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Sonic Youth performs their iconic album Daydream Nation. (La Tête Krançien/flickr)Soundcheck Smackdown: Full-Album Concerts
Full-album concerts were a novelty in the concert industry just a decade ago. Now, major touring acts like Bruce Springsteen, Van Morrison and Steely Dan are taking the stage to perform their most beloved albums, from start to finish. Today: we debate album concerts in a Soundcheck Smackdown. And: another installment of WNYC's Jazz Loft Project radio series.
Whole album as concert: roaring or boring?
A growing number of artists – from rock star Bruce Springsteen to the hip-hop group Public Enemy to singer-songwriter Liz Phair – have performed entire, old albums on the stage recently. One critic says those shows are “a cruel perversion of a concert's real-time magic.” Another claims they are often better than regular gigs. Our guests include Washington Post music critic Chris Richards.
"Frozen in their tracks" by Chris Richards
Previously on Soundcheck: Own the Record? See the Concert.
Blog: John Schaefer on the album as concert
Picks of the Week
This week’s picks have a European theme: a Spanish singer who is a muse of director Pedro Almodovar, an adventurous French cellist, and an old British art-rock band.
801 Live – Collector's Edition - Picked by John Schaefer
Buika - El Ultimo Trago (Warner Music Spain) - picked by Gisele Regatao
Chants d'est – Songs from Slavic Lands
Sonia Wieder-Atherton, cello; Sinfonia Varsovia, Christophe Mangou, conductor (Naïve) - Picked by Brian Wise
The Jazz Loft Project: More Tapes
Thousands of hours of tape recorded in a Manhattan loft in the late 1950s and early '60s were recently discovered. They became The Jazz Loft Project -- and a 10-part WNYC radio series produced in association with the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University. In today’s episode, "More Tapes," Sara Fishko takes a close listen to some of the music and conversation captured by photographer W. Eugene Smith's tape recorders, starting in 1957.
This series is produced in conjunction with Sam Stephenson’s book, The Jazz Loft Project, coming out today. For more information on the project, click here.
The Jazz Loft Project: Photographs and Tapes of W. Eugene Smith from 821 Sixth Avenue, 1957-1965 on Amazon.com
The Jazz Loft Project online
WNYC's The Jazz Loft Project Radio Series
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