A subtle weave of the shoulder, a single raised eyebrow, a slight tilt of the head… all these things sell lyrics and music in a way that an amazing voice on it’s own can not. It’s not what you say, it’s how you say it. And in the case of music, it’s not just how you say it, it’s how well you broadcast the soul of a song, that invisible message an audience reacts to instinctively before they even realize what they’re hearing.
Sarah Jaffe does this beautifully.
During her CMJ performance at Spike Hill (the Brooklyn venue I book) this past October, her set was simple: Her onstage with a Spanish-style acoustic guitar, often methodically plunking a single string while broadcasting her warbling melancholy moan. Her voice ranges from hushed and roomy to blasting and haunting. Watching her play, one gets the sense that Sarah lives within her songs, inhabiting each of her tune’s various melodic passages as if she were walking from one creaking, empty room to another inside her head. By incorporating momentary stretches of silence between these passages, often accompanied by a subtle craning of her head towards the stage lights, her mouth silently forming the next unspoken lyric of her tune, Sarah grips a room. Her eager audience is pulled unwittingly along, like a rolling toy tugged behind a wide-eyed exploring child.
Check out Sarah’s music here. Check back soon for a link to her CMJ performance captured by Baeble Music.
If you covered the ground with different sized snares, kick drums and cymbals and then it rained drum sticks, you’d get a sound sorta close to the brain folding classical spaz of Venetian Snares. Like a shot of heroin to your cerebral cortex.
What is it, you ask? Nervous Brits rocking Ukulele! The Proms, a buttoned-up classical concert series in London, loosened its collective bow tie as The Ukulele Orchestra Of Great Britain (real name) plucked this Talking Heads punk classic. If, before playing, the band had introduced the song using a robotic beat piped from an 80s-style silver boombox, we’d have swooned. As it is, we’re still in love. -ZD
The seven-piece Coney Island band — who was crowned one of L Magazine’s “8 Bands You Need To Hear” in 2010 — inhales inspiration from sources as geeky as En Vogue and as modern as Flying Lotus. The result — a wholly original, Dirty-Projectors-style amalgamation of sensual sounds, searing aggression and shivering rhythms.
I believe the technical term for this style of playing is “Amaze-balls.” This guy can shred, and on the cutest instrument Hawaii’s ever imported. Jake Shimabukuro, the prodigious player, said in a TIME Magazine interview, “The words professional and ukulele player are kind of an oxymoron.” He’s making a convincing case against that notion.
Eddie Van Halen and Koji Kondo (legendary Super Mario Bros. music composer) would be proud. 8-bit fan boys Zack Kim (top video) and Martin Leung (bottom video) transcribe the red-capped plumber’s favorite ragtime tunes for double-tap guitar and piano. I’m hoping Kim someday hosts a mind-shattering guitar battle — one hand vs. the other. Enjoy!
The newest episode of Feedback the podcast featuring Reggie Watts is now available!
Reggie is an uber-talented, inter-dimensional comedian, combining improved musical journeys, psychedelic observations and rattles of Parkinsonian beat-boxing into an outer-worldly new breed of comedy.
To download a free copy of the podcast, click on the arrow to the right of the player.
A huge thanks to the incredibly kind and talented Reggie Watts, his industrious management staff and New York Press for generously hosting this podcast series.
Coldplay release a self-effacing, genuinely hysterical video… with puppets! Will hipsters trade tight jeans for multi-colored armbands and militaristic Chilean flavor? My guess is probably not, but we’ll see…
