WKNC 88.1 FM - North Carolina State University Student RadioThis week’s edition of Local Band Local Beer will be a pre-Valentine’s Day snow party filled with the sounds from Nuclear Honey and Star Studies. Be sure to come out to Tir Na Nog Irish Pub in Downtown Raleigh at 9:30 pm for this FREE show 18+.
Local brews on tap include French Broad ESP Cask Tapping at 8 pm and Sexual Chocolate ‘13 and ’14 dual release at 9 pm. Lonerider beer will be served all night.
Top 5 Adds:
1 ANGEL OLSEN Burn Your Fire For No Witness Jagjaguwar
2 BLEEDING RAINBOW Interrupt Kanine
3 SPEEDY ORTIZ Real Hair [EP] Carpark
4 TEMPLES Sun Structures Fat Possum
5 SKATERS Manhattan Warner
Radio 200:
Rank Artist Recording Label User Supplied Version
1 LOVE LANGUAGE Libraries Merge
2 MOUNT MORIAH Miracle Temple Merge
3 PAINTED PALMS Forever Polyvinyl
4 BE FOREST Earthbeat We Were Never Being Boring
5 LOAMLANDS Some Kind Of Light [EP] Trekky
6 GHOSTT BLLONDE TrashPop/DoomWop TrashPop//DoomWop
7 TOW3RS If All We Have Is Time
8 DANIEL BACHMAN Jesus I’m A Sinner
9 DUM DUM GIRLS Too True SUB POP
10 HIGH HIGHS Open Season Deluxe Edition fine time
11 POW! Hi-Tech Boom Castle Face
12 TOY Join The Dots Heavenly
13 WARPAINT Warpaint Rough Trade
14 STEPHEN MALKMUS AND THE JICKS Wig Out At Jagbags Matador
15 JUAN WAUTERS N.A.P. North American Poetry Captured Tracks
16 DAMIEN JURADO Brothers And Sisters Of The Eternal Son Secretly Canadian
17 HOSPITALITY Trouble Merge
18 MOGWAI Rave Tapes SUB POP
19 CIBO MATTO Hotel Valentine Chimera
20 MARISSA NADLER July Sacred Bones
21 QUILT Held In Splendor Mexican Summer
22 THUMPERS Galore SUB POP
23 DOG BITE Tranquilizers Carpark
24 NICK WATERHOUSE Holly Innovative Leisure
25 HABIBI Habibi Burger
26 MILOSH Jetlag eOne-Deadly
27 TOGETHER PANGEA Badillac Harvest
28 HOLY WAVE Relax Reverberation Appreciation Society
29 PONTIAK Innocence Thrill Jockey
30 MUTUAL BENEFIT Love’s Crushing Diamond Other
The first night of Double Barrel Benefit 11 at Cat’s Cradle surely did not disappoint. We are so grateful to the hundreds of wonderful people who came out and showed their support.
The night started out with a highly energetic and enthusiastic performance by Raleigh’s own Ghostt Bllonde. Next was Tow3rs, who began his set with a cover of Raleigh’s Lonnie Walker, which immediately grabbed at the crowd’s hearts. Hammer No More the Fingers followed with a nostalgic yet fresh set with new material that reinforces your past love affair with the boys. Lastly, The Love Language took the stage and delivered a genuinely heart-felt performance. The band served up a well-balanced mix of older songs as well as some picks from their latest album. Before we knew it, nobody in the crowd could contain themselves and broke out into a frenzy of crowd surfing- which has become a surprisingly recent pattern at The Love Language’s shows.
Overall, everyone at WKNC is elated with the results from our first night of Double Barrel Benefit 11. Be sure to come out for the second round of fun, this Friday, February 14, 2014 at Lincoln Theatre. It will be a Valentine’s Day celebration featuring Mount Moriah, Bombadil, Loamlands, and Daniel Bachman! Tickets can be purchased here.
Recording a quality album in three days’ time is not an easy feat for most musicians. But when you’ve already been playing music together for four years, some pretty amazing things can come out of such an intense studio session. That’s the case with Some Kind of Light, the debut album from the Durham-based band, Loamlands. Kym Register and Will Hackney previously played together in local favorite Midtown Dickens. Their new project, a folk/Americana duo backed by a rotating percussion section that has featured members of Megafaun, Lost in the Trees, and Hiss Golden Messenger, builds on their past together. With thoughtful lyrics sung in both raw and melodic styles over southern guitar hooks, this pair creates music that is easy to enjoy and relate to. The accessible style makes their show a great experience for all music fans.
After seeing one of their first performances last spring, when they opened for William Tyler, it was apparent that these musicians are very comfortable together; the songs came across easily and the general atmosphere at their shows is one of support and mutual delight in playing for an audience. Their cover of “Stop Dragging My Heart Around” was one of my favorite memories from a live show last year. Loamlands plays the second night of DBB, Feburary 14th, at Raleigh’s Lincoln Theater – you won’t want to miss it!
-Kate VanVorst, DJ, LBLB Coordinator
Loamlands are an exciting new Durham based band, featuring Will Hackney and Kym Register, formerly of the group Midtown Dickens. The group revels in a sort of emotionally charged Americana that manages to hopeful and bittersweet all at once. The band saw their first EP release, Some Kind Of Light, last year on Trekky Records, and the record is a powerful and spare collection of songs with earworm vocal melodies and a distinctly Southern charm.
The duo recently came in for a Lounge session, where they performed “One More Day” a track from their upcoming new LP. See them play with Mount Moriah, Daniel Bachman, and more this Friday 2/14 at Lincoln Theater for Double Barrel Benefit Night 2!
American primitivism is a deep rooted musical style pioneered by the likes of John Fahey, Robbie Basho, and Jack Rose. The genre is defined by a mix of avant-garde and blues finger-picking techniques that create a heavily textured, almost hypnotic effect with its repeating and ascending thematic lines. Its something thats become more and more mythologized in the past few years as it currently undergoes somewhat of a renaissance. Twenty-something, Bathetic Records artist Daniel Bachman likes to just call it “guitar music.”
The so-called guitar-prodigy relocated to Chapel Hill shortly after his performance at Raleigh’s Longview Center for Hopscotch Music Festival’s fourth year, as well as an amazing collaborative drone set in the Rose Garden with the group Pelt. A relentless tourer, the Fredericksburg Virginia native has made a name for himself among the most talented performers currently reviving complex acoustic guitar work–including Steve Gunn and Merge Record’s William Tyler.
Bachman will open night two of Double Barrel February 14th in Raleigh serving to appropriately christen the americana-folk-rock-packed power line-up at Lincoln Theater. On top of all that we heard he’s a big whiskey and PBR fan. Be sure to show early, watch some fast fingers and let your mouth hang open.
-John Kovalchik, Operations Manager
Andrew St. James // “Doldrums”
Something about Andrew’s unique voice being paired with soothing acoustics and echoing vocals makes many of the tracks on this album simply stunning. His sound may not be for everyone, but definitely take the time and check out this album.
Priscilla Ahn // “This is Where We Are”
The soft and dreamy vocals of Priscilla Ahn being paired with even more dreamy beats and synths makes this album pretty irresistible. Simply put, Priscilla is amazing.
Dom La Nena // “Golondrina”
Consisting of only four tracks, it is not hard to find that the best song on this EP is Dom La Nena’s cover of The National’s “Start a War.” Dom’s voice is soothing and nearly perfect.
Boy & Bear // “Harlequin Dream”
I guess I’m just a sucker for dream pop music, but I absolutely loved this album. From the softly blended in acoustics to the impressive lyrics/vocals this is just all around outstanding.
Cibo Matto // “Hotel Valentine”
This album definitely has its high points, but throughout most of it I felt like I was in the middle of some strange Japanese club experience. These girls are quirky and are not ashamed to show it through their music.
In a time where many artists are moving away from traditional instrumentation and moving towards electronics, acts like Daniel Bachman help keep music lovers rooted in the fundamentals. But that’s not to say that Bachman is an ordinary artist by any means. Daniel Bachman is a swiftly rising traditionalist in the music scene and when he made the move to Chapel Hill he was immediately embraced by the local community. There’s no wonder why either, Bachman’s acoustic fingerpicking is anything but simplistic. Using varied open tunings Bachman weaves together complex compositions filled with dense layers of melody, making his perplexing techniques seem effortless.
Bachman’s music is soothing and enchanting, making him an easy choice for our February Artist of the Month. Bachman’s most recent release Jesus, I’m A Sinner delves into American Primitivism, using bluesy fingerpicking techniques to convey his rustic instrumental aura. Whether Bachman is wielding a lapsteel, acoustic or banjo, he’s creating expansive and limitless music using minimal equipment. Bachman knows how to create an immersive environment within his music, making it easy to lose yourself in his rich sounds. With three LPs out within the past two years and another on the way for 2014, this young workhorse has no slowing down in sight.
John Kovalchic’s interview with Daniel Bachman will air on Feb. 14, the same day that Bachman is set to take the stage at Lincoln Theatre for Night 2 of our annual Double Barrel Benefit. Bachman will be performing alongside Mount Moriah, Bombadil and Loamlands. Tune in at 5:00 on Friday, Feb. 14 to hear our Artist of the Month segment with this immensely talented young guitarist.
The Love Language is a well-established band in the Triangle, and after signing to Merge Records in 2010, they struck stardom. Where the self-titled was excited and frantic with lustful hooks, Libraries swooned with Americana slides and sways and indie pop vigor. Their third album, Ruby Red, was released in July of 2013 to meet critical acclaim with its more polished, rock-oriented sound. The Love Language calls on a heartfelt earnestness in their performances, swelling up with the rises and falls of the most dynamic, unashamed sincerity that frontman, Stuart McLamb cultivates in his love letters of songs that reminisce past summers in jangly harmonies and naivety. For years, The Love Language has provided us with both songs we can dance, or erratically jump, to and others meant for holding hands with the past.
The Love Language has a long history with WKNC: coming in for interviews and in-studio performances, performing live for our video project, The Lounge, and even playing a solo set at our outdoor concert series, Fridays on the Lawn. We can’t think of a better band to headline the first night of our biggest event of the year!
-Bri Aab, General Manager
Hammer No More The Fingers catapulted into the local music scene in 2007 with the release of their self-titled EP release, one that received considerable airplay on WKNC and a heavy amount of recognition. They followed their EP with Looking For Bruce, a powerful sophomore album that garnered high critical praise, both at home and abroad. They were labeled by Stereogum as the “Band to Watch” in 2008, and by Spin as one of 25 “Must See Artists” at the 2009 CMJ festival.
Hammer No More The Fingers have been a staple of the tremendous local music scene, delivering consistently solid performances and playing alongside the best in established and up-and-coming artists. Their hooks and harmonies are irresistible, and their live performance will fuel you in ways that only their exuberant college rock can. It’s a feeling that is few and far between these days, but one that is not all lost.
Friday, February 7th at Cat’s Cradle, Hammer No More The Fingers will take the stage and give Double Barrel Benefit 11 a rock performance we all yearn for, one you will not want to miss.
-Zach Dorsett, Promotions Director