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December 09, 2004
A Big Shout Out to 89.3
If you missed or simply want to re-experience the WXYC "10 Years of Webcasting" concert that took place at Local 506 last month, there are finally some mp3 recordings of the show available on the WXYC website. And I never actually blogged anything about the show at the time, so I'll provide some details as an incentive to check out the live mp3s.
eNtet was the first act of the night and were probably missed by many of the more late-arriving showgoers. But those of us who fit into that category (ahem...) can now listen to the final 35 minutes of the eNtet set (32.3 MB), including a nice rendition of Charlie Haden's classic composition "Song For Che". This 506 concert happened only 4 days after the election, and as eNtet leader Ian Davis explained from the stage, "It seemed appropriate, with the outcome this week, that we play a little 'revolutionary dirge' for you this evening." Indeed....give me liberation music or give me death! An older and more "macro" version of eNtet appeared on the Bandwidth CD as the Micro-East Collective. MEC's "Cells - One to Many" (3.32 MB) is a short and concise exercise in building cacophony out of nothing. This track almost never gets played on the radio, which is kinda too bad, because I think it would make an interesting transitional cut between other less-experimental tunes.
The Moaners were next up after eNtet, and while their set was quite rockin', WXYC is not making the recording available online out of respect for the wishes of the band's record label. The Moaners' new CD Dark Snack is coming out next month and I guess someone must see this live show as a threat of some sort. Personally, I don't understand why people aren't fully embracing the promotional spread-the-word value of sharing and downloading, even in its most limited form. But whatever. You can still freely download "Everybody Wants My Baby" (4.92 MB), The Moaners' contribution to Bandwidth.
Next on the bill was Spectac, who really got the crowd all hyped up. Accompanied by DJ Bumrush of WKNC and WXDU fame, Spectac blazed through a quick 23-minute set that featured several of his new 9th Wonder joints (including "War of the World", also featured on the new DJ Chela mixtape) as well as his upcoming single "One Day", which features a guest appearance by none other than current Durham resident Big Daddy Kane! Nobody's equal, Kane himself wasn't in the building that night, but Spectac more than held things down on his own, going off on a couple of hot freestyles amidst his other tracks. Spectac has some serious freestyle skills, he's one of those guys that can actually spout off all sorts of spontaneous rhymes from the top of his head and not just from the memory bank deep inside the brain. You probably can't as easily tell without actually seeing the visuals along with the audio, but trust me, the dude was clearly free-associating based on whatever he saw in front of him. I should know, as I happened to be bopping along right up by the stage...and on a couple of occasions, my shaved head and I somehow became sources of lyrical inspiration! Download the Spectac set here (21.5 MB) and listen at the 1:45 and 18:00 marks if you want to chuckle at the first-ever and last-ever times that my name gets checked-in-rhyme.
Jett Rink headlined the evening's concert and put on the sort of rousing live performance for which they have become so locally renowned. Viva once again proved to be an amazing frontman and they even did a righteous space-funk-y cover of "White Horse", that classic early 80s electro-disco hit by Danish duo Laid Back. The sound quality isn't always so great on this recording of Jett Rink's set (51.0 MB), but the considerable energy on display should be enough of an incentive to make sure and catch one of the band's shows sometime soon. And/or to download "Born Hungry" (2.75 MB), their hot slab of taut art-punk that opens up Bandwidth.
Here's a picture of Jett Rink in action, with Viva hilariously using a WXYC banner as a cape/scarf:
Posted by Tim at December 9, 2004 09:44 PM