College Radio Showcase

It's finally time for round two of Hopscotch Music Festival, coming up this weekend, September 8-10 in downtown Raleigh.

This year offers a special free day party sponsored by Port Merch - College Radio Showcase, presented by WUAG, WKNC, WXYC and WXDU. The four college radio stations are part of UNC-Greensboro, N.C. State University, UNC-Chapel Hill and Duke University, respectively. The stations have collaborated to create an awesome lineup of local music from the Triangle (and slightly beyond) by each choosing one band to represent them: Nests (WKNC), Whatever Brains (WXYC), Free Electric State (WXDU) and The Bronzed Chorus (WUAG).  These bands cover the genres of post-country, shoegaze, punk, experimental and indie rock.

The day party will be at White Collar Crime on Saturday, September 10, noon until five.

All Hopscotch day parties are free and require no ticket for entry. For a full list of Hopscotch's day parties, refer to their day party schedule.

The Pinhook's Second Great Band Swap

This Thursday through Saturday, December 3-5, The Pinhook in Durham will be hosting The Great Band Swap—based on a 2007 concert.

The format: three nights, four local bands a night, and every artist must cover at least one song by one of the other three artists that night.

The Pinhook website (http://thepinhook.com/) provides the following line-ups and descriptions

Thursday, December 2 features the anthemic punk rock of Pink Flag, the soulful, old-school pop of Brett Harris, the classic-rock hooks of The Pneurotics, and the shambolic majesty of Dry Heathens. The WXDU deejay team.

Friday, December 3, local legend Billy Sugarfix leads the way with his whipsmart catalog of charming, confessional pop. Juan Huevos brings ebullient homemade hip-hop, and Durham duo Joy In Red squares off with Raleigh art-garage outfit Antibubbles. Deejay sets will be provided by WXYC.

Saturday, December 4 is the wildest bill, hitting most of the genre extremes in indie rock. Cassis Orange provides distilled electro-pop with a subtle Japanese edge. Mosadi Music is hard-edged, political hip-hop with searingly tight live instrumentation. HOG takes heavy-metal and stretches into psychedelic dirges and molten, fleet fingered hooks. And Embarrassing Fruits channels the finest guitar rock of the past 20 years, mixed with lyrics about girls, partying, and small-town ennui. The WKNC crew will spin records.

As listed, after the performances local college radio stations WXDU (Duke University), WXYC (The University of North Carolina), and, of course, WKNC (North Carolina State University) will provide the music by deejaying.  I will be representing the station with my co-host and valiant General Manager of WKNC 88.1. It should prove to be a most interesting and entertaining local happening each night and overall, and may earn a status as an annual event.

Local Beat Roundtable: Series 2 preview 10/29/10

Tonight on the Local Beat we begin our second installment of the Local Beat Roundtable Series.  If you remember from back in August when we had our first in the roundtable discussions with Betsy Harris, Karen Mann, Jake Seaton, Linnie Green, and Bryan Reed the focus on these roundtable discussions is not to focus on the music that make up our scene but the people who promote it and document it.

This evening we are having several exemplary characters in on the program for what should turn out to be some great conversation.

Ross Grady has been the most prominent local music documenter probably ever in our region.  It seems his dedication to the scene knows no bounds.  In addition to running Triangle Rock and starting up Alt Music Chapel Hill Ross is also the guardian of his radio program on WXDU that happens every Sunday from 4pm-6pm.  Be sure to listen in on 88.7 or stream it live on the internet!

Ryan Sweeney is another radio personality who was the general manager at 89.3 WSOE in 2009.  He is now living in Cary and the Director of Communications at the popular website Choose Local Music.  In addition to other things Ryan is a great local music connoisseur who should have plenty to share.

Glenn Boothe is the main man at one of the most significant local venues in the Triangle, the Local 506 in Chapel Hill.   Commonly the central hub of local music in our area, the Local 506 is commonly mentioned by bands and fans alike as their favorite place to watch live music in our area.   I can't wait to chat with Glenn about his thoughts on the music in our area.

Another music venue owner, Chris Tamplin is stopping by.  Chris was the main organizer for Local Beer Local Band and booked shows at Tir Na Nog before starting his own venture with Durham's newest local venue, Motorco.  Chris should have some fascinating insight into the different cities and their relationships to the music surrounding them among other things.

Eric Chen is also dropping by.  You might have heard Eric on WXYC for nine years or seen him at many Hammer No More The Fingers shows (as well as others) with his video camera in tote.  Eric has been documenting the music in our area for some time now and I am sure he will have plenty to add to our convseration.  Check out his Vimeo Account here.


Hammer No More the Fingers + Phil Cook @ Trekky House 5/24/10 from Eric Chen on Vimeo.

It is certainly a special treat to have each of these amazing individuals on the show all at once.  It is not going to be a Local Beat you will want to miss.  Be sure to tune in at 5pm on 88.1 or listen live online.  Also, be sure to follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and ReverbNation.

Local Beat preview 2/5/10

Barring weather tonight, the Local Beat should be interesting.  Always in support of anything or anyone who supports local music, I will be joined on the air by some of our comrades at UNC Chapel Hill's student run radio station, WXYC, to talk about their Digital Music Showcase that is currently underway.

At 6 p.m. some of the guys from Raleigh's Deep South Bar will be coming on to talk about their upcoming battle of the bands series that will happen over three Sundays beginning March 14 to May 2 excluding Easter.  Each Sunday the best bands chosen will continue to the next round robin.  According to Matt Wood at Deep South:

Prizes for the event include $500 cash, slots to perform at Raleigh Wide Open '10 and Downtown Live '10, $25-$100 gift cards to Sam Ash, and free studio time. There is also the opportunity to attend a showcase with music executives in Nashville during the Winter of 2010.   Bands will be judged by WKNC & 96 Rock DJs  as well as interns and music executives with Deep South Entertainment.  There are still a few slots left open, so bands can email battle@deepsouththebar.com for more information and to register.

Both of these interviews will be talking about exposing under publicized Triangle based musicians and bands, so if you count youself as one of those, be sure to pay special attention!

WXYC locally produced digital music showcase

Being a fan of all things local does not just include bands, artists, venues, record labels, and recording studios, but also radio stations other than us.   If you are not in Raleigh and parts of Durham you can probably hear UNC's student run radio station WXYC who also focuses on local music within their wide array of formats (or you can listen to them online anywhere).

They have recently made a public appeal for locally produced digital music to feature in a showcase that will broadcast on WXYC February 17 at 9 p.m.

According to WXYC's website:

WXYC is pleased to announce a call for entries for its Locally Produced Digital Music Showcase in partnership with the CHAT Festival for Digital Arts and Humanities at UNC-Chapel Hill. The goal of this project is to feature technologically innovative and artistically creative music produced in and around the Triangle...

...Anyone living in the greater Triangle area is welcome to make a submission, including (but not limited to): University Students, Staff, and Faculty, local artists, local musicians, local residents and community members.

Read the entire thing and submit your digital music here.

The deadline is February 10, 2010.  Good luck!