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Vampire Weekend: Contra
I spent a whole lot of time last weekend defending Vampire Weekend’s debut album to my friends, so I was really hoping that their new album would be something special. I just finished listening to their second album, Contra, with mixed-to-disappointed feelings. I had heard that this album was California influenced, and I really liked…
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To One in Paradise
Here’s a recording of my college’s chamber choir singing “To One in Paradise” by James Bernhard, a setting of the poem by Poe. It’a a little rough, but it’s a deceptively difficult song. The music isn’t that hard, but all of the lines are so slow and exposed that intonation and support are issues.
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From the Old Sad Bastard school of thought
Here’s Glenn Branca saying that nothing new has been done in music for the last 50 years. Chris Milam thinks that Garden State has irrevocably damaged American culture. Yawn. I won’t even bother, their commenters have done the work for me.
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Alexander Street Press
For those of you out there who have even a casual interest in classical music, I reccomend the free bi-weekly downloads from Alexander Street Press, an online subscription classical music database. The recordings are always one complete piece, and range from short chamber pieces for solo instrument to full symphonies. Their blog has RSS and…
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The National
Another album that I listened to in my quest to listen to the critical picks of the ’00’s was The National’s Alligator. Boxer, the album that followed has become my go-to record for listening straight through. I won’t bore you with superlatives, but I will share something interesting that I’ve been mulling over. It took…
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Classical Percussion
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LrMBIH2TBpU] There’s a story up on the Wall Street Journal about the recent(ish) trend in classical concert percussion pieces, including Philip Glass’ Concerto Fantasy for Two Timpanists and Tan Dun’s Concerto for Water Percussion. It mostly covers the growing corps of soloists and the number of new music composers that are growing the repertoire,…
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End of the decade lists
I don’t think I’ll have one… I’ve been all over the map, and really don’t have anything original to contribute (then again, it is the internet…). But one thing that’s been intriguing me is the motivations behind those lists. I’m not sure that I completely agree with Umberto Eco’s idea that lists are the origin…
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Alvin Lucier – I Am Sitting in a Room
This semester, I have been taking a class on Minimalist music. I will be posting occasionally on what I hear as I work through a recording syllabus. They will be in the category Minimalism. “I Am Sitting in a Room” (1969) has a simple premise at heart. A man records a short phrase on a…
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Kitka
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QxEAQfGq5CI] Skip to 1:20 I was driving on the highway back home, and flipped on the radio. I start hearing these pleasant, but otherworldly harmonies coming from the radio. I could tell that it was women singing, but I really had no point of reference. It didn’t sound like any Western music I knew, but…
