WKNC Interviews

At 6 p.m. Wendy Spitzer came in to promote her debut full length album from Felix Obelix, A Tick of the Clock, A Beat in the Chest, which was released at the Nightlight in Chapel Hill Saturday night. The concert featured The Strugglers and a really interesting writing activity in which you write a letter to yourself eight months from now. That led to interesting conversation about her past projects that include a Time Capsule as well as a “Biggest Regret/ Best Decision” project from last year. Wendy and I also mused on her unique singing style as well as the very different musical instruments in her band.

Traffic on I-40 was terrible as Chapel Hill group Feeding the Fire got caught up and came in 25 minutes late. However, when they finally did arrive we had a lot to talk about since they are releasing their first full length album since becoming a band back in 2003, titled DisInfoNation. We talked about the writing and recording of the album, as well as the operation of their own record label, Own Life Records, and the album artwork of DisInfoNation. The album release party is this Thursday evening at the Local 506 with fellow locals Big Fat Gap and the Rocket Surgeons.

This morning I had Chapel Hill band Blag'ard come join me for a Local Beat Mini Exclusive to chat about their brand new album Mach II which is being released tonight at the Reservoir in Chapel Hill and at the Dive Bar tomorrow night in Raleigh. The show tonight will feature a magic and burlesque show with Rosie Hellfire and Reverend Spider with Michael Rank and Marc Smith doing an acoustic opening. There will also be free vegetarian chili to warm your bones. The show at the Dive Bar is featuring Asheville art-rock act Solito. Both shows are free.

Blag'ard is a duo and this is their third release and their second LP. We chatted about the making of the album, which was done mostly analogue, and partially recorded at Track and Field Studios. It also came up in our conversation that Adam is the third drummer of the band to have a child while being in the band, a topic which is fairly interesting. In addition Joe chatted about his website Pig Zen Space, a music download Web site with all proceeds going to the artist.

Let’s not forget the 2/11 Local Beer, Local Band show at Tir Na Nog that featured Bright Young Things with support from Luego and Naked Gods (straight outta Boone).

And let’s not forget the three interviews in one hour preceding that show. That’s right, I shuffled all three of these bands in and out of the studio. Better yet, Bright Young Things played a Jayhawks-inspired version of their own “She Left You Dreaming.” Luego followed with Patrick’s solo version of “Run Away” that will be on their album Ocho, to be released later this year.

Check the interview below – the catch is that you have to sift through to my voice to catch the live songs. But they’re worth it! Enjoy.

Three members of Wembley came in at 6 p.m. to chat with me about their newest release, Keywords for Robots EP, which the band put out late in 2009. I got a little upset with them for not promoting the album and sending it to me, all in good gesture of course. The band members provided an insightful view into their lives as hobby-only musicians and I had a lot of fun sitting down with them for the hour.

Reid Johnson from Schooner came in at 5 p.m. to talk about the band’s brand new release, the Duck Kee Sessions EP. All proceeds from the album go to benefit CyTunes.org which in effect goes to benefit cancer research. CyTunes is the only place where you can download the album. In addition to the CyTunes we talked about the release show for the EP this Friday at the Pinhook in Durham. Veelee, the Erie Choir, and the Popular Kids are also performing. This release show is unique in that instead of selling hard copies of the album, local musicians and artists have donated artwork that comes with a downloadable copy of the Duck Kee Sessions EP.

I had two members each of Annuals, Bright Young Things, and Gray Young to come in and talk about their show this Friday night in downtown Raleigh at the Pour House. The fellas were a little shy and all seven of us had to share four microphones, but we did manage to play brand new songs by all of the bands, including the entire brand new EPs by both Annuals and Bright Young Things while chatting about the recording process.

Yesterday on the Local Beat, we were filled to capacity for our three hour show (a recap with interviews coming soon) and so I had to exclude one of the coolest shows next week, the Love Hangover, which is happening at the Pour House Music Hall in downtown Raleigh once more. However, because The Love Hangover is just this cool I decided to do a watered down, short version of the Local Beat, for podcast only. Caitlin Cary and Matt Douglas came in to play some tunes and chat while we got the creator of the Love Hangover, Richard Alwyn to call in from NYC to talk about the history of the show and it’s many new incarnations across the United States.

Last week on the Local Beat was a lot of fun, as we had two bands in the studio for 2.5 hours of good conversation. Maria Albani, bass player of Schooner, came in to chat about her new solo project Organos at 5 p.m which is having a debut album release for the brand new EP, Limbs, this Friday at the Pinhook in Durham (it is already getting airplay on Satellite Radio). Organos is an interesting band in which Maria plays an assortment of unorthodox instruments such as spoons, glass, cardboard, boxes, shaker eggs, and sticks among other interesting sounds to create a unique yet immensely satisfying minimalist folk rock sound. On the album Maria performed most of the parts herself but live Organos is a whole different animal. A mini local super group of sorts, Organos live claims the likes of Reid Johnson (Schooner), Wes Phillips (solo, North Elementary, Rosebuds), Theresa Phillips (North Elementary), Nathan White (Nathan Oliver), and John Harris0n (Nathan Oliver, North Elementary), not to mention Maria herself. In our conversation Maria, Theresa, and I chatted about the album, the band members, the show, and also her past bands which include Pleasant, Tennis and the Mennonites, Un Deux Trois, & The Pox Family Singers.

Lake Inferior chats with Adam Kincaid about Redress Raleigh and their new EP Pegasaur.