Category Archives: Radio

Milkshake and Cartoons at WTMD Radio – Perfect!

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I love when kids color outside the lines. It’s like when adults think outside the box or have a lightbulb turn on in their head, and usually leads to something special and more interesting. My friend Sam Sessa, a music-loving DJ at WTMD radio who is dedicated to the Baltimore music scene, is one of those adults. Sam emailed one day in March and said he had an idea. Talking to some of his listeners, he discovered they couldn’t get out to many of the WTMD events and shows at the station because the shows happened at night and they had kids. It just wasn’t as easy for them as it was for the teens and twenty-somethings who also tune in to this great indie rock station. So Sam thought: what if they had a show on a Saturday morning, something family-friendly that kids and parents could both groove to. Well, Milkshake has always thought that hearing and seeing live music together was family time well-spent. I loved the idea, and was honored he thought of Milkshake. WTMD hosts over 75 live concerts a year, but this would be the very first event geared especially for families.

We settled on Saturday, April 30th at 10 AM, and the show quickly sold out. I visited the station to do an interview,  and Sam and I chose some favorite cartoons to play – Sam liked Duck Tales and My Little Pony and I brought along Schoolhouse Rocks and Yellow Submarine. These were great to watch with the band playing. In fact, after the show Tom and Cord sat watching Schoolhouse Rocks and singing the songs even though the sound was off! Classic stuff is never forgotten.

We arrived at WTMD at 8 AM and loaded in. If you haven’t been to the WTMD Performance Studio to see a show, well, you should try. The station moved to new facilities in September 2013 and now have an inviting place to hear live music. The studios themselves are gorgeous. Soundman extraordinaire Donnie Carlo met us and set about getting the sound just right. This would be broadcast live over the radio, and things had to be as perfect as possible. Doing live radio is a trip – we were told whatever you do, don’t leave any dead space between songs. So when Cord’s wireless battery needed changing, Tom said “Well, kids. Here’s a teachable moment – always be prepared,” and luckily, Milkshake always has plenty to talk about and share with the kids. Before the concert, I asked the crowd to note the “Secret Word” in Pee Wee Herman-esque fashion. It was of course, WTMD. So every time we said “WTMD,” they screamed. So funny! Even the jokes during “Happy Place” were funny. One little girl said “What is a deer’s favorite food? Deeritos!” Excellent.

image1To say everyone had great time is an understatement, and it was wonderful to see so many young families, both new and familiar faces. The Walters Art Gallery and Garrison Forest School sponsored the event, and set up a station to do crafts. This, along with snacks and balloons, kept everyone happy before the band started. Really, the morning was perfect.

Sam says the station definitely plans on doing more Saturday Morning Cartoon shows in the fall. For now, take the family outside to one of WTMD’s First Thursday FREE concerts down in Canton. I recommend June 2nd if the weather’s nice. Baltimore great Andy Bopp will be on the bill, along with Boy and Bear and Basia Bulat.

Rockin WTMD

 

 

Chessie Jam – Baltimore’s kid fest

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I always admire people who think big and do something for the love of it. Such was the case with Alexis Jenkins, a Baltimore-area promoter and mother of two who decided to combine both into a music and fun festival for kids. To my knowledge, it’s never been done here in Baltimore. Sure, we’ve had our kid concerts and bands like Milkshake at some family-friendly festivals. But nothing on such a big scale and specifically for kids.

Alexis called her festival Chessie Jam, making her festival logo Chessie, a yellow sea monster. Legend goes that Chessie was/is a sea monster swimming in the Chesapeake Bay. This Chessie was kind and loved kids of course, and Alexis brought Chessie to life for the Jam, hiring a mascot dressed as Chessie to dance and play with the kids. She also hired the Oriole Bird, since all of Baltimore had orange fever at the time, our beloved O’s taking the ALC.

My mom with the Oriole Bird.

My mom with the Oriole Bird.

Lisa, Justin Roberts and Mikel.

Lisa, Justin Roberts and Mikel.

The Jam was set for Saturday, October 4th and besides Milkshake, Alexis booked Justin Roberts, Recess Monkey, Father Goose, and Lalabibi and had Biz Markie spinning tunes in between. There was the usual kid fare of moon bounce, face-painting, balloon art and various kid-centric kiosks set up around the theatre, and the day turned beautiful after morning clouds. I was especially excited to see Father Goose again after all these years, and finally meet Justin Roberts and all of the guys from Recess Monkey, both two kid bands I admire.

Father Goose looked ageless and the only sign of time passing was his little boy, who now joined him on stage. When Milkshake was starting out we had been part of a tour for kids called Jamarama.  We played a few tours, the first in 2005, with Laurie Berkner, the second in 2006 with Dan Zanes. At the time, Father Goose joined Dan on stage and they shared billing. It was great fun and there are many stories to tell, but that’s for another blog.

After doing what we usually do before a show –  set up our green room, blow up baseballs, the earth ball and make sure things are all ready to go – we chatted with Angelique Redmond, a woman starting an online kid radio station here called KINKX KIDS RADIO.  Angelique is really excited about the station and we look forward to watching its progress.

Glenn rocks.

Glenn rocks.

Glenn (barefoot), Shepp, Alan of Sirius, Lisa & Mikel

Glenn (barefoot), Shepp, Alan of Sirius, Lisa & Mikel

For this show, we welcomed back musician extraordinaire Glenn Workman, who would be filling in for Brian on keyboard and accordion. Glenn had played with us years ago and it was fun to work with him again. Glenn has a complete disdain for shoes of any kind, and his feet do look hobbit-like after years of walking the world barefoot. I remember Glenn accompanying Mikel, Shepp and I to a recording session at Sirius Satellite Radio and, yes, he walked NYC shoeless.

The afternoon was a blast, and I loved seeing kids and families enjoying what was a great festival exclusively for them. I’m looking forward to the Second Annual Chessie Jam Festival in 2015.

Special thanks to Lorionna Miller, Bill Auth and Linda Miller for the following pictures from our performance.

Rumpus Room Fun at SiriusXM Radio’s Kids Place Live

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We’ve performed at the Rumpus Room at SiriusXM Radio four times, now, and every time it’s a memorable and joyously messy experience.  Live radio is usually an anything-can-happen idea in the first place, but radio in front of a live audience is something a bit more open to a find-a-balance stress, especially since our audience is so young and loves when we dance with them. Unfortunately, that’s hard to do connected to head phones and wired for recording, and kids wonder why we have big things covering our ears and don’t seem to play with them as much. It’s a fine line between doing a great performance for this audience, and trying to get a stellar recording. Inevitably, the star rating for each song will vary depending on the perspective. But what I love best besides the incredible SiriusXM recording studio and the warm, friendly people behind the Kids Place Channel is that we are encouraged to try new things we might not do live.

For this Rumpus Room Concert, we thought we’d be more radio-focused and created a couple skits purposely for the show. Nodding to the beginning of the new Got a Minute? CD, we started the show with a skit, inviting bandmates to come on down to the SiriusXM Studio. Each one had something else they were doing – Cord, for instance, was still cleaning up after a Super Bowl Party, trying to get bean dip out of the X Box, and Tom discovered he was just outside, standing on the corner of Florida Avenue in DC. Tom created a sarcastic question and answer with me we fondly titled Yep. In between these bits, we played mostly songs from the new CD, and it felt good. Got a Minute? is full of variety and I can’t wait to play the songs at our CD Release Party at Rams Head Live April 14. It was wonderful to see Program Director Mindy Thomas and Kenny Curtis again, and we hope SiriusXM Radio listeners enjoy the concert if they catch it on the channel. Our concert airs March 22, 23 and 24.  Check the radio website for exact times.  Special thanks to good friend and photographer Bill Auth for capturing the event in pictures.

Radio, Radio!

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I’ve always been envious of DJs: What fun it must be to spin music and chat all day, taking the occasional phone call from all sorts of people. I love visiting radio stations, too, giving unpredictable answers to unexpected questions, talking about a new record or show my band is doing. I never know exactly how it’s going to go, as every DJ I meet is so very different.

Recently, I got a chance to both be a DJ and to talk with one within a couple weeks of each other, and both were exceptionally good times.

“Lisa the DJ” was asked to create an hour-long special for WXOJ’s Hilltown Family Variety Show, 103.5 FM in Northhampton, MA. My show would air on Saturday & Sunday, February 16th and 17th, right after Valentine’s Day, and since my theme was love and social consciousness, the timing was perfect. Little did I realize how much work it would involve. Gathering the right songs seemed the easy part. Putting it all together in a way that made sense, writing a script and making it all fit neatly into 58 minutes was no small task. Luckily, I had great helpers. My daughter Jesse would say yes or no to some songs – like when I asked, “Do you think kids of all ages would be okay with Billie Holiday’s ‘Strange Fruit’?”

“NO, Mom!  That’ll scare them!  Especially the burning flesh part!  It’s horrific!” she said. I was impressed she knew the lyrics so well (not to mention the word “horrific”). In our family, racism isn’t tolerated, and the school she attends teaches her the same thing.

So I settled with “God Bless the Child” instead.

When I asked my husband if he thought Simon & Garfunkel’s “The Sound of Silence” was a good social consciousness song, I received an emphatic “YES!”  That went into my playlist. Happily, Milkshake had some great ones to use, including our new anti-bullying song Let ’em Know and the look-outside-yourself gem More Than Me.

When it was time to put it all together and record the show, I headed down to our favorite studio, Invisible Sound, and handed everything to Dave Nachodsky. We started with my read of a little Danish story called Frog In Love.  It fit perfectly with my theme of love and social consciousness, since frog falls in love with a duck and, despite the naysayers, they manage to become a couple: “A frog and a duck.  Green and White.  Love knows no boundaries.” The read took all of 5 minutes, and then we worked outward from there.  Some songs had to be cut, like Ella Fitzgerald’s version of “Night and Day,” and Pink’s “Glitter in the Air,” along with my story of watching Pink swinging above us as she sang at the Grammy Awards a couple years ago. It was breathtaking, but I didn’t have time to share it on the show. In the end, I think we put together a thought-provoking show for growing musical ears and minds. You can hear it when it’s been added to the podcast list: Hilltown Family Variety Show

Alex Cortright, Mikel & Lisa

Alex Cortright, Mikel & Lisa

On the other side of the radio mic, Mikel and I headed down to WRNR in Annapolis, MD to play a few love songs and chat about our Valentine Concert Matinee at the Creative Alliance in Baltimore.  We chatted with DJ Alex Cortright about the good old days of Love Riot, and our wonderful time with Milkshake. Alex was excited to spin an unreleased song we wrote and recorded toward the end of Love Riot, a song I wrote for my dad called One of These Days. To my surprise, it didn’t sound old or dated, and it reminded me of what a wonderful band Love Riot was.

The Valentine’s Concert wasn’t a Milkshake thing.  It was more a Love Riot thing, pumped up and expanded. We did some old songs from the Love Riot catalog, along with a couple new ones and some favorite covers. Look for pics and more about the show in my next post.