Mix Tape Thursday, 7/16/09

WTMD listeners take over the airwaves with three-to-five song sets on Thursday.

6 a.m. Kaitlin Schrote

The 2007 Virgin Music Festival created a musical bonding experience between my mom and me. I went to the festival with my college roommate. After returning home the first day, we sat in the kitchen discussing the musicians and bands with my mom.

When we mentioned how we saw so many people of her generation arriving to see the Police, she told me that she had seen the Police back when she was young and single. I was shocked. We had never talked about the concerts she had gone to when she was young. How could my mom have been this cool?

I asked her about other concerts she had been to and all of these musical memories from the late 70s and early 80s poured out. The Police, Peter Gabriel (twice), Billy Idol, U2 (when the Edge had hair!), the Who, the list went on and on.

This mixtape is composed of songs that my mom saw in concert and reminds me of the night I became aware of just how amazing my mom is.

* "So Lonely," by The Police
* "Solsbury Hill," by Peter Gabriel
* "I Will Follow You," by U2
* "Who Are You," by The Who
* "Dancing With Myself," by Billy Idol

8 a.m. Meg Bowen

My playlist theme is WTMD Baltimore Unsigned Artists that should be playing at Virgin Fest. They are all excellent musicians whose music is best enjoyed live on a big stage with the beats of their songs pumping through you from those giant speakers.

* "The Therapy," by Fools & Horses
* "It’s Painless," by Tim Kaye
* "Equity" by Tears of Mars
* "Talk to Me," by David Andrew Smith

10 a.m. Kenny Friedman

In honor of the Virgin Mobile Music Festival, I have chosen songs/artists that feature the words Virgin, Mobile, Music and Festival. The added bonus is that Good Charlotte hails from Maryland and got their big break on the locals stage at the now defunct HFStival.

* "Rich Girls," by The Virgins
* "Stuck Inside of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again," by Bob Dylan
* "Exit Music (For a Film)," by Radiohead
* "Festival Song," by Good Charlotte

12 p.m. Jessica Hanson

I have a very fond memory of driving to NC with three of my pals visiting from Scotland and we just belted out songs the entire way. It was a great wee sing-song.

* "Take Me Out," by Franz Ferdinand
* "Mardy Bum," by Arctic Monkeys
* "She Moves In Her Own Way," by The Kooks
* "These Streets," by Paolo Nutini
* "Chelsea Dagger," by The Fratellis

4 p.m. Natalie Neill

These are some of my favorite Canadian artists.

* "Rebellion," by The Arcade Fire
* "Look Up," by Stars
* "I Feel It All," by Feist
* "Burn Your Life Down," by Tegan And Sara
* "Tessellate," by Tokyo Police Club


6 p.m. Zoe Wais

These songs represent what WTMD means to me. It's because of this radio station that I even know the bands on my playlist exist, and even more than that, they've become some of my favorite bands. All the bands in my playlist are totally original and under appreciated!

* "Old, Old Fashioned" by Frightened Rabbit
* "Orange Shirt," by Discovery
* "Make Light," by Passion Pit
* "Jenny, Don’t Be Hasty," by Paolo Nutini
* "Looking for Shelter," by Good Old War

Fond of Fred

Fred is a fun five-piece out of Cork, Ireland with quite the refreshing sound- funky, psychedelic, shamrock soul.... and quite danceable.

There's lots of belted-out harmonies and humor on their third album Go God Go. Enjoy this little vid for "The Lights."

Rockin' the Block

Saw this on Sam Sessa's blog and couldn't resist: Tommy Tucker and the Supernaturals, who just recorded a Baltimore Unsigned episode, gets down with the seedier side of Charm City for this video and out of it....comes one of the ultimate universal truths- that music is a wrecking ball of any preconceived barriers between people. Also, it's a terrific "serenading the non-tourist areas of a city video" in the vain of the Chili Peppers "Under the Bridge" and U2's "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" (for LA and Vegas, respectively). Terrific spirit, guys! And there are some good dancers on the block- no, not THAT kind.

Wil(co)mington

Most of the WTMD staff flocked to West Virginia for All Good last weekend, leaving its interns with the heavy burden of rocking out to Wilco in Delaware. On their tour's East coast swing, Jeff Tweedy and company seemed to have snuck stealthily into Wilmington (tour bus nowhere to be seen), their sound stage like a fort in the middle of Frawley Stadium, primed for a night of guerrilla indie-rock-pop-alt-country. No one has ever seemed to know what to call their dextrous weave of styles, so it might be best to add Wilco (the genre) to Wilco (the band), Wilco (The Album), and Wilco (The Song).
And here the band seemed worthy of its own genre. At 3 o'clock on a scorching afternoon, they turned their sound check into a five song private concert for forty 40 of us WTMD listeners and interns. Tweedy , longtime Wilco maestro, lead singer and guitarist, cracked jokes between songs and took requests, including one for "Shake It Out" that had drummer Glenn Kotche pumping his fists. Five feet away from the stage, we watched Tweedy croon and Nels Cline work his spidery magic all over the frets of his (many) guitars. With their scraggly hair and ragged tee T-shirts, they looked like the members of my college house three months ago, the morning after a spectacular party, but as soon as they started playing, they were a rapid, seamless stream of sound, with an amazing knack for feeling smooth and jangly at once.
By the time of the official show at dusk, they had donned more dapper clothes and were sending out waves of lucid music, blending classics and new album cuts. Tweedy sang with his trademark wryness, sifting tones wistful, bitter, joyful, and bemused in song after song, dipping into every Wilco album since A.M. The self-assured ease of Wilco (The Album) rode alongside the restive tracks of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot ("I Am Trying To Break Your Heart"), the plaintive tracks of Summer Teeth ("Can't Stand It") , and the spooky wanderings of A Ghost Is Born ("Spiders (Kidsmoke").
Tweedy and his comrades have become masters of tightly constructed, hook-laden, wildly catchy pop songs, as they showed again and again Friday night with "Wilco (The Song)" and "You Never Know," off the new album, along with classics like "Jesus, Etc.," "I'm the Man That Loves You," and the glorious encore surfacing of "Heavy Metal Drummer." In its soul, though, Wilco is a champion of epic instrumental breakdowns, which it treats like meandering crusades for higher feelings of wonder. It was these jams of fancy that were most entrancing Friday night, in "Impossible Germany" and "Spiders (Kidsmoke)," where Cline's and Tweedy's entangling riffs and wails felt like a trek through the entire American landscape, paced by the steady groove of the rest of the band.
The amazing thing about Wilco is that its double personality of well-crafted pop and sprawling experimentation never feels like a split personality, just the wide ranging of one of America's greatest bands.