Beethoven: The Creatures of Prometheus

"The original scenario of the ballet is lost. ... Nevertheless a broad outline of the story can be gathered from a surviving theatre-bill for the first performance at the Hofburgtheater on 28th March 1801: 'The basis of this allegorical ballet is the fable of Prometheus. The Greek philosophers ... depict him as a lofty soul who drove ignorance from the people of his time, and gave them manners, customs, and morals. As the result of this conception, two statues that have been brought to life are introduced ... and these, through the power of harmony, are made sensitive to the passions of human life. Prometheus leads them to Mount Parnassus in order that Apollo, the deity of the arts, may instruct them. Apollo gives them as teachers Amphion, Arion and Orpheus to instruct them in music; Melpomene to teach them tragedy; Thalia, comedy; Terpsichore and Pan, the latest Shepherd's Dance which the latter has invented, and Bacchus, the Heroic Dance of which he was the originator'" (CD notes by Ates Orga).
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Foo Fighters: The Colour and the Shape

"The Colour and the Shape is the Foo Fighters' second album. It was released on May 20, 1997, through Roswell. The album reached number three in the UK and number ten in the United States. The Colour and the Shape is the Foo Fighters' biggest U.S. seller, having sold over two million copies according to Nielsen SoundScan. The album is considered by many to be the band's Magnum opus. The album was in total nominated for 5 VMAs in 1997 and 1998, for the videos 'Monkey Wrench' and 'Everlong'. It was also a Grammy nominee for Best Rock Album in 1998. ... The album was the debut of Foo Fighters as a band, as frontman Dave Grohl had recorded all of the first album by himself with the exception of one guitar part by Greg Dulli. The Colour and the Shape was produced by Gil Norton, who was perhaps best known for his work with the Pixies. It was loosely conceived by Grohl as a concept album which documented the beginning and end of a romantic relationship" (Wikipedia).
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Noah Preminger: Before the Rain

"Toward the end of our interview, Noah Preminger says, 'It's easy to get dark, being a musician.' Although the sentiment is glum, it's a relief to hear him come out and say it. Preminger, at 24, has the world-wearied mien of a jazz man twice his age. ... 'I'm going home' -- home for Preminger is Canton -- because I've been playing the same tunes for about a year. ... I was like, "... I gotta write some new music."' Preminger's brooding demeanor stands in sharp contrast to his music, which is rather beautiful. His new disc, Before the Rain, is a collection of jazz ballads, attractive by intention and design. He's explicit about his populist motives; he says his current creative goal is to play 'melodies that are simple and pretty and people will remember.' The album's atmosphere will feel familiar to anyone who's listened to Miles Davis' Kind of Blue. Misty, muted, with legato brushstrokes, quiet, deliciously articulated, and comforting -- that's how Before the Rain feels" (Dan Barry, "More Than Just 'Kind Of' Blue," New Haven Advocate, 4/7/11).
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Lucinda Williams: Blessed

"MR: ... Let's talk about 'Buttercup.' You're razzin' this guy who's a loser who, basically, took advantage of a situation and now wants back in. But it's more than that, you point out lyrically, 'You're like a little kid with bruises on his knees,' and it's almost like this guy is such a jerk because he just never grew up. LW: Yeah. That's very perceptive. ... I like to tell people it's the only bad boy quote unquote song on the new album, and I still have a little bit in my system, still had some stuff I had to get out. MR: Let's also talk about a couple of these other songs, like 'Born To Be Loved,' another really topical song, one of my favorites. LW: That's one of my favorite ones too. MR: Its message is beautiful: 'No, you weren't born to be a jerk you weren't born to be abused, you weren't born to be horrible. You were born to be loved.' LW: Yeah. And, for me, I wrote it with a more, you know, universal theme" (Mike Ragogna, "Blessed: A Conversation with Lucinda Williams," Huffington Post, 3/7/11).
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Glee: The Music, Season 2, Volume 5

"You know the drill. Your favorite fake high school students sing your favorite songs by Michael Jackson, Justin Bieber, and anyone else who is smart enough to let them sing them and let the cash roll in. You gotta admire the 'Glee' folks for sheer tenacity. For those of you who feel the formula is wearing thin, find solace in your Kings of Leon records. For the rest, just sing along and don't ask questions" (Shawn Amos, "PLAY > SKIP," Huffington Post, 3/8/11).
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Duran Duran: All You Need Is Now

"While a generation of singers and bands futilely try to re-create the '80s, Duran Duran has finally stopped running from its own '80s past to actually bring the decade back in all its glory. And leave it to millennial producer Mark Ronson (born in 1975) to lead them there. With INXS gone, U2 in mid-shark jump, and Madonna usurped by Lady Gaga, Duran Duran may be our only viable connection to the days of Live Aid, nonstop MTV videos, and dudes with eyeliner. For those of you wanting to forget 'Hungry Like the Wolf' and 'Girls on Film,' you'll want to skip All You Need Is Now. For those of you who always thought of Duran Duran as an '80s high water mark -- or anyone who gets the irony of any '80s music now being high art -- All You Need is Now is all you need on your playlist" (Shawn Amos, "PLAY > SKIP," Huffington Post, 3/22/11).
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Elephant Revival: Break in the Clouds

"America has produced a startling number of regional music styles. Members of the Colorado-based quintet, Elephant Revival, joined forces to explore as many of them as possible. Inspired by bluegrass, fiddle music, Appalachian folk and even hip-hop (in some ways a folk form itself), the band recently released its second album, Break in the Clouds (Ruff Shod), once again merging their many shared passions. Along with its self-titled debut, the band's two albums feature a nice blend of acoustic singer-songwriter material, as in the lead-off 'Point of You' on the latest. It's a sumptuous song in the vein of Cat Power and a really good Ani Difranco ballad. Violins, banjos and mandolins immediately follow: an alt-country 'Cosmic Pulse' and fiddle jam on 'Lexington,' with members jigging on 'What is Time?' Elephant Revival is not five musicians supporting one songwriter, but friends in full collaboration for the betterment of music, both their own and what folk means to modern America" (Derek Beres, "Global Beat Fusion," Huffington Post, 3/18/11).
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Michael Cleveland & Flamekeeper: Fired Up

"You may never have seen a bluegrass fiddler as fast as Michael Cleveland and you may never have seen one who plays with as much pure joy. But you can see him Saturday -- in Hamden. ... Cleveland, a resident of Charleston in far southern Indiana — just across the Ohio River from Louisville, Ky. — who first picked up a fiddle at age 4, has been raising eyebrows on the bluegrass scene ever since 1993, when he was chosen to be part of the Bluegrass Youth All Stars at the IBMA’s award show. He played the Grand Ole Opry that same year — as the guest of none other than Alison Krauss — and has played onstage over the years with the likes of Bill Monroe, Jim and Jesse, Ralph Stanley, Mac Wiseman, Doc Watson, Larry Sparks, Doyle Lawson and J.D. Crowe, among many others. Cleveland, now 30, has been a professional bluegrass player since age 18. He’s played a few times not far away. ... Michael Cleveland and Flamekeeper has a brand-new CD, 'Fired Up'" (Mark Zaretsky, "Wine and Bluegrass," New Haven Register, 3/18/11).
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Sara Evans: Stronger

"Every syllable sounds calm and considered. ... There’s some joy, but not a lot, on this modest but sharp album, which continues the argument for Ms. Evans as an unjustly underappreciated country singer who’s becoming more assured as she gets older. Mostly, she’s concerned with melancholy here. 'What That Drink Cost Me' is morbid and resentful: 'I lost a good man to a bad habit/He didn’t love the whiskey, he just had to have it.' The beautiful single 'A Little Bit Stronger' is about the slow crawl out of a taxing relationship. 'It doesn’t happen overnight/But you turn around and a month’s gone by/And you realize you haven’t cried.' Again, she doesn’t sound exhausted or woebegone, giving her words a force of purpose and skipping melodrama altogether. Same goes for her gentle, regretful cover of Rod Stewart’s antic 'My Heart Can’t Tell You No,' and 'Alone,' on which she initially appears to be welcoming a lover’s affections, but is really just letting him down gently" (Jon Caramanica, "Critics' Choice," New York Times, 3/7/11).
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The Jimi Hendrix Experience: Winterland

"On Thursday, October 10th, 1968, Jimi Hendrix walked onstage with his Experience, bassist Noel Redding and drummer Mitch Mitchell, for the opening set of a long weekend at Winterland in San Francisco. The trio would play six sold-out shows over three nights at the 5400-capacity hall, originally built in 1928 as an ice-skating rink and turned into the city's biggest psychedelic ballroom by Fillmore impresario Bill Graham. There would be guest jammers -- bassist Jack Casady of Jefferson Airplane on the 10th and flautist Virgil Gonsalves and saxman-organist Herbie Rich from the Buddy Miles Express, one of the opening acts, on the 11th. And Hendrix would rotate eighteen different songs through his set lists. Amid the hits and road standards from his 1967 debut, Are You Experienced? -- 'Red House,' 'Foxey Lady,' 'Purple Haze' -- were a furious, rarely aired 'Manic Depression,' the concise rapture of 'Little Wing' from 1968's Axis: Bold as Love and thrilling previews of 'Voodoo Child (Slight Return)' ..." (CD notes by David Fricke).
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Schumann: Complete Works for Piano Trio

"In some circles Schumann is regarded as having been best suited to composing suites, songs, fantasies and other genres that gave full vent to his teeming musical imagination. He was less good, the thinking goes, at channeling his voice into symphonies, sonatas and chamber music forms. This take on Schumann is challenged by an exciting new recording of his complete works for piano trio, performed by three superb musicians who play together often: the pianist Leif Ove Andsnes, the violinist Christian Tetzlaff and the cellist Tanja Tetzlaff (Mr. Tetzlaff’s sister). They play every phrase and episode of these elusive scores with vitality, insight and character. The trios emerge as works full of invention and intricacy and also of structural integrity. The Trio No. 1 in D minor, written in a two-week burst of inspiration in the summer of 1847, may have been inspired by Mendelssohn’s piano trio in the same key. A surging first movement is followed by a restless scherzo. ..." (Anthony Tommasini, "Classical Recordings," New York Times, 8/18/11).
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John Doe: Keeper

"MR: Who influenced you as an artist? JD: I was 17 or 18 when The Band and The Rolling Stones doing Sticky Fingers was happening. That's when I was really learning how to play my instrument, how to play bass, how to put together songs, when I was becoming a student. MR: Did you have any flashbacks while listening to this finished album's batch of songs? JD: Well, Val McCallum, who recently played with Lucinda Williams, when he played slide on a couple of songs, it was so obvious he was channeling George Harrison. I think The Band and The Stones were a bigger influence on songs like 'Giant Step Backward' or 'Never Enough' and 'Lucky Penny.' MR: One of my favorites is 'Little Tiger.' What's the story behind it? JD: I wrote that for my sweetheart who's very important to me. Then, I realized it had a lot to do with my daughters who are now getting grown up. There's nothing better than a kid bouncing on a bed, there is nothing sweeter and cuter" (Mike Ragogna, "Keeper: Meeting John Doe Again," Huffington Post, 8/26/11).
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Jill Scott: The Light of the Sun

"The R&B singer Jill Scott hits No. 1 for the first time with her fourth studio album, 'The Light of the Sun' (Warner Brothers), which sold 135,000 copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan" (Ben Sisario, "Jill Scott Earns Her First No. 1 Record," New York Times, 6/29/11).
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Kurt Vile: Smoke Ring for My Halo

"Kurt Vile's new album is low-key enough that becoming aware of how strong these 11 songs are is something of a slow awakening. 'Smoke Ring for My Halo' is the Philadelphia singer's umpteenth collection since he started self-releasing CDs of his music when he was 17, and it's his second for New York's Matador Records. (Vile, 31, performs Monday in Milford.) His prolific nature pays off here, on songs that are airy, a little hazy and quietly engrossing. Vile sings in an offhanded voice swathed in spacey reverb, and he picks out guitar parts that move steadily forward through swirls of keyboards, echoing drums and the occasional cascade of muted piano. His acoustic guitar floats over ripples of atmospheric sound on the opener, 'Baby's Arms,' and his wandering voice evokes a sense of vague foreboding over a driving drum beat and minor-key wash of sound on 'Society Is My Friend'" (Eric R. Danton, "Kurt Vile's 'Smoke Ring' Slowly Envelops You," Hartford Courant, 3/8/11).
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Ziggy Marley: Wild and Free

"Bob's oldest son returns with his fourth studio album since 2009's Grammy-winning children's release Family Time, and it's easily his best since his Melody Makers days. Damn, this album sounds so good. Reggae is often a genre that's rich in grooves yet painfully short on fidelity. Producer Don Was delivers one of the most sonically full reggae albums I've heard in a long time. He even makes Woody Harrelson, singing about the joys of weed in the title track, sound dope. Smoke 'em if you got 'em, and let the vibrations roll through you. Wild and Free is easily the best reggae album you'll hear this year" (Shawn Amos, "PLAY > SKIP," Huffington Post, 6/14/11).

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Eric Church: Chief

"On the Billboard album chart this week, country returns to No. 1 and Amy Winehouse’s sales continued to rise in the week after her death. The country singer Eric Church reached No. 1 for the first time with 'Chief' (Capitol Nashville), his third release, which sold 145,000 copies in the United States in its first week out, according to Nielsen SoundScan. That was more than enough to bump last week’s top seller, Adele’s '21' (XL/Columbia), to No. 2 with sales of 83,000" (Ben Sisario, "Country Regains Top Spot on Charts," New York Times, 8/3/11).
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Sufjan Stevens: The Age of Adz

"Stevens: The Age of Adz, these are pop songs, but they're based on sound experimentation and noise. They're more aggressive, and even my tone of -- the way I'm singing -- it's more in my throat and not always pretty. So I was aware of that, and I just felt like an imperative to experiment with these tones, and generally, I think now more than ever, I'm making music for that elite 5% -- you know, the listener who's been with me from the very beginning and understands my interest in electronic music and noise and in sound sculpting and minimalism and all that stuff. So I think that that record, The Age of Adz, is really for that listener, you know? I don't think it's meant to be for the casual listener who likes the song 'Chicago,' which is fine. There's no condescension at all in that remark. I don't condescend to any of my music or to any listener. But I just am not in a season right now of feeling that kind of populist thrust" (Daniel J. Kushner, "Adz and Ends: An Interview with Sufjan Stevens," Huffington Post, 7/26/11).
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The Caretaker: An Empty Bliss Beyond This World

"The Caretaker is the ambient/Twilight Zone brainchild of Northern England soundscapist James Leyland Kirby (also of V/VM). Kirby founded The Caretaker in the mid-'90s, opening a door to a new sonic dimension utilizing his vintage 78 collection -- feels like you plugged your ears into your great-grandparents' memories. Kirby's credits include the score for Grant Gee documentary Patience (After Sebald) and numerous side projects. Discover The Caretaker's supernatural thoroughfare with 'All You Are Going to Want to Do Is Get Back There,' from his 2011 sophomore magnum opus An Empty Bliss Beyond This World" (Phil Ramone and Danielle Evin, "Dog Ears Music," Huffington Post, 7/29/11).
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The Cars: Move Like This

"MR: ... Let's catch everybody up on The Cars. Can you give us the basic bio? GH: Let's see ... The Cars formed in January of '77, and I had known both Ric and Ben for a few years before The Cars actually became an entity. In fact, I played in a band with the two of them a couple of years before The Cars, which was called Richard And The Rabbits, and like most bands, nothing really happened and we broke up after about a year. Then, I took a job playing with Martin Mull, if you know who that is -- a character actor. He used to make comedy albums, and I was in his band just before The Cars, and in the meantime, Ric and Ben had formed another band that had Elliot Easton in it. That band also broke up, so they started yet another band with Ric and Ben, and Elliot was still there, and then David Robinson, our drummer, joined. David had been in a group from Boston called The Modern Lovers, which was an early new wave band before there was new wave" (Michael Ragogna, "A Conversation with The Cars' Greg Hawkes," Huffington Post, 5/12/11).
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