least in the abstract, but reading what Love actually wrote left me confused. In fact, everything on Love’s social media left me kinda confused and put off. So, let’s talk about Courtney Love, and the past, present and future of her public image.
ALBUM: “Hello Sir” by Lung Leg
RELEASE YEAR: 1997
LABEL: Kill Rock Stars
RATING: 8/10
BEST TRACKS: “Pop Punk Travesty,” “Kung Fu on the Internet” and “Butt Sister”
FCC: None
“This ain’t pop, it’s punk rock!”
The main vocalist of the 1994 riot grrrl band, Lung Leg, screams this lyric during the first track, “Pop Punk Travesty”. Jane McKeown (“Jane Egypt”) on bass and vocals, Annie Spandex and Maureen Quinn (“Mo Mo”) on guitar and vocals, and Amanda Doorbar (“Jade Green”) on drums, make up this punk powerhouse. The quartet formed in Glasgow, Scotland and took influence from dance rock, art punk, new wave and other riot grrrl bands.
Although they never reached the levels of fame most bands aspire to, Lung Leg was a feature of the 90s Scottish punk scene. They toured and made their mark on a male-dominated industry. To this day, they are revered for the punk spirit they embodied in their music and stage presence. They disbanded in 1999 with the members finding or creating new musical projects.
“Hello Sir” is a compilation of two of Lung Leg’s underground EP’s. The album is 12 songs, each of which is less than 2 minutes long. All of the tracks are witty, fast-paced, and will have you scouring the internet for more.
My favorite tracks on the album are “Pop Punk Travesty”, “Kung Fu on the Internet” and “Butt Sister”. However, every song has its quirks and is endlessly listenable. I don’t think I will ever get tired of this album. Throw this on the queue and blast it through your car’s speakers. “Hello Sir” is the perfect album to pair with road rage.
-DJ lil witch
Faye Webster isn’t a huge star right now, but she definitely deserves to be. Her latest album is a triumph, and it’s exciting to see her get both critical attention and actual commercial success from it, as it’s currently on Billboard’s Heat Seekers and folk charts. So let’s get to know Faye Webster, and see what she has to say for herself.
Webster is, first and foremost, a country musician. Based out of the ATL, she has a very retro countrypolitan sound reminiscent of Emmylou Harris, Patsy Cline and Linda Ronstadt. 70s pop country is uncool both within country music, where it garnered a pretty big backlash for selling out, and outside of country where it’s mostly been written out of pop history. But for several years, country musicians were having number one albums getting multiple pop hits a year by being just aggressively sad.
Webster has forgone the pop hits and success, but boy can she be sad with the best of them. She takes the twang out of her voice and relocates to some deeply melancholy lyrics (and some great slide guitars). Her album “I know I’m funny haha,” is perhaps the best indication of what kind of artist she is. It makes her music engaging and beautiful, but in a way that’s not much fun to talk about. If you’ve heard any indie folk, you know what to expect.
Her last album, “Atlanta Millionaires Club,” however, yields a few more interesting details. The album is a tribute to the musical history of Atlanta, both White and Black. The default instrumental palate is a fusion of her countrypolitan aesthetic with classic 70s soul, a fusion that works so well I’m honestly surprised it’s not done more often. There’s even a token country rap song, which, despite not really blowing me out of the water personally, beats the heck out of Florida Georgia Line and Luke Bryan.
So, if you want to know where to start, I might suggest listening to a few of her top songs on Spotify, then hitting up the new album when you’re feeling a little blue. Fusions of country and indie are just getting better and better these days, and Faye Webster is an excellent addition to that trend.
Molly DuBois, a.k.a. WKNC Program Director and DJ Mothball, is one of my favorite DJs and people around. Last night, I was lucky enough to join her in the studio for her weekly set. This week’s show, titled “Wash”, featured tracks from Stereolab, Cocteau Twins and Primal Scream. The set started at 8 p.m. and ran for about an hour with 12 songs and two air breaks. Molly set the in-studio atmosphere by changing the lights from blue to purple and giving me time to look at the various whiteboards, bulletin boards, and images that covered the walls. Doodles, notes, quotes and band posters surrounded us throughout the night. There’s nothing quite as simultaneously exciting and calming as being inside a WKNC studio during a set, especially if you get to go with DJ Mothball. Thanks again, Molly, for letting me join you. If you missed her set, check it out below and make sure you tune in to 88.1 every Wednesday at 8 p.m.:
1. “Golden Ball” by Stereolab
2. “Peaked” by Sd Laika
3. “A Dance By Any Other Name” by Mice Parade
4. “Another Routine Day Breaks” by Brokeback
5. “Trying to Reach You” by Mojave 3
6. “Taglieben” by Guther
7. “Constants Are Changing” by Boards of Canada
8. “Schöne Hände” by Cluster, Eno
9. “Why Do You Love Me?” by Cocteau Twins, Harold Budd
10. “Mary” by Jessica Bailiff
11. “Higher Than the Sun – A Dub Symphony in Two Parts” by Primal Scream
12. “Sado-Masochism Is A Must” by A.R. Kane
Here’s to Mothballs and Music,
Silya Bennai