Categories
New Album Review

Double Barrel Benefit #8 Compilation CD

88.1 WKNC Pick of the Week 2/8/11, written by DJ Switch, WKNC deejay

You never think your kid’s ugly. Well, at least you never tell your kid you think they’re ugly. My parents never did. They did say I have a face for radio, but I never quite got what that meant. Either way, there’s no need to lie about the beauty of WKNC’s Double Barrel Benefit compilation, because even though the student radio station put it together, it’s a handsome piece of local music by all objective accounts. Recorded mostly in Caldwell Hall, this album was passed out to the crowd at 88.1’s annual benefit concert as they watched those very same bands bring down the house.

Showing the diversity of Raleigh’s music scene right off the bat is rapper Inflowential’s “Wherever.” It has a cheerful rhythm that reminds of Sugar Ray. As soon as you’re swaying to that, he slips in nonchalantly and starts commanding a pitter-patter of rhymes. Inflowential has an easy mastery of words like Nas or Jay Z, but with none of the intimidating lyrics.

Kid Future has some seriously artful song lyrics, such as “you were born with no blood, wind in your veins,” and the Old Ceremony has that simple beauty that you used to only be able to find in Bob Dylan or James Taylor songs.

Luego are students of the Guthrie school of folk rock, but, like Blitzen Trapper, they bring their modern indie rock sensibilities to give it a modern twist. Don’t let the song title fool you, “California” is an ode to the good old North State, done right by a group of native musicians with true Carolina accents.

Cassis Orange easily became one of my new favorite bands with their contribution, “May, June, July.” Now, normally I don’t like dance music. I think this aversion stems from a childhood of getting rejected by girls at the middle school dances – and an adulthood of getting rejected by some of those same girls at college parties – but this track made me forget all that entirely. It’s sort of like a mellowed-out Madonna, but not so dancey that it loses its beautiful, trippy melody and its mature songwriting.

Yardwork makes order out of chaos with “Hot Balloons.” The guitar solos seem to climb around the impassioned vocals like ivy, wrapping over the pounding snares in an effort to quell this eminent crescendo of emotion. Bright Young Things is a sort of happy hodgepodge resembling something like Kula Shaker or maybe even an experimental-era Beatles.

Like their name, Hammer No More the Fingers is something both indescribable and obvious. You can’t pin down exactly what it is that works for this band, but you know that it works— and “Blanko Basnet” definitely works. The vocals are some of the most unique I’ve ever heard. They have a slight adolescent twill, but still retain the power and resonance to howl above the rich intensity of the song.

No lie, this compilation is beautiful. Me, on the other hand—that might be another story.

88.1 WKNC Pick of the Week is published in every Friday in the print edition of Technician, as well as online at technicianonline.com and wknc.org.

Categories
Music News and Interviews

SoundOff13 James Blake

After talking about the surprising album release by Radiohead, we recap the Grammys and review the debut album of James Blake.

Listen to episode 13.

Categories
Music News and Interviews

Double Barrel Benefit compilations available at Schoolkids, Bull CityRecords

There’s still time to get your own little piece of Double Barrel Benefit 8, while also supporting your local independent record store!

Compilations are $7, and are now available at Schoolkids Records in Raleigh and Bull City Records in Durham.

WKNC DBB 8 Compilation:
1. “Wherever” Inflowential
2. “Like a Camera” Kid Future
3. “Day That I Was Born” The Old Ceremony
4. “California” Luego
5. “May, June, July” Cassis Orange
6. “Hot Balloons” Yardwork
7. “King of Fools” Bright Young Things
8. “Blanko Basnet” Hammer No More the Fingers

Tracks 1-7 were engineered and mixed by WKNC staff, under the direction of WKNC Sessions Director Eric Scholz, in Caldwell Lounge on the campus of N.C. State University; track 8 was engineered and mixed by Pete Kimosh; all tracks were mastered by Kitchen Mastering in Carrboro, NC, and CD duplication was provided by Triangle Duplication Services in Raleigh, NC.

Categories
Music News and Interviews

Call and Get ‘Em—Giveaways!

Well hot damn. It’s that time again. Every week at WKNC, we try to provide you with the chance to win tickets to great shows around the Triangle. Deejays should always be doing giveaways, even if you haven’t seen what’s available via this blog… you can always listen in to your favorite show and win tickets!

Things to look forward to this week:

2/16: Greil Marcus (former writer for Rolling Stone magazine) listening party @ The Pinhook

Buzz*oven @ Casbah

2/17: Deicide @ Volume 11

GWAR @ Lincoln Theatre

2/18: Missy Raines and the New Hip with Onward, Soldiers @ Casbah ** my personal pick

Punch Brothers @ Lincoln Theatre (Grammy Nominated!)

Schooner @ Kings

Nominated for 2 Grammys in Best Country Collaboration with Vocals and Best Country Instrumental Performance, the Punch Brothers are sure to have a great show!

2/19: Old Habits @ Kings

Rooney @ Cat’s Cradle **my high school self’s personal pick

Budos Band @ Cat’s Cradle

Rooney, a favorite band of mine from 9th grade, is Beatles-esque pop that has been featured on iconic TV shows like the OC

Movies: Paul (special screening Thursday at midnight) @ Campus Cinema

Hall Pass (special screening Wednesday, 2/23) @ North Hills 14

Categories
Music News and Interviews

We have Pretty Lights tickets!

Just in time for spring, we have tickets for the down-tempo electronic sound of Pretty Lights at the Raleigh Amphitheatre on Tuesday, April 19. Tickets for Pretty Lights at the Raleigh Amphitheatre are on sale at LiveNation.com this Friday, February 18 at 10 a.m., but WKNC has them now. Just be the correct caller this week when the DJ asks for it and win a pair of tickets!

Categories
Miscellaneous

Mystery Roach T-Shirt Contest Winners

The winners of the Mystery Roach t-shirt contest have been chosen. Congratulations to Cliff S. and Mark S.!

Many entered, but only two were deemed edible by a couple of chickens. If you did not win, but you would like a shirt, send an email to La Barba Rossa for more information.

Click here to watch the Mystery Roach T-Shirt Contest selection process.

Categories
Concert Preview Local Music

Local Beer Local Band Line-up for Feb. 17

WKNC and Tir Na nOg are happy to bring you a fantastic show this Thursday. We’ve got NAPS, Jenna and the Jintlemen, and Nests to tease our ears to delight. Music starts at 10 p.m.! 21 and up. Local drafts are on the cheap cheap. And grab your $5 dollar cheeseburgers! YUMM.

NAPS

Is Daniel Michael. Blew my mind with the electronic/drum machine based songs at the DiggUp Tapes Cassingles release party. Not sure if this show will go that route or their more rock noise guitar based version. They’re loud with whispers. This is one of my favorite local bands (actually, all three of the bands playing this week are some of my favorites).

Jenna and the Jintlemen

I fell in love with Jenna at a party. Invited her with me to a place on the water. She played her guitar. Now she is playing shows all over Raleigh—although none of that really had anything to do with me. This Boone babe has handsome gentlemen (or Jintlemen) to join her on stage and emphasize her amazing singing and songwriting. The gorgeous men include a Zack, Adam, and Nick from Annuals, Local cutie/musician Johnny Hobbs, and lastly, her brother Shane from the Windsor Oaks Band.

Nests

Anything with a singing saw is awesome to me. Caught these guys at Market Restaurant for some brunch music with Jenna and the Jintlemen. If I remember correctly it was their first show, and impressive it was. Watch out local music scene! “In September of 2010, Jeremy Walton began a project called Nests. Simple and raw, it would be Jeremy’s first foray into songwriting. The end result finds the music residing somewhere between post-country and shoegaze. These sometimes eerie, always intimate songs capture the imagination of the listener with the help of collaborators and friends, Benjamin Eales, Raymond Finn, Nathan Price and Brian Corum.” -Taken from DiggUp Tapes

Categories
Music News and Interviews

Radiohead Surprise with Album Release on Feb 19

There has been much speculation over the next Radiohead album. The band has been insanely successful at keeping their next project under wraps since the start of their follow-up to In Rainbows. Following the “pay what you want” model of their previous album, Radiohead announced on February 14 that The King of Limbs will be distributed digitally Saturday, February 19. What has been deemed as a rather extraordinary packaged version of the album will be available in early May. Although there is a wide lack of information about what the album sounds like, what the tracks are named, and how long the album is, audiences will know as soon as it hits the tubes on February 19.

Categories
Music News and Interviews

Arcade Fire Win Grammy for Album of the Year

After a night where The Black Keys took home Alternative Rock Album of the Year, Arcade Fire finished the night with the biggest honor of the evening. Following a spectacular performance of their song Month of May, the Canadian group surprisingly defeated commercial acts including Lady Antebellum, Eminem, Lady Gaga, and Katy Perry. Achieving easily the biggest victory for Merge Records in recent memory, Arcade Fire accepted the award and set back to performing another fantastic track from The Suburbs, “Ready to Start.” This marks the first award for the band, and starting by winning Album of the Year is a feat hard to top. Quickly following their victory, the official twitter account for the band posted, “OH MY GOD OH MY GOD OH MY GOD OH MY GOD OH MY GOD OH MY GOD. Thank you EVERYONE.”

[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/16970228[/vimeo]

Congratulations to the band on their massive successes.

Categories
Concert Review

Ben Sollee played a great show at Casbah on Saturday, February 12

Saturday night, my man and I celebrated Valentine’s Day early with a great show at Casbah in Durham. The only other time I’ve been to Casbah was to see Crooked Still, which was in an intimate seated setting. I was expecting this, but the venue quickly filled to standing room only.

After the first song, it was evident why opening band Humble Tripe was “humble.” The one man band slammed on a travel dulcimer, and chugged out a few repetitive chords on his acoustic guitar while singing cute lyrics about his life. I’ve heard studio recordings of Humble Tripe and described them as “if Bob Dylan and Bon Iver had a baby and then dropped it off in Durham,” but I don’t think those expectations were met. This could be because his recordings usually feature more than just Shawn Luby on guitar. Shawn brought to stage Catherine Edgerton of Midtown Dickens to play the occasional harmonica, tambourine, and of course her signature singing saw. Her bubbly presence took the heat off Shawn for a little while and as a budding saw player, I took notes on her technique. Humble Tripe is a band to listen to while sitting on a blanket at a small music festival feel, not as an opening band for a critically acclaimed artist like Ben Sollee.

Ben Sollee, former member of the Sparrow Quartet, is a dapper young cello player from Kentucky. He started things off with a short vocal performance, bluesy and emotional. He then brought in Phoebe Hunt (of The Belleville Outfit) on violin and Jordan Ellis on drums to do “Something, Somewhere, Sometime” off Dear Companion. This live rendition was a bit different from his version with Daniel Martin Moore, bringing in some rock elements and definitely changing my idea of going to a “slow cello concert.” They continue playing upbeat, jazzy at times, bluesy at times music occasionally featuring a bass guitar, drums, cello, and violin. It was fast paced and well instrumented. I enjoyed the more down-tempo songs, but I can see the newer songs really catching on in the indie rock scene—look out for his upcoming album. Ben’s voice was amazing in every song and so perfectly melded with Phoebe Hunt’s, which was reminiscent of Norah Jones or Regina Spektor at times.

Ben was also a great banter-er; a quality many musicians lack. He told tales of how he came to the ideas of songs—his description of “The Prettiest Tree on the Mountain” was as poetic as the tune itself, and he constantly introduced his friends on violin and percussion. The group definitely had chemistry; probably from their adventures on bike, touring across America. That’s right. On bike, with a cello and a drumset.

The best part of the show, aside from the group dynamic and perfect instrumental choreography, was the first encore “Only A Song.” Ben Sollee explained how this song is off of Dear Companion, an album to raise awareness about mountaintop removal coal mining. He doesn’t want this song to be a protest song, thus its name, but rather to inspire people to think a little harder about their actions in the world.