Music Commentary--Creative Writing--Cultural Hilarity





"What if there are no cries of anguish to be heard? Who is prepared to take arms against a sea of amusements? To whom do we complain, and when, and in what tone of voice, when serious discourse dissolves into giggles?"--Neil Postman






Tuesday, April 2, 2013

Spectrum Culture: Pat Metheny, The Orchestrion Project

pat-metheny-orchestrion1

New on Spectrum Culture, I review Pat Metheny's musical science experiment called the Orchestrion Project

Nineteen-time Grammy-winning jazz guitarist Pat Metheny has always been at the forefront of using cutting-edge technology and unconventional instruments in his music. Take his 2003 album One Quiet Night, for instance, one recorded almost entirely on the acoustic baritone guitar, an instrument not heard often in jazz (or for that matter, in music of any type). Metheny, ever the innovator, has been working with a team of engineers the last three years or so on an experiment of sorts called the Orchestrion, an assortment of instruments–pianos, drum kits, marimbas, bells and even bottles tuned to various pitches—controlled by computer and capable of responding to the touch of Metheny’s hands on his specially-configured guitar. After releasing the studio record Orchestrion in 2010, the guitarist, with a team of technicians in tow, took his “machine” on a world tour. The Orchestrion Project, a double-disc set, was recorded in Brooklyn at the end of the tour without a live audience as document of the unique musical experience.

Click here to read more.

Monday, April 1, 2013

Spectrum Culture: Record Review: Rhye, Woman

rhye-woman1

New on Spectrum Culture, I review the excellent new record from the Sadie-esque Rhye: 

In her landmark 1990 book Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity, Judith Butler theorized that gender is a performance, a set of actions that we do, rather than a universal who we are. What it means to be “male” or “female” is more a product of societal conditioning than biological impulse. Canadian songwriter/vocalist Mike Milosh, a heterosexual man, has embraced some cultural signifiers of femininity in his music. He generally sings softly, approaches his notes tenderly and makes frequent use of falsetto (although, as he points out in a recent New York Times interview, he rarely sings as high as Thom Yorke). This musical gender bending has confused any number of critics who, in their initial reviews, took the title of Rhye’s debut record literally and assumed the primary vocalist to be female.
Click here to read more.

Friday, March 29, 2013

Spectrum Culture: Record Review: Jason Marsalis, In a World of Mallets

jason-marsalis-vibe

New on Spectrum Culture, I review jazz drummer Jason Marsalis' new record In a World of Mallets. He plays vibes on this one: 

The vibraphone is sort of a bastard child of jazz. Technically, it’s a percussion instrument, so young jazz drummers are often encouraged to practice it along with the set. Given its impressionistic, gentle timbre, many youngsters quickly abandon it for the more aggressive sound of drums. Since few aspire to become masters of the vibraphone, the instrument has a paucity of innovative artists to its name. Once one gets beyond Lionel Hampton, Bobby Hutcherson, Milt Jackson and Gary Burton, the list is rather sparse.
Click here to read more.

Thursday, March 28, 2013

Spectrum Culture: Mount Moriah @ Schubas


New on Spectrum Culture, I review the North Carolina alt-country/indie-rock outfit Mount Moriah at Chicago's Schubas. 

The Monday night crowd at Schubas might not have been huge, but they were certainly vocal about their love of Mount Moriah’s music. The North Carolina-based alt-country/Americana/rock outfit had just come from South by Southwest and looked a little road-weary at first. Any fatigue from the intensity of Austin didn’t stop them from delivering a stellar set, one drawn primarily from their recent LP Miracle Temple, with some tunes thrown in for good measure from their 2011 self-titled debut, the record that put them on the map.
Click here to read more. 

Monday, March 18, 2013

Spectrum Culture: Concert Review: Unknown Mortal Orchestra/Foxygen/Wampire

UMO10

New at Spectrum Culture, my review of the Unknown Mortal Orchestra/Foxygen/Wampire show at Chicago's Lincoln Hall.

It’s a rare feeling to walk into a triple-bill rock show excited about all three acts. I’ve trudged through plenty of lackluster opening sets only to get to the band I actually wanted to hear. The Unknown Mortal Orchestra/Foxygen/Wampire show at Chicago’s Lincoln Hall was a notable exception. There’s a consistency between the sonic aesthetics of the three groups, even though they are at different stages in their respective careers.
Click here to read more.

Sunday, February 17, 2013

Spectrum Culture: Chick Corea, Now He Sings, Now He Sobs

chick-corea1

New on Spectrum Culture, I revisit one of my favorite jazz records of all time, Chick Corea's 1968 masterpiece Now He Sings, Now He Sobs
Drummer Max Roach, along with many other musicians, has referred to jazz as a uniquely democratic art form. In an April 1987 edition of Ebony Man, he said that jazz “comes out of a communal experience. We take our respective instruments and collectively create a thing of beauty.” Indeed, it is the interactive quality of jazz that, at its best, makes it so attractive for longtime fans and neophytes alike. There’s a sublime quality to a soloist and three or four supporting musicians uniting around an inventive melodic idea or rhythmic motif. The interaction between musicians in a jazz group is made all the more powerful by the fact that, unlike the complex counterpoint between instruments in an orchestra or the synergy of various elements of a pop studio production, the magic is largely a result of spontaneity and improvisation.
Click here to read more.