We have Troika Music Festival passes!

For 3 days, from November 4-6, Durham comes alive with music and art. Troika Music Festival began in 2002 and is still going strong. Bands featured this year include Birds & Arrows, Veelee, Old Bricks, I Was Totally Destroying It, Red Collar, The Small Ponds, Americans in France, Phil Cook and His Feat, Chatham County Line, Mount Moriah, Gray Young, Spider Bags, and even more! They'll be performing at venues around Durham and WKNC has 3-day festival passes to give away!

Just be the correct caller when the DJ asks for it now through November 3, and you could win a pair of 3-day festival passes!

Local Beat preview 8/6/10

At 5 p.m., Gray Young is coming by for an hour to talk. The band has several shows coming up this month, including one tonight at the Berkley Cafe with the Loners, Goner, and Asheville band Knives and Daggers, and one tomorrow at the TTWD Fest where they are playing at 4 p.m.

Rat Jackson has an album release party for their new release Midnight Get Right with Aminal and Red Collar at the Broad Street Cafe on August 7. The new album is reminiscent of Rat Jackson's live show, which is energetic, straight-up rock n' roll, and I have a feeling the second hour of the program is going to be just that.

At 7 p.m., there will be a pre-recorded interview with  Graveyard Fields. Frontman for the Carrboro band, Brian Risk, came in last week with Pete and Andrea Connolly (of Birds & Arrows) who are also in the group.  We talked about the creation of the band and their debut EP Saturn's Moon, which has been out for a couple of months. Two of the members of the group, Carol and Jon, are expecting their first baby at any moment right now, which made for some interesting conversation.

As always feel free to follow the Local Beat on Twitter, Facebook, or ReverbNation.  If you can't tune into the show tonight, then stay tuned on the WKNC blog for our weekly recap of the evening.

Local Beat Mini Exclusive: Deliver Me From Nowhere

This week I sat down for yet another Local Beat Mini Exclusive as there will once again be no normally scheduled Local Beat (due to baseball programming).  Rob Koegler and Jason Kutchma came in to chat about a really interesting and unique concert happening this Friday evening at the ETC Auditorium of the North Carolina School of Science and Math titled "Deliver Me From Nowhere- A Tribute to Bruce Springsteen's Nebraska."  A collaboration of different musicians from Red Collar, Midtown Dickens, COW, Mount Moriah, and the Rosewood Bluff are coming together to play the entire album in it's entirely.  The show is only $10 and all proceeds are going to benefit the Coalition to Unchain Dogs and the Southern Coalition for Social Justice.   The concert begins at 9:30 p.m. though a free showing of Terrence Malick's 1973 film, Badlands, will begin at 7:30 p.m.  The screening of the movie is free of charge.

In this Local Beat Mini Exclusive, Jay, Rob, and I chatted about the bands playing the show, the charities, and the reason behind throwing this concert.  Jay also brought in his acoustic guitar and a harmonica and played two tracks from Nebraska for us which you can listen to in the music player to the left.

Take a listen to the podcast below and feel free to download the covers at the Local Beat ReverbNation page.
Local Beat Mini Exclusive for Deliver Me From Nowhere

Double Barrel Benefit 7 presents: Spider Bags

I first heard about Spider Bags at Bull City Headquarters in Durham. I had gone to see a friend play with a band called Titus Andronicus. A few songs in, the leader singer says, "This is a song by the greatest band in the world -- Spider Bags," and preceded to sing Waking Up Drunk.

Now, if you were at this show you would probably remind me that Spider Bags themselves had played that night, but I got lost on the way to the venue and missed the set. Nevertheless, I made sure to look up this so called "greatest band in the world" -- and you know what? Titus Andronicus wasn't far off.

Spider Bags is made up of long time friends Dan McGee and Gregg Levy, two Jersey boys who magically ended up in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Rock Forbes from the band Bad Checks is the drummer. The band themselves formed in 2006 and have been growing ever since.

Their tunes themselves sound like southern, gritty rock and roll with lyrics that consist of drugs, booze and just livin' the hard life. Now there have been thousands of bands that have all sung the same tunes but some how Spider Bags figured it out. The mix sloppy with unique and transfix the listener with the sounds they are creating.

Spider Bags not only writes incredible music, they also put on an incredible live show. Comparable to other local favorite Red Collar,the band never lacks on emotion and energy. They can induce their audience to scream, shout or even cry.

This year the band released "Goodbye Cruel, Hello Crueler One" on Birdman records.

Spider Bags will be performing Saturday, February 6 at The Pour House after The Tender Fruit and Midtown Dickens. Roman Candle will end night two of Double Barrel Benefit 7.

For the complete Double Barrel schedule and ticket information, click here.

WKNC presents Magic Monday in the Cherry Bounce Festival series

For the second day of the Cherry Bounce Music Festival, WKNC will be helping to host Magic Monday at The Raleigh Times. There will be performances by Brian Corum of Lonnie Walker, Jason Kutchma of Red Collar and Matt Douglas of The Proclivities. Magician Michael Casey will be performing in-between sets. The show kicks off at 9:30 p.m.

For the complete Cherry Bounce schedule, click here.

LBLB For September

New Raleigh has beaten us to the punch announcing this month's Local Beer Local Band, but we are just excited as everyone else.  This could possibly be the best month's lineup yet, and features three extra dates not on Thursday!  Check it out:

Wednesday, September 2- The American Princes with Magic Mike (FREE)




Thursday, September 3- Max Indian & Mount Weather (FREE)




Saturday, September 5- Lonnie Walker with Americans in France & Anti-Bubble ($5 cover)




Thursday, September 10- The T’s & Embarrassing Fruits (FREE)




Saturday, September 12- Rollergirl after party featuring Red Collar, I Was Totally Destroying It, The Demon Beat, & Pink Flag ($5 cover)




Thursday, September 17- Sparkcon kick off featuring Bright Young Things, The Jackets, Aminal, & Starmount ($5 cover)




Thursday, September 24- Future Kings of Nowhere & Dry Heathens (FREE)

Every week WKNC interviews our Local Beer Local Band bands, so be sure to check back to the blog for dates and times of live, on-air, interviews.

Also, don't forget that every week the Hear Here compilation will be on sale at Tir Na Nog!

Murdoc's Local Music Photo Blog: May

Ok so it is June... but it isn't my fault that May kicked ass. I mean seriously. I graduated from NC State, saw my family, and went to some of the best local shows I have been to in a while.

I had planed to attend several big shows in the weeks following graduation, however, I was sadly only able to make it to 3 shows featuring 8 bands. But what great shows they were.

Click on any picture to go to the full Gallery

May 15th: Cat's Cradle: Hey Euphony, Whole Wheat Bread, MC Chris

This show was a mystery for me going in, because I was not familiar with any of the acts; also, I had never been to Cat's Cradle before.





Now on to reason I was interested in the show- Whole Wheat Bread









May 20th: Cat's Cradle: Maylene and The Sons of Disaster, Clutch

I had looked forward to this concert for months because Clutch has been one of my favorite bands for the last few years. Native to Maryland and with more than 10 albums to their credit, Clutch passes through the Triangle roughly once a year; and unfortunately does not allow photography at their shows. This year's show, while fun, was a bit of a disappointment from previous times I had seen them. The mosh pit broke out fast, but disappeared just as quickly as it had started, the lead singer didn't have much to say to the crowd, and it was difficult to see the band due to an unusually tall audience. I dare to say metal/hard rockers Maylene and The Sons of Disaster put on a better, higher energy performance.

May 27th: The Pour House: Black Skies, Caltrop , Colossus

This show featured some of the best Raleigh has to offer in hard rock and metal, and I hate myself for not realizing what pocket I had put my camera in. It wasn't until Colossus took that stage that I realized that I hadn't left my camera at home.

Black Skies is from Chapel Hill and was celebrating the vinyl release of Hexagon (5/26/09).  I look forward to seeing more this band in the future because I'm not entirely sure about how much I enjoyed the performance. Part of it was the stage presence of the band, part of it was the annoying buzz that was feeding into the mix from a bad cable. However, I do encourage people to check out their music none the less.

Caltrop, also from Chapel Hill, is the embodiment of local music history with members having been part of Hazerai, Pegasus, El Sucio, The Ladderback, and Valient Thorr. Caltrop produces a hard rock jam band feel that just oozes potential. The band's LP, World Class, lives up to  its' title fully.





So in 3 weeks time, I saw 4 local bands and 4 non-local, nationally touring bands. Beleive me, the local bands certainly held their ground and put forth some great acts; and not all of the national acts were that great. Going to these shows made me think about the nature of concerts, and to a certain extent, music itself. Perhaps the biggest difference between great music/concerts/bands and everything else, is the experience one walks away with. A show by a great act makes the audience walk away pumped up,  or full of memories and opinions of what they just experienced; a show by a not so great act does not. Part of why this is, is the reason people go to the show in the first place, and part of it is the showmanship of the band. When I went to see Hey Euphony, Whole Wheat Bread and Clutch, I walked away feeling as though I had experienced something. However, if I hadn't stayed for Colossus, and had simply gone home after seeing Black Skies, I may not have felt the same way.

Part of what causes this differentiation in experience lies on the individual at the show, and the other part lies on the shoulders of the band. Colossus, Whole Wheat Bread, Hey Euphony, and Maylene and the Sons of Disaster showed up to perform; not to simply play a gig, but to rock out and have an awesome time. Now this isn't to say that the other bands didn't; perhaps the crowd just wasn't into it, or came to see someone else.

It is for this reason that I ask everyone that goes to support local music, to be active at it. Don't just go to a show to have a couple beers, hang out, or just b.s. around: Go to the show to have an experince. Get into the music, the people on stage, and the people around you. For the love god, dance, hand bang, jump around, or whatever else comes to mind. Just don't stand there with a stick up your butt and bounce your head like a bobble head doll. One thing that bands like Colossus, Red Collar, and other local bands excel at, is bringing the audeince to the edge of thier comfortable "chill" zone and pushing them into having an awesome time.

New Music 3/22 - 3/29

Ever wonder what were the hottest new tracks of college radio or what the DJs were spinning at WKNC? Wonder no more! Here are the latest, freshest, and most off-the-chain albums of the week.

Hey Kids, Play This New Music

Gray Matter, Assistant Daytime Music Director

Red Red Meat - Bunny Gets Paid
A re-release of a classic album. One of the best examples of experimental folk/blues ever.

Mirah - (a)spera
Mirah is a particularly weird singer/songwriter type. I like this album quite a lot.

Infantree - Tree-p
More experimental folk, this much more twangy. One of the singers sounds like a bluegrass singer which I would normally hate, but I kind of like this band.

Bonnie Prince Billy - Beware
Sounds like Bonnie Prince Billy, if you don't know what Bonnie Prince Billy sounds like, listen to some Bonnie Prince Billy.

Mi Ami - Watersports
Good weird [expletive]. Extreme falsetto vocals with drum and bass rhythms.

Soft Tags - Winchester Mansion, and Projectors
Soft Tags sent us their two older albums, neither quite as good as their newest, but they have some worth hearing tracks.

New Music, Local Music, most importantly: Awesome Music

Mick, Local Music Director

There is so much good new local music I can barely contain myself. I'm not eloquent in describing this stuff, so the best way to do this is to listen the stuff yourself. You won't regret a single second of it.

Red Collar - "Pilgrim"
I mean, what do you want me to say? It's Red Collar's album, at long last. If you don't know, then put it in your CD player right now.

Benji Hughes - "A Love Extreme"
Not the traditional local; he's from Charlotte. Some dancy, some poppy, eclectic as a whole. This is a double album, and it's awesome and hilarious all at once. Lots of short, catchy tunes that you'll be singing along with after one listen. I don't really know how to describe it other than this so play the [expletive]!

Nathan Oliver - "Cloud Animals"
Some great new indie-pop from Nathan Oliver. Better than his last, a bit harder, and certainly more interesting  (this review brought to you by Gray Matter).

Embarrassing Fruits - "Community / Exploitation"
Hot damn, I really think this may be the best CD I've received as local music director. This album is like a reincarnation of Pavement, with the same slacker rock approach plus constant complaining about a girl. Every track is awesome. Really, really awesome.

Joe Romeo & The Orange County Volunteers - self-titled
Some combination of folk rock, surf rock, and Americana. Really great, twangy tunes that are heartfelt and simply beautiful. This guy knows how to write music. Play it!

Whew. As always, there is more on the horizon. For now, check these out and keep rockin the local stuff.

Local Beat recap 3/13/09

On Friday, March 13, we at the Local Beat had a stroke of good luck.  It rained and rained and rained, and the NC State baseball game was postponed until Saturday.  That meant that we got to have our full 3 hour show!  After celebrating with Future Islands' "Beach Foam" and an impromptu station-wide dance party, we got down to business.









At 5:15 I was fortunate to be joined by Mike Jackson of Red Collar via phone from Washington, DC.  The band was excited to be kicking off their several-month tour that includes some shows at SXSW and a Saturday stop at Triangle Brewing Company in Durham for their CD Release Party.  Mike described it as a "house party, with the biggest house we could find"--perfect place for Red Collar to have a CD release show, if you ask me.

Mike and I chatted a bit about the release show, the recording process, and live versus recorded music, in general.  Red Collar has a reputation for putting on a blistering live show, and he affirmed that the CD is "a flyer for the show."  Check out the two-part interview below.

Red Collar interview 3/13, Part 1 of 2

Red Collar interview 3/13, Part 2 of 2

At the 7:00 hour, I was joined by fellow DJs Cabbage, Gray Matter, and Mikey P and special guest T Bo, the entertainment coordinator for the Hillsborough Street Renaissance.  We talked about the finer things in life: food and music, both of which were integral parts of the Hillsborough Street Renaissance.  Check out the interview below, divided into 3 parts.

Hillsborough St Renaissance, 1 of 3

Hillsborough St Renaissance, 2 of 3

Hillsborough St Renaisance, 3 of 3

Be sure to join us this Friday, 3/20 for an abbreviated version of The Local Beat (baseball takes over at 6) with Gray Young, still fresh off the release of their album Firmament, at 5:00 PM sharp.

Red Collar Featured in Yes! Weekly

If you haven't heard Red Collar, this article by Yes! Weekly will give you a solid idea of who they are and what they are about. If you have seen them before you should know exactly what the author, Gus Lubin, means when he says "In fact, a lot of situations involve going hardcore".

Keep a look out for Red Collar on the WKNC Rock Report so that you can see for yourself what this Local Lunch favorite is all about.

Click here to view the full article.

Hands Up for 2009

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.

Art by Steve Oliva