Most of the mentions of Adele manage to compare, and lump her into the same category, as Duffy.
They made their debut at about the same time, singing similar material. 

But with Duffy's non-success last year with her sophomore album, and Adele's issuance of her second, perhaps those comparisons are no longer valid. 

Or perhaps history is repeating itself. 

Think back to the long tradition of British songstresses, and you might see a similar pattern, at least in how time has played tricks on some of them. 

Vera Lynn - revered singer who peaked in popularity during the Second World War, has managed to live on (both literally and otherwise) in the hearts of her country, to the extent of having a number one album just last year. What of the other singers of the era? Alma Cogan, the "girl with the giggle in her voice"? All but forgotten. 

During the 1960s, the rise of Dusty Springfield eclipsed a small crowd of others, including Sandie Shaw. We keep hearing about various biopics being devoted to Dusty, but nobody's mentioned one for Sandie. 

That brings us to the present, and the fact that Adele has been set as a pair with Duffy since the beginning of both their careers. 

This is perhaps unfair to Duffy, who after all made some brilliant music on her debut. "Rockferry" certainly matches "Hometown Glory" in pathos and poignancy, but it seemed everyone was ready for Duffy to screw up her comeback, and equally as ready to laud Adele.

Now Adele has released the uneven "21". It's an album of contradictions, where the singer has done many, many things right, but has also fallen back on some of the hoariest cliches of her genre on the same record. 

"Rolling In the Deep" immediately announces that we're dealing with a new and rougher version of Adele here, one that can belt out blues and gospel with the best. With carefully placed and clever background vocal arrangements, a thumping bass, and a relentless rhythm, the song is a piece of pop genius. 

Then she manages to blow credibility with the standardized arrangement of "Rumour Has It", co-written and produced by the bete noir of modern pop, Ryan Tedder. The song does slow down two-thirds of the way through for a heartwringing vocal, but then jumps back into the annoying thonk-thonk it began with. Bleah. 

Tedder also cowrites "Turning Tables", but the illustrious production here is left to someone else. It becomes very much old Adele here, with swooping strings and stately piano. But it's GOOD old Adele; this is one of the things she does best. It's sugary, sure, but not sickly sweet. 

It takes a little while for the album to kick into gear again, which it does with "Set Fire To the Rain". Now we're back in brilliant territory, as the near-march rhythm builds to a subtle chorus. "He Won't Go" continues the outside-of-the-box trend, introducing itself with a steady drumbeat, another gorgeous vocal, and little flourishes and accents that keep it from becoming mundane. 

There are two ballads that are only piano and vocal; one of them is mediocre, the other wonderful. The lesser of the two is "Take It All", which - like everything else - is sung well enough, but the addition of the gospel choir backing reminds one of the worst excesses of X Factor winners. The perfect one closes the album, and is called "Someone Like You". Already charting into the top 40 on its own merits, here the piano takes on a more tumultuous tone, and the vocal is just downright heartbreaking. 

Which brings up a point about Adele that I'm sure most of you have noticed : are there any songs she sings which AREN'T about being lovelorn and lost? Not on this album, there aren't. Admittedly, this is the niche she's found for herself, and she does it like no other, but sooner or later she's got to write about something else. 

I've got the "HMV Deluxe" edition of the album to listen to, so that adds on a couple of tracks that are covers, done with just voice and guitar. They're both good, too - which goes to show that the more you "produce" Adele, the more humdrum she becomes. A note to her handlers, then : shut up and let the girl sing. It almost always works when she does that. 

One more gem on the album that I didn't mention, and that's the cover of the Cure's "Lovesong". Here's a song that's been done to death already, but Adele actually manages to add to the legend, and Rick Rubin's production is subtle. 

All of this makes "21" a good album, but there are those occasional cloying, annoying touches that I'm hoping Adele will learn to keep away from. The woman is on the way to becoming a world-class and world-famous talent; that's why we have to keep expectations high. She deserves no less. 

I give "21" a 7.5 on the England Swings scale of 1-10.
 
The UK chart has picked up the pace in the last couple of weeks; this week, we've got two new entries in the top 5, which pushes down a couple of the hits from the previous weeks. 

At number 5, Chase and Status have their biggest hit ever with "Blind Faith". 

And it's deserved. With the background instrumentation an over-reverbed mess of electronics, it's the vocals of Liam Bailey as well as an unidentified female singer that make the tune. The whole effect of the song is anthemic, but sloppily so. On the England Swings scale of 1-10, this song rates a 7. 

The non-mover sits at number 4 for another week. The song is credited to "Diddy-Dirty Money ft. Skylar", which means that Sean Combs not only added a "group" to the song (as he does on his recent album), but also needed a guest singer. 

What he's come up with, though, is a song that has Kanye West histrionics over the concept of Eminem's "Stan". There's a mellow female singer (that must be Skylar) intoning a line about "coming home" (the song's title, by the way) while Sean raps about things he loves and hates and feels strong about. As for Dirty Money, I think they're relegated to occasional "oh! oh!" and "yeahh..." backing vocals. 

The song is derivative, but has managed to be a hit in the UK . . . and is creeping up the American charts. This week, it's reached number 13 in the USA. 

All that said, it's fairly inoffensive. I give it a 6.

Adele drops a place with "Rolling In the Deep" this week, landing at number 3. Her album, on the other hand, managed to outsell everything else in the top ten albums combined. She has now become one of the biggest performers in the UK to never have a number one song. 

"Rolling" is a tour-de-force, retro-soul monster that improves with subsequent listenings. It's got a thonking, thumping beat, good backing vocals, and a great lead vocal. 

Interestingly enough, the song has made a small dent in the USA, a full month before the album is released here. It currently sits at number 84 on Billboard's Hot 100. Will it climb further? Yeah, I think it will, but it will be a (pleasant) surprise if it cracks the top ten. It's a little TOO retro-soul for most Americans to get. After all, this is the country that didn't put Cee-Lo's "F*** You" in the top ten, and that was one of the best songs of last year. 

I give Adele an 8 this week. 

Bruno Mars' "Grenade" drops from two weeks at the top to number 2 this week. It still rules the charts in the USA. 

I go back and forth on this track - it's a little overdramatic for my taste, and reminds me of the debacle that was "Love the Way You Lie" from last year. That said, it's nicely put together. I wouldn't call it a retro-soul track like Adele's, but it does veer occasionally close to that. It's modern enough, though, that Americans can deal with it. I give it a 6.5.

At the top of the British charts, Ke$ha scores her first UK number one with "We R Who We R". The song was released - and went to number one - at the beginning of November in the USA. 

We all know that Ke$ha has very little natural talent, but she has managed to jump on the trends of the moment with panache and cleverness, and has impeccable production people. Just listen to the staccato vocal chorus of the song here, and - even though the whole thing is done with digital studio FX - you STILL want to sing along. The song has a monster hook, and that's what Ke$ha does best. As loathe as I am to admit it, this is a great song. I give it an 8. 

Album review here soon!
 
The playlist from last night's show : 
Vaccines - Post Break Up Sex
Beady Eye - The Roller

Gary Numan - Cars (The Pleasure Principle)
Martin Solveig ft. Dragonette - Hello

Two Door Cinema Club - What You Know (Tourist History)

Adele - Someone Like You (21)

Pete Townshend - Face the Face (White City : A Novel)

Mountain - My Lady (Nantucket Sleighride)

The Fab Four Freakout :
 Vangelis & the Minis - Girl
Beatles - Kansas City
Beatles - Lucy In the Sky With Diamonds (Sgt Peppers)

Go! Team - Buy Nothing Day

Hollywood Tramp - Beautiful Game (Lies About the Truth)

Red River Dialect - Distant Man (White Diamonds)

Gong - Eat That Phone Book Coda (Angel's Egg)
Jack Penate - Have I Been a Fool (Matinee)...and this week's UK Top 5 : 5). Chase & Status - Blind Faith (new)4). Diddy-Dirty Money - Coming Home (non-mover)3). Adele - Rolling In the Deep (-1)2). Bruno Mars - Grenade (-1)1). Ke$ha - We R Who We R (new)Top 5 Analysis and review tomorrow!
 
The England Swings show, based in Northern Virginia, brings you the best, brightest, newest, and coolest music from the United Kingdom on a weekly basis. You can hear us at 6:00 p.m. ET : 

In Northern Virginia : Cox and Verizon digital cable channel 37
In Reston, Virginia : Comcast channel 27
Anywhere else in the world : http://www.fcac.org/webr

This week, we have an amazing show for you! Just look at this line-up : 

Vaccines

Beady Eye

Two Door Cinema Club 

Adele

Gong

Jack Penate

Plus lots more! Including a song from unsigned London band Hollywood Tramp - and!

The Fab Four Freakout : The Beatles, with rare tracks

UK Music News : Who is nominated for best album in this year's Brit Awards?

Top 5 Countdown : The best-selling songs in the UK TODAY, with a new number one!

For a unique musical experience, with tunes you won't hear anywhere else, tune in!
 
Tipped in the BBC Sound of 2011 poll, we've been hearing about Anna Calvi for a couple of months now. Late last year, she released the single "Jezebel/Moulinette", giving us a small taste of what we might expect. 

And what we can expect is a lot of drama. Calvi has stated that she comes from a background of operatic and classical music, and that adds some color to her style, which can be described, perhaps, as "pop weirdness". 

On her new album, there are no songs which don't slip into this weirdness at some point. It's difficult to draw a reference point for her, because her way of doing things is an amalgam of many different influences. 

I'll try, though. Take Patti Smith, and trace a line through it backwards to the Shadows circa "Apache", then add in some healthy scrawls of Chris Isaak, Velvet Underground, and - more recently - Beach House and the xx. That's about as close as I'm going to get. 

However, the whole puzzle seems to fall together in odd ways, reminding me of nothing else than early Roxy Music. The basic structures of Calvi's songs are straightforward poppery, but there are enough bizarro details added to twist it into something not quite retro, not quite modern. It's like a whole album of "In Every Dream Home a Heartache". 

Opener "Rider To the Sea" is nearly instrumental, and consists of those Isaak-like guitar lines. Anna's voice enters subtly during the last minute or so, crooning wordless and ominous "oooohh"s. 

We really get started with "No More Words", and now her style of singing becomes evident. She's strong and full of drama, but not so much that it becomes a parody or even ever becomes unpalatable. She walks a thin line here, and in general on the rest of the album, but she manages to stay balanced for most of the time. 

Some highlights, then : 

"Suzanne and I", just like the earlier released "Jezebel", starts with a hard-hit drumbeat, and leads to an irresistable chorus. Along the way, there's a stop for the requisite weirdness : this time it's an atonal middle part that sounds like the soundtrack for "2001 : A Space Odyssey" when the apemen encounter the black monolith. 

This same effect turns up in "First We Kiss", this time working off an old Motown beat. It's a strange and mostly effective juxtaposition of sounds, and that's what Anna Calvi seems to be going for much of the time. 

"Blackout" sends us more into Pretenders territory, but again the oddness intrudes, this time with weirdly pulsing background vocals. The bluesy "I'll Be Your Man" follows, which is vaguely threatening. There are a lot of dynamics in this tune, as Anna segues back and forth between softer and louder parts. 

"Morning Light" uses an organic and effective bass line as its center, and here the backing vocals are whispered. The whole effect is dramatic again; Anna seems to thrive on this. Closing number "Love Won't Be Leaving" has some riffs in it, but the drama almost overwhelms it this time, in the form of frequently crashing (and unnecessary) cymbals. 

If there's one thing I would pick out to criticize about what Anna is doing, I would yell "Flush the cymbals!" at her. They tend to get in everywhere, and with the drama that she's already got going in the voice and guitar, they become intrusive after a while. 

Most critics have agreed that this record is "thinking out of the box" when it comes to pop music, and that's absolutely true. There's no one around right now that sounds remotely like Anna Calvi, and that's a point in her favor. 

I still can't recommend the album wholeheartedly to your average Britney/Kylie/Cheryl fan, though, because it might just be out of the comfort zone of those listeners. I can say that the album is worth a listen by those who want a few new twists in their popular music regimen.

That is, if you can get past the cymbals. 

I give Anna Calvi a 7 on the England Swings scale of 1-10 for her debut offering. 
 
Here's the playlist from last evening's England Swings show : Glasvegas - The World Is Yours (2011)Wire - Adapt (Red Barked Tree) (2011)Electric Light Orchestra - Living Thing (A New World Record) (1976)Pete & the Pirates - Winter 1 (2011)Noah & the Whale - Wild Thing (2011)Anna Calvi - Suzanne and I (Anna Calvi) (2011)Alan Parsons Project - Days Are Numbers (Vulture Culture) (1984)Spencer Davis Group - Gimme Some Loving (1966)The Fab Four Freakout : Beatles - How Do You Do ItBeatles - Wild Honey Pie (The Beatles) (1968)Beatles - The Long and Winding Road (1970)Beatles - I'm Down (1964)Hadouken! - Oxygen (2011)Broadcast - Come On Let's Go (2000)Dukes - Friday On My Mind (1965)Sam Harrison - Just the Way You Are (2011)Those Dancing Days - ****arias (2011)Monotonix - Before I Pass Away (2011)...and this week's top 5 songs in the UK : 5). Wretch 32 - Traktor (new)4). Diddy-Dirty Money - Coming Home (new)3). Jessie J - Do It Like a Dude (-1)2). Adele - Rolling In the Deep (new)1). Bruno Mars - Grenade (non-mover)TOP 5 ANALYSIS and REVIEWTwo Thousand Eleven has finally arrived, as the deadwood in the top 5 is cleared out to make room for three new entries. All told, there were six new entries in the top ten, so I think we can infer that the record-buying public is saturated with Matt Cardle and Rihanna, and is ready to move on to new horizons. Coming in at number 5 this week, Germaine Scott - better known as Wretch 32 - has his first top 5 hit ever with "Traktor". The song is way cool, in my opinion. It has a sort of sliding, reggaefied rhythm that catches the attention. The rapping is right on cue. There are all sorts of Easter eggs as well, including a vibrating bass line, a screech that sounds like an attenuated crow, and the vocals of "L" carrying the song through the middle. I'm thinking that the uniqueness of the song shows the same sort of creativity that we heard last year around this time with Tinie Tempah. I like it a lot. I give it an 8.5 on the England Swings scale of 1-10.Sean Combs tries a new approach to his music with the Diddy-Dirty Money track "Coming Home", which hits the chart at number 4 this week. It might be new for him, but it's older for us - it has the same sort of structure as Eminem's "Stan", which featured the sample of Dido's "Thank You". That was many years ago, and Diddy doesn't really improve on the idea. That said, the song isn't bad at all, and features the sort of rap-antics that Eminem started and Kanye West has recently perfected. On top of all this, there are sampled strings that add some depth to the tune. I'm not sure that it should have done better than Wretch 32, but it's more than tolerable. I give it a 7.Jessie J slides a space to number 3 this week with "Do It Like a Dude", a song which I still find hilarious. What's amusing me in particular this week is the choppiness of the lyrics, where there's hardly a sentence completed. I mean, "Stop stop I've arrived"? Wow. Not only that, but there's an essential Britishness about the whole thing that cracks me up as well - she adds the word "then" to "I can do it like a man". Jessie has created a song for the ages, or at least for this month. I give it an 8. Hey, there's the new Adele at number 2! "Rolling In the Deep" is about as far removed from her other number 2 single - that's "Chasing Pavements" - as it can be. The tune has a blues feel, whereas "Pavements" was pure pop, complete with swooping strings. Adele is a lot more energetic here, and the vocals are well done indeed. Adele was always the true star of the glut of post-Winehouse females that filled the market a couple of years ago. She does nothing here to diminish her reputation. The song has some subtleties as well, including the the handclaps and the background vocals. Nice. I give it an 8.5. I'll own up to the fact that Bruno Mars' "Grenade" is finally beginning to grow on me. There's no way that the song has the universal appeal that "Just the Way You Are" had, but it's a slick and well-produced piece of pop. Bruno is definitely the voice of the present, and this song is nothing if not well-sung. At first impression, the song seems sparser than the previous hit, but there's actually some cool stuff going on here. My favorite at the moment : the double tracked "Mad woman/Bad woman" bit. So the charts are getting interesting again. What will next week bring?
 
Excitement! Thrills! ACTION!

You can find all that at least musicallly on the England Swings show today at 6:00 p.m. ET : 

In Northern Virginia : Cox and Verizon digital cable channel 37
In Reston, Virginia : Comcast channel 27
Anywhere else in the known (and unknown) world : http://www.fcac.org/webr

The England Swings show plays the best, brightest, newest, and coolest music from the United Kingdom on a weekly basis at the above locations and time. This week, we've got so much going on that it's exciting! : 

New tracks by Glasvegas (yes!), Wire, Noah & the Whale, and Anna Calvi.

Older songs by ELO, Spencer Davis, and little-known Dutch band the Dukes.

A cover version of a very popular song by up-and-coming unsigned artist Sam Harrison. 

The Fab Four Freakout with rare Beatles tracks.

UK Music News, with our ongoing announcements of the Brit Awards nominations.

UK Top 5, where we play the top songs in the UK right now. 

Lots more!

Treat your ears to some excitement today by tuning in, won't you?
 
So there's an ice storm in the Washington, DC metro area today, and that means the newspaper didn't come until later in the day. Say what you will about the imminent death of the daily physical paper, I'll hold onto my Washington Post until it fades into the distance.

 I was all set to review the new Decemberists album, and Chris Richards in the Post beat me to it. In a review which also included a stab at the new Iron and Wine album, he moaned about the current state of indie music and how it's become predictable and boring. He chastised Colin Meloy for living in the wrong century. 

That's not the review I would have written. 

Nope, I really like "The King Is Dead". Mr. Richards seems to have missed the point of the whole thing. Yes, the Decemberists have tended to some pretension in the past. Colin Meloy does frequently write lyrics about seasons changing and yellow bonnets. 

But this album is the result of a band at the top of their form. If you've liked anything about the Decemberists in the past, you'll love this record. The Decemberists have tightened up their sound, and have ended up sounding a bit more like the Eagles than Fairport Convention. 

Opening track "Don't Carry It All" is a coiled, taut construction of harmonica, acoustic guitar, and mandolins which is near-perfect in execution. And that's just the beginning! "Calamity Song" and "Rise To Me" are next, showing a confidence and brightness that we always knew the band was capable of. It's like all the pieces of the puzzle that is the Decemberists have fallen into place and produced a cohesive sound that is uniquely their own. 

Yes, it still owes something to the "trad. arranged by" bands of the British seventies, and veers a bit closer to Fleet Foxes than it's done before, but this is the epitome of the Decemberists coming into their own. 

The album is almost completely driven by acoustic guitars, with only a few exceptions. Most of the songs adhere to the folk spectrum, but there are a couple of tunes that take their cue from the first few albums by R.E.M., with the added bonus of Peter Buck (of R.E.M.!) on guitar. "Down By the Water", and "This Is Why We Fight" sound much more in the American tradition than, say, "Rox In the Box", which could have fit in on an early Steeleye Span record. 

Then we've got "All Arise!", which is decidedly American C&W flavored. While it's not a bad song, it's actually a bit comical, because it sounds like a Pacific Northwest indie group trying to do Nashville. 

We've got a pair of "hymns" devoted to January and June, both of which are lovely ballads which are in the pastoral tradition. The album ends with the most morose song on the record, "Dear Avery". Colin Meloy has said that the song is a sort of "letter from a mother to a soldier". The song is a low-key address to the separation and loneliness suffered by parents and children during a time of war. Big topic, for sure, but the song does it justice. No matter what the Washington Post says, this is an album worth listening to. The variety of the music, the tightness of the band, and the flow of the songwriting all come together to give us the first great record of 2011. On the England Swings scale of 1-10, I give the Decemberists a 9.
 
Last night on the England Swings show, in addition to our mix of new and old tunes, we presented songs by several unsigned performers from the UK. Those are noted below, along with information about them : 

Vaccines - If You Wanna
Frankie & the Heartstrings - Hunger

Rolling Stones - Beast Of Burden (Some Girls)
Jamiroquai - Lifeline (Rock Dust Light Star)

Kamakaze - What I Need
Kamakaze - Give It To Me 
 - This unsigned foursome hails from Birmingham. You can find free mixtapes from them by googling kamakazeuk. They also have videos available on YouTube, and their music is distributed digitally by HMV, among others.

Wretch 32 - Traktor
Chase & Status - Blind Faith

The Fab Four Freakout : 

Danielle Denin - Je Lis Dans Tes Yeux
Beatles - Happiness Is a Warm Gun (The Beatles)
Beatles - Step Inside Love (Los Paranoias)
Beatles - Being For the Benefit Of Mr. Kite (Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band)

Jodie Connor - Now Or Never
Eliza Doolittle - Rollerblades (Eliza Doolittle)

Free - Wishing Well (Heartbreaker)
Amen Corner - If Paradise (Is Half As Nice)

Sam Harrison - Sticks and Stones
 - Sam is from Sheffield, and was in the finals of "Live and Unsigned 2010". You can reach him on Facebook, or view videos on YouTube, by looking for "SamHarrisonOfficial". 

Stormy Monday - Beat Of the City (Almost Souled Out)
 - Stormy Monday comes from Newcastle, and contains Tom Johnson of Hexachord Hex as songwriter, guitarist, and keyboard player. Check out http://www.myspace.com/hexachordhex for more information.

Chilly Gonzales - You Can Dance

...and this week's top 5 songs in the UK : 

5). Matt Cardle - When We Collide (-3)
4). Katy B - Lights On (non-mover)
3). Rihanna - What's My Name (-2)
2). Jessie J - Do It Like a Dude (+3)
1). Bruno Mars - Grenade (new)

TOP 5 ANALYSIS and REVIEW

Yet another change at the top marks this week's top 5, as Bruno Mars' second single (not including his guest appearance with B.o.B) sells over 150,000 copies - an unusual occurrence in the depths of January. 

Matt Cardle, X Factor 2010 winner, has had one of the biggest hits in the show's history with "When We Collide". The song hangs in the top 5 this week, dropping three places to number 5. 

Chalk it up to wise song choice on the part of the television show moguls. Whereas "When We Collide" is not a perfect adaptation of Biffy Clyro's "Many Of Horror", it is adequate enough to provide pleasant listening even after five weeks in the top 5 - three of which were spent at number one. On the England Swings scale of 1-10, Matt gets a 7.

Katy B doesn't budge from the number 4 position this week, which is as high as it's gotten. The song is inconsequential and fizzy, making it the sort of tune which will be forgetten in six months time. I think we could expect better from Katy, and perhaps we'll get better in the future. For now, though, even the Ms. Dynamite appearance on the tune doesn't really elevate it. I give it a 6. 

Rihanna's "What's My Name" broke records last week by being the fifth consecutive number one by the singer in as many years. Easily the best track that she's done since "Umbrella", the song seems fated to be a one-week number one on both sides of the Atlantic, as she drops to number 3 on the UK charts. 

The track remains bright and hooky, with beautifully pitched production. I give it a 7.5 on the scale. 

The first star of 2011 continues her rise, as Jessie J's "Do It Like a Dude" ascends three places to land at number 2 this week. Criticism of the track seems to center on the idea that it may not be representative of Jessie's talents, being filtered and autotuned to the point that it's hard to discern what sort of singer she is. 

This is all true, but as a novelty the record succeeds admirably. It has a rough, original sound to it, and one can distinguish the rise of a major talent. There's little doubt that Jessie will release songs in the future that are, perhaps, more indicative of her status as a performer. "Do It" does cement her as a strong songwriter. 

Here's Bruno Mars, the sensation of 2010, back again with the second major single of his career. "Grenade" stands in sharp contrast to "Just the Way You Are", though - it's not sweet or pretty. It would fall under the category of "R&B angst" songs instead. The storyline is that there's a fellow who would risk anything for his love, but it's not reciprocated. This sets the stage for vocal histrionics and some gross lyrical imagery - "I'd catch a grenade for ya/Throw my hand on a blade for ya". Ugh. 

I profess not to like the song as much as "Just the Way You Are", although it might be growing on me. I give it a 6. 

Yes, there's a new album review coming this week!
 
The England Swings Show TODAY : January 16, 2011

The England Swings show always brings you the best, brightest, newest, and coolest music from the United Kingdom. This week, we have a plethora of unsigned bands that have sent us some amazing music, as well as our usual mix of old and new tunes. 

Tune in this week to hear tracks by :

Kamakaze
Sam Harrison
Stormy Monday

All of these are unsigned bands that have great music for you to listen to. We'll also be playing new tracks by Wretch 32, Chase and Status, Eliza Doolittle, and more. Our regular features : 

The Fab Four Ferakout : Beatles songs!
UK Music News : We share the nominations for the Brit Awards 2011.
Top 5 Countdown : The best-selling songs in the UK TODAY. 

You can hear us at 6:00 p.m. ET : 

In Northern Virginia : Cox and Verizon digital cable channel 37
In Reston, Virginia : Comcast channel 27
Anywhere else in the world : http://www.fcac.org/webr

See you there!