Greetings, music fans everywhere! Today is College Radio Day. What, you might ask, is that (if you didn’t just click on the link)? Well, it’s a day to appreciate and celebrate everything good about college radio–the new music everyone gets to hear, the DJs learning skills and spinning sweet tracks for an audience outside just their circle of friends, and the connections between stations and people that form through our shared love of music.
I have this friend who, whenever I play her a new album, immediately rattles off a list of all the bands it reminds her of. Although most of the time I can completely see how the gruff edge of a singer’s voice could reminds her of The National, or how a frenzy of synthesized beats could evoke Discovery, for some reason this drives me crazy. As soon as the list becomes a weird four-part hybrid (“It’s totally like…Miike Snow meets Dirty Projectors and Grizzly Bear, with a little Animal Collective…”) I wonder why it can’t just be a fabulous experience of new music.
Photo by Rachel Fidler.
I started off October right this year. My suitemates and I headed out to Santa Ana on a whim on the 1st, having found out about this concert only days before, but it was the best decision we could’ve made. My new favorite singer, Dan Mangan, referred to on his website as a “fresh-faced folk singer from Vancouver, Canada”, was opening for Blind Pilot at the Galaxy Theater.
She Keeps Bees plays smoldering, gorgeous, alt-folk rock with a bluesy, rhythmic feel. This powerful, Brooklyn-based duo creates an incredibly resonant, full sound with only guitar, drums and vocals. Jessica Larrabee’s raw, beautiful voice emotes plaintive bitterness, and echoes in aching harmonies across the methodical roll of Andy LaPlant’s drums.
Photo by Rachel Davidson.
Sunday, September 18, 2011. It would have been a mind-addling, homework-inundated kind of Sunday for me, just like any other… if I had not decided to throw caution to the wind and escape the real world for the night. This otherworldly trip began with an eventful drive on the I-10/101 in a crowded Scripps van with seven of my friends, and after more than an hour and a half of patient waiting, I came face-to-face with my favorite musician, James Blake. Glorious.
Gavin Turek and TOKiMONSTA kicked off this semester of Art After Hours on September 15th, bringing energy and style to Thatcher’s southeast lawn—the opposite side of Lyon Garden than last year’s Art After Hours setup, and a minor change, but one that both felt like a refreshing alteration and spared the garden’s grass by encouraging more spectators to stand along the paved walkway. Complementing the rebellious theme of the current exhibit at the Pomona Museum of Art, which celebrates the young artists whose work populated the museum between 1969 and 1973, Gavin Turek SC ’09 started the evening with her buoyant set of vibrant, danceable pop music.
Larry the Fox's interview of Jazz Vocalist/Bassist & Educator Kristin Korb on Larry's show "Claremont Straight Ahead", on April 18, 2011, has been posted to the KSPC website (https://kspc.org/interviews.asp). Check it out!
This week at KSPC tUnE-yArDs have the top album of the week! Yeah tUnE-yArDs! w h o k i l l is the sophomore album of Merrill Garbus’s project and we have a full review of the album here for you guys to read! Tune in to KSPC 88.7FM to hear more and check out after the jump to read the rest of the charts from this week.
Well, the new Tune-Yards album rules.
On her new album w h o k i l l, Merrill Garbus spends 40 minutes doing what I like best: looping shit. Throughout the album, layers upon layers of noises are piled up to create endless soundscapes, at first seemingly random and rather abrasive. However, these collections of sounds twist and turn into some sort of melody that, God knows how, can for real get stuck in your head. I keep finding myself trying to hum along to heavily-distorted and hard-to-listen-to vocals over blaring saxophone, as is the general feel of “Gangsta”, as if that is even possible. (I fail, of course.) Also note the (French?) police siren that opens the song. I think that acknowledgement alone captures the general essence of Tune-Yards sound on w h o k i l l.
Congratulations to The Babies for having the top played album on KSPC last week! Their self titled album was put out by Shrimper and is the collaborative product of Vivian Girls’ Cassie Ramone and Woods’ bassist Kevin Morby. Oh, and it rules. Tune into KSPC 88.7FM or listen online to hear more from them, and check out the rest of the Top 30 after the jump!
Virtuoso Jazz Vocalist & Bassist Kristin Korb will be a guest on Larry The Fox's show, "Claremont Straight Ahead", at about 1:00 pm on Monday, April 18, 2011, prior to her gig at the Hip Kitty Jazz & Fondue in…
The Mountain Goats inspire intense reactions—usually positive ones, but even the most rabid of fans might qualify their fandom. Starting with 2002’s Tallahassee, the Mountain Goats transitioned from lo-fi, homemade recordings featuring only singer-songwriter John Darnielle to professional studio recordings with a full band. This drastic alteration in style—previously the Mountain Goats had even been known to record on a boom box—inspired the aforementioned split in the fan base. Since 2002 the band—still only Darnielle, really, but featuring a rotating lineup of other musicians—has produced seven albums, the latest of which is called All Eternals Deck and which was our most-played album here at KSPC last week. It’s their most obviously produced yet, and sounds increasingly like straight-up indie rock a la the Hold Steady, with more focus on the instrumental musicians that decreases the customary spotlight on Darnielle. Otherwise, All Eternals Deck sounds, well, like a Mountain Goats release. This means that you can expect a lot of acoustic guitar, one or two surprisingly jagged-edged tunes mixed in among the wistful melancholy, and plenty of spiky, literate lyrics that unfurl their poetic meaning gradually, rewarding repeated listens.
Peter Pants
On Saturday, April 9, with the help of numerous other 5C organizations, CCLA Live Arts hosted Vajammin’, a festival showcasing female achievements in the music industry. The one day event took place throughout the afternoon and evening at Pomona College on the South Lawn (and was later moved indoors to Doms Lounge due to temporarily inclement weather). With several hundred students and community members in attendance, Vajammin’ was a huge success! Check out the set list, links, and more pictures after the jump.
Kurt Vile makes American music—rambling, loose, confident—and Smoke Ring For My Halo is no exception. Layers of guitar weave in and out of each other, loose acoustic strumming, rapid finger picking and chunky electric riffs dance and overlap. Vile understands space. Each guitar part has room to meander, loop, mingle and fall back into place. There’s often a lot going on but the album never feels cluttered. A confident fluidity pervades Vile’s songs. Of course, floating in and out of the mix is Vile’s distinctive singing voice—an easy, deadpan croon. While not a traditionally beautiful voice, Vile’s vocal style creates a sense of intimacy. He often seems to musing out loud and just happened to have had a guitar in hand at the moment.