WKNC 88.1 FM - North Carolina State University Student RadioThe 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.
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
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.
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.
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.
1. After a bit of hysteria last week, it has since been confirmed that Gorillaz will not be breaking up. Representatives of the act have come out saying, “Despite rumours to the contrary, Gorillaz are alive and well and misbehaving in London W10.” (via Clash Music)
2. Danger Mouse and Jack White are set to work on a collaboration together called Rome. The work, which features Danger Mouse and a variety of other artist, is set to release on Capitol Records in May. (via Pitchfork)
3. The Fresh & Onlys lead, Tim Cohen, is readying an upcoming solo album titled Magic Trick. The album will be out on February 22. (via Exclaim!)
4. The music streaming website SoundCloud has recently hit the milestone of three million users. The site has grown by a third since the beginning of the year. “To see this kind of exponential increase is incredible,” said the founder of SoundCloud Alexander Ljung. (via NME)
5. After realizing that a fan ticket exchange site had been selling tickets to the final LCD Soundsystem show in New York at inflated prices, frontman James Murphy responded by telling those selling at inflated prices to “eat shit.” Pre-sale tickets for the Madison Square Garden show were showing up on Stub-Hub before the ticketing opened up to the general public at significantly higher prices. (via NME)
On this edition of SoundOff we return! DJ Shorty Shorts and DJ Ones breakdown the upcoming Grammys, the Gorillaz staying together, and the new collaboration between Danger Mouse and Jack White, while reviewing the latest from The Decemberists and Tennis.
On this week’s show, we take you to the Krispy Kreme Challenge, Kyle Jones tells us why whole milk isn’t bad for you and we review the new Decemberists album. We also have sports, news, video game current events and much much more.
Looking for a date idea over Valentine’s Day weekend? Or did you just say “bah humbug” to the idea of Valentine’s Day? Either way, listen to WKNC and you could win tickets to a variety of great shows. We won’t even tell your date that the tickets were free.
Feburary 9:
Blue-Tailed Skinks @ The Pinhook
Feburary 10:
Dance Revolution @ Lincoln Theatre
Diggup Tapes Cassingles Release party @ King’s
Tapes’n’Tapes @ Cat’s Cradle
February 11:
Diggup Tapes Cassingles Night 2 @ King’s
The Moaners @ Slim’s
February 12:
Ben Sollee @ Casbah **my personal Valentine’s Day pick**
Ben Sollee, courtesy of Stan D Payne
February 13:
Veelee @ King’s
Inflowential @ The Pour House
Drive By Truckers Documentary @ The Pinhook
February 14 :
Yann Tiersen @ Cat’s Cradle
Yann Tiersen, courtesy of Ivo Kendra
Also, we will be giving away movie tickets to see Hall Pass for Wednesday, February 23 at North Hills.
Don’t stop now! I know you were out all last weekend at Double Barrel Benefit and the weekend before that at Moving Island but you CANNOT stop now! There will be a record release show for DiggUp Tapes on February 10 and 11 at Kings Barcade in Raleigh. Don’t miss the fun and there will be singles and box sets available!!
Thursday night lineup:
Arbor Myst (Multimedia set with help from Bubbly Mommy Gun from Athens, GA),
NAPS (Electronic Set),
Birds of Avalon (Experimental Set)
Whatever Brains (New Wave Set)
Friday Night line up:
Bubbly Mommy Gun (featuring a bunch of Athens dudes plus members of Quiet Hooves),
Fat Camp (from Charlotte),
Embarrassing Fruits and
Lonnie Walker
Show is going to be awesome! DiggUp Tapes will be releasing DiggUp Tapes Cassingles Vol 1 on FEB 15! But remember, you can get your copy early at the Kings show!! Twelve of DiggUp’s favorite bands on 6 tape splits. Featuring Whatever Brains, NAPS, Lonnie Walker, Birds of Avalon, Veelee, Motor Skills, Gross Ghost, Yardwork, Embarrassing Fruits, Fat Camp, Arbor Myst (Ben Clack formerly of Dark Meat) and the Snails (Featuring Members of Future Islands). The label was created by the two most attractive men in Raleigh. And they’ve created the most attractive compilation of the year.
DiggUp Tapes itself is currently working with 5 artists: Lonnie Walker, NAPS, Arbor Myst, Nests, and Nieces and Nephews.
“Raleigh songwriter Brian Corum, who through his band Lonnie Walker will soon be, if there’s any justice, a bonafide Avett-level hero of independent music in the Old North State, created DiggUp Tapes last year with longtime friend Nathan Price. Their plan was simple: promote quality music in danger of being overlooked. Keep the focus local. Do it with rare but affordable tapes and vinyl LPs that have a keepsake quality.
DiggUp’s catalog thus far has featured bands in which Corum and Price are involved (Lonnie Walker, NAPS, Felix the Drum Machine), but the pair was ready to up the ante on an ambitious new project. The Cassingles collection is meant to be a document of North Carolina’s current underground music landscape, uniquely presented as a 12-song compilation divided over six two-band “split” cassettes. Each split has its own artwork, and the tapes can be purchased separately or as a set of six in special packaging.
The 12 artists who contribute exclusive tracks for Cassingles arrive at different stages of development and notoriety, but none is too far removed from humble origins or DIY spirit.
"Cassingles loudly declares that the Triangle’s independent music scene can stand up to any in the country. And while you don’t have to dig nearly as deep as before to find worthwhile music in North Carolina, sometimes having things wrapped up in a nice little package doesn’t hurt. ”– Coby Mangum
you can listen here.