Yet more new music: Black Angels live on KEXP podcast

Yes, there’s quite a backlog of music posts here today, but this one is a twofer. I hadn’t subscribed to KEXP’s Live In Studio podcast before this week, but the first show I downloaded, an instudio by Black Angels, makes me wish I had subscribed a long time ago. The music is raw, fierce, and urgent in all the right ways. (I previously wrote about Black Angels in January.)

The best indie radio station ever also has a podcast of individual song downloads from emerging artists, the Song of the Day podcast.

Buy a single, win the artist

The above is the logic behind a new contest sponsored on iTunes by Universal/Motown, who are distributing Prince’s forthcoming 3121. Everyone who buys Prince’s new single “Black Sweat” or its b-side “Beautiful, Loved, and Blessed” from iTunes—as I did yesterday—is entered in a sweepstakes. The winner gets an exclusive private concert by Prince at His Royal Badness’s home (“or other location selected by Sponsor”). Pretty badass prize, especially if Prince is as far atop his game as “Black Sweat” suggests. It’s funky without the self-consciousness that marred Musicology for me. (via Blogcritics)

And that’s what really hurts: R&B Radiohead

Courtesy our good friend Mr. Greene, a pointer to an (unfortunately non-downloadable) goodie, a pointer to a cover of Radiohead’s “Just” (from The Bends) by DJ Mark Ronson that features an R&B horn line and some seriously funky guitar playing, together with a quite respectable vocal from Phantom Planet’s Alex Greenwald.

My only complaint: the cover loses something of the edgy vitriol of the original but doesn’t fully embrace the funk that the instrumental choice seems to want to bring. Otherwise one of the better Radiohead covers out there.

Schoenberg the romantic

Missed in the shuffle of the big snowstorm, my Las Vegas trip, food poisoning, etc. was this article in the Globe on February 12 about Schoenberg and Beethoven. The link between the two is a lot clearer in a monumental work like Gurrelieder, which we’re performing starting tomorrow night at Symphony Hall.

The first orchestra rehearsal was today. As always, singing with the BSO is a real privilege, especially with a show like this one where they are being stretched beyond their normal comfort zone. (While the Gurrelieder is romantic, it’s also extremely difficult.) It’s also interesting to make the case that 20th century music evolved from the late High Romantic works rather than growing as a new, separate thing; some of the melodic passages in the piece have a harmonic quality that presages the austere intervallic language of Copland (in both his popular and obscure works). It should be a good concert—even if the Tanglewood Festival Chorus is only singing about 18 minutes of it.

Friday Random 10: Quailtard Edition

Not much to add to this week’s low post count, other than that I’m finally starting to feel a bit better. And oh yeah: quailtard! quailtard! quailtard!

    1. “This, gentlemen, is a death dwarf…,” William S. Burroughs, Call Me Burroughs
    2. “No Girl So Sweet,” PJ Harvey, Is This Desire?
    3. “Near Wild Heaven,” R.E.M., Out of Time
    4. “False Ending,” Yo La Tengo, Electr-O-Pura
    5. “I’ve Got You Under My Skin,” Frank Sinatra with Bono, Stay (Faraway, So Close!)
    6. “The Science Fiction Film,” Woody Allen, Standup Comic
    7. “Looks Like I’m Up Sh*t Creek Again,” Tom Waits, The Early Years
    8. “Down By the River,” David Rhodes, Plus From Us
    9. “On the Road to Mandalay,” Frank Sinatra, Live in Australia with the Red Norvo Quartet
  1. “The Messenger,” Daniel Lanois, For the Beauty of Wynona

(And yes, I know the Yo La Tengo is a repeat. But do me a favor and don’t tell my iPod, OK? It’s just seen me order a replacement for the G4 laptop and it’s a little edgy.)

(And, oh yeah. How weird a world is it when I look at the headline “Man Shot by Cheney Leaving Hospital” and think Oh my god he’s at it again! Where are the dangling modifier police when you need them?)

Friday Random 10

I can’t top Zalm’s witty deconstruction of this week’s Grammy winners, so I’ll just shut up and post my Random 10:

  1. “False Ending,” Yo La Tengo (Electr-O-Pura)
  2. “Ocean Size,” Jane’s Addiction (Nothing’s Shocking)
  3. “Martha’s Foolish Ginger,” Tori Amos (The Beekeeper)
  4. “A Conjunction of Drones Simulating the Way In Which Sufjan Stevens Has An Existential Crisis In The Great Godfrey Maze,” Sufjan Stevens (Illinoise)
  5. “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For,” U2 (Rattle & Hum)
  6. “2. Section 1,” Steve Reich (Music for 18 Musicians)
  7. “San Francisco Waitress,” Eberhard Schoener and Sting (Video Magic)
  8. “Language is a Virus,” Laurie Anderson (Home of the Brave)
  9. “Drilling,” Minus the Bear (Menos El Oso)
  10. “Walk Around My Bedside, Roscoe Holcomb (High Lonesome Sound)

Sonic Youth: New album, life without Jim

I got a fan notification email a while back that Sonic Youth were working on a new album, which is always cause for celebration, especially after the last two (Murray Street and Sonic Nurse were real career high points). But I had totally missed a more interesting piece of news: back in October, Pitchfork reported that Jim O’Rourke, who was an official Sonic for the last two albums and played on others including NYC Ghosts & Flowers and SYR3, has officially left the band … to focus on directing films?

Personally I think the last bit is a canard, given that Jim is visibly active in the music business (he produced Beth Orton’s long overdue album, out yesterday). But you never know.

Neko Case brings the noise

Coming next month: Neko Case’s new album, Fox Confessor Brings The Flood. I couldn’t be more excited if tomorrow was the first day of school. (Yeah, I was that kid.) The good news is that Joey Burns and John Covertino of Calexico, who made Blacklisted so spectacular, are returning. The really interesting bit is that The Band’s keyboard player Garth Hudson is also on the record; according to his site he is playing on four tracks. Hope he brought the Lowrey with him.

Review: Hilliard Ensemble, Gombert: Missa Media vita


The first thing that I thought on reading the liner notes for the new Hilliard Ensemble recording of the works of Nicolas Gombert was, What a bad time to record the music of a Catholic composer who was sentenced to hard labor for molesting choirboys. The first thing
I thought when I listened to the first track was, Wow, the Hilliard Ensemble sounds amazing. When did they add a bass?

In fact, this recording represents yet another turn in the evolution of the Hilliard Ensemble, one of the longest running early music ensembles performing today. Joining long time members Rogers Covey-Crump, Gordon Jones, and countertenor David James are tenor Andreas Hirtreiter (who has augmented the ensemble on two of their previous three recordings), Steven Harrold (who performed on the Hilliard’s chart-topping Morimur and their splendid 2004 recording of Machaut motets), and bass Robert Macdonald. It is the latter’s presence who is most spectacularly felt on the recording, as the trademark lush sonority of the Hilliard Ensemble gains a new and welcome depth of tone.

And the bass presence is needed on the title work, Gombert’s monumental Missa Media vita in morte sumus. The mass is a musical elaboration or “parody” of Gombert’s own motet, “Media vita in morte sumus,” which leads off the recording, and both mass and motet share a richly ornamented polyphony that is seamlessly rendered by the Hilliard Ensemble. There is very little space in these compositions; they are densely ornamented and constantly in motion, never settling or resolving. Gombert became famous (prior to being sentenced at hard labor in the galleys for “gross indecency” with a choirboy) for his highly complex and rich writing, which was published all over Europe during the time that he served as unofficial court composer to Emperor Charles V of Spain. Gombert’s unparalleled imitative writing and skillful use of dissonance is particularly striking in the closing motet, “Musae Iovis,” where sudden changes of tonality, meter, and rhythm that would be at home in a Tallis or Gesualdo composition are put to service in an evocative memorial to Josquin, Gombert’s teacher. This motet is the greatest revelation on the disc and makes a solid case for Gombert’s rediscovery. The Ensemble’s vocal performance, as always, is superbly nuanced and expressive while maintaining the same purity of line and heartrending perfection of phrasing that has characterized all the group’s recordings for ECM.

The Hilliard Ensemble is forever inimitable, for a very simple reason that was once outlined to me by a good friend and conductor who worked with the early music ensemble, the Suspicious Cheese Lords, in which I once sang. He was helping us improve our performance of Tallis’s Lamentations of Jeremiah, and told us that our tempo was too slow. “Well, we’ve been listening to the Hilliard recording…” I ventured. He cut me off. “Ah, but they’re not human. No mere mortal could hold phrases for that long, that perfectly.” Listening to this latest recording it becomes perfectly clear that he was right. Even with a few guests along for the ride, even performing long suppressed compositions that fell through the cracks between Josquin and Palestrina, the Hilliard Ensemble is still the closest thing on record to an out of body experience.

Also posted at Blogcritics.

New Mission of Burma, lots of 12″ vinyl

All you Mission of Burma fans and radio folks might want to check out the discussion about the forthcoming Mission of Burma album, The Obliterati, at Pitchfork. Clint Conley says that the band is rolling out a “singles club” in which 8 of the 14 album tracks will be released on 12″ vinyl—and as CD singles. The subscription club has unfortunately sold out—but I got mine, heh heh heh. If the demand for these singles is any indication, it will be Mission of Burma’s second post-reunion album that will be the real story of their career.

Friday Random 10: classical and s/t edition

It’s that time: yes, the posting well has run dry. What comes up on the ol’ iPod?

  1. “Waitin’ for a Superman,” Flaming Lips
  2. “Allegro impetuoso“ (Górecki’s Kleines Requiem für eine Polka), London Sinfonietta
  3. “Sunway,” Rob Wasserman
  4. Gloria (Ludwig Senfl’s Missa L’homme Armé), the Suspicious Cheese Lords
  5. “Missing,” Everything But The Girl
  6. “17,” Smashing Pumpkins
  7. “Olive Pressing Song,” Unidentified Italian male chorus (field recording)
  8. “Laura,” Scissor Sisters
  9. “M.I.A.,” M.I.A.
  10. “Minor Threat,” Minor Threat

Background and instructions for this meme in my inaugural Random 10 post.

The eighties never die

New at Art of the Mix: your scary 80s 5 and your scary 80s 6. As I write on the site, odd-numbered volumes in this series contain songs that I’m ashamed to remember (e.g. “I Can’t Wait” by Nu Shooz), and even volumes contain songs I wish I had listened to at the time.

Copies will be on the way shortly to the usual suspects; if you’d like to be a usual suspect, let me know.

I’ve been trying to make these for several months, but it took a long time to put them together. Sometimes making these themed mixes feels like I’m clearing my throat… it’s necessary but there’s something else I have to say. Not sure what that is yet.

Ensemble Robot!!!!!

Very cool. One of my favorite former wine store clerks and MIT grads, Christine Southworth, is branching out from her gamelan-inspired composition to writing new works for new instruments. Specifically, she has an upcoming concert with a new group, Ensemble Robot, at the Museum of Science on Wednesday. Featuring “an 8-foot tall double-helix-shaped xylophone played by electromagnetic hammers,” “a flower-like instrument that opens and closes, with small, motor-powered fans to pluck strings,” and “a large tetrahedron of air pistons, controlled by compressed air“ that plays organ pipes as it opens and closes. Rawk!!

Friday Random 10

Thanks to Zalm for cluing me into the existence of this meme. Normally I avoid memes but this one fits my blog nicely. (Instructions; speculation on the origin of the meme.)

  1. “Banana Co,” Radiohead
  2. “The Last of the Famous International Playboys,” Morrissey
  3. “Mr. Grieves,” Pixies
  4. “Billy Boy,” Miles Davis
  5. Cardoso: Requiem, 2. Kyrie, The Tallis Scholars
  6. “It Happened in Monterey,” Frank Sinatra
  7. “Sprout and the Bean,” Joanna Newsom
  8. “Vacation,” the Go Gos
  9. “Breathless,” Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
  10. “Five String Serenade,” Mazzy Star

Not too bad. With all the 80s crap music I’m listening to right now for my Scary 80s mix (volumes 5 and 6, forthcoming), I could have gotten far worse tracks than “Vacation” showing up.