A Plea To Bands

It's no secret that band names are getting dumber and dumber as time progresses. Perhaps it's because we are running out of band names, much like domain names, that many musicians have resorted to branding themselves with numbers and letters, sometimes both at once. The list is long, and ugly: NT89, SBKMRT, M83, NRBQ, ZZT (a lame rip-off of ZZ Tops name), HTRK, NOFX, PG Six, MGMT, etc. There's a reason that Van Halen's OU812 album was easily the worst of their career and it wasn't Sammy Hagar. How do you market a serial number, or a license plate for that matter? It's a small leap to a musical future full of bands with emoticons in their names. General marketing note: If your product has a terrible name it better be a damn good product, so keep that in mind when you're thinking of naming your band IM2DUM4SK8. You should also try putting more naked women on your album covers, it helps.

Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks- Mirror Traffic

The new Malkmus record is much more similar to a Pavement record than his recent solo records. There are no extended jams on this, no proggy asides or hard rock guitar solos. This may have something to do with the production of Beck Hansen, who seems to have brought out the nostalgic side of Malkmus. I found it interesting that Janet Weiss, Jicks drummer and former member of Sleater-Kinney, stated in a NY Times article that Beck wanted  to explore some tracks that Malkmus had considered throwaways, leading Weiss to say that the band wasn't sure what they were playing exactly, or more precisely, that they weren't sure of the direction that the songs were taking. This turned out to be beneficial because, although there is a mellow vibe to several tracks, there is also an exuberance to a lot of the music that seemed to be missing from some of Malkmus's solo work. It may just be that I've always wanted to hear a new Pavement record and this comes pretty close.

Buy this record if you plan on meeting up with an old friend again.

www.stephenmalkmus.com

Jacuzzi Boys- Glazin'

I'm sure the Jacuzzi Boys would love to be mentioned in the same breath as the Ramones, they'd be happy just to sniff the Converses that Joey wore. But that's impossible because the Jacuzzi Boys are from Miami, not New York City. Growing up in the grimy borough of Queens in that rat-trap city of New York left a permanent sneer on The Ramones faces. NYC drove them to implore the people to "beat on the brat with a baseball bat". You can't be that kind of angry in Miami. Sorry, but you just don't have that kind of edge on the edge of the Everglades. And that's not a bad thing. You live in a beautiful area with beautiful water fringed by beautiful beaches full of beautiful people. You can play your garage rock with a no edge South Florida punk attitude and you'll still have a quality of life, probably live to a ripe, old posh retirement home on a golf course age, and get to look back on your former selves, the good-looking trio of nice boys who wrote some catchy tunes.

Buy this record if you own a hammock and your drink umbrellas come etched with Anarchy signs.

www.myspace.com/jacuzziboys 

Weeknd- Thursday

New free download mix-tape that follows up the critically acclaimed House of Balloons record released earlier this year. This 21 year old Toronto-based singer gained a lot of attention with deep atmospheric grooves buffered by vintage alto R&B vocals, singing incendiary lyrics about drugs and promiscuous sex, all of it peppered with profanities. There's not a lot of evolution to be found on this new set, but it's a fine compliment to House of Balloons, plus it's free so why complain.

Buy this record if you really just want to buy a record, but you can have it for free cos that's how they roll in Canada.

the-weeknd.com

Zenph Presents Jazz Legends: Gershwin At The Piano, in Raleigh, NC

Durham, NC – August 18, 2011 – Zenph Sound Innovations and Raleigh Little Theatre announce dates for their newest live production, Zenph Presents Jazz Legends: Gershwin At The Piano.

The show provides the thrill of actually being in the room to hear and watch George Gershwin play. The Wall Street Journal described Zenph’s work as “a technological miracle,” andThe Newport Daily News reviewed the Gershwin show’s recent world premiere at the 2011 Newport Music Festival as, “Gershwin, as it was meant to be.” The groundbreaking technology that drives

the show was developed by Zenph Sound Innovations, a company headquartered in the Triangle. The show will run September 15th through October 2nd at the Raleigh Little Theatre's Gaddy-Goodwin Teaching Theatre. The production looks at George Gershwin’s piano legacy in a way not possible before Zenph, comparing how he played with what hepublished. It incorporates rare film footage of Gershwin, imagery from the Gershwin estate (including his artwork), and the pièce de résistance—the composerplaying all his solo performances on a concert grand piano onstage. 

“I was familiar with what Gershwin published my whole life, but it didn’t prepare me for hearing what he didn’t publish: unheard of jokes, runs, quotes, riffs – his publications aren’t the last word, they’re the tip of the iceberg,” noted Dr. John Q. Walker, Zenph co-founder and often the show’s enthusiastic host. “The ability to sit in the room, and see and hear George Gershwin himself play is amazing. On that night, that experience isn’t possible anywhere else on Earth, and it’s happening right here in the Triangle.” Walker said.   

These piano performances, called Re-performances®, are the result of Zenph’s high-resolution process which precisely extracts every note, pedal movement, and nuance from Gershwin’s original playing, resulting in breathtaking and often never-before-heard renditions of Gershwin’s piano mastery.  

“This show is great fun for the audience and for me as a pianist,” said Philip Amalong, one of the show’s concert pianists who is a Zenph performance analyst and noted touring pianist in his own right.  “I play the Gershwin music just as it was published, and then we get to hear the man himself play the compositions. The differences are dramatic, and everyone – whether they’re a Gershwin fan or have never heard of him – walks away humming his irresistible tunes with a new insight into his music.”

“We’re very excited to offer our patrons this completely unique theater experience,” said Ellen Landau, managing director at RLT. “Gershwin At The Piano provides an exhilaratingperformance based on the fascinating intersection of music and the latest technology.”

Ticket Information

Tickets for the show are available through the Raleigh Little Theatre web site, http://www.raleighlittletheatre.org and in person at the box office located at 301 Pogue St, Raleigh, NC, 27607. The box office phone number is 919-821-3111. Tickets are $20 for adults, $16 for students with ID, seniors and active military. Special pricing for groups is available. 

About Raleigh Little Theatre

Raleigh Little Theatre is a nonprofit organization whose purpose is to enrich, educate, and entertain our community by providing a superior theatre experience. Raleigh Little Theatre is a community theatre that produces 11 full productions annually and maintains a comprehensive youth and adult theatre education programs. The theater is located west of downtown Raleigh near Cameron Village Shopping Center and the campus of North Carolina State University.

About Zenph Sound Innovations, Inc.

Zenph® Sound Innovations is a music technology company based in Durham, North Carolina. The company creates proprietary software and algorithms that transform recorded music into data describing precisely how musicians perform. From this data, musical performances can become immersive and interactive: recordings can be “re-performed” with astonishing fidelity, and contemporary artists and consumers can gain access to an entirely new set of creative possibilities through Zenph software. By understanding the nuances of an individual musical style as a digital “signature,” Zenph’s technology enables the re-imagining of the entire music industry. The company’s work was named one of the “Best Ideas of the Year” by The New York Times Magazine and has received multiple GRAMMY® nominations. The editor of Stereophile magazine described Zenph’s Rachmaninoff Plays Rachmaninoff album as “one of the finest piano recordings ever made.” For more information, visit www.zenph.com.

www.zenph.com 

Richmond Fontaine- The High Country

Richmond Fontaine is not an individual but a four-piece band from Portland, OR. Apparently, the band name derives from a chance encounter with an ex-pat/hippy that helped out Fontaine frontman Willy Vlautin (who is also a published novelist and originally hails from Biggest Little City in the World, Reno, NV), when he had a flat tire in Baja, Mexico. This is a folksy, rootsy concept album based on the love story of a mechanic and a girl in a rural logging town in Oregon. Sounds like a blast, huh? Vlautin is like the roots rock version of The Hold Steady's Craig Finn. Or a high desert version of Uncle Tupelo's Jay Farrar, except Vlautin replaces struggling miners with struggling loggers.  He talk-sings through his novella songs with a raspy voice that sounds like it's been driving on a gravel road for three days. A narrator supplies the voice for the female character on three songs, but not in a Nancy Sinatra/ Lee Hazlewood kind of way, and it comes off sounding wonky. For those who have always wanted to combine a Danielle Steele audiobook with an Uncle Tupelo record, congratulations, you've found a home!

Buy this record if you like listening to audio books while driving to your logging job in some rural Oregon community.

www.myspace.com/richmondfontaine

Turkish Freakout 2: Psych Folk 1970-1978

Note: Kudos to whoever posted this awesome youtube version of Edip lip-syncing a version of Mehmit Emmi in what appears to be some daytime studio roundtable discussion setting.

Turkey, Constantinople aka Istanbul specifically, is known as the gateway between East and West, the natural bridge between Western and Eastern civilizations, so it's also natural that this retrospective collection features a fine blend of Eastern and Western musical styles. Traditional Anatolian folk meets Western rock music and the result is thoroughly original. I can't imagine how Turkey's predominantly Muslim citizens reacted to this when it was being played locally because it really begs to be accompanied by Western vices. Many of Turkey's finest artists are represented, including Edip Akbayram, Baris Manco, and Cem Karaca & Mogollar. A lot of ground is covered, from the traditional folk of Ozel Turkbas's "Ozel's Dance Routine", to the heavy psych-meets-Shocking Blue on Perihan's "Nerden Nereye", and straight through to the haunting pop sound of Kamuran Akkor's "Kim Ne Derse Desin". Turkish Freakout 2 is just another in a growing list of compilations that have found a Western audience, lending credence to the worldwide notion that you need only a guitar, amplifier, kef, saz, kaval and ney to truly rock out.

Buy this record if you want to feel worldly without the hassle of dealing with foreigners.

www.soundsoftheuniverse.com/releases/?id=24228