Two legends of distinctively American styles of music hooked up for the first time a few years back, when the Del McCoury Band was invited down to New Orleans to
While we didn’t make it out to Indio for this year’s Coachella Valley Music & Art Festival, plenty of bloggers and journalists did make the trip. We wanted to point
One of this year’s most pleasant musical surprises will arrive on May 10 when Manchester Orchestra releases Simple Math, a humbling and vulnerable (concept?) album whose songs grapple with intensely strong emotions.
The band scores big in conveying a wide array of musical feelings from anger, remorse and disappointment to confusion and ultimately acceptance. As much as the troubled relationship album can be a self-indulgent cliche, when it works, there’s nothing like a broken heart to bring out the rawest of musical emotions. For every good one, there’s probably a hundred contrived bombs, but you can add Simple Math to the short list of really good ones.
In advance of the release, we caught up with bassist Jonathan Corley for a brief repartee on the album, his Sesame Street musical influences and Tony Gwynn.
Hidden Track: On Simple Math, you achieve a huge climactic sound at times with big guitars, and if I’m not mistaken a children’s choir and orchestral arrangements. Did you approach this album as this as essentially the opportunity to go for broke in terms of production and make the epic Manchester Orchestra album?
Jonathan Corley: We worked closely with producer Dan Hannon, who has been involved in all three of our last albums. This album is certainly more grand in scope than some earlier releases, but I believe it holds true to the simplicity of our songs. As time passes since the recording process, I begin to appreciate the work that was done more and more. The children’s choir that you mentioned on ‘Virgin’ actually contains our producer’s children. Simple Math feels more personally intense than other things we’ve released before. Honestly, I’m just excited for everyone to hear it.
READ ON for more of Ryan’s chat with Jonathan Corley…
Disco Biscuits shows have been few and far between in 2011, making this past weekend’s three-pack of performances in the heart of “Bisco Country” extra special. The band kicked off the brief run on Thursday and Friday at the Best Buy Theater in New York City before finishing it off at the Sherman Theater in Stroudsburg, PA on Saturday night.
[All photos by Jeremy Gordon]
The Philadelphia-based quartet mixed material from every era of the band’s history throughout the run. Here’s a look at the setlists…
04/14/11 @ Best Buy Theater – New York, NY
Set 1: Spectacle, Story Of The World1 > Bombs > Above The Waves2 > Spaga3
Set 2: Mindless Dribble > Run Like Hell > Confrontation2 > Mindless Dribble > Feeling Twisted > Run Like Hell
Encore: The Tunnel, Once The Fiddler Paid1 – Unfinished
2 – Inverted
3 – Ending only04/15/11 @ Best Buy Theater – New York, NY
Set 1: Kitchen Mitts, Grass Is Green > Vassillios > Minions > Voices Insane1 > Grass Is Green
Set 2: Spaga2 > Reactor3 > Tricycle > Humuhumunukunukuapua’a4 > Tempest, The Very Moon > Bernstein And Chasnoff4
Encore: Magellan
1 – Unfinished
2 – Dyslexic completion of 4/14 version
3 – Inverted
4 – Ending only4/16/2011 @ Sherman Theater – Stroudsburg, PA
Set 1: Portal To An Empty Head, Aceetobee > Catalyst > Aceetobee, Digital Buddha > Lunar Pursuit > Digital Buddha
Set 2: Spraypaint > Spacebirdmatingcall, House Dog Party Favor, Neck Romancer, 42 > Spraypaint
Encore: We Like To Party
[via PT Bisco]
Hidden Track’s Jeremy Gordon was on hand last Thursday to shoot the first night of the run at the Best Buy Theater. READ ON for a full gallery…
Last week the Blue Man Group celebrated its 20th anniversary with a special benefit show for their Blue School, featuring a performance from the group’s original lineup, and a special
If you missed Alice Cooper’s celebratory performance of School’s Out with Dweezil Zappa on The Tonight Show last month you can catch a repeat this Tuesday night at 11:35PM EDT/PDT
My Morning Jacket @ Memorial Coliseum, Lexington KY We throw the terms road dogs and road warriors around on this site to help describe the many bands we cover that
All in all, it was certainly an off night for Ani DiFranco and her band. But for a performer who is such a regular fixture on the folk circuit, it’s both understandable and forgivable. Still, as DiFranco continues to advance in her career, she could learn from going back and revisiting some of the rawness and emotional honesty of her earlier records to invigorate some of the new work with a similar empathy
The Arcade Fire re-write the rules of what a rock band looks like, appearing as the “high school band geeks” gone rock star cool. And as the band and fans sang in unison "ooh ooh ooh oooh” on the set finale “Wake Up," the Comerica Theater sounded like a World Cup soccer match – call it a win-win night for all in attendance.
Two and a half years removed from Dear Science, TVOTR has returned from their “indefinite hiatus” with a record that is thematic of love and the mind/body universal connection.
