Categories
DJ Highlights

Local Beat recap 9/3/10 (Hopscotch Edition)

September 3 was the Friday before Hopscotch Music Festival, and I was joined by Grayson Currin, music editor of the Independent Weekly who was also Hopscotch Curator. Hopscotch is the biggest music event to ever happen in Raleigh, so I dedicated the entire three hours of the show to chatting with Grayson about everything associated with the festival.  Caitlin Cary (Small Ponds, Tres Chicas), Reid Johnson (Schooner), and Brian Corum (Lonnie Walker) also came on the show, and Reid and Brian played some brand new tunes (which you can download here). What ended up happening was three hours of a fascinating, entertaining conversation with insight into Hopscotch. Listen below:

Hour 1:
Hopscotch on the Local Beat 9/3/10 (Hour 1)

Hour 2:
Hopscotch on the Local Beat 9/3/10 (Hour 2)

Hour 3:
Hopscotch on the Local Beat 9/3/10 (Hour 3)

Categories
Concert Preview

Fridays on the Lawn returns!

WKNC has again teamed up with our comrades in the Union Activities Board and Student Government to bring great live music to campus.

This Friday, October 15th, has local acts Birds and Arrows and Embarrassing Fruits performing on Harris Field (at the corner of Dan Allen Drive and Cates Avenue).  The show starts at 6:30 and is FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC so bring your friends, maybe a blanket and a picnic basket, and come experience some awesome locally-grown musical talent.

P.S. There will also be some free grub for early-comers!

Categories
Concert Review

Rogue Wave, Midlake, and Peter Wolf Crier Impress at the Cat’s Cradle

After an impossibly long week, I had hoped that last Saturday’s show at the Cat’s Cradle would be great. I was in no way prepared for the powerful emotional journey I would experience. Each band attempted impossibly, yet successfully, to up the ante of intensity by giving a more impassioned and stirring performance than the previous band. Incredibly, even with their considerable body of recorded material, all three groups performed better live than on their albums.

Peter Wolf Crier took the stage first and stunned with their short and blistering set. Peter Pisano and drummer Brian Moen played with soulful, biting fervor. At times the duo’s dynamics recalled the consonance of the drums-and-guitar pair Dodos, but for most of the show, Pisano dominated the stage; the very air in the room became an extension of his body. Like a stationary one-man band, his myriad of amplifiers and effects pedals became a playground for his manic and maximalist compositions.

Crier’s performance would have been tough for any band to follow, but Midlake followed in stride. Appropriately, the band walked onstage just as Fairport Convention’s brilliant rendition of “Tam Lin” faded to a close over the venue’s speakers. A pastoral, electric folk ballad, “Tam Lin” is exactly the sort of song that underlies Midlake’s sound.

The seven musicians crowded the front of the stage in the best approximation of a democracy they could muster. Singer Tim Smith began the set crouched low in a folding chair, his presence subdued until the songs began to take shape. As guitar lines melded with flutes, close vocal harmonies and restrained drumming, the songs would weave and swell into evocatively textured sonic tapestries.

Rogue Wave took the stage without much fanfare. With their intentions clearly set on playing great songs, the band impressed with their joyous musicianship and their impeccable craft. Even after two great performances leading up to their set, Rogue Wave was the highlight of the night. Zach Rogue played with a fiery glint in his eye, and his bandmates deftly followed his every move. Fan favorites such as “Eyes” didn’t simply soar, they filled the room with their beauty.  As I drove home later that night, I realized something: this is why I go to concerts—to be moved.

Categories
Non-Music News

EOT44 Larry Brown’s Anti-Gay Remarks 10/5/10

This week, the EOT team discusses anti-gay remarks North Carolina State Representative Larry Brown (R-Kernersville) made in an email message to fellow Republicans.We also have N.C. State sports and correspondent Mason Morris asks about student’s fall break plans.

Listen to episode 44.

Categories
DJ Highlights

Local Beat preview 10/8/10

This week on the Local Beat should be a fantastic program as we have three great hours of interviews lined up for your listening pleasure.

At 5 p.m., Chapel Hill group the Tomahawks are dropping in to chat about their brand new album Cut Loose. It was recorded at Arbor Ridge Studios, home of Jeff Crawford, who is a member of the Tomahawks, among many others. We are going to try to get the group to play a couple live tracks for us and debut the new tunes!

6 p.m. is bringing back our good friends from Nightsound Studios who are releasing the Local Musical Chairs Compilation. The compilation is complete and available for free download! The official album release however is on November 3 at the Cats Cradle, though as of today there is no word on the lineup for the show.

Back in June, when news of the compilation started gaining momentum, I had Erika Libero from Nightsound and Wylie Hunter and the Cazadores come in to talk about the compilation. Listen to the interview here:
Musical Chairs Compilation 7/23/10

For the last hour of the program, I am welcoming Steve & Paul from the newly opened Kings Barcade on Martin Street in downtown Raleigh. Kings recently reopened in September, just in time for Hopscotch, after the club closed down several years ago. The announcement of its reopening early in 2010 was met with high anticipation from local residents, and the venue has already booked several high profile shows. Listen to the interview starting at 7 p.m. as we talk about the past, present, and future of Kings!

Categories
Music News and Interviews

SoundOff11 Of Montreal/Ellie Goulding

This week we talk about the latest Memories Tour by Weezer, the shoe design of Animal Collective, and review the debut album from Ellie Goulding and the latest release from Of Montreal.

Listen to episode 11.

Categories
Music News and Interviews

Embarrassing Fruits to Promote their Shakori Hills Performance Tuesday

With the fall Shakori Hills Grassroots Music Festival this weekend, we wanted to speak to some of our favorite local bands performing at the festival. Tomorrow (Tuesday October 5), Special K will be chatting on the phone with Joe Norkus of Embarrassing Fruits as he promotes his band’s show at the Carson Grove’s Stage on Thursday, October 7.

Norkus will also be discussing the band’s recent album release of Frontier Justice which came out last month. The Chapel Hill band will be performing around 11 p.m. For the full band schedule, please visit the Shakori Hills website. Please listen in on the conversation only on 88.1FM or streaming online.

Categories
Concert Preview Local Music

Local Beer Local Band October 7

Happy October everyone! Finally feels like fall! Hooray!

Grab that scarf and come down to WKNC and Tir Na Nog’s Local Band Local Beer on Thursday, October 7 to see WILD WILD GEESE, WESLEY WOLFE, and SHIT HORSE! All bands are a part of Odessa Records. The show is FREE! Ages 21 and up. Starts at 10 p.m. My favorite delicious October-tasting beer, Big Boss Harvest Time will be on tap. Yum yum!

Check out www.wknc.org/lblb to see the fall schedule for Local Band Local Beer and to download the free mixtape, which features one song from each band playing this season.

…Wild Wild Geese

http://www.myspace.com/wildwildgeesemusic

“Are You a Baby?, the prelude to Carrboro trio Wild Wild Geese’s forthcoming debut LP, bristles with springy garage rock verve that
seems to fit everywhere and nowhere at once. The Geese play with loose energy and nervy emotion, suggesting The Replacements and Reigning Sound. The screwball guitars feel more like Polvo, though, while the pop undercurrent has as much to do with British punk as American rebellion (or as much Buzzcocks as Stooges). Still, while Wild Wild Geese sound very much culled from all of those bands, it manages to avoid sounding too much like any of them.” – The Independent

…Wesley Wolfe

http://www.myspace.com/wesleywolfe

There’s a reason Chapel Hill, North Carolina is still one of the great American hubs for independent music, and it’s not just indie rock stalwarts Superchunk and the Cat’s Cradle rock club. The reason is because there is a glut of homegrown talent, people like the Kingsbury
Manx or Spider Bags that are churning out vital record after vital record. And go right ahead and add Wesley Wolfe to that list. Storage
is, flat out, one of the finest pop records of the year. Wolfe recorded all the instruments himself, and these are as straight-up as pop songs come. Guitars, bass, drums, vocals, sweet melodies, clever and heartfelt lyrics, and hooks, hooks, hooks. But while the elements are simple, the songs are far from the same. Wolfe can pull off guileless love songs, lover-spurned indie rock, and spaced-out melancholia—and that’s just in the first three songs. His nasal bleat is urgent and sweet at the same time, and when he spits out lines like “sorry only counts the first time”, you know damn well he means it. So you’ve got 11 catchy as hell songs, full of driving guitars and deep hooks, telling earnest tales sung with both feeling and energy—aren’t those the things we expect from pop music? And does it make Storage one of the finest examples of it in 2010. The answer to both questions is a resounding ‘Yes’.
– Popmatters.com

…Shit Horse

“If you’re compelled to wince at Shit Horse on first glance, that’s understandable. The band—three young, white rock musicians from
Carrboro and Danny Mason, a black frontman two decades older than the band’s youngest member—doesn’t do itself many favors: They’re called Shit Horse, of course, and the title of their debut cassette is a riff on the 1969 Jane Fonda film about a dance marathon. They have a theme song—"Shit Horse! Is Gonna Ride!,” ad infinitum—and they prefer to present their songs via guerilla sets late at night on the streets of Orange County…The band ratchets the rhythm until they deliver Mason into a post-punk fistfight, his exasperated voice insisting that he won’t be defeated. So, yeah, maybe Shit Horse is a gimmick with an attitude and a sense of humor for teenagers. But what else did you think rock ‘n’ roll promised?“ – The Independent

The front man of all three bands will join me in the station Thursday night from 7-8 p.m.  We’ll be having a round-table discussion. Tune in if you know what’s good for you!

Categories
DJ Highlights

Local Beat preview 10/1/10

Wow, has it really been a month and a half since I posted the last Local Beat preview blog?  With the enormous amounts of schoolwork and two jobs (plus all the amazing local music concerts I have been going to) I have not had much time to give to blogging recently.  I hope you forgive me.

This week on the Local Beat we have a full lineup planned out.

Greg Humphreys is coming on the show for the first hour. It has been a very long time since Greg has been on the show and you might recognize his other bands Hobex and Dillon Fence. However, Greg has been a prolific solo artist as well with two solo albums, one live album, and one duo album with Gibb Droll since 2008. His newest album, Realign Your Mind, is a more studio-recorded album than his last release Trunk Songs. Greg and I will talk about the album and play some tunes which you have not yet heard on WKNC.

Greg is also playing some live shows coming up so be sure to check those out as well:

Songs of Water has released my favorite album of 2010 so far with their output The Sea Has Spoken.  Songs of Water is a eight-piece group out of Greensboro, NC, and their newest release is mostly beautiful, harmonious instrumentals the meld through worldly genres varying anywhere from Celtic, Oriental, Latin, Americana, blues, tribal, flamenco, bluegrass, and everything in between. Rich, deep, and powerful, it’s one of the most kickass local albums I have heard in some time, and I am happy to say they will all be cramming into our small studio to play some live tunes for us. If you are heading to Shakori Hills next week, be sure to check out this group as they play on October 7. Check out the great write-up they got on the Shakori Hills website:

From the woods of North Carolina comes Songs Of Water, an experimental musical fantasia based half in impressionism and half in realism. With a sound both ancient and modern, they dive into an ocean of exotic instruments to create their gorgeously contemplative instrumental vignettes. Utterly beautiful and meticulously presented, they draw deeply from the pool of World music including folk, Celtic, African, Middle Eastern, classical and jazz influences. Founded upon both composition and improvisation, no two performances are exactly alike.

A couple of the fellas and ladies from Minus Sound Research are coming in for the final hour of the show. Minus is an “art exhibition, now in its fifth year, featuring pieces from local North Carolina musicians. The artists will present their creative visions through sculpture, photography, drawings, serigraphy, woodwork and painting.” Some new artists in the exhibition this year include:

The exhibition is running through the entire month of October at the Carrboro Arts Center and will be featuring artwork from participating artists from past and present exhibitions. Including the artwork be sure to check out the live music at the center on October 8 and 9 featuring: Shark Quest, The Kingsbury Manx, The Moaners, North Elementary, Organos, Free Electric State, Americans in France, & Birds and Arrows.

As always the Local Beat starts at 5 p.m. and runs through 8 p.m. every Friday evening on WKNC.  Listen live here and be sure to follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and ReverbNation!

Categories
Non-Music News

EOT43 Hillsborough Street Festival 9/28/10

Sounds and interviews from the Live It Up on Hillsborough Street Festival, behind the scenes of recycling, Evan’s viewpoint about Renee Ellmers, flooding rains in the forecast, campus events, a breakdown of the 4-0 start to the football season, cooking Ribollita with Mark, and the WKNC Mailbag.

Listen to episode 43.