Saturday, Jul 14, 2007

Goodbye

After two and a half years, Salon has decided to discontinue Audiofile. Thanks to all the readers who supported the column -- we'll miss spinning new tunes for you. We will keep up our extensive archive of free songs over there, in the lefthand column.

-- The editors

Friday, Jul 13, 2007

Exclusive Song of the Day: "Stained Glass Windows," James Blackshaw

Prepare to bliss out. Today's song, from the album "The Cloud of Unknowing" by the hugely talented English acoustic guitarist James Blackshaw, combines pastoral psychedelia, placid folk and Eastern influences into one epic-length acoustic guitar journey. Fans of finger-picking legends like John Fahey, Robbie Basho and Leo Kottke will find plenty to like here, as the crystalline cascades of notes Blackshaw plucks from his 12-string resonate with spiritual intensity and melodic ingenuity.

-- David Marchese

The Song of the Day is also available as a podcast. (Subscribe: iTunes or RSS)

Thursday, Jul 12, 2007

Exclusive Song of the Day: "Back in Your Head," Tegan & Sara

Tegan & Sara are easily my favorite super melodic Canadian twin-sister folk-rock duo. Truthfully, though, their back story is irrelevant -- I could know nothing about Tegan and Sara Quin and still have a serious soft spot for them. Today's exclusive download comes from the sisters' upcoming fifth album, "The Con," which was produced by Death Cab for Cutie's Chris Walla. You can hear a bit of the influence of Walla's band in the soft, clear sound of "In My Head," but the song's emotionally weighty lyrics, well-wrought melody and sharp harmonies mark it as unmistakably Tegan & Sara.

-- David Marchese

The Song of the Day is also available as a podcast. (Subscribe: iTunes or RSS)

Wednesday, Jul 11, 2007

Song of the Day: "Let Her Go," the Lodger

Sometimes you just can't beat the sound of an adenoidal English dude, a bubbly melody and an electric guitar. Case in point: "Let Her Go," by Leeds rockers the Lodger. Taken from the band's debut album, "Grown-Ups," the song finds singer/guitar-player Ben Sidall's charming delivery and plangent chording aided and abetted by some upbeat horns and a simple, propulsive beat reminiscent of British invasion bands like the Kinks and Small Faces.

-- David Marchese

The Song of the Day is also available as a podcast. (Subscribe: iTunes or RSS)

Tuesday, Jul 10, 2007

Song of the Day: "I'm on Nights," Richard Hawley

Sheffield's Richard Hawley had a long, productive career as a guitar player for British bands the Longpigs and Pulp before he released his first album, "Late Night Final," in 2002. But I'm not sure anyone other than his friends and family expected he'd produce solo work of such consistent strength. With a voice like a shy Sinatra and a moody guitar style, Hawley makes music that glows with moonlit, lovelorn beauty. Taken from a special acoustic session, "I'm on Nights" should whet your appetite for Hawley's new album, "Lady's Bridge," due out later this summer.

-- David Marchese

The Song of the Day is also available as a podcast. (Subscribe: iTunes or RSS)

Monday, Jul 9, 2007

Song of the Day: "The Night Starts Here," Stars

A short while back I posted a track from an album of remixes of songs originally by the Montreal indie darlings Stars. Let's retroactively consider that a teaser, because today's download, "The Night Starts Here," is a brand-new number from the band's upcoming album, "In Our Bedroom After the War." A swooning, sparkling affair, "Night," like all of the band's work, is so unabashedly romantic and dramatic it constantly risks coming across as precious. But the sentiments ring so true, and the feelings come across so raw, that rather than making a hash of late-20s, early-30s emotional upheaval, the music ends up sounding wonderfully honest and true.

-- David Marchese

The Song of the Day is also available as a podcast. (Subscribe: iTunes or RSS)

Friday, Jul 6, 2007

Three questions for Ted Lange

If you're a fan of six-string wizards like Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page, you've probably imagined yourself wailing away on a guitar, sending a stadium into ecstasy with a screaming solo. In 2005, the Guitar Hero video game arrived to help bridge the gap between fantasy and reality. Featuring a controller shaped like a guitar, only about one-third the size, the game lets players rock along to classics by the likes of the Rolling Stones, Black Sabbath and Lynyrd Skynyrd. Hit the button on the guitar neck that corresponds to the note flashing by on the screen and the song continues to play perfectly; hit the wrong one, and you hear a flub. The game is both devilishly addictive and wildly successful, with 2006's Guitar Hero 2 selling more than a million copies and competitive Guitar Hero nights popping up in bars all over the country. Two new versions of the game (Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the '80s and Guitar Hero 3) are set for release in the coming months.

Salon reached the man in charge of picking Guitar Hero's songs, Ted Lange, an associate producer at game publisher Red Octane, by phone at his office in Sunnyvale, Calif.

How do you determine which songs are right for Guitar Hero?

We come up with a gigantic master list of over a hundred songs. Then we grade every song to make sure it has a guitar solo and enough different sections and changes to be fun to play. We also take popularity into consideration; you can't put an unknown song title on the back of the box. But you'd be surprised how many songs have a 30-second gap where there's no guitar. There are tons of songs that will just never work. "Smells Like Teen Spirit" is a song that gets a lot of requests from fans but it isn't right for Guitar Hero -- the verse is basically just two notes, it would be boring to play along with. And when we were picking music for the '80s game, it was surprising how many songs there are where you're listening and then there's a sax solo and the guitar completely drops out. But once we start listening for those kinds of things, we can narrow the songs down pretty quickly. Then we give our list to the licensing team and they start working their contacts in the music industry. Only about half the songs on our list come back approved.

What were your initial expectations for the game?

When we got the first prototype -- which was like an Atari 2600 game, just lines and circles -- we knew it was fun. We all stayed late the first night playing the one song in the demo over and over again. So we had an idea the game would be big if we could just get it into people's hands. You can't sell this game on paper. Explaining to someone that you hold a little toy guitar and push buttons isn't a great sales pitch; it's easier if you can say you're running around and shooting aliens. So we went to conventions and set up at stores and let people try the game for themselves. That was the key. Once people played it and told their friends, it started to take off.

How do you feel about the fact that Rock Band, the first competitor to Guitar Hero, is coming out later this year?

When we did our initial research we were comparing Guitar Hero to Karaoke Revolution and other rhythm-based games, but they weren't really that close to what we were trying to do. So I'm curious to see how Guitar Hero compares to a similar game. But I think Guitar 3 is more fun than the first two -- we've added an online gaming component and different play modes -- so I feel great about where we are. That's not to say Rock Band won't be good, but I don't see why anybody wouldn't buy both or just buy Guitar Hero. There are so many first-person shooter games out there that have been able to survive competition; I don't think our situation is any different.

-- David Marchese

Song of the Day: "Give Thanks and Praises," Bad Brains

Washington, D.C.'s, Bad Brains are rightly hailed as pioneers of the politically pissed-off, musically aggressive American hardcore punk movement that arose, not coincidentally, during the Reagan era. But rather than sticking to the pared-down sonic screeds of their contemporaries, Bad Brains were a little more complex, drawing from a musical palette that included funk, reggae and heavy metal. Though the band has never attained more than minor cult status, they've managed to release a fairly consistent stream of albums, of which "Build a Nation" -- which includes the hazy, harsh "Give Thanks and Praises" -- is the latest.

-- David Marchese

The Song of the Day is also available as a podcast. (Subscribe: iTunes or RSS)

Thursday, Jul 5, 2007

Song of the Day: "Soul Shakedown Party" (Afrodisiac Sound System Remix), Bob Marley

Some fairly egregious music has resulted from remixing the work of classic artists, but "Roots Rock Remixed," which features assorted DJs and remixers taking on Bob Marley material, shows how it can be done right. Afrodisiac Sound System's version of "Soul Shakedown Party" is a perfect example: The addition of some sympathetic percussion, a few snaky synth lines and a minor tinkering with Marley's original vocal both honors and updates the source material. It's the less-is-more approach to remixing, and it works wonderfully.

-- David Marchese

The Song of the Day is also available as a podcast. (Subscribe: iTunes or RSS)

Wednesday, Jul 4, 2007

Song of the Day: "Rabbit in a Log," the Stanley Brothers

In honor of July 4, some quintessentially American music from Dickenson County, Va.'s Stanley Brothers. "Rabbit in a Log" comes from a new Smithsonian Folkways compilation, "Virginia Roots," and features breakneck banjo, fiddle and mandolin playing that would put many a heavy-metal shredder to shame. But as much as I enjoy the virtuoso bluegrass musicianship, my favorite thing about the song is Ralph and Carter Stanley's close, clear harmony singing.

-- David Marchese

The Song of the Day is also available as a podcast. (Subscribe: iTunes or RSS)

Tuesday, Jul 3, 2007

Song of the Day: "Don't Tell Me to Do the Maths," Los Campesinos!

This song is adorable. Taken from an upcoming EP by the young Welsh septet Los Campesinos!, "Don't Tell Me to Do the Maths" features four guaranteed gloom removers: breathless boy-girl vocals, a neon guitar line, bubbly tempo and endearingly bratty lyrics ("If only you could give your life to literature/ just don't read 'Jane Eyre'").

-- David Marchese

The Song of the Day is also available as a podcast. (Subscribe: iTunes or RSS)

Monday, Jul 2, 2007

Exclusive Song of the Day: "Heavy," Oh No

Hip-hop music that doesn't include rapping has always been a tough sell for me, but Oh No's "Heavy," from the California DJ's upcoming "Dr. No's Oxperiment," is a track I can get behind. The way the wailing vocal sample collides with acid-funk guitars and a huge beat makes me want to grow mutton chops, slap on some mirrored sunglasses and hop behind the wheel of a Camaro.

-- David Marchese

The Song of the Day is also available as a podcast. (Subscribe: iTunes or RSS)

Friday, Jun 29, 2007

Three questions for Kevin Wall

Can music change the world? As one of the driving forces behind the July 7 Live Earth concerts for "a climate in crisis," Kevin Wall is counting on it. After seeing Al Gore's "Inconvenient Truth," Wall, the CEO of Control Room, which provides digital feeds of concerts and other live events to Web sites and theaters, called the former vice president with the idea of holding a massive event to further spread the film's message. It wasn't long before Gore helped corral artists like Madonna, the Police, Metallica and the Red Hot Chili Peppers, who, along with many others, will perform at the concerts, set to take place in eight different cities on six different continents and broadcast worldwide. Whether watching Sting and Co. burn through "Roxanne" will convince anyone to trade in their SUV for a hybrid remains to be seen -- Live Aid impresario Bob Geldof has expressed his doubts -- but at the very least, Wall's history, which includes a hand in Live 8, Live Aid and 1992's Freddie Mercury tribute concert, suggests Live Earth should be one heck of a show.

Wall, 55, spoke to Salon on the phone from Los Angeles.

What has to happen for you to consider Live Earth a success?

We need to reach the most people possible -- that's the key. Al Gore's slide show was seen by thousands of people; it influenced two people in Hollywood to make a movie ["An Inconvenient Truth"] that then influenced millions of people; I saw that movie and now I'm going to deliver 2 billion people. It's about delivering a message. If we can move people, provide them with some take-away actions, that's the change we're looking for. The climate crisis isn't going to go away with a concert, but this is not a concert; this is a global event for humanity. This is not about the haves and the have-nots like Live 8 was; this is about all of us.

What have been the biggest differences between organizing Live Earth and Live 8?

We lacked time with Live 8. We had eight weeks to pull it together and we had difficulty with media penetration. This time we've got HDNet, Sirius, XM, NBC, Telemundo, and that's just in the U.S. The concerts will be on TV, on the Internet and on the radio in 100 other countries. Live Earth will be the most complex media event in history. We're trying to do multiple Super Bowls all around the globe, all in the same day and all in high-def.

Another thing we've had to do differently is green the stadiums. We had to sit with artists and go through messaging and look at how to get them greening their lifestyles. Bob [Geldof] said everyone knows about the climate crisis, but I'm in L.A. and I look out my window and I see seven SUVS. Awareness is not the same thing as behavioral change.

At this point, large-scale concerts like Live Earth are nothing new. Do you worry that people won't respond as forcefully as you'd like?

No. Music is still a very powerful way to incite change. Think about the late '80s, when the music business took on apartheid. The anti-apartheid movement had been a niche movement in colleges, but in 1985 the "Sun City" record [by Artists United Against Apartheid] came out and in 1988 we produced a Nelson Mandela tribute concert at Wembley Stadium and within months this guy was out of prison. [Mandela was released in 1990.] That was the result of pressure applied through music. The same thing happened with the Amnesty International Tour that Springsteen and Sting and Bill Graham put on. There was a big change in the upholding of human rights at prisons. The Freddie Mercury tribute concert was a tipping point for AIDS awareness, for the AIDS issue, and caused massive change. USA for Africa, "We are the World" -- another great example. Live Earth is not about me making money or padding my résumé; it's about making change.

-- David Marchese

Song of the Day: "Lil King Kong," Simple Kid

Imagine Led Zeppelin's Robert Plant singing one of Beck's ramshackle junkyard blues tunes and you have a pretty good idea of what this song by young Irish musician Simple Kid sounds like. I'm not sure if anything else on "SK2," the album "Lil King Kong" comes from, is quite so charming, but let's not look a gift horse in the mouth -- this is perfect summertime music, designed to be spun over and over again on a sparkling, cloudless day.

-- David Marchese

The Song of the Day is also available as a podcast. (Subscribe: iTunes or RSS)

Thursday, Jun 28, 2007

Live-music dos and don'ts

I generally find going to concerts to be a boring and uncomfortable experience. Yet like a lab rat continually jolted by some booby-rigged cheese, I keep coming back for more. So naturally I spent a couple of hours recently at a concert in Central Park. The show -- a triple bill featuring melodic indie-rockers Sloan, the Cuban rhythms of Apostle of Hustle and country outfit the Duhks -- did nothing to abate my live-music malaise. Too frequently, live music occurs under conditions that are ripe for a blah time -- bad sound, rote performances, uncomfortable venues, egregious throwing of devil horns. I'm willing to bet that you too are frequently left nonplussed by your concertgoing experiences. Of all the shows you've been to, how many can you say were truly memorable?

But unlike my fictional rat, we can try to learn from our mistakes. That's why I'm asking for a little help in putting together a list of live-music picks and pans. Despite the concert industry's record-breaking recent business, the touring schedule is still full of overpriced hazards. When both the critics and the band's drummer agree that the Police's reunion tour is no great shakes, it's clear that there are some serious missteps out there. Below is my list of acts I try not to miss whenever they roll through town (all of which either are on tour or have future dates scheduled), followed by five others you should save your money on.

Encore!

1. High on Fire -- Music as pure malevolent energy.

2. Sonny Rollins -- Even at 77, this jazz legend is still capable of seemingly endless melodic invention.

3. Dinosaur Jr. -- Emo confessionals meet Neil Young guitar sturm und drang.

4. Prince -- The closest thing we have to a young James Brown, with the added bonus of unbelievable guitar chops.

5. The Brian Jonestown Massacre -- The band might not get through one song or they might play 20 shoulda-been psychedelic classics. Either way, hella entertaining.

Boo!

1. The New York Dolls -- Two-fifths of a once-great band peddling polished, pedestrian versions of their classics.

2. Lou Reed -- The worst case of performer condescension I've witnessed. When I saw him play, he performed most of the concert with his back to the audience.

3. The Black Crowes -- A band trading in bongwater blues 30 years after it went out of style. Jams that go nowhere.

4. The Killers -- Musical bombast and rock-god pretension are fine, but you need more than four great songs to back it up.

5. Ben Harper -- Like the Black Crowes, but aggressively earnest.

Now, I'm hoping you'd like to share a few of your concert stories, too. But in the meantime, could someone tell me whether I should feel OK about having just ponied up to see Amy Winehouse?

-- David Marchese