Category: Blog

Musician’s Block

Post author By dj dragonfly
Post date August 10, 2025

Discarded ideas on balled up notebook paper. Image by Steve Johnson, licensed CC0.

You’ve hit a wall. Nothing feels right. You lost motivation.

That’s okay.

Writer’s block is a very common occurrence for creators of any kind of art or media. There’s no reason to get discouraged. This happens to everyone.

The real question is what does one do to fix it. Everyone gets burnt out at some point. All you have to do really is reignite the spark. A little can go a long way. Maybe you need to take a small break and come back with a fresh mind. Alternatively, you can push through and keep pushing until you break through.

Take a Break

I think both methods have their pros and cons. One the hand of the former, a small break could lead to a longer hiatus. Maybe that’s what needs to be done. Sometimes we aren’t in the right field and need a change of pace. I know that I’m not very good at knowing when something has run its course but sometimes we are trying to force a puzzle piece into the wrong place.

However, I do believe in coming back with fresh eyes and a fresh mind. Taking a small break for a breath of fresh air and some rest, maybe even a change of perspective, can be the difference between a frustrating and painful experience and a pleasant and challenging one.

Tags Composition, dj dragonfly, WKNC, writer's block

Weekly Charts

Chainsaw Charts 8/5/25

Post author By WKNC Admin
Post date August 8, 2025

	Artist	Record	Label
1	BLOOD ABSCISSION	I I	Debemur Motri
2	SPITE	The Third Temple	Invictus
3	DEMON BITCH	Master of the Games	Cruz del Sur
4	CALLOUS DAOBOYS, THE	I Don’t Want To See You In Heaven	MNRK Heavy
5	ABHORRATION	Demonolatry	Invictus
6	BLAZING TOMB	Singles From The Tomb [EP]	Creator-Destructor
7	BLOOD INCANTATION	Absolute Elsewhere	Century Media
8	COFFIN CURSE	The Continuous Nothing	Memento Mori
9	CONCRETE WINDS	Concrete Winds	Sepulchral Voice
10	GOD COMPLEX	He Watches In Silence [EP]	SharpTone

Tags charts, college radio, Metal, NACC Weekly Charts, WKNC, WKNC 88.1

Weekly Charts

Afterhours Charts 8/5/25

Post author By WKNC Admin
Post date August 8, 2025

Vylet Pony's "Love & Ponystep"

Afterhours Charts

	Artist	Record	Label
1	VYLET PONY	Love & Ponystep	Horse Friends
2	TURQUOISEDEATH	Guardian	Plantasia
3	SHHAU	Higher Entropy	Self-Released
4	CLUSTERFUNK	forestry	fakenumberland
5	MADELINE KENNEY	Kiss From The Balcony	Carpark
6	JAMIE LIDELL	Places Of Unknowing	TODO
7	SHINJONG	Freewillpilled	Self-Released
8	ALIA LAIN	is this the pulse of mechanical ruins	Self-Released
9	IO-NULL (.DRN)	µnerves	Self-Released
10	DANIBREAKS	NXIETY [EP]	Self-Released

Afterhours Adds

	Artist	Record	Label
1	VYLET PONY	Love & Ponystep	Horse Friends
2	TURQUOISEDEATH	Guardian	Plantasia
3	SHHAU	Higher Entropy	Self-Released
4	CLUSTERFUNK	forestry	fakenumberland
5	MADELINE KENNEY	Kiss From The Balcony	Carpark
6	JAMIE LIDELL	Places Of Unknowing	TODO
7	SHINJONG	Freewillpilled	Self-Released

Tags charts, college radio, Electronic, NACC Weekly Charts, WKNC, WKNC 88.1

Weekly Charts

Underground Charts 8/5/25

Post author By WKNC Admin
Post date August 8, 2025

	Artist	Record	Label
1	MXNXSTXR AND DESTRUCTO	“What You Need” feat. Thundercat & Channel Tres [Single]	All My Friends
2	AESOP ROCK	Black Hole Superette	Rhymesayers
3	BAMBII	Infinity Club II [EP]	Because
4	AJ TRACEY	Don’t Die Before You’re Dead	Revenge
5	BUTCHER BROWN	Letters From The Atlantic	Concord Jazz
6	CHEW	“Horseheads” feat. Day Tripper [Single]	CorpoRAT
7	DUCKWRTH	All American F*ckboy	Them Hellas
8	FLY ANAKIN	(The) Forever Dream	Lex
9	KOKOROKO	Tuff Times Never Last	Brownswood
10	LORD SKO	PIFF	Stimulated

Tags charts, college radio, NACC Weekly Charts, Rap, WKNC, WKNC 88.1

Weekly Charts

Jazz Charts 8/5/25

Post author By WKNC Admin
Post date August 8, 2025

	Artist	Record	Label
1	NANAMI HARUTA	The Vibe	Origin
2	SEAN NELSON NEW LONDON BIG BAND	Don’t Stop Now	All In
3	REGGIE WATKINS	Rivers	BYNK
4	TESSA SOUTER	Shadows And Silence: The Erik Satie Project	Noanara
5	VANISHA GOULD	She’s Not Shiny, She’s Not Smooth	Cellar
6	DEE DEE BRIDGEWATER AND BILL CHARLAP	Elemental	Mack Avenue
7	TAKUYA KURODA	Everyday	PPK
8	KURT ROSENWINKEL AND JEAN-PAUL BRODBECK	The Brahms Project	Heartcore
9	NUBYA GARCIA	Odyssey	Concord Jazz
10	KEN SERIO QUARTET	Brooklyn Oasis	Tripping Tree

Tags charts, college radio, jazz, NACC Weekly Charts, WKNC, WKNC 88.1

Weekly Charts

Top Charts 8/5/25

Post author By WKNC Admin
Post date August 7, 2025

Top Charts

	Artist	Record	Label
1	SCOWL	Scowl On Audiotree Live [EP]	Self-Released
2	FEEBLE LITTLE HORSE	“This Is Real” [Single]	Saddle Creek
3	GRAHAM HUNT	Timeless World Forever	Run For Cover
4	ANIMAL COLLECTIVE	“Love On The Big Screen” [Single]	Domino
5	BUG CRUSH	Somehow I Go In Circles All The Time [EP]	Self-Released
6	DAUGHTER OF SWORDS	Alex	Psychic Hotline
7	FIND MY FRIENDS	Find My Friends [EP]	Bloody Knuckles
8	JADE BIRD	Who Wants To Talk About Love?	Glassnote
9	JADE THE MOON	“Dirty John Type” [Single]	Self-Released
10	MAE MARTIN	I’m A TV	Casablanca/Republic
11	MAMALARKY	Hex Key	Epitaph
12	SASAMI	Blood On The Silver Screen	Domino
13	SEA LEMON	Diving For A Prize	Luminelle
14	STEREOLAB	Instant Holograms On Metal Film	Warp/Duophonic
15	SUNBATHE	Myself To You	Time Release
16	ANNIE TAYLOR	“Perfect Pretender” [Single]	Taxi Gauche
17	APRIL MARCH	“Surfing Castafiore” [Single]	Bong Load
18	AZZECCA	“Who’s That Girl?” [Single]	DGTL
19	BOYSCOTT	Spellbound	Topshelf
20	CARIBOU	Honey	Merge
21	CLEOPATRICK	Fake Moon	Nowhere Special/Thirty Tigers
22	COFFIN CURSE	The Continuous Nothing	Memento Mori
23	COHEED AND CAMBRIA	The Father Of Make Believe	Virgin
24	DAISY THE GREAT	The Rubber Teeth Talk	S-Curve
25	DISCUS	To Relate To	Sun-Rom
26	DJ BEETLEBITCH	Acidtape2024 [EP]	Dirtbag
27	DOUBLE WISH	Deeper Ecstasy [EP]	Hit The North
28	DUSQK	Gaia/RAE	Self-Released
29	FLORRY	Sounds Like	Dear Life
30	FOXWARREN	2 (Two)	Anti-

Top Adds

	Artist	Record	Label
1	HORSEPOWER	Horsepower [EP]	Rose Garden
2	SMUT	Tomorrow Comes Crashing	Bayonet
3	LIGHTHEADED	Thinking, Dreaming, Scheming!	Slumberland
4	GREET DEATH	Die In Love	Deathwish
5	ANIMAL COLLECTIVE	“Love On The Big Screen” [Single]	Domino

Tags charts, college radio, NACC Weekly Charts, rock, WKNC, WKNC 88.1

Miscellaneous

Fatigue and Music

Post author By dj dragonfly
Post date August 6, 2025

"Tired" (1908) by Mina Arndt. Licensed PDM 1.0 Universal.

Ever wake up after a solid eight hours of sleep, have your coffee or breakfast, start being productive and still can’t shake the feeling of exhaustion?

There’s probably a reason you feel fatigued all the time. Maybe there’s something bothering you. Perhaps you’re not taking good care of yourself and need to take a walk or a bath, something to refresh you. It’s not always clear what causes fatigue and brain fog but I find that music can help me sometimes.

Being in a funk and always tired can really feel disheartening. There are a lot of things out of our control and we often can’t change the things that bother us. I know that I go through phases of pretty bad fatigue. I wake up after eight hours feeling like I need more sleep. If I do roll over and get a couple more hours, I feel like a boiled fish. Coffee sometimes helps as well as getting a mini workout in.

Tags dj dragonfly, emotions, fatigue, mental health, WKNC

Playlists

DJ Dragonfly’s July Favorites

Post author By dj dragonfly
Post date August 4, 2025

Bee on wildflowers. Image licensed CC0 1.0 Universal.

Once again, we are at the tail end of a month. I can’t speak for anyone else but for me, July has been on the uphill in comparison to the rest of the summer. That being said, my music taste for the month has also been altered. While many of my favorites are still the same from last month, I have accumulated many others.

I think that my favorites from this month are a bit more well-known. I have some recent releases, classic oldies, and of course some songs from pop culture. My genres also cover a rather broad spectrum. Anything from classic rock with The Clash to indie with Flipturn and even some songs in other languages. Some of these songs have explicit content, so fair warning to everyone.

Tags dj dragonfly, July, WKNC

Blog

Album Review: Everytime by Sixth June

Post author By Emily Heiges
Post date August 2, 2025

Cover for “Everytime” by Sixth June

“Everytime” is an ambient electronic album by the band Sixth June. Despite being released in 2010, this album immediately brought to mind the goth and new wave artists of the 80s. The vocals are dark and emotional, accompanied by synths. It’s the kind of singing that makes you wish you had long flowing sleeves to dance with. Sixth June describes itself as post-new wave, which explains the influence that can be heard on this album.

Sixth June, like many great electronic bands, is originally from Germany. The band is as much a visual project as it is a musical project. The videos for the songs off of the album “Everytime” are a great example of this. The video for the title song, “Everytime,” is filmed in black and white with grain on top. It looks like something taken on an old film camera, with shots superimposing over one another to create an eerie vibe. This unsettling video matches the tone of the song very well. The hauntingly gorgeous vocals over the thrumming synth match the shaking camera as it tries to focus on the singer.

Miscellaneous

GalaxyCon 2025 Review

Post author By dj dragonfly
Post date August 1, 2025

Four young men dressed as Hank, Bill, Dale and Boomhauer from "King of the Hill." Image provided by Simon Midgette.

For the second time ever, I attended GalaxyCon at the Convention Center in Raleigh.

The first time I went was last year and I attended Friday and Saturday. I dressed up as a Sith Lord original character from the Star Wars universe. My party members were dressed as Johnny Silverhand from “Cyberpunk”, Ace from “One Piece”, Mihawk from “One Piece” and lastly a group of four dressed as Hank, Bill, Dale and Boomhauer from “King of the Hill.”

This year, fewer of us dressed up but Johnny Silverhand made another appearance. A version of Hatsune Miku and Big Boss from “Metal Gear” were there as well as Granmamare and Fujimoto from “Ponyo.” We also only went on Friday this year.

There were many big name artists and celebrities at the convention this year. Some of my favorites to see even from a distance were William Shatner, Sean Gunn, Gates McFadden, Jackson Rathbone, Brent Spiner, Scott Patterson, and so on. I never got the timing right to see a couple of the celebrities like Susan Sarandon, Geena Davis or Barry Bostwick. I was also really disappointed to see that Grant Gustin dropped out of appearing, at least on Friday.

I even got a fleeting chance to speak with Gates McFadden. She was walking away from her booth and I didn’t want to disturb her but someone from my party flagged her down for me and she was lovely.

Tags dj dragonfly, GalaxyCon, local, Raleigh, WKNC