Soundcheck

Not many people can front a rock band, sing Górecki’s Third Symphony, deliver heavy works on themes of social justice for youth chorus, and compose pop songs for marching band, back-to-back. But Shara Nova of My Brightest Diamond can. The classically-trained vocalist, composer, and self-taught multi-instrumentalist has continued to reinvent herself on her journey through the worlds of chamber music, art-pop, rock, and new music. Her latest record, A Million And One, marries symphonic-leaning pop songs with electronic sounds that are dance-floor ready. My Brightest Diamond performs some of these works, in-studio. - Caryn Havlik

Watch the session here:

This is "It's Me on the Dance Floor":

New York/Canada-based songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, vocalist, and poet Vera Sola, aka Danielle Aykroyd, crafts twangy-gothic-folk that might stem from horror punk as much as Patsy Cline and Brenda Lee. With a little wry and dark humor, a streak of seriousness, a few eloquent barbs, and a whole lot of vulnerability, Vera Sola channels the sounds in her head ("something like a demon’s orchestra", as she puts it) on her debut album, Shades. She and her band join us in-studio to play some of these songs, and perhaps discuss her EP of Misfits' covers.  - Caryn Havlik

Watch the session here: 

From the live in-studio performance series, here's part two of our favorite sessions from 2018. Hear everything from a Cuban orchestra to a famous South African choir, along with music from My Brightest Diamond that came from our live performance series, The Soundcheck Podcast.

The big band collective Orquesta Akokán channels the spirit of dance orchestras of the 1940’s and 1950’s of Havana and plays original Cuban Mambo music. Then, tenor sax superstar Joshua Redman and string quartet Brooklyn Rider, along with all-star rhythm section of Scott Colley and Satoshi Takeishi perform "chamber jazz" with swoops, dives, groove and bite.

Hear a song by the great South African a cappella choir Ladysmith Black Mambazo, with their uplifting vocal harmonies and signature dance moves. There’s also a performance by My Brightest Diamond, aka the classically-trained vocalist, composer, and self-taught multi-instrumentalist Shara Nova, who has continued to reinvent herself on her journey through the worlds of chamber music, art-pop, rock, and new music. Plus, Ben Dickey, Ethan Hawke, and Charlie Sexton perform “Clay Pigeons” by little-known outlaw country legend, Texas singer/songwriter Blaze Foley.

The once-bearded Jewish-American roots-reggae vocalist and beatboxer Matisyahu found success in both the Hasidic spiritual community and beyond, back in the mid-2000’s. He has continued to reflect on seeking the divine, despite the surprise of shaving off his trademark beard, and started bringing a little more stretch and even more groove into his newer music.

Matisyahu and his top-notch band - original Stubbs guitarist and longtime staple of the downtown New York improv scene Aaron Dugan, Dub Trio bassist and long-time Matisyahu collaborator Stu Brooks, percussionist and Cyro Baptista go-to-drummer Tim Keiper, and Addison Groove Project founder Rob Marscher. – take mystical, improvisational journeys both on record and in live performance. Together, they’ll collaboratively summit the jam and play tunes from their latest record, Undercurrent, in-studio. -Caryn Havlik

From the live in-studio performance series, we’ll be recapping our favorite sessions from 2018. Part 1 features the Norwegian band Wardruna, Chicago-based duo OHMME, the dance-jazz band Sons of Kemet, porch and mountain music duo Anna & Elizabeth, and the qawwali devotional collaborative music by Junun.  

Hear the ancient Norse ritual music of Norwegian band Wardruna, and their captivating combination of old and recreated Norse historical instruments. Their music has also scored episodes of the History channel's series Vikings. Then, revisit music by the Mercury Prize-nominated supergroup Sons of Kemet led by London-based Barbados-born saxophonist and composer Shabaka Hutchings. Theirs is a dance party which may or may not touch upon techno, hip hop, grime, psychedelia, Caribbean music, and social commentary using jazz vocabulary, honoring some black women across history who were worthy of the title of queen – queens who were made, not born.

Then, listen to music by the Chicago-based duo OHMME, who are classically-trained pianists who've opted to harness the growl and fuzz of guitars. Theirs is intriguing art-rock with vocal hockets and harmonies, oh - and lots of time and feel changes. Also, hear ecstatic Sufi devotional music by Junun, a musical collaboration between India-based Israeli composer Shye Ben Tzur, a group of Indian musicians called The Rajasthan Express, and composer (and Radiohead’s guitarist) Jonny Greenwood.

Plus, listen to a mountain music meets minimalism in a song from Anna & Elizabeth, who draw on lovingly researched old-time traditions of home, porch, and kitchen music. - Caryn Havlik

Michigan-born, Colorado-raised, but now Icelandic-based singer/songwriter John Grant crafts anguished, lush ballads and spacey electro-pop. He speaks five languages and is also a former member of The Czars, a Colorado-based band that split in the early 2000’s. After battling personal demons in New York, Grant returned to music and recorded with Texan folk rock group Midlake. He just got a publishing deal for his autobiography, and released his latest record, Love is Magic. It brings John Grant to treat us to intimate piano-and-a-microphone tunes, in-studio.

Watch the session here: 

Larkin Poe is Rebecca & Megan Lovell -two singer/songwriters and multi-instrumentalist sisters who are originally from Atlanta, but are now Nashville-based. Combining guitar, lap steel, minimal percussion, and sibling harmonies, they make roots-infused southern heritage-steeped rockenroll, with a helping of both gut bucket and Delta blues.

Larkin Poe are acutely aware of the historicity of blues legends, touching on the imagery of the crossroads (Robert Johnson) and including a version of Skip James’ “Hard Times Killing Floor Blues” on their latest record, Venom and Faith. Fun Fact: the sisters are also descendants of Edgar Allan Poe. Larkin Poe joins us in the studio to play some of these latest unsettling, shiver-inducing, and powerful tunes. - Caryn Havlik

Watch the session here:

Singer-songwriter and producer Laura Gibson was born and raised in the small Oregon logging town of Coquille but now splits her time between Oregon & NYC. She recently completed an MFA in fiction writing (Hunter College) and her sharp story-songs quietly and gracefully explore darkness on her latest, Goners. Gibson’s storytelling is both raw and bold in its exploration of the depths of grief and other hidden feelings; the music hearkens toward folk traditions with unexpected arrangements, with each containing an alluring hint of the experimental. Laura Gibson and her band join us to play some of these songs, in-studio. - Caryn Havlik

Watch the session here: 

Algiers is a mesmerizing band of musicians born in Atlanta, Georgia and now splitting time between London and New York. Their urgent, genre-resistant, chill-inducing, and fist-shaking music taps into and channels the frustration of locally-informed global citizens in these dark times - with a soulful and compelling roar. Their live sets feel spiritual and cathartic, but also might be for dancing. Then again - they also put out a music/zine series of somewhat more experimental sounds.

1st November 1954 by Algiers

Frontman Franklin James Fisher is a multi-instrumentalist who might, at any point in their set, be stationed at the Rhodes, handling the samples. or wielding a guitar. (Read about his non-tour instrument on which he composes, Rhoda.) Ryan Mahan, ostensibly on bass, also handles drum programming, baritone guitar, and synthesizer. There’s also the multi-instrumentalist stylings of Lee Tesche, on guitar, prepared guitar, harmonium, saxophone, and prepared piano. The 2017 record, The Underside of Power, was the band's first to include drummer Matt Tong (ex-Bloc Party) on hybrid drum kit, chimes, and percussion. (NPR has published this excellent in-depth article on Algiers, by Ned Raggett.)

Algiers, in their press materials, cite a great breadth and variety of influences - Big Black, Wendy Carlos, W.E.B. Dubois, John Carpenter, Cybotron, The Four Tops, Portishead, Public Image Limited, Steve Reich, Miles Davis, and Nina Simone - which may or may not inform their (I’m going for it here) their postpunk-gospel-kraut-y-motown-rocking ferocious crooning resistance music by this "American experimental band." We’re super-pumped to have them play in-studio. - Caryn Havlik

Pianist, composer, engineer, and producer, Kelly Moran takes pride in trying to “obfuscate exactly what the piano sounds like. The whole point is to make it sound different.” (Tiny Mix Tapes) Moran, on her latest record, Ultraviolet (Warp Records), has also found a delicate balance of improvisation and structure in her expansive compositions. It'd be a reductionist approach to label her work merely minimalist or ambient music because it's also melodic cascades of these studiously prepared acoustic sources combined with synth wizardry, all washing over the listener in hypnotic and fascinating waves. The music is mainly produced and engineered by Moran herself - with a little help on this latest record from a friend, one Daniel Lopatin (aka Oneohtrix Point Never.) 

Kelly Moran has brought her baggies of screws and bolts, along with other tools, to expand the insides of our piano into a new sonic palette of thoughtful and provocative sounds - somewhere in the realm of a gamelan meets hammered dulcimer or qanun. She performs works mostly from Ultraviolet, in-studio AND plays an early show (12PM start) on Saturday, Dec. 8 as part of Hospital Fest at Knockdown Center. -Caryn Havlik 

Watch the session here: