Category: Blog

Categories
Miscellaneous

Five Things I’ve Learned During a Year with Oak City Move

Sara Darwish

A WKNC program that aim to highlight the work and voices of those enacting postivie change, Oak City Move was founded in early February of 2017 by myself and Phian Tran, a recent NC State graduate and WKNC alumna. I had never stepped foot into a radio station, let alone hosted my own show, so I was initially hesitant about working for WKNC. However, I have had a fantastic year with WKNC and our show, so here are five things I’ve learned during Oak City Move’s first year:

  1. People can suck

They won’t always be respectful of the space or your opinions, and will even call you out on your “normie” music. There will always be those that criticize your words and execution on air, and refuse to empathize with the sentiments you share.

  1. But they can also be really great too

The amount of support I’ve received in the past year has been astounding. From strangers to friends and family to WKNC as a whole, there have always been people that have reached out to continue the dialogue we have on air and pushing us forward with our work through their encouragement. WKNC in particular has been supportive of OCM’s message and actions from day one, which I am very grateful for.

  1. There are so many people doing amazing work that you don’t know about

Prior to working on OCM, I was aware of some organizations and individuals that were doing good for their community, but WOW are there a lot! The mediums in which people are doing positive work is super broad, so be sure to check out every avenue you can think of (and then some). My personal favorites of the non-traditional mediums include visual art, agriculture, and music!

  1. There is much more that goes into college radio than you’d think

Before coming to WKNC, whenever I heard the term “DJ”, I envisioned a guy scratching records on a turntable (spoiler alert: that doesn’t happen all that often in the studio). For OCM, we have to brainstorm ideas, reach out to interviewees, plan questions, promote on social media, do the actual show, edit the recording, and put it out to you all! There is also a multitude of other people and responsibilities that go into the success of WKNC.

  1. Students have more power than they think

I think it’s safe to say that on a campus as big as NC State’s, it can be easy to feel small and voiceless. Oak City Move helped me find my voice and my purpose at this school, and I have been exposed to more opportunities and remarkable people in the past year than I have in my previous 17 years of life. I obtained a leadership position within WKNC, became Facebook friends with a member of the North Carolina Senate, and met so many cool people.

You can reach Oak City Move at oakcitymove@gmail.com and listen to past episodes here.

Categories
New Album Review

Album Review: Spooky Two (Spooky Tooth)

image

The song repetition on some Classic Rock stations may lead you to believe that there were only a handful of songs ever produced in the sixties and seventies. But just like modern music, for every top hit song that becomes subject to radio overplay, there are hundreds of undiscovered songs that are arguably just as good in quality. Today, we’ll be looking at one of the more obscure albums of the sixties: Spooky Two by the band Spooky Tooth.

Released in 1969, almost fifty years ago, the second album by the British band Spooky Tooth probably seems like a dinosaur of the past in comparison to contemporary music when judged by age alone. When judged by the listening experience, perhaps the hums of now-vintage keyboards in the background of several of the songs and British blues-rock feel characteristic of the sixties can admittedly make it feel dated on a surface-level. However, “dated” is by no means bad, as this album still provides a unique take on the sounds of the late-sixties.

Tracks:

Waitin’ for the Wind – The drum build-up is an interesting choice for the first song, though the organ-like keyboard soon takes the center stage with a droning riff to back up the vocals. Though not one of the more explicitly dark songs on the album, the opening does an excellent job at setting the darker mood for the rest of the album.

Feelin’ Bad – The first song where the guitar gets a chance to shine as both a solo instrument (though not for long stretches of time) and a backup to the vocal harmonies.

I’ve Got Enough Heartaches – The Soul-esque opening of this track is certainly a surprise compared to the first two tracks. It primarily features piano and vocal harmony, which provides a nice musical contrast to the darker mood of several of the other tracks. Although, the lyrics are not exactly “light”.

Evil Woman – A huge jump back into the darker atmosphere into the album. One of the more popular tracks, it spans an impressive nine minutes. A good portion of the song is based on a standard guitar riff, though being a nine-minute song, it features a two-minute long guitar solo in the middle that does not disappoint.

Lost in My Dream – A quiet beginning with a gradual build-up. The vocals shine here and do a fantastic job of conveying the desperation of the song’s narrator, and the instruments accompany the lyrical chorus using an effective gradual buildup. Perhaps the addition of an actual chorus could be seen as a tad overdramatic to some, but even that does its job at accentuating the bleaker mood of the track.

The Was Only Yesterday – A quintessential blues-rock track.

Better By You, Better Than Me – Possibly their most accessible track and one that’s known for its cover by Judas Priest. It begins with a catchy yet simple solo guitar riff that gradually builds up to the dramatic level of some of their other tracks. The lyrics are certainly grim, though the discreteness of the lyrics and the catchiness of the tune don’t make the lyrical content as obvious on the first listen. Though, this song works extremely well as a whole.

Hangman Hang My Shell on a Tree – Another song where the grim lyrics aren’t obvious from the tone of the song. The vocal style is similar to “I’ve Got Enough Heartaches”, and it could be somewhat easy to forget about the subject matter if not for the dark title.

Overall, despite the age of the album, it still offers a fresh experience with innovative lyrics and song structures. Some of the songs need a couple of listens to truly grow on the listener, but it leaves a satisfaction at the end.

Rating: 7/10

(Double Ten-Thousand)

Categories
Concert Review

Love Your Parents: An Experience Told By Charlie M.A.C.

My ears are still ringing. The waitress from Waffle House just asked me if I was ready to order and the two guys behind the counter are dancing to Daft Punk. After I order my patty melt, I look at my two best friends as they are still buzzing with energy and bright with smiles. We just spent the last hour and forty-five minutes screaming, jumping, and singing to the sounds of Brockhampton.

I’ve been to a lot of concerts in my short lifetime and only 4 of those were rap concerts. I’ve seen Logic (twice), Chance the Rapper, and Drake & Future, all of whom I have been very big fans of for a while now and have passed the “fanboy” phase for those artists. Brockhampton, however, is a different story. I started listening to BH in August and have since then consumed all three of there Saturation albums multiple times. I know all 14 members, the words to most of their songs, and a lot of facts and trivia only a music nerd like me would know. It’s safe to say I am a BH fanboy (BH fans are usually dubbed “dumbasses”) and my fanboy-dom only increased my hype for this concert. Needless to say I was not disappointed at all.

The energy was already in the building as soon as I walked in. Standing in the crowd for an hour waiting for the show to start, I overheard so many conversations about how excited people were. Everywhere I looked, people were smiling and laughing with their friends, just like I was. One of my friends, Henry, went to go buy me and my other friend, Amanda, some merch while we held his spot in the crowd (Nick Holiday was running the merch line which was pretty cool). As more people packed in, Amanda and I became more aware that Henry might not get his spot back. People around us were frantically checking their phones every 2 minutes waiting for 9pm to hit. They actually started around 9:15, which definitely created a lot of suspense. But we were ready. As soon as the lights went down, the crowd went nuts. I can’t even tell you what happened between the lights going down and the beginning of “BOOGIE” (mostly because I rushed out of the crowd for fear of being swallowed and never to be seen again). The next thing I knew, I was jumping up and down, singing the words to “BOOGIE” asking “what were the rules for breakfast today?” I was already running out of breath from jumping and it felt like a sauna inside the Ritz, but it didn’t stop me from belting out every word of every song.

And the energy just kept on going.

This held true even as I continued to rap every single word to Dom McLennon’s verse on “STAR”. Even when I thought I was out of breath, I would look over to other BH fans who were also rapping the verses, and their energy alone helped me continue on. I looked up to see that the Ritz had the ceiling fans on full blast, but the venue staff was still running around trying to get free water to all of the concert goers. Brockhampton was just delivering too much heat (pun intended).

The concert took you just about everywhere. One minute they’re performing “GUMMY” and “SWEET” and it feels like a rap concert. The next, their playing “BUMP” and “QUEER” and it feels like a head banging rock concert. When they played “SISTER” it felt like a heavy-EDM rave party. And when Bearface came out to perform his solo songs “SUMMER” and “EVANIE”, it felt like I was at Coachella with a flower crown on my head. Brockhampton was able to do all of this in under 2 hours and it felt like an exhilarating roller coaster ride that you wanna ride over and over again

I never knew what it meant to burn the house down until I went to this concert. It felt like a raging fire was all around me the entire night. Watching people put their hands to their knees to catch their breath for 2 seconds and continue jumping and down proved that nothing could stop the energy that Brockhampton brought to the crowd. Not even Kevin Abstract’s cold could stop him from performing. And that’s the highlight of the whole concert: the energy. As mentioned before, I’ve listened to all three SATURATION albums more than enough times, but watching the songs I loved performed live brought a whole new energy to them. Much against my personal judgements of living in the moment, I took a few videos while BH performed in hopes that I could capture that energy and save it for later. But it was impossible. I’ve even tried closing my eyes while listening to their songs again to bring myself back to the night of January 29th, 2018, but it still wasn’t good enough. What Brockhampton did in Raleigh, and probably all of their other shows on the Love Your Parents Tour, was incredibly energetic and an experience I have never felt before in my life. And just as the tour name states, I realized how much I love my parents for bringing me into this world so I could witness this amazing event. And just like the members of Brockhampton, experiencing the concert with my two best friends made it so much better.

¡Me llamo Carlitos y Brockhampton es la mejor banda de chicos en el mundo!

Categories
Non-Music News

Oak City Move 32: Diaspoura

Sara interviews Diaspoura, an incredible artist exploring social issues over soothing experimental instrumentals! Be sure to buy your tickets to Double Barrel Benefit 15 so you can catch Diaspoura live on Night 1: https://wknc.org/dbb15

Listen here.

Categories
Music News and Interviews

The Local Beat: Pie Face Girls

The Local Beat: Pie Face Girls 

DJ Sparrow and DJ Whats Her Face interview Pie Face Girls, who will be performing on Night 2 of Double Barrel Benefit 15! Get your DBB 15 tickets at wknc.org/dbb15 and help support our lovely station!

Listen here.

Categories
Music News and Interviews

The Local Beat: RGB

The Local Beat: RGB

DJ Sparrow and DJ Whats Her Face interview RGB, an experimental artist and NC State student who will be playing Night 1 of Double Barrel Benefit 15! Get your DBB 15 tickets at wknc.org/dbb15 and help support our lovely station!

Listen here.

Categories
DJ Highlights

The Saw’s Butcher Shop

What’s up guys! It’s your Master Butcher, The Saw, here, and I would like to welcome you to my Butcher Shop!

This past week and a half, I have done some reconstruction of my show on WKNC’s Chainsaw Rock. I wanted to make it more like an actual show, and have a theme. So, since I play some brutal metal, I needed a brutal theme. Ladies and gentlemen, this is how “The Butcher Shop” came to be. I am still going on air on Friday nights from 10pm-midnight, and you can listen to my show online here. Just click on “MP3” in the “High Quality” section to take part in the butchery in The Saw’s Butcher Shop.

Let me tell you all about the segments of The Butcher Shop. My “Diamond Cuts” are my Metalcore Essentials. I will still be playing my favorite bangers in this spot. The Diamond Cut Saw Blade is my favorite bone cutter; always clean and true. Obviously, it was a perfect fit for my Metalcore segment.

My next segment is my Death Row Cell Block for my homies in the Big House. Since my homies, personally, named this segment, Death Row Cell Block will continue to be this segments name and continue to be The Butcher Shop’s second of the night. I will be playing the chops that my homies have requested to be cut.

Out of my six segments a night, two of them are always new. These are butcher blocks that have certain themes (like songs that talk about flags and banners, bands that are from Australia, metal feels, and any other genre of metal that I decide to play, etc.).  When I introduce a new segment, I will introduce them as my “Choice Cuts,” the freshest selection of Grade A material. 

The next segment is “The Chopping Block,” which are my Death Metal Essentials” This segment gives you an image of what my butcher shop looks like (look at the picture above… I told you it was dark in here). I will be playing new death metal bands and the Old School bands that we all know and love to dissect.

And finally, the last segment of the night, when all the hacking, slicing, skinning, and cutting is done, we enter “The Meat Locker;” my Deathcore Essentials. This is my last segment of the night, so it would only make sense that the last stop on our tour is at my meat locker (BTW, there is no exit). I will be playing the heavy hitters that I have been listening to for the week. It’s a great way to end my show (and leave you… hanging).

Thank you for accompanying me on the tour of my Butcher Shop. Y’all hang tight (because you can’t leave, remember, there is no exit)! It is dark in here, so make sure you watch your limbs and count your digits while hanging around. I am looking forward to seeing you all every Friday night to hang (get it?!) with your favorite college radio DJ in The Saw’s Butcher Shop.

 Stay Metal,

THE SAW 

Categories
DJ Highlights

New Releases of Dec. 2017 / Jan. 2018

The first month of 2018 is almost out the door already, so it’s time to do a recap of some of the coolest releases of the new year! From the looks of it, 2018 is going to be a great year for some fresh sounds and unique styles. There are also some releases from December 2017, but they were just too good to leave behind. There’s quite a bit of diversity of sound in this list, so hopefully there will be something for everybody. Let’s discover some great music, shall we?

  1. Cheetah Tongue – The Wombats

On January 17, The Wombats graciously gave us their third song release and opening track from their upcoming album Beautiful People Will Ruin Your Life (out February 9th). I may be a little biased since The Wombats are one of my favorite bands…but nonetheless, this alternative rock band definitely delivers with the catchy lyrics and upbeat tempo paired with soothing vocals and a dreamy sound. If you like this song be sure to look out for their new album!

Listen here! 

       2. Second Guess (feat. Anuka) – Khamsin

Moving on to some electronic music, artist Khamsin released this single on January 11, hopefully teasing a second album. The track stays true to Khamsin’s genius combinations of simpler instruments such as the electric guitar and piano with a powerful electronic chorus. The vocals are smooth but strong, and partner beautifully with the verses and pre-chorus. If you like this song, you should definitely check out Khamsin’s first album, Leaving (2016).

Listen here! 

       3. Lovespell – Ben Rosett, Eternity Forever

If you’re looking for a new addition to your Math Rock playlist, this track is definitely a winner. The song stays true to its name, incorporating two guitars to carry the song’s sweet and uplifting sound. It was released on January 1st as a single, but from the looks of their past work, there’s a lot more to come. Ben Rosett/Eternity Forever make some great Math Rock, so give them a listen if you enjoy this song!

Listen here! 

       4. Myrmidon – Ark Patrol

When I first heard this song, I was blown away by how strange but good it was! It’s a slow electronic melody, but the mixed verbal and nonverbal vocals are what really dominate the song. The various background notes/effects with psychedelic tunes really make it one of a kind. The track was released as a single on January 4th. If you’re looking to expand the horizons of your music experience, you should give this song a shot. 

Listen here! 

        5. Upside Down – Oliver Tree  Single – Jan. 5, 2018

Fast-paced and full of energy, this track is a lot of fun to listen to. With an indie sound and electric twist, this could be a great pump up/party song. There’s so many sounds and beats that work really well together and are great to dance to.  The single came out on January 5th as his eighth released track. This song put me in a great mood after listening, so hopefully it will do the same for you!

Listen here!

         6. Lights Go Down – Zeds Dead, Jauz

Zeds Dead, the kings of late night driving music, have done it again along with Jauz in creating a track still faithful to the Zeds Dead sound we love. The bass is out of control and the light saber sounds are on point. Every segment of the song sounds great in my opinion, the drop lead up being my favorite. This single was released on December 26, but it’s definitely worthy of making it into 2018.

Listen here!

          7. Rude. – Kaleidoscope – EP Love and Sorrow – December 28, 2017

It’s amazing how true to its name this song is. It’s very hard to describe or categorize, but I would say it borders Lo-fi and electronic music. The melody is somber and beautiful, and the steady beat echoes softly into the music, creating a very peaceful and (may I say) introspective experience. Artist Rude. released this track along with their EP Love & Sorrow on December 28, so there’s more where this came from!

 Listen here!

           8. Coexist – Me(:)i

Need a new addition to your Lo-fi playlist? Here you go! It follows the usual Lo-fi formula, except this song draws from the experience of relaxing at the beach. The light seagull sounds, water drops, and the sound of the waves in the background make the track really enjoyable. This is definitely a song for relaxing, studying or falling asleep. It was released on December 28, and is Me(:)i’s second single.  

 Listen here!

           9. No Surrender Playing With Fire – Hyper

Progressive electronic music is embodied within this track, bringing such fresh sound that I got really confused about exactly where to categorize this song in my brain. Thinking about it, I feel like the electronic sound could be easily replaced with electric guitar and sound great as well. My point is that if you’re into rock music, this might be a good song to try out. The track is included on Hyper’s EP called The Adventures of the Android Kid – Part 2, released on Christmas Eve.

 Listen here!

           10. Flute Loop (ft. Ouici) – Keys N Krates, Ouici

The song took a few times of listening before it grew on me, but now I really appreciate the music along with the clever name. It’s great for expanding your music horizons, since it keeps most of the elements of trap music but adds some really innovative effects. It was released as a single on Christmas.

 Listen here!

Honorable Mentions:

  1. All Your Love – Max Styler  – Single – Released Jan. 5, 2018

Listen here! 

       2. Lift – Oblyx – Single – Released Jan. 1, 2018

 Listen here! 

I’m really looking forward to 2018 and all the new sounds, bands, and sub-genres it will bring. Discovering those hidden gems is what I am aim to do so I can share them all with you! If you enjoyed at least a couple of the songs on this list, then my goal has been achieved! Make sure to look out for next month’s new releases…The Wombats album will be out so it should be good. 🙂

Written by Angela Fluett

Categories
Concert Preview

Sh*t to do this weekend…

Looking for something to do this weekend? Look no further! There are a lot of events happening in and around the triangle and plenty of options for you to go and support your local artists/musicians/weirdos!

On Friday:

Death of Clout at The Wicked Witch (416 West South Street, Raleigh): $5 cover, let me know if you cant swing it but still want to support / 10PM / 21+

https://www.facebook.com/events/558445341168531/

Modular Night #1 at Nightlight Bar & Club (405 W Rosemary St, Chapel Hill): $7 / doors @ 9:00 / music @ 9:30 / all ages

https://www.facebook.com/events/409154989518014/

Party Illegal Presents: PlayPlay’s EP Release Party at The Pinhook (117 W Main St, Durham): $7 / 10PM / 21+

https://www.facebook.com/events/114154346055655/

On Saturday:

First catch Regional Showcase w/ special guest d r o z y  on WKNC at 4:00 PM:

https://www.facebook.com/events/193680311217954/

Then later in the evening…

Inside the Vibe Presents: NOWorNEVER! at Imurj (300 S McDowell St, Raleigh): $5 adv, $10 day of / 9 PM / all ages

https://www.facebook.com/events/175110713249517/

Newman w/ Benny Okoto // XTALS // Drozy at Schoolkids Records (2237 Avent Ferry Rd Ste 101, Raleigh): $5 / 7 PM / all ages

https://www.facebook.com/events/142770843102651/

Tymellord & The Liquid Vision Light Show at Pitt Street Brewing Company (630 S Pitt St, Greenville): Free / 8 PM /

https://www.facebook.com/events/1313785272101044/

Categories
Music News and Interviews

Ticket Giveaways 1/22/18

Here are some tickets we are giving away this week! Make sure you’re listening to get a chance to win!

The Nude Party, Drag Sounds, and Reese McHenry & The Fox @ King’s, Saturday January 27th

Destroyer and Mega Bogg @ Cat’s Cradle, Tuesday January 30th

Live Nation Presents: Big Head Todd and the Monsters @ The Ritz, Thursday February 1st