Youth Lagoon w/ Memory Pearl
2025-05-03 19:00 (America/New_York) | Grog Shop, 2785 Euclid Heights Boulevard, Cleveland Heights, OH, 44106, United States
SAT May 3, 2025
ALL AGES
Doors 7:30 p.m.

“Life itself is a thunderstorm,” says Trevor Powers, the Idaho-based songwriter and producer behind the Youth Lagoon moniker. “Life itself is brothers on walkie-talkies… it’s your dog at the backdoor, or a speeding car off in the distance. It’s a gentle voice on the radio. Mom smoking on the porch. The color of sunlight. It’s always right under your nose and so easy to miss. Often, a simple treasure.”
In the fall of 2023, that treasure came in the form of a shoebox filled with home videos Powers found in his parents’ basement while he was looking for a pre-war harmonica that once belonged to his grandma. “When I took the tapes home and popped in the first one, it was my brother Bobby and I at the state fair. I was 4 years old choking on a corn dog,” he laughs. “If anything’s a summary of life, that is.” Powers spent the following week recording his favorite moments off the TV — Easter egg hunts, backyard baseball, bloody noses, birthday parties, road trips, and all the life in-between. “I was like a ghost in a lost memory,” says Powers.
The vivid intimacies of life and boyhood depicted in Powers’ home movies not only began shaping his songs, but infusing with them. He started sampling the audio and manipulating it into a kind of musical cinematography, fusing past with future. “What I was really consumed with was how much I could zoom in on my actual history,” says Powers. “I wanted to really make someone feel like they were inside my living room in 1993, but rearrange the furniture a bit. Something about combining that level of hyperreality with fairytales of devils and detectives weirdly felt like the truest way to immortalize these pieces of my family.”

Nada Surf - Moon Mirror Tour w/ The CLE Elum
2025-05-02 19:00 | Grog Shop, 2785 Euclid Heights Boulevard, Cleveland Heights, OH, 44106, United States
FRI May 2, 2025
ALL AGES
Doors 7:00 p.m.

Moon Mirror, Nada Surf’s new record, has everything fans love and expect from them. Bittersweet anthems that begin quietly but explode into soaring harmonies? Check. Songs that are play-on-repeat heart punches? Check. Songs that are poetic and thought-provoking while also being absolute belt-at-the-top-of-your-voice-with-the-windows-down masterpieces? Check. It’s all here.
Nada Surf is Matthew Caws, Daniel Lorca, Ira Elliot, and Louie Lino. Moon Mirror, their first for New West Records, was produced by the band and Ian Laughton at Rockfield Studios in Wales.
Moon Mirror is a thrilling and moving leap forward for Nada Surf. The songs on the album are true to the human experience — as meaningful and mysterious and sometimes absurd as it is. There’s love, yes, but also grief, deep loneliness, doubt, wonder, and hope. These are not the songs of a band in their 20s. There is hard-won wisdom here, and hard-won belief in possibility — the kind that comes from falling down and getting back up.
“Give Me The Sun” (“I’m looking for something/ I can’t say exactly what”), “Second Skin” (“I’m tired of living in this second skin/ I want to let everything in”), and “Moon Mirror” (“connect me to something”) grapple with being present and open, paying attention, and seeking connection in a world that feels alienating with its everything-all-at-once-ness. “In Front of Me Now” is a song against multi-tasking and sleepwalking through the one life we have. The song asks, “Why wasn’t I present? I could have been living,” and shows us a transformation in the chorus: “Today, I do what’s in front of me now.” I don’t know about you, but I need this reminder as much as ever.
Nada Surf has been working together for decades, and they’re consistently excellent, but they always surprise me. That’s what great art does. For nearly 30 years, Nada Surf has been a part of the soundtrack of my life. Our lives. I fell hard for the band over Let Go in 2002, and following that, The Weight Is a Gift, in 2005. Those songs are lodged in my body, someplace they’ll never be extracted from. So are songs from The Proximity Effect, Lucky, The Stars Are Indifferent to Astronomy, and Never Not Together, which was my favorite record of 2020. Moon Mirror will take its place among the others, in heavy rotation.

Orla Gartland w/ FIGHTMASTER
2025-04-27 19:00 | Beachland Ballroom, 15711 Waterloo Rd., Cleveland, OH, 44110, United States
SUN April 27, 2025
ALL AGES
Doors 7:00 PM
Orla Joan Gartland is an Irish singer, songwriter and musician. Gartland released her debut studio album, Woman on the Internet, in 2021, which reached number 3 on the Irish album chart, number 1 on the UK Indie Chart, and number 10 on the UK Albums Chart.
FIGHTMASTER is the music project of nonbinary artist and activist, E.R. Fightmaster. Their music bends genres, blending alternative rock and indie folk with hints of pop, country, and even funk. With lyrics that playfully take on gender, power, grief and love, FIGHTMASTER finds the perfect balance between edgy and energetic, sensual and tender. Much like the artist themself, the music is genderbending, confident and queer as f*ck.

Ben Kweller - Cover The Mirrors Tour with RYMAN
2025-04-24 19:00 | Grog Shop, 2785 Euclid Heights Boulevard, Cleveland Heights, OH, 44106, United States
THU April 24, 2025
ALL AGES
Doors 7:00 p.m.
BK is back and he’s not the same. Who could be after the heartbreak he’s endured since the sudden passing of his 16-year old son. Instead of hiding away, the beloved indie-rocker is walking through the fire of grief with intention and purpose. This unimaginable journey has led him to his seventh album, Cover The Mirrors, and the accompanying tour which begins on April 15th.
“Music has been my savior throughout my life but never before has it saved me as much as it has this past year. My upcoming album, Cover The Mirrors, is a deep dive into my new reality. It’s a collage of my good days and my bad days, my highest highs and my lowest of lows. It’s the most personal, emotionally raw project I’ve ever worked on.”
Kweller has been an open book throughout his illustrious career. His songs hold a nostalgic quality that takes you to a time and a place, happy or sad. He’s also one of the rare few who can translate his recordings into captivating concerts that keep his fans coming back again and again. If you’ve never seen BK live before, the Cover The Mirrors Tour is sure to be his most heartfelt and joyous live show yet. This is a chance for old and new fans to come together and witness one of the great songwriters at his creative peak.

Brainiac w/ DANA and PAL
2025-04-15 19:00 | Grog Shop, 2785 Euclid Heights Boulevard, Cleveland Heights, OH, 44106, United States
TUE April 15, 2025
ALL AGES
Doors 7:00 p.m.
Brainiac spent the 90s carving their own path directly through every typical musical trope, but just as their trajectory had poised them to present their maniacal vision of hissing electro-punk to the mainstream, the death of lead singer Timmy Taylor cut their story short. In the wake of this tragic event, many artists (such as Trent Reznor, The Mars Volta, Muse, The Flaming Lips, the Breeders, Mogwai, etc) have espoused the band’s lasting influence and relevance as trailblazers whose music still sounds fresh and ahead of its time even today.
Over 25 years later, following a full length documentary about the band along with several recently unearthed archival releases, the surviving band members emerge to celebrate the music and give it life once more both for a new generation and long time fans alike. Don’t miss out while you have the chance. Go freaks go!

La Lom w/ El Marchante
2025-04-13 19:00 | Beachland Ballroom, 15711 Waterloo Rd., Cleveland, OH, 44110, United States
SUN April 13, 2025
ALL AGES
Doors 7:00 PM
The Los Angeles League of Musicians, LA LOM, are an instrumental trio formed in Los Angeles in 2021. They blend the sounds of Cumbia Sonidera, 60’s soul ballads and classic romantic boleros that emanate from radios, backyard parties and dance clubs of Los Angeles with the twang of Peruvian Chicha and Bakersfield Country.

Crack The Sky w/ Cuda Brothers
2025-04-11 18:00 | Music Box Supper Club, 1148 Main Ave., Cleveland, Ohio, 44113, United States
FRI April 11, 2025
ALL AGES
Doors: 6:00 PM
Crack the Sky is an American progressive rock band formed in the early 1970s. In 1975, Rolling Stone declared their first album “debut album of the year.” Today, some 45+ years later, the band is back and breaking new ground. Compared to Steely Dan by Rolling Stone Record Guide, their first three albums charted on the Billboard 200. In 2015, their debut album was ranked number 47 in the Rolling Stone list of “50 Greatest Prog Rock Albums of All Time.”

WRUW Telethon 2025
2025-04-07 00:00 - 2025-04-13 23:59 | WRUW-FM 91.1 Cleveland, 11220 Bellflower Rd, Cleveland, OH, 44106, United States
Telethon is coming! This is the one time a year we ask for your help to grow and improve WRUW-FM. Support us by donating online NOW or make a donation by calling in during Telethon week! Visit telethon.wruw.org now to donate to your favorite shows and check out the awesome new premiums we’re offering as gifts for your donation. You’ll be hearing our DJs pitch to you all this week so please excuse any change in our normal 24/7, 365 days a week, programming. Which happens, by the way, because of support from listeners like you.
About 60% of our annual operating budget comes from Telethon. Past telethons have paid for our increase to 15,000 watts, our web streaming, our archives, our digital signal, new studios, and last year a brand new transmitter! This year, it’s our goal to raise another $91k to pay for the installation of this massive piece of metal!
From April 7 at 12 a.m. though April 13 at 11:59 p.m., listeners can donate online at telethon.wruw.org or by calling 216.368.2208 from 8 a.m. until 10 p.m. each day.

Studio-A-Rama 2024
2024-09-07 13:00 - 23:00 | Mather Memorial Courtyard, 11220 Bellflower Road, Cleveland, OH, 44106, United States
WRUW is proud to announce the return of Studio–A–Rama! That’s right, after a 4-year hiatus, Studio–A–Rama returns this year on Saturday, September 7 to it’s original location in the Mather Memorial Courtyard. Our one-day music festival is FREE and open to all ages as a thank you for your support 365 days of the year.

As always, Studio–A–Rama will feature a full day’s worth of local and national acts beginning at 1 p.m. and running until 11 p.m. Check out our line-up below! We have ONE more very special surprise to announce… our secret headliner who will take the stage at 10 p.m. Stay tuned!

1:45 PM – The Super Babes2:30 PM – HONOLULU HIGH3:15 PM – C-Level4:00 PM – NATURE4:45 PM – Brood X5:30 PM – RRRIOT!6:15 PM – MuAmin Collective7:00 PM – Suitor7:45 PM – Perfect Pals8:30 PM – Grumpy Plum9:15 PM – Shadow Show (Detroit, MI)
10:00 PM – Cheekface (Los Angeles, CA)

Bring a blanket, lawn chairs, or a picnic, but please leave glass bottles AND alcoholic beverages at home. You may enjoy a meal from food trucks on site at the event, or walk just a few yards away to our friends The Jolly Scholar to enjoy a cold one. You will be able to listen and watch the performance simulcast on the big screen!

We can’t wait to see you there, at the triumphant return of Studio-A, now in its 38th non-consecutive year!

Driving to Studio-A? There are surface lots surrounding the area off of Ford Dr. and Bellflower Rd. where you may park for up to 4 hours or more at a time for a nominal fee. Metered parking spots are available just a short walk away on Bellflower Drive and East Blvd. Be sure to carpool and if you’ll be drinking, bring a DD.

Taking Public Transit? Use the RTA Rapid Red Line and take it to the Cedar-University stop. Take the CircleLink right to Mather Memorial! Or take the Healthline to Euclid Av & Cornell Rd station, we are just a 5 minute walk away.

The Linda Lindas
2024-09-03 18:00 - 23:30 | Beachland Ballroom, 15711 Waterloo Rd., Cleveland, OH, 44110, United States
Doors 6 p.m. | Show 7 p.m.
ALL AGES
The Linda Lindas debut album, Growing Up was released in 2022 to wide critical praise with The New York Times calling it “a combination of wholesome and fierce” and Pitchfork hailing it as “the most heartwarming record of the year.” Since its release they’ve performed on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel Live!, CBS Mornings, Tiny Desk, James Corden and appeared in the pages of Vogue, W Mag, The New York Times and in fashion campaigns for Opening Ceremony and Rodarte. The Linda Lindas spent most of 2022 and 2023 on a world tour including playing shows with the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Japanese Breakfast and Paramore and will spend the summer of 2024 opening for Green Day.

Angie McMahon w/ Mimi Gilbert
2024-08-17 19:30 - 23:30 | Grog Shop, 2785 Euclid Heights Boulevard, Cleveland Heights, OH, 44106, United States
Doors 7:30 p.m. | Show 8:30 p.m.
All Ages; + $3 at the door if under 21
To make her new album, Light, Dark, Light Again, Angie McMahon had to walk through the fire. The Melbourne singer-songwriter’s second LP was written from the ashes of a tough but transformative few years of relationship changes, private breakdowns and core-shaking revelations about self. At times, McMahon felt like falling apart. But instead, she pushed through and found that hope, joy and relief lies on the other side of pain.
The inevitability of change, the push and pull and between light and dark, and the natural cycles of the world are all over Light, Dark, Light Again, which marks McMahon’s step into a bolder, bigger, brighter expanse of sound than she has utilised before. Whether she is documenting her own metamorphosis on Saturn Returning, rumbling with rage, power and reverence for the earth on Mother Nature, celebrating release on Letting Go or pledging to step into the bravest version of herself on Exploding, McMahon’s songs feel like a triumph; music that buoys and cradles you.
Light, Dark, Light Again is a record about facing the fear and learning it can be a portal to something bigger and better. It finds that the only certainty in life is that everything ends, and everything begins again – that there is life and death and life again, that there is light and dark and light again.

Together Pangea Celebrates 10 Years of Badillac w/ Liily
2024-08-13 19:00 - 23:30 | Grog Shop, 2785 Euclid Heights Boulevard, Cleveland Heights, OH, 44106, United States
Doors 7 p.m. | Show 8 p.m.
All Ages; + $3 at the door if under 21
Since they began jamming back in William’s Santa Clarita bedroom, Los Angeles indie band Together Pangea have continually challenged themselves with each subsequent offering. Jelly Jam [2010] poured the gasoline, Living Dummy [2011] struck the match, and Badillac [2014] lit the fire with its revved-up nineties rock-inspired flames. Along the way, fan favorites like “Sick Shit,” “Badillac,” and “Offer” would rack up millions of Spotify streams, while the group received support from Consequence of Sound, Pitchfork, MTV, Stereogum, and more. Following the 2015 release of The Phage EP, produced by The Replacements’ Tommy Stinson, these working class boys embarked on the journey to what would become 2017’s Bulls and Roosters, which evidenced their growth as a tried-and-true rock band with just the right amount of “brattiness,” as they like to say.
Together Pangea— William Keegan, Danny Bengston, and Erik Jimenez— return in 2021 having made the most of 2020’s turbulence by writing and recording DYE, an upbeat, undeniable collection of hooks, anthems, and power-pop garage-rock catchiness that isunmistakably the album of their career.
DYE is an amalgam of the band’s last three records: theinward looking and self-pleasing experimentation of 2017’s Bulls and Roosters, the frantic and scream-y Badillac with its inspiration from emotionally raw grunge, and the 50’s pop heavy 2011 album Living Dummy. After more than a decade as Together Pangea, the band know how their bread is buttered and made an effort to focus on what they know they do best.

Lambrini Girls w/ Blossom Park
2024-08-02 19:00 - 23:30 | Beachland Ballroom, 15711 Waterloo Rd., Cleveland, OH, 44110, United States
Doors 7 p.m. | Show 8 p.m.
ALL AGES
Flying the nest with a dream to curate slut vibes nationwide, Lambrini Girls became the gayest band to ever win 50 consecutive Eurovision contests in a row. With inspirations drawn from shit punk to noise rock ; not only do Lambrini Girls plan on setting your bin on firethey want to create spaces at shows for anyone who feels like there isn’t a place for them there already. No one deserves to feel uncomfortable, no one deserves to feel invisible, start conversations with your mates, never let anyone stop you existing authentically and most importantly: Gays to the front!

City Stages 2024: Bia Ferreira
2024-07-31 19:30 - 21:00 | Transformer Station, 2811 Church Ave, Clevland, OH, 44113, United States
City Stages, the Cleveland Museum of Art’s acclaimed free outdoor summer concert series featuring the best in global music, returns to Hingetown with three dynamic performances in July. These block parties take place in front of Transformer Station. Each begins at 7:30 p.m.
Bia Ferreira, a Brazilian singer, composer, and multi-instrumentalist, stands out for her innovative approach to combining Afrodiasporic rhythms—like soul, R & B, reggae, and rap—with Brazilian music—such as samba and repente. She is known for her lyrics addressing racism, women’s rights, and LGBTQIAP+ rights. She broke into public consciousness in 2017 with the track “Cota Não é Esmola,” which highlights the importance of the quota system for the black Brazilian population’s access to the country’s universities. In addition to the 13 million views on YouTube and several million Spotify plays, the song became mandatory reading for the University of Brasília’s entrance exam. Ferreira was nominated for the 2018 Women in Music Awards. This evening, she performs with her trio.
Seating is limited—bring camp chairs and enjoy an evening of music and dancing in the street. Free parking is available in the Lutheran Hospital lot located at West 28th Street and Franklin Boulevard. Transformer Station is located at 1460 West 29th Street (at the corner of Church Avenue), Cleveland, OH 44113. Transformer Station remains open until 9:00 p.m. during City Stages.

Jerry Harrison & Adrian Belew: Remain In Light w/ Cool Cool Cool
2024-07-28 18:30 - 23:00 | The Agora, 5000 Euclid Ave., Cleveland, OH, 44103, United States
Doors 6:30 p.m. | Show 7:30 p.m.
ALL AGES
For those hoping that Talking Heads would announce a reunion tour since they started being able to be in the same room together again, there’s been no word of that. However, Heads guitarist/keyboardist Jerry Harrison and ancillary member Adrian Belew have announced more dates of their Remain in Light tour where they’re playing the band’s classic fourth album in full. Cool Cool Cool opens.

The Mountain Goats w/ Field Medic
2024-07-26 19:00 - 23:00 | The Agora, 5000 Euclid Ave., Cleveland, OH, 44103, United States
Doors 7 p.m. | Show 8 p.m.
All Ages

Maybe you are just like John Darnielle: In the depths of the pandemic winter at the end of 2020, the Mountain Goatsfrontman passed the time trapped at home in North Carolina watching pulpy action movies, finding comfort in familiar tropes and sofabound escapism. But you are not really like John Darnielle, unless the action movies you found comfort in included French thrillers like 2008’s Mesrine, vintage Italianpoliziotteschi,or the 1974 Donald Pleasence mad-scientist vehicle The Freakmaker. Or unless watching them brought you back to your formative days as an artist, when watching films fueled and soundtracked your songwriting jags and bare-bones home recordings and in turn inspired your 20th album to be a song cycle about the allure—and futility—of vengeance. But there’s no shame in not being like John Darnielle; few people are.“On earlier tapes you’ll find these sound samples,” Darnielle says. “‘Oh, where’s this sample from?’ It’s from whatever movie I was watching while I was sitting around on the couch with a guitar. I watch a movie, somebody’d say something that I like the sound of and I’ll write that phrase down. And then I would pause the VHS, write the song, record the song on a boombox, and go back to watching my movie. I got into doing that again; I just kept watching action movies and taking notes on what they’re about and on what the governing plots and tropes and styles are. It was very much like an immersion method acting technique.”The resulting performance is Bleed Out,a cinematic experience unto itself. One song about preparing to exact bloody revenge begat another song about the act of exacting bloody revenge and then more songs about and the causes and the aftermath of being driven to exact bloody revenge, each delivered with the urgency and desperation deserving of their narrators and circumstances.Just as Getting Into Knives and Dark in Here—recorded in Memphis and Muscle Shoals, respectively, in the first two weeks of March 2020, just before such a thing would become impossible—were heavily informed and influenced by their historic settings, Bleed Out is all pent-up energy and explosion, executed by a bunch of friends who were mainly happy to be in a room together making loud noises. In January 2021, just weeks after Darnielle had started writing, his bandmates Peter Hughes, Matt Douglas, and Jon Wurster joined him at a studio in the woods near his home in Chapel Hill. Everything was finished inside a week.“We often make a record and then bring in some guests who flesh out the textures,” Darnielle says. “And for this one, it was very much like a pack mentality. That sort of seemed to proceed from the songs.” One new face was that of Bully’s Alicia Bognanno, recommended to Darnielle by his manager as a producer who could help nurture the rougher-edged sound these songs requested. “We met up and hit it off. She’s a great guitarist. It was kind of just a lark, to see what would happen, and it was totally great.”That abandon is on full display from the opening track, “Training Montage,” which lovingly documents the getting-ready-for-battle scene in any action movie regardless of provenance and loudly declares its intentions: “I’m doing this for revenge.” This and the next song, “Mark on You,” were the first two Darnielle wrote, and they set the tone for everything that follows on Bleed Out.
Running narrative themes are not new to Mountain Goats projects, especially in recent years, be it the pro wrestlers of 2015’s Beat the Champor the goths of 2017’s Goths. Darnielle was drawn to the antiheroes of the hard-boiled action flicks he was bingeing, particularly the ways in which their quests for justice were almost all inevitably doomed.“In these movies and elsewhere, it’s such a dearly held trope, when in fact, I don’t think anybody really exacts much revenge in this life at all,” he says. “Because we all know that revenge is bullshit, right? The Greeks knew this. It’s never a zero-sum game. And yet the idea is so delicious, you can’t get enough of it. It’s more of a grail—because you can’t have it, it starts to seem really appealing. That’s why you want to get revenge, because you know you’re never going to get revenge.”Bleed Out could be all one movie, from the opening training montage to the demise in the elegiac closing title track. Songs like “Make You Suffer,” “First Blood,” “Hostages,” and “Need More Bandages” do what they say on the tin, telling typically vivid, deliberately recognizable vignettes of desperate characters in no-win situations who plan on taking as many people down with them as they have to. But Darnielle sees these as unconnected stories that feel universal in their desire for justice, if not in their wanton bloodshed. Anthems don’t get more straightforward or anthem-y than “Wage Wars Get Rich Die Handsome,” tapping into an anger that’s easy to reach in 2022, even if the solutions aren’t.Few people think as much, or as well, about violence and its portrayal as John Darnielle. His recent bestselling novel Devil House(his third) is all about the relationship between tragedy and entertainment, though he is careful to downplay any parallels to Bleed Out beyond a natural attraction to terrible things as a coping mechanism.“That’s what catharsis is,” he says. “When you are able to experience something that is frightening to you but you don’t have to be harmed by it—that experience is really valuable. I think we’re reflecting on the nature of what we consume and of what it says about us.”

The Felice Brothers
2024-07-25 19:00 - 23:30 | OH
Doors 7 p.m. | Show 8 p.m.
All Ages; + $3 at the door if under 21

The Felice Brothers first emerged from the Hudson Valley nearly two decades ago with a gloriously ramshackle sound that drew on everything from Woody Guthrie and Bob Dylan to Walt Whitman and Flannery O’Connor. In just a few short years, the group went from busking in the subway to playing Radio City Music Hall with Bright Eyes and appearing everywhere from the Newport Folk Festival to Levon Helm’s Midnight Ramble. Beginning with 2007’s Tonight At The Arizona, the band helped pave the way for the modern folk revival, while at the same time challenging its boundaries and conventions with bold sonic experimentation and unyielding integrity. The New York Times likened their music to “the rootsy mysticism of the Band,” while Rolling Stone praised the “scrappiness” of their “folk-rock noir,” and The Guardian hailed their songs as “impeccably crafted, with literary-minded lyrics that are both playful and profound.”
The band’s newest record, Valley of Abandoned Songs, marks The Felice Brothers’ debut for Conor Oberst’s new Million Stars label and showcases the group at their most intimate and unvarnished. Balancing hope and despair in equal measure, the album explores the search for meaning and connection through the eyes of a wide-ranging cast of misfits and outcasts, and though the recordings here span several years of almost-lost tunes, the result is a thoroughly cohesive collection that manages to feel both utterly timeless and particularly attuned to the present all at once.

Mad Daddy! A Celebration of How Cleveland Changed Rock Radio
2024-07-24 17:00 - 20:00 | WRUW-FM 91.1 Cleveland, 11220 Bellflower Rd, Cleveland, OH, 44106, United States
On the Wednesday, July 24 edition of “Dare Waves”, Neal and his sometimes radio side-kick Reverend Comrade X will air an interview with Mike Olszewski, author of the new book “Mad Daddy – Myers, Mintz, and the Moondog and how Cleveland Ohio changed Rock Radio”. In addition to the interview, Dare Waves will air radio bits from The Mad Daddy, and music from The Cramps, Andre WIlliams, Screaming Jay Hawkins, and more.

The interview will air before the event “Mad Daddy! A Celebration of how Cleveland changed Rock Radio” which takes place on Saturday July 27 at 2PM, at the Music Box Supper Club. This event is FREE and open to the public.

Hosted by Mike and Janice Olszewski (with special guests), the event tells the story of Pete Myers and his on-air persona, the Mad Daddy, a legendary 50’s Cleveland radio DJ. Pete Myers “The Mad Daddy.” was a Northeast Ohio radio legend thrilling Cleveland and Akron audiences with a rapid-fire delivery over early rock and roll. Born from the pages of Mad magazine, Famous Monsters of Filmland, and his own twisted humor, The Mad Daddy gave his legion of followers a whole new way to communicate and helped define the power and influence of the youth culture that emerged in Cleveland in the 1950s.

The Claudettes
2024-07-18 17:30 - 22:00 | Music Box Supper Club, 1148 Main Ave., Cleveland, Ohio, 44113, United States
Doors 5:30 p.m. | Show 7:30 p.m.
All Ages

“Rich, layered…the execution is sophisticated, suggesting a band bashing out 1960s pop after hours at a dive bar, sometimes so thoroughly connecting with the lateness of the hour that they drift into dream-pop. Even if there are some shimmering, ethereal touches, the hard-swinging piano of chief songwriter Johnny Iguana and the sweet, steely purity of vocalist Berit Ulseth give the Claudettes an earthy, human hook.” –Stephen Thomas Erlewine, AllMusic
Grounded in blues and jazz yet pushing the boundaries of rock, the Claudettes are writing the most riveting chapter of their story now. With six albums on Forty Below Records and Yellow Dog Records, the Claudettes have earned international acclaim for their piano-powered “garage cabaret” sound featuring Rachel Williams (vocals), Johnny Iguana (piano, vocals, songwriting), Zach Verdoorn (bass, guitar, vocals) and Michael Caskey (drums). Outside the Claudettes, Iguana has earned Blues Music Award and Living Blues Award nominations, toured with Junior Wells and Otis Rush, played on three Grammy-nominated releases and recorded with Buddy Guy, Junior Wells, Derek Trucks, Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and more. Johnny is also composer of the score for the Emmy-winning, smash-hit FX/Hulu series The Bear.

City Stages 2024: Wesli
2024-07-17 19:30 - 21:00 | Transformer Station, 2811 Church Ave, Clevland, OH, 44113, United States
City Stages, the Cleveland Museum of Art’s acclaimed free outdoor summer concert series featuring the best in global music, returns to Hingetown with three dynamic performances in July. These block parties take place in front of Transformer Station. Each begins at 7:30 p.m.
Born Wesley Louissaint in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Wesli is a prolific songwriter, guitarist, and producer. Uniting a large cross section of Montreal talent, his music links Haitian voudou and rara with roots, Afrobeat, and hip-hop. Since being crowned with the Révélation Radio-Canada award for 2009–2010, Wesli has gone on to win the Babel Med Music Award (2010), SOCAN’s Hagood Hardy Award (2016), an award from the Académie Charles Cros (2019), a Juno Award for World Music Album of the Year (2019), a Félix Award for World Music Album of the Year (2019), and a Canadian Folk Music Award for World Solo Artist of the Year (2020). He has toured across North America, Haiti, Colombia, Brazil, and Europe and participated in WOMEX, Mundial Montréal, and Cape Verde’s Atlantic Music Expo. For his Cleveland debut, he is performing as part of a six-piece party band.
Seating is limited—bring camp chairs and enjoy an evening of music and dancing in the street. Free parking is available in the Lutheran Hospital lot located at West 28th Street and Franklin Boulevard. Transformer Station is located at 1460 West 29th Street (at the corner of Church Avenue), Cleveland, OH 44113. Transformer Station remains open until 9:00 p.m. during City Stages.

Mates of State w/ Al Menne
2024-07-14 19:00 - 23:30 | Beachland Ballroom, 15711 Waterloo Rd., Cleveland, OH, 44110, United States
“Still The One Tour”
Doors 7 p.m. | Show 8 p.m.
All Ages
Mates of State, the iconic indie band featuring married couple Jason and Kori, today announce a 17-show tour for this summer 2024 in conjunction with going back into the studio to record all new songs.
Mates garnered a rabid following beginning in 1998 and toured nearly non-stop for 15 years, performing all over the world including runs with NPR’s This American Life, The Postal Service, The Strokes, Jimmy Eat World, Santigold and Death Cab for Cutie. They’ve also been seen on David Letterman, Coachella, Lollapalooza, Conan O’Brien, and Yo Gabba Gabba.
Since 2000, Mates’ have released 7 full length albums (on labels including Barsuk and Polyvinyl) while simultaneously starting a family of 3 daughters(!) who travelled the world with them on tour. The Mates’ paused touring for a minute to “give their girls a bit of an anchor through their teenage years”, while continuing to write and explore to find their next musical phase. This new direction is coming to light and Mates are hitting the road hard with 17 shows in 17 days, no days off.
They also are currently recording a full-length album with long-time collaborator, producer Peter Katis, at Tarquin Studios in Bridgeport, CT.

The Spits w/ The Hell
2024-07-06 20:00 - 23:30 | Grog Shop, 2785 Euclid Heights Boulevard, Cleveland Heights, OH, 44106, United States
Doors 8 p.m. | Show 9 p.m.
All Ages; + $3 at the door day of show
In an era that relies so heavily on quick-hit bands, there are very few things that are truly part of the subculture and not just the passing zeitgeist du jour. Closing in on three decades, The Spits have signified the crossroads between punk mayhem and well-honed songwriting, creating some of the most unhinged and anthemic tracks in underground music while standing tall enough to be uttered in the same breath as names like Jay Reatard, Dead Moon, Ty Segall and more.
The Spits are readying their highly anticipated VI, due May 1 via their own Thriftstore Records imprint. Recorded by Erik Nervous on cassette four track, the band’s new LP VI is ten hummable tracks, shrouded in chainsaw punk that mesh the wild showmanship of party-rock legends Van Halen and the leather-clad toughness and songwriting chops of the Misfits. Marking a “return to roots’’ approach for the LP, the band decided to record and write VI in the basements of Kalamazoo and Grand Rapids, Michigan over the course of several spurts of activity, each yielding a few new songs from a terrible drum kit with a literal thrift store guitar. “We’ve only been into an actual studio like three times,” admits Sean Wood. “I don’t think we’ve had one record that was recorded all in one place, this may be the closest thing. And for these songs we’d record a couple tracks, step away and go back at it later– sometimes weeks later. You know, take our time.”

Live From Cleveland Rewind Special: Mr. Stress
2024-07-04 17:00 - 23:00 | WRUW-FM 91.1 Cleveland, 11220 Bellflower Rd, Cleveland, OH, 44106, United States
On Thursday, July 17 of 2014, Bill “Mr. Stress” Miller visited WRUW and sat in on all the evening’s shows!
– 5 PM Woodchoppers Ball with Chip
– 7 PM Polka Changed My Life Today with Dr. Polka and Andrew The Mailman
– 8 PM Laying Down Tracks with Mr. JEG
– 10 PM Live From Cleveland featuring Mr. Stress backed by Cleveland’s own The Nightwalkers

This may have been the last live recording of Mr. Stress before he passed on May 19, 2015 at the age of 72. For this July 4th, WRUW-FM will be presenting an encore broadcast of that very special night, beginning at 5 PM. Tune in for “An Evening With Mr. Stress” exclusively on
WRUW FM 91.1 Cleveland which will last until 11 p.m. ET.
Bill Miller was the first baby born in Cleveland on New Years Day of 1943. Mr. Stress was an original inductee to the Cleveland Blues Society Hall Of Fame in 2009. Here’s CWRU’s entry on Mr. Stress: https://case.edu/ech/articles/m/miller-bill-mr-stress

Letters To Cleo w/ ((megasound)) & Biitchseat
2024-06-29 19:00 - 23:30 | Grog Shop, 2785 Euclid Heights Boulevard, Cleveland Heights, OH, 44106, United States
Doors 7 p.m. | Show 8 p.m.
All Ages; + $3 at the door if under 21
When Boston alt-rock band Letters To Cleo split after 10 years, 3 albums, and thousands of tour miles together, it was at the behest of a pact that singer Kay Hanley and guitarist Greg McKenna made with each other when they started the band in 1990.
“We said that we’d stop doing it when we weren’t having fun anymore.” says Hanley. “I had just had a baby, (lead guitarist) Michael Eisenstein and (drummer) Stacy Jones were recording and touring with Veruca Salt’s Nina Gordon, (bassist) Scott Riebling was crazy in demand as a record producer, and I know it was frustrating to Greg to be in the shitty position of doing all the work to try and keep the ball rolling. It felt hard all of a sudden, and I hated that feeling.”
Soul searching done and tough decisions made, Letters To Cleo called it quits. The band members moved into new careers in and out of the music business, with Hanley, Eisenstein, and Jones migrating to Los Angeles. They all remained friends and sometimes even colleagues, collaborating on a host of movie, TV, and touring projects.
Now, for the first time in 17 years, Hanley, Eisenstein, Jones, and McKenna have written and recorded five brand new songs for “The EP”, are poised to launch a Pledge Music campaign, and will play club dates in Boston, NYC, Chicago, San Francisco, and Los Angeles in the Fall. So why reunite now?
“Because we’re good and stuff”, laughs Jones. “To me, the question isn’t ‘Why are we doing this now?’, the question is, ‘Why didn’t we do it sooner and why aren’t we doing it more?’’
McKenna adds, “It’s a blast. I mean, we spent our formative years learning how to do this stuff together. When it was done, we went out and lived our lives and now everyone’s bringing their experiences back to this at a new level of musicianship, but writing with these guys still feels effortless.”
The new material reflects McKenna’s sentiment. All 5 songs are instantly recognizable Cleo concoctions that fans will devour. From Eisenstein’s fierce, angular guitars locking horns with Jones’ roaring locomotive rhythm on “Hitch A Ride” to McKenna and Hanley’s signature melodic ESP on “Good Right Here”, the Cleo bandmates are in prizefighter form.

The Vumms on Live From Cleveland
2024-06-27 22:00 - 23:00 | WRUW-FM 91.1 Cleveland, 11220 Bellflower Rd, Cleveland, OH, 44106, United States
Tune into WRUW-FM 91.1 at 10 p.m. on your radio, via the live stream on our website, or watch and listen on Youtube at the link below to hear The Vumms live!
The Vumms are a Cleveland-based, 60s-influenced rock band, featuring Emilio Marriott (Bass/vox), Philippe Kogan (Guitar/vox), and Tom Middleton (Drums/vox). For more information go to https://www.thevumms.com/.

2024 Pick-Up Party
2024-05-11 13:00 - 17:00 | Jolly Scholar, 11111 Euclid Ave, Cleveland, OH, 44106, United States
It’s our annual Premium Pick-Up Party! Come meet your favorite station members, tour the station, and get your premiums before anyone else. Free food and a free drink (any draft beer, well drink, or milkshake) for everyone that donates at least $25. We’ll send an email to everyone who donated and of course announce it over the Cleveland airwaves. Come on down and party with your favorite college radio station in Cleveland Ohio that has the frequency 91.1 MHz. Stay tuned to WRUW for the latest updates!

What: Our fourth annual pick-up party
When: May 11, 2024 from 1:00 PM to 5:00 PM
Where: Jolly Scholar, 11111 Euclid Ave, Cleveland, OH 44106
What do I get: Everyone who donated at least $25 will get a free drink ticket for a beer, well drink, milkshake, or soft drink as well as a wristband for free food, including boneless wings, pizza, and pretzel bites
Do I have to donate to attend: Nope! Though you will not receive a free drink or free food.
Can I donate there: Yes! We will have a limited number of premiums still available on site. Or you can just donate and not receive a premium.
Where can I park: Street parking (free on weekends!) is available along Bellflower Rd. and East Blvd. and garage parking is available in Lot 29 ($2.00/hour). You can also take the RTA HealthLine, which will drop you off right in front, or Red Line to Little Italy and walk a short distance.
Will there be more music and fewer hits: Yes! Some of your favorite WRUW DJ’s will be spinning tunes throughout the party
What if I can’t make it: We will begin shipping out remaining premiums the following day. You will receive an email when it ships. Keep in mind we had a very successful year and may take some time for our volunteer staff to get everything out the door.
What’s the fastest time someone has pushed an orange a mile with just their nose: In 2007, USA’s Ashrita Furman pushed an orange with his nose for one mile in 22 minutes and 41 seconds.

Live from Dyngus Day
2024-04-01 14:00 - 16:00 | OH
We’ll be broadcasting live from in from of Bater on Detroit Ave for Dyngus Day. Tune in from 2-4 to listen to our broadcast or stop by our tent as we DJ all day.

Telethon 2023
2023-04-10 - 2023-04-16 | WRUW-FM 91.1 Cleveland, 11220 Bellflower Rd, Cleveland, OH, 44106, United States
It’s the most wonderful time of the year here at WRUW—Telethon!
This year, we’re hoping to keep up our amazing high donation streak, with a goal of $91,100 in total donations. (Get it? 91.1 thousand?) These funds will allow us to keep growing as a station (both in terms of music owned and air quality). We’re also hoping to raise enough to finally get our 30-year-old transmitter that was built with a 15-year lifespan replaced—while we won’t be upgrading our wattage, our potential future existence will get a lot longer! Another way to make an investment in securing WRUW as part of the Cleveland airscape for years to come is to give part or all of your donation to the endowment. We need $25,000 in this endowment before it will be officially be put away by the University, offering us a bit of a safety net in case of any future financial catastrophe and showing the administration just how much we all value this station.
Of course, to reach that goal, we’ll need lots of support from our listeners (that’s you!). And as usual, there are plenty of old and new premiums available as a thanks for giving. You can check those premiums out at the very same place you can donate: telethon.wruw.org. If you prefer to keep it a little less digital, you can also call in at 216.368.2208 all week long, and you can get a premium that way too. That said, we’d really appreciate if you could try to donate online—it’ll be simpler for everyone. You don’t have to read out your credit card numbers over the phone or send a check in the mail, and you entering your own address makes it a lot less likely that we’ll accidentally mix up our abbreviations and accidentally send your premium to Minnesota instead of Maine. Unfortunately, any money given into the endowment fund will not be eligible for a premium (but we encourage you to think of your expanding of the lifespan of WRUW as a premium in itself).
Thank you so much for your support—it really means the world to us!!!

Premium Pick-up Party
2022-05-14 12:00 - 18:00 | Jolly Scholar, 11111 Euclid Ave, Cleveland, OH, 44106, United States
Returning this year is the 2 nd Annual Telethon Pick-up Party!
Donors will be invited to the “Thank You” party on Saturday, May 14th from 12 p.m. to 6 p.m. located at The Jolly Scholar (11111
Euclid Ave.) where they can pick up their thank-you gifts, meet WRUW DJs, and partake in free appetizers and refreshments. If you cannot make the pick-up party, your premium will be mailed to you as per usual.

Telethon
2022-03-21 - 2022-03-27 | WRUW-FM 91.1 Cleveland, 11220 Bellflower Rd, Cleveland, OH, 44106, United States
It’s that time of year again!
WRUW will be holding its one-week on-air fundraiser (telethon) Monday March 21 to Sunday March 27.
We hope to raise $91,100 this year to help improve our signal. Our transmitter is 20 years old and needs to be replaced, a five-figure bill.

We have a new donation option this year, an endowment. Funds here are administered through the University and are set to keep us going far into the future.

We are encouraging all to donate online at telethon.wruw.org/ (the page is open for donations now). Daytime shows will also accept donations at 216-368-2208.

Our telethon home page has a list (with pictures!) of the thank-you premiums we are offering this year.
