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Story Archives of 'pop music'
The King of Canadian Orchestral Pop
By Virginia Prescott on Wednesday, January 13, 2010.
The singer Owen Pallett has until recently recorded under the name Final Fantasy, just like the video game, which is why he had to change it.
He’s collaborated with bands like The Arcade Fire, Grizzly Bear, The Last Shadow Puppets and Pet Shop Boys. He also won Canada’s top album award, The Polaris Music Prize, and The National Post has declared him the “King of Canadian orchestral pop.” His new album Heartland is out this week, and on it he aims for a lush epic sound with brilliant orchestral arrangements.
Owen Pallett is about to embark on tour but before he heads to the airport he agreed to join us by phone from his home in Toronto.
(Photo by Schrollum via Flickr/Creative Commons)
New Music By Conor Oberst and Richie Havens
By Virginia Prescott on Thursday, August 14, 2008.American folk music has taken on so many different shapes over the years, it’s become a slippery genre to define. It covers everything from old-time Appalachian foot-stompers to rabble-rousers like Woody Guthrie and the hippies he inspired, to today’s indie-folk scene, where the fuzzy lines between country, rock, pop, and emo openly defy categories. Two new albums underscore the evolution of folk music and the gaps between its incarnations. 28 year-old Conor Oberst of the band Bright Eyes released a self-titled solo album, and 67-year-old folk veteran Richie Havens just unveiled his latest effort. Word of Mouth music reviewer Bill Slammon joins us on the air to share his take on the two records.
Richie Havens' No One Left to Crown is the latest record in a long career for the performer who gained national attention at Woodstock in 1969. After all that time, though, reviewer Bill Slammon says he was still "struck by the freshness and orgininality in this album."
Conor Oberst's self-titled record is the first solo album he's released since he was a teenager. Bill Slammon thinks this is Oberst's attempt to go back to his roots: "I get the feeling he's trying to reclaim his voice, in a sense."
The Music of China's Sa Dingding
By Virginia Prescott on Tuesday, August 12, 2008.
The Olympic games in Beijing are shining a new light on China. We often hear and read stories about the country’s growing industrial and economic power, but its culture is less understood in the West. Some Chinese movies make it over to the States, but not as much pop music. At least, not yet.
Musician Sa Dingding is huge in Beijing, and she’s starting to gain some notoriety in the West. She’s been called “the voice of the new China”. She’s 25, fabulously camera-ready, and she’s from a family of Mongolian nomads. She performs in flowing silk robes, and she sings in Mandarin, Tibetan, and a language of her own invention. We spoke with Sa Dingding during a recent visit to the United States.
Jon Gould: The Beatles: Popular Music in Time of Trouble
By Monadnock Summe... on Sunday, July 27, 2008.Jonathan Gould is a writer and a former professional musician who studied with the eminent jazz drummer Alan Dawson and spent many years working in bands and recording studios. In addition to writing and playing music, Gould has raised a family, served in local politics, and taken an active role in the upstate New York community where he has lived for the past twenty-five years. He currently divides his time between New York City and Willow, NY.
Catching The Dengue Fever
By Virginia Prescott on Wednesday, July 9, 2008.In the 1960s, Cambodians created a new sound from the music they heard on Armed Forces Radio. They listened to the surf guitar, soul music, and psychedelic grooves broadcast to American soldiers stationed in Vietnam. Cambodian musicians adapted rock and roll to their own melodies.
Organ player Ethan Holtzman took a trip to Cambodia in 1997. He brought cassettes of '60s pop home to share with his brother Zac. They both caught the bug, started a band, and discovered Chom Nimol, then singing at a night club in the little Phnom Penh area of Long Beach. Dengue Fever was on.
The band is now helping to save the music from extinction. Tragically, artists, musicians and intellectuals were singled out for execution when the Khmer Rouge came to power in Cambodia.
The band's has just released their fifth album, "Venus on Earth," and they're playing tonight at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. Guitarist and songwriter Zac Holtzman joined Word of Mouth to shed light on Dengue Fever's origins and their reworking of Cambodian pop.
You can watch the trailer for the documentary about the band's return to Cambodia, "Sleepwalking Through the Mekong," by clicking here.
Sigur Rós, The Hold Steady
By Virginia Prescott on Thursday, June 26, 2008.Word of Mouth music reviewer Bill Slammon joins us on Thursday to introduce us to two new records by bands with evolving sounds. New releases by Sigur Rós and The Hold Steady will mellow you out and then, subsequently, get you ready for a night of bar brawls and drunken dancing.
Bill is a clinical psychologist at the Winchester School, and on Saturday mornings he introduces listeners to new music on WVEW Community Radio in Brattleboro, Vermont.
Med Sud I Eyrum Vid Spilum Endalaust by Sigur Rós
Stay Positive by The Hold Steady
An Introduction to Meiko
By Virginia Prescott on Thursday, February 28, 2008.In Word of Mouth’s ongoing quest to find new music, we stumbled upon West Coast artist Meiko. But it’s not like we had to dig very deep to find her. She’s already been featured on Grey’s Anatomy and KCRW’s Morning Becomes Eclectic -- two important stops on the path to stardom. Word of Mouth host Virginia Prescott talks with new-music fanatic Bill Slammon about Meiko’s young career.
Click here for Meiko's official website
Click here to check out Meiko's MySpace page
Click here to listen to Meiko on Morning Becomes Eclectic
Click here to find out more about Bill Slammon's new music show on WVEW
