Georgetown freshman Tate Tucker has a mixtape, Blue Dreams, in the making that we over at WGTB are salivating for. In the meantime, he’s given us a single, “Clueless.” This track, like a lot of his work, shows the beginnings of a very promising trajectory for Tucker. In the first verse he gets the alliterative and lyrical gymnastics all out of his system. It’s impressive, definitely, but the second verse is really what inspires me about this young talent. He manages to transcend the particularities and some of the hedonistic indulgences of being a freshman rapper and write intelligently about his identity, “I’m a ying yang specimen, black dad, white mom, identity peddling, hardest working nigga that I know check the regiment.” Tucker is bursting with ambition and talent, and his journey to craft that talent intelligently and restrain himself judiciously is going to be really interesting, and enjoyable, to watch.

Stream and download the track after the jump.

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First of all, it was the Cold War Kids so obviously it was an amazing concert. Second of all, they did the three things that make a concert great for me: I got to belt out the songs I knew, fall in love with the songs I didn’t, and watch everyone on stage make weird facial expressions. Nathan Willett, lead vocalist who looks suspiciously like Quentin Tarantino, distracted me from EVERYTHING with his “Oh no you didn’t” neck twerks and “Girl please” hand gestures while the rest of the band flounced around the stage with their endearingly nerdy dance moves. Read More »

I can’t gush about Jessica Lea Mayfield any more. The girl can do it all, and her sound translates gracefully into a live performance. Though the Black Cat was unusually attentive Tuesday night, a couple of suit-strapping, suburban lobbyists were seriously creeping out Mayfield with marriage proposals in between songs. Seriously dude, do you really want to end up in one of her songs? She seemed nonetheless flattered and a little surprised by the crowd, and when artists are happy we’re happy. Click through for pics of Mayfield and her opener, Daniel Martin Moore.

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First of all, Noah and The Whale’s newest album, Last Night on Earth, has nothing to do with whales, so whatever, strike one. The band merges Neutral Milk Hotelesque vocals with a Guggenheim Grotto sound for a consistent theme of, well, consistency. The album teases with a first track named “Life is Life,” which disappoints in that it is not an 80’s Opus cover, but that’s fine, I let it go (just this once). The lyrics surprise since the songs are not about a guy, the girl he dated, how she keyed his car, blah blah blah. They were, for the most part, stories told from the third person, which was cute. Except they get so lost in monotonously static arrangements and tempos that by the time you’re aware of a new song it’s already too deep into new narrative territory.

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I’ve never been very good at April Fools jokes. I fretted over that a lot in middle school, back when it seemed like a bona fide holiday that one was obligated to observe. I’d try to come up with the perfect prank to pull on my friends, only to ruin them all at the start with guilty faces and giggles. Safe to say, I’ve spent more of the April Firsts of my life playing the fool than wreaking havoc. So I emphathize with the fool — pity him, even. In celebration of April Fools Day, instead of causing mayhem, here’s to being the butt of the joke. Read More »

A weekly attempt to organize everything we could possibly know [about music] into image form. Because that’s just easier than figuring out words sometimes.

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Show: Nothing But A G-O-D Thang
On-Air: Tuesdays 3-4 PM
DJs: Alex “Sunshine” Podkul, COL ’13

Curated by our very own tech director, Nothing But A G-O-D Thang eases your mind every Tuesday afternoon with witty banter, Alex’s music picks, and a solid base of Christian ethics (as evidenced by his answers below). In Alex’s own words, he should be show of the week because he’s good-looking, he’s dedicated, he’s dedicated to being good-looking, and best of all if we highlight his show the university won’t sell our station again. Plus, he’s interviewed bands upon bands on his show, and there are never any technical difficulties! Check out some highlights about Alex and Nothing But A G-O-D Thang below, and listen to his sample playlist. Then tune in every Tuesday from 3-4 p.m.

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Death Cab for Cutie guitarist/producer Chris Walla recently founded his own label, Trans, part of Warner Music’s Independent Label Group. Straight out of Anacortes, Washington, The Lonely Forest are his first signing, and Arrows, their first album under Walla’s supervision, dropped on March 22. Kick ass, right? (Keep reading to find out)! Read More »