Soundcheck

Buster Poindexter is the lounge-lizard alter-ego of David Johansen, one of rock’s most influential singers. After founding the seminal glam/punk band The New York Dolls and beginning a successful solo career, Johansen unveiled his Buster Poindexter character in the mid-80s, and you’ve been dancing to his version of “Hot Hot Hot” at weddings ever since. Buster has been known to sing pop standards, novelty songs, rock’n’roll, and old blues, and long ago in the before times he performed this set live in The Greene Space in 2015.  Watch Buster Poindexter and his band perform a special bonus song "Heart Of Gold":

Hamiltones started out as the backing singers for singer Anthony Hamilton, but this Grammy-Nominated vocal trio has developed their own soul sound, combining sweet falsetto croons and smooth round harmonies with some funky grooves and trap beats, and a little vintage-sounding swagger in the production. Their 2020 release, called 1964, references the year that the Civil Rights Act was signed. What began as a Juneteenth song expanded into an album of song and story combining sampled speeches and interludes with tunes that reflect the Black Experience in America. Hear intimate arrangements performed remotely by the Hamiltones from North Carolina. Set List: “The Warning,” “Celebrate” “Message to America” "Celebrate": "Message to America":

Ólafur Arnalds is an Icelandic composer and multi-instrumentalist whose work toes the line between classical music, electronic music and film scores, mostly with a delicate undercurrent of minimalism. For his latest introspective album, some kind of peace, which reflects on connections and rituals, he has incorporated piano, strings, and electronics, but also live and taped voices. There’s the recorded sound of a healing ritual of the upper Amazon, or piano captured via an Edison phonograph recording head so that he can make new cylinder recordings to get a nostalgic sound, or piano preparations that might make new sounds. (Ólafur is a collector of vintage music technologies.) In the recent past, Arnalds has also played a Stratus piano, which is both an acoustic instrument and an algorithmic musical software that takes the piano sound and generates additional patterns and harmonies from it. For this Soundcheck Podcast, Ólafur joins us from home, in Iceland, solo on a pianette, or mini-piano, to play recent music. - Caryn Havlik Watch "We Contain Multitudes": Watch "Momentary - Saman":

Percussionist and songwriter Joachim Cooder rearranges traditional music made popular by songster and banjo player Uncle Dave Macon in the early 20th century (or so) for the completely unexpected and inventive choice of electric mbira (thumb piano.) These re-composed and re-worked tunes, much-admired by multiple generations of Cooders, get stunning makeovers for his debut record, Over That Road I’m Bound. For this Soundcheck Podcast, Joachim Cooder performs these tunes in new duo versions for mbira and electronics with his dad, Ry Cooder, who plays a guitar-like instrument - all remotely from California. -s Caryn Havlik

Welsh guitarist Gwenifer Raymond tells tales without words with her fast and aggressive fingerpicking - adapting “American Primitive” style for "old weird Wales." The fast and aggressive part might be due to her having played in punk bands, but her musical roots extend to the blues, opera, and folk, while leaning into the darkness, goth imagery, and British paganism - and sometimes there's blood. She joins us from Brighton, England to play tunes from her new record, Strange Lights Over Garth Mountain, recorded at home during lockdown. -Caryn Havlik Set list “Gwaed Am Gwaed,” “Eulogy for Dead French Composers” “Hell For Certain”

This Is The Kit is British singer and songwriter Kate Stables (lately based in France) and whoever joins her. Her early albums were rooted in the long British folk/rock tradition, but her new record, Off Off On, has a different sound – grander arrangements, with more flesh on them, for one - perhaps more so for her having toured (in the before times) and with The National. She joins us remotely to play some of these pre-pandemic songs in their intimate solo form, and invites us to be uplifted. "Coming to get you Nowhere": "This Is What You Did":

Kazakh-British violinist and composer Galya Bisengalieva plays music from her debut album Aralkum (released on Björk’s One Little Independent record label.) Aralkum is named after the desert that exists where the Aral Sea between Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan to be, which used to be the world’s  fourth largest lake, but has been catastrophically shrinking due to irrigation and drought. Bisengalieva has worked on albums by Radiohead and Frank Ocean, as well as Thom Yorke’s soundtrack to the remake of Suspiria. On Aralkum, her violin and vocals, combined with electronics swirl and rumble ominously, suggesting impending doom. She joins us from her home in London for the Soundcheck Podcast. "Aralkum": "Kantubek":

Elvis Costello’s new album, Hey Clockface, veers through all kinds of musical territory: melancholy ballads, spoken word soundscapes, abrasive rockenroll, and songs with an old time jazz flavor. While most of the songs were written in Helsinki and Paris before the Covid-19 lockdown, Costello also collaborated from a distance with New York trumpeter, composer, arranger, and bandleader Michael Leonhart on some of the songs, as he provided words and vocals over music for Michael Leonhart's new material, like "Shut Him Down." For this Soundcheck Podcast, Costello and Leonhart discuss their ongoing and wide-ranging collaboration and remind us that there’s joy in the making of music - even the sad stuff.

For the 2.4 million veterans who’ve served in Iraq and Afghanistan, the experience of war isn’t necessarily ended by coming home. Memories -particularly traumatic ones - stay with them for life, often manifesting themselves in dreams. The retelling of those dreams is at the heart of Holding It Down: The Veterans’ Dreams Project, a 2012 collaboration between pianist and composer Vijay Iyer and poet Mike Ladd. Together with Iraq War veteran, poet, and vocalist Maurice Decaul, they discuss the impact of modern-day warfare on the psyche and the decision to focus on veterans of color for this project. Plus, Ladd, Iyer, Decaul, along with percussionist Kassa Overall, bassist Guillermo Brown, cellist Okkyung Lee, and guitarist Liberty Ellman, play selections from the work, in-studio.  Set List:  "Derelict Poetry," by Maurice Decaul and Vijay Iyer "My Fire" by Mike Ladd and Vijay Iyer "Shush" by Maurice Decaul and Vijay Iyer

Wrap yourself in the reverb-drenched guitar-driven songs from Brighton-based Juanita Stein, sometimes seen fronting the band Howling Bells (originally from Sydney, Australia.) Inherent in her music is a love of pop, psych, and rockenroll from the 1950s and 60s, mixed with some American country, folk, and the Blues. On her latest album, Snapshot, written in tribute to her late father, who was also a musician and guitar player, the layers of guitar twang and fuzz are artfully arranged together with delicate keys and string arrangements. She and her full band play some of the tunes remotely from Brighton, England, and bring some hopeful warmth and joy.    Set list: “1, 2, 3, 4,5, 6” “L.O.T.F.” “The Mavericks” 123456: L.O.T.F.: The Mavericks:

London-based Sam Amidon has a reputation for having collected, re-imagined, and performed American traditional tunes or other folk music in unconventional ways. The Vermont-born singer/fiddler/banjoist/guitarist is the scion of a legendary family of shape-note singers, has fallen in with New Music folks like Kronos Quartet, Nico Muhly and Icelandic label Bedroom Community, and relocated to London. His latest album, Sam Amidon, explores classic known tunes – shape note anthems, murder ballads, traditional folk songs, as well as a spacey-trippy Taj Mahal cover - and sets them in the “imagined space of an album fantasy world.”  Sam Amidon and musician Chris Vatalaro (Antibalas drummer 2006-2010) play some favorite folk songs in inventive arrangements, remotely, from London. Sam explains the history of some of the shape note hymnody and explains how New England Puritans borrowed pirate song and drinking song melodies and attached spiritual words and religious texts instead; i.e. the pirate song, "Captain Kidd" as "What Wondrous Love Is This?" Then, they’d harmonize on top and bottom, without formal Western European harmonies for a drone minimalist feel. Additionally, Sam describes how one of his banjo tunings actually came from a Black Banjo Songsters compilation record and he and John go a wee bit further into some guitar tunings.  Set List: “Cuckoo Bird” “Hallelujah” “Pretty Polly”  

Songwriter Thao Nguyen performs with one of the best band names in the business: Thao And The Get Down Stay Down. Their 2013 album We The Common, marked a turning point both in Nguyen's musical career and in her life. During a hiatus from touring and recording with the band (Thao released a collaborative album with singer-songwriter Mirah in 2011), Nguyen spent time connecting with family and volunteering at a women's prison, where she met an inmate named Valerie Bolden. Bolden's story inspired the title track, one of three songs that Thao and her band played in-studio. (From the Archives, 2013.)  

Alabama native Naomi Shelton came to Brooklyn as part of The Great Migration of African-Americans out of the South, and she brought along her deep affection for gospel and soul music. Her collection of gritty grooves and commanding vocals recalls both her Daptone labelmate, Sharon Jones, and R&B-infused rock bands like Alabama Shakes. Shelton sings passionately about the human condition and personal burdens along with the Gospel Queens. This is music for the spirit -- and for the feet. (This 2014 in-studio performance is from the Archives.) Set List: "Sinner," "It's A Cold, Cold World,""I Don't Know"

Hailing from New Zealand’s Southern port town of Lyttelton, Aldous Harding digs deep into classic folk music with her acoustic-based brooding songs. Her music is utterly captivating, yet melancholy and bleak; the arrangements are delicate, simple, and elegant - with subtle harmonies, perhaps a touch of fiddle or keyboard, supporting acoustic guitar and Harding’s haunting voice. Hear the New Zealand singer-songwriter perform fragile & intense songs in the studio.  Set List:  "Stop your Tears"'What If Birds Aren’t Singing, They’re Screaming""Horizon"  

Lomelda is the stage name of Texas-born singer and guitarist Hannah Read. The distinction between Lomelda and Hannah is one she wrestles with on her new album, called “Hannah.” She has a remarkable voice and her songs can swing from softly sung ballads to roaring guitar-based rock; and those songs can cover topics like family, music, creativity, and most notably on this new album, Hannah Read. The album is called Hannah, and in addition to “Hannah’s Sun,” we get tracks called “Hannah Happiest” and “Hannah Please.” But we also get the apparently definitive song title “It’s Lomelda,” a tune that namechecks favorite bands like Low, Yo La Tengo, and Frank Ocean. Lomelda (Hannah?) plays some her inventively-arranged songs, solo, remotely.  Set list: "Wonder," "Tommy Dread," "Polyurethane": "Wonder": "Tommy Dread,": "Polyurethane,":