WKNC 88.1 FM - North Carolina State University Student RadioWKNC’s daytime music directors spent their first week of the new year locked in a room with nothing but a typewriter and 4 cartons of Lucky Strikes. The result is the list published below of our picks for top albums of ‘08.
1. Bon Iver – For Emma, Forever Ago
4. Helio Sequence – Keep Your Eyes Ahead
5. TV on the Radio – Dear Science
7. Mr. Gnome – Deliver This Creature
8. Hot Chip – Made in the Dark
9. A Faulty Chromosome -as an ex-anorexic’s six sicks exit,…
To the Condo Fucks. That’s right, one of indie rock’s oldest and most respected bands is now called the Condo Fucks. It’s hardly surprising from the band that called thier last album “I Am Not Afraid Of You And I Will Beat Your Ass.” The change is not permanent, at least I hope not. Their forthcoming LP ‘Fuckbook’ will apparently consist mostly of covers.
YouTube is notorious for taking a typical person with a weird talent and transforming him or her into a celebrity. That wasn’t what I was thinking when I ventured onto the website one cold evening, however, I ended up stumbling upon one YouTube celebrity. His name is Bo Burnham.
Bo Burnham is a young, northern, white lyrical genius. He has written 8 songs and created several short skits.
Bo has been compared to comedians like Adam Sandler and Steve Martin, with sexual references and crazy puns! His best line, in my humble opinion is,
“You know im a gangsta, you know I do coke, But I had to go to diet, cause it burnt my throat.”
The best part of his whole act, though, are the intros and exits. He creates such an awkward pre-pubescent persona for himself… and it works. The introduction to his rap, “Bo Fo’ Sho’,” suggests that a hot woman was just in his bed doing sexual things… like, word-for-word.
“See you later incredibly hot chick. Come back anytime and do sexual things, like how we were just doing…"
So, what does this mean for you? It means that Bo Burnham is becoming so popular that he has become slang. His name is synonyms with "cool” and “awesome.” For example, WKNC is not just Bo. WKNC is BO BURNHAM! Okay, so maybe his name is only slang among friends, loved ones, colleagues… but I feel that it has potential to be great. I encourage you to use it.
But first, Listen to him, it will blow your mind.
Of worst and funniest band names. That’s right WKNC favorites I Was Totally Destroying It, now officially have one of either the worst or the funniest band names in the country.
My personal favorite is “3 Piston Ass Hammer”.
Below is a list of what the WKNC Hip Hop DJs have come to an agreement to be the ten best hip hop albums of 2008. They are not ranked in anyway just listed. If you haven’t listened to one of these albums I strongly urge you to give them a listen.
Paper Trail by T.I.
Leave It All Behind by Foreign Exchange
The Carter 3 by Lil Wayne
Universal Mind Control by Common
Theater of Mind by Ludacris
The Renaissance by Q Tip
Emeritus by Scarface
Untitled by Nas
Rising Down by The Roots
Million Dollar Back Pack by Skillz
Happy New Year to all. As is necessary every semester here at NC State, WKNC must alter its schedule to fit the available times of all of our volunteers and DJs.
This spring semester is exciting in that we have established a new Weekend Program, the Post Rock Block. Every Sunday from 6-8pm you can hear your favorite 35 minute long, noise filled, post rock tunes, hosted by DJs Gray Matter, Bridges, Cabbage, Matticus Rex and May Day.
Also, our weekly sports show, Call of The Wolf, has been changed from Thursday evenings to Tuesday evenings from 7-8pm, and is now hosted by a couple new members.
Local Lunch introduces one new DJ, DJ Ray on Tuesdays, and welcomes back DJ Caid on Mondays. DJ Cabbage has switched to Wednesday, Murdoc to Thursdays, and Chelsey stays put for her normal Friday show.
Chainsaw has also moved up 2 hours to Thursday night starting at 10pm. This change may not be permanent, but we are happy to give our dedicated Chainsaw listeners some extra time to get their rock on.
For more shows and times visit our Schedule Page.
Set your calendars For Friday February 6th, and Saturday February 7th for WKNC’s annual Double Barrel Benefit #6 at the Pour House in downtown Raleigh. Both nights are loaded with 8 of the best bands in our area for a small price, with all proceeds going to WKNC & NC State Student Media.
Prices are $7 in advance and $9 at the door. There is a $5 surcharge for all attendees under 21.
Bands on Friday include (in order of appearance):
Lonnie Walker
Lost in the Trees
Schooner
Bowerbirds
Bands on Saturday include (in order of appearance):
I Was Totally Destroying It
Violet Vector & the Lovely Lovelies
Birds of Avalon
Polvo
WKNC will be broadcasting live from the site both nights.
Throughout the next month WKNC will begin featuring exclusive blogs about each of these fantastic bands leading up to the show. Be on the lookout for those as well as listening to each of these bands on WKNC 88.1 fm.
In addition, the two days leading up to the show, WKNC will play 100% Local Music during its Daytime Format. More information on this later.
When I started Local Lunch in the beginning of 2008, I have to admit… I didn’t know jack about local music. I knew we had a show called The Local Beat and that our Double Barrel Benefit 5 was going to feature 8 local acts, but that was essentially it. So there I was, half way through January and still struggling to find something that made my show different from all of the other WKNC DJs, and all I knew was that my shift was set in the middle of lunch time, I was hungry, and I needed to plug some of the acts from DBB5. In a nutshell, that is basically how Local Lunch was born.
So now I had a locally themed show, but I still didn’t know anything about local music. I asked myself, “What is the best way to learn about the local scene?”; and knew that I had to get in to going to local venues and seeing local acts. Thankfully, DBB5 had 8 local bands who I had been spinning and enjoying for a month. Another long drawn out story later, I was having a great time watching a band called The Future Kings of Nowhere (FKON). And thus how I fell in love with local music and renewed my interest in music in general.
FKON went on to become one of my favorite bands in 2008, and that is why I encourage everyone to go out and explore the local music scene. If you are like how I was, and don’t know who to go see or where to go to catch great local bands at; I suggest you check out the WKNC Rock Report. Or find your favorite band for 2009 by attending WKNC’s Double Barrel Benefit 6 on Friday and Saturday, February 6th & 7th.
I was once told that “Some of the greatest experiences of life where to be had in places far from home”. I hope you will discover, like I did, that such a saying is untrue because of the experiences to be had at some place down the street, rockin’ out with bands from down the street.
I decided to ring in the new year at the Local 506 in Chapel Hill for their “Rockin’ Eve” show. Normally anything titled “Rockin’ Eve” would turn me away, but it the lineup was Hammer No More The Fingers, Red Collar and Kerbloki. I managed to miss all but about two songs from HNMTF and those were spent inching my way toward the bar. Let’s just say the place was a little crowded.
If you check out Red Collar’s MySpace, next to “sounds like” it says “there’s going to be a fire.” That’s actually a pretty accurate description. The band is VERY high energy. It didn’t hurt that it was New Year’s Eve and before their set the crowd celebrated the birthdays of drummer Jonathan Truesdale and bassist Beth Kutchma and the two year anniversary of Hammer No More The Fingers. There was cake.
It’s about 15 minutes to midnight, we’re all ready to rock, the lights dim and the band launches into Bruce Springsteen’s “Dancing in the Dark.” After appropriately pumping up the crowd, they squeezed in “Hands Up” before the countdown. I won’t rely exactly what the band suggested we do with 2008, should there be any children reading, but the idea was to move forward.
The first time I saw Red Collar was at the WKNC Double Barrel Benefit 5 in Feb. 2008. I caught them again in the fall at one our Local Beer Local Band nights at Tir Na Nog. If you are serious about making yourself “a better you” in 2009, I suggest you add “see more local shows” to your resolution list and put Red Collar at the top.
Pandora, describing The Glitch Mob as “four gents who are setting the dance world ablaze with their futuristic hip-hop deconstruction,” features three videos of the group talking about their music, and preforming live at the at the Mezzanine club in San Francisco: