Soundcheck

In this episode: Author Colum McCann has followed up on the success of his post-9/11 novel Let the Great World Spin with the equally fascinating novel TransAtlantic. It zigzags through centuries of time and blurs the lines between fact and fiction. He tells us about the music that he listens to while writing (ranging from Irish rock band Thin Lizzy to Argentinian pianist Martha Argerich), a racy album cover from his youth that he turned inside out, and music from Dexys Midnight Runners that name-checks a number of writers, including McCann's own father.  Soundcheck Writers Club - Colum McCann George Boziwick, Music Division Chief of The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, joins us to share a recommended reading list of musician biographies, histories and reference guides.  NYPL's Recommended Reading Since George Saunders' 1996 writing debut, he’s become known for his short stories, his distinctive use of language, and an intriguing blend of the horrific and the humorous. His latest collection is called Tenth of December. He joins us in the studio to share some of his favorite songs, tell us about his time in a jazz fusion band, and explain how his new book is like a concept album. Soundcheck Writers Club - George Saunders

Soundcheck Writers Club is a week-long series showcasing some of our favorite interviews with novelists and writers who are inspired by music, and musicians who are inspired by literature.  In this episode: Khaled Hosseini -- the bestselling author of The Kite Runner and the new book And the Mountains Echoed -- talks about one of his favorite musicians of all time: Ahmad Zahir, the so-called “Elvis of Afghanistan.” Soundcheck Writers Club: Khaled Hosseini Plus: The musician Patti Smith won the National Book Award in 2010 for her memoir Just Kids, about her friendship with the artist Robert Mapplethorpe. Today, she talks about her latest album, Banga, which takes its name from a character in the Mikhail Bulgakov novel The Master and Margarita. Soundcheck Writers Club: Patti Smith And: Singer-songwriter Martha Redbone, known for her interpretations of Native American culture, combines the Americana sounds of her Kentucky roots with the poetry of English poet William Blake.  Soundcheck Writers Club: Martha Redbone Also: Jonathan Lethem, who chronicled New York stories in Fortress of Solitude, Motherless Brooklyn and Chronic City, talks about the music essays in his collection The Ecstasy of Influence. Soundcheck Writers Club: Jonathan Lethem  

Soundcheck Writers Club is a week-long series showcasing some of our favorite interviews with novelists and writers who are inspired by music, and musicians who are inspired by literature.  In this episode: Pulitzer Prize-winning author Junot Diaz (The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, This Is How You Lose Her,) joins us to share a Pick Three, including tracks from the rapper Le1f, reggae poet Linton Kwesi Johnson and Cuban artist Celina Gonzalez.  Soundcheck Writers Club: Junot Diaz Another Pulitzer Prize winner, Jennifer Egan, discusses her novel A Visit From the Goon Squad, a decades-long story about rock music, youth and aging.  Soundcheck Writers Club: Jennifer Egan Author Nick Hornby and singer-songwriter Ben Folds collaborated on an album called Lonely Avenue a few years back. We hear about how they came to work together, and Ben Folds performs a track from the album live in the studio.  Soundcheck Writers Club: Nick Hornby and Ben Folds Chef, restaurant owner and web video series host Eddie Huang  joins us in The Greene Space to talk about hip hop and his recently released memoir, called Fresh Off the Boat. Soundcheck Writers Club: Eddie Huang

Soundcheck Writers Club is a week-long series showcasing some of our favorite interviews with novelists and writers who are inspired by music, and musicians who are inspired by literature.  In this episode: The title of Ian Rankin’s latest crime novel, Standing in Another Man’s Grave, was inspired by a misheard song lyric. He explains and weighs in with three of his favorite songs in a Pick Three, singing the praises of his fellow Scotsmen Django Django. Soundcheck Writers Club: Ian Rankin Plus: Singer, songwriter, and producer Lyla Foy performs has a new project: Wall. She performs in the studio.

A new book called “Daily Rituals: How Artists Work" offers a glimpse into the mundane daily lives of some of the world's most productive and creative people, from Mozart to John Updike to Maya Angelou. Author Mason Currey shares some of the habits held by musicians and composers -- from drug use to rigid writing timetables -- and guest host (and singer-songwriter) Erin McKeown talks about her own creative schedule.  Do you have certain habits or routines that aid your creativity? Leave us a voicemail at 866 939 1612, or write a comment below.  Mason Currey, on whether he noticed any creative similarities/differences by field:  "I did notice some similarities between writers and composers having a harder time disciplining themselves to the desk for long periods," he tells us. "A lot of their routines seem to be about figuring out ways to avoid procrastination and blocks and get that time in every day." On whether he was surprised at how rigid some artists' routines are:  "There are a lot of people who really did treat their creative activity like a 9-5 day job. They needed that structure in order to get to work every day, otherwise they would never get down to it." On whether a case can be made for or against creativity aided by external substances:  "If you were going to make a case for anything, it would be for coffee -- that comes up over and over and over in the book. Beethoven believed that the perfect cup of coffee had 60 coffee beans, and he would count them out one by one for the precise dose in the morning before getting started at his work. I think some of it is actually the ritual of making the coffee as much as the actual caffeine -- it gets you into this mood or state of mind."  On Louis Armstrong's dependency on various drugs:  He was a lifelong pot smoker and he was hooked on all these strange herbal remedies. He had this special salve that he would apply to his lips before a show, and he was hooked on this herbal laxative called Swiss Kriss -- which I think is still on the market today -- he would take it religiously before and after shows. He even recommended it to all his friends, and had this really bizarre postcard printed up to give to friends of himself sitting on the toilet with the slogan 'Leave It All Behind Ya!'"

The Handsome Family -- led by the husband and wife duo of Brett and Rennie Sparks -- have been making their idiosyncratic Americana for more than twenty years.  Over the course of ten albums, they’ve sung murder ballads, myths and tales of historical figures, like Amelia Earhart and Nikola Tesla. Above all, they’re storytellers. Now, for their latest album, called Wilderness, the band has taken a journey into all things wild -- with every song named after an animal. The Handsome Family joins guest host Erin McKeown to play songs from the new album. See them play on Saturday June 29th at The Knitting Factory.  Set List: • Octopus • Woodpecker • Owls

In this episode: Guest host and musician Erin McKeown discusses the daily routines and schedules of artists like George Gershwin, Steve Reich, Gertrude Stein and Ludwig van Beethoven with author Mason Currey, whose new book is called "Daily Rituals: How Artists Work."  Plus: Writer and so-called "Sabbathologist" Steve Smith gives Erin McKeown a lesson in Black Sabbath 101, after the band's new album 13 was the number one album in the country last week.  And: The Handsome Family -- led by the husband and wife duo of Brett and Rennie Sparks -- have been making their idiosyncratic Americana for more than twenty years.  The band visits us in the studio to play songs from their latest album, called Wilderness.

Heavy metal band Black Sabbath had the number one album in the country last week with their new release, called 13. But before today, singer-songwriter and guest host Erin McKeown  had never heard Black Sabbath. "I grew up in a pop culture hole," McKeown says. "Anything before 1996 I didn't hear. So first it was out of ignorance that I never heard Black Sabbath. Now it's out of will!" Time Out New York music editor and so-called "Sabbathologist" Steve Smith gets McKeown up to speed. McKeown on the song "Black Sabbath" by Black Sabbath from the 1970 record Black Sabbath: Honestly, listening to it, I'm surprised by how much space there is. When I expect heavy metal I think of [riffs] that never stop. McKeown on "Iron Man" from 1970 album Paranoid: My impression of that is of a thousand young men in their basements practicing that drum entry. And certainly, in all of the guitar shops I've been to in my lifetime I've heard that guitar riff before. This is one of those songs that's in the pop culture air...

Soundcheck's conversation about sports on stage continues as guest host Erin McKeown is joined by two of the people who have helped adapt these stories for the theater: Thomas Kail and D.J. Sparr. Kail directed two Broadway shows about sports: Lombardi, about Green Bay Packers coach Vince Lombardi, and Magic-Bird, about the special relationship between basketball stars Magic Johnson and Larry Bird. He was also nominated for a Tony for his work on In the Heights. Sparr composed the music for the new opera Approaching Ali, about one writer’s friendship with boxer Muhammad Ali. The production was recently staged at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. They discuss their firsthand experiences putting on shows about sports. Thomas Kail, on the similarities between sports and theater: I think there’s a reason why we all get obsessed with the Olympics. And it’s mostly because of those two minute packages they roll when we find out where they're from or what they did or what they overcame. And then we’re weeping and we’re cheering for a sport we’ve never heard of. What I’ve found also as someone who came from playing sports — I played soccer and baseball my whole life — is there was an understanding of community that I had that brought me to the theater. Directing and coaching had a lot in common. D.J. Sparr, on incorporating ideas from football coaching into his composing: I listen to many interviews of football coaches and how they manage their teams. In some ways, the composer is sort of like a coach in that you’re providing a playbook. There’s a pretty good parallel there. An offensive coordinator would give a playbook to his players. I give a musical score, and then that’s interpreted…. Since I love college football so much, anything I can do to relate that to my job as a composer is important. Kail, on why sports stories are so gripping to theatergoers: As a sports fan who watches every sports movie that comes out and tries to see as much theater that’s related to sports, I know what can pull you out of a story…. [Lombardi] was about the pursuit of excellence and the cost of excellence. That was fundamentally a play about a relationship set in the world of football, told with authenticity. I think that’s where people found their way in, whether they’ve seen a game or not.  

At first glance, sports and theater might seem incompatible. For example, a player in the NBA can actually be penalized for theatrics. Miami Heat forward Chris Bosh felt the full weight of that policy during the NBA Finals this year. After he pretended to get hit on a play and drew a foul, the league retroactively fined him $5,000 for his flop. No one will get fined for bringing athletic prowess into a theater, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy to turn big games and big athletes into stage dramas, musicals, and operas. David Cote, theater editor of Time Out New York, joins Soundcheck guest host Erin McKeown to talk about some of the sports stories that have been adapted for the stage. David Cote, on why sports tend to work as subjects in the theater It’s sort of an exotic world that theater folk might not necessarily know that much about. I don’t want to make any judgments of course — there’s plenty of people who love baseball and Stephen Sondheim, probably. But I think that when you bring sports into the theater, it’s like, “What is this world?” It’s very visual. There’s a lot of kinetic movement — there’s a lot of costuming and movement. I think it inherently works on stage as a spectacle. On ROCKY, a musical adaptation of the classic Sylvestor Stallone film, arriving on Broadway in 2014: How do you stage a boxing match without killing your actors every week? I was talking to [Rocky director Alex Timbers] about it recently, and he was saying that he and choreographer Steven Hoggett have come up with a full-contact choreography for the fights. Meaning that the actors actually make contact, but they’re not hitting each other, if that makes any sense. It’s highly coordinated, it’s highly safe I guess, but it’s realistic. On bear-baiting, a blood sport that was the main competitor to the theater in Shakespeare’s time: You take a bear and you chain it to the center of a ring and then you set some dogs on it. And occasionally, for extra fun, you tie a monkey to its head. And the Elizabethans loved this! It was either, “Do I go see Julius Caesar or do I go see the bear get torn apart by dogs?” It was a culture of contradictions, you could say.   Watch the trailer for ROCKY below:  

Cécile McLorin Salvant dazzled judges at the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Vocalist competition in 2010. Now, three years later, she's released her debut solo album, called WomanChild. It's a carefully chosen yet effortlessly humorous collection that includes a few standards, a few of her own compositions, and lots of relatively uncovered gems from the 20th century.  Cécile joins us in the studio to perform live and to talk with guest host Erin McKeown about her passion for digging up weird and wonderful jazz.  Set list:  Nobody If This Isn't Love I Didn't Know What Time It Was

In this episode: In 2010, Cecile McLorin Salvant won the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Vocals Competition. She joins us to sing a few songs from her new album, Woman Child.  Plus: The lives of athletes have become the raw material for new plays, musicals, and operas. Time Out New York's David Cote talks with guest host, songwriter Erin McKeown, about sports on stage, including — no joke — a musical adaptation of the classic boxing movie Rocky. And: We hear from Thomas Kali, director of the NBA drama Magic/Bird, and D.J. Sparr, who composed the music for Approaching Ali, an opera about the boxer Muhammad Ali.

The last time Studio 360’s Kurt Andersen appeared on Soundcheck, he spoke with host John Schaefer to highlight his show's "Remixing Spring" listener challenge. Andersen is back on Soundcheck, but this time in the host's chair for while John is on vacation, and he's taking the opportunity to tell listeners about Studio 360's latest listener challenge: The Battle of the High School Bands. Here's the gist: The program is asking musicians and lapsed musicians alike to dial up an aural time machine back to their teen years, and share the songs they recorded while high school. Or, if they're still in high school, listeners can send in their latest and greatest tracks. One lucky band will have its song covered by "Battle" judges, party rocker Andrew W.K. and indie pop musician Thao Nguyen. Andrew W.K. joins Andersen to run down a few highlights from the hundred-plus entries so far. Then, we speak with two young musicians about their high school bands: Recently-graduated high school senior and drummer Rex Detiger of the band Fly Baby, and rising ninth-grader and guitarist Sofia D’Angelo of The Sectionals. Plus, pop rock singer-songwriter Ben Folds shares some stories and a little knowledge from about his own experience playing music in high school.  Hear some of the entries from Studio 360's "Battle of the High School Bands" listener challenge.   Wakovia Bank Robbers, "Lucky Cloud" (2002)   True Romance, "Tongue Tied" (1979)   Bea, Rita & Maeve, "The River" (2011)   The Orphans, "Fourth Dimension" (1981*)   *Note: "Fourth Dimension" was written in 1981 but was actually recorded 25 years later during a brief reunion.

Ten years ago, Carla Bruni released her debut album, Quelqu'un m'a dit. It topped the charts in countries across Europe and South America, surprising critics who were skeptical of the former supermodel's career move. Bruni worked on two more albums before surprising the world yet again -- this time, when she married French president Nicolas Sarkozy in 2008.   Soundcheck guest host Kurt Andersen talks with the former First Lady of France about her fourth album, Little French Songs, released earlier this year -- and she performs a bilingual live set in the studio. 

In this episode: Soundcheck guest host Kurt Andersen (host of Studio 360) talks high school rockers, as part of Studio 360’s ongoing Battle of the High School Bands. One of the contest judges, musician Andrew W.K., reviews recordings submitted by high school bands -- both recent and not so recent. And, Kurt talks with members of two currently active high school bands, Fly Baby and The Sectionals — and we hear from singer-songwriter and pianist Ben Folds about his high school band. Plus: We hear a live performance from Carla Bruni. The singer, model, and former first lady of France joins us to perform in our studio.