This record reminds me why I love music. It reminds me that music can transform our minds and our souls and the way we see the world. Each of its eight songs is an improvised duet between Carter’s violin and Sorey on either piano or drums. Each song is like a conversation between two people who are connecting for the… Read more »
The first 180 seconds of A Call to Arms is an intense journey. You are wrapped in a blanket of noise. Perhaps it’s an echo of long-abandoned factories, perhaps traffic roars amongst construction beneath your window, perhaps a raging river is tearing away your bedroom walls. Westminster Quarters begins to chime and the sound devolves into a fever dream of… Read more »
I am a deeply religious person. I also love music. I find things in both that are moving, often in ways that I cannot explain and I love that about both. However, it is often difficult to find intersections of the two. Most modern “church” music is dull and plodding and can feel more like penance than the full spectrum… Read more »
Zambian rock music of the 1970’s, or Zamrock, has generated some interest among music nerds of the West in recent years. Re-issues of Amanaz, WITCH and Chrissy “Zebby” Tembo among others along with two excellent Welcome to Zamrock! compilations makes it pretty easy to hear what we missed over four decades ago. During Zambia’s post-independence copper boom, the rock scene… Read more »
My first musical memory is watching Arthur Fiedler’s Evening at Pops with my dad when I was 2 or 3 years old. I don’t remember anything other than the closing credits, where sad music played over images of the theater emptying. Somewhere, there is a recording of me crying hysterically because that closing sequence devastated me. Yet I was hooked…. Read more »
If you drive around Baltimore, you might see a homemade sign advertising Tuff Tony’s new single on YouTube. I saw one on Sinclair Lane the other day and from comments on the video, they are all over. The song isn’t great, but as it sinks in, there is a catchiness that is harder to resist (and forget) as it goes…. Read more »
“More Love,” vocalist/violinist Lili Haydn’s new single from her forthcoming album of the same name name, reminds me of the Scorpions’ ode to the fall of communism, “Winds of Change.” No, I don’t think the CIA wrote Haydn’s latest single. It does however have a very similar hook despite a very different arrangement. It is also a song that comes… Read more »
Released: February 6, 2012 In 1902, French film pioneer Georges Méliès released the groundbreaking science fiction short Le Voyage dans la Lune, known in English as A Trip to the Moon. This is the source of the famous clip where the man in the moon is hit in the eye by a rocket. Taken in its time, it is a… Read more »
Released: February 26, 2021 Years ago, my friend Kelly and I would listen to music and dance for hours on the roof of his Greenwich Village apartment building. It was a celebration of music and movement and friendship on starry Saturdays when we had no money or cloudy Mondays when the city that never sleeps was sleeping. Looking back, dancing… Read more »
Released: February 26, 2021 One thing that is exciting about good dance music is its ability to manage energy, whether it is a DJ set or an individual artist’s record. “Don’t Leave Me This Way” is a great example. Whether you’re listening to Harold Melvin, Thelma Houston or the Communards, the song kind of simmers and then just soars at… Read more »