(February 2023) Episode 477 is MAHALIA JACKSON. I’m not into the gospel message but I appreciate gospel blues as a quintessentially American art form and sibling to the blues and soul. As Aretha is the Queen of Soul, Mahalia is the Queen of Gospel. Her powerful voice and blues-inflected style helped popularize gospel and bring it to a wider audience. And it appears she lived her message as a kind and charitable person.
(February 2023) Episode 476 of the “opus project” is SAMUEL BARBER, one of the best-known American composers of the 20th century. Many of you will know him from his “Adagio for Strings” (made famous in the movie Platoon), arguably his most emotionally resonant work. He get some critics’ sneer for being conventional in an era where his peers were emphasizing the opposite, but he does dip his toes into dissonance and tonal experimentation.
(February 2023) Episode 475 is JAPANDROIDS, an indie guitar/drum duo from Vancouver. My feeling about them is this: the teens who thought they were punk because they listened to Blink 182 grew up to be the Millennials who assumed they were still edgy/cool by liking Japandroids a decade later. I wanted to like this band, and I appreciate the energy, but it comes off as annoying hipster-fuel. So, Millennial.
Episode 474 is LA COLONIE DE VACANCES, a collective of four French bands PNEU, MARVIN, ELECTRIC ELECTRIC and PAPIER TIGRE. I didn’t know what to label this music until I came upon the term “math rock,” essentially the intersection of prog rock and indie rock, featuring irregular rhythms, guitars that eschew chords, hyperactive drumming and avoidance of melody. King Crimson would be the godfather of math rock. Among the groups, Pneu is a raw power trio, Papier Tigre features vocals, Electric Electric is techno-focused and Marvin is aggressive and techno-rhythmic. When they get together live as La Colonie de Vacancies the four bands arrange themselves in a quad and play at each other in controlled chaos. Sounds cool.
(February 2023) Episode 473 is THE DAMNED. Known in the punk pantheon for being the first UK punks to issue a record and to tour the United States. Their first album is superlative, drawing relatively more from the garage rock antecedents of punk. Can’t praise it enough. But it goes off the rails quickly: a couple ok post-punk albums and then eight blah rock records – it’s soooo boooring.
(February 2023) Episode 471 of the “opus project” is JAMES GANG. You know them as Joe Walsh’s first band and for their eternal classic rock radio hits “Funk #49” and “Walk Away.” The first three albums (1969-71) are a good helping of enjoyable funk rock. But then Walsh left and the rest is mostly forgettable boogie and soft rock.
(January 2023) Episode 470 is ULTHA, a black metal group from Germany. If Hell had a house band, it might sound like Ultha. It’s a double-pedal propelled wall of dark sound. There are vocals in there somewhere but they are mixed so far down they resemble distant screams of a person being tortured in a dungeon. Admittedly this music has niche appeal, and it’s not my favorite subgenre of metal. But I do find myself drawn to audacity of music at the extremes (fast, slow, loud, minimal, chaotic, experimental).
(January 2023) Episode 469 of the “opus project” is MICHAEL GORDON. A contemporary composer and one of the co-founders of the Bang on a Can collective (with wife Julia Wolfe of episode 347 and David Lang episode 453). Styles include dissonance, minimalism, unusual instrumentation (2x4s), reinterpretations of classic works, pop culture. There is a lot of variety to keep you interested. Some of his earlier works featured rock guitar, and he emphasizes multimedia works and unusual operas.
(January 2023) Episode 468 is REGINA SPEKTOR. I can overcome my aversion to “singer-songwriters” with Regina Spektor. She uses her versatile voice like an instrument, confident yet delicate, neither emo nor operatic. Her lyrics and wordplay are interesting, and melodies inventive. I prefer her earlier, sparer recordings — mostly just her voice and peppy piano — over her later lush and orchestrated albums, although two of my favorite songs are on her latest release (“Up the Mountain” and “SugarMan”).
(January 2023) Episode 467 is KYUSS. If grunge and doom metal had a baby, it would sound like Kyuss. Drop tuned goodness. But adding the groove and funk metal elements, Kyuss defies categorization. The best aspect is the absolutely delicious tone they get through the amps. It’s as if hot lava were edible like fudge. Yum. This is fantastic stuff, and you are required to listen at maximum volume.
Opus Project 