Soundcheck

The Good Ones are Rwandan genocide survivors who write acoustic folk songs. They’re often sung in the Kinyarwanda street dialect of the outskirts of their nation's capital, Kigali, (the area had for centuries been known as the region for producing poets for the Kings.) With vocalists trading melody and harmony lines seamlessly, these “worker songs from the streets” use one-of-a-kind instruments, often incorporating their own farming tools as percussion. Their forthcoming record, (due out in November 2019), Rwanda, You Should Be Loved, features collaborations with Wilco and TV on the Radio, as well as members of Sleater-Kinney, My Bloody Valentine, and Fugazi. They’re currently on their first North American tour, and the members of The Good Ones are here to play in-studio. - Caryn Havlik

Set list:

Both old and new, Austin-based band Black Pumas is centered around guitarist and producer Adrian Quesada and 27-year-old songwriter Eric Burton. Grammy Award-winning Quesada has played in Grupo Fantasma and Brownout, and accompanied artists from Prince to Daniel Johnston. Burton grew up in church and then got heavily involved in musical theater. He arrived in Austin in 2015 after busking his way across the country from Los Angeles, and connected with Quesada on the phone. From idea to session to self-titled debut album, they've been making music that is neither retro nor derivative, with influences ranging from Sam Cooke to Neil Young and Ghostface Killah. Now a touring machine, Black Pumas brings their skillful combination of folky strum, sticky funk, dusty psych, and old soul to an in-studio session. - Caryn Havlik

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Los Angeles-based band La Santa Cecilia named themselves after the patron saint of music when they formed in 2007. Their Grammy-winning sound embraces cumbias, corridos, mambos, rancheros, rockenroll, reggae, and even a bit of New Orleans jazz. With topics ranging from folks’ addiction to social media, ICE keeping kids in cages and the immigration crisis, along with love songs and songs about paying the bills, their smart, vibrant, and timely tunes reflect Los Angeles’s mix of cultures. La Santa Cecilia joins us to play in-studio. - Caryn Havlik

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New York-based band !!! (chk chk chk) has gone to the synth side, with their latest rubbery-funk dance punk. Their candyfloss melodies and beats conjure technicolor dance parties at the end of the universe. They play in-studio. - Caryn Havlik

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Named for an exhibition in the Tate Modern, Love Fame Tragedy is how Matthew “Murph” Murphy, frontman of the indie-pop band The Wombats is scratching an itch to explore new musical avenues. Murph, plus a bunch of guests, including members of The Pixies, Alt-J, The Killers, and Soundgarden, are trying to find as many new ideas and do as many new things as possible, and having there be no politics about it. The band's synth-pop confessional sound is full of "ridiculously catchy choruses and unexpected turns of phrase" (-John Schaefer), and works in electro-blues and pop as well. Love Fame Tragedy joins us in-studio to play some of these tunes. 

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New York’s top-notch and prolific classical six-piece group yMusic "serves as a ready-made collaborative unit for bands and songwriters, and has lent its distinctive sound to dozens of albums, most recently In The Blue Light by Paul Simon" (yMusic's Bandcamp.) They've played with the likes of Simon, Bruce Hornsby, Regina Spektor, Ben Folds, and English indie folk trio The Staves. Their most recent recording is of music by Marcos Balter, "...which enables us to fly", a multimedia work, in collaboration with choreographers Bill T. Jones (who came out of retirement to dance for the first time in public in 9 years) and Dianne McIntyre.

For this in-studio session, yMusic teams up with the sophisticated pop-soul songwriter Emily King for brand-new orchestral pop-soul music, sure to be one-of-a-kind. - Caryn Havlik

...which enables us to fly by yMusic

The folk songwriter, visual artist, and poet Devendra Banhart offers tenderness, introspection, and space in music, poetry, and art. Part Dylan, part Dalí, Devendra Banhart’s so-called psych-folk, (or “freak folk”) comes with what might be fantastical or surreal lyrics rooted in voice and guitar -and humble appeals to help Venezuela- the country of his mother. In fact, in naming his latest record, Ma, he addresses “the unconditional nature of maternal love, the desire to nurture, the passing down of wisdom, the longing to establish the relationship of mother to child, and the consequences of that bond being broken.” (Nonesuch Records) He also embraces “Ma” (間) as a Japanese word which might be translated as "the silence between the notes which make the music” or an “emptiness full of possibilities.” Devendra Banhart joins us to play music from Ma, in-studio. - Caryn Havlik

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Seratones is a band from Shreveport, Louisiana, who combines strutting groove, fuzzed-out slinky guitars, grounded tremolo organ, lush strings – and soaring over it all, frontperson AJ Haynes’s powerful singing voice, first honed at Brownsville Baptist Church in Columbia, Louisiana. This is music to sear earholes and "replenish your faith in the power of Rock & Roll" (Seratones' Bandcamp.) It’s electrifying Southern rock where punk rawness meets soul power, topped with a bit of blues swagger. Seratones plays music from their latest, Power, in-studio. - Caryn Havlik

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Super Furry Animals frontman Gruff Rhys is also a composer, producer, filmmaker and author. Recently, while recording the track “Vessels” for Damon Albarn’s world music collective Africa Express, he met South African electronic producer Muzi. They have since collaborated on a futuristic Welsh Language pop album, with a couple of verses of Zulu and an English title, Pang! (also partly inspired by Gruff’s visit to Prince’s Paisley Park studio and the gloss of Prince's Around the World in a Day.) Gruff Rhys and drummer Kliph Scurlock play some of this day-glo processed Welsh pop in-studio. - Caryn Havlik

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Danish outfit Mames Babegenush cooks up a Nordic-Jewish-Balkan musical stew both manic and melancholy. Their tunes embrace the ambience of Nordic snowscapes as well as the lively weddings of Romania, all the while incorporating the vibrant dance music and klezmer traditions of eastern Europe. Since their formation some 15 years ago, the group has performed everything from electronic music to string quartets to opera. Mames Babegenush brings their rich blend of Balkan-Klezmer Jazz for dancing to the studio. - Caryn Havlik

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