Please clean filter

This one goes out to my vocal pedagogy teacher, Dr. Macphail. Everyday upon turning on the projector in the room, it always said, "Please Clean Filter" on the screen. So this first paragraph of The Dirty Projectors from SXSW 2009 goes out to here. 

The Projectors, courageously lead by David Longstreth are youthfully avant guard and thought provoking in their approach to music making. At times they are rather raucous and their direction is unclear, but in the moment where you feel you are loosing it, something happens that refocuses your attention. Whether that is a sudden monophonic melodic vocalise backed by a simple beat or a steady ostinato guitar riff The Dirty Projectors are sure to keep it interesting and listen-able. (kind of like drinkability...listenabilty)

NPR SXSW Coverage

This second paragraph goes out to my dear friend, Kristina Lewis, pianist, contralto and hippy extraodinaire. 

I just gave her Neko Case's new album, Middle Cyclone and I told her about The Decemberist's new album The Hazards of Love. So... she should check it out. 

The Hazards of Love made me think about my recent studies in music history, both classical and popular. 

I want to talk about concept albums, song cycles, rock operas, rap operas, and finally folk operas. 

Origins:

In Italy in the 1500s there were a group of artists, philosophers, and musicians that got together to promote their causes. As a result they created a dramma per musica event called and Intermezzo that was intended to be preformed in between a larger event. It was a hit, and the form eventually expanded into what we now know as opera. 

This concept of dramma per musica, the telling of story through song, has permeated Western music ever since.

The term "concept album" have been thrown about in pop music since The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. They produced the first concept album in 1966. This meant that all the songs were meant to go together in a particular order due to the story or images they portray. Like a song cycle or an opera. Later examples were to follow with The Beach Boys' Pet Sounds, and most notably the "rock opera" Tommy by The Who. 

We have Beethoven to thank for the first song cycle. 

Thao and the Get Down Stay Down

Thao was a favorite from the moment my roommate played a song that was a Song of the Day on Minnesota Public Radio last year. 

I miss the set today as it was played live because I was in class, but luckily the performance is now archived on NPR.org. 

You can catch the show there, or when the All Songs Considered podcast is posted. The set is quite short, and full of energy and quirkiness. 

Photo from NPR site. Joel Didriksen kingpinphoto.com

"Bob Boilen is boiling hot" -Thao Nguyen

She's right. I love him, but I want his job when he retires/dies/looses his voice. 

I started my application for internships at various places today including NPR. It would be a dream job to work there. I'm also applying to Smithsonian Folkways and Oxford American. 

In other SXSW news, my friend Ross is there, and I'm so jealous I could strangle him. Follow the man on Twitter. 

I had a good time networking a bit last night in the chat room for the live performances on NPR. I'm going to work on my networking skills as much as possible in the next few months. 

Brain Overload

Tonight i listened to the Avett Brothers and The Decemberists live from SXSW in Austin streaming on NPR. I also got up to the minute Twitter feeds, and chatted in the NPR chat room. I loved listening to the commentary from Bob and Robin after the double encore. They played the entirety of their new album, and then 2 encores. The crowd just wouldn't let them go, and the chat room folks listening online didn't want the show to end either.

Awesomeness.

Thoughts and anticipation: "4 days of total sensory overload"

The folks at NPR put together the Austin 100. A list of their favorites, of songs they would listen to again. It's part of a new continuous mix of 100 favs they'll keep current. What a great time and event to launch the initiative. Beautifully, some of the songs are also available as MP3s on the SXSW website!
Bob Boilen and Stephen Thomas rock my socks. I love how excited they get when they talk about it.

(on a random note, I just noticed that NPR Music and iTunes have almost the same color background.
A list of old favorites, new interests, and names I like.

Personal Old Standbys (some new-ish folk that have been on my radar much longer than others)
The Decemberists
The Avett Brothers
Thao Ngyuen with the Get Down Stay Down, surprisingly discovered by my roommate when one of their songs was a song of the day on MPR (minnesota)
Phosphorescent one of Eric's recommendations last year
Okkervil River
Beach House
M. Ward, caught my eye while working with another favorite, the beautiful and talented Zooey Deschanel

Been around a while, but not as familiar with
Laura Gibson
Nellie McKay

It's that time of year...

South by South West!!!!!!!

This is the who's who of new music. I'd love to have a press pass one day for this festival.


Although SxSW is a series of interactive multimedia festivals, the big even for me is obviously the music festival. Since I'm an almost religious follower of NPR music, and a fan of Bob Boilen and his radio show cohorts who host a special every year on NPR.org I'm more diligent in listening and scoping this year.

So I'll be reporting on my favorites that are coming through the tube.

If he has to reach way down...

Upgrade!
I'm learning to be internet and computer savvy bit by bit.
Todays lesson is adding audio to a blog.


We'll see how this goes.


Jesus Will Pick You Up | Upload Music


Ok so now that we have successfully embedded music, I'll tell you a bit about it.
This is a group of ladies, including my friends Nell, her daughter Hasee, my sister and myself. But the bulk of the group, including the leader consists of the Bellamy Sisters. A group of 9 sisters born and raised write where I was. They belong to a family of 14 all told.

I posted this because southern roots music has been on my mind. And this is a fine example that it is still alive and kicking just as much as bluegrass is.

Popular World Music: More Hip Hop and Rap

Brazil

A Filial

Found these guys while listening to The World Cafe on NPR. The discussion about their geographical placement is interesting.

The Brazilian government has also invested in the life of the countries hip hop culture.

Read the story in the NY Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/14/arts/music/14gil.html

Popular World Music: Hip Hop and Rap in France and Germany

I think what I wanted more of in my ethnomusicology class was more discussion about popular music in other cultures and not just the indigenous, classical or folk music.

I was listening to a neat performance on NPR that sparked me Googling French rap/hip hop and R&B.
I found various videos on YouTube including some playlists people had made of their favorite French rap videos.
Artists I came across were Kaysha, La Brigade, K-Reen, and several others.
Read more on Wikipedia.
While there is some presence of promiscuous sexuality in the videos and lyrics. It appears that most rappers tend to gravitate towards social and political issues in their songs.

Another think I found interesting between French and German rap is that the leading German rappers are white. In France, they are actually black. You can see and hear a little bit of the difference in the French and American, because the black culture in France is different from that in the US. On the other side of that German rap is almost identical except for the white artist part.

Below are a few of the videos I found most interesting.
Kaysha and K-Reen. Notice K-Reen (the female) and her clothing. That would never appear in the US. But that is juxtaposed with the very American styling for the scene with Kaysha. He has the "look" and the dancers and the car. Very typical of the American style.




La Brigade, very politically charged with strong visual images. Even if you don't understand the words, the message is pretty clear in the sound and the video.





Over the past few semesters in my German class with the much loved Mirko Hall, we were not only introduced to the language but also contemporary culture.
This included several showings of videos by top rappers in Germany. Mainly Sido and B-Tight.

The first videos ars of Sido, the top selling rapper in Germany. He's famous for this odd mask he wears.






Next is B-Tight. Warning this one is a little racy. B-tight is like Barack Obama, he is "mullato." Neither fully black nor white.
The embedding for all the B-Tight videos has been disabled by Aggro Records. So here is the link. Ich bin's


Ok. there you have a crash course...

Brief Update.

My photographs are up on The Lovell Sister's website.

They'll be performing along side all the big guns at both Merlefest and Bonnaroo this year!!!


http://www.lovellsistersband.com/photos/live-shots

4th row: second from left,
5th row: 1st pic,
6th row: 1st and last pics,
7th row: first pic

Thoughts on writing a research paper in 20 days

My advice to future professional musicians is simply to choose wisely.

As you go through your musical training, just as you do in life, really listen to what you gut, mind, and heart are telling you about what you are doing artistically. If you find yourself contemplating other majors, or trying to figure out what else you can be doing, don't feel pressured to always remain in what you're doing because people tell you that you can.

I spent 3 years with a voice teacher who kept telling me I could have a big career if I wanted it.
That's great and fabulous news. Right?
Well, yes. If you want to be an opera singer.
I tried it. I did some work on actual operas, preparing a role, working on some scenes. I did well with it, but simultaneously I was always online exploring other concentrations in music and the arts in general.
I didn't listen to myself early enough. I kept feeling pressured to pursue performance, and ignored what my gut was telling me.

So...here I am, having made the decision just a few months ago to become a musicologist rather than a singer, writing a 12-page research paper in 20 days

Here are some thoughts on that experience and what I've learned.

Exploit your resources. This sounds "wrong," but trust me it's not as bad as it sounds. Use your librarian's knowledge, and scourer the brain of your professors for information and ideas.

Make a rough schedule, and try to be as reasonable about your free time, and try to stick with the plan.

Make sure you're in a class and frontload the paper. This way you have a professor as a resource, and an ever-growing abundance on the time period you choose. The bonus is that you're done with your paper when everyone else is flipping out near exam time.

Focus your topic as you research. If it's a time period you aren't as familiar with. Start reading as much as you can and take notes. Be sure to write down the bibliographical information of the sources you use. As you take notes and get ideas, keep track of where your info is coming from. This will help later when you are documenting and formatting.

Don't misplace that style manual you were required to buy freshman year. Make sure it stays on your shelf every year.

And work a little bit whenever you have free time.