(April 2021) Episode 327 is WOODY GUTHRIE. It’s hard to overstate his importance and influence, not only musically and politically for the 1960s folk revival, but for country, roots and rock music beyond. The fact that “This Land Is Your Land” subversively became a children’s standard still makes me smile.
Favorite song: Hard Travelin’
Best compilation: the 4-volume Asch recordings
Compared to expectations: same
(March 2021) Episode 326 is LAURIE SPIEGEL. Combining a music education with computer engineering, she helped design computerized sounds and composed electronic music with them, as well as created a popular algorithmic computer software program.
Favorite album: The Expanding Universe
Favorite song: Patchwork
Compared to expectations: same
(March 2021) Episode 325 is THE BAND. Nobody doesn’t love The Band. They brought stories of the working man and the downtrodden — long at the heart of the blues, country and folk — into an unadorned rock format, synthesized into what we now call American roots rock (or more accurately North American roots rock, given that 4/5th were Canadian). Go watch The Last Waltz too.
Favorite album: The Band
Favorite song: Up On Cripple Creek
Favorite Ballad: It Makes No Difference
Compared to expectations: same
(March 2021) Episode 324 is ERIK SATIE. For his era, he stands out for the simplicity and subdued aesthetic of his works, primarily in piano, his most common medium. His compositions are intimate affairs, both for their brevity and straightforwardness. It’s not hard to see why he’s considered a precursor to minimalism and ambient music.
Favorite piece(s): Gymnopédies
Favorite orchestral work: Parade
Favorite choral work: Socrate
Compared to expectations: same
(March 2021) Episode 323 is THE ESSEX GREEN. Another fine indie band from the Elephant 6 world, with a little more folk and country tones than others in the cohort. “Everything Is Green” is an excellent homage to 60s baroque psychedelic pop, and “Primrose” sounds more like the Zombies than anything else I can think of.
Favorite album: Everything Is Green
Favorite song: Primrose
Compared to expectations: same
(March 2021) Episode 322 is VANILLA FUDGE. They made their mark with heavy, slowed, over-wrought versions of contemporary pop songs (you may recognize their version of “You Keep Me Hangin’ On”) and, oddly, it still kinda holds up. I prefer the albums with more original material. Their heavy sound, slathered like so much fudge in Hammond organ and fuzzy guitars, helped birth heavy metal. You can hear it most immediately in Deep Purple’s early work, and Mark Stein’s vibrato vocals presaged the operatic style of Bruce Dickinson el at.
Favorite album: Renaissance
Favorite song: Good Good Lovin’
Compared to expectations: same
(March 2021) Episode 321 is UNSUK CHIN. A South Korean-born contemporary classical composer with a diverse array of influences (she studied under Ligeti), styles and forms, both conventional and experimental. Many of her works feature frenetic bursts of notes, and make full use of available sounds from instruments (sliding along strings, tapping the body).
Favorite piece: Cello Concerto
Favorite piano piece: Etude No. 5
Favorite choral work: Cantatrix Sopranica
Favorite experimental piece: Double Bind?
Compared to expectations: ↑
(March 2021) Episode 320 is ART ENSEMBLE OF CHICAGO. Avant-garde jazz at its most avant-gardy. Prolific free jazz with a whole mix of styles and too-many-to-count instruments and noise makers. Apparently their stage performances were pretty wild.
Favorite album: Live in Paris
Favorite song: Theme de Yoyo
Compared to expectations: same
(February 2021) Episode 318 is SHOCKING BLUE. The Netherlands’ top contribution to the psychedelic explosion of the late 1960s, Shocking Blue is most famous for “Venus” (you know, covered by Bananarama). They put out several decent albums of rock songs with a somewhat groovy/hippie vibe.
Favorite album: Inkpot
Favorite song: Shadows
Compared to expectations: same
(February 2021) Episode 317 is GYÖRGY LIGETI. You will recognize him from the monolith music in 2001: A Space Odyssey, excerpted from his innovative choral works composed in a technique he called micropolyphony, which characterized his late 1960s focus. But his breadth extended to electronic, chamber, orchestral and piano, making him one of the most influential and one of my favorite avant-garde composers of the second half of the 20th century.
Favorite piece: Chamber Concerto for 13 instrumentalists
Favorite choral work: Requiem
Favorite orchestral piece: Ramifications
Favorite chamber piece: String Quarter #2
Favorite keyboard piece: Hungarian Rock (Chaconne)
Compared to expectations: ↑
Opus Project 