February 2012
79 posts
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WatchIn under five hours at the Newport Jazz Festival, Eric Harland was the drummer for three different world-class bands. We asked him to play a rusty piece of scrap metal with trumpeter Avishai Cohen in an abandoned fort. Watch a duo improvisation from a rather unorthodox venue.
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WatchIn honor of Woody Guthrie’s 100th birthday, his daughter invited Jay Farrar (Son Volt and Uncle Tupelo), Will Johnson (Centro-Matic), Anders Parker (Varnaline), and Jim James (My Morning Jacket) to find lyrics from among Guthrie’s archives that spoke to them and put the words to music.
You can feel loneliness and heartache in every note of the Jim James-led “Empty Bed...
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WatchIn Ane Brun and Jose González’s music video for “Worship,” we cut between the stage-like reality and an ocean-filled fantasy. All the images might not fully make sense, but they’re all beautiful and rich.
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“Music with certain properties — roughly, music that occupies the Goldilocks...”
– Alva Noë on the “Goldilocks Zone.”
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“One-over-f equations describe the relative frequency of things that happen over...”
– Science!
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“The story [Rihanna] wants to tell is the one in which the endangered woman...”
– Ann Powers on Chris Brown, Rihanna and occupying the emotionally difficult space where blues women, country singers and girl groups once trod.
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“It’s a Tuesday everywhere else, but in New Orleans, it’s Mardi Gras.”
– Ben Ellman of Galactic in an interview with All Things Considered host Melissa Block.
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“How can a live SNL appearance in a stale stage space match the ability of...”
– Eric Weisbard on Sleigh Bells, Saturday Night Live and blog bands.
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How the Movies Saved Opera →
HD screenings netted the Met $11 million last year.
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WatchMax Weisel, the 20 year-old software engineer behind the live electronics of Bjork’s Biophilia show, explains how he makes a Tesla coil sing to All Songs Considered host Bob Boilen.
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“The thing with Leonard [Cohen], he’s not singing about frivolous things....”
– Songwriter Ron Sexsmith talking about Leonard Cohen in an interview with All Things Considered host Melissa Block.
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“Opera and rap take work to appreciate — perhaps more effort than many of...”
– Tom Huizenga on why rap and opera hit some kind of nerve with people.
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Vince Neil said Mötley Crüe decided to add those...
mentalflossr:
”We had no idea that it was a pronunciation thing,” he told Vanity Fair.
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Watchtotalvibration:
Hey, remember when metal music videos weren’t sent to VH1 purgatory? Helms Alee does and recreates some of the more memorable late ‘80/early ’90s videos. This rules.
Truly, a golden age of music videos, when you could play in a field in whatever shirt you woke up in that morning. Oh, wait…
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Rock Is the New Jazz. Sorry, Rock. →
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WatchStrategically positioned above a tank full of stingrays at the National Aquarium in Baltimore, Alisa Weilerstein unpacked her cello to serenade the sea creatures (and dozens of pleasantly surprised visitors) with music by Johann Sebastian Bach.
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WatchThe Puerto Rican garage-rockers in Davila 666 kick out the jams with “Ciudad,” a gritty ode to San Juan, at KEXP.
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WatchOne of the best party bands around, Red Baarat plays rollicking funk music steeped in Northern India’s wedding celebrations, with a dash of D.C. go-go beats and hip-hop. The dance-friendly group performs a loud, high-energy set at the NPR Music offices.
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Dance Music Is Bringing The Diva Back →
Electronic dance music’s spotlight swings back and forth between vocal-heavy and vocal-less tracks like a pendulum, so in that sense it isn’t much of a surprise that the industry’s most-played lists have been inundated with sung hooks over the past year or so. But the trend appears to have real legs this time, and the depth of female voices on the tracks and behind the...
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How Social Media Saved The Grammys →
Everyone hated it, but everyone watched it. That seems to be the takeaway from this year’s Grammy Awards telecast. Top critics called the program discordant, bloated and full of fumbles. The Internet belched in frustration as the Foo Fighters (nice guys, but overplayed) and Chris Brown (problematic, to say the least) made multiple appearances. Yet people tuned in — boy, did they tune in...
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