WKNC 88.1 FM - North Carolina State University Student RadioChris and Mark take you behind the scenes with Larry Larson of Larry’s Beans. Plus: an interview with Ethan Bartlett, the chief of staff of N.C. State’s student government, Mark’s dessert recipe, sports previews the upcoming UNC game, and more.
This Saturday, 11/20/2010, A/V Geeks founder Skip Elsheimer dredges deep into the mucky recesses of our collective pop culture subconscious to find some of his favorite novelty songs. (His words.) In addition to the joke songs we all know and love(They’re Coming To TakeMe Away, Junk Food Junkie) and parody songs (Another One Rides the Bus, 99 Dead Baboons), we’ll be listening to songs
that reflect the fads of the day (The Streak, Convoy, Pac Man Fever), odd 70s patriotic rap songs, answer songs and more!
Tune in Saturday morning, 8-10am.
Talk to you then.
-La Barba Rossa
Local label Denmark Records brought Brooklyn electro-pop duo Javelin to town this past Thursday, November 11, for their third Raleigh show in four months at the recently re-opened Kings. I unfortunately missed the Panda-Bear-but-less-weird sounds of local act It Is Rain In My Face, but arrived right in time to catch the start of Athens, Georgia’s Reptar. With bassist Ryan Engelberger M.I.A., the band still managed to put on an energetic show, keeping the crowd dancing with synth-pop reminiscent of Passion Pit, sans the obnoxious vocals. Dressed in a choir robe and multi-colored sunglasses, keyboard player William Kennedy bounced around with singer/guitarist Graham Ulicny like two kids hopped on Red Bull and Pixie Stix, their boundless energy clearly rubbing off on the crowd.
After a brief set break, Javelin kicked off their set of sample-heavy party jams. Mixing in older tracks such as “Radio” and “Soda Popinski” with newer cuts, including personal favorite “C Town”, the duo of George Langford and Tom van Buskirk never once let their set go into non-danceable territory during their nearly hour-long set. The duo also managed to drop in a few verses from songs other than their own, including Beastie Boys’ “Sabotage.” With a much larger turnout than the nearly-empty Small Black show a couple weeks before, the show proved to be a success for everyone—for Denmark, for Kings, for the fans, and especially for Javelin, who went so far as to ask, “Why haven’t we moved here yet?”
It may be a chilly one, but this year’s final installment of the Fridays on the Lawn on-campus concert series will be sure to impress.
This Friday, November 19th, will feature headliners The Tomahawks, out of Chapel Hill with the Carrboro-based Tender Fruit starting the evening off at 6:30. (This iteration of The Tender Fruit will be Christy Smith performing solo. “Solo” does this lady no justice, though. Her voice packs the punch of a full orchestra.)
As usual, the show will start at 6:30 on Harris Field at NC State, and is completely free and open to the public.
There will be a limited supply of free pizza thanks to our friends at Ruckus Pizza, and, since the autumn weather is in full swing, there will be hot cocoa as well. There will also be giveaways! Hurra.
Hope to see you out there!
Come down to WKNC and Tir Na Nog’s Local Band Local Beer on Thursday 11/18 to see Embarrassing Fruits, Kid Future, and Americans In France! The show is free! 10 p.m. 21+.
These guys played on NCSU’s Harris Field for the first installment of Fridays on the Lawn this semester. I thoroughly enjoyed their show. On the one hand, they sang a song about conspiracies and on the other, something so love sick my heart ached. My favorite line? something like, “I want to be the one to kill spiders for you.” Oh please, Embarrasing Fruits, if you kill spiders for me there will be no Long Distance Breakup Summer. Promise.
Seriously the sexiest new band to hit the Raleigh scene.
“The three-dude Kid Future is an upstart in the most absolute sense, having played about a dozen shows and released only a handful of rough recordings online. Those tunes are keyboard-and-guitar gestalts, given to verses and hooks that look to serve the mood, not themselves. Think The National in the basement with drum machines and synths.” —Grayson Currin, The Independent
Americans In France
“Though they’re a little more Black Flag than Buddy Holly, there’s a sloppy, rudimentary straightforwardness to Americans in France. That’s not to call their debut, Pretzelvania, simplistic, though. Actually, the Chapel Hill trio plays with a great deal of skill, shifting styles (punk, post-punk, ballad, droning space rock, peppy rave-ups) with the precision of an Indy car shifting gears coming out of a caution flag. But their ragged, kitchen-sink experimentalism is far from pretentious, striking a playful, clowning tone that doesn’t take itself too seriously.” —Chris Parker, The Independent
All three bands (hopefully!) will join me at the station this Thursday at 7 p.m. It will be a cozy interview.
| Artist | Album | Label | |
|---|---|---|---|
| #1 | ELECTRIC SUNSET | Electric Sunset | K |
| #2 | OCTOPUS PROJECT | Hexadecagon | Peek-A-Boo |
| #3 | BASSNECTAR | Wildstyle [EP] | Amorphous |
| #4 | TWIN SHADOW | Forget | Terrible |
| #5 | UNDERWORLD | Barking | V2 |
| #6 | !!! | Strange Weather, Isn’t it? | Warp |
| #7 | CHROMEO | Business Casual | Atlantic |
| #8 | HUNDRED IN THE HANDS | Hundred in the Hands | Warp |
| #9 | BORGORE | Cerulean | unkown |
| #10 | BATHS | Apocalyptic | Anticon |
| Artist | Album | Label | |
|---|---|---|---|
| #1 | ATHEIST | Jupiter | Season of Mist |
| #2 | DIO | Dio at Donnington Live 1983-87 | Niji |
| #3 | POWERGLOVE | Saturday Morning Apocalypse | |
| #4 | KYLESA | Spiral Shadow | Season of Mist |
| #5 | BLACK ANVIL | Triumvireate | Relapse |
| #6 | CRADLE OF FILTH | Darkly, Darkly, Venus Aversa | Nuclear Blast |
| #7 | HOLY GRAIL | Crisis in Utopia | |
| #8 | POWERWORLD | Human Parasite | SPV |
| #9 | COUGH | Ritual Abuse | Relapse |
| #10 | EVOCATION | Apocalyptic |
This past Saturday marked the the last night of the local music festival Troika in downtown Durham. Despite the cold weather, Anastassia and I, AndyQ, had a glorious time running around from venue to venue listening to the Triangle’s finest local music. This is our collaborative blog on our experience.
The first place we went to was at the new Motorco Music Hall, which had a nice upscale warehouse lounge vibe going on.
Filthybird started the evening out nicely with some mellow music. It was fun to watch the lead singer with her short stature play such a huge guitar.
After Filthybird, some men in snazzy suits and well manicured beards came to the stage. With their four-part harmonies and fancy finger work on the fiddle, Chatham County Line managed to crank out some good ole bluegrass reminiscent of classic Avett Brothers.
It wasn’t surprising when we looked back at the crowd and saw that they had packed the house filled with swooning listeners.
We were in for a surprise when we headed over to The Casbah.
Gray Young completely changed the atmosphere of the evening with their garage rock cords that were evocative of Explosions in the Sky. With their awesome stage presence and edgy music, it was impossible to stand still. Seeing Gray Young right after a nice folksy band like Chatham was an eye opening experience to the wide range of local music in the Triangle, and both of us really appreciated that.
Then, we saw The Loom from Brooklyn, who were well worth the walk to the Trotter Building, which was decorated nicely with lovely lanterns. I liked the band’s ability to start off with a mellow opening, only to build up to a crescendo of high energy horns, banjo, and drums. The “Middle Distance,” showcased their driving beats that backed haunting vocals. The sweet raspiness of the female vocalist accompanied by the male lead’s voice was very enjoyable.
Next, we ran back to The Motorco for Cassis Orange. This girly, but rough band was really fun to watch, with the singer dancing and jumping around. Their use of different and sometimes odd instruments came especially handy when a flutist joined them to cover Ke$ha’s “Tik-tok”. That was probably the best cover that I have heard, hands down.
Finally, after almost five hours of shows, the best was saved for last with Hammer No More the Finger. We had heard of them, but didn’t really know what to expect, and they definitely did not disappoint. It was obvious even from the beginning that they had a solid fan base in Durham. The venue was packed and a sort of mosh pit was forming. No one stood still because the guitar riffs and catchy songs were too good to not dance to.
In general, the festival not only presented some great local music, but it showcased the noteworthiness of downtown Durham, helping to disprove some people’s sentiments that Durham is Raleigh’s ghetto. We were very disappointed that there was not enough time in the night to listen to all the bands that performed. We also went with fellow DJ Godrik, who would like to add “beer should have been cheaper”.
Cioffi explores the popularity and risks of heavily caffeinated malt liquor beverages like Four Loko. Cioffi and John sit down with NCSU NAACP president Josh Smith to gauge reaction to recent controversy surrounding the Free Expression Tunnel. Also in this episode: Troika soundbytes, Mark’s recipes for collared greens, and Tyler and Taylor’s analysis of Wolfpack football.
I had the pleasure this past Halloween weekend of attending the inaugural MoogFest in Asheville, North Carolina. Surrounded by the beautiful sight of the Blue Ridge Mountains, I witnessed sets ranging from the achingly beautiful sounds of jónsi to the infectious electro-pop of Hot Chip. The festival was a huge success and one of the most fun weekends I’ve had all year. Instead of doing the usual “write a paragraph about each act you saw,” I offer you a list of various this and that’s. Stay tuned for a gallery of photos from the weekend coming soon. Enjoy.
Best show of the weekend: Massive Attack and jónsi (tie)
Most common theme of the weekend: Acts who are laid-back on record being not-so-laid-back live (see Thievery Corporation, Four Tet, Massive Attack)
Coolest instrument: Neon Indian guitarist Ronald Geirhart’s guitar, featuring an embedded LED screen
Most common smell: It was a music festival. In Asheville. Figure it out.
Best surprise guests: Mark Mothersbaugh and Gerald Casale of Devo (who were forced to cancel their set due to a hand injury sustained by guitarist Bob Mothersbaugh) coming out at the end of The Octopus Project’s set to perform a couple songs (including my personal favorite, “Beautiful World”)
Best stage show: Massive Attack’s absolutely stunning set-up, featuring several LED screens displaying socio-political messages alongside striking visuals
Most amusing moment: Part of the floor in the Thomas Wolfe Auditorium sinking in due to hardcore dancing during Sleigh Bells and Neon Indian, forcing security to clear the pit and front row
Best non-musical moment: Yelling “WOOT WOOT” at a gaggle of (real) Juggaloes
Biggest surprises: RJD2 and Pretty Lights, neither of which I’d been a huge fan of before the festival
Best costume: The giant sasquatch
Person having the most fun: According to a brief exchange I had with him, head of AC Entertainment (one of the main forces behind this festival, as well as Bonnaroo) Ashley Capps
Did you attend MoogFest? Who were your favorite acts? What were some of you favorite moments?