Soundcheck

Caffè Lena is one of the most influential folk music venues you've never heard of. Lena Spencer opened the cafè in 1960 and the Saratoga stage has been hosting some of the best folk musicians around ever since -- from Hedy West and Arlo Guthrie to Don McLean and Bob Dylan in his first performance outside of New York City. In an interview with Soundcheck host John Schaefer, Jocelyn Arem -- the director of the Caffè Lena History Project -- talks about the new book and album about the venue and it's history. And composer David Amram and musician Pete Kennedy -- who have both performed at the cafè join to discuss the community that formed around Caffè Lena, and the newly discovered recordings and photographs being published for the first time.   

In the wake of the first YouTube Music Awards, and with Google planning a music subscription service, Rolling Stone's Steve Knopper talks about whether Google has a grand -- some would say nefarious -- plan to take over the music world.

The Philly-based power punk band Swearin' is one of the groups that was born after the break-up of P.S. Eliot, a much-loved indie rock band from twin sisters Katie and Allison Crutchfield. While the Crutchfields have gone their separate ways -- Katie with her solo project Waxahatchee, and Alison with the noisier Swearin' -- both share an honest lyrical sentiment with songs that reflect on restlessness and crumbling relationships. Swearin' plays rebelliously fast and fuzzy songs meant to be cranked up loud, but with smart lyrics about youthful detachment and personal troubles that should be heard. But where, the four-piece's first self-titled record felt shifted towards Crutchfield's point of view -- especially on songs like "Kenosha" or "Just" -- the songs on the its just-released followup, Surfing Strange, redistribute the voices more evenly between Crutchfield and Kyle Gilbride -- and even bassist Keith Spencer on "Melonoma." In songs like the opening basher "Dust In The Gold Sack," Crutchfield takes lead with a softer, impossibly melodic tone above the squalling feedback. Yet the very next song, "Watered Down," it's Gilbride's shout front and center. Ultimately, Surfing Strange is another fine collection of honest and cathartic songs that shows Swearin' musical and lyrical progress. In this performance in the Soundcheck studio, Swearin' pared-down to a duo -- Crutchfield and Gilbride -- for a lovely and intimate set.       To see more photos, visit Soundcheck's Tumblr page. Set List: "Loretta's Flowers" "Curdled" "Dust In The Gold Sack"

Twenty-five years ago this week, R.E.M. released its major-label debut album Green, and it went double platinum. To commemorate the landmark -- and to some, still polarizing to this day -- album R.E.M. bassist Mike Mills reflects on the record and his favorite songs. And, eMusic editor-in-chief J. Edward Keyes looks back at what it all meant. "The band at the point that Green was released had really cultivated a reputation as underground darlings," explains Keyes. "They hit a point of personal frustration a little bit...and a major [label] was the next logical step. But at the time, the stigma of an indie darling jumping to a major was pretty strong." "We were ready to branch out a little bit musically," says Mills of Green. "It was the album that took us worldwide."

Hailing from Melbourne, Australia, Hiatus Kaiyote makes a sort of enigmatic, genre-defying music that the band calls "future soul": a fun blend of electronic sounds, African grooves, silky smooth neo-soul, and hip-hop beats. (Think Erykah Badu mixed with J Dilla mixed with Oumou Sangaré mixed with Flying Lotus.)  The band formed in 2011, and after a ton of SXSW showcases, touring in the U.S., and even a guest spot at Brooklyn Bowl during Questlove’s DJ set, Hiatus Kaiyote self-released its debut Tawk Tomahawk in 2012 and re-released it this past July. The record is a progressive collection of R&B and jazz-infused songs -- like "Mobius Streak" and "Nakamarra" -- that showcases lovely instrumentation and singer Nai Palm's alluring, gorgeous voice soaring above the mix. Hear the band perform songs from the album in the Soundcheck studio, and watch them playing "Nakamarra" below.        Set List: "Lace Skull" "Nakamarra" "Building A Ladder"

Renowned conductor Sir John Eliot Gardiner grew up in a home that boasted one of only two authentic portraits of Johann Sebastian Bach. Gardiner, who has conducted and founded several choirs and orcehestras, is now considered one of the most accomplished interpreters of Bach's work. And while Bach is a towering figure of Western culture, much of his life is still unknown. But with his new book, Bach: Music In The Castle Of Heaven, Gardiner builds on existing Bach scholarship and examines Bach's personal life and musical compositions -- the cantatas, motets, passions and masses Bach composed, many which Gardiner has himself conducted. In a conversation with Soundcheck host John Schaefer, Gardiner explains that Bach's mathematical precision has a beautiful counterpoint in the emotional intensity of his music. "It's church music," he explains, "but it's not church-y music." Bach borrowed the tempos and drama from opera of the time, and infused religious music with that same depth of emotion. And Gardiner says that's what ultimately makes it still relevant for listeners today. "You have to get through the membrane of the theology and then you're into the uplands of extraordinary humanity."

Hilary Hahn says the idea for her latest project, In 27 Pieces: The Hillary Hahn Encore, came about when she noticed few new short-form pieces were being played -- compared to other forms of contemporary classical music. The "encore" piece is an important part of every violinist's repertoire, but where most concert encores showcase well-known and recognizable works, Hahn wondered "Where are the new ones?" So the Grammy-winning classical violinist commissioned a couple dozen short pieces for In 27 Pieces from a diverse cast of contemporary composers in hopes to introduce audiences to composers they might not be familiar with. Hahn is currently on tour playing Bach and Beethoven as well as 13 commissioned encores, and performs a few selections in the Soundcheck studio.

If you were listening to college rock in the 1980's, you likely know Mark Mulcahy as the frontman of Miracle Legion. Or if you're a bit younger, you may be more familiar with Polaris, Mulcahy's fake band that made music and theme song "Hey Sandy" for the beloved Nickelodeon show The Adventures Of Pete & Pete in the early '90s. Since then, Mulcahy has earned a reputation for his sharp wordplay and deeply personal songwriting as a solo artist in his own right. Mulcahy stepped away from for awhile to raise his twin daughters after his wife's sudden death in 2008 -- a tragic event that inspired Ciao My Shining Star, the star-studded benefit compilation featuring Thom Yorke, Dinosaur Jr., Michael Stipe, Vic Chesnutt, and more performing and reinterpreting Mulcahy's songs and introducing his music to new audiences. Now after eight years away, Mulcahy is finally back with a new album, Dear Mark J. Mulcahy I Love You. As one might expect, the record deals in dark subject matter, with songs addressing loss and despair, relationships, and adulthood. And yet, Mulcahy remains surprisingly far from grief-stricken, obscuring the lyrics enough that they don't feel specifically confessional. And when coupled with bright pop melodies and a harder rocking feel (at least compared to Mulcahy's previous solo recordings), there is an immediacy to these songs, and a sense of optimism peaking through. The album may just be Mulcahy's best solo album yet, and a welcome return from an excellent songwriter.   For more photos, visit Soundcheck's Tumblr page. Set List: "She Makes The World Turn Backwards" "Poison Candy Heart" "Don't Talk Crazy"

Since her 2005 debut album Arular, Maya Arulpragasam -- the procative rapper known as M.I.A. -- has been a dominant creative force in music and pop culture. With her 2007 world-wide hit single "Paper Planes," the English-Sri Lankan native was catapulted to international fame, and was later nominated for an Academy Award and a Grammy Award in the same year. With her blend of hip hop, choppy electronics, world music influences, M.I.A.'s diverse music is infectious and wholly unique. It's also fair to say that her off-stage personality and outspoken political views have often trumped her recordings. She once performed at the Grammys while nine months pregnant; she had a very public Twitter conflict with a New York Times journalist after an unflattering profile. And she raised her middle finger during a live performance with Madonna at the Super Bowl -- which is still in ongoing litigation. And most recently, M.I.A. threatened to leak her latest album, Matangi, after a year of delays from her record label. Her long-anticipated fourth studio album is now coming out, and as one might expect with such a singular artist, it's is another genre-defying album full of inventive production, grinding and serrated beats and a lot to say. Where M.I.A.'s first three albums were named for her father (Arular), mother (Kala), then her own nickname, (Maya), Matangi draws from the name she was given at birth. But it's also the name of a Hindu goddess. In an interview with Soundcheck host John Schaefer, M.I.A. talks about the Hindu mythology that has shaped the album, why she didn't want to leak the album early — "I just thought it was too cliched" — and collaborating with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange on the track "AtTENTion."   Interview Highlights M.I.A., on the title of her new record: [Mantangi]'s the goddess of spoken word, which is really good cause I'm dyslexic, so I was like "Ah this is cool." It's like putting someone on the map that doesn't write things. So it's not like discussing Jesus Christ or Muhammad where it's more about the written text and writing on the stone and stuff like that. This goddess was about words and the meaning and power of music. On her father's reaction to early music: He didn't really say anything about it. I don't think anyone — any of my family took it seriously that I was a musician until maybe five years after [the first album release] I remember bringing my first demo home, which was "Galang," and I played it in my house and my brother literally took it out of the CD player and put it in the bin. He was like, "This is crap."     On working with Julian Assange: I don't know what he did, but I basically had to write that song to think of every word that had "tent" in it, and I must have had about 40 or something, maybe not even that many. And so he came in to work on the theme song for his TV program, The World Tomorrow, and so I explained the concept of the song which he liked, 'cuz he's smart, and he was like, "Oh, I can get these words for you" and then he took my computer. I was like, "Mmm, what's he doing?" And I don't know what he did to my computer exactly.  

We all know that music is good for a workout. But did you know that science has proven it? What’s more, a new study finds that making music, not just listening to it, makes exercising easier and more effective. The New York Times Phys Ed columnist Gretchen Reynolds discusses her recent article, "How Music Can Boost Our Workouts." Below, watch neuroscientist Dr. Tom Fritz make music while exercising on the machines he outfitted for his study.   Stepper, Tower and Stomach Trainer (close up) from Ben Van den Berghe on Vimeo.

The altitude-driven, genre-challenging Yonder Mountain String Band lives on the road. So when it came time for the Colorado bluegrass outfit to get into the studio, the group tried something different. Instead of taking an extended run in the studio, Yonder Mountain String Band took time off from an ongoing tour, shacked up in a Chicago studio for a couple of days, and cut four songs. The result of that session, YMSB EP ’13, showcases Yonder Mountain String Band’s incredible flexibility with mountains of energy, fast-picking solos, and foot-stomping bass lines.         Set List: "Lay It On The Line" "New Deal Train" "All The Time"  

For our regular feature Pick Three, the Soundcheck staff asks a guest to select three songs that he or she is loving right now. But this week, we asked Rachel Kushner, an author whose novel we're loving right now, to join us with music that inspired scenes from the book.  Earlier this year, Kushner published her second novel, The Flamethrowers, about a young woman's journey through New York's heady art scene of the mid-1970s. Nicknamed "Reno" (for her hometown), she encounters an assortment of oddballs, lovers and rising art stars. Reno's travels ultimately take her to civil unrest in Italy and, in a thrilling portion of the book, to the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah, where she sets a land-speed record. While most of the book's rich and vivid characters are fictional, The Flamethrowers is filled with granular, real-life details -- including a few classic pop songs. When Kushner joined Soundcheck -- on the heels of a real-life New York art icon, Yoko Ono -- she told John Schaefer about three tracks that play a role in her book. This segment originally aired on Sept. 25, 2013. Three Songs From The Flamethrowers "Either Way I Lose" by Nina Simone (from the 1966 album Wild Is the Wind) I think I've listened to [this song] literally thousands of times. When you write a novel, you have the opportunity to infuse, in the book, material that's meaningful to you. The narrator of the book is a young woman. She's just moved to New York City. She's at loose ends, doesn't know anybody, is looking to connect and is very lonely. And she hears the song, and I gave her my attachment to it. So it seemed natural that she would follow that cue and go into the bar where the song is playing. "He Hit Me (And It Felt Like a Kiss)" by The Crystals (1962)  It's a moment when the narrator is with a group of friends and with her boyfriend, Sandro Valera, who has an important role in the book, and everybody is dancing at this club. I love those girl-group sounds, the Wall of Sound stuff that Phil Spector produced in the early '60s, and that's definitely the most controversial of those songs. He's just a controversial figure, obviously. I'd always loved the song, and I made a decision to include it. ...It was not a popular song because of the material in the lyrics. If you look at it in a more metaphoric way, the woman singing is trying get the attention of her lover and she does so by cheating on him, and then he responds in a passionate way that makes her sure that she does love him. Fine, but you really can't withdraw the element of domestic violence. So I'm interested in that -- that you can't remove it. You can't take it out. "There Is Something On Your Mind" by Big Jay McNeely (1959) I put it in the book in this scene in which the narrator, Reno, has fallen in over the course of a long evening with these dissolute and mysterious figures: a sort of Southern gentleman, maybe artist named Thurman Johnson and his girlfriend Nadine, and another guy who the narrator is attracted to. And for me, this is the sort of song that, if you were attracted to someone and this song came on -- and that person asked you to dance -- it would be hard to say no. 

British soul singer Laura Mvula has garnered comparisons to Adele and Amy Winehouse, but with her debut album, Sing To The Moon, Mvula proves she's in a category that's all her own. The album is a lushly orchestrated 12 songs of carefully crafted shimmery and layered retro soul that reflects both her longtime classical training and pop savvy. Simply put, Mvula's music is gorgeous, and absolutely worth a listen.  Hear Laura Mvula and her trio play a set of songs from the album in the Soundcheck studio.  This segment originally aired on Sept. 11, 2013.       For more photos, visit Soundcheck's Tumblr page. Set List: "Father, Father" "Diamonds" "She"

Since it was first published in 1900, L. Frank Baum’s classic novel “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” has been adapted for stage and screen a countless number of times. But that hasn’t seemed to diminish the story’s popularity. The latest iteration, Disney’s “Oz the Great and Powerful,” brought in more than $150 million during its opening weekend. Along with those many adaptations has come a great deal of music – some of which has become just as classic as the story itself. Joining us with some of those songs is Wizard of Oz historian John Fricke. This segment originally aired on March 14, 2013.

All this week in Soundcheck's House of Horrors, we’ve been posing this question: Who is the scariest musician of all time? Today, it’s time to pit some of your nominees for scariest musician against each other in a quickfire Soundcheck Smackdown.  Chris Weingarten, senior editor for Spin magazine, and Melissa Locker, freelance music writer for outlets like Time and Rolling Stone, help decide who's the scariest in each round of our smackdown, from Ozzy Osbourne and Alice Cooper, to Insane Clown Posse and Slipknot, to Kenny G and Michael McDonald.  Who do you think wins each matchup? Who did we leave out? Tell us below.    The Matchups:  Pair #1: The Classic Matchup: Ozzy Osbourne vs. Alice Cooper   Pair #2: Band Throwdown: Insane Clown Posse vs. Slipknot     Pair #3: The Disturbing Voice Challenge: Tyler the Creator vs. Diamanda Galas     Pair #4: People With A “Record”: Varg Vikernes vs. Charles Manson     Pair #5: Crazy Eyes Battle: GG Allin vs. Screaming Jay Hawkins     Pair #6: So Smooth It’s Scary: Kenny G vs Michael McDonald