Since The Fray opened up the Uptown Ampitheatre at the N.C. Music Factory earlier this summer, Greenville, the neighborhood that surrounds the venue has been well within earshot of all the acts.

Now, some would some would say, "That's awesome , you got to hear Counting Crows for free," while others, and possibly the majority, feel like they're stuck at the stoplight next to the car with subwoofers, in their own home.

The recent Chickenfoot performance forced me and my folks to have to yell over the music just to hear each other in the living room, but like most things that have changed around here, lots of Uptown Ampitheatre's neighbors are taking things in stride.

Jokes like, "it sounds like motherfuckin' Kiss outside," and the realization that more young black people know Sammy Hagar from his Cabo Wabo Tequila than Van Halen or Chickenfoot kept me smiling. What else could've sparked my parents to talk about Hagar's appearance on Emeril Live way back?

Having lived in the neighborhood since the early '90s, I think people are happy to have our new neighbors at the Music Factory, considering it was just an abandoned factory by the railroad tracks before. They're just dying to hear someone they know or like perform. Watching a predominantly black community react to the noise from Uptown Ampitheatre instantly makes me think about this:

http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/5GRLcsr5Ej8/

(Take the black barbershops reaction to John Mayer on electric guitar, multiply that by our entire neighborhood and you have our general feels towards on the matter):

• Former Power 98 radio personality, Nate Quick, pictured here in 2008

Former WPEG Power 98 on-air personality, Nate Quick, passed away late Wednesday night from apparent liver complications.

Quick was currently the program director at KRNB and was the marketing director at K104-FM, both in Dallas, Texas.

An obviously emotional No Limit Larry and Tone took the airwaves at 5:50 a.m. with the announcement during the first break of their show, The Morning Maddhouse. No Limit calling him "the greatest radio personality ever," and the reason he's on radio today. No Limit flew down to Dallas on Monday to see Quick and said, he was at peace with that.

I personally grew up listening to Quick, along with personalities like Eddie Owens, B.J. Murphy and No Limit Larry on Power 98, all of whom I took things from indirectly, when I started doing radio in college. The way I said things, came in and out of breaks was me going trying to do what I'd heard other jocks do, which meant the guys I grew up with, like Nate Quick on the Breakfast Brothers.

Anyone that consumes the polished train wreck you can't seem the flip away from, Bravo's the Real Housewives of Atlanta, has seen "housewife" Kim Zolciak's seemingly forced and failed attempts at a music career.

In the past, showing seemingly no passion or work ethic for music but lots of expensive help, Kim has been able to get studio time with multiple Grammy Award winning producer, Dallas Austin in which her smoked out lungs could barely carry a tune.

With the addition of another Grammy Award winner to the cast of the show in newest "housewife," Kandi Burruss, one knew it wouldn't be long before she spent her way into another recording session.

Well she's apparently scrapped the country thing and went electronic, with the help of the oft-overused Auto-Tune, Kim's track "Tardy For The Party" leaked this week online.

Take a listen for yourself, (I apologize in advance for wasting the minutes in your life and 3MB of hard drive space on your computer).

Hey, if the other chick can go from stripping to a book deal, why not let a "homewrecker" get in the booth? If anything, I'm willing to bet one of Charlotte's seemingly endless douche-y DJs with faux hawks will be spinning this in their set before too long.

Me, personally? I'll be late for that.

Previously written about on the Vibes blog, it was revealed that Fayetteville native and Roc Nation artist J. Cole will be featured on Jay-Z's upcoming album, The Blueprint 3.

Jay-Z officially released the track list for the album last night to huge online buzz and Cole finds himself in exclusive hip hop company, joining the likes of Kanye West, Pharrell, Drake, Kid Cudi and Young Jeezy as guests on the album.

Their song, "A Star Is Born," is slated to be track nine on the album, dropping September 11th.

Cole seemed relieved to get the news out last night. "Damn, yall know how hard it was to hold onto that news for so long," he said via his Twitter page.

The announcement has to be exciting for Cole, who just a few years before was working as a telemarketer and anonymously waited outside of Baseline Studios in New York City, in the rain, to try and give Jay-Z a beat for his then upcoming album, American Gangster, and was snubbed.

Below is the official track list for the album and for those who missed the boat the first time around, here's a link to download J. Cole's previous mixtapes, 2007's The Come Up and 2009's The Warm Up.