Soundcheck

Pearla (Brooklyn-based artist Nicole Rodriguez) makes off-kilter folk-pop that mixes reality and the surreal; in her songs, she builds a sound world through play and exploration. She's written a record about noticing things in the world and questioning her place in it, turning to music to attempt to figure it out. She and her band play new music from their strange and lovely record, 'Oh Glistening Onion, the Nighttime Is Coming', in-studio. 

Grammy-winning trumpeter, composer, producer, and sports talk show host Nabaté Isles seeks to bring the groove and movement back to jazz, in order to get people to dance, just like at a block party. Isles, who was born and raised in New York City (Queens), takes an eclectic approach in his music which might incorporate funk, disco, and R&B, but also reflects the sounds he grew up with: new jack swing, hip hop, and Caribbean music - all in sophisticated arrangements and with improvisation. Nabaté Isles plays new music from his latest record, En Motion, in-studio.

Set list: "The Jump Off", "Perfect Cadence", "Harlem Shake"

The contemporary silent film, Electric Appalachia, is a surprising, and surprisingly poignant look at how the coming of electricity changed Tennessee. Using archival footage, the film was put together by Eric Dawson, the director at TAMIS (the Tennessee Archive of Moving Image and Sound) and offers “a meditation on electricity and modernity in East Tennessee”. This silent film was created with two musicians in mind – guitarist William Tyler and harpist and synthesist Mary Lattimore, who add a moving, occasionally cosmic score. Listen to selections from their collaborative live soundtrack to Electric Appalachia, recorded at Brookfield Place.

Somebody that we used to know, Wally de Backer, Belgian-born Australian multi-instrumentalist, self-admitted “tinkerer,” and singer-songwriter (aka GOTYE), digs unusual instruments – like the rare French electronic musical instrument, the ondioline (invented in 1941.) He’ll perform tunes from the 1960's ondioline repertoire, created by the late Jean-Jacques Perrey, the instrument’s first and only virtuoso.  

Brooklyn-based via San Juan band Balún came from DIY electrified bedroom pop that embraced punk on the island of Puerto Rico. Now, with an even wider range of influences, (please see their ethnomusicological, technological, punk, hardcore, and New York Philharmonic credentials) their "dreambow" tropical electronica harnesses Caribbean rhythms, grime/jungle/IDM, Puerto Rican folk music, shoegaze and is a playfully-informed take on global pop music. Balún joins us in the studio to play music from their 2018 record, Prisma Tropical. (From the Archives.)Balún contributed music to the first season of La Brega, and to the new season of La Brega. 

Watch the individual songs below:

Watch the full session here:

Irish multi-instrumentalist Anna Mieke writes songs that conjure expansive places and moving through those places- touching on change, death, dreaming, memory, family, and perhaps an alternate reality on her latest album "Theatre". Anna Mieke and her band play in-studio for the Soundcheck Podcast.

The Sudanese-American rapper Oddisee – born Amir Elkhalifa – has been making socially conscious hip hop since 2008, and in live performance he’s known for playing not with a DJ or recorded samples but with a live band, called Good Company. Oddisee has just released the 2023 album called To What End, tackling big ideas of home, race, family, and human ambition. Oddisee, and the high-caliber musicians of the band Good Company, play these tunes in-studio.

Set list: “Race”, “Already Knew”, “How Far”

Watch "Race":

Watch "Already Knew": 

Watch "How Far":

New York -based UNI and The Urchins was started by “bassist/director/engineer/probably wizard” Charlotte Kemp Muhl (Bust Magazine), and in lead singer Jack James Busa, they have an androgynous alien who brings a glorious glam rock sensibility to the band’s mix of psychedelia and post punk.  The band has just released their debut LP, called Simulator, full of catchy, dance-y, sometimes cheeky songs about a world made dizzy by media and technology. 

The conversation ranges from using AI – a neural network to generate lyrics, a love of David Bowie, their favorite Japanese food (the sticky, slimy kind), high school Latin, ASMR, waiting rooms, observations about the disappearing middle class, the New York music scene, growing up in the South, to tuba sound effects and more. Also, the band plays live in-studio. They play at Elsewhere in New York on March 3, and will be in Austin at South by Southwest.

Set list: “Subhuman Suburbia”, “Popstar Supernova”, “Simulator”

Watch "Subhuman Suburbia":

Watch "Simulator":

The 8-piece multicultural gypsy punk band Gogol Bordello is based here in New York, but its founder, the vocalist, songwriter and all-around ringleader Eugene Hutz, was born in Ukraine. At the best of times, Gogol Bordello wants you to dance, and party, but also to think. Now, for Ukraine and the Ukrainian diaspora, these are not the best of times, so Gogol Bordello still wants you to dance and party and think, but also to act. Hutz and company have done several benefit shows, and he even did a secret show for the troops at the front line last summer. Members of Gogol Bordello play scaled-down punk from their most recent LP Solidaritine, in-studio. - John Schaefer

Set list: "Focus Coin", "My Companjera", "Fire on Ice Floe"

Watch "Focus Coin":

Watch "My Companjera":

Watch "Fire on Ice Floe":

New Zealand pop star Kimbra plays within the confines of pop music, bending and skewing and tone painting, according to her needs. Now based here in New York, Kimbra first made waves in 2011 when she teamed up with Gotye on his international hit “Somebody That I Used to Know.”  We know her now as a Grammy winning creator of arty and experimental pop, unafraid to take risks and address macro issues from the world around, as well as more introspective internal reckonings.

On how she crafts this skewed pop, Kimbra says that “Improvisation is crucial to my process. It keeps me on the ledge. If I feel danger, if I feel a sense of the possible stumble, there’s something really powerful in that. Then watching yourself triumph.” Using her voice and a voice modulator, Kimbra wrestles with her inner demons over piano lines and carefully-chosen chords, as she plays some new songs from 'A Reckoning', in intimate arrangements, in-studio. - Caryn Havlik

Set list: "Save Me", "Foolish Thinking", "The Way We Were"

Watch "Save Me":

Watch "Foolish Thinking":

Watch "The Way We Were":