Tag: Music
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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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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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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.
New Sounds
Chamber Music with a Groove (special podcast)
Wednesday, May 30, 2012
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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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.
WNYC Archives & Preservation
Doc Watson Philadelphia Folk Festival circa 1970
Wednesday, May 30, 2012
Join the Archives department in celebrating the life of Doc Watson with this rare interview and performance at the Philadelphia Folk Festival.
Soundcheck ®
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."
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. Written especially for eighth blackbird, listen to electroacoustic chamber music by Frances White, which incorporates the traditional Japanese shakuhachi flute.
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.
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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For LOC, Oh!
Tuesday, May 29, 2012
Every year since 2002, the Library of Congress has unveiled a new list of additions to its National Recording Registry. 2011’s twenty-five selections include the earliest-known commercial sound recording… the psychedelic-rock of the late Arthur Lee and his band Love... and the pioneering hip hop of the Sugarhill Gang. Matthew Barton, the curator of Recorded Sound at the Library, tells us more.
New Sounds
Lost Music
Tuesday, May 29, 2012
For this New Sounds Program, we’ll listen to intriguing music about being lost, both physically, and in the sense of just having no direction, and not knowing where you’re headed. From duoJalal -violist Kathryn Lockwood and percussionist Yousif Sheronick- hear music by Kenji Bunch, an entire suite called “Lost & Found.”
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Gig Alert: Vicky Chow
Tuesday, May 29, 2012
Bang On a Can All-Stars pianist Vicki Chow performs a "mixtape" of her favorite pieces for piano at The Stone on Tuesday night. Download one of its songs, "Digital Sustain."
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Best of Soundcheck: Sharon Van Etten
Monday, May 28, 2012
Singer-songwriter Sharon Van Etten last joined us amid the zeitgeist for Epic, her 2010 album that inspired praise from critics – and cover songs from Bon Iver and The National. The Brooklyn-based musician and her band perform songs from her latest record, Tramp.
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Best of Soundcheck: Audra McDonald & Norm Lewis
Monday, May 28, 2012
Four-time Tony Award winner Audra McDonald is currently starring on Broadway in “The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess”– a newly reworked version of the 1935 American opera. In this special edition of Soundcheck, McDonald joins us in the Greene Space with co-star Norm Lewis to talk about updating an American classic - and to perform songs from the Broadway show.
New Sounds
Theme & Variations - Goldberg Variations
Monday, May 28, 2012
From a Satie-influenced piano solo to electronics to a large jazz-based ensemble, Bach’s celebrated variations are themselves varied for this New Sounds program. We’ll hear some varations adapted almost beyond recognition, by composers like Derek Bermel, David Del Tredici, and Uri Caine. Listen to a version arranged by Karlheinz Essl for string trio with electronic manipulation of the instruments along with Derek Bermel's funky Kontraphunktus.
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Gig Alert: Steven Bernstein's Millennial Territory Orchestra
Monday, May 28, 2012
The jazz nine-piece plays each Monday night at The Stone through the end of June. Download the ensemble's song "Sly Notions."