Ola Podrida: Belly of the Lion

"With a light southern drawl, singer/guitarist David Wingo speaks avidly about balancing his two main artistic endeavors: fronting the Austin, Texas-based Ola Podrida and composing music for films. Ola Podrida released its second album, Belly of the Lion, in November. The soft-mannered, Americana/shoegazey record exhibits Wingo’s passion for fundamental guitar-playing and expressive song lyrics. … Wingo says Ola Podrida’s poignant, atmospheric sound has been heavily influenced by the movies he’s worked on. 'I spent most of my 20s creating music that was focused on films,' Wingo says. … The droning, acoustic guitar-driven track 'Donkey,' off Belly of the Lion, is the song that inspired the album’s title. 'I think "Donkey" creates a sort of unclear picture of being betrayed by a larger power,' Wingo says. 'Someone may read it as government, God or whatever. I didn’t really know myself. … I felt like I was in the belly of the lion, trying to breathe through its nose in anger'" (Emilia Murdoch, "Music," New Haven Advocate, 7/15/10).
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Iggy and the Stooges: Raw Power, Deluxe Edition

"To even hear the rhythm section on co-producer David Bowie's 1973 mix of Raw Power, you need to crank the volume until it feels like James Williamson's reckless guitar leads are piercing your skull. That's the vicious beauty of it. A 1997 reissue of the album experimented with a thicker, less dynamic mix; this new version reinstates Bowie's trebly, off-kilter production while adding clarity and heft the original LP lacked. Finally, the third and most brutal album from these Detroit legends gets both the rawness and the power it deserves. Iggy Pop delivers these desperate anthems as if he's lived every self-mythologizing line. 'I'm a runaway son of the nuclear A-bomb,' he rants in 'Search and Destroy,' embodying glam rock's theatricality while dumping its affectations. New band member Williamson, along with bassist Ron Asheton and drummer brother Scott Asheton, flail in a synchronized wallop that almost single-handedly invented punk" (Barry Walters, "Reviews," Rolling Stone, 4/29/10, p. 102).
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Lukas Ligeti: Mystery System

"Lukas Ligeti (born 13 June 1965, Vienna, Austria) is a composer and percussionist. His work incorporates elements of jazz, contemporary classical, and various world musics. … He is of Hungarian ancestry and is the son of the noted composer György Ligeti (1923–2006). He holds a master's degree from the University of Music and Performing Arts, Vienna where he studied composition with Erich Urbanner. He travels frequently to Africa and has performed together with musicians from Côte d'Ivoire, Egypt, Zimbabwe, and several other African nations. His current group, which brings together electronica and Burkinabe popular music, is called Burkina Electric. … Ligeti has been the recipient of many awards, including the 1990 Vienna promotion award for composers. … Discography (selected): 1997 - Lukas Ligeti & Beta Foly, 2004 - Lukas Ligeti: Mystery System, 2008 - Lukas Ligeti: Afrikan Machinery" (Wikipedia).
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Photo by Chien-Yin Chen, courtesy lukasligeti.com.

Carrie Underwood: Play On

"Carrie Marie Underwood (born March 10, 1983) is an American country singer-songwriter who rose to fame as the winner of the fourth season of American Idol. Underwood has since become a multi-platinum selling recording artist, a multiple Grammy Award winner, a Grand Ole Opry inductee, a three-time Academy of Country Music and Country Music Association Female Vocalist winner, and the current ACM Entertainer of the Year. She is the first ever female artist to win back-to-back Academy of Country Music (ACM) Awards for Entertainer of the Year (2009/2010). Her debut album, Some Hearts, was certified seven times platinum, and as of February 2006, was the fastest selling debut country album in Nielsen SoundScan history. … Underwood released her third album, Play On, on November 3, 2009. It has been certified Platinum by the RIAA" (Wikipedia).
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Photo courtesy media.lunch.com.

Carlo Gesualdo: 5-Part Madrigals

Personnel: Les Arts Florissants, directed by William Christie.
"Art and life, sensibility and violence, instinct and premeditation are inextricably intertwined in the personality of Carlo Gesualdo, Prince of Venosa (1561-1613), who has come down in history as the very personification of the late Renaissance artist. Just as the arbitrary impulsiveness of action exercised in the name of aristocratic authority justified the brutal murder of his adulterous wife (the comely Maria d'Avalos whose misfortune was sung by many poets of the time), so, from the lofty position of his noble state (endowed moreover, with a vehement and visionary temperament), he could violate the rules that governed the marvellous equilibrium between poetry and music in the Italian madrigal. We see … an abundance of chromaticisms that emerge at the slightest suggestion … and … overflow in a continuous stream, modifying the melodic character and the harmonic balance" (from the booklet notes by Carlo Piccardi).
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Tim Warfield: A Sentimental Journey

"The tenor saxophonist Tim Warfield is pointing toward a jazz sound that reaches back 60 years in real time and a psychic millennium away in media time. You’ll hear musicians playing licks on 'A Sentimental Journey' that were comfortably modern in the late 1950s. But there’s a way to do that without seeming dogmatic or conceptually forced or just left behind; jazz is a cumulative art, a continuity.
… It’s all standards, not all ballads but almost; the quartet, with the trumpeter Terell Stafford, the organist Pat Bianchi and the drummer Byron Landham, takes long enough on each track to get in there completely. … Mr. Warfield and Mr. Stafford have been playing together for more than 20 years, and their combined sound as they harmonize on themes, as well as the way they build solos off of each others’ scattered ideas, is where the soul of the record lies. The music feels plush at heat-wave tempos; it takes its time and assumes you’re not going anywhere" (Ben Ratliff, "New CDs," New York Times, 7/11/10).
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The Dead Weather: Sea of Cowards

"The Dead Weather takes blues-derived sexual disclosure as far as I personally have ever seen it pushed. … Two albums released in quick succession (2009's Horehound and Sea of Cowards …) combined with an intense live show betray the truth about The Dead Weather: they expect to enlarge upon blues-rock's means to engage erotic frenzy in depth. … At age eighteen, [guitarist Jack] White … was terrified that the methods, force, feeling and fury of the blues were denied him as a Catholic seventh son from 1990s Mexicantown in Southwest Detroit. But he was hellbent on taking on the limits inherent in the blues. … His writing, performing and recording for ten years with The White Stripes evidences varied ingenious, credible, red-and-white ways to sing blues. The Dead Weather offers up one more way. And it's fierce. … The Dead Weather excels at new demonstrations of harrowing erotic fever, terror, and collapse. On stage they're loud, proud, and crawling in humiliation" (S. X. Rosenstock, "The Live Force of The Dead Weather," Huffington Post, 7/23/10).

Barry Harris: Live in Rennes

Copy at Case Memorial Library
Contents: She — All God's chillun got rhythm — I'll keep loving you — A time for love — My heart stood still — 6, 5, 7, 3 — Ruby my dear — To Duke with love & Prelude to a kiss — Off minor — Light blue — Tea for two — Nascimento — Parker's mood — Em-Barry-Harris-able you.
"The bebop pianist Barry Harris communicates elegance and erudition in all that he touches, but he’s also a decidedly old-school jazz foot soldier, committed to breezy wit and companionable slang. 'Live in Rennes' (Plus Loin) finds him in excellent form at a festival in Brittany, France, last fall, not quite six weeks before his 80th birthday. He’s working with what amounts to a good pickup rhythm section, and he’s rummaging through his carry-on for repertory: songs by Thelonious Monk, Duke Ellington and Charlie Parker, with a few originals and songbook staples mixed in. The album nicely captures his blend of the casual and the courtly, including his banter with the audience" (Nate Chinen, "Playlist," New York Times, 7/11/10).

Eric R. Danton on MGMT

"After surprising even themselves with the success of their dance-friendly 2007 debut, 'Oracular Spectacular,' MGMT heads a drastically different direction on the follow-up. There are few hints of sweeping candy-colored electro-pop on 'Congratulations' (Columbia), which finds Wesleyan University alumni Ben Goldwasser and Andrew VanWyngarden dabbling in psychedelic rock. … From the late-'60s musical arrangements — vocals soaked in reverb, jangling guitars, droning organ — to solemn, weighty lyrics about Portentous Things, the whole thing feels just a touch conceptual, maybe even deadpan. Or maybe the first album was the tongue-in-cheek record, and 'Congratulations' represents the real MGMT. Either way … there's plenty to love about 'Congratulations.' Though understated compared to their predecessors, these songs are smart and catchy. Opener 'It's Working' splits the difference between surf-rock and '70s TV theme, 'Flash Delirium' lays subtle synthesizer over punchy bass and drums and 'Brian Eno' is a swift, paisley rave-up full of organ and swampy bass as MGMT celebrates the groundbreaking producer and musician" ("CD Review: 'Congratulations' by MGMT," 4/12/10).

Larry Rohter on Femi Kuti

"Since his father’s death, from complications of AIDS in 1997, the younger Kuti has pursued two careers: his own musicianship and that of serving as the main guardian of Fela Kuti’s legacy and of Afrobeat, the inviting and highly danceable mixture of West African rhythms with jazz, soul, funk and psychedelic rock influences. … Femi Kuti writes almost all of his own material and has broadened the range of influences on Afrobeat. 'It’s a different rhythmic language and a different harmonic language too,' said Aaron Johnson … a member of the Afrobeat group Antibalas. … 'He’s retained the general framework while incorporating instrumental and rhythmic elements from the last 10 years of popular music, like having that four-on-the-floor house dance beat pushed to the front, for instance, when Fela had so many polyrhythms going on.' Purists may not like those changes. … But as Mr. Kuti noted, if he stuck to the classic Afrobeat sound, he would run the risk of being accused of imitating or copying his father. … Mr. Kuti had a seven-year gap between studio CDs of new material, broken only in 2008 with the release of 'Day by Day'" ("Guarding a Legacy from Nigeria to Broadway," New York Times, 7/11/10).

Ke$ha: Animal

Copy at Case Memorial Library
Contents: Your love is my drug — Tik tok — Take it off — Kiss n tell — Stephen — Blah blah blah (featuring 3OH!3) — Hungover — Party at a rich dude's house — Backstabber — Blind — D.I.N.O.S.A.U.R. — Dancing with tears in my eyes — Boots & boys — Animal.
"Capable of being played without pause, this high-octane debut could keep any basement party pumping like Studio 54. With brassy lyrics reminiscent of Katy Perry, and beats by producers like Dr. Luke (Britney Spears) and Max Martin (Pink), this Nashville-bred singer unfurls a fun frenzy of electro-pop as displayed on her No. 1 single 'TiK ToK.' First introduced on Flo Rida's hit 'Right Round,' Ke$ha now teams up with 3OH!3 on 'Blah Blah Blah,' which is anything but. Still, the singer is most addictive when battling lovesickness on 'Hungover' or taking down a trash talker on the infectoius highlight 'Backstabber.' Though some tracks vibe too bubblegum, this 22-year-old will keep you dancing" (Jessica Herndon, "Music," People, 1/18/10, p. 49). Composed, in part with others, and performed by Ke$ha (aka Kesha Rose Sebert), vocals; with accompaniment.

Steve Smith on "Ionisation"

"Nicolas Slonimsky, the historian and composer to whom Varèse dedicated 'Ionisation,' showed that the piece adhered to conventional sonata form, with two principal themes, contrasting subjects and sections of development and recapitulation. But Varèse’s use of timbre, texture and density, rather than melody and harmony, as organizational tools pointed the way toward more radical future propositions like musique concrète and electronic music. … Devotees come in two main species: percussionists … and fans of the iconoclastic rock guitarist and composer Frank Zappa, who was transformed by a youthful encounter with a Varèse LP … into a zealous torchbearer. … 'My first experience with Varèse was an old recording of ‘Ionisation,’' Pierre Boulez says in 'The One All Alone,' a 2009 Varèse documentary by the director Frank Scheffer. … 'And of course, I mean, it was like an object coming from Mars.' … The demands made by Varèse’s music, meanwhile, dramatically raised the bar for virtuosity among percussionists, as evidenced by outstanding modern recordings of the piece by the New York Philharmonic with Mr. Boulez … and the Asko Ensemble" ("Into the Music," New York Times, 7/18/10).

Spoon: Transference

Copy at Case Memorial Library
Contents: Before destruction — Is love forever? — The mystery zone — Who makes your money — Written in reverse — I saw the light — Trouble comes running — Goodnight Laura — Out go the lights — Got nuffin — Nobody gets me but you.
Artist websites: http://www.spoontheband.com/, http://www.myspace.com/spoon
"Spoon is an American indie rock band formed in Austin, Texas. They are based in Portland, Oregon. The band is composed of Britt Daniel (vocals, guitar); Jim Eno (drums); Rob Pope (bass, backing vocals) and Eric Harvey (keyboard, guitar, percussion, backing vocals). The band was formed in late 1993 by lead singer/guitarist Britt Daniel and drummer Jim Eno" (Wikipedia).
"Spoon stands as one of indie rock's most consistent acts. Daniel's band sticks to its guns and has perfected its distinctive, tight-lipped brand of percussive rock. … Spoon is on the road to promote Transference, the band's seventh full-length" (Mrs. Tansy Maude Peregrine, "Denver's Essential Concert Calendar," Huffington Post, 4/1/10).