Music Love Notes to North Carolina from Come Hear NC

A Playlist, A Close Reading of Indigo De Souza, & A Tribute to NC College Radio

This Valentine's Day, Come Hear NC wanted to express our undying love for the music and musicians of North Carolina. So we got in our epistolary bag, and drafted some love letters. Well, strictly speaking, two love letters and a love playlist:   

 

 

114 songs, nearly 7 hours of Kara's favorite music made by North Carolinians from Al Strong to Zoe and Floyd. An audio love letter to North Carolina music: get involved! 

 

 

To me, there is no better depiction of the hopeful naiveté of young love facing off against the realities of sustaining a relationship. It opens with a romanticized honeymoon-period, characteristic of the early stages of romance. Life's responsibilities are neglected. The world is on hold; All that exists is you and your lover. Lying in bed, day clothes on.

 

There is a lingering fear (and perhaps, subconscious knowledge) that this feeling is fleeting. The narrator knows this, and ruminates on the inevitability that at some point, this fairytale love will end. The tucked-in shirts, the "cubicle-cells," the mundanity of life and its responsibilities cannot be ignored forever.

 

The music swells as the relationship progresses. The narrator finds her lover worn down and exhausted. She wonders if the love she expresses is lost on her partner. Little things become nuisances; Her partner complains she's too loud in the morning.

 

There is a longing to return to a previous naive love that has long since passed. The narrator yearns for the days of lying in bed, oblivious to the worries of the world. One in which love alone was enough to get by.

 

The song ends by returning to the opening sentiments, "what are we gonna do now?". This time, the question is a reflection on how things have progressed in the relationship. Do they still want to make things work? It's a beautiful, honest examination of love after the novelty fades.  

 

 

My Love Note to NC Music is addressed to our state's independent radio stations. My best friend in college had been from Winston-Salem, but prior to coming to Duke for grad school I'd only lived in the Middle West — I knew NC only in a totally mediated way, through Polvo and Superchunk records, Sonic Youth namechecks, and college basketball TV broadcasts. 

 

DJing at Duke's WXDU rooted me in my first Southern community — back then, the station was very open to non-student membership, and so I worked with folks from diverse backgrounds. We were united only by our shared love of music. Over the next ten years of DJing (and a stint as program director), I: bonded with rap DJs over a shared love of old soul records, heard and reviewed some of the most obscure but amazing records known to humankind, and struggled to define (with friends and enemies) what best made an independent radio station. It taught me so much about music (natch), but also about consensus-building, taste cultures, and the increasing importance of non-corporate media. And though I don't still DJ at 'XDU (every old cricketer must leave the pitch), I made lifelong friends there I still cherish today. In fact, many of my friends are current or former indie DJs from other NC stations -- it's a nice little fraternity. 

 

But WXDU is only one of many amazing independent radio stations in NC. I have made profound musical discoveries and had transcendent listening experiences with WXYC Chapel Hill, WKNC at NC State, WHUP in Hillsborough, WQFS and WUAG in Greensboro, even Wake Radio in Winston. Anywhere you go in the state, left of the dial you'll be able to hear a new favorite song you'd never have heard otherwise. NC has an amazing bevy of truly free radio stations, a scene whose quality and "innovation" I've never encountered elsewhere — I recommend listening or even volunteering today! You'll be able to make friends (likeminded and not so likeminded) and learn how to influence people, all with a great soundtrack.