Category: Blog

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Festival Coverage

Shakori Hills Purchases Their Festival Site!

Just a week ago, December 10th, two non-profits jointly purchased the 73-acre farm land that is the site of the Shakori Hills Music Festival. Also known as simply “Shakori” or “GrassRoots,” this four-day festival in Chatham County, NC takes place twice a year. Shakori brings together thousands of local people and beyond for several days of music, participatory dance, craft vendors, a kids’ area, delicious food vendors, a healing arts tent, a sustainability forum, and the beautiful Chatham County countryside. 

“We have had two angel investors since we found this site in 2002,” explains Shakori Hills GrassRoots festival founder, Jordan Puryear. “They have generously held on to this land until we could grow, and until we were able to finally raise the necessary funds to purchase the site. We wouldn’t have done it without them, or the festival-goers that helped us raise the downpayment last year. It’s been such a great community effort – as they say, ‘It takes a village.’“

“We would love to build a permanent indoor dance pavilion so we can have more events throughout the year,” says Sara Waters, Shakori Hills GrassRoots Festival Coordinator. “We will be able to include the community by adding more educational programs like camps and workshops, bringing local artists and educators in to share their talents. Now we can work on improving the property so that we can bring all of our dreams to life.”

Now that the amazing folks that run the Shakori Hills GrassRoots Festivals own the grounds, the opportunities abound and people of the Triangle, Triad, and beyond can look forward to even more cultural arts offerings for our community to enjoy!

Categories
Music News and Interviews

Carolina Grown Podcast: Texoma w/ Magnolia Collective & Kenny Roby on Dec. 13

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Last week’s Carolina Grown was easily the busiest to date, but when you’ve got so much to fit in for the last show of the year there’s no excuse not to go all out! The first hour of the show was comprised of three rootsy acts from the area that are coming in at various stages of their career. While Kenny Roby sits atop his local throne as one of the standout members of the Alt-Country scene thanks to his work in Six String Drag, acts like Magnolia Collective and Texoma are just finding their footing.

Throughout the hour I spoke first with Kenny Roby about the differences between approaching his songs as a solo artist as opposed to a member of a full band. Roby performed an intimate take on “Tired of Being In Love,” before the focus switched over to the folks in Magnolia Collective. We then spoke a bit about the inception of Magnolia Collective and how it’s grown from their humble start with weekly jams at Carrboro’s The Station. Magnolia Collective then performed a brand new track from their forthcoming full length, set for release sometime next year.

Lastly, we moved onto the newest band of the bill with Texoma. Texoma’s songwriter Zach Terry was one of the original members of Magnolia Collective and we spoke about the differences between working with such a large group as opposed to a “dust-rock” trio. Texoma recently released a self-produced self-titled EP, and having only been a band for 2 months we naturally discussed the difficulties and excitement that comes along with being in such a swiftly moving project. To close out the hour Texoma performed an unreleased track titled “Mary Anne.”

Check out all three performances and interviews.

Categories
Non-Music News

EOT135 Best of 2013 12/10/13

This week we present a very special edition of Eye On the Triangle: our best of 2013!  We bring you our favorite pieces from the past year all in one episode, our final one for this year.

With a university as big as NC State, there are bound to be some people with interesting and amazing careers.  Our own Gene Zhirnov found one earlier this year and sat down with him for an interview. 

The United Nations is a massive organization that involves the cooperation of many countries and people from around the world.  Jake sat down with an ambassador from New Zealand this year.

Needless to say, the Hofmann Forest sale has been generating a lot of controversy over the course of the past year.  Earlier this year, prior to the revelations of the past few months, Dean Watzin of the College of Natural Resources spoke with Deondre about the forest and her college. 

NC State students are constantly doing really big things in this world.  Just before this semester started, Andrew had the privilege of interviewing Christina Hammock, an alumna who now works for NASA, via a phone call from her then-assigned location in American Samoa.

Here at WKNC, we premiered a new Youtube series this Fall, and it’s definitely worth checking out. 

Listen to all this, plus national and international news from Andrew, your forecast for the next week, and a community calendar.

Nick Savage and Andrew Eichen bring you another semester 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, starting on January 14th, 2014.

Listen to episode 135.

Categories
Miscellaneous

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coffeewithyourtea:

Dang, wknc has been kickin’ it this hour.  Here’s just what they’ve played since 11:20.

“Sacred Cow” by the Prefab Messiahs

“Montreuil” by Team Ghost

“I Learned the Hard Way” by Sharon Jones and the Dapkings

“Daydreaming” by Dark Dark Dark

If you’re in the Triangle and you’re not listening to wknc, you are missing out.  If you are even outside of the Triangle, you can stream it online.

Yeah, we’re pretty awesome. Thanks for noticing.

Categories
New Album Review

New Daytime Music

Upstairs Downstairs: “Upstairs Downstairs”
This album consists of numerous dark melodies and soft female vocals. This band is making a slow crawl to success in the music world, and will definitely be more recognized in the future.

No Joy: “Pastel and Pass Out”
Although there is not a wide variety of tracks to choose from, the ones available are quite impressive. Consisting of catchy female vocals and upbeat rhythms, No Joy is definitely making their name and sound known. 

The Paper Kites: “States” 
“States” is full of soft and slow acoustic melodies that are very calming. Paired with echoing vocals, The Paper Kites put forth quite an magnificent album. 

Sallie Ford & The Sound Outside: “Summer EP”
This EP seems to bring you back in time to an old beachside boardwalk. Sallie Ford blends her dynamic angsty vocals with beachy rock feels to create a short, but very wonderful EP.


Los Campesinos: “No Blues”
Well just like the album title suggests, this is a CD full of catchy upbeat rock tracks, and certainly “No Blues.” The album can be a little generic at times, but overall is worth a listen. 
Categories
Weekly Charts

Top Ten Afterhours Albums for 12/10

1  MACHINEDRUM    ”Vapor City”    (Ninja Tune)

2  SLOW MAGIC    ”Triangle”    (LebensStrasse)

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

4 OM UNIT    ”Threads”    (Civil)

5  ULTRAISTA    ”Ultraista: Remixes”    (Temporary Residence)

6 MAT ZO    “Damage Control”    (Astralwerks)

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

8 ALLUXE    “Nomad”    (Electronic Creatives)

9 RUN DMT    ”Run Dmt”    (Self-Released)

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

Goldroom Embrace Lyrics

Categories
Band/Artist Profile Local Music

Carolina Grown Preview: Magpie Feast w/ Texoma, Magnolia Collective & Kenny Roby

For the last official Carolina Grown of the year we’re gonna be going all out. And by that I mean we’ve got FOUR artists joining us throughout the span of our two hour show, making for the busiest week yet! From 5-6 we’ll be highlighting a few local artists that will be playing at Local 506 later on Friday night, Texoma, Magnolia Collective and Kenny Roby. After tackling some conversation and acoustic tunes with those three we’ll be onto our hour-long feature of Magpie Feast, our December Artist of the Month. It’ll be two hours filled with Southern-styled rock n’ roll goodness and an excellent send-off for what’s been a busy and wonderful first year of the show.

The first hour’s guests are some of the area’s staples when it comes to Americana music. Kenny Roby and Magnolia Collective have become figureheads of the local scene, serving as gatekeepers for the swiftly expanding roots rock scene. However, that doesn’t mean that you should write either of them off. Kenny Roby is winding down one of his best years in recent memory, anchored by the stellar release Memories & Birds back in April. Memories & Birds proves that this local icon still has plenty of gas in the tank and the same can be said for Magnolia Collective. While MagCo. is still in its early years as a project, the band’s members are no strangers to the scene. Magnolia Collective was born of Southern Rail jam sessions and has maintained that intimate vibe while slowly evolving into a cohesive and impressive unit of songwriters.

Texoma on the other hand marks a brand new start for some Triangle staples. Songwriter Zach Terry was one of the founding members within Magnolia Collective and before that was a member of the foot-stomping roots rockers The Whiskey Smugglers. As Texoma, Terry turns over a new leaf while staying firm to his alt-country roots. Texoma, Roby and Magnolia Collective will all be chatting and performing stripped down songs throughout the hour, so alt-country fans should most definitely stick close to their radios.

And if you’re a fan of the southern vibes then you’ll surely want to stick around to find out more about the elusive Magpie Feast. Though the band has been around for years now, little is known about this stellar blues-driven act. That’s one of the main reasons we’re aiming to shine our light upon this overlooked act, the other being their undeniable knack for barn-burning sing-along tracks that pack as heavy of a rhythmic punch as they do an emotional one. Expect some enlightening conversation and some brilliant renditions of the standout tracks from their latest release Out of the Womb.

Categories
Music News and Interviews

Carolina Grown Podcast: Bridges on Dec. 6

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2013 has been a busy year for the Triangle’s music scene, there’s been a slew of fantastic new acts that have risen from relative obscurity to become one of the many promising bands throughout the state. Years like this one serve as a testament to the ever-expanding pool of talent that this state can produce, and acts like Bridges are a wonderful display of this. While Bridges began rolling out songs from their debut full-length Glass Mask this summer, the record is firmly backed by the comforting winter aesthetic. Bridges’ Brian Franklin writes all of these songs from the hazy guitar lines and melancholy melodies to the driving bass and raw drumbeats.

This fresh purveyor of bedroom pop joined me this past week on Carolina Grown to talk a little bit about the inception of this project and how it’s grown from a self-contained bedroom project to a full-fledged band. Franklin and I discuss the transition from solo arrangements to vivacious live shows and the difficulties in bearing your innermost thoughts and feelings before an audience, which when your music is as visceral as Bridges’ must be a bit of an emotional exercise.

To top it all of Franklin performed a few stripped down takes of some tracks from Glass Mask, including “Never Loved You” and “End of the Road.”  Check out the acoustic performances and full conversation with Brian.

Categories
Miscellaneous

The Pizza Underground

Pizza, Macaulay Culkin, and The Velvet Underground: three elements I would have never seen coming together so beautifully. 

The child star, who we’ve all grown to love through our countless views of Home Alone around this time of year, released an album this past week called “The Pizza Underground Demo.” This nine-track demo includes titles such as “Cheese Days,” “Take a Bite of the Wild Slice,” and “I’m Waiting for Delivery Man.” The band recorded this live in Culkin’s house on November 11, 2013.

The cover band’s Tumblr has some pretty wonderful visuals as well. 

Categories
Concert Review

Sunday Is For Sleeping

An outsider viewing the events of this past weekend would have little to no clue that they were taking place in the midst of students cramming for finals and stressing out about the end of the semester.  This weekend was a social marathon of sorts, and I feel like I just re-experienced Hopscotch.  It was packed with great music, from old names and new, and lots of camaraderie.  What follows is a recap of the events that occurred.

Thursday:

We [WKNC Staff and friends], had a tacky sweater party to celebrate the LDoC.  Aside from the fact that I was comfortably wearing shorts in December, it was good fun!  Not much else to mention.

Friday – Sylvan Esso/Love Language Winter Formal:

At WKNC, we love great music, but there’s something else you should know: we are [situationally] some of the corniest folks you will ever meet.   On Friday night, we all got dolled up in our spiffiest threads, got our hair just right, got our faces looking lovely, and gathered to take pre-prom pics.  We went all out and did all of the awful poses that plague your high school photo albums and scrapbooks.  It was just as silly as in high school, only this time it felt right.  After one too many photos, we made our way to Kings.  Kings was dressed up for the event, too; streamers and paper ornaments adorned the room, and a photo booth, complete with photographer and a sign that simply stated “prom,” was located near the entrance.  This brings us to the important stuff, the show.

Sylvan Esso:
Sylvan Esso is the Durham pair consisting of vocalist Amelia Meath and electronic musician Nick Sanborn.  They released their first two tracks on an EP earlier this year, and since the first time I listened to it, I was hooked.  The overall sound is new, the lyrics are clever, and Meath’s voice is easy on the ears.  The title track, ‘Hey Mami,’ starts out with an acapella feel, there’s merely her voice and some soft background traffic noise.  As the track progresses, things pick up, and out of nowhere you get hit with this glorious bass line!  They opened the show with this song, and the live performance gave me all of the same thrills, and more!  Sylvan Esso is a name that I believe you’re going to be hearing a lot of in the near future.  Their performance blew me away.  Between Sanborn’s incredible electronic tracks, Meath’s voice (and that pant suit!), and the energy that was bouncing back and forth between them and the audience, it was an amazing night at Kings.  I don’t know if any of you have had this experience before, but sometimes you get a feeling like you’re in the presence of something with great potential…this concert was one of those moments. I think they’re going to go far.  I spoke to Sanborn briefly after the show, and he divulged that their first full album will be released this spring, and that they’re working on getting a few more singles out in the mean time.  So, stay tuned for that.

After the Sylvan Esso set, the crowd was hyped and ready to rock out and keep dancing the night away.

The Love Language:
The Love Language is far from a new band, they’ve been a big name in the Raleigh music scene for a few years now, but they’ve still got it.  Frontman Stu McLamb and his bandmates serenaded the audience with a mixed-tempo set while dressed in full prom attire.  Their set was how I would have wanted my prom to be.  Most of the set was pretty high energy, but there were occasional feel good, slow dance songs thrown in that let you catch your breath between all of the formal moshing.  The band played a mix of old and new songs, from Blue Angel to a new untitled track.  They were a nice complement to the Sylvan Esso performance.  All in all, I and the rest of the audience really enjoyed them!

Friday night was the best prom I never had.  Tons of friends, great music, cool people, and First Friday.  I want to personally thank Kings for putting that show together.  It would have been enough to see the bands in a normal setting, but the prom theme just made the night special.

Saturday – House Shows:

Saturday night, in an unassuming house near campus, there took place one hell of a house show.  The night opened with a solo performance by Emma Lee Nelson.  She rocked a guitar in hand, a drum and tambourine by feet, and a powerful voice that you could feel in your soul as it reverberated around the room.  This one woman band is quite the talent.  

Less Western:
Saturday night was the first live performance by the four man band known as Less Western.  There was a lot of anticipation surrounding this performance from within KNC.  Frontman Kevin Sweeney said that he felt a little strange performing in front of an audience, but that feeling didn’t show in his performance, it was great! Their music falls in line somewhere with bands like Floating Action, Beach Fossils, or Wild Nothing (ala Gemini).  It has a psychedelic feeling that wiggles back and forth over a fine line between somber and happy.  After first impressions from a first show, I’d say that I have a good feeling about their potential.  Check them out here!

We all sang Happy Birthday to Less Western’s guitarist, John, after their set.  He’s 21 now! 

T0W3RS:
Derek Torres showed up and played a solo set of T0W3RS tracks.  It was a fun set, everyone got dancey and riled up for the moshing that was to take place later.  It’s cool to have a slightly bigger name in the local music scene play in this intimate setting. 

Museum Mouth:
Museum Mouth is always a treat.  They bring great energy to all of their shows, and the crowd always turns into a big, sloppy mosh pit.  Saturday was no exception!  Sweaty bodies flailing into each other in the 12×12 space in the living room, crowd surfers dodging ceiling fans, and glasses flying off faces…it was good, wholesome fun!  

I also got to chat with Karl who divulged that a new album wasn’t too far off (Jan-March-ish)! Keep your eye’s open for that and download his solo rap project, OK McQueen’s newest album, LIFE//EX-LIFE.  It is amazing, and if you use the internet, you will love it.

Well, that was my jam packed weekend of KNC folks and music!  I haven’t been this exhausted since Hopscotch, so Sunday was for sleeping and Netflix marathons.  For all of you with exams coming up, good luck!

One last thing, if you’re an NCSU student, are interested in working for WKNC, and think you have what it takes, come to our training class on January 7th!  It’s a great way to get involved in the local music scene, you get to know great music and even the people behind the music.