Categories
Band/Artist Profile Local Music

Carolina Grown Preview: Nov. 15

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This week’s installment of Carolina Grown is exciting for a few reasons. First off, since the show started I’ve yet to have an entire hour where I get to do nothing but play local music! Granted the whole point of a talk show is to chat with guests, but throughout the second hour of the show this week listeners will get the treat of continuous local tunes from a wide variety of artists and genres. I’m far more excited for this than I probably should be, but combining it with the fact that we’ll be highlighting our November Artist of the Month during the 5:00 hour, this makes for an awesome two hours of programming.

November’s Artist of the Month, and my guest for the first hour of Carolina Grown, is Whatever Brains. For those unfamiliar with this Triangle standout act, Whatever Brains are an amorphous punk band that has swiftly come to command the attention of everyone in proximity. Combining sparse electronic percussion with wrangling instrumentation that teeters simultaneously between noise rock, punk and garage rock, Whatever Brains’ music slowly unfurls with as much aggression as they have precision. With three full-length albums, all self-titled might I add, the band has steadily stayed close to their roots while slightly experimenting with their tried and true sound to make things both exciting and familiar.

Whatever Brains have swiftly become the figureheads of Raleigh’s punk-rock scene, especially with the untimely falling out of Double Negative. The band combines spastic punk rock roots with sprawling bouts of lo-fi psychedelia and riveting lyricism to tightly pull it all together. The band is oozing with tightly wound frustrations that pour out through their caustic live performances, displaying the tact and finesse that many punk bands are devoid of.

Categories
Music News and Interviews

Giveaways for the Week of 11/11 – 11/17

Keep it tuned to WKNC all week long for your chance to win tickets to any of these great shows below! Just be the correct caller when the DJ asks for it, and you and a friend could be hitting up some of the coolest local acts around.

Tuesday, November 12th – Kate Nash with La Sera @ Cat’s

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Wednesday, November 13th – Cat’s presents: Girl in a Coma with Almost People and Barron @ Cat’s

Thursday, November 14th – Mako Sica with Canine Heart Sounds @ The Pinhook

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Friday, November 15th – Small Apartments with Prisms and Goner @ The Pinhook

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Friday, November 15th – Basia Bulat with Foreign Fields @ Cat’s (Back Room)

Friday, November 15th – Steep Canyon Rangers with Mipso @ Cat’s

Saturday, November 16th – Deleted Scenes with Grounders @ Kings

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Categories
Concert Review

THE WORLD IS A BEAUTIFUL PLACE AND I AM NO LONGER AFRAID TO DIE OCTOBER 28, 2013 – THE LOCAL 506

The World Is… is a midwest emo band from Willimantic, CT. They blend styles from a wide array of influences, including mewithoutYou, Explosions in the Sky, and American Football. The result is powerful and unique. Their name gives a good hint of what you can expect from their music, melodrama and ambition. Though, they don’t take things too seriously, considering all of the playful edits they make to their name. “The World Is A Beautiful Cat and I Am No Longer Afraid to Meow, Meow, Meow”, for example. They have a pretty sweet bag patch with that (and a cat of course).

This was my second time seeing The World Is (They played in Greenville over the summer). The first thing I remember about both performances was how astoundingly clear everything was. The eight-piece dynamic allows for quite a massive sound. Some of their songs are downright anthems (see “Gig Life” or “Getting Sodas”), and their lyrics are tinged with introspection and nervousness. 

They’re one of the forerunners of the so-called “emo revival,” which is all well and good. I’m down for new ears on these bands. After all, it’s what allows TWIAPB to go on nation-wide tours, and heck, my radio show is dedicated to the genre. I just hope all the extra-attention doesn’t water down the genre because it’s the “cool new thing”.

Anywho, to the real story: The band started things off with, “Blank #9”, an instrumental and the first song off their album. Then Shitty Greg sang the first words of the set with “Victim Kin Seek Suit”, from their EP. Their set consisted of mostly new songs, nearly playing through their whole album in order. Hilariously, one of the guitarists filled the space between songs by speaking backward gibberish into his mic. Still, the crowd was pretty stagnant until, by request, they played the heavy hitting “Eyjafjallajokull Dance.“ Right then a little bit of hell broke loose and pushing ensued. They ended their set with “Getting Sodas,” but not before giving the words, “This one’s your problem.” At last, the crowd had warmed up to them and pushed the stage, with David Bello shouting the lyrics “The world is a beautiful place, but we have to make it that way…” I’m definitely looking forward to the next time they come to NC.

                                                                                                            -DJ Nasty Nate

Categories
Weekly Charts

Top Ten Afterhours Albums for 11/11

1 DECO    “Timescales”    (Deceast)

2 ETIENNE DE CRECY    ”Beats N Cubes Vol 2″    (Win)

3 BREAK SCIENCE    “Seven Bridges”    (Pretty Lights Music)

4 Dameron    ”Bronx Showdown”    (Self-Release)          <- LOCAL    

5 BOTANY    ”Lava Diviner (Truestory)”    (Western Vinyl)

6 VARIOUS ARTISTS    ”Verve Remixed: The First Ladies”    (Verve)

7 Pretty Lights    ”Color Map of the Sun”    (8 Minutes 20 Seconds)

8 ALLUXE    “Nomad”    (Electronic Creatives)

9 GOLDROOM    “Embrace [EP]”    (Vitalic Noise)

Goldroom – Embrace Lyrics

10 ELIZABETH ROSE    “EP2”    (Inertia)

Categories
Non-Music News

EOT131 The Lounge 11/5/13

This episode of “Eye on the Triangle” brings you a conversation with WKNC’s Walt Lilly, co-founder of the new video series “The Lounge.”

Nick Savage and Andrew Eichen bring you another edition of “Eye on the Triangle,” live each Tuesday at 7 p.m. on WKNC 88.1 FM and wknc.org/listen and available as a downloadable podcast.

Listen to episode 131.

Categories
Non-Music News

EOT130 The Voice Pt2 10/29/13

This episode of “Eye on the Triangle” brings you the second half of our conversation with N.C. State alumna Kat Robichaud and her experience as a contestant on NBC’s “The Voice.”

Nick Savage and Andrew Eichen bring you another edition of “Eye on the Triangle,” live each Tuesday at 7 p.m. on WKNC 88.1 FM and wknc.org/listen and available as a downloadable podcast.

Listen to episode 130.

Categories
New Album Review

New Daytime Music

DeadCat “Transientualism”

With a rocky beginning to the album, I was quite impressed to find such addicting/good tracks at the end. Full of good beats and ambient sounds, DeadCat definitely has a promising future. 

Cobalt Cranes “Head in the Clouds”

Creating their own dreamy sound, Cobalt Cranes new album definitely sounds like their heads were in the clouds when they put together all of these songs. Overall, the band is a really good duo with soothing vocals.

Cass McCombs “Big Wheel and Others”

Not gonna lie, this album is straight up WEIRD, but in a really good way. Cass intertwines soft melodies with wonderful lyrics to create a great album. This album is a really good choice to slow things down a bit. 

Diane Coffee “My Friend Fish”

This is an amazingly beautiful solo album put together by Shaun Flemming (Foxygen’s drummer)! Overall, the album is very impressive and similar (if not better) to the likes of Foxygen’s sound. 

Besides Daniel “This Marvelous Grief”

Consisting of soft acoustics and vocals, Besides Daniel’s new album is very heartfelt and personal. Overall, the album is full of potential and pretty impressive.
 

Categories
Concert Preview

Carolina Grown Preview Nov. 8

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Songs of Water Press Photo

In this week’s installment of Carolina Grown  I’ll be joined by Songs of Water, a brilliant experimental folk group from Greensboro who will be performing at The Pour House on November 14. 

I’m incredibly excited to kick things off with Songs of Water, an act that my predecessor Adam Kincaid has been heralding for years now. This eclectic group of musicians bring in a wide array of influences that somehow coalesce to create a unique blend of world music and folk traditions with experimental tendencies. Their name couldn’t explain the band in a better way, as their songs are universally appealing and free-flowing, taking shape around their surroundings rather than a pre-determined mold. Hammered dulcimers and orchestral arrangements are no strangers to this band’s music, hell their last album The Sea Has Spoken featured over 30 instruments throughout its duration. To put it simply this seven-piece band are purveyors of immense music that retains an earnest and personal demeanor.

Be sure to stay tuned at 6 p.m. for Wolfpack women’s basketball season opener vs. St. Bonaventure.

Categories
DJ Highlights

Employee of the Month October 2013: dJ/dx

dJ/dx is our first ever DJ of the month! While she’s not currently up on the schedule for DJing, she has earned the title by being the single most helpful, charismatic, motivated youngin we have in our studio. She just a month ago, and she’s already on everyone’s radars for being the coolest cat in town.

dJ/dx channeled her past sound experience from working at a music venue/coffee shop in high school to help upperclassmen and sound engineer, DJ John, work to create sound for our past Fridays on the Lawn with Stu McLamb of The Love LanguageLoamlandsJonny Alright, and Virgins Family Band. She’s even committed to our next Fridays on the Lawn, featuring Naked Gods and Ghostt Bllonde!

There you have it. Tune in every first Tuesday of the month to find out the next employee of the month!

Categories
Music News and Interviews

Jackson Scott in the WKNC lounge

Jackson Scott “Sandy” – WKNC’s The Lounge

When Fat Possum artist Jackson Scott came by knc’s studio for an on air interview after his Chapel Hill debut performance at the Cradle with Unknown Mortal Orchestra on Oct 6th, 2013 we felt it more than necessary to stick a couple camera’s in his face and tell him to play. 

The psych-rock virtuoso out of Asheville ended up playing a stripped down 3 song set as a part of KNC’s new video series The Lounge

“Sandy” is just the first installment of the show, be on the look out for more to be premiered soon!

You can also check out our first episode with Daniel Bachman.