Reverb and Hemmingway Inspire Matt Costa's Chateau

Matt Costa's third album Mobile Chateau shimmies with British Invasion-era reverb and ponders in minor key English folk.

It's a marked departure for the nearly pro skateboarder who found artistic inspiration for the title of his third album in a place known to stir a creative juice or two.

"My wife and I were staying in a chateau four hours outside of Paris," Costa said. "We were just walking around and she was finding things on the ground and literally made a mobile inside the chateau. Then it kind of took on A Moveable Feast idea. I also felt like all the people in the creating of this record felt like a small piece of how Hemingway might have felt in Paris at that time in having all these creative people around."

Friday, on Morning Sessions, this week from NP Recording Studios in Towson, we bring you Matt and the creative forces who make up his band. They played a decadently pshycadelic set in front of some of our frontmen and women. Hear the results at 920.

NPR HIPS AND HOPS

This video is making the rounds and celebrates the good work done in public radio. If you listen to WTMD, WYPR, WEAA and WBJC and think public radio is the bomb, then take a listen.

Weekend on the Radio Recap

Every Thursday morning at 6:20 a.m. and 8:20 a.m. Sam Gallant of the Creative Alliance shares with you all the cool happenings around town on Weekend on the Radio. In case you missed a detail about a specific event, here's the list for this week.

All Weekend Long:

• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, every movie theater on earth, check website for times.

Thursday, 11/18

• Sowebo Arts Group Presents: Little Big Show, Zella's Pizzeria 6 to 8 p.m.
• Mingle at the Mill, Clipper Mill 6 to 9 p.m.
• Disgrace: An Acoustic Trio, The 8x10 8 p.m.

Friday, 11/19

• Jerry Seinfeld, The Meyerhoff 7-9 p.m.
• History of Rock Opera 2, Anne Arundel Community College 8 p.m. (Also Friday)
• Macbeth, The Arena Players 8 p.m. (Also Saturday and Sunday)

Saturday, 11/20

• Baltimore Ski Swap, Maryland National Guard Armory 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
• Wreath Fest, Chesapeake Arts Center, all day
• Harry Potter Day, Maryland Science Center noon to 4 p.m.
• Baltimore: Songs of Our City, Creative Alliance 7:30 p.m.

Sunday, 11/20

• The Herd of Main Street, The Ottobar 9 p.m.
• Annapolis Christmas Tree Lighting, downtown Annapolis 5:30 p.m.

ADELE 'Rolling In The Deep' (Studio Footage)

A Deceptively Sophisticated Mobile Home

A true radical in sheep’s clothing, Nellie McKay defies convention once again on her latest, Home Sweet Mobile Home.

A year after a Verve-released Doris Day covers CD, the English-born, New York-bred songwriter opens our new CD of the Week with the vulnerable “Bruise on the Sky,” which asks to be sent a “smile like Charo.”

And like the award-winning flamenco guitarist and frequent Love Boat guest star with the wide-eyed “cuchi-cuchi”- catch phrase, Mc Kay’s throwback beauty and broad grin (she looks like she should be on a chewing gum commercial) may deceive the uninitiated into thinking she’s, well, ditzy!

But, underneath the perky, ukulele strum on “Adios,” it doesn’t take long to get a sense of her Randy Newman-like biting wit, sense of irony and comedic timing.

An expert musical masher, you’ll hear reggae on Mobile Home - she recorded several tracks in Jamaica- as well as meringue, tin-pan alley, calypso, gospel, and a New Orleans brass stomp.

Self-produced by the artist and her mother, actress Robin Pappas, and with help from David Byrne, this true chameleon and social activist (she's an outspoken vegan- and hilariously sings about it on "Unkown Reggae") proves once again brains and beauty are not mutually exclusive.