Connor Barwin, the Philadelphia Eagles defensive player, recently stopped by WXPN to talk with XPN’s afternoon host Dan Reed about Barwin’s 3rd annual Make The World Better benefit concert on Friday, June 3rd at Union Transfer. The show is an all-Philly bill including Hop Along, Waxahatchee, and a surprise special guest. Continue reading →
The Greatest Year In Music is the theme for WXPN’s annual countdown this year, and we’re asking you to vote for up to five of your favorite years in music. The top ten years will be played back the week of November 2nd with an entire day devoted to the number one most-voted-on greatest year in music. Continue reading →
It takes a lot of work to make the XPoNential Music Festival happen every year. The days are long, sometimes stressful, and it’s massively important to keep your sense of humor about you. This is what WXPN afternoon host Dan Reed had in mind (we think) when he grabbed videographer Meredith Edlow on Sunday afternoon and roamed the festival grounds bothering people. Continue reading →
It started with “Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head” by B.J. Thomas and ended with “Escape (The Pina Colada Song) by Rupert Holmes. WXPN’s Dan Reed recently took his High’s In The 70’s programming feature and turned it into a “Solid Gold #1 Hits of the 70s Weekend. Continue reading →
WXPN’s Dan Reed and The Philadelphia Inquirer‘s Dan DeLuca have teamed up to create Dan and Dan, a new podcast where the two music critics talk about current happenings in the wide world of music. The third episode came out today and it covers a range of topics, like Mumford and Sons’ new electric sound, the upcoming Firefly Music Festival and the Grateful Dead Farewell Concert. Continue reading →
This weekend WXPN’s Dan Reed has been playing all the number one Billboard pop hits of the Seventies. Below, sample of the comments on twitter. You can follow the conversation on twitter @wxpfm #solidgoldxpn.
If you had a cb handle, raise yer hand! @wxpnfm #solidgoldxpn
— Dan Reed (@WXPNDanReed) March 1, 2015
I wish this song was all bass line. #solidgoldxpn
— Renee Kiner (@librarian_renee) March 1, 2015
The worst song from my favorite Elton John album. #solidgoldXPN
— joshpincus (@joshpincus) March 1, 2015
He guides you through the evening rush hour every weekday on XPN with humor and wit, and now he can guide you through New Year’s Eve with his new band and a few friends. That’s right, the one and only Dan Reed will be at Dawson Street Pub with local funk / soul singer Cookie Rabinowitz and the legendary Schoolly D to ring in 2015. Continue reading →
Strand Of Oaks, the project of Philly mainstay Timothy Showalter, is about to release a new album on Tuesday. It’s called Heal and it’s one of this year’s must-listen records (in fact, you can and should do that right here). Tim came by the XPN studio for Dan Reed’s weekly Like A Version segment to cover Gillian Welch’s “Time (The Revelator),” a song that is notably more delicate than his own recent music. Showalter admits that, following the recording and production of Heal, he needed to ease his ears with sounds that were a bit gentler than the heavy percussion and searing guitars that had surrounded him. The resulting cover is both characteristically intense and lovingly reverent.
Listen to the performance and interview below and catch Strand Of Oaks at our Free at Noon Concert next Friday and at Boot and Saddle on September 19th.
Today is the 12 hour Prog Rock Marathon on WXPN hosted by Dan Reed and his returning guest, local prog rock expert Biff Kennedy. From Noon to 5 they will be upstairs at World Cafe Live, welcoming special guests and spinning classic prog-rock; King Crimson, Can, Genesis, Emerson, Lake & Palmer, and of course, some Yes.
Philly has always loved its Yes, prog-rockers who are still at it – during this summer’s Yestival tour, John DiLIberto called them “dinosaurs that have been reborn.” Introduced to many radio listeners in Philly by Ed Sciaky on WMMR back in the early Seventies, Yes performed in Philly regularly, playing the Spectrum 12 times from 1971 to 1979. While they often played two nights in a row here, they once played twice on the same day, including a matinee show, on February 16th, 1974 during the Tales From Topographic Oceans tour.
In June, 1979 the band performed three nights in a row, “in the round,” on a rotating stage, and the show on June 21st was recorded and released on DVD. The band at the time included Jon Anderson, Steve Howe (guitar), Rick Wakeman (keyboards), Chris Squire (bass), and Alan White (drums). Below, watch a couple of songs from that performance – “Starship Trooper,” and “Siberian Khatru” – followed by a recording of a complete show during the Relayer tour from the Spectrum on July 22nd, 1977.
Year End Mania is the Key’s survey of the things below the surface that made 2013 awesome. In this installment, XPN afternoon host Dan Reed recounts his highlights of the year.
1. John Murry – the man and his music. The Graceless Age album is a must have.