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Tag: Music

Studio 360

Girl in a Coma

Friday, June 01, 2012

The San Antonio band Girl in a Coma formed over a junior high obsession over the tortured music of Morrissey. “I loved him so much it hurt,” says singer Nina Diaz, who was only 13 when she joined the band. “I turned vegetarian after that, started reading Oscar Wilde, eating yogurt ...

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Soundcheck Challenge: Summer Resolutions

Friday, June 01, 2012

If your New Year’s resolution died a quiet death months ago, but you still want to make your mark in 2012 – make a musical summer resolution with Soundcheck! 

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Micachu and the Shapes: In Studio

Friday, June 01, 2012

The London-based band Micachu and the Shapes - led by multi-instrumentalist, singer and composer Mica Levi - made an indie rock splash in 2009 with their debut album, "Jewellery." The group's follow-up, called "Never," comes out in July - and today, we get a preview.

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Gig Alert: Freelance Whales

Friday, June 01, 2012

Indie-pop quintet Freelance Whales plays the Bowery Ballroom on Friday night. Download the group's charming tune "Generator (First Floor)." 

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Soundcheck ®

Those Dirty, Dirty Dozens

Thursday, May 31, 2012

Long before rap, there was “the dozens” – the African-American street rhyming tradition that author Elijah Wald defines as “halfway between ‘yo mama’ jokes and rap freestyle battling.” He joins us to share the surprising musical history of the R-rated comedic insults.

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Soundcheck ®

Frankie Rose: In Studio

Thursday, May 31, 2012

With her new solo album “Instersteller,” indie veteran Frankie Rose (of Vivian Girls and Crystal Stilts fame) breaks out of her lo-fi cocoon and takes flight as a shimmering synth-pop butterfly. Frankie joins us to play songs off the record and tell us about life in the trenches of the Brooklyn music scene.

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Soundcheck ®

Summer Resolutions: Get Ready

Thursday, May 31, 2012

Make a musical summer resolution with Soundcheck! Yesterday we announced that there are some big plans ahead for the show. Starting next Monday, we're spending the summer off the air - building a better Soundcheck. And as we embark on our big self-improvement project … we want YOU to start a project of your own. Find out how you can get involved, here.

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Features

25 Musical Acts Win Spots to Play Underground

Thursday, May 31, 2012

A Latin-ska-reggae fusion band, a female mariachi group and a wind quintet were among the 25 new musical acts selected to be part of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's Music Under New York program.

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WNYC News Blog

Requiem For A Cabaret: The Oak Room Closes

Thursday, May 31, 2012

One of New York's most loved cabaret spaces will not return after renovations. Singer Andrea Marcovicci was kind of a lifer at the Oak Room. For 25 years she performed there, surrounded by its burnished wood panels and ornate wall sconces.
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Soundcheck ®

Gig Alert: A Tribe Called Red

Thursday, May 31, 2012

Native American DJ-producer trio A Tribe Called Red makes its New York debut at S.O.B.'s on Thursday night. Download the Ottawa crew's tune "General Generations."

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New Sounds

New Releases, May 2012

Thursday, May 31, 2012

It's that time of the month again for our monthly program of new releases. John Schaefer once again picks through the spring flood of CDs that have been sent to his office to find new releases worthy of showcasing in tonight's program.  First, a remembrance of Portuguese pianist Bernardo Sassetti, who died earlier this month.  Then, hear new Swedish jazz electronica from e.s.t., which had been recorded before the pianist Estbjorn Svenson died in 2008.  It had languished unreleased in a studio in Sydney, Australia for four years. 

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New Sounds

Chamber Music with a Groove (special podcast)

Wednesday, May 30, 2012

WNYC

On this edition of New Sounds, hear some chamber music by composer Marc Mellits with a populist bent.  We’ll sample his work, “Tight Sweater," which contains traces of funk, echoes of rock, and minimalism's rapidly shifting patterns of notes and interlocking rhythms.  With the provocative and whimsical titles, ("Exposed Zipper," “Pickle Trousers” and “Mechanically Separated Chicken Parts”) the movements are compact and alarmingly catchy.

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Scene Study: Yo La Tengo & Hoboken, NJ

Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Hoboken, NJ is less than 5 miles from Manhattan -- but its main street couldn’t be more different from Wall Street. This quiet town with a population of 50,000 or so has served as the birthplace of baseball, the small-but-hardy rock venue Maxwell’s, and a long-running indie band called Yo La Tengo. We hear more when music writer Jesse Jarnow joins us with his new book, "Big Day Coming: Yo La Tengo and the Rise of Indie Rock."

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Soundcheck ®

Outernational: In Studio

Wednesday, May 30, 2012

The New York band called Outernational puts politics back in rock with their album "Todos Somos Ilegales: We Are All Illegals."  It’s a bouncy, bi-lingual, almost cinematic look at America’s southern border, and Outernational will play songs from it live in our studio.

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WNYC Archives & Preservation

Doc Watson Philadelphia Folk Festival circa 1970

Wednesday, May 30, 2012

WNYC

Join the Archives department in celebrating the life of Doc Watson with this rare interview and performance at the Philadelphia Folk Festival. 

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Soundcheck Workshop

Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Just like a band on tour pulls off the road and heads into the recording studio, Soundcheck will spend the summer off the air creating something new. Online, the show will be more active than ever. Find out more.

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Gig Alert: John Yao

Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Jazz trombonist John Yao and his trio perform at the Brooklyn Lyceum on Wednesday night. Download the title song from his new album, "In The Now."

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New Sounds

Ambient Electroacoustic Works

Wednesday, May 30, 2012

For this New Sounds, we’ll sample some recent ambient electro-acoustic music from the likes of New Jersey-based composer Frances White, Canadian electronic/ambient producer Loscil (Scott Morgan), and Fazio.  Listen to electroacoustic chamber music by Frances White, which she wrote especially for eighth blackbird, and incorporates the traditional Japanese shakuhachi flute. 

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Features

Folk Musician Doc Watson Dies in NC Hospital at 89

Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Doc Watson, the Grammy-award winning folk musician whose lightning-fast style of flatpicking influenced guitarists around the world for more than a half-century, died Tuesday at a hospital in Winston-Salem, according to a hospital spokeswoman and his manager. He was 89.

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Soundcheck ®

Regina Spektor: In Studio

Tuesday, May 29, 2012

With a new album out today called “What We Saw From the Cheap Seats,” singer and pianist Regina Spektor returns to our studio to play some new songs. The best seats in the house will be right in front of your speakers.

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