In 2002, Stuart Robinson (piano) and Daniel Michalak (bass) met on an orientation trip for Duke University. The two began making music together. In 2004, Daniel met fellow Duke student Bryan Rahija (guitar) while studying abroad in Bolivia. They returned to the U.S. with a few demos as well as some of the local flare that still shines through their signature sound. Daniel, Stuart, and Bryan enlisted Daniel’s brother John on the drums and the quartet soon began making music together under the mon...
Jul 01, 2013•53 min•Ep. 5
The Out! Raleigh family friendly street festival will take place Saturday, May 4 on Fayetteville Street’s City Plaza in downtown Raleigh. WKNC DJs Jacob and Benny Mac preview the third annual event with two members of the Out! Raleigh festival leadership team: Kellie Burris, Executive Committee & Vendor Relations, and James Miller, LGBT Center of Raleigh Executive Director.
May 03, 2013•28 min•Ep. 237
WKNC’s DJ Jacob had the opportunity to sit down in studio with Nathan Price, co-founder of DiggUp Tapes, on Friday, April 19. The two discussed forming the band The Mark Tobeys, DiggUp’s cassingles series, DiggUp on tour, Record Store Day on April 20, and what’s next for the record label/show promotion company.
Apr 25, 2013•33 min•Ep. 59
Phil Torres, in addition to fronting Baobab, has a MS in neuroscience and spent a year as a visiting graduate student in the philosophy department at Harvard. He has just published his first book entitled A Crisis of Faith: Atheism, Emerging Technologies and the Future of Humanity . Whitney Trettien joins Torres on-stage for live shows. She is a Ph.D. student in English at Duke University. Despite their busy lives and amazing intellect, they still find time to wow us lesser mortals with their in...
Feb 07, 2013•58 min•Ep. 12
July 11, Hopscotch Music Festival released its entire schedule featuring over 15 venues and 175 bands in downtown Raleigh. In light of the announcement, Adam Kincaid, host of the Local Beat, and Michael Jones sat down to discuss the schedule, band conflicts, festival expectations, and their general excitement at what the festival has to offer this year.
Jul 12, 2012•33 min•Ep. 442
Jack the Radio is a rising band in our state and their sophomore album does not disappoint with keeping true to their self-proclaimed “Southern Indie Rock” sound that touches on a wide variety of influences but leans closest to southern bar rock while teetering the line with indie masters Yo La Tengo or the Extraordinaires . The show tomorrow is free event and starts at 3pm with food trucks from Only Burger , Chicken Que , and Sarges . Music starts around 3:30pm and the band will be bringing on ...
May 11, 2012•4 min•Ep. 52
Jeff Shields of local act Kleptonaut stopped by to chat about one of my favorite albums from last year, “The Golden Age of Space Travel.” Jeff was an excellent guest and shared a lot of witty insight into the creation of his music. We had a blast talking about everything from his experience as a “podcast troubadour” to the naming of his instrumental songs.
Feb 07, 2012•37 min•Ep. 366
Jeff Crawford visited “The Local Beat” for one evening to talk about a new album that he was releasing through his own studio, Arbor Ridge Studios. The album was a collection of hymns performed by various North Carolina musicians in support of the music department of a Durham church where Jeff is the music director. The church is the Gathering Church and the album is Hymns From The Gathering Church. Jeff and I mused about religion and music, his role in our community’s music scene and various ot...
Feb 06, 2012•26 min•Ep. 369
Adam Kincaid talks with The Evil Tenors
Jan 24, 2012•24 min•Ep. 370
The quartet from Monoslang joined the program to discuss the group’s new self-titled EP. The band has only been together in this lineup for six weeks and in that time they booked a show at Kings Barcade, recorded a 3-song EP and released it. Quite a busy six weeks!
Jan 19, 2012•28 min•Ep. 371
The Kickin’ Grass Band popped in for the first time in about a year to promote their 10th Anniversary Show at the Carolina Theatre the following night. There were plenty of laughs and anecdotes as the band shared stories with us from the past 10 years.
Jan 19, 2012•36 min•Ep. 372
Nicole Kligerman, Sarah Hager and Kate Rafferty talk to attendees of the fall 2011 Shakori Hills Grassroots Festival.
Oct 13, 2011•10 min•Ep. 389
This past Monday, the members of Dom loaded into our studio and borrowed some acoustic guitars from WKNC DJs. What followed was an interesting interview that comes at the head of the band’s upcoming Family of Love EP, out August 9th on Astralwerks. Check out some of the interview below to hear the band’s take on playing the Sydney Opera House with Cate Blanchett, chilling with Gucci Mane, and what’s next for the indie rockers.
Aug 05, 2011•9 min•Ep. 388
This past Sunday, Avi Buffalo brought an assortment of instruments into WKNC’s studios for a special acoustic performance and short interview. The band is best known for its 2010 hit, “What’s In It For,” and the band is once again busy at work. They’ve recently released a 7" featuring “How Come,” a new single. Check below for their acoustic performance of this track as performed in our studios, as well as an unreleased track, “Won’t Be Around No More.” An interview with DJ Don of Time follows, w...
Aug 04, 2011•16 min•Ep. 390
Troubel is a budding local folk/bluegrass band comprised of former members of Carolina Roadkill. Two members, Adam and Anna (soon to both be Walton), came in to Americana, Blues, and Company on July 23 for a short interview and to play a few songs for us. Below you can find our discussions about local music, influences, and how we all got into bluegrass as well as performances of "Darlin", off their first album The Mountains. The Broken., and an unreleased song, “Lost at Sea”. Troubel is on tour...
Aug 03, 2011•17 min•Ep. 391
Delta Rae dropped by the WKNC studios on Tuesday, July 26 to talk with their old friend DJ Elly May. The band shared stories from the road, previewed their upcoming shows supporting Carbon Leaf and talked about using Kickstarter to fund the recording of their first full-length album. Listen to the full interview, including their songs “If I Loved You,” “Deliver” and “No Land.”
Jul 29, 2011•29 min•Ep. 392
Earlier this year, Hooray For Earth released their first proper LP “True Loves,” an album characterized by loud, sharp synths and poppy vocals. Prior to their performance at King’s Barcade for Deja Mi, the band was kind enough to stop by the WKNC studios for an interview. We’ve uploaded the audio in its entirety for you to listen to here! Hear what the band had to say about filming the music video for “True Loves,” their upcoming September concert with Cymbals Eat Guitars at Local 506, and the t...
Jul 27, 2011•16 min•Ep. 393
This past Wednesday, WKNC had the unique opportunity to interview Ernest Greene, frontman for Washed Out. The band is credited by some as a pioneer of the chillwave genre. Washed Out’s song “Feel It All Around” has been featured as the theme music for IFC tv show “Portlandia,” and its most recent album “Within and Without” is rising in the college radio charts. Pitchfork awarded the album a rating of 8.3, naming it “Best New Music.” In addition, the LP landed a spot as WKNC’s 27th most played th...
Jul 15, 2011•9 min•Ep. 394
On Saturday afternoon, June 25, I had the opportunity to interview singer-songwriter Liz Janes. We discussed motherhood, music-making, and no-bake pies, and she so graciously filled us in on her plans for the future. To hear the whole interview and all its exciting details, check out the link below!
Jul 06, 2011•21 min•Ep. 395
As more companies invest their time and efforts into cloud computing, it seemed only fit that we dissect the latest iteration that is attempting to transform how individuals gain access to their music library, namely, Google Music. The service, which is still in beta and currently only available for those that submit themselves for an invite to the beta, is completely free for users to try at this point. How that will change, well, no one is sure just yet. Regardless, Mason and myself, DJ Ones, ...
Jun 28, 2011•18 min•Ep. 396
Recently I had the chance to talk to Sarah Jaffe before her show at Local 506. We discussed everything from her current tour, to the recent re-release of her 2008 EP Even Born Again. Sarah mentioned everything from how she started, to her time with Kirtland Records, and labels reaction to the success of her debut album Suburban Nature. We also had the chance to talk about the process behind recording her upcoming EP The Way Sound Leaves a Room and her next full length.
Jun 25, 2011•11 min•Ep. 397
In 2009 Raleigh Documentary Filmmakers Robert and Lisa King chronicled three area artists Sean Kernick, Georges Le Chevallier and Paul Friedrich as the experimented with a collaboration process that produced 29 unique works of art. The film 3 the Hardway, not only follows their growth as artist but as friends. They are reuniting to collaborate on a series of fundraisers to help Robert King and his battle with an anaplastic astrocytoma brain tumor. The first fundraiser is a screening of the film ...
Jun 01, 2011•9 min•Ep. 440
Interpol is on tour, and they are Cat’s Cradle is presenting their stop at Disco Rodeo this Wednesday, May 4. Hurricane Julia had the opportunity to interview Daniel, the guitarist and backing vocalist for the band. Listen to her interview and find out about the “New York sound”, music Interpol is listening to, Bono’s sunglasses, and much more!
May 03, 2011•9 min•Ep. 398
The Huguenots have been getting airplay on WKNC for nearly four years now, but the group has yet to release anything official but some spare demos. That is until April 8, when the group is putting out their first LP. The Huguenots are known for the super poppy and upbeat music they seem to craft effortlessly and their enjoyable live shows, but finally, the band will release some tangible music. Founding member York Howie came in to represent the band and share a couple unheard tracks from the up...
Apr 03, 2011•36 min•Ep. 98
It has been quite some time since A Rooster for the Masses put out a new album, but the popular local group is doing just that on April 15 at Kings Barcade when they release their third and newest LP No One Is Ready. Still upbeat with a touch of disco and an air of reggae, ARFTM has certainly kept the same vibe with this record as their past discs, and that is a wonderful thing. Founding member Adam Eckhardt and myself shared a brief 30 minute conversation where he reflected on the history of th...
Apr 03, 2011•31 min•Ep. 15
Adam Kincaid talks with Mount Moriah.
Mar 15, 2011•21 min•Ep. 373
East Coast touring mavens Delta Rae stopped by the WKNC studio on the morning of Tuesday, March 1 to chat with DJ Elly May. They talked about what it’s like to be on the road, their “GRAET Mondays” campaign, upcoming shows and the story behind their song “Ooh, Caroline." Delta Rae also performed "Ooh, Caroline” and “Bottom of the River."
Mar 08, 2011•30 min•Ep. 399
On Feb. 2, Spoons had the opportunity to talk with North Carolina duo Eddy B and Tim Gunter. The debut mixtape from the rapper and producer is “Dear North Carolina, Welcome Back.”
Mar 01, 2011•54 min•Ep. 132
The Noobhammer talks via phone with Arjen Lucassen of Star One.
Feb 08, 2011•15 min•Ep. 441
This is the Noobhammer, and I bring you a gift from the universe! It is my interview with the Scumdog who lives in Antarctica. I am of course talking about the one and only Oderus Urungus of GWAR! Listen to us talk about bloody pits, Doctor Who, and whores.
Feb 07, 2011•24 min•Ep. 110
