Monday, October 27, 2008

Garubo's Inside

Last year I bought a copy of Kenneth Gaburo's "Inside" from Frog Peak Music. Its a great piece, but recordings of it are rare. Here's a video of Bertram Turetzky et al playing the piece (about 20 minutes in). In a related vien, while searhcing for recordings I came across Modbit, a weekly radio show of new music. Great stuff, including some Gabro works.

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Alex Ross on politics

I'm a big fan of Alex Ross' blog. Here's a brief post on music in political ads. I'm still laughing at his accompaniment to Sarah Palin's response below. Enjoy. (In case you didn't know, Mr. Ross recently won a genius award from the MacAurthur Foundation. Congratulations Mr. Ross)


Friday, October 10, 2008

100 Guitarist in Saint Louiss

I friend forwarded me this announcement:

Experimental composer Glenn Branca is seeking 80 guitarists and 20 bass guitarists for his upcoming performance of Symphony No. 13 (Hallucination City). This performance will be at The Pageant in St. Louis on Nov. 13 and is part of the SLSO Guitar Festival.

• Two rehearsals at Powell Hall: Nov. 11 from 2pm to midnight & Nov. 12 from 5pm to midnight

• Sound Check at The Pageant: Nov. 13 from 1:30pm to 5:30pm

• Concert at The Pageant: Nov. 13 at 8pm

Compensation is not possible, but food and drink will be supplied at all rehearsals and the performance. All musicians will need to be able to read standard staff notation and follow a part measure by measure.


If only I was in Saint Louis. I'm sure that this will be better than the 1800 guitarist who played "Smoke on the Water" or "the most air guitar players on stage."

Thursday, October 2, 2008

Judging the Candidates by Their Musical Preferences

There's a fair amount of research out there about how musical tastes reflect deeper personality traits. Here's a look at the candidates is the U.S. election:

Barrack Obama: Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Bob Dylan, Stevie Wonder,
Johann Sebastian Bach (cello suites), Marvin Gaye, The Fugees

John McCain
: ABBA, Roy Orbison, Merle Haggard, the Beach Boys, Louis Armstrong, Neil Diamond, Frank Sinatra

Joe Biden: all he says regarding his favorite music is "My sister's playlist."

Sarah Palin: all I found is this: