Category: Blog

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Music News and Interviews

NORTH CAROLINA MUSIC HALL OF FAME ANNOUNCES 2016 INDUCTEES

The North Carolina Music Hall of Fame in Kannapolis, N.C. has announced this year’s eight inductees! Check out this list of some of NC’s finest musicians: 

The Avett Brothers – folk rock/bluegrass/Americana, from Concord, NC.

Band of Oz – popular pioneer Beach music band, from Raleigh, NC.

Chuck Brown (deceased) – funk guitarist known as the “Godfather of Go-go,” from Gaston, NC.

Rhiannon Giddens & The Carolina Chocolate Drops – Grammy award winning old time string band, from Greensboro and Durham, NC.

Percy Heath (deceased) – jazz musician/bassist and member of the Modern Jazz Quartet, born in Wilmington, NC.

David Holt – Grammy Award winning folk musician & story teller who appears regularly on PBS television, from Asheville, NC.

Kellie Pickler – country vocalist and American Idol contestant, born in Albemarle, NC.

Ron Tyson – longtime member of the Temptations, from Monroe, NC.

Categories
Weekly Charts

WKNC Top 5 Ads: March 1st

1. YUCK – Stranger Things – Mame
2. JAWBREAKER REUNION – Haha And Then What – Miscreant
3. DAY WAVE – Headcase/Hard To Read – Grand Jury
4. VIOLENT FEMMES – We Can Do Anything – Pias
5. DEAR TRACKS – Soft Dreams [EP] – Track And Field

Categories
Music News and Interviews

Ray LaMontagne Giveaway !

Thanks to Live Nation for approving us to give away tickets for Ray LaMontagne at Red Hat Amphitheater in Raleigh on July 15th! Grammy award winning, Ray LaMontagne (Lā-Mon-Tain) will be touring with a full band (including members of My Morning Jacket) to support his new album Ouroboros. Tickets go on sale this Friday, March 4th, but WKNC DJs will be giving them away every day this week! Make sure to keep it locked to 88.1 all week for a chance to win tickets to this sweet show! 

Categories
Music News and Interviews

Earthly Interview: Double Barrel Benefit

Sometimes music is better described using objects, colors, and feelings rather than sounds. When listening to Earthly, you picture yourself skiing down the sides of red, blue, and yellow ice cream cones, falling onto a rubbery drum set and slingshotting back to that one class field trip in elementary school when you caught a crawfish by hand.

DJ iCloud caught up with Edaan and Brint of Earthly, who played WKNC’s Double Barrel Benefit Night 2. They talk about some of Earthly’s beginnings, inspirations, and future plans for the project.​

Listen here

Categories
Weekly Charts

WKNC 88.1 FM Charts: February 23rd, 2016

1. PORCHES – Pool – Domino

2. JULIA BROWN – An Abundance Of Strawberries – Joy Void
3. HINDS – Leave Me Alone – Mom And Pop
4. WRAY – Hypatia Communicating – Vessels
5. DIIV – Is The Is Are – Captured Tracks
6. SPOOK SCHOOL – Try To Be Hopeful – FORTUNA POP!
7. CHARLIE HILTON – Palana – Captured Tracks
8. MASS GOTHIC – Mass Gothic – SUB POP
9. JULIEN BAKER – Sprained Ankle – 6131
10. NAP EYES – Thought Rock Fish Scale-  Paradise of Bachelors 
11. YOUR FRIEND – Gumption – Domino
12. WILD NOTHING – Life Of Pause – Captured Tracks
13. BASEMENT – Promise Everything – Run For Cover
14. TY SEGALL – Emotional Mugger – Drag City
15. PINEGROVE – Cardinal – Run For Cover
16. NIGHT BEATS – Who Sold My Generation – Heavenly
17. SUNFLOWER BEAN – Human Ceremony – Fat Possum
18. FLORIST – Holdly – Double Double Whammy
19. RATBOYS – AOID – Topshelf
20. CAR SEAT HEADREST – Teens Of Style – Matador
21. HIGH HIGHS – Cascades – Pias
22. FRANKIE COSMOS – Fit Me In [EP] – Bayonet
23. JENNIFER O’CONNOR – Surface Noise – Kiam
24. DEEP SEA DIVER – Secrets – High Beam
25. RINGO DEATHSTARR – Pure Mood – Reverberation Appreciation Society
26. SO PITTED – Neo – SUB POP
27. DONKEYS – Midnight Palms – Easy Sound
28. DR. DOG – The Psychedelic Swamp – Anti
29. FAT WHITE FAMILY – Songs For Our Mothers – Fat Possum
30. LILY AND MADELEINE – Keep It Together – New West

WKNC TOP 5 ADS

1. MOTHERS – When You Walk A Long Distance You Are Tired – Grand Jury
2. ANIMAL COLLECTIVE – Painting With – Domino
3. MOUNT MORIAH – How To Dance – Merge
4. GAZEBOS – Die Alone – Hardly Art
5. EERIE WANDA – Hum – BBIB

Categories
Band/Artist Profile

WKNC Artist Profile: Deniro Farrar

Born and raised in Charlotte, Deniro Farrar has become a major hip-hop heavy hitter within the past few years. With the success of Fayetteville’s J. Cole and Raleigh’s own King Mez getting a feature on Dr. Dre’s Compton, North Carolina is, undeniably, rapidly gaining momentum in the music scene. Blogs like Pitchfork and Vice are claiming that Charlotte is the next city to watch specifically for artists within the rap genre.

Deniro is debatably the posterboy for Charlotte’s developing rap scene and proclaimed the “Leader of Cult Rap,” derived from the way people religiously follow the music of the underground scene to keep up, as it is not mass-produced and regularly broadcast. Deniro doesn’t fail to deliver relatable down to earth lyrics accompanied by (you guessed it) a sick beat. Working with Ryan Hemsworth, Flosstradamus, skywlkr, Lunice and Black Sky Black Death to name a few, Deniro has crafted a unique sound all while gaining traction as an artist and putting North Carolina on the map.

– Emma Badorrek, WKNC Assistant Promotions Director

Categories
Band/Artist Profile

DBB Artist Profile: Professor Toon

Growing up in low-income housing Baltimore, Maryland and a transplant to the Triangle area, Professor Toon has become a staple in the Durham music scene. Sharing the stage with De La Soul during the fifth annual Hopscotch Music Festival among other hip-hop heavy hitters such as Juicy J, Meek Mill, Project Pat and Run the Jewels. Toon uses his life experiences such as his abusive childhood and his relationships to fuel his lyrics and live performances. Being the “professor of things,” Professor Toon has worked relentlessly to make an impact on his fans in dirty DURM and beyond. Catch him at Double Barrel 13 on February 20th performing songs off of his new album Take Notes.

– Emma Badorrek, WKNC Assistant Promotions Director

Categories
Band/Artist Profile

DBB Artist Profile: SkyBlew

Mario Farrow, aka SkyBlew, is one of the Triangle’s brightest rising hip-hop stars with a style all his own. The Chapel Hill rhyme spitter’s story started in Alabama where he grew up bouncing from foster home to foster home and surrounded by inner city violence. He used this strife to create a space for himself via rap lyricism that would help him rise above the turbulence mentally and physically. Drawing inspiration from cartoons like “Rocco’s Modern Life” and “Dragon Ball Z,” his music is inspirationally positive, and never glorifies the horrors of street violence.

To classify SkyBlew as “nerd-core” is the kind of box he doesn’t want people to put him in. His rhymes aren’t all nerd all the time, there’s more depth, more soul. Recently he started playing live with a jazz accompaniment that brings his whole brand together, so to watch him perform is almost like a mix of The Roots and De La Soul.

Featured by notable media outlets like MTV, HYPERFRESH, DJ Booth Magazine, 2DOPEBOYZ, and Afropunk, SkyBlew is on his way up and ready to stake his claim in a hip-hop environment that’s beginning to turn its head toward North Carolina. Recently he did a regional tour of the Southeast with video game rapper Mega Ran, and released an exceptional EP with Scottie Royal entitled The Royal Blew Reverie that is sure to keep the heads ringing well into 2016.

– Charles Morse, WKNC Underground Music Director

See SkyBlew on Night 2 of this year’s Double Barrel Benefit!

Categories
Band/Artist Profile

DBB 13 Artist Profile: Earthly

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The Triangle may be known for its indie scene, but it’s home to an inventive electronic community as well. Part of this community is the DJ-duo Earthly, hailing from the Durham area. Earthly’s unique sample-based DJing makes their sound hard to classify; their newest release Days ranges from fun and exciting vibes on the track “Ice Cream” to more calm, consistent beats on “Daemon.” Their interesting mix of serene and playful sounds will either have you dancing or feeling like you’re playing a video game on a cloud.

With the increasing recognition of the Triangle electronic scene, Earthly is bound to have a popular year in 2016. The duo’s debut album got a 7.8 from Pitchfork last July, which I think is a pretty good sign that they are on to something big.

Bring your friends, wear a cool outfit, and come have fun with Earthly on night two of Double Barrel Benefit 13.

– Emily Ehling, WKNC Operations Manager

Categories
Band/Artist Profile

DBB13 Artist Profile: Des Ark

​​Des Ark, a staple of the Triangle music scene for over a decade, will be headlining Night One of Double Barrel Benefit 13.

With the ability to captivate an audience with just an acoustic guitar, Aimeé Argote brings a high level of sincerity and intensity to every performance. Even with the immense power behind her full band sets, it’s not hard to identify and connect with her emotive lyrics.

To the delight of fans, Des Ark released their LP Everything Dies this fall on Graveface Records, reminding us all why we love this band. The record seems to find the perfect blend between delicate and striking, with a beautiful mastering of Argote’s folk melodies. Double Barrel 13 Night One marks Des Ark’s homecoming after a month-long, nationwide tour. Des Ark takes the stage Saturday, February 13, headlining Kings Barcade in Raleigh.

– Yvonne Chazal, WKNC Program Director