Tune in to your favorite UMFM shows for your chance to win tickets!!

With an incredible line-up of artists set to perform at the 2012 TD Winnipeg International Jazz Festival,  June 14th thru the 23rd, downtown Winnipeg will soon be abuzz with 10 days of outstanding music featuring the best local, national and international artists.

Don't miss R&B crackerjack Janelle Monáe, jazz master Ramsey Lewis, indie icons The Hold Steady, Stax soul legend Booker T. Jones, and vocalist Gretchen Parlato are some of the can't miss shows from the festival’s Theatre Series, which also features performances by the Delfeayo Marsalis Sextet, the return of last year’s festival hit, Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue and an all-star tribute to the music of John Lennon entitled Shine On: The Universe of John Lennon.

Once again the festival's Club Series features a thrilling and diverse line-up of local and touring artists in downtown venues including The Pyramid Cabaret, Aqua Books, Times Change(d) High and Lonesome Club, the King’s Head Pub, the Winnipeg Free Press News Café, Juss Jazz, and Le Garage Café.  Musical exploration will be easier than ever for Winnipeg music fans, as Club Passes and One-Day Wristbands make it simple for audiences to move from club to club on any night during the Club Series at the festival.

The Club series will not only feature the Winnipeg club debut of The Heavyweights Brass Band, but will also mark the return of one of the hottest jazz talent's in the game today, rising star Vijay Iyer with his trio. As always, the Pyramid Cabaret will feature some today’s hippest young acts, including Brooklyn indie rockers The Antlers, internet buzz band BADBADNOTGOOD, Toronto future-disco flag-bearers Young Empires, Ottawa remix trio A Tribe Called Red, and a special DJ set by Detroit soul singer Mayer Hawthorne.

Tickets for the TD Winnipeg International Jazz Festival are on sale at jazzwinnipeg.com, by phone at 989-4656 and at the Jazz Winnipeg office at 007-100 Arthur Street. Tickets for all Burton Cummings Theatre shows are also available at Ticketmaster.

Be sure to tune in to your favorite UMFM shows over the next month for your chance to win tickets to some of these great shows, and also follow us on twitter and join our facebook group for even more chances to win!

UMFM is proud to announce that starting Tuesday, May 1 at 6pm and running each subsequent Tuesday at that time, we will be premiering "The Constant" a fantastic radio play to Winnipeg radio audiences.

"The Constant" follows five friends as they move to the big city, leaving their rural hometown behind. Only two years earlier everyone was who they were and life was simpler. But now, at the nexus of life's great turning points, follow the characters are they either grow together or grow apart. No one could have expected that their move to the big city would affect their lifelong relationships so much, or end one of their lives.

They play, which aired via podcast in November was the brainchild of University of Manitoba School of Music graduate Kenley Kristofferson, a whole slew of talented local actors and actresses and some of UMFM's favorite bands, including Cannon Bros, Lyzie Burt and A Waste Odyssey.  Each successive Tuesday, we'll air new episodes, and will finish out the broadcasts with a special "behind the actor's studio" involving all parties involved discussing what it was like to put together this magnificent opus!

Be sure to tune in each week and enjoy "The Constant"!

Help one of the finest record labels in the land, Winnipeg's own Transistor 66 Recording Company, celebrate 10 years of rock n roll debauchery with a weekend of great shows showcasing bands from the label's great roster!

Thursday night kicks off the shebang with a trio of noisemakers at Club 60, aka the Legion on River. Join The Vibrating Beds, The High Thunderers and Ultra Mega for an excellent night of rock n roll! Tickets are only $5 at the door.

Friday night shifts to the Park Theatre as 4 fantastic acts take the stage!  Join Montreal's Bloodshot Bill, as well as local favorites The Angry Dragons, The Thrashers and The Gunness. Tickets only $10.00 Advance or $15.00 Door available now at Music Trader, Into The Music and The Park Theatre!

The final night of music returns to the Park Theatre as 4 more excellent acts take the stage! Calgary mainstays Meisha And The Spanks will be joined by local power-house This Hisses, as well as upstarts Les Sexy and Microdot. Tickets only $10.00 Advance or $15.00 Door available now at Music Trader, Into The Music and The Park Theatre!

Tune into UMFM for your chance to win tickets and new vinyl from the label, as well as a chance to hear exclusive interviews from some of the personalities that make Transistor '66 tick!

Tune in to Tell The Band To Go Home To Hear It First!

This Sunday, April 15, UMFM's weekly singer/songwriter show, Tell the Band to Go Home, is proud to present the world premiere of local singer/songwriter and newly signed Six Shooter Records artist, Del Barber's new CD, "Headwaters," which is released on May 1. Del will appear live on UMFM to talk with host Jeff Robson about the album and upcoming plans, as well as to debut songs from the new recording, which have not been broadcast anywhere yet.

This will be his third release, and it follows his breakthrough album, "Love Songs for the Last 20," which landed him on many "best of 2010" lists, and was nominated for the Roots & Traditional Solo Album of the Year, at last year's Juno awards. He also was nominated (and won) Western Canadian Music Awards, and various other honours. Since then, he's been touring regularly, playing upwards of 200 shows a year. He's been selected to open for legendary songwriters like James McMurtry and Jimmy Webb at Chicago's hallowed Old Town School of Folk Music, and opened for one of his idols, Richard Thompson, as well as playing renowned festivals like The Edmonton Folk Music Festival, Mariposa, and of course the Winnipeg Folk Festival. He has also toured extensively with another rising star, Matt Andersen, and is set to tour with Old Man Luedecke this spring.

Check out details and new songs on the newly revamped website, www.delbarber.com, where the album is available for pre-order.

Join us for this exciting premiere, Sunday, April 15, 2-4 pm central, on 101.5 UMFM.

Winnipeg movie buffs and design enthusiasts have something new to look forward to this spring. Winnipeg’s first Architecture + Design Film Festival will run April 18 -21, with films showing at the Winnipeg Art Gallery and Cinematheque.

This inaugural festival will present critically acclaimed films that focus on the importance of architecture and design in everyday life. The films cover an incredible range of design-oriented topics from architecture and urban design to graphics and product design. The line-up includes Urbanized and Helvetica (dir. Gary Hustwit), Koolhaas Houselife (dirs. Ila Bêka and Louise Lemoine), How Much Does Your Building Weigh, Mr. Foster? (dirs. Carlos Carcas and Norberto Lopez Aamado), How to Make a Book With Steidl (dirs. Gereon Wetzel and Jorg Adolph), My Playground (dir. Kaspar Astrup Schroeder), Visual Acoustics: The Modernism of Julius Shulman (dir. Eric Bricker) and Infinite Space: The Architecture of John Lautner (dir. Murray Grigor).

The Architecture + Design Film Festival is being presented by Storefront MB, Urban Idea and Cinematheque with support from the Winnipeg Architecture Foundation and the Winnipeg Art Gallery. In addition to bringing some sought after films to town, the festival represents a growing interest regarding the intersection of art, architecture and urban planning.

Tickets for Urbanized, showing Wednesday, April 18, can be purchased in advance at the Winnipeg Arts Council (103-110 Princess Street) and McNally Robinson Booksellers (Grant Park Shopping Centre), or at the door. All other tickets can be purchased at Cinematheque (100 Arthur Street) at the time of the screening.