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DJ Highlights

Local Beat preview 10/15/10

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This coming Friday on the Local Beat will be another fantastic evening as I will be joined by several different guests.

5 p.m. brings in one of my favorite groups in the area, Carrboro folksters Mandolin Orange, coming on to promote an upcoming show at the Local 506. The show is this Saturday, October 16, with Greg Humphreys. It should make for a fascinating concert on Saturday but also some great conversation and live radio Friday evening.

Check out the interview I had with Emily and Andrew of Mandolin Orange back in April:
Mandolin Orange on the Local Beat 4/9/10

And I also interview Greg Humphreys recently as well:
Greg Humphreys on the Local Beat 10/1/10

At 6 p.m., Gray Young is coming back on the show once again to talk about their brand new album. If you recall the group came in back in early August before the album was ready to be released. Staysail is going to be released on October 23 at the Pour House, and we will talk about that in full.

For the final hour of the show, local hip-hop star King Mez is dropping by with ex DJ Big Fat Sac and several other representatives of the Cooke Street Carnival that is being held this Saturday on Cooke Street in downtown Raleigh. We will be talking about the festival and catching up with the King.

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Music News and Interviews

Look! —> This Week’s Giveaways!

Hey guys! Fall seems to really be here, and no better way to celebrate the cool weather than a local show!

How can you go to one of these great local shows for free?!? Well, by calling in at the appropriate time on WKNC and telling the deejay whatever it is they want to know!

This week you could win:

10/15: Carolyn Wonderland @ Casbah (a great new venue in Durham)

10/16: Rocktober @ the Pour House

10/16: Sisters w/ French Miami @ Slim’s Downtown

10/17: We are Scientists @ Cat’s Cradle

10/17: Vampire Weekend w/ Beach House @ Raleigh Amphitheater

10/18: Los Campesinos! @ Cat’s Cradle

10/19: Stone Temple Pilots w/ Black Rebel Motorcycle Club @ Raleigh Amphitheater

You could also win Midlake merchandise or a “Get Him to the Greek” DVD!

There are some shows there I am itching to go to…  but remember, you have to listen to win!

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DJ Highlights

Take a Trip with DJ Elly May!

Over NCSU’s fall break I had the opportunity to take a road trip to Missouri and back. This included stops in Tennessee, Kentucky, and Illinois. Tomorrow morning from 9-11 a.m., join me on WKNC as I recount my trip in music with stories along the way.

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Concert Preview Local Music

LIVE at Tir Na nOg! LBLB October 14!!!

Come down to WKNC and Tir Na Nog’s Local Band Local Beer on Thursday, October 14 to see AMINAL, BRETT HARRIS, and THE HONORED GUESTS! The show is FREE. Ages 21 and up. 10 p.m.

Don’t forget to visit the fancy shmancy new Local Beer Local Band website! Loaded with show schedules and a download-able mixtape!

Aminal

“If pop music is a wild animal, then this Chapel Hill trio’s domesticated it, teaching it to sit up, roll over and lay in their lap. Their songs amble with unhurried grace and purr with ineffable charm. Frontman Patrick O’Neill has a gift for vocal melodies that insinuate themselves into your confidences so completely that, after a couple of listens, you’re ready to buy them a round of drinks. The songs boast a woozy ebb and flow fueled by a vibrant rhythm section that’s capable of unspooling the sound with the measured skill of a master angler loosening and locking his reel.”

– Hopscotch Music Festival

You might have missed these guys at Hopscotch because they were playing at the same time as Best Coast. No worries, catch them this Thursday!

Brett Harris

“…equal amounts of jangle and drift, pop and pontification, like a Nick Lowe and Randy Newman acolyte dreaming in FM ballad Technisound.”

-Grayson Currin, Independent Weekly

“…Durham’s version of Paul McCartney.”
-Zach Hanner, Shawna Kenney & John Staton, Wilmington Star News

Brett Harris recently played on NC State campus for Shack-a-thon. A week-long camp-out to support Habitat for Humanity.

The Honored Guests

“Perfection is better in concept than practice, as most anyone who’s lived with a perfectionist will tell you. It nearly brought down the Chapel Hill band The Honored Guests until they learned to scale their ambitions and expectations to a place where the means of playing music were as important as the ends of making the perfect record.

That struggle is encapsulated not only in the title of the Guests’ third album, Please Try Again, but also in the songs themselves. Sure, the album suggests The Flaming Lips’ Soft Bulletin with its richly layered songs, oddly shaped and resolutely catchy arrangements and dreamy countenance. But rather than being infused with hope, Please Try Again comes shadowed by a sense of frustration and dissipation, tracing a psyche at war with itself.” – The Independent

All of the above bands will be in the station this Thursday from 7-8 p.m. for an interview. Tune in!

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DJ Highlights

Local Beat recap 10/1/10

Two weeks ago on the Local Beat was a full evening of fantastic interviews featuring some amazing musicians in our area.

Greg Humphreys has been making music locally for over two decades now. His newest and second solo album Realign Your Mind has been available for download for a couple months but only recently has he put the album out on CD. Greg came in and chatted with us about his history in the area and his evolution as a musician. In addition, Greg played several brand new tracks, which you can listen to and download in the music player to the right.  Listen to our interview below:
Greg Humphreys on the Local Beat 10/1/10

Songs of Water is a band out of Greensboro, and I am not afraid to say they have taken the top position as my favorite new band with their incredible release of The Sea Has Spoken, which came out earlier this year. Only three of the eight members made the trip down I-40 but that was plenty as they brought so many instruments into the studio, one could hardly walk around. We only had a short time with the group as it took them several minutes to set up but check out the amazing songs they played for us live:
Songs of Water on the Local Beat 10/1/10

Maria Albani (Schooner, Organos), John Harrison (North Elementary), Drew Robertson (Phon), and Lincoln Hancock (Strange) came in to present Minus Sound Research, a visual art exhibition featuring works from only North Carolina musicians that is going on throughout the month of October at the Carrboro Arts Center. This interview turned out to be one of the most hilarious and entertaining I have had in awhile so be sure to give it a listen:
Minus Sound Research on the Local Beat 10/1/10

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DJ Highlights

Local Beat recap 9/24/10

The evening of September 24 was quite a full show on the Local Beat.

Django Haskins and Mark Simonsen of The Old Ceremony sat down with me for the first hour to pick up where we left off last February about their brand new album, Tender Age. The album has been released for a couple of weeks now and the fellas and I played several tracks off of the album and a couple in studio, which you can listen to in the mini player at the bottom of the page and download here.  Give the entire interview a listen below:
The Old Ceremony on the Local Beat 9/24/10

A newer and less known band from Raleigh called Scarlet Virginia dropped by for the second hour of the show to play some live songs and talk about their debut release, By Lamplight EP which was put out back in August.  The group is a soft, folky-pop group, and they played several acoustic songs for us, which you can listen to and download here. Check out our conversation below:
Scarlet Virginia on the Local Beat 9/24/10

Lee and Bert of the Milagro Saints came in for the final hour of the show, and we chatted about a wide variety of things from their shows last weekend to the evolution of the band through 15 years of staying together. The Milagro Saints are one of the more storied and traveled groups in our area, and the guys had plenty to share:
Milagro Saints on the Local Beat 9/24/10

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DJ Highlights

Local Beat recap 9/10/10

Due to the happenings of Hopscotch, I only had a one hour show on September 10 but was happy to have the Small Ponds’ Caitlin and Cary and Matt Douglas as guests on the program as we promoted their new album, Caitlin Cary & Matt Douglas Are The Small Ponds. The album was released the following week at the Pour House and currently the band is on tour up and down the East coast. We chatted about the history of the group, along with many other things. Matt and Caitlin are both amazing, hilarious guests, and the interview was one of my favorites. Give it a listen below:

The Small Ponds on the Local Beat 9/10/10

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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)

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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!

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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.