WYEP Blog

If you haven’t pledged yet during the Summer Membership Campaign, today’s the day! All day long, you can save on Gift Memberships, receive free stuff like Paste Music cds and ponchos, be entered to win a sweet WYEP Gift package and more.

More info on the day’s goodies. Or, visit the pledge page!

WYEP is giving you the chance to win a copy! A Grand Prize will feature a DVD, limited edition 2-cd set, and a new collection from Radiohead.  Runner-up winners will receive the limited edition 2-cd set, and the new collection CD.

More Info & Enter To Win

WYEP is celebrating the anniversary of the release of the classic Bruce Springsteen album, Darkness on the Edge of Town, on Monday, June 2nd.  From 7am to 5pm, Boss’ Day on WYEP will feature a different track from the album each hour, plus other Springsteen classics & deep tracks throughout the day.  

 More Info: http://www.wyep.org/music/features/feature.php?id=47

Mike Sauter will be hosting 3 straight days of the midday on 91.3 WYEP June 12,13, and 14th. Tune into to hear the latest happenings, live interviews, and special unplugged backstage performances from the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival. Mike will be blogging from Bonnaroo.  www.bonnaroo.com

WYEP is celebrating GREAT OUTDOOORS WEEK by giving away a Family Camping Weekend Rental Package!

The package includes tents, backpacks, sleeping bags, sleeping pads, and camp stoves (gas sold separately).

ENTER TO WIN

May edition
tell a friend about this delectable evening of new music
May 22, 2008
6-7:30 pm
The WYEP Community Broadcast Center

Have you ever wondered how WYEP DJs choose the music you hear on the station? Well, here’s your chance to find out during a fun, informal happy-hour-style event!

The WYEP Music Taste Test gives you a behind-the-scenes look at how WYEP DJs select the music on 91.3fm. This new workshop gives you the chance to listen to brand new music and participate in a candid discussion about the songs and artists you hear on the air. And best of all, tasty eats and beverages will be provided while you check out the music in a fun group setting at the WYEP Community Broadcast Center.

We also want to encourage you to bring a friend to the WYEP Music Taste Test—especially friends who might not know about us. Each attendee can reserve two spaces, so hurry—sign up today—space is limited to 20 participants!

Sign up for the WYEP Music Taste Test

WYEP is giving one lucky winner the chance to attend “Rabbit Hole” – the latest production by Pittsburgh Public Theater.

Balancing honesty with humor, and tragedy with hope, this Pulitzer Prize-winning drama explores a family’s journey out of darkness after their lives are suddenly and forever changed. More information about “Rabbit Hole” at the PPT.

The winner will receive 4 tickets to the Friday, May 16th performance of ”Rabbit Hole“. Showtime is 8 PM at The O’Reilly Theater.

ENTER TO WIN

WYEP’s podcasts are back and updated after some down time due to technical difficulties. Along with your favorites are some brand new podcasts!

Check out “You Gotta Hear This!” a monthly look at new essential music, hosted by Cindy Howes.

With our other new podcast “What in the World?”, you can join Rosemary Welsch as she visits a new album from around the globe every month.

Also, there’s WYEP’s monthly “Local Music News” podcast featuring full songs from musicians around Pittsburgh.

There are also podcasts of “Prosody”, “Discumentary”, “RPM” and our “Third Thursdays” local music performances.

Check out our podcast page for more information.

If you use iTunes, and haven’t been getting updates of WYEP’s podcasts, you may need to re-subscribe to them via the iTunes podcast directory, just search for “WYEP”.

We hope you enjoy taking WYEP with you on the go!

Sunday
Luckily being on west coast time I was able to catch the Pens beating the Rangers before heading out to the last day of Coachella.  First on the list was a set by Swervedriver. Tight musically but not much of a ’show’ but again they sounded good and seemed to be enjoying playing for a small but faithful audience but not real heavy on the showmanship.  It was a little hazy which gave relief from the heat but it didn’t matter at the main stage.  Gogol Bordello was up.  They had a big crowd and had it moving to their eastern European flavored sounds and songs. Like a gypsy punk band turned up to 10.  The energy they put out was passed on to the crowd and there was lots of dancing and attempts at dancing but it didn’t matter.  A great live act. Over at the 2nd stage was Metric.  I didn’t know any of their music but I liked their set and will investigate more.  Sia is one of the acts that I had hoped to see.  To me her recorded music is pleasant as is her work with Zero 7 but put in a live venue with the sound turned up gave it better energy than I was used to and I did enjoy her set more than I expected.  To finish off the night and Coachella ’08 was Roger Waters.  His first set was Pink Floyd classics from The Wall, Wish You Were Here and Animals complete with a flying pig with political slogans, an airplane flyover, spotlights, and tons of smoke.  After a short intermission and a trip to the hotdog stand, Waters and the band performed ”Dark Side of the Moon”.  The band was very good and the guitarist played pretty much note for note but in my mind I was wishing David Gilmour would pop on stage and make it complete but alas, not to be. Still it was a great performance.  Surround sound included.  Another Coachella done.  Now the let down of leaving the southern California sun behind but summer’s just around the bend, right?
Thanks for reading my Coachella adventures for this year.  Lots of great music and sunshine.  My last comment is that except for Jack Johnson, the headliners and major draws to Coachella have been around quite a while. Lots of acts new to me at this year’s shows.  Who is gong to be the next big thing to break out now and still command headline status in 20 years in the way that Prince and Roger Waters did this year?

Frank

Saturday was hot hot and a lot of standing.  the first act we caught  was MGMT. The tent was pretty full and hot.  While most people knew the material they seemed to kick it up a bit on the last few songs and the crowd responded well.  It’s funny to me to see so many people knowing the music to band that is so new.  I just got to them recently and they’ve only recently released their first full length album.  Next up was another hot performance in a tent. Bonde Do Role, mixing dj, singers and rap, wrapped up in Brazilian words, heavy metal sounds and various singers grabbing the mic.  Over to the outdoor stage for Dwight Yoakam.  A little bit’o country in the middle of everything else. He did a few of his Buck Owens covers, his own hits like “A Thousand Miles From Nowhere” “Guitars Cadillacs” and paid homage to another southern California artist, doing “Garden Party” by Rick Nelson.  After a not so good burrito, it was over to the main stage for the rest of the night. Kraftwerk was up first. When you hear the beats, if you don’t know beter you don’t imagine 4 stoic Germans manning keyboards and laptops.  A good show visually and musically.  Portishead was next.  While the band was tight and I did look forward to hearing them live, the words are depressing.  If I wasn’t standing in a good spot I would have headed over to Flogging Molly.  Prince closed out the night and I was glad I stayed in the crowd.  He and his band threw a great show.  Starting out with Morris Day, then Sheila E. doing “Glamorous Life”, some of the ‘youngsters’ didn’t know what was happening. He played most of his hits, closing with “Purple Rain” and “Let’s Go Crazy”. It was cool that he went back as far as “Controversy”  My only disappointment was no songs from his 2 recent releases, 3121 and Planet Earth.  He played almost 2 full hours so it was well worth it.  It was great to see his guitar playing live.
One more day then home.  It’s gone too fast!