Category: Blog

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Concert Preview Local Music

Carolina Grown Preview: Oct. 18

The third installment of Carolina Grown is coming up swiftly, and this week’s show is entirely themed around one of Raleigh’s most exciting community events of the fall. The Cooke Street Carnival is an annual neighborhood festival that takes place on Cooke Street that showcases some of the many excellent cultural elements that are abound in the city of Raleigh. Live music is a staple of the festival, but there’s much more to be offered at the event which takes place on Saturday, Oct. 19. I’ll be joined by festival organizer Jedidiah Gant along with some of the featured artists at this year’s festival including Prypyat, Hammer No More The Fingers, and Napoleon Wright II.

The event also teams up with a local non-profit organization to help raise funds and awareness for the group. This year the festival has paired up with Learning Together, an educational non-profit that works with developmentally disabled children. The head of the organization will be joining Jedidiah along with Jason Howard, the owner of the soon to be re-opened Quality Grocery.

Each year the festival follows a thematic structure and this year’s will boast a vibrant display of the Southern cookout aesthetic. For years now we’ve been interacting with our neighbors through community events such as this, but Cooke Street Carnival just does so on a much wider scale. It helps build a tighter community for Raleigh’s residents and allows everyone to connect on a personal level through delicious food, exciting events, and fantastic local music.

Some of the area’s finest food trucks will be out at the event along with local breweries and other assorted food vendors. Local artists and art vendors will line the streets as well, making for a truly carnival-esque experience for all of those in attendance. If you needed anything else to drive home this family-friendly laid back vibe, I’d say that the Pickle Eating contest does so perfectly.

Tune in on Friday from 5-7pm. I’ll speak with Jedidiah about the origins of the Cooke Street Carnival, some of his anticipated highlights, and where the festival can go from here. Throughout the show we’ll also have live performances and interviews from Prypyat, Napoleon Wright II, and Hammer No More The Fingers!

For more information on Cooke Street Carnival you can check out their website

Categories
Weekly Charts

Top Ten Afterhours Albums for 10/14

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

2  MACHINEDRUM    ”Vapor City”    (Ninja Tune)

3  SLOW MAGIC    "Triangle"    (LebensStrasse)

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

5 IKONIKA    ”Aerotropolis”    (Hyperdub)

6 Dameron    ”Bronx Showdown”    (Self-Release)    

7 HERMITUDE    ”HyperParadise”    (Elefant Traks)

8  GOLD PANDA    ”Half Of Where You Live”    (Ghostly)

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

10  ULTRAISTA    ”Ultraista: Remixes”    (Temporary Residence)

 

Categories
New Album Review

New Daytime Music

Love Inks //  Generation Club

Love Inks is driven by the dark and dreamy vocals of Sherry Leblanc. On top of that, the addition of catchy beats makes “Generation Club” an album that is very promising and full of potential.

 

Luray // The Wilder

Heavy in the banjo/folk roots with a bit of country twang, Luray puts herself up there with likes of a lots of female folk groups. Full of talent and potential, The Wilder is overall an impressive album

 

Gambles // Trust

This album has a slower folky feel to it, which I really dig. Matthew Daniel Siskin is very personal on this album and is able to captivate listeners through his beautiful vocals and lyrics.

 

Teen Daze // Glacier

Not sure why Teen Daze limits their vocals so much, but the track below is the only track on the album with words. The rest is simply calming and relaxing synths. The album is very hypnotizing, but I feel like Teen Daze has a lot more potential then they think.

 

Garage Voice // Amenin

Somehow combining garage rock with gospel music, Garage Voice is able to create a very unique sound of their own. With a fuzzy bass and church organs, Amenin is quite a different, but good album

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Music News and Interviews

Tune in to win tickets to Mountain Oasis Festival!

WKNC is happy to announce that we have a pair of tickets to give away for this year’s Mountain Oasis Festival in Asheville, NC. The 3 day festival features over 50 artists including Nine Inch Nails, Bassnectar, Pretty Lights, Neutral Milk Hotel, Animal Collective, and many more. It is a celebration of contemporary electronic music and the creative use of technology and it will be hosting live music talks, seminars and panels by artists, interactive experiences for audiences, and many other events. For more details, visit www.mountainoasisfestival.com.

Stay tuned all week long for your chance to win! Just be the correct caller when the DJ asks for it to be entered into a drawing to win the pair of passes. The winner of the passes will be announced on October 20th.

 

Categories
Concert Review

Show Review: Wavves with King Tuff and Jacuzzi Boys

The energy at the Cat’s Cradle on Monday night was electrifying.  We were heartbroken to have unfortunately missed the opening set by Jacuzzi Boys, a trio whose most recent self-titled release dropped this past September, but we were hyped to arrive to catch King Tuff in all his rough and tuffness.  His band’s sound is nostalgic, their influences ranging from glam rock to psychedelic garage. The crowd reached a wide range of ages, from middle school skater bros to cool dads. Towards the stage, throngs of trill bros jammed and moshed out. Even old Old Gary on drums seemed to be having a good time. King Tuffy ended his set with “Bad Thing,” off his eponymous release, a song the crowd chanted and screamed along with him. King Tuff’s persona is out of this world: totes rad, bro. He is bad to the bone.

Rock on, man! King Tuff’s scuzzy performance was loaded with killer riffs and bad ‘tudes.

Why are some people so easy to idolize?  Nathan Williams, the frontman of Wavves, attracts fervent devotees.  His casual, fuck-off charisma is magnetic.  Many of the teenagers in attendance at Monday night’s show knew all of his lyrics, chanting along to his songs while joyfully working themselves into a writhing, moshing mass.

Wavves had the crowd in a frenzy; we stood back where the moshing was less intense

Perhaps Williams is so popular because his music fills the pop-punk void left when Blink-182 and Green Day became more self-serious: his songs are anthems for kids yearning for catchy, angry, Endless Summer rock ‘n roll.  As Wavves’ mangy bass player announced the song “King of the Beach,” a trio of high schoolers shoved past me as they raced to the front row.  We stood back and basked in the crowd’s energy, and we couldn’t help but dance and try to sing along.

 

by e baby and Spaceman Spiff

Categories
Concert Review

Show Review: Saint Rich with WOOL

WOOL is one of the most promising new bands in the Triangle, and it was a pleasure to be wrapped up in their sound on Sunday night at the Pinhook.  Frontman Troy Hancock writes gorgeous, glowing dream pop gems, his romantic vocal melodies enveloped by a sound womb of guitars and brilliant, wiry bass lines.  These are earnest pop songs wrapped in a blanket of noise.

WOOL played a mesmerizing set

Troy expressed their excitement for opening for Saint Rich before launching into a short, mesmerizing set.  Songs such as Mountains and Bulletin Air broiled into enchanting, slow-burning climaxes.  Our station has been enamored with the Bulletin Air single released in January, and I cannot wait until they officially press these songs.   Their EP release show is on Friday, October 25 at Kings with The Human Eyes and See Gulls, and I’ll surely be there.

Saint Rich had swagger and songs to boot

Saint Rich followed shortly after a hushed pep talk with Mac McCaughan, who co-leads Merge Records (might I add that Mac’s band Superchunk has an amazing new album?).  Saint Rich announced that Sunday night’s show was their first in their record label’s hometown, and they did not disappoint.  These guys made playing rock and roll look effortlessly easy.  The band nailed a roaring set of country rock, and their triumphant guitar leads of Steve Marion and swaggering vox by Christian Peslak had my toes tapping.

The Pinhook has the nicest bathroom graffiti!
Categories
Music News and Interviews

Hopscotch Interview: WAUMISS

WKNC interview with WAUMISS during the 2013 Hopscotch Music Festival. Check out the interview and on our iTunes podcast!

Categories
Local Music Music News and Interviews

October’s Local Artist of the Month: Schooner

Schooner have been one of North Carolina’s sleeper bands for far too long. Their 2007 full length debut Hold On Too Tight warranted heavy acclaim from critics and showcased the band’s sporadic indie pop stylings. Many would have imagined that Schooner would swiftly snowball into the state’s next powerhouse, however, songwriter Reid Johnson took some time off to re-evaluate his musical career and thus the band slowly began to dissipate from its original lineup. After receiving a lineup overhaul, Duck Kee Sessions in 2010 propelled the band to the national spotlight.

The band’s original lineup fell to the wayside, but this new roster clearly displayed a newly invigorated vision of Schooner. They were touted as one of Paste Magazine’s “Best of What’s Next” and even made their way down to South-By-Southwest after the heavy acclaim from Duck Kee. But with the release of Neighborhood Veins, the band’s latest full length, they’re prepared to bask in the spotlight that they’ve so patiently waited for.

Neighborhood Veins marks the first national release from local label PotLuck Records and it’s an excellent display of Schooner’s brilliance. It’s a collection of songs that range from fuzzed out pop gems to bleary-eyed folk-infused madness. By now Reid Johnson and the new lineup for Schooner have found their groove, they acknowledge their musical past while still looking boldly forward to the future. Neighborhood Veins’ closing track is a sprawling 12-minute adventure, something that one could have hardly imagined upon first glance from a band like Schooner.

After their bold step forward, you can expect Schooner to finally take their place as a North Carolina powerhouse amongst our brimming indie rock scene. That’s precisely why we’ve chosen Schooner as our Local Artist of the Month for October. You can check out their latest video for “Trap” below.  If you missed their interview and live performance, you can check it out and on our iTunes podcast!

http://schoonermusic.com
http://facebook.com/schoonermusic
http://twitter.com/schoonermusic

Categories
Weekly Charts

Top Ten Afterhours Albums for 10/08

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

2  GOLD PANDA    ”Half Of Where You Live”    (Ghostly)

3  MACHINEDRUM    "Vapor City"    (Ninja Tune)

4  ULTRAISTA    "Ultraista: Remixes"    (Temporary Residence)

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

6 Dameron    ”Bronx Showdown”    (Self-Release)    

7 HERMITUDE    ”HyperParadise”    (Elefant Traks)

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

9 MODERAT    ”II”    (Mute)

10  IKONIKA    "Aerotropolis"    (Hyperdub)

Categories
Concert Review

Show Review: Unknown Mortal Orchestra with Jackson Scott

Unknown Mortal Orchestra
Yesterday I capped off a great weekend by trekking out to Cat’s Cradle in Carrboro to see a band I’ve been obsessed with for a while – Unknown Mortal Orchestra.

The opener, Jackson Scott, was a young, up-and-coming noisy rock act from Asheville. I had never heard of the band, and like many others at the Cradle I was in for a surprise. During their first song, I spied more than a few stunned faces in the audience – people weren’t sure what to make of the sudden assault on their ears by this trio of energetic, shaggy-haired kids. Faces obscured by their long bangs, they redefined LOUD and played the heck out of their respective instruments. Guitarist and lead singer, Jackson Scott himself, crooned indiscernibly over it all. Despite the somewhat jarring mid-song tempo changes and wealth of discordant sounds, I managed to get pretty into the music, although this is not a band I probably would have listened to otherwise.

After Jackson Scott’s angsty take on noise, we were in for a more danceable jam session in the form of Unknown Mortal Orchestra. While you may know them for their irresistibly catchy hooks and fuzzy low-fi funk beats, what you probably don’t know is that UMO are also pretty great at just jamming for the sake of jamming. I think it’s really cool when a live show delivers something distinctly different; something that you can’t get from just listening to a band’s albums (like Sam Herring’s legendary theatrics at Future Islands shows, for example), and these guys did just that. Between the crazy-intense drum solos and lead singer & guitarist Ruban Nielson experimenting with feedback on three different guitars (not even touching the strings? – mind blown), there were a lot of instrumental excursions that you won’t hear on their albums. Although the band seemed to enjoy immersing themselves and the audience in these more sprawling versions of their songs, they still supplied those unearthly, infectious tunes we were all expecting. Between discovering a new band, and hearing a familiar one play unfamiliar sounds, this was a great show – I hope to see y’all out there next time!