wnyc.org / 93.9fm / am 820

Comments

• [1] Teri from New York August 05, 2009 - 02:43PM

  Make it stop, PLEASE!!

  
  
• [2] Bill Mullen from New Rochelle August 05, 2009 - 02:46PM

  Asphalt Orchestra is great !!!

  Love them HONKING glissandos

  YEAHHH !@

  
  
• [3] Karen from Long Island August 05, 2009 - 03:14PM

  You can go to Julliard,Berkeley, Oberlin, perform at Lincoln Center et all, but it is still band…. The members of the group that spoke came off as pretentious bandies trying hard to say their “hip” NYC “Asphalt Orchestra” wasn’t a band…own it!...embrace it…and by the way, I have heard it, been there done that…check out many modern drum corps and their arrangements….just because you aren’t spinning a flag doesn’t mean you are better than your band world brethren!

  
  
• [4] Yasadora from Connecticut August 05, 2009 - 03:35PM

  I heard this segment in my car….I couldn’t wait to get home to comment. The group appeared to have great distain for the very musical form they were using to express their “art” …I didn’t get a feeling homage, of humor or even eclectic exuberance but rather patronizing snobbery. I got the feeling they were winking and saying in their best stage whisper “this is performance art I’m not a marching band geek”…well guess again.

  
  
• [5] fred antonet from at home close to the lincoln center in NYC August 05, 2009 - 04:56PM

  well not much to say and i will be polite in saying that i was hoping for something different but not that different as to what i heard. sorry but i did not like what i heard. i am sure they all are good artists in thier wn right but i just could not listen to it much. sounded too noisey to me..

  
  
• [6] Steven Davis August 05, 2009 - 07:46PM

  The music combined with the band's own commentary struck me in sum as puerile, in an annoying way. If it were just a bunch of band folks having fun playing alt band music, it would have struck me as puerile, in a fun way.

  
  
• [7] gb August 06, 2009 - 12:24PM

  In the interview, a member of AO said "I don't know that there is one [resurgence of the interest in marching band format]". And they keep saying that they're doing something completely different because they are "not playing Sousa marches". Come on now.

  Only in NYC there's the Hungry March Band, Rude Mechanical Orchestra, Himalayas, etc, and further north in the east coast there's What Cheer Brigade, Emperor Norton, etc. These bands have been playing music by such varied artists as Mingus, Le Tigre, Lightning Bolt, Brian Eno, Black Sabbath, Beyonce, and Los Fabulosos Cadillacs, and bringing them into cohesive, interesting, fun shows.

  AO: What you're doing is nothing new. Look, you're great musicians, and the show was kinda fun, but it was nothing that I hadn't seen or heard before. Have y'all really been hiding in your homes and schools studying music your whole adult life? Come on, step outside of your box. You're ripping people off by not acknowledging what they're doing and the new tradition that you're stepping into.

  
  
• [8] ken August 06, 2009 - 12:46PM

  i think you guys are right that i was too flippant when referring to the US marching band tradition (err, marching band geeks), and to what's going on now. of course i'm aware of the williamsburg marching band set, but we are actually trying to create a new hybrid. i don't think there's much common ground between the stuff we're playing and hungry march or himalayas, for instance. i think missing from the interview was that we are commissioning new music for the band, not just playing cover tunes. and i was careful to mention our reverence for new orleans street bands and serbian brass bands. but it's worth noting that no one in the band has any roots in marching. and the movement is done by a wonderful modern dance choreographer .... so - not that this is an excuse - but honestly, the marching world didn't really come to our head at all during this process. you're right that we could be more publicly referential to other bands who are outdoors; no disrespect to people making music was ever intended, and i'm sorry if it came across that way.

  
  
• [9] Yasadora from Connecticut August 06, 2009 - 01:50PM

  Thanks Ken for responding...

  you mentioned "but honestly, the marching world didn't really come to our head at all during this process. "

  that is the power of our Conscious and unconscious artisic collective!

  in the arts there are always roots, and lineage even if one chooses to do what feels brand new, in the vanguard…, but to make ourselves aware of the roots, the various streams which feed our creativity doesn’t diminish our innovations on the contrary it can only help to enhance the endeavor …I encourage you to check out the various root traditions of street/marching/movement bands/ensembles to help enrich your creativity….and one last thing…you never know who you know who might have been in a marching band all those years ago in all those far away forgotten places…..don’t dismiss it…in some places in this country that is the only connection to music a school system offers their young people…

  
  
• [10] jen from NYC August 06, 2009 - 07:18PM

  You know, I wanted to like this but I thought this piece was awful and they are trying too hard to be "strange".

  
  
• [11] waterbowl from Hudson Valley August 06, 2009 - 08:45PM

  Well...why not!!!!

  Remember Mozart's Cassations? If Philip Glass is the new great composer (which I have no doubt that he is), then this is the new chamber music. I'm sure if I was alive during the 19th Century, I would have hated Wagner and later, Schoenberg as people are "rap-phobic" today. Change is tough, but music is a precious gift from the musician- never destructive- only a gift with a lot of work behind it.

  
  
• [12] waterbowl from Hudson Valley August 06, 2009 - 08:52PM

  ...and another thing, this stuff is alive!

  Thank you band members!Keep up the good work!

  I would have you guys do a rendition of a Carl Nielsen overture if I had the money to pay you.

  Waterbowl

  
  
• [13] G. R. from East Village, NY August 07, 2009 - 04:19PM

  I saw the Asphalt Orchestra on Thursday night (before listening to this segment), and enjoyed them quite a bit, as I believe the overwhelming majority of audience members did as well. I am familiar with the Hungry March Band, but at no time was I concerned with Asphalt Orchestra's place in the marching band universe, nor did I find them derivative. Yes, their music may be too challenging for those without adventurous palates. So boo to the naysayers.

  
  
• [14] earl from astoria August 14, 2009 - 01:53PM

  i just wanted to chime in that the tune that they're playing is by the experimental technical death metal band meshuggah. the tune is called "electric red" off of the new album "obzen". as someone who is both a metalhead and a violinist, i dug this. it's neither truly metal, nor is it standard "marching band" stuff, but it's definitely compelling and worth hearing. \OO/

  
  
• [15] Mark Djordjevic from Chicago August 16, 2009 - 01:48PM

  it was only a matter of time...even though the interpretation of Electric Red didn't appeal to me personally, I think it's great that you're expanding the scope of what is considered marching band music. It would have been nice to see a few more people getting into it. Good job altogether.