Soundcheck

The Manchester Orchestra is neither an orchestra nor from Manchester. They're an indie rock outfit from Atlanta, with a decade of composing and performing as a unit under their belt. But now, singer Andy Hull and guitarist Robert McDowell have done something quite different: the soundtrack to the film "Swiss Army Man," which stars Paul Dano and Daniel Radcliffe. The film is odd enough: equal parts fable, existential comedy, and buddy flick -- in which one of the buddies is dead. The score is equally unexpected, both the music itself, and the ways in which it's incorporated into the film. Hull and McDowell visit the studio to tell host John Schaefer how the soundtrack came together -- sans instruments -- and how they got inside the head of an island survivor.

El Perro Del Mar, "the dog of the sea," is the unexpected—and unexpectedly Spanish—name for the work of the Swedish singer and songwriter Sarah Assbring. But doing the unexpected has become the norm for the artist over the past decade. She started as a kind of bedroom pop artist but has evolved continuously over the course of five albums. Her sixth album, KoKoro, comes out on September 16, and it contains echoes of Asian and African musical traditions—and El Perro Del Mar is here to give us a taste of what’s to come.  

The British singer Jamie Lidell captivates huge audiences just by sampling and looping his own voice, then deploying smooth soul over the top of the cascading layers. But surely, firing all those samples and stompboxes gets a little distracting for a performer. Like, maybe, just get a band? Well that’s what Lidell has done—and what a band. The proof is in the first single from his forthcoming record with The Royal Pharaohs, Building a Beginning. “Walk Right Back” has Lidell's trademark croon, but the live feel of a crack ensemble—all of which packs into the Soundcheck studio for a live set.

For LA-based multi-instrumentalist Jherek Bischoff, a collaborative spirit has practically become his calling card: he effortlessly blends his many melodic talents into projects with a strikingly diverse array of artists, from Xiu Xiu to Amanda Palmer, David Byrne to Wilco’s Nels Cline. His solo debut, Composed, similarly mixed his many pop, rock, and classical impulses to striking effect, but was largely recorded instrument by instrument by Bischoff himself. When he last visited the Soundcheck studio, Bischoff brought the New York-based classical ensemble Contemporaneous, which was re-enlisted for the recording of Bischoff's latest effort, Cistern—an ambient, instrumental affair. The whole group returns to the studio to play selections. 

It's no small thing to command the attention of billions of people with nothing but the sound of your voice and an acoustic guitar. Ask Mike Rosenberg, aka Passenger, whose song "Let Her Go" became a legit worldwide phenomenon after its release in 2012. The accompanying video has been viewed more an a billion times in the last four years—only a handful of artists have achieved the same milestone. The song snowballed in slow motion, no instant smash, and wormed its way into ears and hearts one play at a time. Which is a perfect representation of Passenger's career at large: even, steady, with eyes fixed on a traveling horizon. Rosenberg's thoughtful approach to writing and workhorse performing schedule (he recently busked in Washington Square Park because, why not?) have inured him to his new-found ubiquity. Some guy even once asked him why he plays so many Passenger covers. His new record, Young As The Morning, Old As The Sea, is his eighth, and though it doesn't drop until September, he joins us in the studio to play some of the new songs live. 

Trumpeter Etienne Charles leads a big band and writes about big ideas. He’s made a name for himself by combining Afro-Caribbean musical traditions with American jazz. His new "San Jose Suite" is an ambitious 10-part work inspired by San Jose, California; San Jose, Costa Rica; and Etienne’s hometown of St. Joseph on the island of Trinidad—which was also called San Jose during the years of Spanish colonization. The "San Jose Suite" deals with conquest, resistance, and community, and came out of Etienne’s own work with indigenous musicians in each of the three places. Click the player above to hear Etienne and his ensemble play excerpts from the piece, and talk about the meaning of roots.

Ever heard of the “paradox of choice”? It’s the idea that when we’re given a million different options to choose from, we become paralyzed and can’t choose any of them. The UK post-punk trio that calls itself Shopping released its first full length a few years ago with the title Consumer Complaints, and their latest is called Why Choose. So, yes, Rachel Aggs, Billy Easter and Andrew Milk make music that subverts modern culture in proper punk fashion. But you don’t need a Ph.D. in marketing theory to understand the band’s head-nodding dance beats. Their propulsive, DIY sound is drawing universal comparisons to early Gang of Four meets The Slits, and their anti-groupthink goes down easiest when jumping around in front of a stage. 

Since the last time we heard from Brooklyn duo Savoir Adore, everything has changed, and nothing has changed. For starters, only half of "the duo" remains from the band's first two records. Principal Deirdre Muro has departed, and singer Paul Hammer has built the band back up from scratch, starting with new performing partner Lauren Zettler, for the band's forthcoming album The Love That Remains. As we noted when we premiered the single "Giants" in Feburary, what "remains" after the reboot is the power of the songs themselves: enormous, striding affairs, bespeaking the ability of studio wizardry to underscore powerful pop hooks. Hammer somewhat famously builds his songs using the studio as a tool, but today he and Zettler join us to reverse engineer some of the new tunes, acoustically rendered in a somewhat more intimate setting than their intended home: a live stage, the bigger the better. 

Nigerian musician Femi Kuti famously hasn’t listened to another artist’s music in over a decade. It’s tempting to think that’s because he’s the son of one of Nigeria’s greatest musical minds, the late superstar Fela Kuti—the weight of history, expectations, etc. But Femi says he keeps his ears quiet as a way to get in touch with his own deepest creative impulses. And indeed his most recent Afrobeat offering, No Place for My Dreams, is a strikingly clear-eyed take on the world as it is today, musically and politically. Femi Kuti follows his recent sweltering set at Prospect Park with a session here in our studio.

At age 10 — when most kids are still practicing their air guitar in front of a mirror — Sara Watkins was already touring with her brother Sean and friend Chris Thile in the folk trio Nickle Creek. A decade later, and the group was one of the biggest live acts of the 2000s. It also launched high-profile independent careers for each member. Sara's spent time in various bands (both with and without her brother), but her new solo album is called Young In All the Wrong Ways. It's a full-throated declaration of independence from the artist, who went through personal and professional breakups during the record's gestation. As a result, the songs explode in a number of musical directions, fitting for an artist who has made a career of genre-hopping. Sara Watkins doesn’t play in NYC until the fall, but she brings some of her new songs to our studio first.