Soundcheck

Stanley Jordan is a jazz guitarist and pianist -- but unlike most musicians, he often plays both at the same time. A major figure in the jazz world since his album Magic Touch was released by Blue Note in 1985, Jordan first became known for his mastery of the two-handed tapping technique on the guitar. But that same technique also allows for one-handed playing, and now Jordan often brings his guitar over to the piano, where he plays both instruments simultaneously.  Hear Jordan and his trio perform live in the Soundcheck studio.  Web Extra: Stanley Jordan - I Kissed A Girl (Katy Perry cover)     For more photos, visit Soundcheck's Tumblr page.

Like many teenage girls, discovering Madonna was a big deal for Soniah Kamal. It was a really big deal – especially because it was forbidden. That’s because Soniah was born in Pakistan to a Muslim family. She spent her formative years in Saudi Arabia, where Madonna was not an acceptable example for a young woman. Kamal, whose debut novel is out next year, wrote about her experiences in an essay for the book Madonna and Me: Women Writers on the Queen of Pop. She talks with us from her home in Atlanta, Georgia.

From the very beginning Madonna has embraced an ever shifting fashion sense, one that has changed pretty dramatically over the years. It’s safe to say she’s not only a pop icon -- she’s a style icon too. Simon Doonan -- writer, fashion commentator and Creative Ambassador-at-Large for Barneys -- joins us to discuss the Material Girl’s influence on fashion. His newest book is called The Asylum: A Collage of Couture Reminiscences ... and Hysteria. Interview Highlights:  Simon Doonan on Madonna becoming the 'Material Girl':  Madonna is like an incredible patron saint for fashion. That's really a function of timing. Right from the get-go she was very concerned with her look. She started performing in the '80s and the '80s was the era of post-modernism. What Madonna did very carefully was model herself on style archetypes meticulously. On the fashion in Madonna's music videos:  Madonna had a really good sense of who was the groovy stylist. She also has her own innate sense of style. So it's a combination of having an innate sense of a style and a passion for self-presentation and then knowing who was the groovy person to call who would have a sense on how to put it together for her. Madonna always had that old school movie studio meticulousness that you hear about.    On the statement being made by Madonna's ever-changing fashion: I once created an homage to Madonna in the windows at Barney's. It was called "The Mesmerizing Mistress of Perpetual Reinvention." We had her as a sort of sideshow. She's Frida Kahlo, Evita, Marilyn -- she inhabited all of these archetypes. That was her thing, finding a new one and transforming herself. There's a lot of Madonnas to love, you can take your pick. 

As we look back at Madonna's 30 year music career this week, we want you share your "Madonna Moment." Tell us about a moment in your life that was affected in some way by Madonna or her music. Leave a comment here, or call and leave us a voicemail: 866 939 1612. 

Many songwriters reflect upon and romanticize times and places from their past, and often cannot let go. For Okkervil River's Will Sheff, the time is 1986, and the place is Meriden, N.H., a small town where he spent his childhood. And while he and his band have gone on to live elsewhere -- Austin, Texas or Brooklyn -- not to mention tour all over, Sheff has apparently kept Meriden close to his heart. With Okkervil River's seventh album, The Silver Gymnasium, Sheff mines his experiences and cultural references of that time -- not only in autobiographical details about the setting, but in the musical sounds of the era. The record sets Sheff's distinctive quavering voice with elements of '80s rock he grew up on. The result is yet another ambitious high-concept Okkervil River album that allows us a glimpse into the songwriter's life.       For more photos, visit Soundcheck's Tumblr page. Okkervil River also commissioned an interactive map of Meriden, complete with details about the area and his life. Set List: "It's My Season" "Down Down The Deep River" "Stay Young"

Thirty years ago, in 1983, Sire Records put out a debut album by a little known club dancer and singer named -- you guessed it -- Madonna. Obviously, we know now that this was a pretty good move. But back then, it was the label’s chairman and co-founder, Seymour Stein, who took a chance on this fledgling young artist. In an interview with Soundcheck host John Schaefer, Stein talks about how he discovered and signed Madonna, and her early days as a recording artist.    Interview Highlights: Seymour Stein, on first listening to Madonna's demo:  I was in hospital at the time with an infection in my heart. It was the early days of the Walkman, and I was listening to music constantly, and I heard the demo of "Everybody," and it blew me away.  On Madonna visiting him in the hospital, hoping to sign a contract:  I could tell right away, she couldn't have cared if I was laying in the bed in a coffin, as long as I could sign a contract. She was as anxious to see me and get herself started as I was to see her. That was very very impressive to me.  On Warner Bros.' initial reaction to his efforts to sign Madonna:  I was shocked that I had a lot of opposition at Warner Bros. from the very top -- from Mo Ostin, who was the chairman of the company, and also from their head lawyer at the time, David Berman -- they didn't hear it at all. Fortunately, I reached out for support from the head of international at Warner's, Nesuhi Ertegun... and he said, whatever it costs, we'll pay it. I knew right away that Madonna not only would be big in America, but probably even bigger outside of America.  On when he really knew that Madonna would be a big success:  I remember when we put out "Borderline"... listening to that record, it sent shivers up my spine. I knew from that day on there was no turning back. If you can believe this, some people ask me... when I met her in the hospital room, that I knew that young woman would be the Madonna that she became. And of course I didn't. I knew she was great. I knew that she had drive and great talent. But it was "Borderline," that song, the fourth single, that I knew there was no looking back. Just clear the decks. 

The Swedish duo Icona Pop had a big hit with their summery anthem “I Love It.” But its new single (er, not so new single), "My Party," might sound familiar. The song is an updated version of the classic 1963 song “It’s My Party” by Lesley Gore. Strangely enough, this is hardly the first time that the classic hit has showed up in recent pop songs. Jody Rosen, pop music critic for New York Magazine, discusses the song that just keeps showing up.    Jody Rosen, on what the original 1963 version of “It’s My Party” such a classic song: The thing about that’s so indelible is that it’s just this kind of timeless bubblegum anthem. It’s got that teen melodrama narrative. In the verses, the girl is hosting a party and her boyfriend leaves with another girl…. That hook, that chorus is just fantastic, both because it’s very catchy, but it’s also so classically melodramatic and sort of kitschy. On the brilliance of the song’s hook (“It’s my party...”): There are many, many songs which — because of sampling and hip hop’s endless cannibalizing of the pop song book — have come back in the form of a break beat or a melodic or rhythmic riff. This is a song where it’s the lyric. It’s that one lyric which is really returning time and time again. It just speaks to the fact that those songwriters, they hit on something.     On the power of pop culture to recycle references from generation to generation: I wonder about how many teenagers or young people who are downloading [Miley Cyrus’s summer hit “We Can’t Stop”] who have heard “It’s My Party.” Maybe the percentage is relatively low. But it’s something about the way pop culture works. Maybe that lyric or that idea has filtered by osmosis through the culture so much that they kind of get the reference even if they don’t know the original. 

You might not know Butch Walker’s name, but you certainly know his sound: The singer, songwriter, and producer has worked with some of the biggest hit-makers of the last decade, including Pink, Katy Perry, Weezer, and Keith Urban. You can find his work on the charts right now -- he produced the recent Taylor Swift song “Everything Has Changed,” featuring Ed Sheeran, and he co-wrote and produced Fall Out Boy’s “My Songs Know What You Did in the Dark (Light Em Up).” But although Butch Walker spends much of his time behind the scenes, he’s led his own bands for more than twenty years. A new documentary, Butch Walker: Out of Focus, sheds light on Butch Walker the frontman. He's also set to release a new EP, Peachtree Battle. Walker talks about the documentary film, his new EP, and crafting pop hits for a living.   Interview Highlights Butch Walker, on following his true passion — making his own music: Honestly — and I know it sounds kind of silly for me to say — I love making the money from [writing and producing], but I don’t care about it as much as I care about making music… I think a lot of people that don’t know that might think, “Oh, that’s funny, you sing too?” I heard that so many times of the last ten years. People saying, “You do your own music?” Like they’re really surprised. On writing songs that aren't necessarily pop hits: [My fans] really like the narrative. They like the storytelling. And to me, it’s always been about that. My favorite songwriters were that way. You didn’t look at a Tom Waits catalog or look at a Dylan catalog or even Springsteen’s vast catalog and say that all these were hits, because they weren’t.     On the separation between his own material and the songs he writes for others: If I’m going to write a song that’s, say, loosely based on a fishing trip with my father when I was young, you’re not just going to go pitch that to Katy Perry. It’s not going to work. I respect the distance between those two, and it doesn’t mean that I didn’t grow up on AM and FM radio, because I did. That’s why I embrace pop music and I embrace working on it for other people. But I just think for my own [music], I don’t get that much satisfaction by making a super simple [song].

Actor Harry Dean Stanton has done a lot in his 50-year acting career: He revolutionized Hollywood’s expectations of what a leading role could be in the 1984 film Paris, Texas, served as a kind of coked-up nihilist Yoda to Emilio Estevez in Repo Man, came to a bad end in the movie Alien, and sang an old folk song to Paul Newman in Cool Hand Luke.  It turns out that singing plays more than just a bit part in the life of Harry Dean Stanton.  The new documentary, Harry Dean Stanton: Partly Fiction, is frequently punctuated by performances by the actor, featuring his voice, harmonica-playing, and even strums a little bit of guitar. Soundcheck host John Schaefer coaxes a couple of live performances from the Hollywood legend and discusses a life lived on the silver screen.   Interview Highlights Harry Dean Stanton, on performing music from a very young age: I used to sing when I was six years old. When the family would leave the house, I’d get up on the stool and sing. “T for Texas, T for Tenessee, T for Thelma, the gal that made a wreck out of me.” I was in love with my babysitter. She was 18. I was six. On whether he regrets not pursuing music as a career: Regrets are [somewhat] unhealthy…. If I do get in [an] unhealthy state, I regret not following my musical career more. I’ve had chances to record albums, which I haven’t done. And I’ve sung with a lot of great people: [Kris] Kristofferson, Joan Baez, Bob Dylan. On how he convinced Kris Kristofferson to take the starring role in the film Cisco Pike: The director comes running out and says, “I want you to scare [Kris].” Now he’s a boxer, a helicopter driver, all-American hero, and I’m supposed to scare him. So I see a beer bottle over in the corner, he knocks open the door, I break the beer bottle on the knob of the door, and I grab him by the shirt and put it under his chin. He was scared.

The story of the Beatles is a familiar one: Four mop-topped lads from Liverpool cut their teeth in Hamburg, jumped across the pond to win the hearts of Americans on The Ed Sullivan Show, and basically changed music forever. There’s way more to that tale, of course — and it seems like every narrative has already been told a million times over. But now, a new documentary, Good Ol’ Freda, tells the little-known story of the Beatles’ secretary, Freda Kelly. She was a teenager who also hailed from Liverpool and met the band by chance. But that coincidence ended up being an act of fate — Kelly worked as the Fab Four’s secretary and ran their fan club for over a decade. Freda Kelly and director Ryan White join us in the studio. The film opens in New York at Sunshine Cinema tomorrow.   Interview Highlights Freda Kelly, on why it has taken so long for her story to emerge: I [have] had offers over the years, but I just didn’t want to do them. I just wanted to live my life as normal, as I did. But then when my grandson came along, my daughter started talking to me and other people, and I thought, “Well, before the memory box goes, I better put something down for [my grandson].” Ryan White, on getting permission to use four Beatles songs in the movie: It was from the very beginning: “This is going to be impossible. No one gets Beatles music.” But I wasn’t just going to throw the towel in…. It’s a total testament to Freda that record executives would take my phone calls. It’s a testament to the way Freda lived her life that time after time, we kept getting “yeses.” Kelly, on her final letter to the Beatles fan club and reminiscing during the film’s interviews: It actually made me sad, reading it this time, because I hadn’t read it for years… But once I started talking, [Ryan] must have had a nightmare with me. Because I’d tell a tale, and then while I’m telling a tale, I’d remember another one. One tale opened another memory box.

Deer Tick's alt-country sound takes on a darker, almost punk edge in their new album. Its title, Negativity, is both a warning and a lure. While the record doesn’t drop until Sept 24, the band recently premiered its first single, “The Curtain." It’s stripped down, but that minimalism engenders a huge sound, all propelled by the crunch of a bluesy and melodic slide guitar riff.    Deer Tick plays Brooklyn Bowl on Friday, September 13, where they will perform Nirvana’s In Utero in its entirety. The band also plays Detroit’s Majestic Theatre on Friday, October 11.

Award-winning Haitian-American novelist and MacArthur Fellow Edwidge Danticat returns with a new novel, Claire of the Sea Light. The book, set in a seaside town in Haiti, centers around a young girl named Claire. Claire’s mother died in childbirth, and her fisherman father hopes to give her a better life — by sending her to live with a local, successful shop-keeper. Before he can make a decision, she disappears. Edwidge Danticat talks about the characters that populate her new book, the musicality of everyday life -- and she shares a playlist of songs.     Edwidge Danticat's "Pick Three":   Martha Jean Claude - "Nostalgie Haitienne"   My parents left Haiti, my father when I was two, my mother when I was four, and we had a lot of letters back and forth, cassettes, phone calls. So there was a lot [of] the parent, dreaming of every way to fill that gap, and you’re the child receiving it. Just as Claire’s dad [in Claire of the Sea Light] feels like he has to go abroad to work. So it’s a situation that unfortunately a lot of parents and children find themselves in, and that really resonates so strongly in this song as well.   Coupe Cloue - "Azoukinking"   When you get here from Haiti, you get a set of rules about la vie New York [“life in New York”]. And so this husband, or the man of this woman, is telling her about la vie New York, and it’s not the same as in Haiti, where you were azoukinking, you were all fancy. But it’s like, “Here, you really have to work hard, lady!” That’s basically what he’s telling her.   Emeline Michel - "Mesi Lavi" It brings us to this post-earthquake moment, this moment of looking back, but also a moment of gratitude…. It’s really saying, “Thank you for my breath. Thank you for my life.” It’s a song about gratitude, about the people who have survived this extraordinary moment of our history — but at the same time acknowledging the fact that we have lost people.

It used to be that popularity in music could be measured by the Billboard chart. These days, pinpointing success for a song or album isn’t quite so simple. In “What It Means to Be Popular (When Everything is Popular),” The New York Times Magazine's culture editor Adam Sternbergh recently explored how we determine what is popular, and the new and slippery definitions of what popularity means. Interview Highlights Adam Sternbergh, on why we might need to rethink the definition of popularity: Certainly, there’s one way of looking at popularity, which is just by the sheer numbers: What is the movie that the most people went to see? What is the TV show that the most people sit down and watch? But there’s also this sense of popularity, [which is]: To what extent does something sort of infiltrate the cultural conversation? How often do you see the stars on magazine covers? How often do people talk about the show? A show like Girls... has worked its way into people's consciousness completely outsized to its actual viewership. On how the shift in culture can create megahits like Psy's "Gangnam Style": Once upon a time, the number one song — the most distinctive thing about it would be how many times you might hear it come on the radio, just over and over again. But now, if there’s a song you like, you can sit at your computer and listen to it over and over again. It creates these outsized hits, like “Gangnam Style,” that song by Psy, which was so huge. And yet in a weird way, I don’t feel like "Gangnam Style" will persist in our cultural memory in the way that some other huge number one hit songs have — though I could be wrong.     On the rise of micropopularity and the opportunity for discovery of new culture: When popularity was simply a measure of the massive amount of people that liked something, we got this idea that popularity equaled lowest common denominator, that nothing interesting or challenging or prickly or inventive could ever ascend to the number one position. I don't think that's true at all anymore. And in fact, because there's so many little microcategories of popularity now, seeking out the most popular thing in a different niche category can really expose you to a lot of things you wouldn't find otherwise.  

In the late ‘80s, comedian and actor Arsenio Hall became a late-night TV trailblazer. He was young, black, and his Arsenio Hall Show had become a surprise hit. The show's ratings even beat out The Tonight Show from time to time -- which at that point was still hosted by the “King of Late Night,” Johnny Carson.  The Arsenio Hall Show went off the air in 1994 after facing increased competition from Jay Leno and Dave Letterman. Since then, Hall has done stints on sitcoms and celebrity reality shows. But tonight, he returns to the late-night airwaves — after almost 20 years — with a revamped version of The Arsenio Hall Show. TV critic Eric Deggans joins Soundcheck to discuss Arsenio’s return, and to look back at the role that music and breaking artists played in the original show's success -- and eventual downfall.    Interview Highlights Eric Deggans, on why The Arsenio Hall Show faltered after its immense popularity: His competitors figured out that they could book all the people that he was booking, give them a bigger platform, and steal his thunder. Even though he was renowned for giving early breaks to artists that were popular among black people… Leno and Letterman just started booking those guests themselves, and they had bigger audiences. They were able to steal a lot of that uniqueness from his show that came from featuring people who normally were not featured. On Hall’s ability to showcase stars not getting mainstream exposure: MC Hammer was lighting up the clubs, the black clubs, lighting up black radio…. But white America didn’t really know who he was. It was before “U Can’t Touch This” became such a huge hit. To see a guy like that on television at a time when he couldn’t get on television anywhere else — even MTV wasn’t necessarily playing him — that was huge. That was amazing. And that happened a lot. We saw people like Guy. We saw people like Bobby Brown. Prince took over Arsenio Hall Show three different times.     On whether The Arsenio Hall Show’s chances for success this time around:       If I were a betting man, I hate to say it, but I would bet against him. There’s a lot of competition out there. He’s been out of the game a long time. You can even tell from that interview with Bill Clinton, his skills as a broadcaster are not necessarily why that show was so unique…. He’s still quite not that smooth — or at least he wasn’t 20 years ago. Let’s see what he does in this new show. But that’s the one thing that I think is going to be his stumbling block, his biggest challenge.

Tonight, The Arsenio Hall Show returns to late night TV. In case you missed it the first time around — or if you just want to go back and relive some fun memories from the show — there’s a treasure trove of old clips on YouTube. And while you're hunting around for those, chances are you may also stumble upon something called the The ArSheerio Paul Show. It’s a Web series created by Paul Scheer, the comedian and actor best known for the FXX comedy The League, MTV cult favorite Human Giant, and NTSF:SD:SUV on Adult Swim. With The ArSheerio Paul Show, the concept is simple, yet pretty brilliant: Scheer, acting as Hall, reenacts of the show's most famous and bizarre interviews with celebrities like Vanilla Ice, Madonna, and Tupac Shakur -- all played by modern-day actors and comedians. The web series presents both an improvised version of these interviews and a word-for-word reenactment -- and the reconstructions are as hilarious as they are meticulously detailed. Scheer joins Soundcheck to talk about why he chose The Arsenio Hall Show as the basis for his series, and how he plans to get Arsenio himself involved.    Watch an episode of The ArScheerio Paul Show below.