Soundcheck

Watch Lilly Hiatt's instudio: Nashville-based songwriter Lilly Hiatt leans more garage-rock than saloon songstress, especially on her latest record, Trinity Lane, where she has summoned the crunchy guitars of 90’s bands like the Pixies, the Breeders, & Pearl Jam, as she questions her demons in a fearless, blunt and sober way. There’s also Americana and Southern rock in her punk-informed country, (which a fan styled “punktry”) and her songs both drip with heart and shine with the power of coming to terms with being alone with oneself. Lilly Hiatt (daughter of songwriter/guitarist John Hiatt) and her band join us to play some of these raw and twangy songs infused with survival and independence. 

Here's Jen Cloher's session live: Melbourne, Australia-based label boss and band-leader, the singer/songwriter Jen Cloher scrapes back some skin and exposes raw truths on her latest record, her third, a self-titled affair. In making music which she describes as “intimate, but not too precious,” Cloher erupts in brutal reflection in “Forgot Myself” as she takes up the topic being left at home while her higher-profile partner (Courtney Barnett) is out on tour. Then there’s the complicated dichotomy of her relationship with her Australian home, addressed in level tones, on her dreamy love epic “Regional Echo,” and the beautifully-growled, semi-spoken bitter analysis in "Analysis Paralysis" of how the state gets to decide if she gets to have a wife. (Australia has not yet legalized same sex marriage.)  All in all, Jen Cloher’s music showcases the skillful artistry of an articulate, tasteful bandleader intent on baring teeth. The Australian Music Prize-nominated singer/songwriter Jen Cloher joins us live in the studio to play stripped-down songs from her self-titled record.   

The rock band elbow (small "e") hails from greater Manchester and makes subtle, sensitive, anthemic, joyful music, sometimes augmented with the strings of the Hallé Orchestra, (which they did not bring with them.) Guy Garvey’s vocals and wordplay are perched atop a well-orchestrated but never overwrought blend of melodic bass, guitar and piano riffs, and pulsing percussion, all the while squeezing out a wide range of bottled emotions onto expansive life paintings. They’ve referred to themselves as "prog without the solos" (AllMusic). The band elbow is currently on a North American tour for their latest record, “Little Fictions,” but they will treat us to some of their set, in-studio.  Watch their performance via Facebook:    

Combo Chimbita, a quartet of first-generation New Yorkers from Colombia, have tapped into the gritty rawness of New York punk as well as the Afro-futurism of Sun Ra, as they marry musical styles from Latin America and the Caribbean along the way with music that is sure to incite dance parties. Grittily channeling the ancestors, the band “draws from traditional music of everywhere,” according to guitarist Niño Lento. Although their backgrounds are in heavy rock, metal, and psychedelic funk and soul, they gleefully fuse elements from cumbia, 70s funaná from Cape Verde, kompa from Haiti as well as salsa & reggae, mixing the Guacharaca (the scrapey backbone percussion of cumbia) and futuristic-yet-retro synth sounds. They’ve just put out their first full-length record, Abya Yala, and it brings Combo Chimbita to our studios.   Abya Yala by Combo Chimbita

Rolling Stone magazine set out to cover music, and the wider youth culture of the day some 50 years ago. It was where young people went to read about psychedelic rock, Vietnam, and Bob Dylan. 50 years later, the magazine had moved on to Taylor Swift, Donald Trump, and Bob Dylan. To capture the whole messy half-century of Rolling Stone - from small San Francisco counterculture rock outlet to glossy New York-based powerhouse, directors Alex Gibney and Blair Foster made a two-part documentary, which features Jeff Daniels as its narrator, and founder Jann Wenner as the executive producer.   Oscar-winner Alex Gibney's most recent musical project is his documentary on Frank Sinatra and Blair Foster won an Emmy for her work on the documentary George Harrison – Living in the Material World. They join us to pick out just a few of the stories behind some of the magazine’s biggest scoops, covers, and scandals: the John Lennon & Yoko cover, Ike & Tina Turner, and Ice T's provocative "Cop Killer," among others.  "Rolling Stone: Stories From the Edge" airs on HBO, in two parts on Nov 6 and 7 at 9PM. 

Hailing from Washington, D.C., the roots-reggae band SOJA believes that music should speak for people and uplift them. With that idea in mind, their latest, Poetry In Motion, blends reggae, go-go, D.C. hardcore, Latin, rock and hip-hop, and intends to connect with the biggest family of all time. From songs inspired by a Polynesian concept of harmonious relationships between people, nature and a higher power, to songs about how beautiful it is to be alive and that deep knowledge that we’re all connected, the band doesn't hesitate to ask larger questions of humankind, and spread a message of positivity. SOJA joins us live in the studio to perform some of these tunes. 

The Norwegian band called Barokksolistene is out to give classical music a bad name. They’re trying to drag classical music – and especially Baroque music – down to the level of folk musicians fiddling in back of a pub. We here at WNYC fully support this sort of thing. Led by violinist Bjarte Eike, the band Barokksolistene has created a project they call The Alehouse Sessions, where they merrily blend together the sounds of Baroque music, drinking songs from the British Isles, and folk fiddling from various places in Northern Europe. See if you can figure out which is which. "Hole In the Wall" (Henry Purcell - Abdelazer) "Johnny Faa/I Drew My Ship" (Scottish/Irish trad.) "Travel Set, medley" (Norway/Scotland/Norway/Denmark/Shetland Islands/America) They also performed live on Facebook for our sister station, WQXR:

The inventive and ever-evolving string quartet Brooklyn Rider proffers an omnivorous steady diet of new works, global collaborations, and interpretations of the standard quartet repertoire. On its latest, Spontaneous Symbols, the quartet presents recent works from a closely knit family of composers, including their own violinist Colin Jacobsen. Hear a portion of Jacobsen’s “BTT,” in which there is wrestling with chaos and cosmic order (via the framework of John Cage & J.S. Bach.) Also, listen to the work by Brooklyn guitarist/composer Kyle Sanna  - his episodic musical essay “Sequence for Minor White” - which looks to the mid-century American photographer and founder of Aperture Magazine. The new music champions of the string quartet Brooklyn Rider join us in-studio.  Spontaneous Symbols by Brooklyn Rider

Los Angeles-based band Vintage Trouble is a powerfully fun time of old-school soul, southern rhythm & blues, sizzling dance moves, and catchy, crunchy guitar-driven rockenroll. When describing their own sound, the band uses the term “formatted recklessness.” Yes, and that almost puts words to their timeless and appealing concoction of old-school soul, powerful riffs and high energy showmanship. Vintage Trouble joins us live in the studio for an unplugged set, sure to shake the walls with “live-wired, straight-shootin, dirty-mouth'd juke music,” at once spirited and thunderous, possessed and powerful, full of party and good-times. 

Trumpeter, singer, and composer Keyon Harrold has played with Beyoncé, Common, Erykah Badu, Rihanna, Eminem, D’Angelo and the Vanguard, LL Cool J, and Maxwell, to name a few. He was also the trumpet player behind Don Cheadle in the Miles Davis biopic, Miles Ahead; yes – that was his sound you were hearing on the Grammy-winning soundtrack. On his new album, The Mugician, (a play on musician & magician), the Ferguson, MO-raised, NYC-based Harrold returns to his own music, with the help of a few friends and past collaborators, including Gary Clark Jr, Bilal, & Robert Glasper, among others. The tunes range from laments and expressions of frustration to melodic pleas for understanding, justice and peace. Keyon Harrold and his band perform some of these songs in the studio. 

The Athens, Ga.-based group Drive-By Truckers has been writing about the Southern experience and its history for more than 20 years. Fronted by founding members Patterson Hood and Mike Cooley, the band's latest record, American Band, is a collection of twangy rock underscoring blunt songs of anger and protest. The band intended to raise issues; it is their aim to get people thinking about their views on race, in addition to many other pressing topics: income inequality, gun violence, police brutality, Islamophobia, and the plague of suicides and opioid abuse. Members of the band Drive-By Truckers join us in the studio to play a bit of a stripped-down set.   

Kaki King brings a string quartet with her into the studio to perform some of her elegant arrangements in this chamber plus rock-folk-jazz setting. Watch: Guitarist, artist, songwriter and composer Kaki King writes in a variety of styles – finger-picked and tapped instrumentals, out-and-out pop songs, and chamber music works -both acoustic and electric. Her latest record, called Live At Berklee, is a recording of her own works orchestrated for the concert stage, and featuring the Porta Girevole Chamber Orchestra.       

Atlanta-based band, Manchester Orchestra, delivers gripping cinematic indie rock, and they recently impressed us in 2016 with their original film score for “Swiss Army Man.” That record saw music made unlike many film scores – without instruments. Singer Andy Hull and guitarist Robert McDowell just used layers upon layers of voices - breathing, humming, and other vocalizations done a cappella. So, for their latest record, A Black Mile To The Surface, they re-invented again – this time with instruments – and took as their inspiration a vision of winters in South Dakota. This new record is an island of warmth in an epic snowscape, and is heavy on emotional arc, possibly tailor-made for swooning or deep reflective melancholy. Or both. Manchester Orchestra joins us live in the studio to play some of these new songs.  Here's a playlist from drummer Andy Prince, on some musical inspiration for the album:   

You probably know songwriter, producer and arranger Dan Wilson. He’s the songwriter who wrote massive hits with folks like Adele (“Someone Like You”) and The Dixie Chicks (“Not Ready to Make Nice”), and for his own band, Semisonic (“Closing Time.”) Recently, the in-demand songwriter reclaimed these songs, rearranging them for his voice, his guitar – so that one could imagine performing them in the woods or at a lake (in perhaps Minnesota, where he is from), acoustically. Dan Wilson joins us live to play some of these “re-covered” songs. Here’s his version of “Someone Like You” (arrangement by Jacob Slichter) as a collaboration with Kronos Quartet:   

Producer and author Ian Brennan has worked with world music, folk music, traditional music, and has a feel for the DIY and lo-fi punk aesthetic. He produced Tinariwen’s Grammy-winning album, Tasili, but he has also recorded and amplified many voiceless communities – like the Zomba Prison Project (Malawi), Khmer Rouge Survivors (Cambodia), The Good Ones (Rwanda), and now, most recently, one of the most persecuted groups on the planet- people living with Albinism in East Africa - the Tanzania Albinism Collective. Ian Brennan joins us in the studio to talk about traveling to the island of Ukerewe, the largest inland island in Africa, and “a place so remote that historically people often traveled there to abandon their children with albinism and now serves as a haven for many with the condition.” There, members of the Standing Voice community held workshops and worked with the local community of those with albinism – the “unheard,” hunted, feared, & murdered for their supposedly magical body parts. Hear the "un-professional" musicians of the Tanzania Albinism Collective, who grew up separated and shamed about their condition, not allowed into places where people gather and sing – like church, and relegated to “other-ness.”