Gail Archer, a concert organist based in New York City, is traveling to the St. Louis area to give an organ recital at St. Peter's Episcopal Church in Ladue this Sunday, 10/22/11, at 5 PM. I will be interviewing Ms. Archer live on my Saturday classical show starting around 1 PM. She has a new album out called Franz Liszt: A Hungarian Rhapsody on the Meyer Media label. Admission to the concert at St. Peter's is free, and it should end in time for everyone to get home for baseball. As always, feel free to drop me a line (classical@kwur.com) with any questions.
Interview with organist Gail Archer, Sat. 10/22/11
October 21st, 2011 by George Y.Death Grips: Whoa. [WARNING: really dark music]
October 11th, 2011 by BlastMastr
Hey!
Have you guys heard about my new favorite thing that happened this summer? It's called Death Grips and its my new favorite thing. Here's why:
So as a person who mainly listens to hip-hop but recently has for some reason gotten into hardcore punk [Black Flag] and heavy electronic noises [Tobacco], I have been thinking all the time: 'I wish there was a really intense hip-hop group that utilized heavy electronic noises and yelled ALL OF THEIR LYRICS.' Then this happened. Death Grips is a trio made up of drummer Zack Hill (having cut his teeth in the group Hella), some mysterious angry guy named MC Ride and a third even more mysterious guy (Flatlander?) who maybe has a hand in producing. What do they do? Well sometimes they take a famous Link Wray song and chop it up and make it ear-bleedingly awesome and then yell over it ("Spread Eagle Cross the Block"). Sometimes they make sparse, heavy beats and then yell over that ("Takyon"). Sometimes they take Black Flag samples and yell over those ("Klink"). Sometimes they make far too intense electronic beats and yell over that, but for you guys that like yelling less, there are a couple super cool electronic tracks with regular talking ("Culture Shock"). I think it's super cool future music and I think it's awesome.
It gets better! The whole album, Ex Military, is free on their website. Click the album art, listen, get angry (and also, if you like it, pay them money to support them while you're angry)!
-BlastMastr
Classical new releases @ KWUR, May-August 2011
October 1st, 2011 by George Y.Very late update on classical new releases at KWUR, 90.3 FM for a 4-month spell, but better late than never, or some such cliche. So here goes:
1. C.P.E. Bach: Sei concerti per il cembalo concertanto (Six Concerti for Harpsichord): Andreas Staier, harpsichord; Freiburg Baroque Orchestra; Petra Müllejans, leader (harmonia mundi HMC 902083.84)
2. Songs and Duets from Slovenija! (Slovenian Lieder and Duets): Bernarda Fink, mezzo-soprano; Marcos Fink, baritone; Anthony Spiri, piano (harmonia mundi HMC 902065)
3. Rose of Sharon – 100 Years of American Music, 1770-1870: Joel Frederiksen, Ensemble Phoenix Munich (harmonia mundi HMC 902085)
4. Stories – Berio and Friends (music of Luciano Berio, Cathy Berberian, John Cage, Roger Marsh, Jackson MacLow, and Sheldon Frank): Theatre of Voices; Paul Hillier, director (harmonia mundi HMU 807527)
5. The Songs of Johannes Brahms – 2: Christine Schäfer, soprano; Graham Johnson, piano (Hyperion CDJ33122)
6. Philipp Schoendorff – The Complete Works: Cinquecento (Hyperion CDA 67854)
7. Herbert Howells: The WInchester Service and other late works: Winchester Cathedral Choir; Andrew Lumsden, conductor; Simon Bell, organ (Hyperion CDA 67853)
8. Beyond All Mortal Dreams – American A Capella (music of René Clausen, Steven Stucky, Ola Gjeilo, Frank Ferko, Edwin Fissinger, Healey Willan, Stephen Paulus, and William Hawley): The Choir of Trinity College, Cambridge; Stephen Layton, conductor (Hyperion CDA67832)
9. Constantinople & Françoise Atlan: Premiers songes (Early Dreams) (Analekta AN 2 9989)
10. Ernest Chausson – Concert, op. 21 and André Mathieu – Piano Trio & Piano Quintet: Alain Lefèvre, piano; David Lefèvre, violin; Quatuor Alcan (Alcan Quartet) (Analekta AN 2 9286)
11. Jean-Philippe Rameau: "L'orchestre de Louis XV" (Suites for orchestra) – Les indes galantes, Naïs, Zoroastre, Les Boréades (Alia Vox AVSA9882A+B)
Any questions, feel free to drop a note at classical@kwur.com. Will try to blog more promptly in the future, and thanks for reading.
Frak the Gods Tour: You should be there.
September 26th, 2011 by redluke22St. Louis often gets the short end of the stick as far as great metal shows are concerned. While we live in a respectably-sized city, we are in relative geographic isolation compared to some of our larger-market midwestern brethren: namely Chicago and Cleveland. In my opinion we get two or three or four really good shows per year, and as such we must make a concerted effort to support them when they do come to town. This is one of those moments. The "Frak the Gods Tour" (kudos to the promoter for the Battlestar Galactica reference) features a truly incredible lineup of some of the best up-and-comers the scene has to offer. Headliner Periphery has been making waves since their self-titled Djent-styled debut album came out last year, and better support cannot be found than Dutch metallers Textures and their American Tech-Death comrades The Human Abstract, both of which released monster albums this year (the latter's "Digital Veil" being one of my favorite records thus far in 2011). The show is tomorrow evening (Sept. 27) at Fubar in central west end. Now that you have been briefed on the significance of this event, you have no excuse not to be in attendance. I shall link to music videos from all three bands, for your visual and auditory pleasure.
