The Organist

This week the Organist explores sound design in two new documentaries, Irene Lusztig's The Motherhood Archives and Matt Wolf's Teenage. The films each use a combination of archival footage and original music to convey the cultural constructions of two very separate stages of human development--birth and adolescence.

the motherhood archives (trailer) from komsomol films on Vimeo.

Produced by Jenna Weiss-Berman, Ross Simonini and Andrew Leland. Thanks to Gary Scott, Jenny Radelet, Melissa Morton, Mario Diaz and Miranda Mellis.

Photo courtesy of The Motherhood Archives.

The story of Chris Stroffolino, who describes his journey from academia â€" writing Cliffs Notes to Shakespeare, teaching Creative Writing at NYU â€" to the downtown poetry scene of the 90s, to playing in the Silver Jews on their great 1998 album American Water, to a bicycle accident and eventual self-enforced homelessness â€" where he currently lives in a 1983 Ford Econoline van retrofitted with a piano in the back, performing for pedestrians. CONTAINS LANGUAGE THAT MAY NOT BE SUITABLE FOR YOUNG AUDIENCES. Produced by David Weinberg.

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Photos courtesy of David Weinberg

Daniel Fishkin is a young musician who played in bands and studied composition at Bard College. When he was 22 he got a bad case of tinnitus, a continuous ringing in his ears that drowned out all the sounds around him, and even some of the music in his head. It was a pretty tough blow for an aspiring composer. It wasn't the first time that a musician has had to deal with hearing loss, but what Fishkin did with this situation is remarkable.

Produced by Jascha Hoffman.

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Daniel Fishkin Photo by Samuel Lang Budin

Daniel Fishkin's feedback system, where a piano string vibrates without being touched. Fishkin used this to create the Tinnitus Suites. Photo by Oliver Jones

Transducers attached to long strings that create a feedback loop when amplified. Photo by Oliver Jones

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Banner image by Samuel Lang Budin

Mike Mills' new film asks the kids of Silicon Valley workers (the sons of Google's cafeteria line cooks; the daughters of engineers at Apple) about their relationship with technology and what the future looks like to them. The journalist and critic Gideon Lewis-Kraus sat down with Mills in San Francisco to discuss the film and the ways in which growing up in the corporate-technological landscape leads to a strange new worldview for these kids.

From now until July 1, Organist listeners get an exclusive sneak peek at the full version of A Mind Forever Voyaging Through Strange Seas of Thought Alone at Believermag.com/mikemills. (password: BELIEVER)

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Banner image: Mike Mills, A Mind Forever Voyaging through Strange Seas of Thought Alone: Silicon Valley Project (still), 2013; commissioned by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, courtesy the artist; © Mike Mills

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NOTE: This show contains language that may not be appropriate for young audiences.

This week's show features two segments from the 2013 season of the Organist. Actor, writer, and artist James Franco (Spring Breakers, Palo Alto) performs a radio play by playwright Will Eno (Thom Pain (based on nothing), The Realistic Joneses) written exclusively for the Organist. Filmmaker Harmony Korine discusses his novel, A Crackup at the Race Riots, and some unreleased songs he wrote and recorded as a child for the sole purpose of annoying his grandmother.Â

The untitled radio play was written by Will Eno and performed by James Franco. This episode was produced by Ross Simonini, Jenna Weiss-Berman and Andrew Leland.Â

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Banner Image Credit: Harmony Korine

This week's show features the premiere of an original radio play written by Alena Smith (@TweenHobo; HBOs The Newsroom) and performed by actor/director David Wain (Wet Hot American Summer, Wanderlust, Role Models) and Rachel Dratch (@TheRealDratch; Saturday Night Live, Second City, 30 Rock). The play is followed by a casual conversation between the actors and writer on television binge-watching and the life-saving benefits of psychoanalysis.

Horse Counselor was written by Alena Smith, performed by David Wain and Rachel Dratch, produced by Ross Simonini, Jenna Weiss-Berman, and Andrew Leland.

Banner image: Dale Hichens

Before he became a journalist, writing hilarious and harrowing books of reportage like The Psychopath Test and The Men Who Stare at Goats, as well as contributing radio stories to This American Life and BBC 4, Jon Ronson had a brief career as a musician. He played keyboards in a group called the Frank Sidebottom Oh Blimey Big Band, which was a sort of experimental-comedy new-wave act. The group's leader was the comedian Chris Sievey, who possessed a confounding absurdist charisma both on and offstage. He wore, for example, a giant papier mache head over his own head both on and off stage. Jon Ronson co-wrote a film, called Frank, that fictionalizes his time in the band. It stars Michael Fassbender and will be released in the US in August. Jon Ronson has this story of his experience driving around England in a van with a man in a huge papier-mache head. Ronson's book, Frank: The True Story That Inspired the Movie, is published by Riverhead.

This episode is produced by Jenna Weiss-Berman and Andrew Leland. Thanks to Lucie Elven and Paul Ruest.

The Birthday Song, sung every day of the year at birthday parties across the land, is sweet, simple, and 120 years old this year. But it's also a highly contested piece of intellectual property, pulling in millions of dollars for a large music conglomerate, Warner/Chappell, which charges films and TV shows who want to include the song, and pull the films from the shelves and file lawsuits if they don't comply. Andrea Silenzi looks at the strange and somewhat tortured history of the song's ownership, and offers a novel form of resistance to Warner's hegemony.

This episode was produced by Andrea Silenzi. You can find more information on the Happy Birthday contest at freemusicarchive.org, and listen to free birthday song entries.

Banner image: Greg Harrison

Annie Clark, better known by her stage name, St. Vincent, gives the listener a tour through her personal musical history. She talks about the music that raised and influenced her from age two (Ritchie Valens) through high school (Sonic Youth, Solex, Fiona Apple, Big Black). She also made a mix tape for the Organist featuring some of her current favorites. Listen to it below.

This episode was produced by Jenna Weiss-Berman, Ross Simonini and Andrew Leland. Thanks to Gary Scott, Jenny Radelet, Melissa Morton, Mario Diaz and Miranda Mellis.

NOTE: CONTAINS LANGUAGE AND CERTAIN SITUATIONS THAT MAY BE INAPPROPRIATE FOR CHILDREN.

A day on the streets of New York with the singular Alabama musician and artist Lonnie Holley. Holley always sang while making his junkyard assemblages out of objects including pick-axes and buckets, but it wasn't until the age of sixty-two that he began releasing records and performing live, both of which caught the attention of a younger generation of musicians (Animal Collective, Deerhunter, Dirty Projectors, Black Keys) who have since become his collaborators.

This episode also features a world-premiere of Apologies, a very short radio play written by Carrie Brownstein (Sleater-Kinney, Wild Flag) and Fred Armisen (Saturday Night Live), who together make the sketch-comedy show Portlandia on IFC. The play was performed by Tig Notaro (This American Life, The Sarah Silverman Program) and Kevin Corrigan (The Departed, Pineapple Express, Buffalo 66). This episode of the Organist was produced by Ross Simonini. The Organist is produced by Simonini along with Jenna Weiss-Berman and Andrew Leland.

Banner Image Credit: Matt Arnett