Monthly Archives: July 2011

Pitchfork: Day Two (2/4)

Zola Jesus

This is the second of WPRB’s four part review of the Pitchfork Music Festival held on July 15-17 in Chicago, Illinois.

Day Two

by Griffin Winton-LaVieri (WPRB Music Director)

Having realized it was worth it to be up front and thus arrive at the gates early; Ravi and I spent two hours waiting outside the festival grounds on Saturday. However, that day, instead of going to the Green stage where Fleet Foxes would headline, we opted for the nearby Red Stage. Our fellow early arriving Pitchfork attendees were generally more interested in Fleet Foxes so we had no trouble making it to the barrier.

The first act on the Red Stage was Woods. Woods are a pretty solid freak folk band. I haven’t really gotten into their music so I didn’t really recognize their songs but nonetheless enjoyed my self. One of the members of Woods sang through a pair of headphones, which is a rather novel way of making music. The lead singer sang in a pleasing falsetto.

After Woods, on the Green stage was Cold Cave. Thanks to the positioning of the stages and a jumbotron, we could observe the band though either a video feed or as tiny guys on a relatively distant stage. They were dressed in black and performed with remarkably high energy considering it was not only incredibly hot out but it was likely earlier than they would be ever expected to leave their apartments. I really like Cold Cave’s first record so I enjoyed hearing tracks like “Youth and Lust”, “Hello Rats”, and of course, the title track. As mentioned above, the members of Cold Cave danced wildly around the stage (in a cool way, though) and I was ultimately unsure how much of the sound they were actively producing themselves.

Up next on the Red Stage was No Age. I’m a big fan of No Age and so I was particularly excited to rock out to them. Dean and Randy ripped through songs off of all three of their records and the crowd ate it up; bodies were pressed against each other, water was flung overhead to cool us down, and crowd surfers flowed regularly over the barrier. No Age covered a Black Flag and the Misfits but the highlight of the set was “Everybody’s Down” which featured Dean leaving the stage and joining the crowd. No Age are a quality band who write good songs and put on fun shows. Fun Fact: The picture that heads the Pitchfork article about the festival was taken during No Age’s set and I’m the kid wearing red in the front row.

Destroyer played next on the Red Stage. Naturally, Bejar’s epic jazzy jams were a stark contrast to No Age’s punk songs but it was now late afternoon and chilling out was in order. Destroyer make enjoyable music and they performed their tracks well so it was a good set, even Dan Bejar, who is notoriously moody, seemed like he was having fun. I had the part in “Bay of Pigs” where Bejar sings “Magnolia’s a girl/ her heart is made of wood/ as apocalypses go/ that’s pretty good/ sha-la-la/ wouldn’t you say?’ and the synths come stuck in my head all day in anticipation of hearing it live so I was quite pleased when that song concluded Destroyer’s set.

After that, Ravi and I grabbed dinner and headed to the Blue stage for Nika Roza Danilova, who is better known as Zola Jesus. With barely any trouble we were able to make it to the front, which made me happy because Zola Jesus is actually one of my favorite musicians and I had never been able to make it to one of her shows before. Although I had read about how small a stature she has, it was surprising to see her in real life and realize that, yes, she is 4’11”. Her size didn’t inhibit her performance in the least as she danced and pranced across the stage as she sang tracks from her Stridulum and Valusia EPs. The standout song was probably “Manifest Destiny” which is an incredibly powerful track in terms of Danilova’s vocal performance. Zola Jesus is an artist to watch out for and I am incredibly excited to hear her new record Conatus, which will be released in October.

Fleet Foxes were headlining that night but neither Ravi nor I are particularly familiar with their music so we left after Zola Jesus. Instead of being satisfied with a day’s worth of live music, we ventured to Chicago’s Lincoln Hall for an unofficial after-show. Shabazz Palaces opened the show. I’m not a big fan of rap or hip-hop so they weren’t exactly my thing but I definitely acknowledge that they could be a quality act. It was entertaining to watch the two members perform as many of the songs featured synchronized dance routines. The headlining act was Moonface, which is Spencer Krug’s new project. It was an interesting performance as Krug played keyboards and sang and another fellow played marimba and drum machines. It was fun and worth going to but after two days of standing on metal barriers, I was tired and my feet were incredibly sore.

Photo Credit: Ravi Prakriya

Pitchfork: Day One (1/4)

This is the first of WPRB’s four part review of the Pitchfork Music Festival held on July 15-17 in Chicago, Illinois.

Day One

by Griffin Winton-LaVieri (WPRB Music Director)

Every year the Pitchfork Music Festival seems to book the best bands. Last year as I watched the artist announcements (Broken Social Scene!) come out (LCD Soundsystem!) through out the spring (Pavement!), I was all too aware that there was no way I could make it. But 2011 was different; with orientation for college in Wisconsin, a trip to Chicago would fit perfectly into my summer and thus the trip was meant to be. When Animal Collective was announced as a headliner, I ran through the halls of my high school to tell my best friend, Ravi, who would be going to the festival with me. It was going to be the high point of my summer.

Since we arrived the day before, Ravi and I had nothing in particular to do midday Friday. As I’m a big fan of being early to concerts (a result of my short stature and subsequent love of being in the front row), we arrived at the festival gates at noon- approximately 3 hours before they would open. This was, in retrospect, one of the best decisions of the weekend because it allowed us to think about our priorities and prepare to realize our goals; namely, we decided to get through gates quickly and sprint to the Green Stage and stay there the whole day so we could see Animal Collective up close.

The first band on the Green Stage was Battles. Despite the fact that Tyondai Braxton no longer numbers among their ranks, they rocked through “Atlas” and other songs with the help of prerecorded vocals and a screen on stage displayed the guesting vocalists. Their set up was gear-intense as it featured such remarkable aspects as a cymbal elevated to the height of approximately 7 feet, effects pedals lining key board stands, keyboards angled at 45 degrees, and the machinery which built the loops that built the songs.

After Battles was Guided By Voices. If one band epitomized rock’n’roll that weekend, I’m pretty sure it is GBV; first off was Robert Pollard, the lead singer, who proudly took swigs of rum between songs and did multitudes of leg kicks as he performed. The guitarist took the prize, though, as he chain-smoked through the set; always needing a cigarette, he had a stagehand behind him whose sole role was to light new cigarettes and place them in his mouth. I have never gotten into GBV’s extensive catalogue so I recognized only a few songs that they play, but any set with “I am a Scientist” is a good set, right?

At 8:30, Animal Collective finally took the stage. In the break after GBV, an elaborate set was built featuring a giant head behind the band, huge glowing crystals in front of the band, and illuminated plastic bats hanging down from the rigging. The set consisted of almost entirely new tracks and the first song they performed was especially special as it was “Change”, one of the new tracks, which is the first Deakin sings on. As for the new songs, they generally the rhythmic and aggressive, more like Water Curses than Meriwether Post Pavilion. Then again, it by the time they come out in the form of a new record they will probably not only have different names but new directions as well. AnCo did play several old songs and each time they did, it seemed more euphoric; They worked their way through “Did You See the Words”, “Brothersport”, a slower, heavier version of “Taste”, and ended on an incredibly high note with the much loved “Summertime Clothes.” Despite the fact that they had 10 minutes before the Chicago curfew, they didn’t play an encore. Although the time they spent playing was magical, I’m sort of glad they didn’t. They couldn’t have topped “Summertime Clothes.”

Photo credit: Ravi Prakriya

Get To Know WPRB's DJs: Dan Buskirk

Every week this summer, WPRB will highlight one its DJs in “Get To Know WPRB’s DJS.”

Name: Dan Buskirk

Show: “Jazz with Dan Buskirk” Mondays 11:00AM -1PM.

Type Of Music Played: “Post-Coltrane era jazz.”

Reasons for Being a DJ: “I think I’m a frustrated musician and this is my way of getting that out.”

Day Job: Writer.

Hometown: Philadelphia.

Listening To Now: Roswell Rudd, “The Incredible Hunk.”

Favorite Summer Food: Oysters.

Currently Reading: Kingdom Under Glass by Jay Kirk (biography of Carl Akeley, an American taxidermist for the Museum of Natural History).

Favorite City Visited: Paris.

Anything else?: Dan ”Enjoys taking advantage of the freedom at WPRB to play funky and free jazz that stretches beyond polite boundaries. Hail Sun Ra, hail William Parker, hail jazz’s past and future…”

WPRBBQ!

Happy Summer from WPRB 103.3 Princeton!

The whole crew celebrated the season at WPRB’s annual summer BBQ by grilling hamburgers, hot dogs, corn, even pineapple. Special thanks to our friends at Vitamin Water for cooling everyone down by providing us with an ample supply of our favorite flavors!

Stay tuned for info about submitting to our T-Shirt Design Contest for this October’s pledge drive!

Die Walkure vs. Mahler's Second:

This morning, I played the very beginning of Wagner’s Die Walkure, followed by Mahler’s Second. I recently attended a performance of Die Walkure. The moment the opera’s exciting “Vorspiel” began, I asked myself why had I never noticed the similarity between this opening and the beginning of Mahler’s second symphony.

You could spend a long time discussing how different these two beginnings are, but the similarity is very striking: tremolo in the violins while the cellos and basses hunt about dramatically. In the Wagner opera, the great hero. Siegmund, is running from vengeful pursuers, looking for a place of rest. In the Mahler, as Mahler himself said, the hero of his first symphony has died, and this movement is his funeral. This hero, or perhaps we listeners, are also engaged in a dramatic search, for the meaning of this hero’s death. (If you’re curious, remember, this symphony is called “the Resurrection”.)

Get To Know WPRB's DJs: Marvin Rosen

Every week this summer, WPRB will highlight one its DJs in “Get To Know WPRB’s DJS.”

Name: Marvin Rosen

Show: “Classical Discoveries” (Wednesdays from 5:00AM to 11:00AM), “Classical Discoveries Goes Avant-Garde” (Wednesdays from 11:00AM to 1:PM).

Links: http://www.classicaldiscoveries.org/

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Classical-Discoveries/132814286796248

Type of Music Played On Show: CD repertoires rarely heard–from all periods, with an emphasis on old and new songs from all over the world. For Avant-Garde it is more experimental, more progressive, more electronica music, music inspired by pop music sometimes.

Reason for Becoming a DJ: “There is a tremendous amount of repertoire omitted by other stations. WPRB allowed me to play out passions, I can focus on music from all around the world from South Africa to the Middle East. I also have the opportunity to give support to younger composers.”

Day Job: Full time faculty member at Westminster Conservatory. I teach piano, music history for the “Young Artists” program, and musical styles for the “Pedagogy Certification Program.”

Home town: Born in Englewood, New Jersey, now lives in Princeton!

Music You Can’t Stop Listening to Now: “Two Cellos” [played by Luka Sulic and Stjepan Hauser]– a CD of two cellists playing Rock music (will be played on next week’s show), everything from Coldplay to Michael Jackson to Guns N’ Roses.

Favorite Summer Food: ”Salsa and Chips, the hotter the better!”

Currently Reading: Couldn’t do the shows without the internet, always reading about new composers!

Favorite City Visited: In and around Warsaw, Poland.

Anything Else?: “When I get involved I have a big excitement and passion for what I do, I am thankful that a station like WPRB exists.”

Get To Know WPRB's DJs: Julia Factorial

Every week this summer WPRB will highlight one its DJs in “Get To Know WPRB’s DJS.”

DJ Name: Julia Factorial

Show: “Cleanr Yr Room” (with Art), Mondays from 7-9PM.

Type of music played on show: Teenage concerns–ie; songs about hating your parents. A lot of punk rock–”The Replacements, The Marked Men, So Cow, Lunachicks, Ted Leo, Karp, Lungfish, The Raincoats, Kurt Vile, Reigning Sound… Pretty much anything on the following labels: Richie, Hozac, Tic Tac Totally, Siltbreeze, Homestead, K, Hyped To Death. Art occasionally takes us on a trip through the New Wave of British Heavy Metal and beardo records, and I love scouring the stacks at WPRB for the forgotten, terribly amusing and occasionally profound records that live there.”

Reasons for being a DJ: “I began listening to WPRB when I was a lowly 8th grade loner nerd in Cherry Hill, NJ. I spent a few years taping my favorite shows and trading those tapes with other folks. Eventually, I became close with a few DJs. Flash forward a couple years to 2002. With the help of Mike Lupica (who hosted ‘Hey You Kids’ with Jen M. and ‘Hip Transistor’) I got a timeslot on the summer schedule, which I shared with Her Jazz host Maria T. I hosted ‘Mixtapemaker Heartbreaker’ from 2002-2007, and then teamed up with Art (who had a show called ‘Your Saxophone is My Guitar’ for a number of years). We’ve been hosting ”Clean Yr Room” since 2007 and love every dumb minute of it.”

Day Job: Student.

Home Town: Willingboro/Cherryville/All over New Jersey.

Listening to now: “Slutever, F*cked Up, ‘Allo Darling, The Ettes, Thin Lizzy. The Futureheads cover of Kate Bush’s ”Hounds of Love” makes me want to be in that band. So much fun! Oh
yeah, and a friend bought me Paul & Linda McCartney’s “Ram” for my birthday and I can’t take it off my turntable. It is perpetually playing in my head. When you are talking to me, I am hearing the hook for “Eat At Home” in my head.”

Favorite summer food: Gin and Tonic.

Reading now: “Girls Like Us” by Sheila Weller. An interesting look at feminism in the 70s and the music industry as viewed through the experience of Joni Mitchell, Carole King and Carly Simon. Also, ”Something in the Air: Radio, Rock, and the Revolution That Shaped a Generation” By Marc Fisher. (Written by a former WPRB DJ!) An in-depth look at the history of radio and the movers and shakers who defined each major development.

Favorite city visited: Chicago.

Anything else?: “Little known WPRB trivia about our show: Fellow DJ Wilbo (‘The Clothesline’) sings and performs the opening theme song to our show. The song that follows is by the band Screaming Urge and it’s called ‘Homework’. We get a phone call about each of those songs every week.”

Live – The Feelies, Maxwell’s Hoboken, NJ 7/3

Hey WPRB listeners (and readers!), this is Jake again letting you know about the Feelies’ show last Sunday at Maxwell’s in Hoboken. As I got the tickets, I thought it would be a good opportunity to hear cuts from their new album Here Before, which addresses the themes of returning home, starting again, and staying in the game. Maxwell’s has been something like home-turf for them since they started playing in ‘77.They reunited after a 16 year hiatus in 2007, and the new record is the first in 20. I was looking forward to hearing the new record live, especially since it sounds like a return of the jangly acoustic pop of their earlier records but with more personal lyrics about the band itself, and about happily reuniting and recording after being apart for so long.

The band opened with “When Company Comes” and played tracks from the new record, including “Bluer Skies,” “Nobody Knows,” and “Should Be Gone.” They played with total ease and confidence—the band reinforced Glenn Mercer’s airy delivery and repetitious lyrics, and everyone built off each others’ quick play. No talk in between songs either – except for a joking “Happy Holidays” from Bill Million at the start, but again, they don’t really need it. During the second set, the band played more of their older stuff, with a bombastic four song finale starting with “Loveless Love,” moving into “Time is Right,” and ending with the driving “Moscow Nights” and “Crazy Rhythms”.

After they rushed off stage, the members returned to play an encore of covers, including The Velvet Underground and the Stooges, followed by another encore of The Beatles and “Fa Ce La”. The covers seem a total change of style owing to the Feelies’ own unique sound, but they put so much energy into them that they didn’t sound out of place with their originals either. This is a band of music-heads, and they show it with how much fun they have in paying homage to their idols (Especially Mercer, who was a total surprise when he belted out some very oily Iggy Pop vocals). I thought that would be it for the night, but as I was walking out, I nearly ran into the band coming back to play yet another set of covers, with two new tracks and an excellent cover of the Doors’ “Take it as it Comes”. They left the stage again I thought, “Okay. It’s pretty late in the evening. That’s probably it.” But I didn’t make it too far before the band again rushed to the stage and started off with two fiery Rolling Stones covers, “Rocks Off” and “Paint it Black.” I thought to myself, what if they played non-stop all through July 4^th, constantly entering and exiting the stage? Or, what if the rest of my life were just a series of encores by the Feelies, punctuated with short breaks when I could eat and sleep for three minutes before the next encore began?

Well, that would be all right, actually.

Jake Sanders is a contributor to the WPRB blog. He’ll be covering more shows in Philadelphia and New Jersey for the blog in the next few months.

Beethoven's Erotica Symphony:

I gave this introduction on the air before playing Toscanani’s live recording, with the NBC symphony, of Beethoven’s third (July 5, 2011, at 7:08 a.m. EDT). I understand that some of you violently disagree with me and would rather not consider this point of view at all. To you, I apologize.

I have no idea how complicated it was to operate the WPRB radio station in the 1970′s. It was difficult enough that there were usually, I believe, two people: an announcer and an engineer. Perhaps it was hard to find individuals with both the skill to announce, and the skill to manage the wiring and all those controls. However, during winter break, a single person operated the station, and it was usually an engineer.

That is how, one wintry day, I listened to an engineer give a long introduction to Beethoven’s third symphony. He was obviously reading from the record jacket, and, time and again, he mentioned Beethoven’s “Erotica”.

When the music started, I called the station. “Are you sure about that word ‘Erotica’? I asked.
‘That’s what it says here,” he said.
“Take another look,” I suggested.
After a pause, he said, “Oh S—.”

However, the third IS Beethoven’s Erotica Symphony.

Let me explain.

This symphony is one of the first truly romantic compositions, with real pounding climaxes. That first climax, in the first movement of this symphony: is it simply a new kind of abstract music? Or did Beethoven play a trick on his contemporaries, secure in the knowledge that none of those stupids would ever figure it out?

Consider the powerful chords that lead up to the musical climax. That’s Thrusting music, and, seriously, it mimics the thrusting of a couple engaged in intercourse. The thrusting gets even more urgent as the climax approaches, with syncopated thrusts that suggest the urgency of both partners. After these thrusting chords, we hear a few soft notes in the strings. I won’t explain what I believe these chords represent, because, well, WPRB is a family broadcasting station. After those chords, we hear some gentle romantic music: the afterglow.

Finally, before the return of the main theme, the first horn breaks in with the theme, four measures early. This is an obvious joke about a physical affliction. I will refer to this condition by its latin name, Ejaculatio Praecox, because, well, WPRB is a family broadcasting station.

I wish to thank harpsichordist and musicologist Kenneth Cooper for this interpretation of Beethoven’s third.

Meet WPRB's Newest Blogging Intern!

Hey guys, my name is Jake Sanders. This summer, I’ll be writing some show and album reviews on WPRB’s blog, and keeping you updated on the local venues around Philly and New York. Mostly I’ll be writing about new indie pop and rock releases, but I’m really hoping to get word out on some local bands from the area as well. For the first of these entries, I thought I would let you know about an awesome show happening this weekend.

This July 4th weekend, indie-rock champions and local WPRB favorites the Feelies are playing three shows at Maxwell’s in Hoboken. Born out of Haledon, New Jersey in 1977 by Glenn Mercer and Bill Million, The Feelies have been mainstays of indie-rock ever since they began playing shows in their hometown and New York in the late 70s. When I was in high school, I looked desperately for bands that had the same meticulous and precise energy as Talking Heads, and The Feelies were one that I very happily found.

Their classic 1980 album Crazy Rhythms is a mixture of a twangy, interweaving, and bright guitar work with drums that ascend, descend, and drop off completely, making the album sound haunting and clear (like it might’ve been created in a laboratory somewhere in North Jersey). The band was weirdly dissimilar from both the sound of punk and new wave popular in New York at the time, but retained some qualities of both genres in their sound, and created a unique style that really lasted in my memory. They stayed popular in the underground music scene early on, and they recorded three other equally great albums through 1991, each having a huge impact on indie music at large.

It was only three years ago that the band officially reunited after a 17-year hiatus, playing a few shows at Maxwell’s before playing a much-anticipated opening for Sonic Youth at the River to River festival in Battery Park, and then playing the entirety of Crazy Rhythms at the All Tomorrow’s Party music fest a year later. Since then, they began writing new songs and recorded Here Before, again showing what they can do with their minimalist approach and all that pretty guitar work. This weekend they play Maxwell’s for the 4th year in a row on the Fourth of July, as the band has consistently played shows on national holidays since it began (yet another interesting and folk-lorish detail you might want to know). What a better way to celebrate our nation’s history than with these American pioneers of indie-rock… The first two shows are sold out, but tickets are still available for Sunday’s show. Check them out! I’ll be going to Sunday’s show and will be writing about it next week.