Live in NYC Wednesday: WNYC to Webcast Mountain Goats and Suzanne Vega

The Mountain Goats and Suzanne Vega will be performing live Wednesday afternoon at WNYC's new downtown performing space, and if you can't make it there you can watch the live webcast.

The performance, part of the station's show "Soundcheck," starts at 2 p.m. The show will be webcast live and will also be broadcast on WNYC's FM station at 93.9.

The Mountain Goats are a band led by John Darnielle. Their latest album, “All Eternals Deck,” came out on March 29th. In a write-up about the album NPR Music said of Darnielle, "Once a wild man whose shouted white-knuckle screeds could barely be contained by the crummy boom boxes on which he recorded them, Darnielle has aged into a singing poet whose words still hit like punches." (More on Mountain Goats from NPR Music.)

Suzanne Vega has long been one of my favorite musicians ever since her first album (which celebrated its 25th anniversary last year). I've seen her play in venues ranging from large festivals to small clubs; she's definitely a performer I'd recommend seeing. Her latest project is the original off-Broadway play “Carson McCullers Talks About Love,” about the famous Southern author who is a hero of Vega's. Vega wrote the script for the work and plays McCullers, and also collaborated on the score with pop musician Duncan Sheik, who's now had success a huge success on Broadway with "Spring Awakening."

New Music Podcasts: Favorite Cover Tunes, Elvis Costello Live, Gospel Christmas Tunes, & More

Check out the free music podcasts below for holiday and non-holiday music for your Christmas travels. Photo: SteveStrummer 

Since lots of folks are traveling around Christmastime, how about some downloading some music podcasts to listen to to occupy the time? Here are a bunch of them, enough (we hope) to drown about the all loud cellphone conversations of the people around you at the airport or on the train. And the more raucus holiday arguments at the dinner table.

* Over at Coverville, you'll find a stocking full of recent podcasts. First off, there are the first two parts of the podcast's annual countdown show of listeners' 40 favorite cover tunes. Included is recent NBC "Sing-Off" contestant On the Rocks performing their a cappella rendition of Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance."

Also on Coverville is the two-part tribute to the Talking Heads, performed by the podcast's listeners. As you'd expect, the quality and styles vary widely, but Coverville clearly has some very talented listeners.

And finally, Coverville offers its Christmas Cover Show 2010, with new versions of not-your-average holiday tunes, including remakes of "Christmas Wrapping" by The Waitresses and "Last Christmas" by Wham.

* The CBC Radio 3 podcast presents Home for the Holidays, a show in which listeners from all over the world make long-distance requests of their favorite songs by Canadian artists to send out to their loved ones.

* If your taste in Christmas music runs to the sacred side, download the podcast of the annual Christmas Eve Gospel Music program on WNYC's Leonard Lopate Show. It includes tunes like Mahalia Jackson singing "Silent Night" and the Swan Silvertones doing "Great Day in December."

Also, the Lopate show today rebroadcast (and reposted the podcast of) a live set by Elvis Costello and band at WNYC from back in November. He plays tunes from his latest album, produced by T-Bone Burnett, which shows the country/bluegrass side of the British rocker.

* KCRW's Morning Becomes Eclectic has a new in-studio live set with Jamie Lidell, the British producer who, the station says, can be found "sliding into neo-soul songs as easily as he slices through spacey folk-blues." For some reason recent MBE podcasts don't show up on their webpage, bou can download the podcast through iTunes (and probably other podcast download programs as well).

Merry Christmas!

WNYC's "Gig Alert": Free Daily Downloads from Selected Musicians in Town

WNYC has been expanding its coverage of popular music, and part of that is its "Gig Alert" feature that spotlights a live show in the NYC area and gives you a free MP3 download of a song from the act. Gig Alert is featured every weekday, and has a link to buy tickets to the show if you want to see the group's live show.

It's an eclectic mix of music genres and styles. Recent Gig Alerts have featured indie rockers such as Deerhunter, Pavement, The Posies, and Oberhofer; singer-songwriters including Basia Bulat; the "Tango electronica" of Gotan Project; longtime bluesman Charlie Musselwhite; and jazz acts such as The Jazz Passengers.

You can download the tunes, stream them one at a time, or do what I do: click the "Add" button to each song I want to hear, which puts them on a playlist so I can listen to one interrupted music stream.

Check the Gig Alert page for descriptions and downloads of recent songs and artists featured. If you're interested in getting music news and features as well as the Gig Alerts, visit the WNYC music page, part of the station's (relatively) new arts and culture website, culture.wnyc.org.

New York's WQXR Radio Changes Owners, and Frequencies, Starting Today

WQXR, the classical radio station that's been a fixture on the New York City airwaves for decades, has changed owners and, as of 8 p.m. tonight, has changed frequencies.

The station, which was long owned by the New York Times, was acquired in a three-way deal in which pubic radio station WNYC acquired WQXR. WQXR can now be found at 105.9 FM... the former frequency of Spanish-language station WCAA-FM, which is owned by Univision (the third party in the transaction). WCAA swaps frequencies with WQXR, and is now broadcasting at 96.3 FM. A blend of classical music meant to appeal to younger listeners can be found on an online stream called "Q2," according to an article in the Times.

On thing that's not changing is the station's format: it will still be devoted to airing classical music.

WNYC bought WQXR for $33.5 million. Laura Walker, WNYC's president and CEO, explained the transaction in a letter on its Web site. WNYC also has a set of frequently asked questions on the WQXR acquisition.

WQXR is an all-classical station that survived in a rough market that's seen many stations change hands and program formats. Unlike those stations, WQXR was being sold not because of lack of interest in its classical format but because of the continuing financial problems of its owner, the New York Times. (WQXR's slogan was, "The radio station of the New York Times." Which used to be radio stations, in a time in the past when WQXR had both an AM and an FM frequency playing classical music.)

WNYC now has three stations. WNYC AM (news and talk) will probably see few if any changes. WNYC FM, which plays classical and other music but has been featuring more news and talk over the years, will probably more even more in that direction as some of its classical programs and hosts move to WQXR.

I've enjoyed listening to WQXR off and on for more than 30 years, so I'm glad to see it still around, and still playing classical music. The new WQXR can be found at 105.9 FM in the New York metro area and at www.wqxr.org.

Having just become a public radio station, WQXR is already taking part in a longstanding tradition of that genre: the pledge drive (naturally, they've got to pay off that $33.5 million somehow).