grady's blog

LIVE! In the studio: Al Riggs and the Big Sad - Sunday 2/26

grady — Wed, 22 Feb 2017 21:34:11 +0000

Perennial WXDU faves (and most prolific Triangle band ever) Al Riggs & the Big Sad will be performing live on the air this Sunday, February 26, starting at 4pm. Tune in!

Top 101 North Carolina Releases of 2016

grady — Mon, 02 Jan 2017 16:05:57 +0000

As determined via SCIENCE. Note that a few of these were released in late 2015 but spent a majority of their time on playlist in 2016, and thus qualified for inclusion.

Le Weekend LIVE on air, 4pm Sunday 12/4

grady — Sat, 03 Dec 2016 16:27:21 +0000

Le Weekend are just about to release their 5th (and finest) album,"It Can't Be Youth," and they'll be taking to the airwaves at 4pm Sunday, December 4th, to preview its tunes (and possibly others) live on air. Join us!

MANIFEST festival, Chapel Hill, Friday 10/14 & Saturday 10/15

grady — Sun, 09 Oct 2016 20:48:57 +0000

WXDU is thrilled to sponsor the first annual MANIFEST festival, Friday & Saturday October 14 & 15, in Chapel Hill. MANIFEST was founded to provide a safe, bigotry-free space for rad bands of women, queer & gender non-conforming people to rock out. Everyone is welcome!!! Get tickets and more info at manifestmusicfestival.com

Sunday 10/2! Live Moon Racer performance

grady — Fri, 30 Sep 2016 20:37:48 +0000

The release party for the new Moon Racer cassette is next weekend, so she'll be stopping by the studio this Sunday (10/2) at 4pm to play some tunes live on the air. Preview here, then be sure to tune in!

The top 124 local releases of 2015

grady — Sun, 27 Dec 2015 22:42:03 +0000

It's time for our annual countdown of the top local releases of the year, as determined by a count of spins by all of our WXDU DJs.

Numbers 68-36 are being counted down Sunday 12/27 from 4-6 p.m, and numbers 35-1 will be counted down on Sunday 1/3, again from 4-6 p.m.

Unfortunately, there isn't enough airtime to count down all 124 releases, so here are the lower 56:

69: Polyorchard: Color Theory in Black and White

70: Lowland Hum: Lowland Hum

71: Patois Counselors: Patois Counselors 7"

72: No Love Dogs//Wolves 7"

73: Bandway: Buddies

74: Elephant Micah: Where in Our Woods

75: Steph Stewart and the Boyfriends: Nobody's Darlin'

76: Lack: Atemporal

77: American Aquarium: Wolves

78: Monologue Bombs: Single

79: Ruscha: 2015 EP

80: 6 String Drag: Roots Rock N Roll

81: Boneslinger: Boneless Cuts

82: Dogs Eyes: 2015 EP

83: Mandolin Orange: Such Jubilee

84: Terrace Heater: Harris Teeter

85: AL Riggs and The Inconveniences: And I You

86: Alpha Cop: Acid Cop

87: Magnolia Collective: Coldest Winter

88: Songs from the Road Band: Traveling Show

89: Tashi Dorji: Appa

90: Villages: Procession Acts

91: Canine Heart: Sounds Live on the Moon

92: Greg Hawks: What Goes Around

93: Weedeater: Goliathan

94: Lost Trail: One Day We'll All Walk Outside and Stare Up at the Blameless Sky and Wait for Something to Happen

95: Malcolm Holcombe: The RCA Sessions

Web Stream Upgrades

grady — Wed, 08 Apr 2015 20:17:56 +0000

We've put some effort into improving our web streams recently, and now that the work is pretty much done, I thought I'd do a quick writeup.

First off, it's worth pointing out that for the past little while, we've actually had four streams for you to choose from. They're all linked from the Internet Streams page, which you can also reach from the "Other" link in the upper-right-corner of every page.

In addition to the 128k MP3 stream that is at the main Listen Now link (and playable via the mini-player on the homepage), we have three other varieties for you to choose from:

WXDU's Top 65 NC Releases of 2014

grady — Mon, 29 Dec 2014 00:45:46 +0000

Based on airplay by all of our DJs during the 2-month period each album was on playlist. I’m pretty sure I’ve never had the same band back-to-back in the top 5 before.

1 - John Howie Jr & the Rosewood Bluff - Everything Except Goodbye
2 - T0W3RS - TL;DR
3 - See Gulls - 2 Songs
4 - Hiss Golden Messenger - Bad Debt
5 - Hiss Golden Messenger - Lateness of Dancers
6 - Reigning Sound - Shattered
7 - Dex Romweber Duo - Images 13
8 - Solar Halos - Solar Halos
9 - Various - Merge 25th Anniversary Covers EP
10 - Daniel Bachman - Orange County Serenade
11 - Lilac Shadows - No Dark / No Light
12 - Humble Tripe - The Giving
13 - Last Year’s Men - Underwhelmed
14 - Datahata - Spectral Cities
15 - Diali Cissokho & Kaira Ba - The Great Peace
16 - Sylvan Esso - Sylvan Esso
17 - Horseback - Piedmont Apocrypha
18 - Silent Lunch - Late to Bloom
19 - Horizontal Hold - This is Not a Living
20 - Logical Sound Discovery - Thrill Seeker
21 - Shipwrecker - III
22 - Wesley Wolfe - Numbskull
23 - The Loudermilks - The Loudermilks
24 - The Tender Fruit - The Darkness Comes
25 - Dan Melchior und das Menace - Hunger
26 - Jenks Miller/JJ Toth - Roads to Ruin
27 - Curtis Eller’s American Circus - How To Make it in Hollywood
28 - Sagan Youth Boys - Annotated Universe
29 - Ezekiel Graves - Chthonic Journey

Next SUNDAY 10/26: Know Your Poll Party! at the Pinhook

grady — Sat, 18 Oct 2014 17:08:41 +0000

WXDU is proud to cosponsor an early voting rally at The Pinhook next Sunday, October 26, at 2:00 p.m.

The show will be FREE, and features a ton of great local bands, including PIPE, Shirlette Ammons, Daniel Bachman, Hammer No More The Fingers, Some Army, Midnight Plus One, and SOON, plus DJ Direwolf spinning between bands.

The main downtown early voting site in Durham is just a couple of blocks away, and there will be marches to the polls during the event.

The show is cosponsored by WXDU, The Pinhook, and Democracy NC, and it will be FREE to everyone. PLUS, if you can't attend in person, the entire show will be simulcast on WXDU 88.7 FM or here at wxdu.org, from 2pm til 7pm.

We hope you'll come out, and we hope you'll VOTE EARLY with us!

Download the Little Black Egg set from our Hopscotch day party; help Letha Rodman-Melchior fight cancer!

grady — Thu, 11 Sep 2014 00:28:32 +0000

Our friends at NYCTaper have posted audio from last week's Little Black Egg Big Band (Yo La Tengo + Steve Gunn & William Tyler) set. In order to download the audio, we (WXDU, NYCTaper & the band) are asking for a donation to Durham musician Letha Rodman-Mechior in her fight against cancer. You can learn more, make your donation, and download the audio here.