World Cafe Guests

WXPN Radio

The premier guide for new and significant artists in rock, blues, and folk - including NPR-syndicated World Cafe ®

Listen Xpo

24/7 Musical discovery. A unique mix of emerging and heritage blues, rock, world, folk, and alt-country artists.

Singer Songwriter Radio

Featuring classics from heritage troubadours to new musicians and bands in the singer-songwriter tradition.

Folk Radio

Folk music radio streaming on the web; Americana, Roots Music, recordings, and stories from folk's best.
Listen Live

Fitz & The Tantrums - February 2011 Artist To Watch

It all started with the 88 keys of an old organ. This month's Artist to Watch, Fitz & The Tantrums, is a six-person outfit of soul + pop and some really quite dapper suits. It only took a year for them to hit it big, and they're still growing--there's got to be something good about a band that can coast to sharing stages with Maroon 5 and Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings on just an EP.



But back to the organ. Frontman Michael Fitzpatrick recalls his ex-girlfriend hurriedly phoning him about an old organ for sale next door, and when Fitzpatrick finally got it home that night, the first pieces of the soon-to-be big single "Breaking the Chains of Love" began to form. As he put it, "Sometimes, the Music Gods just give it to you."

Add five musicians, plenty of touring, and a couple new sets of stellar songs that sound straight out of the classic days of Motown, and there's a pretty good description of Fitz and the Tantrums--along with a growing fan base and plenty of critic love. Their latest, "Pickin' Up The Pieces", was released just this past August, and includes "Breaking the Chains of Love". As described in LA Weekly, this album is not withstandable. "It only takes about two minutes and 54 seconds - the length of single Breakin The Chains of Love - to turn a hard-line skeptic into a rug-cutting fool."



Website: fitzandthetantrums.com/
MySpace: myspace.com/fitzandthetantrums
Recent Release: Pickin' Up The Pieces
Release Date: August 24, 2010
Label: Dangerbird Records
Hometown:Los Angeles, CA

Listen to a new Edward Sharpe and The Magnetic Zeros song, “Better Days” (playing XPoNential Music Festival in...

Photo by Joseph Schell Photography https://www.facebook.com/pages/Joseph-Schell-Photography/106691849363906 Edward Sharpe and the...Read More

The Key Studio Sessions: Market East

The guys of Market East clearly have a thing for the warmer months of the year. There was “Marielle,” the rhapsody over...Read More

Watch Philly rapper Taylor Dunn flow in various center city locales in “Water”

Late last year, Philly rapper Taylor Dunn released his latest mixtape, On the Contrary; this week, we got a music video for the single...Read More

Watch DRGN King perform “Holy Ghost” for Out of Town Films (playing the XPoNential Music Festival in...

We’re very excited to have Philadelphia’s DRGN King on the lineup for this year’s XPoNential Music Festival. Their...Read More

Listen / Download: “Walking” from NONA’s Through the Head (playing the First Unitarian Church on...

Coming out of the suburbs of Philadelphia, NONA are a pop / punk trio formed by former Spraynard drummer Pat Ware, guitarist /...Read More