Music

The Friends of the Baltimore Hostel know how to warm a cavernous old mansion on a cold winter night. During their monthly open houses, they give tours of the 17 W. Mulberry St. hostel they're restoring, put out sodas and finger food and ask a couple of good local bands to set up and play acoustic sets in a huge room downstairs. The next one is tonight. "We're just trying to get people in and interested in what we're doing with the hostel," said Scott MacLeod, a member of the Friends of the Baltimore Hostel.

Regina Spektor can't help that her music is quirky. That's just how it is. The important factor is that her songs never feel calculated, says the alt-pop singer-songwriter. While recording Begin to Hope, her latest album and first set of original material for Sire/Warner Music, she was careful to let the music breathe and not indulge herself. "It wasn't anything planned, just natural circumstances," says Spektor, who headlines Rams Head Live on Wednesday, the first date on her national tour.

Don't waste your time trying to peg Lily Allen. It's hard for her to explain what she does musically because it's always shifting. And besides, labels bore her. When her cheeky debut, Alright, Still, landed in American stores three months ago, the buzz about the unassuming British chick with the affinity for girly dresses and sneakers was already strong. In the United Kingdom, where the CD was released last summer, Allen had instantly become a pop sensation, her name constantly in the British press.

Winard Harper's natural gift for percussion became evident at an age when most children can't yet read. At 4 years old, as his older brother listened to records in their Baltimore home, Harper would drum on whatever was in sight. His family saw musical potential in him that ended up spawning a 25-plus-year jazz career. From playing drums with his brother's band in clubs at age 5 to performing with the likes of Ray Bryant and Jimmy Heath, Harper has experienced a lifelong passion for jazz, especially jazz percussion.

Some users of MySpace feel as if their space is being invaded. MySpace.com, the Web's largest social network, has gradually been imposing limits on the software tools that users can embed in their pages, like music and video players that also deliver advertising or enable transactions. At stake is the ability of MySpace, which is owned by News Corp., to ensure that it alone can commercially capitalize on its 90 million visitors each month. But to some formerly enthusiastic MySpace users, the restrictions hamper their abilities to design pages and promote new projects.

The consensus seems to be that it's a risky move but a brilliant one nonetheless. Radiohead, the multiplatinum British rock band, bucks conventional "record" industry wisdom today by releasing its new album, In Rainbows, exclusively on the group's Web site. But the really audacious part is that Radiohead, which is not under contract with a record company, is allowing fans to pay whatever they want for the music: 1 cent, $1, $10, whatever. Since the critically acclaimed quintet made the announcement a week ago, music circles have been buzzing about the unprecedented move.

When it comes to baby boomers' musical tastes, the mood of summer has always extended beyond the media's fond memories of Woodstock. Tomorrow night Barbara Huston plans to settle into an orchestra seat at the Wolf Trap performing arts center in Vienna, Va., as Tony Bennett's smooth voice washes away the frustrations of work. At 54, the Severna Park resident is among thousands of boomers expected to hear the legendary singer this summer on his national concert tour. "Tony Bennett has been singing about as long as I've been alive," Huston says.

Musicophilia Tales of Music and the Brain By Oliver Sacks Alfred A. Knopf / 384 pages / $26 In his 10th book, neurologist and author Oliver Sacks turns his formidable attention to music and the brain. More than ever, his focus and tone are ruminative, though still probing. He doesn't stint on the science: Studies are cited, sources duly footnoted, the work of others encouragingly acknowledged. But the underlying authority of Musicophilia lies in the warmth and easy command of the author's voice.

KMFDMAdios (Wax Trax! TVT 7258)After the tragedy at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo., pundits grasping to explain why Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold slaughtered 12 classmates and a teacher immediately seized upon the interests that made the two "different." As is always the case with scary teen-agers, much was made of Harris and Klebold's taste in music -- particularly their fondness for the underground German band KMFDM.The irony was that even as KMFDM was getting its dubious moment in the limelight, the band was preparing to call it quits.

THE LAST TIME we saw Frank Sinatra, he stood there in a three-piece suit in the numb July air of the Merriweather Post Pavilion stage in Columbia, trying to navigate a lyric with a note that had wandered astray.Sometimes it was like that in his last years. The soaring voice that unleashed adolescent passions half a century earlier would bend and lose its way, and Sinatra would strain to snatch it back on the far side of a fading lyric.When he did "My Heart Stood Still," he missed the last note so badly that he went back and tried it again, muscling his way through sheer willpower and hoping the ancient pipes would hold out. The voice was weary from too much use, and maybe from trying to carry an entire culture past its allotted time.

SUNDAY DON MCLEAN: As music legend has it, McLean's "Empty Chairs" inspired "Killing Me Softly with His Song." He also provided Madonna with another hit with her dance version of his classic "American Pie" and now he comes to Rams Head On Stage in Annapolis, 33 West St., at 5 and 8 p.m. The early show is all-ages. The late show is 21 and up. Tickets are $55. Go to tickets.ramsheadonstage.com. CINEMA SUNDAYS: "Flame and Citron" is this week's Cinema Sundays selection at the Charles Theatre, 1711 N. Charles St. The drama from Denmark concerns two fighters from the Holger Danske World War II resistance group and is based on actual events.

Fletcher's, a live music club in Fells Point, has closed pending a change of ownership. Co-owners Craig Boarman and Evan Tanner, who took over the club 18 months ago to open a Latin/sushi spot on the first floor, are no longer involved with Fletcher's. Building owner Bryan Burkert has taken over the Fells Point live music club, which he is currently rehabbing, he said. Fletcher's could reopen as a bar and live music venue in November, but that's just a guess, Burkert said. He has to hire staff and have the liquor license transferred back to his name.

Big crowds don't scare singer/songwriter Ray LaMontagne. It's the little spaces that really unsettle him. For LaMontagne, performing live is such a painfully intimate process, he prefers to play larger venues where he is more removed from the crowd. "I don't like it when my audience is right on top of me," he said. "It's just too close. I need to have some distance from them. I need some space, that's all." LaMontagne will have all the space he needs when he performs with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra today at Strathmore and Friday at Meyerhoff Symphony Hall.

Foldable iPod speakers Name: : Memorex Mi2290 Travel Speaker What it is: : A pair of slim speakers, for your iPod or other music player, that fold to the size of a mid-size, thick paperback book. How it works: : Stand your 4G or newer iPod (doesn't work with iPhone) on the 30-pin connector to hear music. The unit charges your iPod while your tunes play or while the iPod is turned off, and you can check out the time of day on the included clock. Buttons adjust the music volume and fast-forward, rewind or skip your tunes.

When you work out of your home during the summer, you have to learn to tune out all sorts of sounds and activities that would be major distractions in a typical office setting. You might not think this would be too difficult, but picture yourself working away in a cubicle, only the person sharing it is practicing "Lady Madonna" over and over on the piano. It could be tricky to take your conference call. Better yet, what if one of your co-workers liked to stroll about, strumming a ukulele?

The disconnect between the artist and her resume is stunning. Tracy Chapman sold tens of millions of albums, made one of the most critically acclaimed records of the '80s and was a precursor to the wave of female singer/songwriters that came in the '90s. She is one of the more influential artists of the past couple of decades. She is also one of the most humble and unassuming. Chapman's always been that way - ever since her self-titled debut album came out in 1988. At the time, music was saturated with hair metal bands and pop superstars like Michael Jackson and Madonna.

The disconnect between the artist and her resume is stunning. Tracy Chapman sold tens of millions of albums, made one of the most critically acclaimed records of the '80s and was a precursor to the wave of female singer/songwriters that came in the '90s. She is one of the more influential artists of the past couple of decades. She is also one of the most humble and unassuming. Chapman's always been that way - ever since her self-titled debut album came out in 1988. At the time, music was saturated with hair metal bands and pop superstars like Michael Jackson and Madonna.

Michael Jackson's death has spurred an outpouring of tributes from fans in the local music and nightlife scene. Clubs are dedicating drinks to the King of Pop, DJs are dusting off Jackson records and fans are revisiting some of the music they grew up listening to. Thursday, after news of Jackson's death spread, sales of his CDs spiked at the Fells Point music store Sound Garden. "We sold through a lot of what we had, and we had a lot of Michael Jackson inventory on hand," said Bryan Burkert, the store's owner.

By the time Dan Deacon released Spiderman of the Rings, his 2007 national critical breakthrough, he had already established himself as a manic performer. His reputation stretched well beyond his base in Baltimore. The success of the album, which garnered kudos from Pitchfork and Rolling Stone, brought on more opportunities to tour. Soon, thousands of artsy hipster types across the country filled Deacon's shows, where he often shunned the stage, turning his performances into goofy participatory events.

When most kids his age were settling into college life, Peter Cincotti was already a seasoned pro on the New York jazz circuit. He had made a splash at the 2000 Montreux Jazz Festival, had played prestigious rooms in the Big Apple and Atlantic City, N.J., and had shared the stage with his mentor, Harry Connick Jr. At 19, Cincotti topped Billboard's traditional jazz charts with his 2002 self-titled debut, becoming the youngest artist to do so. Now, three...