Blog Post
Dark Was the Night
by Caser
Compilation albums usually add up to one of two things: disposable cover songs from big name artists, or hit-or-miss tracks from artists on an adored small label, say Sub Pop or Drive Thru Records. The label makes money, the bands get heard, the buyer remorses. Bucking this trend, the Red Hot Organization made Dark Was the Night, a compilation so good that it needs two discs to hold all the great tunes. With album-worthy original material from the likes of The Decemberists, Bon Iver, Arcade Fire, and My Morning Jacket, this compilation has done everything right -- credible bands, great songs, and exclusive tracklisting.
Even the cover songs are intriguing. Antony Hegarty sings a pre-Freewheelin' Bob Dylan folk-tune, I Was Young When I Left Home, and Jose Gonzalez taps his '60s folk hero, singing Nick Drake's Cello Song. One of the AADL's hottest CDs right now, jump on the hold list for Dark Was the Night today.
Blog Post
Celtic rock?
by Maxine
Yes and much more. Come hear the Celtic influenced band, Enter the Haggis tomorrow, June 4, at a free concert sponsored by the Ann Arbor Chamber of Commerce as part of their series at Liberty Plaza. This popular Toronto quintet plays a rousing mix of Canadian and Scottish music with influences as far ranging as African, Bluegrass, Rock and Caribbean. Instruments include guitar, bagpipes, tin whistle, fiddle, keyboard and drums. Music starts at 12 and goes until 2.
Also check out the Library's great collection of Celtic music and keep those feet tapping.
Blog Post
Summer Music Festivals Invade the Midwest
by Caser
For many music fans, summer is all about the outdoor music festivals, where dozens of your favorite bands rock out under the sun while you're surrounded by thousands of your best friends (well, maybe). Within driving distance of southeast Michigan are three of the country's largest music festivals: Bonnaroo, Rothbury, and Lollapalooza. Here's a festival breakdown with links to the AADL catalog holdings for the headlining artists.
The Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival, from June 11-14, is held in Manchester, TN, and features the most robust lineup of artists. Phish reunites for 2 shows, and Beastie Boys and Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band also headline on various nights.
Rothbury Festival returns for its second year, running from July 2-5 in Rothbury, MI, and boasts a mission with its music, as it's "dedicated to running as close to a zero-waste event as possible." For the folk-roots audience, The Dead, Bob Dylan, and Willie Nelson headline.
Finally, Lollapalooza, the longest tenured of these three festivals, goes from August 7-9 in Chicago, IL, with a much harder edge to its sound as Tool, The Killers, and Depeche Mode headline this year.
Blog Post
Two poets
by Maxine
Today, May 24 is the birthday of two poets, different in origins and influences, but both renowned. Joseph Brodsky was born in St. Petersburg, Russia in 1940. His father was kicked out of the army for being Jewish and the family fell into poverty. Brodsky started writing poetry at the age of 15. In his twenties, his poetry began attracting a large audience. The Soviet government eventually sent him to a labor camp for five years but because of protest, his sentence was commuted. He came to the U.S. and taught at several universities including the University of Michigan. The writer of not only poems but also plays and essays, Brodsky received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1987 and became the Poet Laureate of the U.S. in 1991.
Bob Dylan, nee Robert Zimmerman, was born in 1941 in Duluth, Minnesota. His first musical influence was his parents who listened to the Grand Ole Opry but after hearing Little Richard on the radio, he wanted to play rock and roll. He was in a band through high school but when he went to the University of Minnesota and began hearing the traditional folk music of people like Odetta, he traded in his electric guitar for an acoustic one.
Dylan's influence on music and popular culture has been profound, spawning a golden age of social protest songs and a love for the clever, seemingly contorted Chagall-like word images he created. Dylan's move from acoustic protest to electronic, to country and blues also reflected the changing faces of American music. The Library has many of his recordings and his newest, Together Through Life, is on order. Who can forget, once hearing them, the first few lines of "Subterranean Homesick Blues" and not smile at Dylan's universal empathy for the human condition?
Johnny's in the basement
Mixing up the medicine
I'm on the pavement
Thinking about the government...
Look out kid
It's somethin' you did
God knows when
But you're doin' it again..
Blog Post
Grandes Dames de la Chanson.
by Employee 37
Elle est arrivée sur la pointe des pieds dans le monde de la chanson française en 2005 mais a su rapidement, grâce à quelques titres marquant - Mise à nu, T’es beau ou encore Mal assis - séduire un public large et fourni. Auréolée d’un succès commercial probant, son premier album éponyme est double Disque d’or, et d’une tournée de plus de 150 dates dont un Olympia complet en 2006, Pauline Croze a accepté de tout remettre en jeu avec ce Bruit Qui Court. "Pas sûr que tout le monde suive, que tous mes fans m’accompagnent dans cette nouvelle aventure" mais l’important est ailleurs. Pauline n’est plus la même et veut le faire entendre.
Click here for full review
Review Courtesy of RFI Musique.
Changer d’air
Usée par cette longue période passée sur les routes, elle s’octroie au sortir de cette tournée quatre mois complets de repos. Elle en profite pour voyager, réfléchir, se ressourcer. A son retour, les choses ont changé. "Je voulais casser cette image réductrice de chanteuse à guitare, casser les modes de composition de mes morceaux". C’est par cette vérité que Pauline Croze explique son état d’esprit au moment d’enregistrer ce second album.
Ses nouvelles chansons, elle les a ramassées le long de ce chemin. Encore marquée par ce sentiment de s’être trop mise à nu sur son précédent opus, Pauline a repris le contrôle de ses textes et signe ici onze de ses treize nouveaux titres. Une vraie nouveauté. Elle sait aujourd’hui comment varier les points de vue et laisse volontairement de côté l’écriture à la première personne pour élever ses textes à la hauteur de l’autre et du pluriel.
Les mots y sont toujours simples. Elle parle de ces choses du quotidien communes à nombre d’entre nous et s’interroge sur leurs significations, leurs raisons d’être, leurs manifestations. Chanter devient pour elle une sorte de lumière homéopathique proche de la thérapie, "c’est vrai que je continue à utiliser mes chansons pour mieux comprendre certaines choses". Pauline joue avec les thèmes de l’altérité et de ses rapports au monde qui l’entoure – les transports amoureux (Décembre), le besoin de l’autre, (Légère (soulève-moi)), les attentes face à la vie (Nous voulons vivre), les troubles relationnels (Les gens qui jasent , Sur ton front) mais aussi les enjeux écologiques (La couleur de la mer). Comme toujours chez cette artiste, "sans s’interdire aucun mot", ses pensées les plus personnelles, ses vérités sont à découvrir dans les non-dits. Alors quand Arthur H lui écrit sur commande le titre Baiser d’adieu, Pauline est presque gênée tant les paroles de cette chanson sont explicites et facilement compréhensibles. Mais la plus palpable de ses transformations réside ailleurs, nichée au cœur de sa musique.
La révolution
Elle est souriante, rieuse, lumineuse. Elle a pris des risques et se sent mieux. Qu’il semble loin le temps où elle plaquait des accords sur sa sacro-sainte guitare à longueur d’album. Pauline Croze a osé musicalement, multipliant les influences, libérant ses arrangements. Et pour cela, elle a révolutionné sa galaxie de musiciens, s’entourant pour l’occasion de pointures comme Martyn Barker à la basse et Simon Edwards à la batterie - la section rythmique de Beth Gibbons, chanteuse de Portishead, et Jean-Louis Solans à la guitare et aux programmations - guitariste de Mano Solo.
Mais surtout, Pauline Croze s’est fait aider dans la réalisation de cet album par Jean Lamoot, magicien de la console pour Alain Bashung et Noir Désir, entre autres. "Je n’avais pas d’idées préconçues sur le nom du réalisateur avec qui je voulais travailler. Nous avons décidé de faire un test ensemble sur un titre. Au sortir de ces deux jours de travail, je ne voulais plus changer. Jean Lamoot est exceptionnel. Il a fait un véritable travail de précision sur cet album". Du rock, de la chanson, des réminiscences africaines, des emprunts au jazz, flirtant avec le trip hop, Pauline Croze a décidé de frapper un grand coup en ouvrant son nouvel album à toutes ces musiques.
Chaque détail compte, chaque détail y a son importance, même cette voix que Pauline utilise désormais comme un instrument. Riche de ces nouvelles libertés, de ces nouveaux modes de composition, Un bruit qui court dégage une sensation jusqu’à présent inédite chez la jeune artiste, d’unité et de mouvement permanent. Léger et entraînant, son disque se promène parfois à quelques encablures seulement de la musique tonale.
"Depuis mon premier album, j’ai quitté ma bulle, je suis rentré dans l’âge adulte". Même si Pauline Croze continue, à juste titre d’ailleurs, de vouloir être considérée en demoiselle, cet album est la preuve d’une nouvelle maturité. Tout en restant fidèle à ses valeurs, en conservant cette fraîcheur qui a fait la force et le succès de son premier album, Pauline Croze a rajouté de nouvelles teintes à sa musique. Rayonnantes et colorées, elles font de ce bruit qui court un disque pas tout à fait comme les autres. Un disque différent. Un disque qui place Pauline Croze dans une logique étonnante, sur un chemin de traverse, là où se promènent souvent les grandes dames de la chanson.
Blog Post
Crossroads: Literature and Music
by Caser
In the late 19th century, the marriage of philosophical literature and modern music was epitomized by composer Richard Strauss. Consider Strauss' Also sprach Zarathustra, a symphonic work based on Friedrich Nietzsche's philosophical novel, Thus Spake Zarathustra, which was published a mere 10 years earlier. Nietzche's novel captures several central tenets of his philosophy, namely, the superman, the will to power, and the idea of eternal recurrence. Take the force of these ideas and allow the compositional genius of Strauss to capture them in music, and you usher in 20th century music. Director Stanley Kubrick was impressed enough with the piece to use the opening measures during key scenes of 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Also check out Strauss' brilliant 1905 opera, Salome, based on Oscar Wilde's play of the same name, published approximately 10 years prior to the musical piece. The final scene of Salome continues to shock audiences and exalt sopranos in performances to this day.
Blog Post
Black Sea by Fennesz
by Employee 37
Seeking an ambient cocoon in which to wrap yourself snugly? Check out Black Sea, the latest album from the Austrian experimental-electronic artist Christian Fennesz. You can listen to track 2 below, but the album is best enjoyed as a single performance from start to finish. Click here to request your copy today.
Artist: Fennesz
Album: Black Sea. Track 2 
Blog Post
Leonard Cohen in Detroit
by annevm
Back in the day, listening to Leonard Cohen did not make me sleepy, but lately . . . so I won’t be there this weekend when this remarkable Canadian singer-songwriter performs in Detroit’s Fox Theater. I do still like his music -- especially Suzanne -- and I’ve been following this tour, including shows in Chicago. I'm also intrigued by the DVD about Cohen's life I'm Your Man.
Blog Post
Breakin' Curfew - May 8
by manz
The Neutral Zone and the University Musical Society (UMS) present Breakin’ Curfew at The Power Center on Friday May 8, at 8pm. Now an annual event, this powerful show features teen acts that were scouted by teens, while being lead by UMS. The end performance showcases a wide variety of local teen talent in all forms and is truly electric. (i.e. If you don't dig the breakdancing, sit tight, the cellist is up next!) This show is popular and tends to sell out, so get your tickets!
Blog Post
Spring Books to Movies
by muffy
The Soloist is based on The Soloist: A Lost Dream, an Unlikely Friendship, and the Redemptive Power of Music - an emotionally soaring drama in which Journalist Steve Lopez discovers Nathaniel Anthony Ayers, a former classical music prodigy, playing his violin on the streets of L.A. As Lopez endeavors to help the homeless man find his way back, a unique friendship is formed, one that transforms both their lives.
Published in 1995, Bret Easton Ellis' The Informers is "a collection of loosely connected short stories that captures a week in L.A. in 1983, featuring movie executives, rock stars, a vampire and other morally challenged characters in adventures laced with sex, drugs and violence", now adapted as a major motion picture. Read more about Ellis and his interview about the movie.
Directed by Ron Howard, the much anticipation Angels & Demons will be in theaters on May 15th. Based on Dan Brown’s (2000) novel, Tom Hanks reprises his role as Harvard religious expert Robert Langdon (in The Da Vinci Code) who finds that the Illuminati -- the most powerful underground organization with ancient roots is willing to stop at nothing, even murder, to advance its goals.