WKNC 88.1 FM - North Carolina State University Student RadioGet ready, get set, call and win CDs and other merch from your favorite artists! DJs will be giving away the goodies below and all you have to do is be the correct caller when the DJ asks for it.
Here’s what we have:
LCD Soundsystem CD – This Is Happening
First Aid Kit CD The Big Black & The Blue and XL First Aid Kit T-shirt
SIA CD – We Are Born
Casiokids CD Topp Stemning Pa Lokal Bar and Poster
Casiokids Poster
Foals CD – Total Life Forever (2)
Hooray For Earth CD – Momo
In case the Cheerwine flavored Krispey Kreme donut didn’t quite do it for you, the next best product launch this week has to be iPhone app Sound Around, which hit the market today. Sound Around is a brand new iPhone app aimed at local and national artists and made by co-founders and brothers Scott and Steven Klein of NC State cred right here in the Triangle.
Sound Around is an easy-to-use app creator for bands that lets musicians and groups create customizable apps which their fans can download for free. Twitter updates, push notifications, concert calendars, music streaming, and more are right at everyone’s fingertips. For more information, check out this short video below:
Sound Around – Launch from Sound Around on Vimeo.
Local artists River City Ransom, I Was Totally Destroying It, Valient Thorr, Rome Is Dead, and American Aquarium have been doing test trials on the app for a couple of months now, and The Separate are set to release it’s Sound Around app this evening. Ben Pritchett of RCR had this to say about their experience so far:
“The Sound Around app is an exceptional service. After talking with the Sound Around creators, I could tell they were all about getting the maximum amount of content to their customers. And they’ve done a great job of providing my band the tools to put as much content out to our fans as we want. Content is available instantaneously after uploading, giving Sound Around an “organic” feeling. The Sound Around app is extremely intuitive to use, so it only took minutes before a good amount of our band’s content was available. And even with being this intuitive, it still manages to create a level of customization so I feel my band’s app is different from any other band’s app that will be found on the App Store.”
Scott and Steve are both coming on the Local Beat this Friday, July 2 at 6pm to chat about the new application. Be on the listen and you could win a free three-month trial! Screenshots below:
Unfortunately there is currently not an Android version of the app but that is planned for a release in a couple months.
Tomorrow on the Local Beat will be our second live show of the summer and features some fine guests.
The first hour of the program might be almost entirely live music as we are going to pack the studio with Chapel Hill experimental band Boat Burning. They plan on bringing in quite the arrangement of equipment and informed me they will be jamming to several different songs in upwards of 10 min each! According to their Myspace page:
“Boat Burning is an experiment in live music composition using amplified guitars and chance. Each performance is unique, as there are no predefined pieces: all compositions are created live.”
I have never had a group in quite like this, so it should make for an interesting first hour. Also, feel free to listen to their recorded material with the widget on the left for what you might experience tomorrow.
The second hour of the show will be a little more toned down; Steve and Scott of Sound Around will be coming in to chat about their brand new iPhone application and discuss the future of phone technology with regards to music and the interactions between bands and their fans through this new medium. In case you are unaware of what Sound Around is, be sure to read my blog post about the product here.
Last, but certainly not the least, is a special treat. A couple members of Chatham County Line will be coming by to promote their new album Wildwood, their upcoming shows in the area, and I may even let them guest DJ some of their personal favorite local artists!
All of this is happening tomorrow night from 5 p.m.-8 p.m. on 88.1 WKNC. Don’t forget, you can always follow the Local Beat on Twitter, ReverbNation, and Facebook!
I’m a photography intern at Advanced Energy, and this past Tuesday night was our annual Board of Directors dinner. It was a beautiful event held at NC State’s Dorothy and Roy Park Alumni Center on Centennial Campus. The dining room looked like it could also be used as a ballroom or even to inaugurate the next president. There were sparkling chandeliers, most likely bigger than the average car, ceiling-high windows, and an elegant fireplace.
Needless to say, I was incredibly nervous to be the 20-year-old intern who has been with the company for less than a month, and I would be mingling with expensive men and honored guests, among them a member of our state senate. I did that female thing—you know, with the skirt and the make-up and the cute shoes—I put on my best adult-pleasing smile, and I walked in with my Van Gogh umbrella and awkward camera bag.
After I got over my adolescent fear of adults, creeped on the guests with my 200mm zoom lens, and ate some delicious carrot cake, the night turned out to be quite enjoyable, and much less scary than my dramatic imagination anticipated. But the real treat at the end of the evening was the beautiful bluegrass music from the Durham duo, The Jaybirds
Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.
Made up of Jamie, the male singer and acoustic guitar player, and Susie, female singer and fiddle/electric bass player, their soulful yet upbeat melodies wonderfully filled the enormous hall and immediately had me enchanted. While many of the adults continued with their small talk, I was completely enamored, and I knew I had to spread the word about their incredible talent. For us they played bluegrass and covered the oldie but goodie, “Proud Mary” by Creedence Clearwater Revival, but they said they also played rock and blues if the crowd so demanded. If you’re an Americana fan, think of the beautiful harmonies of the Small Ponds mixed with the cajun flavor of Langhorne Slim with the delicate soul of Meklit Hadero. If you don’t believe me, check out their Myspace page, or visit them on Facebook, even like them! They only have two demos to listen to, but those two songs are more than enough to showcase their raw talent and rare synchronicity.
Photography taken by WKNC photographer Katie Hill
Despite the dearth of good things on UNC’s campus, Memorial Hall put on a spectacular show Friday, June 25. The Dutchess and the Duke and Dodos opened for the super group New Pornographers in a jaw-dropping concert.
The Dutchess and the Duke were joined by another member due to an accident with a food processor leaving the lead guitarist wounded. They played a set of strong folk rock with heavy vocals and light percussion.
I had been told that Dodos do not put on a good live show, but after their performance Friday, I beg to differ. These three guys—Meric Long, Logan Kroeber, and Keaton Snyder—played a percussion-filled set of their high-energy songs mainly off albums Visitor and Time to Die. They were obviously quite tired from traveling on tour for the past two weeks, for their between-song banter was admittedly lackluster, but, luckily, this did not carry over to their music. Fellow DJ Sarah-nade enjoyed the vibraphone, which we found added a deeper sound to the music.
I don’t need to tell you how amazing the New Pornographers are. You’re probably singing your favorite New Pornographers’ song in your head right now (mine is Myriad Harbour). The acoustics in Memorial Hall worked perfectly with the sound emanating from A.C. Newman’s guitar, Neko Case and Kathryn Calder’s beautiful voices, and all musicians making up this Canadian super group. As we listened, I pictured colorful threads of sound coming together to form one beautiful tapestry. They played a great set, starting off with “Sing Me Spanish Techno” and kept the energy high with “Myriad Harbor” and songs off their new album, Together, like “Your Hands” and “Crash Years.” They played songs off almost all of their five albums.
| Artist | Album | Label | |
|---|---|---|---|
| #1 | TAME IMPALA | Innerspeaker | Modular |
| #2 | GRAND LAKE | Blood Sea Dream | Hippies are Dead |
| #3 | CASIOKIDS | Topp Stemning Pa Lokal Bar | Polyvinyl |
| #4 | LIGHT POLLUTION | Apparitions | Car Park |
| #5 | VILLAGERS | Becoming a Jackal | Domino |
| #6 | PONTIAK | Living | |
| #7 | PEGGY SUE | Fossils and Other Phantoms | Yep Roc |
| #8 | PETER WOLF CRIER | Inter-Be | Jagjaguwar |
| #9 | WILD MOCCASINS | Skin Collision Past | self-released |
| #10 | SLEIGH BELLS | Treats | Mom and Pop |
EOT host Saja Hindi runs down the latest news, followed by From the Sidelines with Tyler Everett. Our VIP segment was a rebroadcast of our Feb. 15, 2010 live in-studio interview with Teach for America on-campus student coordinator Joe Wright and future Teach for America teacher and WKNC general manager Mike Alston, N.C. State Peace Corps Recruiter Marques Anderson, and senior in graphic design Ana Andruzzi. Wright and Anderson discussed the organizations they represent and the benefits students can take from joining these service corps. Andruzzi talked about her decision to teach in Prague after graduation through Teaching English as a Foreign Language and what she hoped to get out of it.
In community canvas, Saja talks with photographer Rob Fisher about his black and white photography exhibit for First Friday at Vintage 21. Hear This previews the Friends of the Brussels Chamber Orchestra’s Cross Currents Festival. Finally, Alison Harman chats with Wolfpacker of the Week Laura Maruzzella, senior in art and design.
If 2009 was the year of Hear Here, then 2010 could very well be the year of Musical Chairs. Carrboro based recording studio Nightsound Studios is releasing a compilation album in a similar vein that Flying Tiger Sound pulled off at this same time last year. The project is to be titled The Musical Chairs Compilation. The kicker is that the bands are covering other local bands and have to choose the band they are covering at random. The compilation is being released for free with all donations going to the production of the free CDs and a local concert, and all concert proceeds will benefit a charity. You can read more about it here.
Bands on the project include:
Birds and Arrows
Butterflies
Erie Choir
I Was Totally Destroying It
Lizzy Ross Band
Luego
New Town Drunks
North Elementary
Pneurotics
Puritan Rodeo
Soft Company
Swaso
Wylie Hunter and the Cazadores and Pecosa
IWTDI has already announced that they are covering a North Elementary track while Puritan Rodeo is covering one of their’s. I will post more information as I know it.
| Artist | Album | Label | |
|---|---|---|---|
| #1 | SLEIGH BELLS | Treats | Mom and Pop |
| #2 | CRYSTAL CASTLES | Crystal Castles II | Universal |
| #3 | RATATAT | Lp4 | XL |
| #4 | LCD SOUNDSYSTEM | This is Happening | EMI |
| #5 | RUSKO | O.M.G.! | Mad Decent |
| #6 | M.I.A. | XXXO: The Remixes | |
| #7 | BORGORE | Borgore Ruined Dubstep [EP] | |
| #8 | NINJASONIK | Art School Girls | Green Owl |
| #9 | UFFIE | Sex Dreams and Denim Jeans | Because |
| #10 | N.E.R.D. | Hot N Fun The Remixes |
The Local Beat last Friday was the first full three hour program since February and my first evening back behind the board in a month after throat surgery. I felt a little rusty behind the microphone but my guests to the show triumphed to make the three hours fly by with great conversation and some really cool new songs that had never been played before.
While waiting for the Trekky guys to come in, David Mueller of Birds of Avalon came by to drop off the pre-release of the Heads On Sticks album entitled Mocking Bird. Heads On Sticks is David’s solo project that he has been working with off and on for the better part of four years. In fact, his Marsupial’s EP was one of the first local albums I ever came across and really pushed me into the local music scene here. We debuted his first new track in two years, a song called “Two Clicks.” David will be back on the Local Beat on the 9th to talk more about the album, so be sure to listen in then!
Will Hackney and Martin Anderson, the owners and masterminds behind Trekky Records, dropped by a little late after being stuck in traffic to pump up the third annual TrkFest, which happened Saturday, June 26 at Piedmont Biofuels in Pittsboro, NC. We spent the majority of an hour and a half talking about the day-long festival, the differences between this year and the previous two years, playing music from bands signed to Trekky, and other bands involved with the show. Will and Martin are also in numerous bands in the area themselves and two of the busiest guys I know, so I had to ask them about their time management and how they run their business. In all, we had a fascinating insight into a remarkable record label and the guys behind the scenes. You can check out some of the pictures from TrkFest here.
TrkFest on the Local Beat 6/25/10
Local favorites Bombadil stopped by for the last hour of the show to debut some brand new material and play live for the first time in a year. As many of you know, Bombadil had to take a break last summer as pianist Stewart Robinson went back to school and Daniel Michalak had to take time to recover from a serious health problem, while James Phillips moved to Oregon and Bryan Rahija went to work in Washington D.C. However, the band has still made time to write music and admitted that they now have enough new material for an entire album. We discussed the difficulties with being so far apart and still trying to be a band and the frustrations with not being able to tour. We also touched on their most recent album, Tarpits and Canyonlands, which was released last summer. The band was unable to promote the record despite raving reviews, and I had to ask them how that made them feel. Despite the down turn in events, the group seemed exceptionally positive and upbeat for the future and even played two brand new songs for us, which you can download through our Local Beat ReverbNation page (you can listen to them in the music player to the left).
Bombadil on the Local Beat 6/25/10
