WKNC 88.1 FM - North Carolina State University Student RadioAn in-depth look at bands and solo artists
We’re starting the New Year right at WKNC with death, sadness, and AIDS. If you’re tired of the general malaise and continued pandemic of 2022, let’s throw it back to the bright shiny 80s, a time of general malaise and a pandemic that continued for far longer than it should have. Today, we’re taking a look at one of the few musicians to tackle this weighty subject head on, Diamanda Galas and her avant-garde classic, the Masque of Red Death.
Is there anything that can make being stranded on an uninhabitable island bearable? Insert dreamy orchestral indie-rock music by two members of Manchester Orchestra and a character played by Daniel Radcliffe. In Swiss Army Man, main character Hank (Paul Dano) finds himself lost on an island, feeling hopeless and wanting to give up on life. That is until he sees a corpse named Manny (Daniel Radcliffe) wash up on shore. Hank now has a new reason for living, and we follow him as he teaches Manny what it means to be human. We watch Hank and Manny become closer as they journey together to find their way home.
The music mirrors the sentiments of hopelessness and hopefulness felt by the pair as they run into many obstacles. Radcliffe and Dano are featured both together and alone in a number of the tracks, making them feel even more intimate and emotional. We hear recognizable tunes like Cotton Eye Joe and Jurassic Park sung by the pair. Endearing and emotional, those covers add a bit of humor and lightheartedness. Uniquely, the other lyrics in the songs written for the movie narrate what is going on in the film, which is so incredibly witty and matches the movie’s eccentric plot.
Who do we have to thank for the music of Swiss Army Man? None other than Andy Hull and Robert McDowell. Andy Hull is the frontman for Manchester Orchestra. He makes a cameo as the news crew camera man in the movie. Robert McDowell is the lead guitarist and backing vocalist for Manchester Orchestra. He has ventured on to work on his solo project named Gobotron. My favorite song from this soundtrack has to be Montage, which features Paul Dano and Daniel Radcliffe. The two sing about starting a fire, hunting critters using Manny’s body’s skills, and letting their friendship blossom. Swiss Army Man is an absolutely heart wrenching story of friendship, enhanced by its capella-esque soundtrack. I hope you get a chance to watch this movie and bask in the music of Swiss Army Man.
<3 dj mozzie
There are many ways to discover new artists, some better than others. While we can debate our favorite ways, I think I speak for everyone when I say the absolute worst way to discover a new artist is to find out they had to go public with #metoo allegations in response to career backlash. These headlines almost always override the artist’s music and work for exclusive focus on their victimization by the industry. In an effort to counteract that trend, here is an unusual artist I discovered through this less than ideal pipeline: Iona Fyfe.
The most immediately recognizable thing about Iona Fyfe is that she’s a Scottish artist who often sings in… well that’s kind of the confusing part. The language (or dialect of English depending on your feelings about the United Kingdom as a political entity) is called Scots, and it’s a surprisingly well preserved cousin of our tongue spoken in the rural south of Scotland, where the Celtic languages of the North mixed with Old English. It’s a strange thing to our American ears, where even the most divergent dialects of our country are still fully intelligible. In the slowest, syrupiest songs in Iona Fyfe’s catalogues, you might just think she has a strong accent. In faster folk songs like “Guise of Tough,” the language barrier is far more jarring. Fyfe’s language uses words and sounds that feel intuitive and gel with the musical/poetic vocabulary of the English tradition, but to our ears it’s mostly nonsense.
However, the effect of Scots is still artistically compelling to English speakers. Since we are steeped in the same musical and poetic traditions, and we share several roots, grammatical transformations, and entire words or sentences. The music still makes emotional sense, communicating everything important and not a lick more. Coming away from the songs, I found myself understanding what the music meant, but not what it was about, which makes for a fascinating if unmooring listening experience.
Then there’s Fyfe’s English language work, which is more accessible if less compelling. Her 2019 ep, “Dark Turn of Mind,” is entirely in English, and built around a cover of previous blog topic Gillian Welch. While the ep isn’t as good as her Scots language music, it represents something unique about Fyfe, that her music is conversation with the Southern American folk tradition. This connection is partly musical, Appalachian folk is built off the musical framework of Celtic and English folk, and partly ethnic. Since the 90s, many white southerners have begun tying their cultural identity to the Celtic tradition, rather than to the Anglo-Saxon or American Nationalistic traditions. Analyzing this cultural shift is beyond my pay grade, though it was a constant feature of my upbringing. The only place I’ve ever been outside North Carolina and the surrounding states is Scotland to visit my brother studying abroad. The label of “Scots-Irish” is a fraught identity, but it’s good nonetheless to see Fyfe reciprocating a more wholesome vision of white Southern identity from across the pond, especially by covering our music from our cannon.
I encourage you to check out the Iona Fyfe discography. If you aren’t a folk person, it will probably remain a minor curiosity to you, but it’s a gimmick that’s worth your time. I wish her the best on her post-Covid career, and hope to see her extend her relationship to American in the coming years, because God knows her nations relationship to Europe is strained right now
From her bedroom to the main stage at Hopscotch, Hannah Jadagu is starting to make a name for herself in the indie music scene.
Hannah Jadagu is an indie-pop artist who now lives in New York City, but is originally from Mesquite, Texas. The 19-year-old singer only started her music career a few years ago when she was in High School. She was 16 when she first learned how to play guitar, and instantly felt connected to the instrument. She started writing songs and recording them on her iPhone and released a few online.
Now, a few years later she is signed to Sub Pop Records and is starting to play live shows. Her first festival performance was at Hopscotch in Raleigh, and we got to share that sweet experience with her.
As she took center stage she felt nervous about how the set would go over. She had two other people in her band, a drummer and a member who jumped around between playing guitar, bass, and samples on his computer. Overall she felt their set went really well and she was excited to play in Raleigh for the first time.
With this show in the bag, Hannah felt ready and excited for her upcoming tours and projects. She is currently working on an album and is opening for Beach Fossils and Wild Nothing on their North American tour. She also announced that she will be opening for Ritt Momney in 2022.
Because of Covid she wasn’t able to share her music with as many people face to face, but it gave her the opportunity to work on her music and create music videos and more content for fans.
“I took a leave of absence from school so that I could tour and focus on my music,” Jadagu said. “It was too much to balance, and I’m so happy with my choice because now I get to have these amazing experiences like playing festivals.”
Hannah started her musical career by putting the songs she was working on out, and spread the word through her instagram which landed her a record deal with Sub Pop.
“It was such a surreal moment, I got a DM on instagram from a manager at Sub Pop saying they loved my music and wanted to work with me, I didn’t think it was real at first but after a few zoom calls I signed to Sub Pop and now they’re helping me put out my music,” Jadagu said.
Jadagu takes inspiration from any music and media she is consuming at the moment and turns them into her own interpretation.
“Usually I just start strumming my guitar and see where that takes me. I like to freestyle and record all of my ideas so I have a basis to work off of when I’m ready to put the song together. When I play something that makes me excited I hone in on that part and work around it.”
Hannah was excited that she could perform her songs to crowds again and not just for her computer in her bedroom. Many artists probably feel the same way now that shows are being set up again.
You can listen to her new single “All my Time is Wasted” here.
This past week I was browsing YouTube like I usually do, watching cooking videos that make me hungry and then distracting myself with old Boiler Room sets. However, in the sidebar of one of these sets was a thumbnail that caught my attention, a pair of DJs under the alias “Locked Club” wearing chainmail coifs and ski masks with shirtless men dancing behind them. Little did I know that this video would put me on a deep dive into the emerging underground Russian techno scene that is shaping up to be one of the most interesting and unique in the world.
What immediately struck me when watching this set was the overall sound and track selection. Locked Club are not constrained by the conventions of genre, playing everything from hard-hitting electro and punk-inspired techno to their own take on traditional Russian folk music off of their new EP “Sadism”. All the vocals are sampled from viral Russian social media videos and other Russian memes, unfortunately none of which I understand. This unconventionality brings a breath of fresh air and energy into the set, all of which is hilariously put on display in the last 10 minutes of the video with a mosh pit and essentially the destruction of the set.
The next noticeable feature of this set is Locked Club’s appearance. Everyone including the main duo are dawning ski masks and chainmail, bulky jewelry, and a plethora of tattoos, most notably of their black ski mask logo. Doing some digging on their Instagram, I found many posts with people sharing the same tattoo. Two weekends ago they played a sold out show in Moscow’s Mutabor club, some highlights including a religious opening ceremony, more mosh pits, and someone getting a live tattoo of that same ski mask logo.
Locked Club is creating more than just music, they are creating a lifestyle, one that is nearly impossible to compare to in Western techno and club culture. Rather than writing it off as Russian cultural craziness, I think Locked Club is a glimpse into the potential future of techno and the clubbing experience. The days of 128-133bpm sets that have you shuffling your feet back and forth all night are seemingly dwindling as people, including myself, do not find it that interesting. The younger generation of club goers are searching for something truly unique and energizing that you can indulge in all night. While impossible to predict, Locked Club is in the right direction, and I am excited to see where the next couple of years brings them.
If you enjoy the sound of Locked Club, I highly recommend you check out their new EP “Sadism” and their complete discography on their Bandcamp, as well as other artists on the Private Persons label.
Stay dancin’,
DJ HRLN
Maude Latour is a New York City based indie-pop artist who has had a semi-recent rise to popularity through TikTok. However, she has been releasing music since May of 2017. With her signature Maude Latour logo on all of her cover art, catchy usernames on social media (@maudelstatus) and polished sound, it seems like she was destined for this.
Recently, she came out with a single titled, “Clean,” a song detailing the difficulty of maintaining the simple mundanities of life after someone important leaves you. The hook of the chorus, laments “I’m even tryna keep my room clean / Every day, I make my bed just to get you out my head.” She explores the aftermath of a relationship, and focusing on yourself after it ends, by keeping yourself occupied and healthy. It’s everything a pop song should be: catchy, relatable, memorable and energetic.
The music video, directed by Tess Lafia and produced by Eric Barrett, is a great step forward from her other music videos. Coming from someone who doesn’t like watching music videos, “Clean” was fun, quippy, and has great visuals.
Latour also released an acoustic version of “Clean” on YouTube, which pales in comparison to the studio version, but is a more intimate experience.
You can find “Clean” on any streaming service, and you can also find Maude on Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok.
Animal Collective is difficult to pin down and a lot of fun to consume. Luckily, the band is performing this year at Hopscotch Music Festival on Saturday, September 11th at 9:30 pm at City Plaza. Keep reading to learn a little bit about the band and their discography.
The American experimental band came together in Baltimore, Maryland in 2003. Animal Collective, consisting of Avey Tare (David Portner), Panda Bear (Noah Lennox), Deakin (Josh Dibb), and Geologist (Brian Weitz), weave genres through their unique vocal combinations, ambiance, and pop foundations. The members began to musically collaborate when they met in school before the band was officially formed. Their discography consists of a variety of retroactively added music, studio albums, extended plays, live albums, visual albums, and a soundtrack album.
Check out their full discography below:
Studio Albums:
– Spirit They’re Gone, Spirit They’ve Vanished (2000) (as Avey Tare and Panda Bear)
– Danse Manatee (2001) (as Avey Tare, Panda Bear and Geologist)
– Campfire Songs (2003) (as Campfire Songs)
– Here Comes the Indian (2003) (also known as Ark)
– Sung Tongs (2004)
– Feels (2005)
– Strawberry Jam (2007)
– Merriweather Post Pavilion (2009)
– Centipede Hz (2012)
– Painting With (2016)
Extended Plays:
– Prospect Hummer (2005) (with Vashti Bunyan)
– People (2006)
– Water Curses (2008)
– Fall Be Kind (2009)
– Keep + Animal Collective (2011)
– Transverse Temporal Gyrus (2012)
– Monkey Been to Burn Town (2013)
– The Painters (2017)
– Meeting of the Waters (2017)
– Bridge to Quiet (2020)
Live Albums:
– Hollinndagain (2002) (as Avey Tare, Panda Bear and Geologist)
– Animal Crack Box (2009)
– Live at 9:30 (2015)
– Ballet Slippers (2019)
– 2 Nights (2020)[112]
Visual Albums:
– ODDSAC (2010)
– Tangerine Reef (2018)
Soundtrack Album:
– Crestone (Original Score) (2021)[113]
I know I’ll be at the Animal Collective set at Hopscotch and I hope you will be, too.
Here’s to my favorite Animal Collective track, “Who Could Win a Rabbit,”
Silya Bennai
General Manager Maddie here to tell you all about a band I’m very excited to see play this year’s Hopscotch Festival: Patois Counselors.
Before I indulge in my own personal relationship to the band, the important information to know is that they’re playing Hopscotch tomorrow, Sept 9, on the Moore Square stage at 3:45PM. In terms of genre, they fall under the wide umbrella of “post punk”, so check ’em out if you like stuff like Parquet Courts or Gang of Four.
Now that I’ve got that out of the way, I’m going to tell you my story about the discovery of one of my favorite local bands. We have to go all the way back to October 2018, the fall of my first year at NC State. One of my favorite bands, Screaming Females, was playing a show at one of my favorite venues, the Milestone, in Charlotte, North Carolina. The only problem with this fantastic set-up was that I was stuck in Raleigh without a car. So, I got together with a friend of mine who had a car, agreed to skip my calculus class (the first class I ever skipped in college!) and we drove 2 and a half hours to see Screaming Females.
They were great, of course, but that’s not who I’m here to talk about. I’m here to talk about the second band I saw at the Milestone that night, a local opener called TKO Faith Healer. I didn’t have high expectations; based on the band name, I was expecting some sort of Southern garage-rocky type dad band. However, as they began playing, I found myself enjoying their music a lot more than I was expecting. I’m not gonna say it was like nothing I had ever heard before, but at this time in my life, I wasn’t really listening to bands like Wire or Powerplant much, and I certainly didn’t know how much I would come to love bands like that later on in my life. Besides being sonically interesting, they also played just an overall super clean and tight set.
Also, I have to add that their singer came out wearing an Amnesia Scanner long sleeve t shirt. I did not know who Amnesia Scanner was at the time, but now, I look back on this move and realize how cool it is. Any guy in an “indie rock” band wearing an Amnesia Scanner shirt is a cool guy.
Unfortunately, TKO Faith Healer didn’t have any songs up on Spotify at this point (and they sadly still do not, but they have one EP on Bandcamp), so I more or less forgot about them after the show. I’ve gotten better at this since 2018, but really, the convenience of being on Spotify is a selling factor on if I’ll listen to a band’s music or not- I know, I know, but I gotta make sure all my songs scrobble!
In October 2020- two years later- I was browsing Instagram and came across a post from Charlotte independent record store Lunchbox Records (the second best thing about Charlotte, with the first being the Milestone) that instantly captivated me. I’m a big album artwork guy, and my opinions on an album can strongly be swayed by the album art alone. I had one glance at the eerie, larger-than-life eyeball painting and knew I was gonna like the album. Also, the band was from Charlotte, and I’m always looking for more local bands to love.
I remember quickly going to Spotify and checking out songs from the band’s previous album, Proper Release, in anticipation of the new album. When the new album came out, I proudly uploaded some songs from The Optimal Seat into WKNC’s Local Lunch segment, because our local segment definitely needs some more post-punk.
Since then, the album has been a local favorite of mine, and I find new songs and parts to enjoy with every listen. Some of my favorite tracks are the super-danceable yet anxious The Galvanizer, and angular, jerky Give Me Voltage. I also still continue to be absolutely transfixed by the album artwork; it’s probably one of my favorite album covers of all time (you can see more paintings by the artist on her website, although none of them strike me like the red eye featured on the Optimal Seat).
Now, to get back to TKO Faith Healer- I’m not quite sure when exactly it was, but at one point, I thought back to the band I saw open for Screaming Females and thought they sounded familiar to a new band I had recently discovered. I did some research, and sure enough, TKO Faith Healer lead singer and Amnesia Scanner-enjoyer Bo White was the vocalist in Patois Counselors. While doing research for this post, I discovered White actually has a slew of other Charlotte bands under his wing- basically, I have a lot of new music to listen to.
But, for now, I’m gonna get ready for Patois Counselors’ performance by re-listening to the album that captured my attention from the first second I saw it. I hope you’re able to catch Patois Counselors’ set tomorrow, but if not, you can listen to their music anytime.
EP: “SYS03” by FJAAK
RELEASE YEAR: 2021
LABEL: SPANDAU20
RATING: 8.5/10
BEST TRACKS: “Fabric” and “Blitz”
Berlin based duo FJAAK is back with their new EP “SYS03”, the third installment in the “SYS” series. It’s no secret that clubs all over the world have struggled to stay financially afloat amidst the current COVID-19 pandemic. Seeing an opportunity to give back, FJAAK created the “SYS” series, a charity project where four club-titled tracks are released with all revenue generated going directly to the four clubs. The clubs featured in “SYS03” are London based Fabric, Munich based Blitz, Brussels based Fuse, and Cologne based Gewölbe.
The idea behind the whole project makes each individual track and EP installment a unique listening experience. Before playing the opening track “Fabric”, I decided to search for a couple images of the dancefloor. Hearing the heavy and slightly reverberated bassline as the track played, I envisioned the bass vibrating and reverbing off the brick walls, the subtle melody kick-in drawing oohs and ahs from the crowd. For a club that looks like a residential brick house, it perfectly encapsulates the atmosphere. I followed my same process for the second track “Blitz”. While maintaining the similar heavy bassline form “Fabric”, the melody is much more pronounced with vocal echoes and hi-hats alongside an almost euphoric synth breakdown. Located in a former museum hall with two dancefloors, two bars, and a vegetarian restaurant, Blitz is a world away from the underground basement setting of Fabric and FJAAK’s ability to portray this juxtaposition throughout the EP is why I gave “SYS03” an 8.5 out of 10.
I have proudly done my part in supporting these clubs and many others by purchasing all three installments, and I hope you will all do the same.
Do you like alternative neo-pagan psychedelic folk punk rock? Well your about to, because today we have one of the weirdest and most wonderful artists I’ve ever been cursed to discover: Julian Cope. Get ready for some label drama, norse myth, and polemics against cars.
If that name sounds familiar, and you’re really into post-punk, it might be because Cope was a founding member of post-punk and neo-psychedelia outfit The Teardrop Explodes, who had a few minor radio hits in Britain. Julian Cope would later say of this band “Would you go back to having your mother change your diapers?” indicating both his sense of artistic evolution and his…. the most diplomatic way I can put it is ‘unique personal character.’
Julian Cope dresses like a BDSM Viking pirate, swears like a Viking pirate, and more or less acts like a Viking pirate would. It’s a very niche and well established brand. Ordinarily I wouldn’t call this obvious attention-seeking from celebrities’ “campy” but in Cope’s case I feel confident this isn’t a publicity stunt. His music is trying to be serious and failing; Cope is camp in its purist form. I say this because his personal eccentricities are reflected in his music in a way that feels genuine, rather than gimmicky. His primary musical touchstone is European folk music, which he blends with trippy effects and heavy guitar tunings into a unique, but not altogether unapproachable style. His music, despite his look, is pretty accessible and mainstream, if you ignore the personality pervading it. A good comparison point would be legendary hippie group, the 13th Floor Elevators, or the less prominent but no less influential Legendary Pink Dots, both of whom share his slightly manic, but focused creative energy.
Beyond the rather mainstream, but immaculately constructed outsider folk, Cope’s most identifiable feature is his lyrics. The topical choices are strange, as you’ve no doubt guessed, but what makes his lyrics unique is the fact they’re somehow grounded and emotionally compelling. I know I said earlier that Cope failed to be serious, and that is true, but in his ridiculous access, he writes some heartfelt music about well-worn topics.
His take on the classic bad romance banger with “Pristine,” is a good example. Usually, these songs emphasize big emotional swings, Hot and Cold relationships where you’re either in pure bliss or pure agony. Cope takes a novel approach by blending the two in one anecdote, asking “How much does it take to go down on someone that you hate?” which is a question that will haunt me to my grave. Cope is very good at these kinds of lyrics, one liners that make you look at a situation in a new light, usually from a very off-putting or alienating perspective. His masterpiece album, “Jehovakill,” opens with the line “Living in the middle of your soul desert,” which is both fantastical and grounded in real emotion. It’s a unique trick, and one that makes Cope an engaging artist.
Usually when I review music this niche or unusual, I add a caveat to the effect of “This won’t be for everyone,” but with Julian Cope I actually feel confident in recommending him to a general audience. Even if this isn’t your genre (lord knows it’s not mine), Cope is worth your time. His major label work from the early 90s is where I’d start, they’ll also be the easiest albums to find on streaming. Happy listening!