• [From left] DJ Complete, Ryan Pitkin and A. Styles.

We've reached the half-century mark, so we brought in the big guns straight from L.A. Up until 6 months ago, A. Styles and DJ Complete were a pair split between coasts. Early this year, Complete made the move out from CLT to Los Angeles to join the other half of his electronic hip-hop DJ duo, but while they were recently in town for a homecoming show, Ryan sat down with the both of them to talk about their come up through plenty of PBR burps.

As always, make sure to go check out Queen City Podcast Network to find out what our friends with all of Charlotte's other coolest podcasts are doing. You can catch up with all our past episodes there, or do it on iTunes or Stitcher. Of course, another simple way of catching up is just by typing "Local Vibes" into your Spotify search bar.

Between their punk band, Self Aware Records and Lunchbox Records store, the guys from Late Bloomer have their hands in a lot of facets of the local music scene. Josh, Neil and Scott [from left, in above photo by Brian Twitty] sat down with 'Local Vibes' to talk mostly about the band and their new album, Waiting, out this Friday. We chat about what's changed in the four years since their last release, and what's stayed the same.

Make sure to check out the other great local podcasts at Queen City Podcast Network, and catch up with all our past episodes on iTunes, Stitcher or just by typing "Local Vibes" into your Spotify search bar.

• Scott Wishart (from left), Neil Mauney, Josh Robbins and Ryan Pitkin.

Fresh off the Hog Happenin' Bikes and BBQ festival in Lincolnton, Adrienne Nixon Basco of Tombstone Betty dropped in to the Hygge West podcast studio to chat with Local Vibes' Mark and Ryan about the band's new album, being a black front woman in a Southern rock band, her connection to biker culture, writing songs while driving, and much more.

As always, be sure to check out the rest of our team at Queen City Podcast Network, and catch up with all the past episodes of Local Vibes on iTunes, Stitcher or by typing "Local Vibes" into your Spotify search bar.

The boys from Hectorina were gracious enough to spend a Sunday morning with us directly following an album release party for their new album, Muck, at Snug Harbor, so we've got to hand it to them for even showing up. We talk with Dylan, John and Zach about their fourth full-length release, the Charlotte scene and what's changed since the Over Easy Breakfast Machine.

Be sure to check out all the cool shit happening over at Queen City Podcast Network, or you can catch up with all our past episodes on iTunes, Stitcher or simply by typing "Local Vibes" into your Spotify search bar.

• The crew (from left): Ryan Pitkin, Zach Jordan, John Harrell, Dylan Gilbert and Mark Kemp.

• Ryan Pitkin (left) and Lisa De Novo

One of Charlotte's most popular singer/songwriters, Lisa De Novo has been working the open mic scene in the city for five years. Now you could say she runs that scene. She dropped in to chat about her newly released album, The Big Bang, her involvement with Girls Rock CLT and how her communications degree helped her build a name for herself in the Queen City.

She also plays a few songs live in the Hygge West studio, which is always our favorite part of any podcast recording.

Make sure to drop by the Queen City Podcast Network site to check out our amazing team of talented local audio authorities. Also, catch up on our past episodes on iTunes, Stitcher or simply by typing "Local Vibes" into your Spotify search bar.

Three days from playing their last show together as members of Mineral Girls, the band's vocalist/guitarist Brett Green and guitarist Audrey Ayers came in for a long chat with Ryan and Mark that covers everything from the ups and downs of their recent tour to future plans for both of them.

That's not to mention stories of all-nighters at the casino, fights amongst the band and someone at the end admitting to having been on acid for the whole podcast.

Be sure to check out the rest of our team at the Queen City Podcast Network, where you can find the best locally based podcasts covering everything from comedy to craft beer. Also, catch up on past Local Vibes episodes on iTunes or Stitcher, or by simply typing "Local Vibes" into your Spotify search bar.

When I first met LaWana Mayfield she was making a lunchtime presentation on for-profit prisons to a handful of elderly white folks at Myers Park United Methodist Church. It was around 2010, months before she announced her bid for city council.

While the District 3 city councilwoman's platform has since expanded, her message has remained much the same as it was back then when she could be found marching through the city's streets protesting inequality in its various forms — something she did for more than 25 years as an activist, she says.

One thing she wants her haters to know: she's not planning to shut up now.

"I'm doing exactly what I said I was going to do when I first ran for office, and that is highlighting what is happening in my community," she says.

Controversy has surrounded Mayfield since recent tweets of hers have made the news, including one on March 26 that equated some police officers with "homegrown terrorists." That led the president of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Fraternal Order of Police, the police chief and wives of Charlotte-Mecklenburg police officers to speak out against her. Many people called for her to step down from the Charlotte City Council.

What I haven't seen reported is the text from the tweet that Mayfield was retweeting and commenting on when she made her controversial comment. Posted by NBC, via @NBCBLK, it refers to the shooting of Stephon Clark, shot and killed by two police officers in Sacramento on March 18. The original tweet reads, "Stephon Clark's grandmother Sequita Thompson: 'Why didn't you just shoot him in the arm, shoot him in the leg, send a dog, send a taser? Why? ... I just want justice for my baby.'"

On March 31, as the dust settled on news of Mayfield's tweets, the Associated Press reported: "Sacramento police shot Stephon Clark seven times from behind, according to autopsy results released Friday by a pathologist hired by Clark's family, a finding that calls into question the department's assertion the 22-year-old black man was facing officers and moving toward them when he was killed."

Charlotte media outlets have covered the Twitter-gate story by saying Mayfield is "under fire," with WCNC writing, "According to her Twitter page, Councilwoman Mayfield still has more than 4,000 followers, but she may be losing some voters after the latest Tweet." When she defended herself, also via Twitter, the headlines said she's "doubling down."

After Mayfield posted a tweet on May 31 specifically asking "So who is going work [sic] to remove the BAD cops?" WSOC reporter Paul Boyd posted a screenshot of the tweet, stating, "Fresh calls today for [Mayfield's] resignation after unequivocal broad statements like this that lump together all police officers."

• Lawana Mayfield

According to Mayfield, whose district is in southwest Charlotte, her reality is different from the media's assumptions. "Good cops aren't paying attention to the media hype," she said. "I see them in the community every day. I've got support from officers — current and retired — that have come up to me and thanked me because they recognize that bad officers make their work more difficult."

More importantly, while the Charlotte media focuses on Mayfield's tweets it has failed to discuss what prompted her posts: the death of yet another young black man at the hands of the police.

I must admit, I feel a bit responsible for Mayfield's recent Twitter rant. When I thought to reach out to her for this column I reviewed our correspondence. The last written words to pass between us, the end of a conversation about First Amendment rights, were these, circa 2012, and they were written by me: "I'll urge you to be your own media. Video tape and take photos and blog. Show people what's going on. Don't wait for the media to notice. They probably won't. They want page views, because that's what drives ad revenue."

It's advice I've offered to many people over the years, though few take it. I realize it's not self-serving in a time when newspapers like this one could use that ad revenue. At the same time, I know how thinly stretched my media cohorts are as newsrooms slash staffs while the tenor of the day demands that the reporters who remain take on more and more work.

So when clickbait comes along – like a city councilwoman tweeting with a strong opinion, one who shared a link about a 9/11 conspiracy theory (stupidly, yes) in April – it's irresistible, since clicks equate to revenue for media companies.

"For seven years, I have posted so many things around housing, around community, around job creation, around coming out to the meetings to speak on the budget and those posts got no attention from the media," she said. "So all of this stuff I've tried to talk about to educate us, to try to uplift us, to try to put us in a position of power – the media doesn't want to talk about any of that, but they're going to focus on Twitter. So, I'm like, alright if that's the game we're gonna play then I'm just going to go straight to the people and say what I've got to say."

Don't expect her to hush up any time soon.

Mickey Stephens has been through a lot, but we can proudly say it was a first for him when he came through to speak on our podcast. "I've never done a podcast before," Stephens said, as he settled into his chair in the Hygge West studio.

He may not have done podcasts, but as front man of the late-'70s Northern Irish roots-punk band The Mighty Shamrocks, Stephens has done his share of radio interviews and TV spots. Now, almost 40 years later, in the lead-up to his Charlotte band Poor Blue's album release party at Petra's, Stephens sat down to talk about The Wasteground and his experiences coming up as a musician during The Troubles in Northern Ireland, which inspired the album. And don't forget to check out our story on Stephens in this week's Creative Loafing.

Also, make sure to go check out other members of our local podcast team at the Queen City Podcast Network, where we've joined up with some of Charlotte's best podcasts to showcase the city's talent on audio. Also, catch up with our past episodes on iTunes, Stitcher, or just by typing "Local Vibes" into your Spotify search bar.

• Deep inside the pod: Mark Kemp (from left), Mickey Stephens and Ryan Pitkin.

This week is a good episode for the tech heads, as we brought in Patrick Hill, founder of Disctopia, a Charlotte-based music platform looking to compete with the Bandcamps and Soundclouds of the world as the go-to spot for indie artists to stream music.

We talked with Patrick about how his company works and the ways in which he plans to turn it into a one stop shop for local artists to cultivate a sound and an audience.

Be sure to check out the Queen City Podcast Network, our team of Charlotte's best podcasts covering all the local angles you need. Also, catch up with all our past episodes on iTunes or Stitcher, or just type "Local Vibes" into your Spotify search bar and find us there.