Session #1: Bull City

It’s finally here! Today is the release of our first complete Session, our March 2nd session with Bull City, out of Durham, NC.

March 2nd was a beautiful, unseasonably warm day down here in North Carolina, the perfect setting for an afternoon filled with Bull City’s unique brand of ass-kicking rock and roll. 12:00PM rolled around, so we hauled the Sessions gear into our recording space, the Caldwell Lounge, and the band soon arrived and set their gear up. JC proceeded to put them through the sound check, micing the group up appropriately and making several test recordings to ensure that the real recordings were of a high quality.

During the sound check, we were approached by a passerby who noticed the music and asked if we’d like him to take some photographs. We agreed, of course, and an hour later, he reappeared with a really nice-looking camera and proceeded to photograph the goings-on.

As it turned out, his name was Pavel and he was from a professional photo-shooting company out of Raleigh known as PhotoShooters. He took some absolutely beautiful photographs of the session:

Bull City Session Photo #1

Bull City Session Photo #2

Bull City Session Photo #3

Bull City Session Photo #4

Sound check complete, we began recording and the group proceeded to rip through their setlist, tearing through entire universes of epic rock and roll in single takes. Of particular note are the solos; can you believe that they were able to cut tracks like Game and Knock It Down in one fell swoop? That’s what live music from the Triangle is all about.

A few weeks later, Jim gave us his mixes of the Session, which sounded absolutely massive. These new recordings demand to be played loud with the lights off, and they’ll sound awesome whether you’re wearing a pair of cans or playing it through your stereo.

So, how can you get them? You can download the full Session right here and, soon enough, on jamendo.com. It’s licensed under a Creative Commons license (Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0), so if you like it, feel free to share it with anyone you’d like. Until next time, keep on the lookout for more content; we’ve got over 8 more Sessions we’ll be putting up soon and many more after that!

Full setlist:

Boss ‘N Pete

Game

Himeola

Hold It Down

Magnolia

Sam

What Could Have Been

Knock It Down

Lick the Boots

Credits:
Sessions Team Photo
Head Sound Engineer – J.C. Molet
Head Mixing/Mastering Engineer – Jim Brantley
Sound Co-Engineers – Chris Barnobi, Adam Kincaid, Alex Steinbaugh
Recording Supervisor – Steve Salevan
Special Thanks – WKNC (for putting up with us), Red Hat (for sponsoring us), Jim Brantley (for helping us with mixing), Greg DeKoenigsberg (for being an awesome dude)

It’s the Launch of the Sessions@KNC Blog!

From all of us at KNC, we are proud to announce the official launch of the Sessions@KNC Blog, where we’ll keep you up-to-date on the latest Sessions-related happenings and give you access to the newest Sessions content!

So, the question I’m sure you’re asking… what is this whole Sessions@KNC thing, and why should I care?

Well, in a nutshell, Sessions@KNC is a live music recording project sponsored jointly by WKNC and Red Hat, and our focus is set squarely upon the rich musical landscape of the North Carolina and NC Triangle regions. In our opinion, some of the most exciting music in the world is being made in North Carolina, and we’ve made it our mission to capture, promote, and document the vitality and essence of its live music scene.

At the moment, we’ve recorded nine groups, including:

Bull City

Nathan Oliver

Dan Bryk

Hammer No More the Fingers

Can Joann

The Kingsbury Manx

Razor Wire Safety Net

Bringerer

The Old Regime

As we finish mastering and mixing our recordings, you’ll see links here to the content we’ve recorded.