Soundcheck

Heartache is a popular topic in country music songs. But on Sandra Boynton’s new CD, the tunes are less about love gone wrong, and more about the pain of taking a bath and putting away toys. Listen as Soundcheck talks with the popular children’s author and illustrator about what inspired her to work with country greats like Alison Krauss, Brad Paisley, Kacey Musgraves and Dwight Yoakam on her latest book and album project, Frog Trouble And Eleven Other Pretty Serious Songs.  

Summer is over. Well, not technically, but let's face it: sandy beaches, outdoor grilling, and sizzling pop singles are all behind us. But one thing gets better after Labor Day: the slate of hotly anticipated new albums. Music critic Tris McCall of the New Jersey Star-Ledger joins us with just-released records from indie icon Neko Case, epic yarnspinners Okkervil River and New Jersey gospel artist Tye Tribbett. Plus, we get a sneak preview of albums from rapper Drake, Kiwi sensation Lorde and the unsettling R&B singer known as The Weeknd.

In the new film "In A World..." screenwriter, director and actress Lake Bell offers a rare glimpse into the world of the movie trailer voiceover industry -- a field long dominated by men. The film, which blurs the line between fact and fiction, follows a vocal coach (played by Bell) who dreams of movie trailer stardom, and gets the chance to do so by following in the footsteps of real-life voiceover artist Don LaFontaine, who died in 2008.  Bell joins us in studio to talk about her early interest in human voices, why she has a problem with the "sexy baby voice" that so many women use, and the reason it's so darn fun to say "in a world...."      On her early interest in voices:  It starts with cartoons a little bit. You start to mimic and listen to these voices. I remember the first time someone told me that a certain character was played by a woman, even though the character was male -- for instance, Bart Simpson. That kind of blew my mind -- oh my goodness, you can be anyone. You aren't judged by what you look like. You can be anything.  On the lack of women in the movie trailer voiceover industry:  When it comes to the movie trailer industry, that's where i found a massive dearth of female voices. That is without hyperbole. There's virtually none.... I thought, that's an opportunity to playfully talk about a more real issue that is perhaps feminist.  On why women need to abandon what she calls "sexy baby voice":  It's not even saying the word "like," but it's insinuating it. It's insinuating like you're "less than" the rest of the world.... I feel that if you talk that way, and you're trying to achieve the goals in your life, perhaps you're doing yourself a great disservice by putting yourself in a section that is not the contenders. 

The annual three-day Electric Zoo festival, held on Randall’s Island in New York City, is a major event within the electronic dance music community. But this past weekend, the third and final day of the festival was cancelled following the deaths of two festival attendees. Although their causes of death haven’t yet been officially confirmed, the New York City’s Mayor’s Office stated that “both appear to have involved the drug MDMA (ecstasy, or molly).” Joining us to discuss the proliferation of the drug in popular culture is Kia Makarechi, entertainment editor for the Huffington Post, and Irina Aleksander, who wrote a piece for the New York Times about the drug MDMA earlier this year. 

With their long, scraggly beards, flashy coats, and matching top hats, the members of the band ZZ Top may be as well known for their appearance as for their music. But the group has also had the formula for barbecue-flavored blues pop down pat -- for more than forty years and counting. In fact, just last year the Rock and Roll Hall of Famers released their fifteenth studio album, called La Futura. Anna Bond recently wrote about her love for the band for eMusic in something she calls a “Skeptic’s Guide.” She joins us to explain. Interview Highlights Anna Bond, on becoming a ZZ Top fan: I've been a fan for a really long time. I'm a child of the music video era and I just remember finding them really funny and appealing in all their videos with the flashy cars and beards, making faces, and playing these furry guitars. I've just always been interested in them. Over the past few years I've been looking for something kind of great and driving to listen to at work. I started listening to ZZ Top and I started listening more deeply and realizing that they kind of have a lot to offer right now.  On why she geared her article towards "skeptics":  A lot of people became familiar with the band because of this heavy visual imagery that was kind of gimmicky. [They] kind of associate them with a sort of novelty. Especially in the '80s there were these southern rock "artists" with these one-hit wonders, a lot of people associate ZZ Top with that trend. Their career goes so much earlier and later and they really bring the kind of musicianship and the creativity to the table that a lot of folks just don't realize.  On ZZ Top's 2012 single "I Gotsa Get Paid":  This is the single from La Futura, the chorus is "25 lighters on my dresser/I gotsa get paid." That is a crib from a really famous classic Houston rap track by DJ DMD called "25 Lighters." They actually use the chorus and some of the lyrics. ZZ Top are from Houston, it's a classic Houston Hip Hop trip. Billy Gibbons tells stories of hanging out in the studio with The Geto Boys and the Cash Money crew. He just hangs out and takes his influences from whoever's around him. You can hear in the song it works perfectly.  

The hypnotic sounds of minimalism and EDM -- or, electronic dance music -- echo in the folk-influenced music of the Brooklyn-based Threefifty. Which is a little surprising, not because it's just two people -- Brett Parnell and Geremy Schulick -- but because it's a classical guitar duo. While both members are classically trained, these days they also travel with a lot of the same effects as their electric counterparts use. It allows ThreeFifty's expansive, yet delicate music fall more into the style that's come to be known as post-rock, recalling the sprawling and ruminative landscapes of Explosions In The Sky and Mogwai. Hear the duo perform live in the Soundcheck studio and check out its brand new video for the song "29."  

Our listener Geoffrey recently left us a voicemail posing an interesting question: who are the virtuosic keyboard players of today -- à la '70s prog rock heroes Keith Emerson or Rick Wakeman?  Stephen Fortner, editor-in-chief of Keyboard Magazine, joins us to help get to the bottom of our listener Geoffrey's question -- and to talk about the identity crisis that keyboards are facing today.    The Modern-Day Keyboard Landscape List, by Stephen Fortner: Hard rock, metal, and prog keyboardists, i.e. the "new Rick Wakemans and Keith Emersons": Jordan Rudess: Keyboard player in popular prog band DREAM THEATER, solo artist, and very active music evangelist and educator. Trained at Julliard but will rock your face off. Derek Sherinian: Main gig has been with Billy Idol since forever. Also Alice Cooper. Was also in Dream Theater in the beginning. His own hard rock and prog gigs include Planet X, and supergroup Black Country Communion, which also features Glenn Hughes, Joe Bonamassa, and Jason Bonham. Don Airey: Not exactly new but very undersung. Currently in the re-formed Deep Purple next to Steve Morse (of pioneering hard-fusion band the Dregs) on guitar. Did the synth-organ intro to Ozzy's "Mr. Crowley." Has played with a Who's Who of heavy metal acts. Adam Holzman: Miles Davis' keyboardist and musical director back when he was going electronic (albums like "Tutu") but has the other foot firmly planted in prog. Current project: Touring with prog rock icon Steven Wilson (Porcupine Tree). Adam Wakeman: Rick Wakeman's son, very talented keyboardist currently playing with Ozzy and Black Sabbath. Rami Jaffe: Though not known for hard rock in his main band the Wallflowers, he did do four tours with the Foo Fighters. Ryo Okumoto: Of the prog band Spock's Beard. Janne Warman: Of Children of Bodom, Finnish progressive metal band. Jens Johannson: Of Swedish band Stratovarius. Erik Norlander: American independent prog rock keyboardist. Main project: the Rocket Scientists. Tony Beliveau: Of the Crash Kings. Makes a Clavinet (the instrument known from Stevie Wonder's "Superstition") sound like a distorted wailing lead guitar.   Funk, fusion, rock, and pop "sidemen" and artists who don't get a lot of mainstream press, but are universally respected and envied by musicians:   Greg Phillinganes: Most recorded and hired session and touring keyboardist ever. Mike Garson: Not brand new, but lifelong career with David Bowie. Architect of the mind-blowing piano solo on "Aladdin Sane" and sought-after soloist and composer in his own right. Has worked extensively with Nine Inch Nails as well. Michael Bearden: Has played with Whitney, Madonna, J-Lo, Stevie. Most recently was musical director of Michael Jackson's planned "This Is It!" comeback concerts in London. Tim Carmon: Main gig is with Eric Clapton, but discography is all over the map. Accomplished producer and gospel musician as well. Scott Kinsey: Of Tribal Tech. Lisa Harriton: Longtime keyboardist in Smashing Pumpkins. Richard Hilton: Keyboardist in Chic, who've been enjoying a big resurgence in the wake of Nile Rodgers' collaboration with Daft Punk.   Other notables:  Kristeen Young: She's more in the "singer-songwriter" category, but her playing absolutely shreds. Her regular gig was opening for Morrissey. Emily Bear: She's 11 or 12 years old, and a definite keyboard virtuoso. Her playing caught the attention of Quincy Jones, and her first album, out on Concord, is called "Diversity." We're expecting great things from her in the years to come. Matt Wong: I first heard him at a studio party in San Francisco. Still a teen.  James Blake: More singer-songwriter than keyboard virtuoso. Hiromi (Uehara): She brings a prog-like element to jazz. Google her videos--her playing is insane! Jeff Lorber: Longtime pioneer of the jazz-fusion genre. Joey DeFranceso: De facto heir to the Jimmy Smith jazz organ throne. George Duke: Duke recently passed away, but was a godfather of multi-keyboarding, i.e. playing s

Ty Segall is practically impossible to keep up with. At only 26, the endlessly prolific garage rocker has been one of the most productive artists around, putting out more than 12 albums -- and even more if you count other bands he's affiliated with: Sic Alps, White Fence, and his new band Fuzz, to name a few. Last year alone, he released three records -- all of them excellent if you like your music loud, and filled with scuzzy riffs, catchy refrains, and bursts of noise. For most musicians, you might expect a break to refuel. But not Segall, who's back now with yet another new album under his own name, Sleeper.  Unlike last year's albums, Sleeper presents a new side of the Ty Segall we all know and love: The Bay Area-now-Los Angeles-based songwriter has dialed down the amps and the scorching guitar distortion for a surprisingly restrained, and mostly-acoustic collection of songs. Inspired and influenced by recent tragedies in his life -- his father's death and the subsequent falling out with his mother -- songs like "She Don't Care," "Crazy," and the title track are far darker and emotional than anything he’s done thus far.    For more photos, visit Soundcheck's Tumblr page. Set List: "Sleeper" "Sweet C.C." "Queen Lullabye"

The writer and filmmaker MK Asante has charted the history and politics of hip hop, told the story of Kwanza, and explored the power of poetry – all topics that are close to his heart. But his latest work is his most personal yet -- it’s a memoir called Buck. In the book, MK Asante tells the story of his hardscrabble childhood in Philadelphia, or as he puts, it, "Killadelphia, Pistolvania." With his brother in jail, his mother in a mental institution, and a frequently absentee or distracted dad, a young Asante learns to fend for himself – and find his place.Throughout, the lyric and language of hip hop just bursts off the page. Interview Highlights MK Asante, on the beginnings of this memoir: I wrote this recently, but some parts of it began a long time ago. "The fall in Killadelphia" was one of the first lines I wrote when I was [in high school] and that became the beginning of the book. But there was an incredible distance between when I wrote that, and the beginnings of the memoir. Because it took a while to come back to that. On the hip hop lyrics that are found throughout the book: Hip hop has always been a soundtrack to my life -- everybody I know growing up, we have what we call hip hop Tourettes. That means that we're just chillin', doing something, chopping onions, walking to the store, and we're just going to be spitting lyrics out, they just jump out of us at random times we can't control it. That was a realistic thing for me then -- and even now -- that I wanted that to be a part of the story. So I tried to find lyrics and songs that I listened to then. Those songs, from your childhood -- you don't forget them. It was easy to revisit those lyrics and put them in the book. On the meaning of "Buck": "Buck" is one of those words that's just loaded. And I wanted a book that smacks you in the face, enough said. But it's one word that has so many more meanings. We call each other "Young Buck" in Philly. There's the derogatory term for slaves: "Black Bucks." There's to make a buck, which my book talks about. There's two buck shots in the air, which is to shoot. There's to go buck wild, which definitely happens in this book. But what "Buck" really is about for me, is bucking the system, going against the grain. Not falling into the traps. To me being a true rebel isn't about going to jail and those kinds of things. Those things are stereotypical. Being a real buck is going against the status quo and carving your own path. So for me "Buck" represents everything.   Hear MK Asante on a track with Talib Kweli and Ras Kass:   Watch the trailer for the book:

Our series That Was a Hit?!? is all about improbable chart success -- generally, of a single song that unexpectedly rose to the top. Today, music writer Chris Molanphy joins us to talk about trumpeter Herb Alpert, whose entire career full of surprises. The incredibly successful musician and record label founder ruled the 1960's with five No. 1 albums -- second only to The Beatles. By the end of the '70s, Alpert had scored two No. 1 hits on the Billboard Top 20: "This Guy's In Love With You" (with the Tijuana Brass) and "Rise." 

"Bubbly" might be the best way to describe Goldspot’s brand of electro-pop. But it also has another meaning: Siddartha Khosla, the singer-songwriter behind the band, adopted the name from a popular sugary orange soft drink he drank growing up between the U.S. and India. The pop band’s new album, Aerogramme, is packed with memories — and musical influences — of a childhood in two continents.  

Oscar-nominated filmmaker Morgan Spurlock is best known for his 2004 film Super Size Me -- you know, the one where he almost kills himself by eating McDonalds three times a day for a month. So it might surprise you to learn that his latest project is in an entirely new direction -- One Direction, to be specific. Spurlock joins us to talk about why he jumped at the chance to direct the new concert movie This Is Us about the British boy band One Direction, which opens nationwide on Friday.    Morgan Spurlock, on his decision to direct This Is Us: It was one of those opportunities when I got a call from the studio, and they said, “Would you like to make a film with this band?” Here they are, one of the biggest bands in the world. In the film, you see them explode into this massive, global phenomenon. I was like, “This is too great of an opportunity not to tell this story.”   On One Direction defying traditional stereotypes of boy bands: These guys were a lot of fun. They have a great sense of humor. They don’t take themselves too seriously. I tell people all the time that they are like the anti-boy-band boy band. They don’t dress in the same clothes, they don’t do dance routines. They’ve been a bit against the grain from the beginning when it comes to what people would expect from them, and I think that’s what makes them popular. I think that people like the fact that they haven’t bought into all that.   On the repercussions of making a film about One Direction: I’ve listened to more One Direction in the past year than probably any man in his forties ever should or will. And it’s one of the things where once it gets in your head, it’s there forever. I find myself waking up [singing it], I find myself singing when I’m walking down the street [and] in the gym…. I have not had a night’s sleep where I haven’t dreamt about this band in probably about 10 months.  

The sacrifices we make -- or don’t make -- for music and art is the subject of a new book from Lori Carson, a singer and songwriter and onetime member of The Golden Palominos. In her debut novel, The Original 1982, the main character, named Lisa Nelson, faces an important choice in her life -- whether to become a mother. But because it's fiction, she gets to live parallel life stories: in one, she stays childless and follows a musical path -- in the other her muse is motherhood itself. It’s a story that’s close to Lori Carson's heart, and she joins us to discuss. Lori Carson, on how closely the book reflects her own life: Every part of the story is actually a rewrite of my own history. The musical stuff didn’t happen the way it happens in the book. Obviously, I never had a child. In this story, Lisa [Nelson], my alter ego, is very distraught over the fact that she has not had a child. I’m more ambivalent. In choosing to tell this specific story, it becomes fictionalized in my mind, even if some of the things are close to my literal history. On making her song “Still True” into a big hit for her protagonist Lisa Nelson: I always thought that it could be a big song, but I never recorded it the way that it should have been recorded. The only way it’s ever been recorded was on a sloppy record of demos that I put out called House in the Weeds, which has this awful bridge in it. But I was able to fictionalize it in my story, and it becomes Lisa Nelson’s big hit song…. It was fun to play with that. On music, motherhood and the parallel lives explored in the book: If I could somehow live two lives, as Lisa Nelson does, I would also have a child. It’s such a rich thing — regret. Because yes, I really regret not having a child. At the same time, I know it was probably the right choice for me.  

Pure Bathing Culture makes the kind of winsome, crystalline pop songs steeped in a hazy past remembered only through hissy VHS home movies that have been played a few too many times. With its debut album Moon Tides, the Portland, Ore. duo -- Sarah Versprille and Daniel Hindman, formerly of Vetiver -- worked with producer Richard Swift to evoke a sound capturing the sun-dappled 1970’s cuddle rock, commercial radio pop of '80s, and the alluring and wobbly melodies of artists like Kate Bush or Cocteau Twins. Yet it's a record that filters those pristine, high-end influences through lo-fi production sounds: thrift shop drum machines, reverbed guitar arpeggios and shimmering keyboards that seem to dissipate into the ether. Still, with heart-aching three-minute gems like “Pendulum” and “Only Lonely Lovers,” Pure Bathing Culture proves adept at rendering those nostalgic moods into something timeless and earnest. Pure Bathing Culture drops by the Soundcheck studio to perform some of Moon Tides' sweet and wistful pop songs.     Set List: "Dream The Dare" "Pendulum" "Twins"  

From an early age, the multiple Grammy-winning musician Ricky Skaggs knew he was going to play music. A he tells it in his new memoir, Kentucky Traveler: My Life In Music, the country and bluegrass star picked up a mandolin at just 5 years old. By the time he was in his teens, he was traveling and playing with some of biggest names in bluegrass. Since then, he’s won fourteen Grammy awards -- and has topped the US country charts over and again. But in recent years, he’s gone back to his first love: bluegrass. He discusses his family’s long Southern lineage, his prodigious childhood, and his many collaborations, including his latest album with Bruce Hornsby. Interview Highlights Ricky Skaggs, on tracing his family history back to the 18th Century: They were hunters. They sold their goods. Henry Skaggs did well just selling hides and stuff. [In the] 1760’s and ‘70s, [the Skaggs family traveled] into Kentucky, into Tennessee. They were actually through the Gap before [Daniel] Boone came through in the ‘70s. He was a Henry Skaggs wannabe.   On his desire to instill a knowledge for bluegrass history in young musicians: My heart so beats for young kids to know what I know. I want to pass that along. I want to pass that down. That’s important to me, to do that. I want them to go back to the same well that I went to because that well is there. And thank goodness for iTunes…. If you want to know about bluegrass, go back and listen.   On learning how to become a bandleader after backing Emmylou Harris:   I don’t know if it was confidence or the maturity. Something had changed there…. I go from Emmylou, from a band member, now to a frontman. I gotta front my own show. That was not an easy thing either: learning how to emcee, learning to carry a band and do all that kind of stuff, [after] having everything done for me in Emmylou’s band.   Watch a 7-year-old Ricky Skaggs perform with Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs on the Martha White Show (1961):