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Local Band Local Beer 1970s Film Stock
DJ Whatsherface sat down with 1970s Film Stock for an interview before their Local Band Local Beer show at the Pour House on July 14.
Hailing from San Francisco, composer and general badass Leila Abdul-Rauf has been making and performing music, namely metal, for nearly her entire life. Her previous endeavors in the metal scene include the bands Saros and The Bastard Noise, and she remains active in Hammers of Misfortune, Vastum, and Ionophore. While she is most widely known for her vocals, she is a true multi-instrumentalist, honing her abilities on the guitar, trumpet, piano, and synth, just to name a few.
But her latest solo album, Insomnia, is unlike her past work. She foregoes her signature doom metal sound and instead opts for something more cerebral. There are no vocals, save for some haunting, ethereal wailing. Instead, the listener can relax and focus on the weaving of brass, piano for an unsettling, otherworldly sound. It vaguely resembles Ionophore’s latest album Sinister Pools, or something Godspeed You! Black Emperor might think up after a handful of benzos. Drawing parallels between Insomnia and anything else proves difficult because Abdul-Rauf has created something poignant, introspective, and uniquely brilliant – an atmosphere all her own. It’s something personal and gorgeous without being pretentious. Definitely worth a listen.
During Hopscotch, catch Leila Abdul-Rauf with Nathan A. Verrill at 11 PM on September 10th in Nash Hall.
Listen to Insomnia HERE.
-DJ Case Sensitive
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1970s Film Stock
Local Band Local Beer Tinkerer
DJ Whatsherface sat down with Tinkerer for an interview before their show at Local Band Local Beer on July 28th (Happy Leo season)
Grammy Award winner Erykah Badu will headline Red Hat Amphitheater as a part of this year’s Hopscotch Music Festival. Badu is an R&B/soul artist, and all of her albums distinctly represent pop culture and human relationships from the time periods in which they were created. Her sound has morphed over time, but Badu has maintained her mellow storytelling style throughout her career. Her first album, Baduizm, has been her most popular. Baduizm is a relaxing listen, but it’s just as expressive as her subsequent releases. The album reflects on independence and love, with excellent vocals and instrumentation. Demonstrating her versatility, Badu has collaborated with André 3000, The Roots, Janelle Monáe, Lil Wayne, and Tyler, the Creator. Badu’s two New Amerykah albums possess the most variety in tempo and style, with some fully R&B songs and others more focused on electronic musicality and vocal experimentation. After rewriting Drake’s “Hotline Bling” in a track titled “Cel U Lar Device,” Badu recorded and released a full-length mixtape in late 2015. The album, But You Caint Use My Phone, fluidly blends Badu’s own vocal stylings and humor into a concise history of cell phone-themed songs.
Alongside her twenty years of musical releases, Badu is also an activist for people of color and women. She runs the charity Beautiful Love Incorporated Non Profit Development, which promotes the arts in inner-city areas. Most recently, Badu has committed to donating proceeds from her performances to test rape kits which were discovered in storage of the Detroit Police Department.
But You Caint Use My Phone is available on Spotify and iTunes. Erykah Badu performs at 8 pm on Friday, September 9 at Red Hat. The full Hopscotch schedule is available here.
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Tinkerer
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Hopscotch 2016 Artist Map
It’s that time of year again. I would say WKNC is getting stoked for Hopscotch Music Festival’s seventh year, but honestly, we’ve been excited about Hopscotch 7 since the last acts of Hopscotch 6 left the stage. But now that the event is less than a month away, the anticipation is almost tangible.
Each year, Hopscotch brings a wide variety of artists to Raleigh from all over the state, country, and world. As has become a bit of a tradition for me, I’ve created a map of where the artists are from. Check out which artists are representing our incredible local scene, as well as where each of the national touring acts call home. And don’t forget to zoom out and scope for the artists from across the ocean!
– dJ/dx
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WKNC New Program Schedule
Surprise, surprise! We have hinted at a big change over the past few days on our Twitter and the reveal is finally here.
Starting tomorrow, Monday, August 15th, platforms on WKNC (Daytime indie rock, Afterhours electronic, Underground hip-hop and rap, and Chainsaw rock) will run from 6 PM to 6 AM. This is a pretty significant jump from their current air times of 8 PM to 5 AM. Afterhours electronic will gain an extra day of air time on Thursday evenings, which means our beloved Chainsaw rock will only run on Fridays.
We decided to modify the program schedule after reading over the results of our WKNC Listener Survey that was conducted last year. The results showed an unwavering love for our Daytime indie rock, but also showed an increase of popularity for Underground and Afterhours. We have also noticed this rise in popularity elsewhere – more and more DJs want to DJ these platforms, but there was never enough room for them. The solution? Listen to our listeners! This change is for you.
Some sad news came with reading the Listener Survey results as well. Although Chainsaw has an extremely faithful fan base and has been a huge part of WKNC history, its popularity has decreased over the years. That is why we decided to cut back Chainsaw air time to only Friday evenings – the platform’s most popular night (shout out to Uncle Paul). We love our Chainsaw platform and value it as much as the others, but this made the most sense for our listeners.
Local Band Local Beer interviews will still happen every Thursday – Afterhours will just start right after. Specialty shows (Americana, Blues, & Co., Both Kinds Radio, Geet Bazaar, etc.) will continue running normally on the weekends, unaffected by the schedule change. We are also working towards incorporating specialty shows into week day programming!
Bottom line: WKNC is a station that cares about more than just indie rock – but we need to prove it. The new program schedule is a great step towards giving the air time and attention that the other platforms deserve. In the end, it’s what our listeners want – and y’all are really the ones in charge.
We are very excited for this change and we are looking forward to your feedback and comments! Happy listening.
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Gal Pal spoke with Hunter Thomsen, guitarist of We The Kings, on the evolution of the music industry, Warped Tour, and port-a-showers. We The Kings will headline Packapalooza next Friday, Aug. 20.