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In the Year of the Pig
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Category: Blog
1. The Antlers have announced that they are releasing a free ep. The two track ep is entitled, “New York Hospitals” and includes a brief introduction to their popular song, “Sylvia.” Alongside the free ep, the band have released a music video for their song “Sylvia.” (via Pitchfork)
2. Crystal Castles have announced that they are set to release their second full length. Just like the first album, their second will also be titled “Crystal Castles.” The new LP is set to release in North America on June 8th through Fiction records. (via Pitchfork)
3. Wavves’ front man Nathan Williams has announced on the band’s blog that they are currently in the mixing process for their sophomore album. Williams enthusiastically wrote on the blog, “SOUNDS CARAAAZAAAAAAYYY AND WILL BE OUT THIS SUMMER. SEEEEEE YA!” (via Pitchfork)
4. Supergrass has sadly announced that they will be breaking up. Jokingly the band cited a “17 year itch” for the reason for breaking up. They were working on a new album before the announcement of their breakup. No plans have been announced if they will release this material. The band will make the split official after their upcoming tour is finished. (via NME)
5. Rumors that Rob Pattinson will be playing the role of Kurt Cobain in the biopic about the 90s grunge rocker. Courtney Love’s manager has since denied rumors that the part would be going to the “Twilight” actor. Love told the Canadian Press, “Isn’t that so stupid? Who would cast him?” When given her direct opinion who would be best to play Kurt, Love mentioned both Ryan Gosling and James McAvoy. (Spin)
I know exactly what you’re thinking, you brutal metal freaks out there. What the heck should you expect from the inaugural post by Cannibal Cory? Well I’m here to firstly warn those weak of heart and easily disturbed to look elsewhere. The following just might, maybe, cause a heart attack – especially if the idea of gore like Scattered Remains, Splattered Brains makes you want to heave your ripening meal all over the keyboard.
To start, I’ve thoroughly been enjoying waking up to the sound of Arkaik’s debut album “Reflections Within Dissonance.” Let me be the first to tell you that there’s nothing quite like waking up headbanging, pumped with fresh glass scraping my inner eardrum. I’m not a man of genres – in this day and age it can mean a gruesome, bloody death (preferably by Beheading and Burning, but fingernail removal is fine too) – so know that the bloodier my descriptions are, the higher the recommendation is.
The title track Reflections Within Dissonance definitely rips your intestines out via bellybutton by sheer force once it lulls you into a false sense of “I’m only gonna lose a leg listening to this one.” They keep grinding at your teeth with a sander up until about halfway, when they break it all down and cause your gums to bleed. In fact, they manage to do a great job of balancing shredding your arms with a cheese grater and shattering your ears with an icepick and technicality all the way to the end.
Another one of my personal favorites, Obscured Luminosity, keeps things more in the technical realm compared to other songs, meaning each brutal stroke of the guitar and pounding of the bass pedal is like a sledgehammer to a kneecap. When it does get brutal, they’re merely taking a table saw to your jaw. The ultimate climax comes when the bassist decides that the table saw isn’t enough and rips a short – but eyeball popping – solo. After that, you’ll never look at the album in the same way again.
Then there’s Elegy for the Disillusioned, where you feel like there’s wave after wave of sewing needles being shot at your face. They keep the thrashing and breakdowns transitioning so rapidly smooth you won’t even notice you’re being swept away by a tidal wave made of acid – be sure to hang on to your skin.
There you have it – it’s up to you to decide whether you can go without a couple spare limbs for a while. Overall, the album gets a gore cleanup rating of an hour and a half in my book. Still a couple of stains that won’t come out of the carpet, but I don’t mind the maggots.
Now, for the question of the week: “If you could go to any concert, and could time travel, what would it be?” Three people replied with their responses:
“Dude, if I could time travel I’d go to the future and watch Dethklok destroy everything!" – DJ Nick
"I’d have Overkill and Kreator start the concert, then have Motörhead and Manowar. Even though it’s pretty much impossible.” – Metal Commander
“If I could choose… it would be Nile.” – 9th Priest
There you have it, cannibals. Check out the next show to hear the question of the week, and come back to read a review of Borknagar’s “Universal”. You might even get lucky and see pictures of the Cannibal Corpse concert at Volume 11! To end on a lighter note, I leave you with this:
WKNC 88.1 FM announces the debut of SoundOff, a new music-related podcast from the student radio station at N.C. State University. The 40-plus minute program divides its time between dissecting a handful of music news and reviewing a new album.
“The idea for the show was clear, take some of the most interesting news articles to discuss and do one in-depth review of an album that had some real weight to it,” said the podcast’s producer Michael Jones, a freshman in history and one of WKNC’s assistant indie rock music directors. Jones hosts the show with fellow DJs Sarah Hager, a sophomore in management, and graphic design sophomore Kirsten Southwell.
“SoundOff goes beyond the brief time we talk about music during our time on the air,” Jones said. “We’re able to give people who listen to WKNC on a regular basis and those who just love the type of music we play a greater understanding of what we DJs think about some of the biggest releases.”
The first SoundOff episode discusses Modest Mouse front man Isaac Brock contributing music for a Cartoon Network show, the Libertines reunion and how The White Stripes almost didn’t release the single “Seven Nation Army.” The album review is of Matt Pond PA’s “The Dark Leaves” from Altitude Records.
“SoundOff is a great opportunity for our listeners to receive the full musical package,” Tommy Anderson, WKNC general manager and a senior in political science, said. “You get the background and commentary of an album or news story, rather than just a sound bite.”
The podcast also represents a milestone for WKNC, as it will be the station’s first program designed specifically for the Internet rather than traditional over-the-air delivery.
At 3 p.m. Friday, I will be interviewing Once and Future Kings about their show with Embarrassing Fruits on Saturday, April 17 on Lee Field on NCSU campus. The event is in celebration of the upcoming Earth Day. Embarrassing Fruits play at 6 p.m. and Once & Future Kings go on at 7 p.m.
Next, I will interview Mor Aframian at 4 p.m. Friday. We will be discussing the Redress Raleigh event which takes place Saturday, April 17. Redress Raleigh is an ecologically conscious and forward thinking fashion show that challenges designers to think about impact on the environment in the development of their concept. Redress aims to showcase eco-friendly designers with accessible and innovative collections as well as showing that “green” is in all aspects of life, including fashion. The clothing selected for this show will have a strong emphasis on eco-friendly design. Eco-friendly can be in the form of recycled or remanufactured garments, as well as using eco-friendly fabrics and production processes. The focus of Redress Raleigh is to promote wearable eco-fashion, meaning fabrics and textiles that would be commonly found in clothing articles, rather than non-clothing items such as cardboard, paper, plastic, etc. This year’s show will be held on Saturday, April 17 from 7 p.m. until 9 p.m. at the Flander’s Art Gallery, 302 South West Street, Raleigh.
This week I sat down for yet another Local Beat Mini Exclusive as there will once again be no normally scheduled Local Beat (due to baseball programming). Rob Koegler and Jason Kutchma came in to chat about a really interesting and unique concert happening this Friday evening at the ETC Auditorium of the North Carolina School of Science and Math titled “Deliver Me From Nowhere- A Tribute to Bruce Springsteen’s Nebraska.” A collaboration of different musicians from Red Collar, Midtown Dickens, COW, Mount Moriah, and the Rosewood Bluff are coming together to play the entire album in it’s entirely. The show is only $10 and all proceeds are going to benefit the Coalition to Unchain Dogs and the Southern Coalition for Social Justice. The concert begins at 9:30 p.m. though a free showing of Terrence Malick’s 1973 film, Badlands, will begin at 7:30 p.m. The screening of the movie is free of charge.
In this Local Beat Mini Exclusive, Jay, Rob, and I chatted about the bands playing the show, the charities, and the reason behind throwing this concert. Jay also brought in his acoustic guitar and a harmonica and played two tracks from Nebraska for us which you can listen to in the music player to the left.
Take a listen to the podcast below and feel free to download the covers at the Local Beat ReverbNation page.
Local Beat Mini Exclusive for Deliver Me From Nowhere
Categories
Hopscotch impresarios on WKNC
Greg Lowenhagen and Grayson Currin of the Independent Weekly will be talking Hopscotch Festival with yours truly tomorrow morning at 11 a.m.
If you’ve been covering your eyes and ears for the last couple months, check out the festival’s site here.
This episode Michael, Sarah, and Kirsten discuss MIA’s comments about Twilight and Lady Gaga, the rumor that Rob Pattinson will be playing Kurt Cobain in the upcoming biopic, Laura Marling’s thoughts on piracy. This week we reviewed Dr. Dog’s Shame, Shame.
I remember about two years ago when Future Kings of Nowhere came out with their self titled debut album. It struck a chord immediately with the WKNC staff who played it constantly for months and with the public who packed the shows at every turn. However, it has probably been a long time since you have seen Future Kings of Nowhere in concert, notably due to the fact that Shayne O’Neill has recently moved to Brooklyn to continue his music career and carry on FKoN solo as the project originally began. Unfortunately, that wait for the next show could be even longer:
Shayne has recently become diagnosed with Stage IV Lymphoma and is about to begin treatment. With treatment of course comes medical bills, which as anyone in the world knows today, is not easy to overcome especially for a solo musician. However, FKoN has just released a live solo album for only 84 cents, and all proceeds go to help Shayne’s medical expenses. It features six songs all recorded live at the Dog Matrix Project.
- On Very Nearly Turning Thirty
- Let’s Be Pirates
- The Doom Song
- Like A Staring Contest
- Charles Grodin, You’re My Hero
- My Turn
The album can be downloaded off of Amie Street here. Also, you can follow Shayne’s progress through the treatment by following his personal blog here.
Please help support one of the great local musicians from this area in recent memory and listen to some great music!
Edit: The album now costs $1.20 and each track is 20¢.
It takes a lot for me to leave the comfort zone that is Raleigh – especially on a weeknight. I have a professor from Michigan who advises us against going to Ohio unless we have to (“but why would you have to go to Ohio, anyway?”). Well, Chapel Hill is my Ohio. Big Ten rivalries aside, I’ve just mentally turned driving over to the 506 or the Nightlight or the Cradle into being a pain in the ass. Spoiled, I believe, would be the word of choice.
Either way, tonight’s an exception: Roman Candle is rolling back into town to play the Cradle. My introduction to local music came only a few years ago, after Roman Candle had already packed up and left town. Friends tell me of when some current Drughorse Collective members were in the band circa Wee Hours Revue, but alas, stories of that era are all I have.
We’re lucky, though, that Roman Candle still relishes its Chapel Hill (errr, Carrboro?) days and makes sure to come back through the area. In fact, in the past 6 months we’ve had the chance to see them in two somewhat unique settings: NC State’s Homecoming concert on campus and at everyone’s favorite Double Barrel Benefit 7. And both times, they have been an absolute joy to watch, mixing their older tunes with those off of Oh Tall Tree in the Ear and openly gushing over how good it its to be back in the area. At the homecoming show, they opened with “They Say” but countered with oldie-but-goodie “Baby’s Got It In the Genes” as the DBB opener.
Tonight they’ll be playing with The Parson Red Heads and The Ravenna Colt, both of whom I’m relatively unfamiliar with but excited to see. And most importantly, you won’t find a nicer group of people than the Mathenies, who actually graced us with an in-studio interview back in November.
So, long story short, what else are you doing on a Wednesday night? See you there!
(Oh, and be sure to check out Skip Matheny’s “Drinks With” interview series with guests Arctic Monkeys, Alejandro Escovedo, Elvis Costello, Jason Isbell and many more…)