Soundcheck

Maybe you don't know Sparks, but you've definitely heard its influence. Over four decades, the enigmatic brothers Ron and Russell Mael have transformed and shape-shifted through a wide variety of pop styles, from glam rock, operatic rock (Queen was once their opener) and New Wave, to helping pioneer disco alongside Giorgio Moroder. The band's electro pop songs are equally catchy and challenging, weird and hilarious, but with genre-smashing sounds always ahead of their time. The L.A. group recently curated Sparks: New Music For Amnesiacs, The Ultimate Collection, a comprehensive book and box set pulling together Sparks' best and most significant music, along with some oddities, photographs and memorabilia that spans the band's career. In an interview with Soundcheck host John Schaefer, Ron and Russell Mael reflect on 40 years of making funny and cutting edge music, reinventing themselves as a duo with the "Two Hands, One Mouth" tour, and the future of their musical The Seduction of Ingmar Bergman which is being turned into a film.   Interview Highlights On Sparks' popularity and new fans discovering the band: Russell Mael: It's a pretty schizophrenic. It's a pretty unique situation. Because our earlier roots in England in the '70s…there was a big impact there, and there a lot of people in the states at the time weren't aware of what we were doing. You know, a song like "Cool Places" was not as successful in Europe and so it's less known there. And then in the 90s we've had really big commercial success in places like Germany and France. And then things move on into the 2000s. So it's a really odd situation to have people coming to our shows from different eras and different generations.  Ron Mael: We've been really fortunate because we detest nostalgia so a lot of the people coming now to the shows are people that have just discovered us online with old YouTube clips and that sort of thing. So it's inspiring to see that. Ron Mael, on Sparks' consistent musical evolution: We're trying to slow down so we can capitalize on things for once (laughs). But generally, we get shoved into different areas with different kinds of music, but we always feel like a little apart from whatever the direction of music that's going on. And then we don't like to stay with a particular direction for very long. We get easily bored and we think that the audience does too.

Ryan Lott is a classically-trained musician and composer who has written for films, television ads, and dance companies in New York. But since his stunning 2008 debut as Son Lux, At War With Walls & Mazes, Lott has been making lush and experimental songs that blend new classical, rock, electronic music in fascinating and ambitious ways.  With Son Lux's latest album, Lanterns, Lott has made his best collection of songs yet. The record -- which features mandolin virtuoso Chris Thile, The Antlers' Peter Silberman, DM Stith, and a cast of other collaborators -- exudes a dark and somber mood with songs equally lovely and dramatic. And while each piece enters the world as a skeletal composition, Son Lux's songs are fleshed out with intricately constructed layers of acoustic instruments and vivid electric sounds, icy beats, and Lott's manipulated voice. The result is a transportive and emotionally arresting musical world from a gifted musician on the rise.  In this performance in the Soundcheck studio, Lott reveals his compositions’ humble beginnings performing solo on piano and guitar.         For more photos, visit Soundcheck's Tumblr page. Set List: "Alternate World" "Pyre" "Lanterns Lit" Son Lux plays Joe's Pub on Monday Nov. 4.

Sound is an essential ingredient to any scary movie or scary TV show. Yesterday, Kristen Meinzer and Rafer Guzman from The Takeaway’s Movie Date podcast offered up some classic soundtracks from The Omen, The Exorcist and others. But sound effects are just as essential as music, and the process of creating the overall sound design on a project is one of Hollywood's great under-appreciated arts. Gary Megregian, supervising sound editor on the FX series American Horror Story: Coven, joins Soundcheck to discuss the importance of sound design. Plus: He picks apart one horrifyingly sound-rich scene from Coven, layer by layer. Interview Highlights     Gary Megregian, on trying to stay true to the sounds of the past while filming in the modern day: There’s so much noise that goes on in the world. You’re out and you hear airplanes and you hear cars. All that stuff is still kind of going on in the filming process [on the set] of the 1830s. Trying to clean that stuff out, and giving it the backgrounds that are ideal for the 1830s, and to trying to be authentic as possible — that’s a challenge.     On sound designer Ben Burtt, who worked on the Star Wars and Indiana Jones films: Everyone I know who has gotten into this line of work has been influenced by him in some way. But there’s also Randy Thom and Gary Rydstrom — amazing sound designers. They’re not just about finding the cool sounds and making the cool sounds. They do that, but it’s all about telling the story. And they do an amazing job of finding the best way to do that through sound.   On being blown away by the sound design in No Country For Old Men: That sound is so natural. It’s the first movie I’ve seen in a long time where I was on the edge of my seat, and it was all based on sound. Because there isn’t a ton of music in that movie. It’s just playing to the viewer. It’s putting that viewer in the scene…. That movie’s just a beautiful film, in sound.

As our House Of Horrors series continues, Soundcheck is visited by Jim Faro and Jimmy Lorenzo -- two of the creators of the New York City haunted house, Blood Manor -- conveniently located right across the street from WNYC's studios. Before visiting Blood Manor, Soundcheck producer Katie Bishop spoke to Jim and Jimmy about what it takes to create a true house of horrors.  Listen to what happened when producers Katie Bishop and Mike Katzif went through Blood Manor -- you can hear their terrified (and hilarious) reactions to the experience below. Soundcheck's Trip Through Blood Manor    Jim Faro on transforming a warehouse into a haunted house: "When you enter the attraction, the goal is to forget you're on the second floor of a building on Varick Street. You're in Blood Manor for the next 20 minutes or so. We go to great lengths creatively and economically, you know, in New York City things are expensive to do -- to make sure that that atmosphere and that whole ambiance stays with you and that all your senses are assaulted once you're in the manor."  Jim and Jimmy's Tips for Blood Manor first-timers:  Make sure to use the restroom beforehand. But if you pee your pants you get a free shirt! Don't eat beforehand. Don't cover your eyes -- enjoy it!  

This week on Soundcheck, we're celebrating Halloween with our very own House Of Horrors. We've been asking our favorite musicians to share who they think is the scariest musician, and they've picked artists ranging from Ozzy Osbourne to, well, Avril Lavigne. Now, Soundcheck wants to know who you think is the scariest musician ever. Tell us by leaving a message on our listener line at 866-939-1612, posting a comment below, or tweet to us at @Soundcheck using #ScariestMusician, and check out all our artist responses below.     Run DMC's Darryl McDaniels on Ozzy Osbourne: "Even though he's a rock star -- his movements, the way he speaks, the records that he made -- even everything that happened in his real life, he's a monster!"   Composer and member of The National, Bryce Dessner on Slash: "I ran into Slash from Guns N' Roses in the hallway of a festival in Ireland. He is an imposing figure: He was shirtless and he is incredibly muscular. I don't know that I would want to run into him in a dark alley way. He also has a scary name."   Steve Terebecki of White Denim on Avril Lavigne: "The first person that came to mind was Avril Lavigne. I don't know why, but I guess part of it is the fact that she married Chad Kroger from Nickelback. She's in her early 30's and still acts like she's 17 years old. It totally freaks me out."   Pianist Valentina Lisitsa on Shostakovich's Sonata #2: "How many pieces of music do you get to play where you actually have to graphically describe death? It's dying, it's a process of dying. It's a beating heart that stops. It's a copy of an EKG."   Roots rocker John Paul Keith on Jerry Lee Lewis: "He's the killer, you never know what he's going to do. I do know there's some bullet holes in various buildings in Memphis that he's responsible for. You can't be the greatest rock n' roller that ever lived and be a safe, productive member of society."  

In the wake of the death of musician Lou Reed, Soundcheck looks back at life and career of a singular musician and New York icon. Rolling Stone contributing editor Anthony DeCurtis joins host John Schaefer to remember landmark albums like Transformer (1972), forgotten gems like New Sensations (1984) and a latter-day release, Ecstasy. Plus: Hear some of your "Lou Reed moments," which we've been collecting on John's blog post about being a Reed fan, which "meant constantly re-evaluating your fandom" with each new project or LP. Here are a few memories we received:   "I saw Lou Reed at the Bottom Line club in the Village. I guess it was the mid '80s. I remember his leather jacket and, at the bar, a group of Hell's Angels. This was a scene I was not going to forget. Of course, the place was packed." -- Tim from Sedona "Lou Reed is a part of the mix tape of my memories." -- Karen from Long Island "As lifelong New Yorker, I felt an unusually strong affinity to and with Lou, even though his life and mine rarely intersected -- nothwithstanding the random spottings on the street. And like many of us, I'm sure this geographical connection to Lou made us all feel cooler, more artistic, more connected to that side of NYC we so carefully avoided because of its inherent dangers." -- Matthew from Tribeca "I am loathe to assign the cloak of greatness to anyone. We all do that too easily. Nonetheless, I feel like I -- and clearly we -- lost a great friend yesterday. Rest easy, Lou -- you were appreciated and you will be missed." -- Adam from Briarcliff Manor, N.Y. Leave your "Lou Reed moment" here, on Twitter @Soundcheck, or leave us a voicemail at 866-939-1612.

Since he founded the band over 15 years ago, Kevin Barnes has shaped Of Montreal into an exuberant indie pop powerhouse, incorporating psychedelia, funk, and electronic music into a quirky and distinctive brand of pop. But for the group’s just-released 12th full-length album, Lousy With Sylvianbriar, Barnes turned to another influence: Late '60s and early '70s counterculture. And rather than isolating himself in the process of conceiving the album, Barnes moved to San Francisco to immerse himself in the world where counterculture was most prominent. Those influences are readily apparent on Lousy With Sylvianbriar: The record drips of flower power pop sentiment while retaining all the idiosyncrasies that make Of Montreal a beloved indie mainstay.       For more photos, visit Soundcheck's Tumblr page. Set List: "Fugitive Air" "Colossus" "Raindrop in My Skull" Of Montreal plays Music Hall of Williamsburg tonight.

TEEN is the namesake of Brooklyn-based musician Teeny Lieberson, but it’s the singer and multi-instrumentalist's last name that might be most important for the psych pop band. When Lieberson needed help filling out the group, she turned to her sisters, Lizzie and Katherine, and that literal kinship is apparent on the band’s recently released Carolina EP. Unlike last year's superb debut album In Limbo, TEEN had its live show specifically in mind for Carolina — instead of overdubs, the EP's production incorporates only what the band could replicate on stage. The result is a washed-out and trippy yet pounding pop-meets-post-punk sound that serves as the musical bed for Lieberson's alluring vocal harmonies.         Set List: "Carolina" "Big Talk" "Rose 4 U"   TEEN plays Glasslands tonight.

John Lithgow’s acting career has included award-winning roles in the television show 3rd Rock from The Sun, the Broadway musical Sweet Smell Of Success, and even as a serial killer for a season in the Showtime series Dexter. But John Lithgow has another career: children’s author. His latest book, Never Play Music Right Next To The Zoo, tells the story of a boy who goes to see an orchestra performance — and is joined by some unexpected musical guests. The book includes a recording of Lithgow singing the tale, backed by the virtuosic animals of his young protagonist’s imagination. John Lithgow discusses his new book and his long career in the Soundcheck studio. Interview Highlights John Lithgow, on whether he used his own children as a focus group for his books: I certainly began entertaining kids when I had my own kids — my oldest is 41 years old, so I’ve been doing it a long time. But it started becoming a big deal when I became famous through 3rd Rock From The Sun and I got an opportunity to make albums and do Carnegie Hall concerts. By that time I was a terrible embarrassment to my kids. On using his role as a serial killer on Dexter to play against what’s expected of him: Any time you get the chance to upend people’s expectations, you can manipulate them in all sorts of ways. I had the same experience when I first did 3rd Rock, and nobody had seen me clown around like that. Nobody had seen me be funny. And just when they’re completely accustomed to me being funny and domesticated, I play a hideous, terrifying serial killer, whose cover is being a very normal, almost inconspicuous man. On playing against type as a preacher rallying against rock and roll in Footloose: As a matter of fact, when we shot that film, it was me and Dianne Wiest and a whole bunch of young, early 20-year-olds, if not teenagers, in Provo, Utah, a fairly straight-laced town. And Diane and I were the wild ones! We almost got in some serious trouble there. I do remember there was a memo posted the morning after we all swam nude in the motel pool. They’re still talking about it in Provo.

Songwriter and roots rocker John Paul Keith moved around from city to city before quitting music entirely. That is, until he made his way to the city he name-checks in his new album Memphis Circa 3 AM. The album was produced and recorded live to two-inch analog tape by the recently passed Roland Janes, house guitarist for Sun Records in the 1950's and longtime engineer and producer at Sam Phillips Recording Services. And as one might expect, Keith's record is a warm and retro-tinged collection leaning on the sounds of classic '50s and '60s rock 'n' roll. Keith's musical expertise extends beyond Americana, however. He was one of several musicians consulted for Losers Take All, a comedy about an underground rock band struggling to break through in 1986. Keith contributed an original song for the movie's theme, lent his songwriting skills to other on-screen music, and even helped conduct a rock 'n' roll boot camp for the four actors who play the fictional band, The Fingers.  In today's session, Keith performs songs from Memphis Circa 3 AM, plus the Losers Take All theme, in our studio. Later, director Alex Steyermark joins Keith and John Schaefer to talk about the film's throwback soundtrack, which features songs by Minor Threat, Husker Du, Black Flag, Alex Chilton and other proto-indie acts of the 1980s. Listen to our interview about Losers Take All below -- and hear John Paul Keith's full session in the player above.  Set list "You Really Oughta Be With Me" "Anyone Can Do It"  "Everything's Different Now"

British street artist Banksy has spent the month of October here in New York City, leaving his literal mark all over the city in the form of much-ballyhooed public art projects. Banksy may be the most recognizable name in the form currently, but the idea of graffiti as art has existed here in New York long before he arrived on the scene. It’s the subject of a new exhibit that recently opened at Red Bull Studios, called Write Of Passage. The exhibit focuses on "writing" — the aspect of graffiti which stresses the importance of letters, rather than pictures. Exhibit curator Sacha Jenkins and legendary street artist David “Chino” Villorente discuss Write of Passage.  Sacha Jenkins, on the difference between writing and street art: People in the writing subculture get upset because writing is about letters. You can have a character or some rainbows and umbrellas if you want to incorporate it in your overall presentation. But the overall focus is on letters. Folks in the graffiti community or the writing community — that’s what separates them from Banksy. Jenkins, on how graffiti got lumped in with hip hop culture: The attitude [and] idea of, “This is who I am, I’m here, I’m saying things, recognize me” — that’s what rappers do. I think the energy of what writing is and graffiti is predates hip hop…. Break dancing and graffiti and DJing were all happening independently before [1980], but the common thread was youth and energy and the climate in New York City that created this youthful reaction to what was going on [at the time]. David “Chino” Villorente, on the influence of rock on graffiti: Most of my friends break danced at school, or were b-boys rather. Some of the guys I went to school with were MCs…. But talking to some of the pioneers of the culture, they were listening to Led Zeppelin and Jimi Hendrix and Black Sabbath and all sorts of other things while they were painting trains. I understand how it’s lumped in with hip hop, but I also understand that it has its roots outside of hip hop. 

Composer Nico Muhly has worked in the traditional world of music (The New York Philharmonic) and in the modern music world (Bjork). His latest project, the opera Two Boys, premiered at the Metropolitan Opera this week — and it sits comfortably in both realms. The work is based on a true life tale of hidden identity and tragedy that started on the internet and spilled over into real life. Muhly recognized that there’s something both modern and operatic about that story. Now 32, he is the youngest composer the Met has ever commissioned. Hear Nico Muhly speak with Soundcheck host John Schaefer about Two Boys — and read our review of the opera. Interview Highlights Nico Muhly, on adapting a tragic internet story to a tragic opera: [This story of hidden identity] reminds me of so much of opera. Cosi fan tutte, which is playing at the Met now, is a great example….You have a sort of vague idea that using a costume will help you know something more true about someone you love. And then of course, zooming out a little bit, it’s more true about your own self, more true about your own feelings and your ability to express them. On introducing a modern spin on the grand opera idea of the chorus: We realized that instead of having the chorus be sort of neighborhood gossips or townspeople, they could be the voices of online. What that enabled us to do was take advantage again of the scale of the thing so that you could understand that even if you’re living a very internal and lonesome existence in a kind of hideous suburb in the north of England, when it’s grey and cold and dreary, there is the possibility of this sort of digital beauty. On incorporating the true story of Megan Meier, a teenage girl lured into suicide online: We see the entire projected text that was said… by [Megan Meier's] next door neighbor’s mother, Lori Drew, this middle-aged woman who basically pretended to be a 16 year old boy to lure her into killing herself. She’s saying, “You should kill yourself. You’re a terrible person.” One of the things that was so shocking to me in the case was that these were witnessed chats. These are things that other people had access to. These are [chats] that other people’s parents had access to. These were people who should have known better. 

Most of the members of The Districts only just graduated high school a few months ago, but already the young band is on the verge of signing to a major indie label. The Pennsylvania group garnered attention earlier this year when a one-take live performance video of the song "Funeral Beds" topped Reddit's site. The song showcased an impressive knack memorable vocals and for songcraft that starts as introspective indie rock and builds to a climatic wall of noise. Hear the band perform live in the Soundcheck studio.         Set List: "Lyla" "Long Distance" "Call Box" The Districts play Rockwood Music Hall on Tuesday, November 5.

For Soundcheck's occasional series Pick Three, we ask guests to share a playlist of three favorite songs. Sounds simple right? Well, music nerds tend to be talented, high-achieving types, and so they tend to make the task more difficult by selecting a theme. Enter Moby, The musician, songwriter and DJ joined us recently to perform songs from his new album Innocents live in our studio. The acoustic set reveals Moby's deep love of folk, gospel and other American roots music -- the genres he has successfully blended with electronic sounds since 1999's Play. But when asked to compile a Pick Three, Moby's choices were decidedly New Wave circa 1979.  His theme: "Three songs that I discovered exclusively through the world of college radio and public radio." Around 1979, Moby was a teenage punk rock fan growing up in Darien, Conn., who snuck into New York to see concerts and buy records -- by locking himself in the restroom of Metro North trains, he could skip the fare and save enough money to buy albums, he told host John Schaefer. He discovered new music via noncommercial stations, including public and college outlets around Connecticut and WNYU's legendarily adventurous "New Afternoon Show." Three decades later, Moby pays homage to the airwaves that helped shape his early years with this Pick Three. Moby's Pick Three     Cowboys International, "Thrash" Cowboys International was a band from the late '70s. In a weird way it was almost like a new wave supergroup. They had this quasi-hit song called "Thrash." I think they only made one album. It's like a greatest hits album for songs that no one's actually ever heard. but the songs are so well written and so catchy and remarkable you just wonder why it never became this huge successful record. I would come home from high school and I would put a tape in my little tape recorder and I would sit there with 'pause' and 'record.' If I liked a song I would hit the pause button and start recording. So 99% of my favorite songs growing up, I never knew what the beginning sounded like.     Tuxedomoon, "No Tears" Because I didn't have a lot of friends, I was able to spend a lot of time in front of my cassette deck recording songs off the radio. This song, I just never heard anything like it. It's just one of these songs that sonically, lyrically, everything about it sounded like music from a time and place I couldn't even conceive of. One of the wonderful things about public radio or college radio back then was that it was one of the only ways to hear new music.     Magazine, "Because You're Frightened" WNYU here had this show called The New Afternoon Show that my friends and I would listen to obsessively. I'm pretty sure that's where I first heard ["Because You're Frightened"]. It's just an amazing song.

When you listen to the music of Moby, it's easy to picture him tinkering with sounds and samples, instruments, gadgets and vintage drum machines alone at home. That may well be the case, but for Innocents -- his latest, and 11th(!) album -- the always inventive and ever-shape-shifting musician reached out for collaborations to a degree he never has before. Innocents is Moby's first full-length record with an outside producer (Mark "Spike" Stent) and features an impressive cast of guest vocalists -- from Cold Specks' Al Spx and Skyler Grey to Mark Lanegan, Damien Jurado, and The Flaming Lips' Wayne Coyne. As one might expect with the vocalists as the main focus, the songs on Innocents take on a variety of styles for each singer. And while the songs may not feel as cohesive compared to 1999's sample-heavy hit Play, each song retains Moby's distinctively beautiful production and emotional weight that helps to unify the work as a whole. The result is a record that showcases many sides of a musician known for searching for something new and unique.     In this extended session in the Soundcheck studio, Moby discussed Innocents and performed three songs from the new record, along with older songs: "Natural Blues," originally found on Play, and "The Poison Tree," part of an expanded version of his 2011 album Destroyed. Moby is joined in the studio with his backing band: Vocalists Inyang Bassey and Kelli Scarr; violinist Claudia Chopek; harmonica player Daron Murphy -- and an impromptu choir of friends, label folks, WNYC videographers and Moby's infant goddaughter.     In an interview with Soundcheck host John Schaefer, Moby says he composed most of the songs on Innocents on guitar or piano, with the idea of making them easier to perform. "I've had this ongoing problem throughout my career," he explains. "I grew up playing guitar, but then really fell in love with electronic music. So I started making electronic-based records and then I'd go on tour and be utterly incapable of playing them live, because they'd be so studio-based."  Moby also discusses his decampment from New York several years ago. "I do interviews and people ask, 'Why did you move to L.A.?' I can answer that in two simple statements. One, it's warm in the winter. Two, David Lynch lives right around the corner."   For more photos, visit Soundcheck's Tumblr page. Set List: "A Case For Shame" "Almost Home" "The Perfect Life" (with impromptu choir) "Natural Blues" "The Poison Tree"