Category: Blog

Categories
Playlists

Friday Favorites 6/12

As the Black Lives Matter movement continues to rally support across the world, I have aimed to shift my content focus onto the movement. Thus, for this week’s installment of my Friday Favorites segment, I have chosen songs by black artists that reflect the spirit of the movement and remind us what we’re fighting for. 

Sandra’s Smile – Blood Orange 

A really powerful, haunting ode to victims of police violence, specifically in reference to Sandra Bland and Trayvon Martin, and their families. Blood Orange vocalist Dev Hynes reflected on being “inconsolable” after Bland’s death and the track reflects this. 

Alright – Kendrick Lamar 

This song is one of the most memorable from the iconic album To Pimp A Butterfly. Beyond the surface of the track as a catchy rap song is Lamar’s reflection on the treatment of black Americans including police brutality and identity conflicts caused by mistreatment. The hook to the song repeats “We gon’ be alright,” asserting that despite suffering, we will survive through solidarity. 

Mad (ft. Lil Wayne) – Solange 

Solange has created a breadth of music relating to the experiences of a black woman in America, especially highlighted in this track. It reflects the injustices of the system combined with the inability of non-black individuals to understand these issues and the frustration felt by the black community. 

Be Free – J. Cole 

This song addresses the continued discrimination of black Americans, beginning with slavery and continuing with mass incarceration, police brutality, and oppression. Cole includes a chilling testimony by Dorian Johnson, who witnessed his friend being shot multiple times by police. 

Freedom (ft. Kendrick Lamar) – Beyoncé 

Beyoncé’s Lemonade was focused around the struggles and emotions of the black woman. This song specifically focuses on liberation. Even within the current movement, the struggles of black women are largely underrepresented. Beyoncé calls us to action in rallying behind the Black Lives Matter and actively working against oppression and injustice. 

I hope you all were informed by this list. As usual, you can find all of my Friday Favorites at WKNC’s Spotify page, including this week’s new additions. 

– Miranda

Categories
Music News and Interviews

New Tunes From May

 

In this series, I try to highlight some of my favorite tunes I listened to this month. May was another month full of new releases, but here are just a few that I find myself going back to a lot.

Was It Something I Said (feat. Cavetown) by MyKey – I love how this song has a very old school sound to it. The music instantly comes out sounding very 60s(?) influenced, the guitars and violin make it a soothing trip back in time. The album art also reflects this ‘classic’ style. The song is definitely a heartbroken tune, and the music makes it feel incredibly authentic. The collaboration was brilliantly done, as the two artists’ voices mesh well together.

Dance Alone by Blanks – Blanks is an Indie pop artist and his music is incredibly catchy and fun to sing along to. The artist made a lyric video for youtube where he said ‘Got bored in quarantine so I wrote a song’. The song is the perfect tune to dance to if you ever feel a bit lonely during this time. The hook is catchy and fun; and the guitars, bass and drums really make the song hard not to dance along to. 

Social Drinker by Ballyhoo! – It’s been a while since I’ve listened to this artist, but I was really excited after my first listen to this song. I find the lyrics are extremely relatable. The singer talks about social pressures often associated with drinking, and how hard growing out of this can be. The artist is over avoiding their problems and always turning to drinking. ‘Save me from myself’ is a lyric that reflects how the artist knows that they are responsible for themselves and what they choose to do, but that they understand their environment contributes to these choices. The song also reflects the struggles associated with growing up.

I would love to know what your favorite picks from May were, definitely let me know!

A full playlist to even more new tunes can be found here

– DJ Psyched

Categories
Music Education

Let’s Get Psyched About Piano: Scales

 

Scales may not always be the most exciting thing to learn about, most people would much rather just learn easy songs to start (that’s definitely my favorite way), but given how foundational they are to understanding an instrument and the basics of music theory, they’re a good place to go once you have the initial basics down. I did a blog post on ‘Learning the Basics’ a little while ago, it will be linked below for reference if you need it. 

What are scales? 

Scales are the ‘tonal base of music’ and are composed of ‘tones from which you can build melodies and harmonies’. Basically, they provide you with notes that sound good together. 

On a related note, a ‘Key’ is a group of pitches or a scale that are used in a composition of music. So while a key and a scale aren’t exactly the same thing, we do use scales for our keys, so when we see a piece of music and find it’s in, for example, ‘the key of C’ we already know what notes will likely be in the piece, because we know the scale of C. Knowing scales is also useful when you start composing or improvising.

Half steps and whole steps:

The distance between notes and keys on a piano are called ‘Steps’. Visually a whole step on a piano is when two notes have a key between them. If two keys are right next to each other it is a half step (as seen in the image below). 

Major Scales are based on the pattern above. 

Whole, Whole, Half, Whole, Whole, Whole, Half (commonly written: W W H W W W H)

The C Scale is the easiest to perform because it includes only white keys. Since the pattern just so happens to work that way. But other scales, such as the D Major Scale, will include black keys. It still follows the same system of whole and half steps, but starting at D. So, if we follow the D a whole step we get E, and another whole step, meaning two keys over, is an F#. Then the next key, our first half step, is a G.

All major scales follow this pattern.

 

We play scales starting from the first note and down until we get to the same not in the next octave. So we go from C all the way down to C again, and then you play it backwards.

Now you know all the keys in a C major and D major scale, so you can improvise with these notes!

Next time we’ll look at minor scales,

Stay Psyched about learning piano,

– DJ Psyched

Learning the Basics blog post 

Categories
Weekly Charts

Daytime Charts 6/9

Artist Record Label
1 LADY LEGS Off Days Communicating Vessels
2 MOMMA Two Of Me Danger Collective
3 MINI TREES Slip Away [EP] Self-Released
4 PEACH PIT You And Your Friends Columbia
5 EMILY ROCKARTS Little Flower Self-Released
6 ROSE CITY BAND Summerlong Thrill Jockey
7 TAMBINO Summerlong Self-Released
8 DAKOTA THEIM Somewhere Under The Sun Self-Released
9 JAUNT All In One Self-Released
10 SIMEN LYNGROTH Muse Self-Released
11 ROOKIE Rookie Bloodshot
12 WHY BONNIE Voice Box [EP] Fat Possum
13 MARINARA I Feel Like Dog Self-Released
14 STEVEN DAYVID MCKELLAR Ethio Sonic Ritual
15 ROSEY DUST Keep for Life Self-Released
16 LASER BACKGROUND Evergreen Legend Self-Released
17 YUMI ZOUMA Truth Or Consequences Polyvinyl
18 HEY CHELS Everything Goes Self-Released
19 HELADO NEGRO"I Fell In Love" feat. Xenia Rubinos [Single] Super
20 KOKO NEETZ I.T.T.I.P. Admirable Traits
21 MY UGLY CLEMENTINE Vitamin CInk
22 PORRIDGE RADIO Every Bad Secretly Canadian/Secretly Group
23 FLAT WORMS Antarctica God?
24 FRANKIE COSMOS Close It Quietly Sub Pop
25 HELLO FOREVER Whatever It Is Self-Released
26 JAPANESE WALLPAPER Glow Nettwerk
27 RACOMA This Front Room Self-Released
28 NATION OF LANGUAGE Introduction, Presence Self-Released
29 TONNE Bridey Murphy [EP] Self-Released
30 PALEHOUND Black Friday Polyvinyl

TOP ADDS

1 HOLY HIVE Float Back To You Big Crown
2 PINEWOOD All Things With Symmetry [EP ]Self-Released
3 ZELMA STONE Dreamland [EP] Self-Released
4 ROLLING BLACKOUTS COASTAL FEVER Sideways To New Italy Sub Pop
5 WOODS Strange To Explain Woodsist
6 MANGO FURS, THE Inner Migrations Self-Released
7 JR JR August And Everything Prior [EP ]Love Is EZ
8 COMMUNIST SEX “Compilation Of You” [Single] Self-Released
9 RELIANT TOM Play & Rewind. Diversion
10. SCHOOL OF X Armlock Tambourhinoceros

Categories
Weekly Charts

Underground Charts 6/9

Artist Record Label
1 EARTHGANG Mirrorland Dreamville/Interscope
2 PAT JUNIOR I Thought I Knew Be Absxlute
3 BROCKHAMPTON Ginger Question Everything/RCA
4 CASHINOVA Big Dragon Stophouse
5 YOUNG THUG So Much Fun 300/Atlantic
6 DENZEL CURRY Zuu Loma Vista/Concord
7 YOUNG RJ AND MEGA RAN 2HANDSUP Ne’Astra
8 ANDERSON.PAAK Ventura Aftermath
9 TYLER THE CREATOR Igor Columbia
10 REASON"Trapped In" [Single] Top Dawg

Categories
Weekly Charts

Afterhours Charts 6/9

Artist Record Label
1 CHRISTINE AND THE QUEENS La Vita Nuova [EP] Because/Capitol
2 YEULE Serotonin II Bayonet
3 KEDR LIVANSKIY Your Need 2MR
4 OURI We Share Our Blood Remixes Ghostly International
5 HOT CHIPA Bath Full Of Ecstasy Domino
6 DEATON CHRIS ANTHONY BO Y Self-Released
7 COWGIRL CLUE Icebreaker Vada Vada
8 DANCE SYSTEM Wind ‘Em Up (Radio Version) [EP ]Monkeytown
9. SONNIKU, LIZ, SOPHIE"Sweat (Sophie Remix)“ [Single] Bella Union
10 GRIMES Miss Anthropocene 4AD/Beggars Group

Categories
Weekly Charts

Chainsaw Charts 6/9

Artist Record Label
1 CURRENTS The Way It Ends SharpTone
2 MAKE THEM SUFFER “Soul Decay” [Single] Rise
3 CARNIFEX “Cursed” [Single] Nuclear Blast
4 FIT FOR AN AUTOPSY"Fear Tomorrow" [Single] Nuclear Blast
5 HOLEHEARTED Hivemind Redzone
6 KNOCKED LOOSE A Different Shade Of Blue Pure Noise
7 CREEPING DEATH Wretched Illusions eOne
8 GATECREEPER Deserted Relapse
9 THE GHOST INSIDE The Ghost Inside Epitaph
10 DESERTION “Imperfection” [Single] Self-Released

Categories
Miscellaneous

Get Psyched Podcast Episode Highlight: DIY Series ft. The Saw

Photo by Courtney Breen 

Erika aka ‘The Saw’ is a DJ at WKNC and has also been the Chainsaw music director for over three years now. She’s worked multiple other positions including Content Creator and Content Manager. As NACC’s DJ of the month for June 2019, The Saw has also emceed the State Fair and introduced Between the Buried and in 2018. Also in 2019, she taught 2 workshops at the CBI convention! The Saw’s work is endless also including interviewing bands, writing blog posts for WKNC and a personal website, hosting ‘The Saw’s Electric Chair Heavy Metal Podcast’, and so much more.

In this episode, The Saw gives us insight into how she got into metal and how it set her on her current path. Both her parents are metalheads who met in a mosh pit, “it’s in my roots” she said. The DJ was also exposed to metal through her older brothers and cousins who were in local bands and was involved with the scene since she was 8. At age 14 she went to her first Carolina Rebellion. “This is where I’m supposed to be, this is where I belong,” she said she knew this as soon as the show started “it filled a void in my heart,” after this she said “metal was always there for me.”

As far as getting into working at WKNC the DJ says her father told her about the station and suggested she try out DJing Chainsaw. She said she had no idea before and when she checked she saw that no one was currently in the genre. This is where she decided to fill the gap and started her mission to share metal with more people and make sure people see how special the genre is.

This is where Erika’s mission comes in. “There’s a stigma that metalheads are mean and you can’t talk to them” she says. “The music might sound one way but the people are very kind.” Erika wants to show people the truth behind the genre and that there’s no need to stigmatize or judge based on how the music might sound. Since metal got her out of a rut, she wants to do anything she can to give back to the music. She says metal is an underground genre right now, so she wants to do all she can to shine some light on the genre and the bands in it, “I wouldn’t be here without the local bands.” This is why The Saw started ‘The Bone Cruncher,’ her local metal segment at WKNC. This helped ‘The Butcher Shop,’ gain another segment and that is when The Saw took off. 

As I mentioned, The Saw has a website, attached below, this is where she showcases all of her work. She plans to use the site to continue her work after college, using it as a ground base. She soon realized “I can really do something with this website.” She considers all of these platforms a way to show off all the band’s hard work, and she enjoys her role in the community. Especially being able to support these bands. She said she loves “seeing the community come together” and that “the DIY scene in all genres, it’s all helping one another out.” She’s participated in many benefit shows (Crowdkill for Cancer and WKNC’s First Chainsaw Show where she emceed) and says seeing the people come together is really what makes it worth it and what keeps her going. She enjoys the friendship and commodity of the scene. “You can be happy, metal isn’t that sad to be honest.”

As The Saw says “I’ve been a metalhead my entire life, it’s a lifestyle for me,” “my blood type is type o-negative, (which is) a metal band… that’s not a coincidence.”

The Saw’s Butcher Shop Website 

– “You can’t get rid of DJ Psyched and The Saw”

DJ Psyched 

Categories
New Album Review

ALBUM REVIEW: CLIFFFS – Panic Attack

ALBUM REVIEW: CLIFFFS – Panic Attack

BEST TRACKS: You Are Freaking Out, Panic Attack, Tilt

FCC Clean

CLIFFFS is a lively three-piece band from Dallas, Texas that brings an unparalleled sense of purity to the scene, taking garage punk back to its roots. I love three-piece bands for their simplicity. A guitar, a bass, and drums are all anyone really needs to make an astounding punk album. Four years ago, CLIFFFS released Bill, You’re Only Human, an album about which there is very little to complain about, to say the least, except that it lacked the element of passion and fury I seek in a punk album. What CLIFFFS’ debut album lacked, their sophomore album, Panic Attack, has in abundance. Panic attack shows the immense growth of the band over 4 years and leaves me eagerly awaiting to see what CLIFFFS has in store next.

Panic Attack exhibits fast, slightly surf rock-esque guitar riffs and solid, grounding baselines. The fourth track, ‘You Are Freaking Out’ is my favorite, sounding dark and urgent. The rises and falls of intensity in this song are masterful, starting out with a nervous, anticipatory riff that then gets propelled into a cathartic climax by thrashing drums and elevated vocals. Other tracks, such as ‘Tilt’ and ‘Life’ are less dark, having brighter melodies, and are truer to the legacies of the OG garage punk gods like Descendants and All. Punk albums have a bad habit of sounding messy and unpolished. Panic Attack is a punk album that is very cleanly put together and puts a focus on melody, making the music sound passionate, powerful, and beautiful- not just loud and noisy.

A common theme throughout this album is anxiety, as the album title might suggest. True to this theme, Panic Attack fills me up with nervous energy (in only the best way). This short, 13 track, 24 minute album makes me want to get out of the house and shred some asphalt- the sign of a truly excellent punk album.

I recommend CLIFFFS if you like bands like Descendants, All, the Frights, and the Orwells.

-Safia

Categories
Band/Artist Profile

Band of the Week: Led Zeppelin

Led Zeppelin is one of those bands that everybody knows. They opened the door for many bands after them. Even though their music was released in the 1970s, their music sounds as if it was released in this day and age. There is something about Led Zeppelin’s music that moves me. It relates to me in a way that other bands do not. The rawness of their music and the talent that all the members had created an amazing band. My mom used to listen to Led Zeppelin all the time and played them when I was little. At a young age I was introduced to this band and 21 years later, I still listen to them on a daily basis. I would also argue that the style in which Led Zeppelin played influenced metal and opened the door for metal bands. I think this because when listening to Led Zeppelin, it’s dark. The music, the lyrics, and the overall vibe is dark, and this is where I believe it correlates to metal. Led Zeppelin’s music may not be as fast, heavy, and technical as today’s bands, but they all have that overall theme of darkness.

Led Zeppelin were an English rock band formed in London in 1968. The group consisted of Robert Plant (vocalist), Jimmy Page (guitarist), John Paul Jones (bassist), and John Bonham (drums). With their heavy guitar driven sound, they are regularly cited as one of the pioneers of heavy metal, although their influences included a variety of blues and folk music. When looking at the members of Led Zeppelin, they had a super-group. By a super-group I mean that each member is the best at their instrument. You had four extremely talented musicians that formed a band and this was a force to be reckoned with. With so much talent also comes hardships and struggles. There are positive and negative factors when having such a talented band like Led Zeppelin.

After changing their name from New Yardbirds, Led Zeppelin signed a deal with Atlantic Records, although they were unpopular with critics, they achieved commercial success with eight studio albums. Page wrote most of Led Zeppelin’s music while Plant supplied the lyrics. The latter half of Led Zeppelin’s career saw a series of record-breaking tours and had fans all around the world.

Things were coming to an end during the late 1970s and the group disbanded following the death of their drummer John Bonham. There have been many successful reunion shows with Bonham’s son (Jason) on drums.

Led Zeppelin is known to be one of the most successful bands due to their sales success, fame, and talent. They influenced many hard rock and metal bands such as Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, Queen, Aerosmith, Megadeth, Tool, Dream Theater, the Ramones, Smashing Pumpkins, Nirvana, Sound Garden, and Pearl Jam.

When watching Breaking the Band on Reelz tv channel, they did a segment on Led Zeppelin which lead me to write a post about them. A fun fact that I learned was that Jimmy Page was interested in the occult and black magic. The symbols on their album release in 1971 have been argued to be black magic symbols. Some of the symbols are used to describe Egyptian Gods and Goddesses. Jimmy Page said that he believed Led Zeppelin’s success of their release, Led Zeppelin IV (1971) and the hit song off that album, Stairway to Heaven, was because of the use of these symbols and the magic behind them.

Discography:

Led Zeppelin (1969)

Led Zeppelin II (1969)

Led Zeppelin III (1970)

Led Zeppelin IV (1971)

House of the Holy (1973)

Physical Graffiti (1975)

Presence (1976)

In Through the Out Door (1979)

Coda (1982)


Favorite Songs:

Kashmir

Stairway to Heaven

Black Dog

Ramble On

Babe I’m Gonna Leave You

When the Levee Breaks

What are some of your favorite Led Zeppelin songs?

Stay Metal,

THE SAW