Thanks Baltimore and a Friendly Friday Tift!

Want to share a huge thanks to the listeners and supporters of WTMD. We are grateful you turn to WTMD for musical enlightenment, entertainment and inspiration. We hope your Thanksgiving rocks!

Tune in Thanksgiving Day starting at 7am for a Baltimore Unsigned marathon. Hear insightful interviews from some of the areas top talents and check out what's new from the artists in your backyard all day long, with one notable exception: You didn't think we'd have a WTMD Thanksgiving without Alice's Restaurant, did you?

We'll spin Arlo's holiday classic at 12pm!

And, on Friday, if you need a break from the shopping, hear an encore of a Morning Sessions with the always soothing sounds of Tift Merritt at 920am.

All the best to you and yours from the staff and volunteers at WTMD.

CD of the Week: Kings of Contradictions

The Followill boys traded in thrift shop clothes and garage band sounds for Fifth Avenue threads and arena-rocking musicianship for their 2008 worldwide smash Only by the Night. And while the follow-up Come Around Sundown stops just short of outright rejecting fame, high fashion and rock hedonism, the sons and nephew of a preacher man sound like they want to go home again.


“It’s in the water, it’s where you came from,” Caleb Followill wails over an ‘amen’ gospel corner and the familiar wall of ringing guitars from cuz Matthew on “Radioactive,” while on “The Face,” the frontman croons, “If you give up New York, I’ll give up Tennessee.”

It’s an interesting benchmark for Kings of Leon whose quest for authenticity sometimes conflicts with the instantly anthemic music they, now, prolifically craft. While showing disdain for bandwagon fans live, Caleb’s made-for-rock growl and his relatives’ growing mastery of their instruments seem poised to once again to get more people to hop onboard.

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.

 The oysters were shucked by the harbor with care,

With hopes that great music soon would be there....

You're invited to

WTMD's NOT SO SILENT NIGHT HOLIDAY PARTY!

3 Rockin' Bands-One Night of WTMD Cheer!

Jukebox the Ghost

The Meligrove Band and Dynamite Walls

Thursday December 9, 2010

Doors: 6 - First Band: 7 - Rock All Night!

Tix: $22

Proceeds Benefit WTMD's Music and Programming Fund

Ramshead Live is donating a portion of the ticket fee back to WTMD

Please bring a canned food item to be donated to Paul's Place; providing community support in the
Washington Village and Pigtown Neighborhoods of Southwest Baltimore

Band information:  Jukebox the Ghost The Meligrove Band  Dynamite Walls

Jukebox the Ghost has gone from a Baltimore Unsigned favorite to
thrilling audiences around the country!

We're proud to have them bring two of their
favorite bands with them back to where it all began! 
Get your tickets quick!

Altered Freebies: Tapes 'n Tapes; Kanye West; Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr.; Smith Westerns

What's better than music? Free music. Producer Nick Jackson has scoured the internet to bring you the best free downloads featured on this week's Altered Fridays, 4-7 p.m.

Tapes 'n Tapes, “Freak Out”
There is a new album coming from Tapes 'n Tapes on January 11 (1/11/11!) and they're passing out the new single fo' free.

Kanye West, G.O.O.D. Fridays
Kanye West has been releasing a new song every Friday for the past few months. The collection can be downloaded for free at Kanye's website. There are some legendary collaborations on there so grab them while you can.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr., “Vocal Chords (Diego and Dissidents Remix)”
Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. have been making a name for themselves and have released a remix EP, featuring their songs "Vocal Chords" and "Nothing But Our Love". It’s a great tune to get the weekend on its way.

Stream me!

Smith Westerns, “Weekends”
Over the last month, a lot of musicians have become fans of this band, for good reason. Though you won't be able to throw this on your iPod, you can enjoy it's streaminess until the record is released in January.

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:

• Zippy the Pinhead: The Musical, The Theatre Project 8 p.m.
• All My Sons, Everyman Theatre, check website for showtimes
• ReEntry. Center Stage, check website for showtimes
• Magic City Massacre, Murphy Fine Arts Center, check website for showtimes
• Walter Wick, Games, Gizmos and Toys in the Attic, The Walters Art Gallery

Thursday, 11/11

• Veterans Day March, Washington Monument Mount Vernon 8 a.m.
• Experience Hendrix, The Hippodrome, 8 p.m.

Friday, 11/12

• Bobby Flay, Wegman's Hunt Valley noon
• Music 4 Maryland, Rams Head Live! 7 p.m.
• Baltimore Irish Festival, Timonium Fairgrounds 6-11 p.m. (Also Saturday and Sunday)

Saturday, 11/13

• Nature Puppet Show, Irvine Nature Center 1 p.m.
• Hanson in store appearance, The Sound Garden 4:30 p.m.
• Hanson, Sonar 7 p.m.

Sunday, 11/14

• Uncle Andy's Cats: A Reading with James Warhola, Baltimore Museum of Art 2-5 p.m.
  

Soundcheck Party With Leeds' Finest!!

You don't see many Jam bands out of England, but then again, The New Mastersounds aren't like many Jam Bands. Formed in 1997 these English rockers have been taking their funky sound all across the globe. They are also Veterans to many different Music Festivals throughout the country as well as The All Good Festival, located right in our back yards. Now they bring their unique sound to The 8x10 Club, Right here in Baltimore! On Tuesday, November 16th The New Mastersounds will be at The 8x10 with special guests The New Majority.

WTMD, "Stuck in the Jam", and Walther Productions want you to be able get a close look behind the scenes of a New Mastersounds performance. Ten lucky winners, will be able to bring a guest to attend a soundcheck party with the band. Winners will also receive tickets for them and their guest to the show that evening. All you need to do to enter the contest is send an e-mail, between now and Sunday, November 14th at 11:59pm, to BUG@towson.edu and put "New Mastersounds" in the subject line. Winners will be chosen at random, please see www.wtmd.org for full contest rules.

Heeeeeeeere's Jenny and Johnny!

Rilo Kiley frontwoman Jenny Lewis and her folk singer boyfriend Jonathan Rice forged their creative partnership during sessions for Jenny's solo disc Acid Tongue and contributions to Elvis Costello's Momofuku.

And it's serendipitous that Declan McManus has our CD of the Week.  His understudies of sweet melancholy Jenny and Johnny play this week's Morning Sessions Friday at 920am.

The, sometimes, biting songwriting, set against sun-kissed indie pop melodies on their debut I'm Having Fun Now offers the kind-of intriguing contradictions that often define relationships themselves.  Though their voices blend, beautifully, it almost seems like they're arguing.

"On the song 'Scissor Runner,' there's a line that Jenny sings" Rice says. "'I'll forgive you, if I outlive you.' And somebody said to me recently, 'I'm going to get that tattooed on my arm.' Another person said, 'Oh, that line makes me cry.' And this other person said...."

"What a couplet!" Lewis adds.

"That's a withering couplet you got there!" Rice says.

Sounds like THAT would make for nice matching tats!

Elvis Costello's Generous Offer

Whether it's a vintage, Steve Nieve organ riff on the title track,  the vaudevillian, Depression-era chamber pop of "Jimmie Standing in the Rain", or the Doc Watson-inspired "Dr. Watson, I Presume," Elvis Costello elevates American music to contemporary heights. His co-genre explorer and producer T-Bone Burnett (their 2'nd straight collaboration)  calls Costello the most generous of artists. And the two dish out a generous helping of delicious mash ups and guests on National Ransom, like dobro maestro Jerry Douglas playing lap steel and versitile guitarist Marc Ribo jamming on the title song and Leon Russell pounding out his boogie piano deep in the record.

From the exploding oil derricks and the wolf making off with the loot on the provocative album cover, it seems Elvis has something to say about moral and monetary bankruptcy and sets each of the 16 songs in a specific place and year.

Learning from the musical glory and the mistakes from scoundrels from America's past seems to dominate the mood on this weeks' CD of The Week. But, it's way more fun to dive into than a history lesson!

Altered Freebies: Girls; Lykke Li; The Decemberists; Dr. Dog

What's better than music? Free music. Producer Nick Jackson has scoured the internet to bring you the best free downloads featured on this week's Altered Fridays, 4-7 p.m.

Girls, “Heartbreaker”{via Stereogum}
Girls are releasing a six-song EP later this month. This follows up Girls' impossible to Google album, Album. Here's a free song. Yay!

Lykke Li, “Get Some”
The other day on a drive home, I asked my girlfriend where Lykke Li has been. Turns out she recorded some new music and put it up for free on her website. Grab them at LykkeLi.com.

The Decemberists, “Down By The Water”
As awesome as it would be to hear Colin Meloy sing his version of "Have you ever seen a llama, wearing polka dot pajamas," this is not "Down By The Bay". While we wait for The Demeberists' children's record, they are releasing The King Is Dead in January. This is the first song from it.

Dr. Dog, “Take Me Into Town”
You can't download it anymore, but it's worth putting up for a listen. Dr. Dog has been very prolific recently, with no complaints here. These should show up on a 7-inch at some point, hopefully in time to show up under the Christmas tree. I wonder if Santa has an in at Anti Records.

Weasel Returns to the Radio on WTMD - Saturday Programming Changes

Weasel back in the day...Note the Reel to Reel!

Sanctimonious Saturdays are back when Weasel spins the tunes on WTMD! Thousands of us know just how important Weasel is to music and the Baltimore/Washington region. We grew up with him introducing us to bands like REM and singers like Alison Moyet, now we're thrilled a whole new generation of mus...ic lovers will get know why their parents voices get a little softer when they remember the good old days of radio.

Here's what Weasel said when we offered him the show:

“Listening to WTMD takes me back to the glory days of progressive rock radio. Both old and new artists are treated with respect. I’m thrilled that WTMD has given me the opportunity of a lifetime to do what I could never do these days on a commercial station: that is to play quality music from different eras and genres and not be restricted to a 100 song playlist.”

Weasel will be doing Noon to 3pm every Saturday and we've told him to just have fun. He'll be building his own play lists and maybe even bringing back some of his most beloved segments. Email Weasel with your favorite memory or just to say "Welcome Back To Where You Once Belonged!"

We've made a few programming changes to make room for Weasel. The Baltimore Unsigned rebroadcast moves to 7am; Melissa Lauren now hosts "Good Morning Music," a special blend that goes well with your first cup of coffee from 8am to Noon; and Don Rogers keeps the music going after Weasel from 3pm to 8pm.

Scott Mullins
Program Director