Cake is Back!

Fri, 03/25/2011 - 5:39pm by katieh

Seven years after their gold album, Pressure Chief, debuted, CAKE has released their long-awaited album, Showroom of Compassion. This album is the first release from their record label Upbeat Records and was recorded in a solar powered studio. CAKE has stayed consistent with their one-of-a-kind style featuring bass heavy tracks, poppy synths, a funky horn section, and plenty of sing-along worthy tracks. While the album has that definitive CAKE sound, Showroom of Compassion has a few standout tracks that ask us to question our preconceived notions of what CAKE is really all about.

"Sick of You" is the lead track and the first single off the album. It's guitar riffs and catchy hooks are sure to make it an instant classic. "The Winter" is a mournful song about how transitory life can be. But the star track of the record is "The Mustache Man," an upbeat, psychedelic, rock-inspired song, complete with horns, driving percussion, and hand claps.

Jamey Johnson: Rekindling Country Music

Thu, 03/24/2011 - 11:14am by Caser

Grammy nominee, Jamey Johnson, is the kind of country singer that skeptical country music fans have been waiting a long time for. Unlike most popular country stars, like Kenny Chesney, Toby Keith, or Brad Paisley, where most of the songs sound like straight-ahead pop tunes with some pedal steel guitar and twangy vocals thrown in, Johnson is all substance over style. He is a songwriter first and wrote hits for other country musicians before recording under his own name.

Cut from the cloth of honkey-tonkers like George Jones and Alan Jackson, Jamey Johnson breathes his Montgomery, Alabama heritage and bourbon-soaked baritone into his narrative songs, though he can write the honest-as-bones Hank Williams style ballad just as well. Which is why he was able to successfully release 2010’s double-disc album, The Guitar Song, with the first disc titled “The Black Album” and the second “The White Album”. Black is laced with the darker themes of rejection and loss, while White highlights the more optimistic moments in life.

The Guitar Song comes two years after Johnson’s superb 2008 record, The Lonesome Song, with the latest album building strongly on the gritty lens and focused musicianship that sets him far above his peers.

Sound of Music vs. West Side Story

Wed, 03/16/2011 - 11:46am by Caser

In the early 1960s, Robert Wise directed two of the most popular and beloved musicals ever to dance across the big screen. In 1961, he and choreographer Jerome Robbins dramatized the Bernstein and Sondheim musical, West Side Story. Wise followed this ten-Oscar-winning smash with the historical von Trapp family saga, The Sound of Music, in 1965. These two films tower among the best in the genre some fifty years later, as the late 1960s and beyond trended toward cinema verite styling and a marked dropoff of the sentimentality of these films.

So which is the better Robert Wise directed musical film: West Side Story or Sound of Music?

If you're in the West Side Story camp, you have the timeless Romeo and Juliet tale, elevated by some of the most brilliantly directed and choreographed dance/fight scenes in film history. But if you're in Sound of Music's corner, you have the filmed-on-location, stunning Austrian backdrop, with enormously talented Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer as leads, and songs like My Favorite Things, whose melody shifts like a sea change amidst the song's parade of images. If anybody asks, I'm voting for the latter.

Revisit your favorite or enjoy either movie for the first time by checking the AADL catalog for holdings at your local library.

Clang, Clang, Clang Went the Trolley

Tue, 03/15/2011 - 4:40pm by amy

While browsing through old newspapers and listening to the radio at our archive this afternoon, I caught part of a 2006 interview with Hugh Martin, composer, lyricist and arranger of such classics as "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas," "The Boy Next Door" and "The Trolley Song" from the great 1944 musical Meet Me In St. Louis. Martin, who died last Friday explained that he was browsing through an old newspaper at the Beverly Hills Library when he saw a photograph of a trolley with the caption, "Clang! Clang! went the trolley"...and three hours later the song was done. In his honor, and because my love of old musicals, libraries, newspapers and photographs just collided and I can't help myself, here's a photograph of an old Ann Arbor trolley. May it inspire you to write the next great American song.

Thanks to Site 3 of the Downtown Historical Street Exhibits Program there are several photographs of old Ann Arbor trolleys to choose from. And if songwriting isn't really your thing, we have an entire book on the subject.

Belle & Sebastian: Write About Love

Tue, 03/08/2011 - 12:39pm by Caser

Belle & Sebastian's 2010 release, Write About Love, is their first since The Life Pursuit in 2006, but they've lost nothing of their breathless sweet-pop sound in the interim. Indeed, unlike many other artists, for whom a near half-decade gap between releases would indicate a drying of the well, B&S have spent this time refining their songcraft into 11 complete songs, with fewer flighty tangents and 100% laser-beam focus.

Under the ever-blooming umbrella of pop music, Belle & Sebastian's string and horn arrangements rank among the very best. On Write About Love they're subtler than any given Sufjan Stevens album, and the arrangements here certainly bear more close listening than one-man orchestra, Russian Futurists. Even after some of the songs have lost their initially wistful magic, I'll go back just to hear a particular horn or violin line.

If you're new to this large ensemble with a tight-knit group sound, several songs here will touch the giddy playfulness of The Shins and The Kinks, while others head straight into '60s Britpop a la The Zombies or The Hollies. This isn't to say they're an ephemeral throwback band, just that their sound is strongly grounded in its sonic roots.

Write About Love is not something wildly new for this group -- their return to Matador likely an indication of this -- but it's done as well as anything they've released in the last 15 years. If you're a longtime fan, be sure to check out The BBC Sessions from the AADL as well.

Performance: Metamorphosis by Aaron Dworkin

Mon, 02/28/2011 - 1:00pm by hillary dorwart

Sunday March 6, 2011: 6:00-7:00pm -- University of Michigan Museum of Art Helmut Stern Auditorium

Artist Aaron Dworkin explores the modern aesthetic in this compelling multi-media presentation of visual art, spoken word, and music. "Metamorphosis" offers a synthesis of poetry, classical music and photography that all sketch important moments of the artist's personal story.

A lifelong musician, Mr. Dworkin is an accomplished acoustic and electric violinist, author, social entrepreneur, artist-citizen and an avid youth education advocate.

Dworkin is the Founder and President of the internationally acclaimed Sphinx Organization, a MacArthur Fellow, and he was recently nominated to be the first member of President Obama's National Council on the Arts.

Join us to hear a University of Michigan alumnus perform back on campus!

Musician Chris Vallillo Presents Abraham Lincoln in Song

Thu, 02/24/2011 - 1:40pm by hillary dorwart

Friday March 4, 2011: 7:00 pm to 8:30 pm -- Downtown Library: Multi-Purpose Room

Musician Chris Vallillo combines Lincoln's own words and stories with contemporary and period folk music to tell the story of Lincoln's life and times. His album Abraham Lincoln In Song reached #10 on Billboard’s Bluegrass Album Chart in March of 2008.

In a variety of roots-based styles, Chris performs on six string and bottleneck slide guitars, harmonica and pocket instruments. His songs touch on all the different points in Lincoln's life - from his earliest days through his time as President.

Listen to samples of his music and join us for his live performance!

BreakFEST benefit concert at The Ark

Tue, 02/22/2011 - 2:20pm by manz

The second annual BreakFEST, a benefit for the breakfast at St. Andrew’s program, is happening at The Ark on February 25 at 7pm. All proceeds will go towards running the all volunteer based breakfast program at St. Andrew’s church in Ann Arbor. They have been providing free daily breakfasts to those in need for more than 28 years.

The concert features music from Irish fiddler Kevin Burke, jazz pianist Stephen Rush from Ann Arbor, UK-based fingerstyle guitar master Duck Baker, and Louisiana dance music from Creole du Nord. All artists are donating their time and talent for this benefit show. See The Ark’s website for ticket info.

Quite Scientific CDs @ AADL

Sat, 02/12/2011 - 12:30pm by manz

If you're looking for some new indie tunes... check out the sound stylings of some of the artists on the small label Quite Scientific Records. Focusing on Midwest musicians, QuiSci, as it’s affectionately known, features a mix of somewhat intermingling artists ranging from indie-folk to pop to a few drum beats. AADL owns a handful of these artists’ albums.

Well known in the A2 music scene, indie folk singer/song writer Chris Bathgate’s voice and fun live shows make him a leader in Michigan’s folk scene.

Another local folk fave is Frontier Ruckus. They were once voted "Best Folk Group" in Detroit by Real Detroit Weekly, and their live sets have been praised in Rolling Stone. Their lyric-driven songs feature essences of folk, bluegrass, country, and rock.

For more from Quite Scientific check out Canada, Cotton Jones, The Dead Bodies, and Drunken Barn Dance. Take a chance on something new, you might like it.

Fela! at Michigan Theater

Sat, 01/22/2011 - 10:03am by manz

If you’re a fan of Fela Kuti’s music, you may be interested in the filmed theatrical production of FELA! coming up at the Michigan Theater, thanks to a partnership between UMS and the theater. FELA! Is a hybrid of dance, theater, and music, and tells the story of afrobeat legend Fela Kuti, whose music is a blend of funk, jazz and African Rhythm. Directed and choreographed by Tony Award winning Bill Jones, the film is part of the National Theatre Live series, featuring high-definition screenings of live theater broadcasts by the National Theater, London. It takes place at the Michigan Theater on Sunday, January 30 at 2pm. See the theater's website for more details and ticket information.