“Atmospheric Philly cinema-rockers iNFiNieN — who blend piano, many-pedaled guitars, sitar, Arabic melodies, complex percussion, and cooing female vocals straight out of a Blonde Redhead album.” (Philadelphia Weekly)

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Halim El-Dabh is University Professor Emeritus of African Ethnomusicology at Kent State University, Kent, Ohio. He continues to teach African Cultural Expressions. He has conducted ethnomusicological research in the Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, Guinea, Mali, Morocco, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Sudan, and Zaire. Within the African Diaspora, his research includes Brazil, Jamaica, and the United States.

Born in Cairo, Egypt on March 4, 1921, El-Dabh came to the United States in 1950, acquiring U.S. citizenship in 1961. After studies of Native American music in the American Southwest, he began studies with Aaron Copland and Irving Fine at the Berkshire Music Center in Massachusetts. Later, in New York’s vibrant musical scene, he developed close associations with such composers as Otto Luening, Vladimir Ussachevsky, Henry Cowell, John Cage, Alan Hovhaness, and Leonard Bernstein.

Among his compositions are eleven operas, four symphonies, numerous ballets and orchestral pieces, chamber and electronic works, and works for various combinations of African, Asian, and Western instruments. His ethnomusicological researches, conducted on several continents, have led to unique creative syntheses in his works, which, while utilizing contemporary compositional techniques and new systems of notation, are frequently imbued with Near Eastern, African, or even Ancient Egyptian aesthetics.

What a wonderful show! Before the show, we got to meet the band, who are so awesome and sweet (just like their music). WPRB bonded with Kip and Peggy of TPBPH over college radio. In fact, Kip grew up in Philly listening to WPRB, so he told us stories of how he loved listening to Shellac on WPRB. Peggy, who grew up in uptown New Orleans, talked about how she loved being DJ and music director at Tulane’s station. Just as much as we loved meeting the band we love to listen to, TPBPH was excited to meet the college radio kids they once were. We had a wonderful time talking with the band; the interview with the band will air in the very near future, so stay tuned for details.

The opening band, Zaza definitely mastered the art of using loop machines. While the band only consists of a guitarist, a bassist, and drummer with a cymbal, floor tom, and a snare, the band used loop machines to create a full and dreamy sound.

After Zaza, The Pains of Being Pure At Heart played a set of mostly songs from their self-titled album. The band was so adorable! They also played their latest single, “103,” which they dedicated to WPRB. Kip, before playing the song, mentioned to the audience how much he loved WPRB and that their latest single was for WPRB, which shares its frequency with the song title.

Overall, it was a very fun show, filled with awesome shoegaze and dream pop! What did you think?

Stay tuned for more fun this summer — we’ve got a bunch of great shows lined up!

Deena is Deena Shoshkes, the singer-songwriter who fronts the veteran Jersey power-pop group the Cucumbers. The sounds on Somewhere in Blue are a unique blend of new wave rockabilly, country and folk rock, filtered through Deena’s long-time indie pop sensibilities. Songs written with Tennessee-based lyricist David Graham (four of which appear on the CD) led Deena into country music, old and new, and southern rock, and inspired a new voice and direction in Deena’s solo songwriting as well. Recorded in Nashville, with producer Roger Moutenot (Yo La Tengo, Josh Rouse) and New Jersey, with The Laughing Boys, Tom Lucas and Ed Iglewski, the recordings bridge the distance between Deena’s roots in New Jersey music (from Hoboken indie pop to the Jersey shore) and alt country Americana. (via NotLame.com)

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WPRB & R5 Productions are proud to present everyone’s favorite twee act THE PAINS OF BEING PURE AT HEART on Wednesday, May 6th at the Barbary (951 N Frankford Ave) in Philadelphia! This show is ALL-AGES and starts at 6:30PM!

It should come as no shock that we love The Pains… noisy brand of rock — and they love us too, it seems! Their self-titled debut for the Slumberland label has taken the country by storm:

If dreamy, ’80s-sounding indie pop is your thing, the Pains of Being Pure at Heart have your number in a big way. Close your eyes and this local quartet will whisk you away to a magical land of Smiths posters and John Hughes montages. Like riding your bicycle to your friends house after you’ve finished your homework.

Stay tuned to WPRB — you can win tickets to this show!

Also on the bill are Brooklyn’s Za Za. What we’ve heard sounds good, so come early to check them out!

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We’d be remiss if we didn’t mention that today is the 90th birthday of pioneering folk musician PETE SEEGER. His contributions to folk music (and popular music) are numerous, so here’s to taking a moment out of our day to wish him a Happy Birthday!

Allmusic’s Zac Johnson put it best: “Perhaps no single person in the 20th century has done more to preserve, broadcast, and re-distribute folk music than Pete Seeger, whose passion for politics, the environment, and humanity have earned him both ardent fans and vocal enemies since he first began performing in the late ’30s. His never-ending battle against injustice led to his being blacklisted during the McCarthy era, celebrated during the turbulent ’60s, and welcomed at union rallies throughout his life. His tireless efforts regarding global concerns such as environmentalism, population growth, and racial equality have earned him the respect and friendship of such political heroes as Martin Luther King, Jr., Woody Guthrie, and Cesar Chavez, and the generations of children who first learned to sing and clap to Seeger’s Folkways recordings must number in the millions. Rising above all of Seeger’s political ideals and his passion for authentic folk music is his clear voice and chiming banjo which both sing out with a clarity that rings true.”

Don’t forget – you can hear Pete Seeger and many others on New Jersey’s longest running folk music program, WPRB’s Music You Can’t Hear On The Radio tonight at 7PM ET!

Below, enjoy a clip from “To Hear Your Banjo Play” (1947):

On Fridays you can always hear the best of the best during our Top Ten Show on at 5PM EDT! (Like the show? Become a fan on Facebook!)

WPRB 103.3 FM TOP 30 FOR THE WEEK ENDING MAY 1, 2009

1 KING KHAN AND THE SHRINES What Is?! Vice
2 METRIC Fantasies Self-Released
3 DAN DEACON Brömst Carpark
4 SUPERCHUNK Leaves In The Gutter Merge
5 FEVER RAY Fever Ray Mute
6 JUNIOR BOYS Begone Dull Care Domino
7 ACEYALONE Aceyalone And The Lonely Ones Decon
8 MAN IS DOOMED Escape To Europa Skeptic
9 BLACK JOE LEWIS AND THE HONEYBEARS Tell ‘Em What Your Name Is Lost Highway
10 KURT VILE AND THE VIOLATORS The Hunchback Richie Records
11 PJ HARVEY AND JOHN PARISH A Woman A Man Walked By Island
12 RTFO BANDWAGON Dums Will Survive Dull Knife
13 THE WHIP X Marks Destination Razor & Tie
14 VARIOUS ARTISTS SCORE! 20 Years Of Merge Records: The Covers Merge
15 WAVVES Wavves Fat Possum
16 MICACHU AND THE SHAPES Jewellery Rough Trade
17 VASELINES Enter The Vaselines SUB POP
18 BALKAN BEAT BOX Nu Made Remixes JDub
19 COMET GAIN Broken Record Prayers What’s Your Rupture?
20 SILVERSUN PICKUPS Swoon Dangerbird
21 POMEGRANATES Everybody Come Outside Lujo
22 EMERALDS What Happened No Fun Productions
23 SWAN LAKE Enemy Mine Jagjaguwar
24 AXEMEN Big Cheap Hotel Self-released
25 THERMALS Now We Can See Kill Rock Stars
26 IT HUGS BACK Inside Your Guitar Self-released
27 DENGUE FEVER Sleepwalking Through The Mekong M80
28 JEFF JOHNSON Tall Stranger Origin
29 THUNDERHEIST Thunderheist Big Dada
30 STILL FLYIN’ Never Gonna Touch The Ground Ernest Jenning

FROM WPRB NEWS: WPRB’s “Discourse” program presents an interview with poet and musician Paul Muldoon on Friday, 5/1 at 7:30 ET and Sunday, 5/3 at 12:00pm ET.

A returning guest on “Discourse”, Muldoon focuses this time on the connections between his poetry and his music. Muldoon is the Howard G. B. Clark Professor and Chair of the Peter B. Lewis Center for the Arts at Princeton University. His collections include New Weather (1973), Meeting the British (1987), the Pulitzer Prize-winning Moy Sand and Gravel (2002) and, Horse Latitudes (2006). He is also the poetry editor of the New Yorker magazine. Though best known for his own poetry, Muldoon writes lyrics and plays guitar in a band called Rackett. Rackett is scheduled to perform Saturday May 2nd at the Performing Arts Center in Princeton New Jersey and at the Bowery Poetry Club on May 16 and June 20.

As the Spring 2009 schedule comes to a close, we’d love to know what your favorites are on the current WPRB lineup.

You can vote for as many as you like and love, but act soon — this poll closes on Friday, May 8th at midnight!

Jump into the voting booth or see the poll results right after the cut!

Got something else to say about our programming? Share your thoughts in the comments!

Vote for your favorites!

See the results!

» You can also vote & see the results here!

Eeep! According to Dr. Cosmo, Canadian Invasion won’t be performing this Friday night on WPRB after all:

Due to a last-minute conflict, Philadelphia popsters Canadian Invasion will be unable to perform on Nocturnal Transmissions this Friday, April 24. I am working with the band to reschedule their appearance and will let you know as soon as this occurs.

As such, it looks like it will simply be me spinnin’ ‘n’ grinnin’ during the program. Tune in and let’s see where we go together! Avanti!