It was quite the week at Dig HQ. Saw some great shows, March Madness – my favorite sporting event – kicked off, Community returned, St. Patrick's Day festivities, and more. I'm ready to cap it off by sharing some awesome music in this new Weekly Roundup.
Last night I watched EMA play at the Music Hall of Williamsburg. I've seen her before and was very much looking forward to another performance. Read on for a brief recap of the show.
Last week, we unveiled a new feature called First Impressions, which is a single-listen, stream of consciousness style review of a new release chosen from reader votes. I kicked it off with Bruce Springsteen's latest album, Wrecking Ball. But the truth is, the vote was a tie between the Boss and the newest from Andrew Bird. So before we get to this week's release, I gave a spin to Mr. Bird's Break It Yourself for all those that voted for him.
Tomorrow night (March 16th) you all should make your way to the Music Hall of Williamsburg to see EMA live in concert. I promise it will not disappoint. Read on for more details.
It's safe to say that I've been a quiet fan of Tears for Fears my whole life. More recently however I've been enjoying the way that artists are re-contextualizing their music and taking the originals to strange and beautiful new places. With melody at the forefront of stoic and warm harmonies, the music of Tears For Fears is ripe for exploration in other genres. A few months back I posted a video performance of the incomparable jazz trio The Bad Plus performing TFF's classic Everybody Wants To Rule The World. Check out that article and video here. Today I am happy to share another dip into the canon of TFF by the massively talented and imaginative pianist and composer Michael Sheppard with his new work entitled Mad World Fantasy.
Read on and kick off your Thursday with a little bit of music from the friges of two genres. You dig?
Read More...
Let's jump in the way back machine and go all the way to November 18, 2011. The place is Wa(r)shington DC, the scene is the 9:30 Club, and the person is none other than friend of the Dig Jonny Corndawg. This was a tour stop for Jonny while he was out pillaging the US of A with juggernauts of newgrass Trampled By Turtles. I was in the audience for this thoroughly enjoyable show and managed to sneak this video of Jonny's performance of the Hank Williams Jr classic Texas Woman. Although he is on the opposite side of the stage, you'll hear that Erik Berry, the mandolinist for Trampled was sitting in for this one.
This was one of several unexpected treats from that evening's concert, but that's what you get with the always surprising and engaging Jonny Corndawg. You dig?
Read More...
Busy day yesterday hanging out in the Heart of Brooklyn to take in some great cultural amenities (the Botanic Garden and the Brooklyn Museum), watching college basketball with UNC in the ACC Championship (stupid Florida State…), and seeing Big Deal in concert at Glasslands. No Weekly Roundup yesterday, in other words. But here it is now for you to dig.
Last night I watched Big Deal do their very first show in the US. I'd been enjoying their album (which I reviewed the other day here) and was looking forward to seeing them. Read on to see if it was indeed a big deal.
Tomorrow night, Big Deal will be making their US live debut at Glasslands. The duo will be touring behind their first album Lights Out, released earlier this year. I've been enjoying it a lot and am looking forward to seeing Big Deal live. Read on for some details about the show and my album review.
A short while back I posted an article about a Debussy piece for cello and piano which was composed in 1915, and for my purposes performed in 1967. I tried to humanize both the composer and the performers by throwing out a bunch of significant cultural happenings from the respective years. If you are interested in the original article you can find it here. I really enjoyed writing this article and looking up all the seemingly insignificant facts like the debut of new Boeing airliners and Elvis's wedding date.
Today I am going to take this approach to Pop music and post the first installment of a light hearted feature I'm calling Flashback Fridays. The idea here is that I will post a song or video which has become dated and throw up a bunch of touchstones from popular and social culture to hopefully drag this thing out of isolation and back into its full picture. The first piece for the installment is from 1987. It is a reissued song from Steve Winwood entitled Valerie. It was off his compilation album Chronicles. Read on to get the low down on this tune and the year that surrounds it.
Read More...