Behind the Mic with Crystal Sarakas

Gobbledigook

I've been listening to the new Sigur Ros album non-stop lately. Here's a shortened version of one of my favorite songs (so far):

In concert: world fusion with Jami Sieber and Steve Gorn

Tonight's Soundscape features a few tracks from Jami Sieber and Steve Gorn. They'll be performing in Ithaca this coming Saturday, June 14th at 7:30 p.m. at the Unitarian Church, 306 N. Aurora, Ithaca.

I only heard Jami Sieber's music for the first time this week, when I found out about the concert and the promoter was kind enough to send along a couple of CDs to play on the show. I'm really enjoying the music - I'm a fan of cello music in all forms and it's the one instrument I really wish I could take up, even at my advanced age. 

I've also been equally fascinated with elephants my entire life, something that Jami Seiber shares. In the liner notes to her CD, Hidden Sky, she writes about her experience playing music with the Thai Elephant Orchestra:

There, at the Thai Elephant Conservation Center, I met Phong, the young elephant who played a xylophone (renat) and kissed me on my nose with his trunk, and Prathida, the drummer who followed the movement of my bow with her trunk as I played. With them and at least eight other orchestra members, I experienced a mystical collaboration I had never known before. This communion has forever changed the way I see and feel the natural world.

I found this video which shows some of the footage from Jami's visit with the Thai Elephant Orchestra:

Steve Gorn, the other featured musician at the concert, performs on the bansuri flute. Here's a clip of a live performance a few years back.

I'm not sure yet if I'll be able to make the trip up to Ithaca (those darn gas prices!) but if you have the chance to go to the concert, I think you'll really enjoy. If you see me there, say hello. If not, leave a comment and tell me what you thought of the concert.

Kitaro - Matsuri o

This is what I've been listening to tonight. It's the perfect music to listen to with the windws open and the sound of the peepers and the scent of honeysuckle drifting through on the breeze.

Excuses, excuses...

Monday's Music will return next week after an unexpected hiatus. I wish the hiatus had happened because I was off on vacation (preferably either buried in London bookshops or watching whales off the coast of Alaska) but the real story is much less interesting - I've just been that busy.

In the meantime, I want to point you to NPR's Song of the Day site. I've added their listing to my RSS feed and have been introduced to a lot of really cool new-to-me tunes. That's where I discovered Vienna Teng and where I finally got over my distrust of the hype and checked out Band Of Horses (note to fellow skeptics: the hype may be spot on for a change).

In the meantime, I'd love to know who you're listening to these days. I'm always looking for new tunes to add to my daily playlist.

A little pride ...

I'm really pleased with tonight's show. I experimented with putting it together in a different way (I won't bore you with the technical details) and as I was editing it, really paid attention to the flow from one song to the next. I love it when a song sounds like a natural progression from the track before, even though it's a different artist and CD.

Wow. I am a radio geek.

I got to play a track from a CD I've been listening to a lot lately - In The Name Of Love: Africa Celebrates U2. This came to the station last month and since I'm a big fan of both U2 and of African music in general, I grabbed it. It's a pretty varied list of performers - Angelique Kidjo performs Mysterious Ways, Vieux Farka Toure performs Bullet the Blue Sky, Tony Allen (a Nigerian performer) does his version of Where the Streets Have No Name. I played my favorite track from the CD on the show tonight - the Soweto Gospel Choir performing Pride (In the Name of Love). That's one of my favorite U2 songs and I love the African gospel choir version of it. I also have a feeling I'll be ordering a few CDs by the Soweto Gospel Choir very, very soon.

I also like the liner notes for this album, which is a rarity for me since I seldom even look at liner notes. Each track has a write-up about the artist performing, and includes a little fact sheet about the country in Africa that the artist comes from. I definitely recommend this one if you like the sound of U2 with an African musical approach. Here's a video talking about the album with some samples of the music.

Go for the Green - last chance!

I'm going to be on-air tonight for the last few hours of our 'Go for the Green' pledge drive so I won't have time to put together a Monday's Music article for you. That will return next Monday with a look at a wonderful indie-pop singer who plays frequently in the area.

In the meantime, here's a very cool ambient video I found on YouTube. And if you haven't contributed to the 'Go for the Green' drive, please do so. We're so close to our goal and every dollar counts.

gimme some of that old time music...

A friend and I were discussing our rather eclectic taste in music and the conversation turned to what we listened to in high school. I vaguely remembered some of my teenage favorites (most of the hair bands back in the late 90s) but had a hard time pulling up specific memories of my senior year. So, I headed to Google to rediscover the 'music of my time.'

On the charts back on March 5, 1992:

Nirvana - Come As You Are - Ahh, Nirvana. I remember trading in my hairspray for my boyfriend's flannel shirts and my first pair of Doc Martens because of this band. Nirvana was a revolution, even if I had no idea what Mr. Cobain was singing half the time.

Ugly Kid Joe - Everything About You - I loved this song. I bet I can still sing it perfectly. In fact, I'm going to find that CD again when I go home tonight.

Queensryche - Anybody Listening -  Queensryche! I haven't listened to them in ages, but I still own most of their CDs. I remember this song - all emo and very, very serious. 

Soundgarden - Outshined - It's funny when the minute you see a song title, the music comes rushing back in your head. I'm constantly amazed at how much stuff is stored in my brain - it's nice to know I can still access those memories.

u2 - Until the End of the World - U2 remains one of my favorite bands to this day. Joshua Tree is still frequently played at my house, and ranks as one of my 'Top Ten Desert Island' picks. This particular song wasn't a big favorite of mine, and Achtung Baby is probably my least-listened-to U2 release. I should probably give it another go.

Pearl Jam - Alive - As revolutionary as Nirvana may have been in introducing the grunge scene to the rest of the world, Pearl Jam was the ultimate grunge band for me. Alive is also one of my favorite albums ever. I specifically remember when I bought that CD and promptly drove my sister insane when I listened to it for 6 months straight. This is another one I haven't listened to in far too long, although I can still sing along with every song on the disc.

Your turn - I want to hear about the music you were listening to your senior year. Check out Tunecaster's list of top songs year-by-year and let me know what you remember. In the meantime, I'll be digging through my CDs and making a new mix to listen to. Maybe I'll drag out the flannel shirt and smoke a clove cigarette for old time's sake while I'm at it.

oh happy day

Today has been an excellent music day.

It started out with scoring tickets to see Ray Davies perform at the Tower Theater in Upper Darby, PA. My husband introduced me to The Kinks way back when we first met and they've become one of my favorite groups. Ray Davies, frontman for the band, has just released his second solo album, Working Man's Cafe, and it's been on constant play at my house. I think it's his most introspective album yet, as he deals with the aftermath of his near-fatal shooting through his songwriting. I highly recommend it.

I got a new CD in the mail today - Sounding's Global Rhythms Collection, a new collection of chants and mixes from the Soundings of the Planet crew. Artists appearing on this compilation CD include Deva Premal, Dean Evenson, Scott Huckaby, DJ Free, Jai Uttal, Azam Ali and many more. You can definitely expect to hear this one on Soundscape over the coming weeks (quite possibly as early as tomorow).

Finally, my husband rang me up to gleefully announce the arrival of the new CD from one of my all-time favorite bands, Gandalf Murphy and the Slambovian Circus of Dreams. This demands a road trip so he quickly arranged for us to meet the parents down in PA for dinner tonight - all so we can properly break in the new album. You'll be hearing more about Gandalf Murphy and the Slambovian Circus of Dreams on this week's "Monday's Music."

Hey Mr. DJ...

I watched a little bit of the Grammy's last week and the one thing I walked away with was the realization of how 'out of it' I am when it comes to today's popular music. I recognized names, of course, because I'm a compulsive reader of a lot of music magazines, but hadn't actually sat down and really listened to any of the music.

This wasn't always the case, but I think that my listening habits have certainly changed over the last decade, mostly because (with the obvious exception) I just don't listen to the radio anymore. Oddly enough, I don't even listen to music in general as much as I did growing up - mostly because I'm ready for a bit of silence by the time I get home from work.

That's not to say I don't make discoveries of new-to-me music on a regular basis, but I'm realizing that most of those new discoveries have come from catching a snippet on a television show (Over the Rhine, Mazzy Star),  reading about a particular group in a magazine (Iron and Wine, The Album Leaf), or checking out what Amazon.com says I'll like (although that's recently been mostly music that mirrors what I play on Soundscape). And the best source of new music for me in the past couple of years has been all the really cool performers that come through the region (Gandalf Murphy and the Slambovian Circus of Dreams, John McEwan, and Ellis). When I do find someone new that I like, I tend to spend the next few months buying their entire catalog and listening to their music non-stop.

I'm looking for something new right now - and I'm not even entirely sure what it is I want. So here's your chance to be my personal DJ - recommend something for me to listen to. It doesn't have to be a brand new artist or CD, but it does have to be in print and easily found and  something that isn't going to make my budget cry.  I'll take your recommendations, buy a CD and then I'll write what I think about it here at a future date.

This could be fun.

shuffle

Because I've had too little sleep and a little too much caffeine, thus creating that very weird mental state of simultaneous exhaustion and adrenaline which doesn't necessarily equal coherent thought, I bring you a look at what tunes I've been listening to lately on Nina, the trusty iPod companion. In no particular order:

Adiemus - Kayama
Tori Amos - Mrs. Jesus
Patrick O'Hearn - Intension and Objective
Over the Rhine - Drunkard's Prayer
Moby - Bring Back My Happiness
Jane Siberry with k.d. lang - Calling All Angels
Lisa Gerrard - Now We Are Free
The Flaming Lips - Do You Realize
October Project - Be My Hero
Coldplay - Politik
Antje Duvekot - South
Bird York - Save Me
Ray Lynch - Kathleen's Song
Mantra Girl - Ra Ma Da Sa
Delerium - The Way You Want It To Be
Sigur Ros - Take Me Somewhere Nice
Haale - Ay Del
Explosions in the Sky - Your Hand In Mine
Mazzy Star - Cry, Cry
PJ Harvey - One Time Too Many
Beth Hart - Hold Me Through the Night

I do think I need a bigger iPod. Mine is starting to show its age and is only a 2 g Nano. As much as I love it, I daydream at the thought of a 8g Nano (I can't even fathom the other iPods with 30, 60, or 160 GB of space).

Alas, that kind of new purchase is off the hazy future. So until then, Nina and I are content to remain together, spinning the tunes and reveling in the eclectic playlists that we come up with.

What are you listening to today?