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Soundcheck

Friday, May 30, 2008
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  • Summerstage
    (wallyg/flickr)

    Music Around New York... and About New York

    Radiohead, Isaac Hayes and the Mostly Mozart Festival are among the highlights of this summer's concert agenda in New York. Today: we take you through a selected round-up of the best summer concerts for all tastes. Also: New York is clearly a star in "Sex and the City: The Movie," which opens this weekend. The composer of the film's musical score talks about capturing the essence of big-city glamour. Meanwhile, big-city grit has often been a theme of Bang on a Can's annual Marathon. We get a preview of this weekend's edition. And finally: a trip way downtown, to a sound installation created by David Byrne.

Top Ten New York Summer Concerts

The hot months ahead are the busiest for concert-goers and there are events all over the city. Yancey Strickler from eMusic.com brings some help, picking the ten events you can’t miss.

Top ten New York summer concerts, compiled by eMusic editor Yancey Strickler

5/30 Wire at South Street Seaport

6/12 Isaac Hayes at Prospect Park

6/14 Vampire Weekend at Summerstage

6/28 Obits at East Side Ampitheatre

6/28 Mos Def Big Band with Gil-Scot Heron at Carnegie Hall

7/4 Sonic Youth + The Feelies at Battery Park

7/19 Siren Festival

7/29 Mostly Mozart Festival at Lincoln Center

8/3 Rock the Bells at Jones Beach

Tribe Called Quest, Santogold, Nas, Spank Rock, Cool Kids

8/10 All Points West at Liberty State Park

Radiohead, Cat Power, New Pornographers

9/21 My Bloody Valentine, Yo La Tengo at All Tomorrow's Parties, Catskills, NY

Emusic.com

Downtown Sounds

Musician David Byrne talks about his music installation, called "Playing the Building," which opens this weekend in the Battery Maritime Building in Lower Manhattan.

Playing the Building (WNYC News)

Bang on a Can 2008

Music critic Anastasia Tsioulcas previews this weekend's Bang on a Can Marathon, which will include new-music groups like Alarm Will Sound and Crash Ensemble as well as alt-rockers like Dan Deacon and Marnie Stern.

Bang on a Can's Web site

audience

Soundcheck Smackdown: When Contemporary Met Classical

Soundcheck

Like vegetables stuck into a delicious meal, contemporary classical music is forced on concert audiences before they are allowed to enjoy their Brahms. So says humorist, critic and author Joe Queenan. Today, Queenan and John Berry, Artistic Director with English National Opera, join us for a Soundcheck Smackdown debate on the merits of contemporary music.

musical clouds

You Are What You Hear

Soundcheck

Washington Post reporter Paul Farhi takes us through some of the most famously botched song lyrics in rock history. We’ll explore why the words we make up are usually more interesting than the real version. Then, listeners confess their favorite and most embarrassing reinvented lyrics.

Leave a comment: Give us your favorite set of misheard lyrics! Were you disappointed when you learned the actual words?

Rosanne Cash and Mark O'Connor

Soundcheck

For her, he was a father. For him, he was a boyhood hero. For the nation, he was an icon. Singer-songwriter Rosanne Cash and composer and violinist Mark O'Connor join us to talk about how Johnny Cash has inspired their musical collaboration. And they will play live.

Katy

Soundcheck's Summer Song Poll

Soundcheck

Every year, popular and critical opinion somehow converge to settle on a "summer song." In 2007, it was Rihanna's "Umbrella." The year before, it was "Crazy" by Gnarls Barkley. The practice stretches back to the very dawn of pop radio. Yet defining the essence of a "summer song" is a bit elusive. We enlist the help of Blender editor at large Lizzy Goodman -- and of our Soundcheck listeners, in an online poll.

Cast your vote: Soundcheck's Summer Song Poll 2008

Can't decide? Check out audio and video clips of the contestants here.

Our blog: John Schaefer asks what makes a good summer song,

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  2. The Brian Lehrer Show: Battleground (08/21/2008)
  3. The Brian Lehrer Show: Live from the Democratic National Convention: Day 2 (08/26/2008)
  4. The Brian Lehrer Show: Live from the Democratic National Convention: Day 3 (08/27/2008)
  5. The Brian Lehrer Show: Business Connections (08/22/2008)
  6. The Brian Lehrer Show: Live from the Democratic National Convention: Day 4 (08/28/2008)
  7. The Leonard Lopate Show: 1-2-3 (08/26/2008)