Sunday, January 29, 2012

Musically-oriented haikus with Drew Millard

Sup y'all! My name's Drew. I wrote some haikus about some stuff! Most of them have something to do with music! Titles bolded.



WXYC

Totally the best.
The DJ Khaled of all
Radio stations.


Drake

I have lots and lots
And lots and lots of feelings.
And a Rolodex.


Necros Christos, Doom of the Occult

Black metal that made
Me giggle when I wasn't
Supposed to. Sorry.


Noise music

Bang! Pow! Squawk! Feedback!
Onomatopoeia was
In the middle line.


Lil B

Bang! Pow! Squawk! Feedback!
Onomatopoeia still
In the middle line.


Pitchfork

Just like a watered
Down version of XYC.
Four point seven, tops.


Rap Industry Fan Fiction

Jumped the shark after
The Cocaine Blunts dude dissed them.
Jay-Z (does whatever).


Music Writing

Sasha Frere-Jones
Is as old as shit. Like what,
Thirty or something?


These Haikus

Totally okay. Could
Have used a bit more effort
On my part I guess?

Saturday, January 28, 2012

Hopscotch 2011 Photo Gallery

HEY THERE. I'm Julianna, and I coordinate WXYC's weekly local music show, The Backyard Barbecue. For this year's Hopscotch Music Festival, I lugged my camera all around downtown Raleigh, went to a metric ton of great shows, and took roughly one bazillion photos.
One of the truly great things about Hopscotch is that they make a point of booking local bands-- and as someone who is really into the music scene here, I went to a lot of these very shows. You can see for yourself down below.
If you want to see more, here's a flickr pool of Hopscotch photos. And click on the links below to check out some amazing North Carolina artists!

Dan Melchior und Das Menace
at White Collar Crime:







Monsonia at The Pour House:





Whatever Brains at
The College Radio Showcase:





Embarrassing Fruits
at The Pour House:




D-Town Brass at
The Pour House:






(Not local, but still awesome:)
William Tyler, Cheveu, and
Extreme Animals at the All
Day / Lump Gallery Party:





Friday, January 27, 2012

A summary of this month's Global Music Show

The Global Music Show for the month of January was kicked off with two tunes from Japan, and from there progressed through other Asian songs from Korea, China, Vietnam, Taiwan, and the Philippines. From beginning to end the show was informational and engaging, and that probably attests to the guest, Dr. Eric Henry, that brought all of these songs to the attention of the WXYC listeners. Guest is an understatement, expert is more suitable.

Dr. Henry obtained his PhD in Chinese Literature at Yale in 1979. He knows Chinese fluently, Korean, a quality amount of Tagalog, and Vietnamese. His knowledge in the Vietnamese language derived from his service in the United States Army from 1968-1971 where he engaged in a one-year intensive course in Vietnamese at the Defense Language Institute at Fort Bliss, Texas, and a one-year tour of duty in Vietnam.

Dr. Henry was a professor at Dartmouth (1980- 82) and at the University of North Carolina (1982- 2011). His publications include; Chinese Amusement: The Lively Plays of Li Yu (Archon Books, 1980), various articles on early Chinese history and culture in the Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies and other journals, and articles on Vietnamese literature and historical legend in Vietnam Forum, Crossroads, the Michigan Quarterly. In the summer of 2004, Dr. Henry led an eight-week student research seminar in Vietnamese music in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon).

The songs that made up the show on January 25 were translated mostly by Dr. Henry and the others by hired translators.

For more information about the songs that were played for the “East Asian Popular Music” Global Music Show e-mail info@wxyc.org. The entire show will be available in the form of a podcast from the Global Studies website.

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Better Know a DJ: Ari Hires


1978

…So ladies and gentlemen, I regret to inform you that you’re meant for something greater,

Something greater than loose leaf pages and chasing paper.

You gotta look outside of yourself and outside of time. Stretch your necks if need to.

And when something great comes along, be sure to let ‘em know – it’s on.

The lanky speaker with notably good hair left the stage with a period the audience could feel like loaded seeds lodged in their chests. Ari, a weekly attendant at open mic Tuesdays at Busboys and Poets, a restaurant, bookstore, and performance venue in Washington D.C., at once felt inspired and overwhelmed. Ari was a reticent young lady growing up in Lorton, Virginia, 15 minutes south of D.C. with an avid interest in journalism, culture, and the people of Papua New Guinea. A supportive wallflower, always drawn by the wordsmithery and conviction of local spoken word artists and poets, she managed to make the trip up every week when she could. Who knows? Maybe she’d brave up and make it up to the stage one day. What would she speak of? Perseverance? Hair and beauty ideals? The contagiousness of Celia Cruz? Wishing she could have gone to Soul Train to see Cheryl Lynn sing “Got to Be Real”? The awesomeness of giraffeswoah!

Ari’s vision faded to white, and Busboys and Poets froze in its tracks. The hot coffee some barista was pouring his patron suspended itself in air. Peaking from a rip in the still fabric of the restaurant, radiant among a washed out, frozen environment was a long necked figure, awkward superficially, but made wholly beautiful from this new supernatural environment. He spoke.

Ari, I am your spirit animal.

“!” said Ari to the giraffe.

You have been chosen, From the big savannah in the sky, we’ve been watching you. For being the only person in the world who recognizes the greatness of our kind, we reward you. I hereby imbue you with the boldness and fierceness of THE GREAT GIRAFFE.

“!”

Use your new abilities for good!

The megalomaniacal giraffe faded away, and time resumed. Ari looked down and noticed that her wardrobe had changed. Suddenly, she was a supafly diva, and she felt like one.

Ari looked over to the left and noticed that the coffee-pouring barista was off in his aim. The drink was hurling towards someone’s lap. Using her newly-garnered special giraffe powers, she stretched her neck and nudged an empty tea cup with her head to intercept the wayward pour. The rest of the restaurant and the barista were too busy still swooning over the last poet’s words to notice.

The patron, however, was thoroughly impressed.

“I’m thoroughly impressed,” he said. “What’s your name?”

“Hotter than Coffy, Nobler than Cleopatra Jones, Meaner than Foxy Brown. I’m the diva queen Ari Hires, Now whatchu doing in my town?”

[woah! Where’d that come from? Is this the power of THE GREAT GIRAFFE?]

“I’m Agent Wasp. I work for the CIA. I see you have great talent. The government needs you to take care of a threat to national security.”

“Quit talking jive, brotha. You're sounding like old President Kennedy. Don’t tell me what I can do for The Man. What can The Man do for me?

[This is awesome! Just go with it, go with it!]

“This assignment will have you posted as a DJ. Seems like that’ll be your type of thing. You down?”

“I can dig it.”

“Follow me to CIA headquarters. We’ll brief you there. Oh, and from here on, you’ll be known as Agent Hi_Res.”

"Groovy."


At CIA Headquarters:

The room was manic. Giant blinking computers spewing out encoded paper were being attended to by buzzing swarms of assistants who would then run around and relay the information elsewhere. There was hardly any room to walk, yet Agents Wasp and Hi_Res made their way to a clearing in the center of the room.

“I’ll be brief,” began Wasp. “There’s a terrorist witch with unimaginable power performing soul transmigrations and sending people on nonconsented vision quests. Luckily, but perhaps strangely, she’s been targeting only student DJs at WXYC.”

“Isn’t that that radio station over in North Carolina?”

“That’s right. We want you to go undercover, find, and incapacitate this witch. We believe you have enough sass to resist her witchcraft. There is one problem, however. She resides in the year 2012, thirty-four years in the future.”

“Say what!? How do you turkeys expect me to fight witch crime 34 years in the future?”

“We are prepared. You see, there is another sorceress, but this one is one of us. Her name is Queen Enchantress Beyoncé. She’s a member of the Illuminati which has in the future allied itself with the CIA, especially in the issue of wayward sorceresses.

Agent Hi_Res was briefly overtaken by the seeming greatness of Queen Enchantress Beyoncé. “Wow, Queen B is one bad motha-”

Agent Wasp continued, “In 2006, she discovered the perfect choreography for amazing feats of time travel. She recorded it in a music video which ostensibly is meant for entertainment, but is rather an instructional video to CIA special operations agents future, past, and present.” Agent Wasp diverted his gaze to one of the standard-issue assistants buzzing around. “Stetson! Prepare the reel!”

Some guy presumably named Stetson did as he was told, and a large blank screen lowered in front of Agents Hi_Res and Wasp. Lights dimmed. The reel rolled.

This was what illuminated the screen.

After a few moments, Ari admitted, “Right on! This is the best jam I ever heard!”

“Indeed, our researchers have confirmed that this is the best jam ever.”

Agent Hi_Res was indeed already seemingly entranced and grooving.

“Your mission, Agent, is to memorize and perform this choreography to be transported to Chapel Hill 2012 where you will assume the role of student DJ. We have prepared a story for you to better integrate yourself in your future home. When asked why you became a DJ, you will respond, ‘I wanted to be a DJ because I love music and surfing air waves. It's my way of teleporting to multiple places at one time. I'm sort of obsessed with transportation.’ In its own way, it is a wry truth with you now becoming a time-traveler. You will continue, ‘I've always wanted a "Different World" kind of college experience where I was the Lisa Bonet in my own way, and XYC is that, but what sealed the deal was at the 80s Jam where I had a dance off with a mysterious, lanky DJ with the awesome hair and golden dance moves.’”

“What’s A Different World? Who’s Lisa Bonet?”

“We figured you’d ask; we’ve also prepared this cultural and technological primer to get you acclimated to 2012.” Wasp handed her a laptop from the future with Wikipedia and Youtube tabs open. “Your mission will begin tomorrow morning. Good luck and God speed.”

Agent Hi_Res spent the night studying the intricacies of Queen Enchantress Beyoncé’s moves, and by morning, she was an expert on all things modern and post-modern. She began to get bodied.

By the time she was doing the Naomi Campbell Walk, a white cyclone had begun spinning around her. She was separated from her surroundings. By the time she was snapping for the kids, the cyclone had dissipated and she realized she was in the control room of a radio station, presumably WXYC in 2012.

2012

After finishing up the Get Me Bodied spell-dance, she had her game face on. She checked the advanced computer-device in front of her. It was 10 AM on a Thursday, and she was alone here at the station. This must be her shift! She scoured around for a song to play and ran across a song by Corinne Bailey Rae called Put Your Records On. Hi_Res decided it would be her theme song.

Upon playing her song, she sat in the control room chair, hands firmly on the knobs and sliders of the mixer. Fittingly, she felt firmly in control.

She remembered what she was here for. Something great.

I am The Queen Diva DJ Hi_res. Bring it, witch. It’s on.


--------------------

Y'all suckas can catch DJ Hi_Res pumping out jamz every Thursday from 10 AM to noon at WXYC 89.3 FM.

Sunday, January 22, 2012

Pictures for the general populace (in which the new DJs are especially included)

Now’s the worst time to be introduced to XYC from the inside, and I'm afraid newcomers won't have a proper grasp of the glory of the radio station. As I pointed out a few months ago, our poster-plastered walls were stripped sadly bare (archives of our old posters can be found at our tumblr). As Jon pointed out a few months ago with a superior camera, The Union where we are located is going through an overhaul of renovation and construction. WXYC and STV downstairs are the last functioning relics of the area. The Union workers have graciously danced around us, but now’s the time they must work in the station. With that, the station’s been in a bit more disarray lately. To protect our records & CDs, they’ve kindly raised plastic coats over the shelves. It’s an aesthetic travesty and it makes the music a hassle to get to, but it’s ultimately a good thing, right?


Here are some photos of the modern station:











































Above: a view from underneath

Above right: Billy noticed this - The light in the rock room was just a week ago fully suspended from its four corners, I dunno what happened since, but now it's only two. Sooner or later...

Right: The Jazz/HipHop vinyl room doesn't even have a functioning light anymore.






For memory's sake, here was the station on an average good day half a year ago (photo by Elizabeth Shelton):














These days, the best décor we have (and I'm not joking, I actually like this) is this poster taped to the listening closet door:


Curiously, this poster isn't a poster for Unicorn Hard-On, which is currently setting fire to our singles in rotation AND which you could (and should) check out below.


Unicorn Hard-on - Persian Cats by tangledhares


Ah well, one day, we'll be pretty again.

Friday, January 13, 2012

Why You should Apply to be a DJ

Let’s be honest here, WXYC is a frat. You go through initiation processes (i.e. “hazing”) of being a new DJ, you meet a bunch of like-minded (albeit, weird) folks, and eventually, you’ll probably start living together or talking the same or doing each others’ hair and getting in each others’ general business. Here at XYC, we consider ourselves so deeply indebted to the Greeks, that if not for the sheer, immutable essence of variety, we would play Diamanda Galás, Iannis Xenakis, and Yanni 24 hours a day.

mMmm


But I guess, we have our differences too. Instead of tossing the ol’ pigskin on the lawn, you can toss old, valuable records in The Union* (Ultimate game of ultimate frisbee?). Instead of seeing salmon or khaki slacks supporting pressed polos, you’ll probably find more thrift store fashion (as our über-stylin’, fearless, femininity-bending station manager can attest).

Rather than getting front-of-the-line consideration at dad’s law firm, you'll get front-of-the-line (free!) tickets to various shows in the area.

If you’re interested in rushing, Tuesday, January 17 we’re having an open house from 5-6PM in our lavish home, the abandoned warehouse that is the under-construction back of the Union (room 3420 for enquiring minds, but these days, that number doesn’t matter much). Afterwards, there’s an interest meeting at 7 on the steps of Carroll Hall where we’ll explain our objectives, and you’ll get an application in which you sign up for a short interview time (more on that later…maybe).

But all of that you could have figured out here in this handy Facebook event.

So if you like a bunch of various kinds of music (Yes, there’s more to life than Yanni), and have a voracious appetite to learn more. C’mon down. Be a DJ!

Also, you’ll probably definitely love it.

Go Greek! Go W Ξ Y C !


*We don’t actually advise this.