WKNC 88.1 FM - North Carolina State University Student RadioWKNC interviewed Gerald Clayton, leader of the Gerald Clayton trio, before his performance at the MotorCo Music Hall in Durham, NC. The trio, which circulates various members of Clayton’s musical “family, featured Joe Sanders on bass and Justin Brown on the drum kit. Listen to the full interview to hear Gerald discuss his related and non-related musical family, his thoughts on musical composition and performance, and his upcoming projects and tour.
Full Interview here
Rank Artist Recording Label User Supplied Version
1 CHEATAHS Cheatahs Wichita
2 WILD ONES Keep It Safe Topshelf
3 CASKET GIRLS True Love Kills The Fairy Tale Graveface
4 WHOMADEWHO Dreams Volcano-Darup
5 PURE X Angel Fat Possum
6 TYCHO Awake Ghostly
7 MAC DEMARCO Salad Days Captured Tracks
8 WAR ON DRUGS Lost In The Dream Secretly Canadian
9 FUTURE ISLANDS Singles 4AD
10 CLOUD NOTHINGS Here And Nowhere Else Mom And Pop
11 REAL ESTATE Atlas Domino
12 BEAR HANDS Distraction Cantora
13 AVEY TARE’S SLASHER FLICKS Enter The Slasher House Domino
14 OWLS Two Polyvinyl
15 MR LITTLE JEANS Pocketknife Harvest
16 ETERNAL SUMMERS The Drop Beneath Kanine
17 AGES AND AGES Divisionary Partisan
18 GARDENS AND VILLA Dunes Secretly Canadian
19 TACOCAT NVM Hardly Art
20 WYE OAK Shriek Merge
21 KEVIN DREW Darlings Arts And Crafts
22 PERFECT PUSSY Say Yes To Love Captured Tracks
23 TEEBS Estara Brainfeeder
24 LIARS Mess Mute
25 ODONIS ODONIS Hard Boiled Soft Boiled BUZZ
26 BELLE BRIGADE Just Because ATO
27 WHITE HINTERLAND Baby Dead Oceans
28 ISKA DHAAF Even The Sun Will Burn Brick Lane
29 BEATY HEART Mixed Blessings Nusic Sounds
30 ARCHITECTURE IN HELSINKI Now And 4eva Self-Released
ADDS
Rank Artist Recording Label User Supplied Version
1 CHAD VANGAALEN Shrink Dust SUB POP
2 TEEN The Way And Color Carpark
3 CHROME SPARKS Goddess Future Classic
4 LIAM FINN The Nihilist Yep Roc
5 WOODS With Light And With Love Woodsist
Need some motivation to study for exams and get those final papers done? Just put this playlist of WKNC’s The Lounge videos on repeat.
While you are at it, let us know which ones are your favorites. We will be submitting contest entries soon and want to pick the best one.
For a festival so heavily geared towards electronic acts, Moogfest does a solid job at implementing artists that don’t solely delve into the dance music world. Sure the lineup is driven by acts like Dillon Francis, Kraftwerk and Flying Lotus, but for every electronic powerhouse there’s an equally exciting visionary from another field. Folks can mindlessly dance their asses off to some EDM or they can soak in the life-affirming intellectualism found in acts like Saul Williams…while still probably dancing their asses off.
For those that aren’t familiar, Saul Williams is a visionary of sorts, an outspoken actor/poet/musician that crafts serendipitous works of art that peer deep into the listener’s mind and picks away at your thoughts and beliefs. Williams first started to receive acclaim in the late 90’s for his work as a poet and musician, performing alongside the likes of The Fugees, Nas, Erykah Badu and Allen Ginbserg. But over the years Williams has drastically altered his styles with each subsequent album, traversing from a spoken word hip-hop artist to an industrial leaning emcee to a dance-pop auteur all within the same decade. Perhaps that’s why his list of collaborators range from acts like Trent Reznor and Rick Rubin to Janelle Monáe and Joey Bada$$.
Williams has proven to be a versatile artist, he may not always be doing the same thing, but he’s always doing it with an overwhelming amount of passion. I must admit I’m not entirely sure of what to expect from his Moogfest performance, his latest album Volcanic Sunlight was a far poppier effort than his previous works, but the album is also three years old at this point. Whether we’ll be getting blasted with new material or a solid mixture of his dense catalog, I can guarantee that it’ll be a stimulating performance to say the least.
Saul Williams will be performing on Saturday, April 26 at New Earth – Main Room at 10:30 pm
We’re excited to announce we have tickets to give away for both the Old Crow Medicine Show and the Kings of Leon concerts presented by Live Nation happening late this summer in Raleigh. Old Crow Medicine Show will be joined by Shovels & Rope at the Red Hat Amphitheater on Wednesday, August 20. Kings of Leon will be joined by Young the Giant and Kongos at the Walnut Creek Amphitheatre on Wednesday, September 17. Thanks to Live Nation, WKNC has 5 pairs of tickets for both concerts to give away all this week!
Tickets for both concerts will be given away from Monday, April 21 until Saturday, April 26. Just be the correct caller when the DJ asks for calls on air to win a pair of tickets! Tickets for both Old Crow Medicine Show and Kings of Leon go on sale Friday, April 25 at 10 am on Ticketmaster.com, at Ticketmaster outlets, and at 800-745-3000.
Steven Ellison may be one of the most inventive musicians of the past decade. Since he burst onto the electronic scene as Flying Lotus in 2006 he’s been bending and breaking listener’s preconceived notions of the genre by seamlessly blending hip-hop with free-form jazz, pop and electronica. Ellison released his first album 1983 in 2006 and within the year was signed to Warp Records. From there FlyLo’s popularity seemed to explode, he began producing most of Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim bumper music, collaborated with Radiohead’s Thom Yorke and released a handful of mindblowingly complex yet accessible albums.
Ellison is the great nephew of Alice and John Coltrane and has in a similar fashion served as the figurehead for his own genre. His great-uncle helped pioneer and popularize free-jazz while Ellison has served as the gatekeeper for downtempo beat music, crafting seemingly endless soundscapes that ride on stuttering grooves and skittering percussion. But his talents don’t just lie within the studio, after the release of his most recent effort Until The Quiet Comes, Ellison debuted an immersive, layered 3D show that blends scenes from 2001: A Space Oddysey with interactive visual patterns.
I was lucky enough to catch Flying Lotus at Bonnaroo in 2012 and his set was an effortless blend of contemporary DJ stylings, remixing beloved classic hip-hop and dance tracks while implementing his own fan-favorite originals. However, his less “party oriented” shows tend to involve much more of his own heady beats, showcasing the brilliant production on display within his work. Chest-rattling bass and mind-bending visuals make for a visceral viewing experience that absolutely can’t be missed.
Flying Lotus will perform at The Orangel Peel on Wednesday, April 24 at 12:00 am.
Moogfest Artist Spotlight: RiFF RAFF
What is it about Horst Christian Simco that makes the public so drawn to him?
Is it his love of branding? His innovative non-capitalization of the letter i? Perhaps its his rich history with the Greensboro police department? Or maybe it’s just because he committed a soft form of animal abuse by dying his husky blue while simply declaring “RAP GAME BLUES CLUES.”
Whatever it is about Simco (aka RiFF RaFF, aka MTV RiFF RaFF, aka JODi HiGHROLLER) that launched him to public figure status, he is an undeniably an entertainer (of sorts).
The now pop-culture icon had humble beginnings as a reality TV star. Simco had made attempts to appear on P. Diddy’s “Making the Band,” to no avail but eventually earned a short-lived spot on MTV’s “From G’s to Gents,” which in turn convinced the young rapper to reserve an everlasting spot on his neck to MTV. (See “love of branding” image in the first paragraph)
JODi’s musical style ranges from characteristically over produced early 2000’s rap to sloppy school yard free style. With odd meter and minimalist refrains sometimes it’s hard to tell whether or not the man is playing some kind of big trick on America–Especially with so many tongue and check artists out there now a days (ie LIL B).
Ultimately it matters not the source of Raff’s uniqueness—it’s got to be somewhat genuine to dedicate that much ink. HiGHROLLER’s performance in Asheville is something I am personally greatly looking forward too and will without a doubt be a great ole Versace time.
INITIAL 2014 HOPSCOTCH MUSIC FESTIVAL LINEUP: SPOON, MASTODON, ST. VINCENT, AND MORE! 40+ BANDS WILL BE ADDED IN JUNE. TICKETS ON SALE NOW
“Hopscotch is now the premiere experimental and underground music festival in America.”—Ad Hoc
Hopscotch Music Festival, recently called “America’s (Secretly) Best Festival” and “the premiere experimental and underground festival in America,” celebrates its fifth anniversary in downtown Raleigh, N.C., this Sept. 4-6, 2014. The festival, noted for its diversity and selective programming, features nearly 160 bands in a wide range of genres. With today’s initial lineup announcement of 115 acts, Hopscotch reaffirms its commitment to showcasing North Carolina’s thriving scene alongside notable artists from around the world. For the fifth year in a row, approximately 40% of the festival’s artists hail from in-state—a figure few, if any, nationally recognized music events can claim. An additional 40 bands will be revealed in the coming weeks.
“While most of our bigger slots are programmed and now public, we chose to break up the lineup to limit information overload,” notes Hopscotch’s founding director, Greg Lowenhagen. “We’ve presented everyone at once in the past, and because the festival is still five months away, we thought it made sense to pull back and reveal artists in two stages. We hope this approach is more welcoming and makes the lineup easier to digest.”
Hopscotch 2014 will be highlighted by two nights in Raleigh City Plaza, the city’s most inviting downtown space. On Friday, Sept. 5, Spoon—prolific pop experimentalists and one of indie rock’s most commercially and critically acclaimed bands—will headline the festival’s main stage. Friday’s bill also features St. Vincent, creator of one of 2014’s best records and most captivating live shows. Lonnie Walker will open. On Saturday, Sept. 6, Mastodon—Atlanta’s perpetually evolving and consistently enthralling hard rock nonconformists—will top a bill with Detroit’s punk pioneers Death and local favorites Valient Thorr.
Some 150 other bands will perform in various clubs during Hopscotch’s three days. A sampler of these acts so far includes: Sun Kil Moon, High on Fire, Thurston Moore, Jamie xx, How To Dress Well, Tony Conrad, Deniro Farrar, Lunice, Power Trip, American Aquarium, Obnox, Lee Noble, The Haxan Cloak, White Lung, Palehound, Ava Luna, Reigning Sound, Sun Araw, Open Mike Eagle, Mapei, Phosphorescent playing solo, and one of former Ween frontman Aaron Freeman’s first performances with his new band FREEMAN.
Remaining VIP and 3-Day passes are available through www.hopscotchmusicfest.com and www.etix.com
This year, Hopscotch’s former day party coordinator, Nathan Price, was promoted to talent coordinator to help Lowenhagen book the festival. “My job was to maintain Hopscotch’s established identity and credibility while offering my take on what I thought would attract fans in 2014,” says Price. “We wanted to highlight artists—both established and emerging—who are making incredible music right now, while also presenting Hopscotch’s usual roster of unorthodox and less obvious festival choices. I think we’ve found that balance so far.”
INITIAL LINEUP
IIII, 6 String Drag, Alexandra Sauser-Monnig, American Aquarium, Artificial Brain, Author & Punisher, Axxa/Abbraxas, Ava Luna, Avers, Bedowyn, Blanko Basnet, Blursome, Body Games, Canine Heart Sounds, Coke Weed, Cousins, Dark Rooms, Davidians, Dead Gaze, Demon Eye, Deniro Farrar, Dent May, Diarrhea Planet, Drag Sounds, Death, Eagulls, Ed Schrader’s Music Beat, Enemy Waves, First Person Plural, FREEMAN, Free Clinic, GEMS, Ghostt Bllonde, Guerilla Toss, Helm, High On Fire, Holygrailers, How To Dress Well, Jacuzzi Boys, Jamie XX, Joe Scudda, KEN mode, Krill, Last Year’s Men, Landlady, Lee Noble, Loamlands, Lonnie Walker, Lunice, Mark McGuire, Marley Carroll, Mapei, Mastodon, Matt Kivel, Matt Northrup, Mas Ysa, Museum Mouth, Mutual Benefit, Nest Egg, New Music Raleigh Presents: Future Shock, Nik Turner’s Hawkwind, No Eyes, No Love, Obnox, Octopus Jones, Open Mike Eagle, Potty Mouth, Power Trip, Palehound, Paperhaus, Phosphorescent Solo, Prince Rama, Reigning Sound, Ryley Walker, Saint Rich, Screature, See Gulls, Soft Cat, Solar Halos, Spoon, Strange Faces, St. Vincent, SubRosa, Sun Araw, Sun Club, Sun Kil Moon, The Haxan Cloak, The Nervous Ticks, The Tills, The Range, The White Octave, Thurston Moore, Tony Conrad, T0W3RS, Valient Thorr, Virgins Family Band, Walin’ Storms, Well$, White Lung, White Laces, Wild Fur, Wing Dam, Winston Facials, Witch Mountain, Wowolfol, Y’ALL, Young Cardinals, YVETTE, Zack Mexico
TICKETS
VIP and 3-Day passes are on sale now at www.hopscotchmusicfest.com/tickets. Each of these passes allows entry into all festival clubs and both City Plaza headlining shows.
In June, along with the release of the 2014 Hopscotch schedule, 1-Day passes will be made available. These passes will allow entry into every Hopscotch show on a specific day and will range from $65–$85.
Individual tickets for shows in Raleigh City Plaza will be made available soon. The Friday, Sept. 5, show featuring Spoon, St. Vincent, and Lonnie Walker costs $40. The Saturday, Sept. 6, show featuring Mastodon, Death, and Valient Thorr also costs $40.
All passes and tickets are limited. To purchase tickets and wristbands, visit www.hopscotchmusicfest.com andwww.etix.com
IMPROVISER-IN-RESIDENCE
Continuing a festival tradition established in 2012 with multifaceted drummer Chris Corsano and carried on by Japanese noise pioneer Merzbow in 2013, Thurston Moore will take over the role of Hopscotch’s Improviser-in-Residence. Moore’s volume of work—from his time in Glenn Branca’s ensemble to Sonic Youth’s legendary catalog to his collaborations with Mats Gustafsson, Jim O’Rourke, Nels Cline, and countless others—makes him one of the most inventive and influential musicians of his generation. No stranger to Hopscotch, Moore visited Raleigh with John Moloney last year to play a day party produced by Three Lobed Recordings and WXDU, and afterwards, they were joined by Merzbow for a special performance. Carrying the improvisational torch to this year’s festival, he will play a full set of his own on Thursday, Sept. 4, and join other bands onstage for impromptu appearances.
MORE TO COME
In the coming months, Hopscotch will add 40 more bands to its official lineup. The festival will also bring a bevy of day parties to downtown Raleigh in September, as well as the second annual SiteWork art exhibition, a photography exhibit, and the inaugural Hopscotch Design Festival.
HOPSCOTCH DESIGN FESTIVAL
Hopscotch Music Festival and New Kind, the Raleigh-based design and community-building firm, are thrilled to announce the inaugural Hopscotch Design Festival. The first event of its kind to emerge from an acclaimed music event, Hopscotch Design Festival will gather distinguished national talent and notable local contributors to share ideas and foster conversation about how design is shaping the future. Scheduled for Wednesday, Sept. 3 and Thursday, Sept. 4, in various downtown Raleigh venues, Hopscotch Design features more than 25 sessions from presenters who work across the disciplines of graphic design, user experience design, urban planning, technology, architecture, music, food, film, and more. With interactive sessions, workshops, and parties, the two-day event will blend seamlessly into Hopscotch Music Festival beginning Thursday evening.
PREVIOUS REVIEWS FOR HOPSCOTCH MUSIC FESTIVAL
“Hopscotch: perfection, indeed” —The News & Observer, Raleigh
“Like most who know of its perfection, I’m almost afraid to gush too much at the risk of jinxing or ruining the best three days of music experiences one can be given. It’s SXSW without the stress, corporate overwhelming smack across the face, and dare I say Raleigh, NC becomes the most special town in the world for this one weekend.Perfectly curated with a blind ear to any buzz, specific genre, or anything else…Hopscotch Festival can turn the biggest music snob cynic into a carefree music lover once again. The word perfect is thrown around lightly all over the place (I misuse it all the time), but that’s the only word to describe this dream of a music festival…PERFECT.”—We Listen For You, Louisville
“Hopscotch Music Festival is one of the best and most eclectic music festivals in America.” —Spin
“In Raleigh Thursday through Saturday, it was all about an extraordinarily cool roster of bands. With streets cordoned off throughout the downtown area, thousands of people … wandered among ten participating music venues, creating a Mardi Gras-like atmosphere.” —Rolling Stone
“Hopscotch Music Festival is fast becoming Raleigh’s cultural center of gravity.” —Raleigh Public Record
Moogfest began back in 2004 as a way to honor the ingenuity of Dr. Robert Moog. The festival began in New York City and has since moved to Asheville where Moog spent the last 30 years of his life. The performing artists are all people who pioneer in their respective fields and have embodied the innovative spirit of Moog. In addition to the great music, the festival also offers panels, workshops, a film festival, art installations and much more.
Keeping in the spirit of innovation, Moogfest will also host it’s 4th Annual Moog Circuit Bending Challenge. So what is circuit bending? Circuit bending is the art of creating unique instruments by tinkering with various electronic devices such as keyboards, children’s toys, drum machines, and basically any other electrical device that generates some type of noise. It is a very experimental and chance-based art form that is the perfect hybrid between music and electronics that so perfectly embodies Moogfest.
Each year the festival receives lots of different entries from people of all walks of life. They select a few finalists who receive a pair of passes to the festival and the chance to showcase their work. This year, they received so many great submissions that they had to choose five finalists. The winners will be chosen on the last day of the festival and the top 3 finalists will win a Moog synth. To see the finalists, check out the YouTube playlist here.
The circuit bending challenge entrants are tasked with making an instrument that creates new and unique sounds through circuit bending with a total cost $70 or less. By confining the cost, Moog keeps the competition close to its humble beginnings while forcing entrants to create truly innovative instruments with limited resources. Be sure to check out the circuit bending finalists as well as all of the other amazing innovations at Moogfest!
Top 5 Adds:
Rank Artist Recording Label User Supplied Version
1 WYE OAK Shriek Merge
2 FUJIYA AND MIYAGI “Artificial Sweeteners” [Single] Yep Roc
3 DEATH III Drag City
4 DELETED SCENES Lithium Burn Park The Van
5 YOUNG AND SICK Young And Sick Harvest
Radio 200:
Rank Artist Recording Label User Supplied Version
1 CHEATAHS Cheatahs Wichita
2 WHOMADEWHO Dreams Volcano-Darup
3 CASKET GIRLS True Love Kills The Fairy Tale Graveface
4 WILD ONES Keep It Safe Topshelf
5 TYCHO Awake Ghostly
6 PURE X Angel Fat Possum
7 FUTURE ISLANDS Singles 4AD
8 WAR ON DRUGS Lost In The Dream Secretly Canadian
9 MAC DEMARCO Salad Days Captured Tracks
10 CLOUD NOTHINGS Here And Nowhere Else Mom And Pop
11 REAL ESTATE Atlas Domino
12 TACOCAT NVM Hardly Art
13 BEAR HANDS Distraction Cantora
14 OWLS Two Polyvinyl
15 INCAN ABRAHAM Tolerance White Iris
16 ETERNAL SUMMERS The Drop Beneath Kanine
17 AGES AND AGES Divisionary Partisan
18 GARDENS AND VILLA Dunes Secretly Canadian
19 MR LITTLE JEANS Pocketknife Harvest
20 BLACK LIPS Underneath The Rainbow Vice
21 ISKA DHAAF Even The Sun Will Burn Brick Lane
22 PERFECT PUSSY Say Yes To Love Captured Tracks
23 KEVIN DREW Darlings Arts And Crafts
24 WHITE HINTERLAND Baby Dead Oceans
25 ODONIS ODONIS Hard Boiled Soft Boiled BUZZ
26 BELLE BRIGADE Just Because ATO
27 EAGULLS Eagulls Partisan
28 COATHANGERS Suck My Shirt Suicide Squeeze
29 BURNT ONES Gift Castle Face
30 LYLA FOY Mirrors The Sky SUB POP
