Soundcheck

Los Angeles-based band La Santa Cecilia named themselves after the patron saint of music when they formed in 2007. Their Grammy-winning sound embraces cumbias, corridos, mambos, rancheros, rockenroll, reggae, and even a bit of New Orleans jazz. With topics ranging from folks’ addiction to social media, ICE keeping kids in cages and the immigration crisis, along with love songs and songs about paying the bills, their smart, vibrant, and timely tunes reflect Los Angeles’s mix of cultures. La Santa Cecilia joins us to play in-studio. - Caryn Havlik Watch the session here:     

New York-based band !!! (chk chk chk) has gone to the synth side, with their latest rubbery-funk dance punk. Their candyfloss melodies and beats conjure technicolor dance parties at the end of the universe. They play in-studio. - Caryn Havlik Set list: "Off the Grid" "$50 Million" "This Is The Door" Watch the session here: 

Named for an exhibition in the Tate Modern, Love Fame Tragedy is how Matthew “Murph” Murphy, frontman of the indie-pop band The Wombats is scratching an itch to explore new musical avenues. Murph, plus a bunch of guests, including members of The Pixies, Alt-J, The Killers, and Soundgarden, are trying to find as many new ideas and do as many new things as possible, and having there be no politics about it. The band's synth-pop confessional sound is full of "ridiculously catchy choruses and unexpected turns of phrase" (-John Schaefer), and works in electro-blues and pop as well. Love Fame Tragedy joins us in-studio to play some of these tunes.  Watch the session here:     

New York’s top-notch and prolific classical six-piece group yMusic "serves as a ready-made collaborative unit for bands and songwriters, and has lent its distinctive sound to dozens of albums, most recently In The Blue Light by Paul Simon" (yMusic's Bandcamp.) They've played with the likes of Simon, Bruce Hornsby, Regina Spektor, Ben Folds, and English indie folk trio The Staves. Their most recent recording is of music by Marcos Balter, "...which enables us to fly", a multimedia work, in collaboration with choreographers Bill T. Jones (who came out of retirement to dance for the first time in public in 9 years) and Dianne McIntyre. For this in-studio session, yMusic teams up with the sophisticated pop-soul songwriter Emily King for brand-new orchestral pop-soul music, sure to be one-of-a-kind. - Caryn Havlik ...which enables us to fly by yMusic  

The folk songwriter, visual artist, and poet Devendra Banhart offers tenderness, introspection, and space in music, poetry, and art. Part Dylan, part Dalí, Devendra Banhart’s so-called psych-folk, (or “freak folk”) comes with what might be fantastical or surreal lyrics rooted in voice and guitar -and humble appeals to help Venezuela- the country of his mother. In fact, in naming his latest record, Ma, he addresses “the unconditional nature of maternal love, the desire to nurture, the passing down of wisdom, the longing to establish the relationship of mother to child, and the consequences of that bond being broken.” (Nonesuch Records) He also embraces “Ma” (間) as a Japanese word which might be translated as "the silence between the notes which make the music” or an “emptiness full of possibilities.” Devendra Banhart joins us to play music from Ma, in-studio. - Caryn Havlik Watch the session here:     

Seratones is a band from Shreveport, Louisiana, who combines strutting groove, fuzzed-out slinky guitars, grounded tremolo organ, lush strings – and soaring over it all, frontperson AJ Haynes’s powerful singing voice, first honed at Brownsville Baptist Church in Columbia, Louisiana. This is music to sear earholes and "replenish your faith in the power of Rock & Roll" (Seratones' Bandcamp.) It’s electrifying Southern rock where punk rawness meets soul power, topped with a bit of blues swagger. Seratones plays music from their latest, Power, in-studio. - Caryn Havlik Watch the session here:     

Super Furry Animals frontman Gruff Rhys is also a composer, producer, filmmaker and author. Recently, while recording the track “Vessels” for Damon Albarn’s world music collective Africa Express, he met South African electronic producer Muzi. They have since collaborated on a futuristic Welsh Language pop album, with a couple of verses of Zulu and an English title, Pang! (also partly inspired by Gruff’s visit to Prince’s Paisley Park studio and the gloss of Prince's Around the World in a Day.) Gruff Rhys and drummer Kliph Scurlock play some of this day-glo processed Welsh pop in-studio. - Caryn Havlik Watch the session here:    

Danish outfit Mames Babegenush cooks up a Nordic-Jewish-Balkan musical stew both manic and melancholy. Their tunes embrace the ambience of Nordic snowscapes as well as the lively weddings of Romania, all the while incorporating the vibrant dance music and klezmer traditions of eastern Europe. Since their formation some 15 years ago, the group has performed everything from electronic music to string quartets to opera. Mames Babegenush brings their rich blend of Balkan-Klezmer Jazz for dancing to the studio. - Caryn Havlik Watch the session here:     

The Icelandic duo Hugar is multi-instrumentalists Bergur Þórisson & Pétur Jónsson, who sculpt dreamlike layered soundscapes using keyboards, guitar, and electronics. Occasionally they’ll include other chamber players, including one Ólafur Arnalds. Sometimes the music is an attempt to “put our everyday experiences into sounds” – like “walking to school in a snow blizzard and riding your bike in the calm midnight sun” (Sony Masterworks). Their latest record is Varða, which translates to “cairn” in English. Hugar joins us in-studio to perform some of their music. - Caryn Havlik  Watch the session here:   

Drummer and composer Marcus Gilmore looks to the creative openness of his drum elders – like his grandfather, Roy Haynes, tabla master Zakir Hussain, or renaissance man and drummer Milford Graves - and underscores the drum set as melodic instrument – exploiting all of the potential of the components – bending notes, playing with the natural vibrations, or augmenting his set up with Sunhouse Sensory Percussion. (With thanks to Modern Drummer Magazine’s June 2019 issue.) He joins us in-studio to amaze and delight with his percussive sorcery. – Caryn Havlik Watch the session here:      

From pop and hiphop to love anthems, Grammy-nominated songwriter Skylar Grey has multiple hits to her credit. She's the co-writer on Eminem's 'Love The Way You Lie' featuring Rihanna, and featured artist on Diddy's 'Coming Home', and has written and recorded theme songs for TV and film. Lately,  Skylar Grey has embraced her folk rock roots in new songs from her upcoming project ‘Angel With Tattoos’. Fresh from an appearance at the Video Music Awards, she performs in-studio. - Caryn Havlik Watch the session here:     

Singer, songwriter, award-winning flatpicking guitarist, and Colorado native Courtney Hartman has musical roots in the bluegrass world with her family band, The Hartmans. She recorded and toured with the Grammy-nominated group Della Mae for seven years, and has collaborated with Texan Robert Ellis on a record of tunes by American folk, country, and bluegrass composer and musician John Hartford. Her latest solo record, Ready Reckoner, co-produced with Shahzad Ismaily (a multi-instrumentalist known for his work with Lou Reed and Tom Waits) is a collection of hushed and intimate yet magnificently vast tunes rooted in improvisatory freedom and folk music. Courtney Hartman performs in-studio (ahead of her square dancing gig with Radiolab at The Bell House tonight.) - Caryn Havlik Set list: "Belfry", "Hollow", "Won't Be Satisfied" Watch the session here:     

Multi-instrumentalist singer/songwriter Pete Yorn’s latest record of anthemic, lyrical jangle pop is called Caretakers. It’s also the first release on his own new label, Shelly Music. The New Jersey native joins us in-studio to play some of these tunes in a solo acoustic setting. - Caryn Havlik Set list (Click to watch): “Calm Down” "I Wanna Be The One" "Life On A Chain" Watch the full session here:       

Nashville singer, songwriter, fiddler and guitarist Lillie Mae’s sound has a bit of dark twang, some psychedelia, and the intimacy of front-porch singing. She started out in a countrified sibling band Jypsi and now has two solo records to her credit on Jack White’s Third Man Records. Lillie Mae’s latest is Other Girls, backed by members of her family and a few trusted collaborators. She’s been touring with White’s current band The Raconteurs, and is on the road in the fall as part of Robert Plant’s band. But she joins us with her own band to play some of her latest original songs, in-studio. – Caryn Havlik Set list:  "I Came for the Band" "How" "Crisp and Cold" Watch the session here: Other Girls by Lillie Mae

North Carolina singer and guitarist Alexandra Sauser-Monnig records under the name Daughter of Swords, in which she "combines the eerie sound of old Appalachian folk music with elegant guitar playing and touches of lo-fi pop." (John Schaefer) She’s also part of the alternative folk trio Mountain Man, a group of women whose precise harmonies offer songs of warmth, belonging, and community. Sauser-Monnig’s record, Dawnbreaker, a homespun country-pop offering of vulnerability, brings liberation to the "breakup record" and hope for the next phase of life. Daughter of Swords joins us to perform in-studio. - Caryn Havlik  Watch the session here:    Dawnbreaker by Daughter of Swords