Category: Blog

Itchy Kitty: Cats in Spotlight

Post author By Ben
Post date September 1, 2023

Itchy Kitty's album cover of "Mr. Universe"

So, Itchy Kitty, a wonderfully perverse band name, clawed its way into my ears through chance a few years ago when I watched Built to Spill’s performance at Cat’s Cradle way, way back in 2022. I wrote a little about their performance and who some of the members were in this article, but I haven’t stopped listening to their music.

Their harsh sounds and self described “bubblegum p***” genre labels got me addicted to their music and kept me returning for more and more of their sounds (quote from The Spokesman-Review). Itchy Kitty has four releases within their seven-ish year existence as a band and focuses their sound within the punk genre by using shrill, explosive vocals, cranked-up guitar and heart-thumpin’ drum beats.

Who’s this Band?

The members of Itchy Kitty are made up of Ami Elston (guitar, bass, vocals), Naomi Eisenbrey (bass, vocals), Michael (Sug) Tschirgi (drums, percussion), and their guitarist known as Catman. They are currently signed with CORPORAT Records and they’re based out of Spokane, Washington.

Itchy Kitty, as previously mentioned, has four releases out-n’-about, three of which are found on Spotify and all can be found on their Bandcamp. Their releases (in order of earliest to latest release) are “Careless Whisker” from 2016, “Mr. Universe” from 2018, “Under the Covers” from 2020, and “Feargasm” also from 2020.

Album and Sounds

“Feargasm” (EP)

A few the most memorable tracks from this EP are “Fish Money” and “Sexy Requiem” These two tracks differ almost violently, as one is a classic sounding punk track with a strange subject matter (fish money), and the other is an eight minute track with calm, wispy vocals and ethereal sounds.

“Under the Covers” (EP)

This EP focuses on covers from four different bands. My two favorites are “Sonic Reducer” and the “Psycho Killer” cover. I was lucky enough to see the “Psycho Killer” cover live at the Built to Spill show I mentioned earlier, and Eisenberry’s method of signing this track led to her convulsing on the stage floor in a horrific manner. Itchy Kitty pulls new electric emotions from both these tracks, which I found added to my appreciation of the original sounds.

“Mr. Universe” (LP)

In this LP I found “Size Queen”, “Bore” and “Walk Towards Work” to be exhilarating additions to their discography and band’s sound. “Size Queen” focuses on a feminine perspective of body shaming particular parts of a male body with good humor and thrash-y sounds, while “Bore” opens up the album with scratchy vocals and throwing insults towards the boring folks that infest various parts of life.

“Careless Whisker” (LP)

And in Itchy Kitty’s first LP (that’s available on streaming services), the top couple of tracks I’ve fallen in love with are “Tomcat Society”, “Year of the Slut” and “NoMe”. “Year of the Slut” stands out the most to me on this album. It feels like the backbone of what Itchy Kitty wants to sound like. The lyrics are comedic and crass, while the music exudes an air of wonderful ‘moshability’

Itchy Kitty’s main drawback for me is that they don’t have more content out yet. This band is quite young and I cannot wait to see what they continue to do. On their Instagram page they’ve been pretty active with tours and concerts, so hopefully once they settle down for a few months they’ll be back in the studio recording some new “bubblegum p***”.

Itchy Kitty is the “cat’s meow”,

Ben

Tags chef, Itchy Kitty, WKNC

Music Education Playlists

A Brief Guide to the Y2K Trance Revival

Post author By chalcopyrite
Post date September 1, 2023

At the risk of making some readers of this article feel old: Gen Z has nostalgia for the early 2000s now. People are posting images of clunky technology and tagging it #aesthetic. Artists are selling CDs and cassettes as physical merchandise again. And, yes, this includes music genres too: Trance is back.

Many of these new releases are mostly confined to small corners of the internet, so to start on this journey into geometric fonts and really wishing they still made transparent video game consoles, I’ve selected a few landmarks in the development of the scene.

Tags Afterhours, college radio, NC State, Playlist, trance, WKNC

Blog Concert Preview Festival Coverage Local Music Miscellaneous

Hopscotch – This or That: Main Stage Guide

Post author By Meagan Mulcair
Post date September 1, 2023

It’s that time of year again, when thousands of music-lovers take to the streets of Raleigh to vibe with some seriously class acts, whatever the weather. Yes, 13 years after its debut, Hopscotch Music Festival is back (Sep. 7-9), with main stages at Moore Square and City Plaza, and dozens of stellar acts across the city.

With over 120 acts performing, even the choosiest of playlist-makers can find something to enjoy over the three day event. From rock to rap, post-punk to country, indie, folk, and more, diversity and inclusivity is truly the name of the game.

However, as with every festival lineup worth its salt, a dilemma lies in the inability to put oneself in more than one place at a time. City Plaza and Moore Square are only half a mile apart, but those steps rack up quickly if you’re planning on trekking back and forth between every few sets.

While the truly determined festival-goer could yo-yo between main stages and catch every set, the best intentions don’t always pan, out so it’s best to know your must-sees in advance. To help plan your musical voyage, here’s a look at the main stage lineups:

Thursday (Sep. 7)

Smooth Haze vs. Alt. Edge

Moore Square:

On Thursday afternoon, Moore Square opens the festival with a mellow haze of rock, jazz and psychedelics. A trio meant to be, Sam Evian, Mild High Club and King Krule embody that chill, late summer, “almost the weekend” feeling.

City Plaza:

Summer is also ending over at City Plaza, but with a bit of an edge, as brooding, post-punk takes the stage with Raleigh’s own Truth Club, followed by similar hints of angst from alt-rock groups, Palm, and Alvvays. Late-90s icons, Pavement, follow suit, closing the alt-rock set in style.

Friday (Sep. 8)

Urban vs. Country

Moore Square:

All things country take the stage on Friday at Moore Square. Sunny War brings modern folk-blues, and Neon Union epitomizes that all-American country sound. Cut Worms and Margo Price add pop and rock slants to the genre respectively, with a singer-songwriter angle.

City Plaza:

Raleigh native, Pat Junior, leads the urban parallel happening at City Plaza. TiaCorine builds on Pat Junior’s pure, simple, rhythm and flow with dreamy beats, while Digable Planets bring retro to the party in the style of 90s hip-hop and jazz. Rapper, Denzel Curry, completes the lineup with his signature emotional style.

Saturday (Sep. 9):

Emo vs. Indie

Moore Square:

Saturday is the host with the most with both main stages kicking off at at an earlier time of around 1pm. Max Gowan play emo, indie tunes to his hometown at Moore Square, before Quasi picks up the pace a little with alt-rock, indie hits. 90s emo heavyweights, American Football define the emo mood of the set with electric guitars and pining vocals.

Things get louder when Sunny Day Real Estate introduce prog rock energy to the lineup, and alt-rock, genre-changing, Dinosaur Jr. round off the set.

City Plaza:

Singer-songwriters start Saturday at City Plaza, with the soft vocals of Chessa Rich and the country twang of Florry. Anjimile adds a hint of melancholy to the mood, before ESG shake things up with post-punk and house.

Singer-songwriter, Soccer Mommy, brings rock and gentle vocals to the set, before the dreamy vocals and beats of indie sensations, Japanese Breakfast, close the festival.

More Info:

Having a better idea of the headliners might make planning a little easier, but with acts like these and almost 100 others playing smaller venues across the city, deciding where to be might just take a little more time. Check out the official website, Instagram, Facebook, X (f.k.a. Twitter) and the official Hopscotch app for more information on the lineup and the latest event updates to best Hopscotch your way around Raleigh next week.

Tags concert preview, festival, Festival Lineup, festival preview, guide, hopscotch 2023, itinerary

Band/Artist Profile New Album Review

Album Review: “Unreal Unearth” by Hozier

Post author By Meagan Mulcair
Post date August 31, 2023

Andrew Hozier-Byrne, better known as Hozier, first captivated the world in 2013 with the international success of his debut track, “Take Me to Church” – a powerful, mid-tempo soul song that addresses difficult socio-political realities of the time.

Since then, the Irish native has achieved musical acclaim with a slew of inter-genre chart-topping hits in rock, blues, folk, pop and dance.

With the release of a third album, “Unreal Unearth”, Hozier caps a decade of stellar lyricism and expert musicianship with a deeply introspective love letter to the humanity of humanity where he seamlessly shape-shifts between familiar genres and dives into a distinctly new soundscape: soft and ethereal.

Tags Album Review, folk, Hozier, Indie, international, rock

Weekly Charts

Top Charts 8/29/23

Post author By WKNC Admin
Post date August 30, 2023

Top Charts

#	Artist	Record	Label
1	12 RODS	If We Stayed Alive	American Dreams/Husky Pants
2	ALLEGRA KRIEGER	I Keep My Feet On The Fragile Plane	Double Double Whammy
3	BEN FOLDS	What Matters Most	New West
4	MAN ON MAN	Provincetown	Polyvinyl
5	STEADY HANDS	Cheap Fiction	Lame-O
6	ASHER WHITE	New Excellent Woman	Ba Da Bing!
7	BEING DEAD	When Horses Would Run	Bayonet
8	FLY ANAKIN	Skinemaxxx (Side A)	Lex
9	KARI FAUX	REAL B*TCHES DON’T DIE	Drink Sum Wtr
10	PALEHOUND	Eye On The Bat	Polyvinyl
11	PARIS TEXAS	Mid Air	Paris Texas/The Orchard
12	PARTY DOZEN	The Real Work	Temporary Residence Limited
13	SQUID	O Monolith	Warp
14	THE SMILE	“Bending Hectic” [Single]	XL
15	YES YES A THOUSAND TIMES YES	Supertinyinfinitedans	Really Rad
16	ANGELO DE AUGUSTINE	Toil And Trouble	Asthmatic Kitty
17	BILLY WOODS AND KENNY SEGAL	Maps	Backwoodz Studioz/Fat Possum
18	DEAR DERRICK	“Love” [Single]	Only Popcorn/9 To 5
19	HAVIAH MIGHTY	Crying Crystals	Mighty Gang
20	KASSA OVERALL	ANIMALS	Warp
21	MOKA ONLY	In And Of Itself	Urbnet
22	PANCHIKO	Failed At Math(s)	Self-Released
23	SKIIFALL	WOIIYOIE TAPES Vol. 2 – Intense City	RCA
24	SLY5THAVE AND JSWISS	Somebody’s Gotta Do It	Tru Thoughts
25	THE AQUADOLLS	Charmed	Aqua Babe
26	AJ SUEDE	Oil On Canvas	Knowhatimean Incorporated
27	BONNY DOON	Let There Be Music	Anti-
28	CHAMPS	Ride The Morning Glass	BMG
29	CHERRY GLAZERR	“Ready For You” [Single]	Secretly Canadian
30	CHERRY GLAZERR	“Soft Like A Flower” [Single]	Secretly Canadian

Top Adds

	Artist	Record	Label
1	TURNSTILE AND BADBADNOTGOOD	New Heart Designs [EP]	Roadrunner
2	ARMED, THE	Perfect Saviors	Sargent House
3	TELEMARKET	Ad Nauseam	Cloud/Science Project
4	GENESIS OWUSU	STRUGGLER	Ourness/AWAL
5	RATBOYS	The Window	Topshelf
6	KING KRULE	Space Heavy	Matador

Tags NACC Weekly Charts

Weekly Charts

Underground Charts 8/29/23

Post author By WKNC Admin
Post date August 30, 2023

Underground Charts

#	Artist	Record	Label
1	FLY ANAKIN	Skinemaxxx (Side B)	Lex
2	BILLY WOODS AND KENNY SEGAL	Maps	Backwoodz Studioz/Fat Possum
3	HAVIAH MIGHTY	Crying Crystals	Mighty Gang
4	KARI FAUX	REAL B*TCHES DON’T DIE	Drink Sum Wtr
5	PARIS TEXAS	Mid Air	Paris Texas/The Orchard
6	SKIIFALL	WOIIYOIE TAPES Vol. 2 – Intense City	RCA
7	DIZ	The Way Forward Is Not The Way Home	Self-Released
8	FLAMINGOSIS, EHIOROBO	Bliss Station	Self-Released
9	FRESH KILS	Disclaimer	Urbnet
10	MOKA ONLY	In And Of Itself	Urbnet

Underground Adds

#	Artist	Record	Label
1	MICK JENKINS	The Patience	BMG
2	SUBSTANTIAL	“The Long Route featuring Tamara Wellons & DJ Jav” [Single]	Substantial Art &
3	ARMAND HAMMER	“Trauma Mic” feat. Pink Siifu [Single]	Fat Possum

Tags NACC Weekly Charts

Weekly Charts

Chainsaw Charts 8/29/23

Post author By WKNC Admin
Post date August 29, 2023

Chainsaw Charts

#	Artist	Record	Label
1	JUDICIARY	Flesh + Blood	Closed Casket Activities
2	STATIC ABYSS	Aborted From Reality	Peaceville
3	NECROFIER	Burning Shadows in the Southern Night	Season of Mist
4	KARRAS	“Roland Doe” [Single]	M-Theory
5	WAXEN	Die Macht Von Hassen	Moribund
6	KNOCKED LOOSE	“Deep In The Willow” b/w “Everything Is Quiet Now” [Single]	Pure Noise
7	ACACIA STRAIN, THE	Step Into The Light	Rise
8	MOUTHBREATHER	“You Try To Die” [Single]	Self-Released
9	MEURTRIERES	“Rubicon” [Single]	Gates of Hell
10	ZULU	A New Tomorrow	Flatspot

Chainsaw Adds

#	Artist	Record	Label
1	TILL THE DIRT	Outside The Sprial	Nuclear Blast
2	CREAK	Depth Perception	Prosthetic
3	OWDWYR	“Lagos” [Single]	Self-Released
4	INHUMED	Feasted Upon Like Carrion	Self-Released
5	ROCKY’S PRIDE AND JOY	All The Colours of Darkness	Electric Valley
6	ENTIERRO	The Gates of Hell	Self-Released

Tags NACC Weekly Charts

Weekly Charts

Afterhours Charts 8/29/23

Post author By WKNC Admin
Post date August 29, 2023

Afterhours Charts

#	Artist	Record	Label
1	AHERO	Thunder and Rain	Stratford Ct.
2	AQUASINE	Msgbox	Self-Released
3	DREAMWEAVER	Blue Garden	Self-Released
4	RUADOIS	Proibido Estacionar Vol 2 – Live Set [EP]	Self-Released
5	FAEX OPTIM	Crystal Pleasures	Werra Foxma
6	MILD SORROW INTEGRATED	Variety List (for pipon)	Next Year’s Snow
7	GEORGE CLANTON	Ooh Rap I Ya	100% Electronica
8	APHEX TWIN	Blackbox Life Recorder 21f/In A Room7 F760 [EP]	Warp
9	GUPI	Check-In	Self-Released
10	MUNYA	“Once Again” feat. Kainalu [Single]	Luminelle

Afterhours Adds

#	Artist	Record	Label
1	AHERO	Thunder and Rain	Stratford Ct.
2	AQUASINE	Msgbox	Self-Released
3	MILD SORROW INTEGRATED	Variety List (for pipon)	Next Year’s Snow
4	MISO EXTRA	MSG [EP]	Transgressive/PIAS
5	LUIZA LIAN	7 Estrelas \| Quem Arrancou O Céu?	ZZK

Tags NACC Weekly Charts

Playlists

My End-of-Summmer Playlist

Post author By J
Post date August 27, 2023

I like school, I really do; and I’m glad to be back at it.

But there’s something about the loss that’s involved — the loss of free time, the loss of beachside hang-outs, the loss of schematic summer-ness — that’s always painful to swallow.

Not only is it always an adjustment starting a new semester, but this fall sees a particularly vexatious surge of extra freshmen. The resulting collapse of the sanctity of college common areas weighs heavily on the psyche.

As a self-identified Person Who Listens to Too Much Music, music was a vital tool for me this week.

Below is a compilation of tracks I, as well as others, have used to soften the proverbial blow of our returning academic responsibilities.

Good luck out there!

The Playlist

If you’re anything like me (~~combination hyperactive-inattentive~~), then you tend not to stick with one particular flavor of auditory stimulus whilst weathering the tribulations of back-to-school season.

While I primarily market myself as a goth, I’ve got a real soft spot for Carhartt-Marlboro-septum ring-type garage/art/post-punk rock.

Weird songs that sound like the way cigarette smoke smells and mansplaining feels touch me in the most deepest recesses of my calcified English major heart.

It really takes the edge off.

Here are some highlights:

“Troglodyte” – Viagra Boys

The third track on their 2022 album “Cave World,” “Troglodyte” tickles my brain with its silly, borderline-industrial beats. The melody reminds me of “Frogstrap,” another beloved track from their 2018 album “Street Worms.”

What I like about Viagra Boys is how vocalist Sebastian Murphy always seems to be just on the cusp of madness. I think you can extrapolate the overarching relevance of that concept.

“Notice of Foreclosure”– N0V3L

Not a new song by any means, but a similarly brain-tickly one that I find I can easily get lost in. The beats are rhythmic but unobstrusive, fading into the background or punctuating the present at the listener’s behest. It’s pleasant, easy listening for someone who so desperately needs to distance themselves from the half-dozen new syllabi they just acquired.

“Damaged Goods” (cover) – IDLES

IDLES is like Viagra Boys but from an alternate universe. This cover of a Gang of Four classic also sounds like it’s from an alternate universe, which is great when you yourself wish you were from an alternate universe where you were already finished with college.

“Welcome to Hell” – black midi
“Sugar/Tzu” – black midi

These are Black Midi’s two top songs for a reason. Pulled from their 2022 album “Hellfire,” these tracks occupy a strange dimension between the 1940s and the 2020s. I can still remember seeing this band live and witnessing throngs of hipsters emphatically mosh to a quirky jilting guitar.

“The City” – Jockstrap
“Jennifer B” – Jockstrap

I was Jockstrappilled by the former GM of WKNC, DJ Cow Ball. She caught me at a particularly weak moment in which my ADHD was unmedicated and I was in an introductory film class. As one can expect, I quickly amassed over 100 streams.

I never know how to describe Jockstrap to people. Deeply experimental, enigmatic and hauntingly sweet, every Jockstrap song is a multilayered amalgam of sounds and sensations that will surely take your mind off the terror of The Future.

Closing Thoughts

When writing blog post playlists, I tend to keep them short. This is because I prefer to offer little morsels of stimuli rather than formidable hours-long chunks of obscure tracks.

By Rodrigo Curi on Unsplash

It’s also because I tend to listen to songs like people chew gum, mashing them obsessively between my teeth and squeezing out every last modicum of flavor. I’ll listen to a single song for hours until I’ve fully exhausted its capacity to generate dopamine.

I’m sure, in some broad and abstract way, this theme applies to the college experience.

Tags college radio, local, NC State, Playlist, Raleigh, summer, WKNC, WKNC 88.1

New Album Review

Memorrhage’s “Memorrhage” Album Review

Post author By Ben
Post date August 26, 2023

ALBUM: “Memorrhage”

RELEASE YEAR: 2023

LABEL: Big Money Cybergrind

BEST TRACKS: “Memory Leak”, “Exit”, “Brain Wield”

FCC: Some tracks have explicit content.

The rage and passion in Memorrhage’s self-titled release still has its dirty, disastrous cybernetic probes stuck in my brain after listening to it three months ago. The Nü-Metal inspired sounds and highly electronic atmosphere the whole album exudes fits into a niche of metal music I never considered I needed for my ears.

Memorrhage is just a side project done by prolific metal artist Gary Brents. He has been (and still is) a part of Cara Neir, Gonemage, and has been part of multiple other bands over the years. Brents experimented with a multitude of music genres to achieve the sound of Brents’ “tribute to growing up with nu-metal in the 90s/00s” (As stated on Memorrhage’s Bandcamp bio).

But enough about that. Let’s dive into the album.

“Memory Leak”

Each song on this album tells its own narrative. Each is in their own Sci-Fi cyber-hellscape. To start the album off, “Memory Leak” is telling us about a rogue videogame entity wreaking havoc in the digital world through a data leak. Bizarre, I know, but look (and listen of course) to these lyrics:

“It starts with a flicker and an itch

In my dreams and the corner of my eye

Then it’s all over my skin, it’s scalding

A million voices screaming

And I can’t make them stop

I can see the circuits breaking

It lost its mind to technicolor

Dreams of cloaking schemes”

Lyrics taken from “Memory Leak” by Memorrhage

Memorrhage’s horrid beauty forces itself through your ears and makes you understand the emotion and artistry of pain coming from this odd perspective. The brutal sounds drew me into this track at first and then diving into the strange world building in the lyricism made me go slack-jawed and wide eyed in appreciation of the thought and love poured into “Memory Leak”.

“Exit”

And that doesn’t change throughout the whole album. Each song is filled with love and raw emotion that drives further from your expectations at every turn. In “Exit” the pitter-patter, then builds to explosive vocal screams is so good at exciting me for the ‘boom’ I experience at the beginning of the song every time. Any time I want to feel an explosive force of energy course its way under my skin and into my nerves, I flip on this track and start jittering just at the start.

“Brain Wield”

So… track eight of this album brings us to a particularly heavy variety of instrument and technical diversity compared to the other tracks on this album. “Brain Wield” is listed as the track with the most guest appearances with a total of nine different artists playing a role in the creation of this track.

From Mr. Rager, a DJ makin’ brain ripping record scratches, to a slew of metal vocals coming from Brent’s connections in the industry, “Brain Wield” seems to be the most technically advanced track and I believe it pays off in a big way.

Memorrhage combines Nü-Metal, some glitch elements, and one of my favorite 90’s genres: turntablism. “Brain Wield” also has a few spoken narrative elements weaved in to help tell the story of this song too (you can read a synopsis of it on the Bandcamp page that is linked above).

All of these additions to this one track are wonderful tools to aid in storytelling and don’t inhibit listeners from obtaining the emotional wasteland this album continues to shove into our ears.

The Other “Scraps”:

This isn’t to say the other tracks on this album are lame or don’t have the same pull the previous three do, but the magnetism of the aforementioned tracks are so great that I don’t have enough time and space to dive into what makes each song in this album so sickeningly pleasing to me.

I’ll instead give quick one-liner description for a few tracks:

“Reek” is just that: an offensive odor that doesn’t leave your nose but still leaves you addicted to it.

“Finesse” includes high pitched electronic bleeps and heart stopping pauses leaving my adrenaline coming to jolting starts and stops.

“Utility” has the classic Nü-Metal choruses mixed with hard record scratches and alluring space opera ballad content.

Finale:

This whole album is a unique take on the Nü-Metal genre and I think it does a great job of improving and inventing new sounds within the genre that might’ve inhibited it from reaching greater renown in the past. The glitch-techno aspects of this album are huge draws to me as it feels like a ginormous Sci-Fi adventure in a gorier version of a “Blade Runner” type universe (but far more interesting, sorry Philip K. Dick).

Memorrhage’s opening album holds great promise to inspire old and new artists alike to return to old, worn-out genres of metal that could use some new sounds and approaches. I am excited to see where Gary Brents takes this project and to see the impact it might have on future sounds in metal.

Sharpen your knives – it’s time to eat,

Ben

Tags chef, cybernetic, Metal, WKNC 88.1