Always a lot of great live music to see in New York City. Two shows I want to recommend you concert-going folk check out this weekend are Six Organs of Admittance on Saturday night (12/1) at the Mercury Lounge and friends of the Dig Oh! My Blackbird Sunday night (12/2) at The Rock Shop.
Our introduction to David Bronson came about a month ago with his cool video for his excellent track "Times." I'm excited to share the follow-up, which is equally amazing. It's called "The Turns." Check it out!
Read More...We are pretty big fans of the Italian psych band Dumbo Gets Mad here at Those Who Dig (previous posts here) and have another great track of theirs to share with you tonight. It's the second single "Bam Bam," from their forthcoming second album Quantum Leap. Check it out!
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Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving vacation. We have much to be thankful for, from big things to something as small and simple as some awesome new music to share in this latest Weekly Roundup.
The Music Tapes are embarking on the Traveling Imaginary Tour. This circus tent inspired stage installation, alongside the usual theatrics of Julian Koster and company will be an experience you won't want to miss.
Read on for a sneak peak video into this incredible and visually stimulating tour. You will also find booked tour dates, an opportunity to bring the Traveling Imaginary Tour to your favorite community space, as well as the newest music video S'Alive To Be Known (May We Starve) off their album Mary's Voice. You dig?
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Listening to Charles Mingus is my definition of a cathartic experience. I can name only a few artists whose music can cut to the core of me in the same way that his does. It is an earthy, roots-based, bawdy expression of life's emotional range – rapture, euphoria, despair, contemplation, anger, indignation, desire, and on and on.
It's not just the melodies and harmonies that accomplish this, it's the human element of performance personality that solidifies these ideas. It is the musical gestures and shapes. It is the way his musicians embraced production noise as a tool of expression. It is the way the community of performers in the band didn't hold back if they felt compelled to yell, or sing, or vocalize in any capacity during a set. It is an expression of life. Sometimes it is sloppy, seemingly disorganized, and even cacophonous, but Mingus's pen had a direct line to his soul, and his musicians performed with every ounce of vim and vigor they could muster.
Read on for my full thoughts.
Charles Mingus: Moanin'
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We had our first "Those Who Dig presents" last week at Muchmore's. It was a great night! Thanks to all those who attended. We'll have a full recap with photos coming soon, but I wanted to share some videos of the evening's first performance by David Pollack.
Irvin Dally is a singer/songwriter living in the in between areas of retrospective folk, and the forward looking post-rock world. He is currently based in Los Angeles, but thanks his nomadic parents for allowing him to grow up in all the wonderful variety that is these United States. Irvin believes that this transience experience allowed him to soak up our national flavor, and currently he expresses this feeling in song.
The good folks over at Tune Parade recently caught up with Dally for an impromptu performance on their series, The Ice Cream Session. In this video he performs one of my all time favorite Bob Dylan songs, Tonight I'll Be Staying Here With You, from his classic 1969 album Nashville Skyline. At this stage in his career Dylan was singing with his most refined tenor croon, and Irvin Dally shares that same talent. Now if only he could find his own personal Robbie Robertson or Joan Baez to collaborate with he might just be alright. You dig?
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Tim Kuhl has recently released a video for his song Indigo Blue off his recent album St. Helena. The video is an acoustic performance shot in Far Rockaway, Queens, NY – an area that was recently devastated by hurricane Sandy. The video was directed by Lee Gingold and the cast of musicians includes: Drums: Tim Kuhl, Guitar: Grey Mcmurray, Trombone: Rick Parker, Accordion: Joshua Valleau, Dobro: Philip Sterk, & Double Bass: Jared Samuel.
If you would like to donate or volunteer to aid in relief from the storm, links to donation and volunteer groups can be found in the description section of the videos vimeo page.
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Sadly, the seminal American composer Elliott Carter died last week in his New York City home; he was 103 years old. In his wake, Carter left an insurmountable number of compositions which earned him not only the accolades of every single significant composer, historian, and scholar of the previous two centuries, but also a Pulitzer prize.
His compositional language was daunting, abstract, highly academic, and sometimes seemed to dare his listeners to explore the outermost regions of their ear's endurance. I loved the music of Elliott Carter for this very reason. Hearing his music for the first time was like having a blanket pulled away from a sound world I never even knew existed. Nevertheless, in my time with TWD I have written only one article regarding Elliott Carter – and the remarkable thing is that it was from this June, when he was still premiering new works.
With this in mind, classical guitarist and friend of the Dig Brian has written a lovely and eloquent piece regarding the life and career of Elliott Carter. Read on for his thoughts as well as a video of Ursula Oppens performing Elliott Carter's Retrouvailles for solo piano. You dig?
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