RTP-area local music and culture

[grady <grady AT ibiblio.org>]

"Uncle Woody" isn't local, but lived here for several years in the 90s 
before moving to Chicago, so I'm mentioning him just as an FYI.

There are 24+ local artists on the Bandwidth comp & another however-many 
on the Chicks Rock comp.

Generally, if a local band records something that's relatively 
interesting / adventurous / catchy / ROCKing / weird / whatever, then it 
will chart fairly highly at XDU, regardless of whatever else is 
currently on playlist.

Weeks in which relatively few local artists show up on our top 88.7 are 
often weeks in which relatively few local releases are on playlist--for 
some reason they come in spurts. Chart position is dictated by a 
combination of factors--it's governed by # of plays & then modified by 
weeks on playlist to deal with the multitude of ties.

But # of plays/week is itself governed by many factors. Chief among them 
-- and I cannot emphasize this strongly enough -- being the legibility 
of the band's name on the spine of the jewel box. Seriously, people: if 
you're mailing your CDs out to radio without jewel boxes, or in arty 
little paper sleeves or cardboard foldy things or whatever, or with 
nothing readable printed on the spine, then you are dooming yourselves 
to receiving fewer than half the plays you would otherwise receive.

Seriously, seriously, people: all of us would like to spend an extra 
hour per week going through every playlist CD and listening to selected 
cuts and planning out our shows in advance. Most of us don't do this, 
however, which means that at least 10-15 times per show, we're skimming 
the CDs on the playlist shelf, looking for something that catches our eyes.

If your CD isn't in a jewel box &/or doesn't have a readable spine, the 
shelf-skimming part of our brains isn't going to spot it.

As far as the stuff that's on *this* particular listing, I heartily 
recommend both the Bandwidth comp and the Strugglers EP. The Bandwidth 
comp can probably still be downloaded for free from wxyc.org; the 
Strugglers hopefully you can locate at CD Alley.

Actually, I should say I heartily recommend all of it, with the caveat 
that the Inspector 22 is a bit more "difficult" than the others - lotta 
banging on things & free-guitar-freakout.

xo

Ross

p.s. if your band hasn't mailed your stuff to WXDU, our address is PO 
Box 90689, Durham, NC 27708. If it's local, please do me a favor & label 
it as such; I will freely & proudly admit that local releases get more 
attention paid to them when the mail is opened than do non-local releases.

If you *have* mailed your stuff to XDU and haven't ever heard it on the 
radio, it could mean that it was lost. It could also mean that nobody 
liked it. We make no guarantees about our own tastes or lack thereof.

blumenth AT yahoo.com wrote:
> Just out of curiousity, how many of these are local (Raleigh, Durham,
> Chapel Hill) bands?

> > 17. 11...Uncle Woody Sullender...Nothing Is Certain But Death...Dead
> > CEO

> > 28. 9...Various Artists...Bandwidth: Celebrating 10 years of
> > Internet...

> > 36. 7...Strugglers...The Fair Store...Ediciones Acuarela

> > 62. 5...Various Artists...Chicks Rock...307 Knox

> > 80. 3...Inspector 22...Friendship Cemetary Revisited: 1997-2001...s/r