CultureSonar: Recent Episodes
CultureSonar
Music, films, TV, books and events for people who've lived a little and have plentymore they want to experience. We're working hard to find things we think you’lllike. We’ve gathered a bunch of like-minded people to comb though the chaos andpick out the tasty bits.
Carmine Appice has definitely been there and done that. For one thing, he’s probably the only drummer to have been considered as a replacement for both Keith Moon in The Who AND John Bonham in Led Zeppelin. Naturally, he has stories to tell. Listen to a few of them here...
How would you feel if a mobster cheated you out of $30 million, and threatened your life in the process? Rocker Tommy James is grateful. Hear the whole story in the latest episode of "Light from the Black Box."
Most of us will eventually face some crisis of conscience. We can hope, however, not to be Daniel Reeves, protagonist of the new drama, 9 Circles, which recently premiered at the Black Box Theatre at the Sheen Center for Thought and Culture in NYC. In playwright Bill Cain’s new thriller, a teenaged Reeves is arrested and prosecuted for acts that he may have committed while serving in the U.S. Army during the Iraq War. Thrown into a labyrinth of military bureaucracy, the confused and troubled man-child tries to navigate layers of commanding officers, public defenders, pastors, lawyers and army psychiatrists.
Inspired by actual events, the play is based on the 9 Circles of Hell in Dante’s Inferno — in this case tracing one man’s descent into personal hellfire. In this premiere episode of the new podcast series, Light from the Black Box, Valerie Smaldone speaks with playwright Bill Cain and Director Kent Nicholson about a play Backstage described it as “an electrifying psychological drama with riveting, tour-de-force performances… With its myriad intellectual riches, this important work packs a powerful emotional punch, examining timeless social issues with insight and compassion.”
http://www.culturesonar.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/SHEEN-CENTER-9-CIRCLES-podcast.mp3 “9 Circles is very close to my heart,” says playwright Cain. “It’s the journey of a young man who comes to understand who he is and what he has done, and that he can be empathetic with what
We’re hearing a lot about different visions for America, some of which includes nostalgia for the good old days, particularly the 50’s, when – the story goes – things were more orderly.
Now, we’re not going anywhere near politics, but we would like to look at just one slice of the 50’s – its pop music – and see what it might tell us about our own times.
The standard narrative of 50’s music goes something like this:
The first half of the decade was dominated by lightweight throwaways like this…
…until rock and roll came along to shatter everything.
As with most cliches, there is some truth in that, but the real story is a lot more complicated.
CultureSonar’s Ken Hymes points out that — if you look at the top 200 songs of the 1950’s — doo-wop and “rock and roll” make up much less than half the list. There’s also a lot of grownup, blues-flavored music from folks like Sarah Vaughan, Ray Charles and Elmore James. That’s quite a mix: not a one-trick pony or a cluster of cheesy teen idols.
Of all the words you might use to describe Elmore James, “lightweight” is not one of them.
Then, of course, there’s rock n’ roll itself. It was simple music, right? – “three chords and truth,” as the saying goes.
Well, not so fast…
First, there were the musicians themselves. They brought an unusual amount of good baggage to the party – mixing jazz, country, swing, blues and pop to create something utterly new. For the most part, these guys could PLAY, and were not afraid to go pretty far out there in their seemingly-simple pop songs.
Our own Michael Rays notes that Elvis Presley’s incomparable musical wingman, Scotty Moore, for example, brought some genuine crazy to the King – and is still influencing guitar players six decades later. Just check out the out-there guitar solo in “Too Much.”
And then there’s Buddy Holly.
A few years after Holly died in a plane crash, studio geniuses like Brian Wilson of the The Beach Boys, Phil Spector and his Wall of Sound, and George Martin with
Editor’s note: You can either hear or read this post. Your call.
http://www.culturesonar.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Coutnry.m4a Country is probably the most popular music in these United States, but it’s not for everyone. The hat acts, the “chicks in pickups” clichés and the tired “bro” vibe are all overdone. Plus, you turn on country radio and it’s just full of the same-old-same-old.
But, like any vibrant art form, “Country” is not just one thing. It’s got a lot of facets – with lots of ridiculously-talented artists. And when you dig a little deeper, there are treasures everywhere.
So let’s talk today about country music for people who don’t like country music – starting with Kacey Musgraves. The title of her major-label debut, Same Trailer Different Park, tells you a few things: she’s different, she’s smart, and she both embraces and questions country traditions.
Critics love her: she won the Best Country Album for Same Trailer Different Park and the Best Country Song Grammy for “Merry Go ‘Round” from that album. The Country Music Association awarded her New Artist of the Year in 2013 and gave her Song of the Year honors for “Follow Your Arrow” the following year. Nashville itself was gushing that perhaps Kacey could save country music from itself – meaning, from the onslaught of “bro country” with all those pickups and tailgate-dancing girls.
2015 brought her second major-label album, the equally brilliant Pageant Material, which reached #1 on the Country album charts.
Yet if the fans and critics were on board, and Music Row itself was hoping she could help usher in a more creative climate, too many tightly restricted country radio stations remain resistant.
And no wonder. Some of Kacey’s characters smoke weed, are gay-friendly, and generally aren’t very orthodox. This has probably restricted her radio airplay; but it thrills legions of fans.
As Kacey put it herself, “The things I’m singing about are not controversial to me, I don’t push buttons to push buttons. I talk about things that have made an impression on me that a lot of people everywhere are going through.”
Where Musgraves is o
With an artist whose work is as varied as Prince’s, there’s virtually no end to the paths one can take to explore his career. This made him an ideal subject for CultureSonar‘s first podcast. There’s no denying the impact – and greatness – of the Purple Rain soundtrack, but it would be a mistake to think that it represented the totality of Prince’s artistry, as you’ll hear in this discussion of one of his less heralded albums, 1986’s Parade. http://culturesonar.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Parade-Podcast-ep-1.mp3 – Don Klees PS. You can read more about Prince in The Book He Won’t Finish.