Artist Spotlight

Artist Spotlight

Next Wave Woman: Kali Uchis

Musicologist Marco Juarez
by on April 27, 2015

Kali Uchis will make you feel lazy – like you need to be a more productive human being. The 20-year old singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist/producer/retro-future fashion icon has earned a lot of attention since the release in early January of her acclaimed EP, Por Vida, and for good reason.

1029_Women_Leadership_Kali“I find it crucial to remain true to myself, my vision, and to never compromise or let anyone take that from me,” says Uchis. Her mystifying aura, substantial musical prowess and aesthetic seem to reference every marginalized subculture of last 50 years. Already celebrated amongst diverse circles for some time now, Kali Uchis is a safe bet to soon to be a more broadly recognized phenom. …
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Next Wave Woman: Jacqueline Novak

by on April 23, 2015

It’s a great time to be a female comedian. With the rise of new media, women can steer their own career paths in innovative ways. The inventive, commanding, and very funny Jacqueline Novak is a shining example of this trend.

1029_Women_Leadership_JacquelineA former poet, Novak’s lyrical tendencies weave throughout Quality Notions. Her voice is a brassy, lilting, cocktail that’s equal parts Judy Tenuta, Amy Sedaris, and Megan Mullally, served with a twist of old-timey 1930s Gal Friday. She’s meta without disrupting her conversational delivery, flirting with established gender tropes before plunging into an alternate take so original that the audience forgets gender was ever a factor to begin with. Despite her disarming use of grammatical no-nos (ain’t is a favorite word), Novak’s fierce intellect demands to be reckoned with, whether explaining how to eat a single slice of pizza or expressing love “the hound’s way.” …
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Next Wave Woman: Tink

by on April 21, 2015

Trinity Home is the next woman you’ll be hearing on the bus, on TV and in the streets. Tink is her own new generation of performer, an extremely talented as a rapper, singer, actress and all around unique future sound.

1029_Women_Leadership_TinkTaking her youthful energy from Chicago to the world, Tink stands on her own with an original vocal style that grabs the listener and demands attention. Comparisons to Lauryn Hill, Missy and Tweet are apt but don’t fully describe Tink’s rare talent and originality. …
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Next Wave Woman: Chelsea Wolfe

by on April 15, 2015

You’d be hard-pressed to find a female singer-songwriter who appeals to metalheads and folkies alike. Chelsea Wolfe’s beautifully somber songs somehow traverse both realms. Her music has been aptly described as “drone-metal-art-folk.” She melds the dark, drones of doom metal with stark piano notes and guitar arpeggios – over which she sings in a haunting tenor trill. Her own compositions aside, she can cover the 1939 folk staple “You Are My Sunshine” alongside Burzum’s 1992 Norwegian black metal dirge “Black Spell Of Destruction” while retaining her signature sound and style.

1029_Women_Leadership_ChelseaChelsea began recording herself in her father’s home studio at age nine. When she began playing live, Chelsea preferred to perform in unorthodox locations like deserted nuclear plants, cathedrals and basements. Her lauded 2010 debut album The Grime and the Glow was recorded on a vintage eight-track. Her sophomore album Apokalypsis was tracked in a proper studio, but for Chelsea’s third full-length, Unknown Rooms: A Collection of Acoustic Songs, she chose to record deep in the woods of Northern California. …
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Anthony DeCurtis Chats With The Rolling Stones

by on April 9, 2015

In celebration of the The Rolling Stones’ ‘Zip Code’ tour, Pandora has launched a new station packed with handpicked track selections and exclusive commentary directly from the band. The interviews were conducted by award-winning author and journalist Anthony DeCurtis. In the special guest blog post below DeCurtis recounts his conversations with Mick, Keith and Ronnie in anticipation of their stateside tour. Listen to Zip Code Radio here.

A door opens in a hotel suite on Manhattan’s upper east side, and out steps Mick Jagger, characteristically full of energy. A few days before, I’d journeyed down to Soho to meet with Keith Richards, who strolled into the offices of his manager Jane Rose in an excellent mood, having just come from a long, celebratory lunch with his daughter Theodora, who turned thirty that day. Between those events, the genetically cheerful Ron Wood checked in by phone from London. All of this can mean only one thing: The Rolling Stones are going on the road again!

Rolling Stones_Brian RasicMore than fifty years ago, the Stones earned their reputation as “the greatest rock & roll band in the world,” and they still play with a ferocity that bands a third their age would envy. They’re booked stadiums for what they’re calling the Zip Code tour, but when the Stones take the stage, the bigger the venue, the bigger the impact.

“I’m hoping to turn every stadium into a club,” Keith says. “Thank God, we have Mick who can cover all the spectaculars, and the band, once we’re on stage, we feel like, ‘This is our club for the night – it’s just a big one!’” …
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Jack White’s Musical Lineage

by on January 27, 2015

Our curation team collaborated with in-house artist Carolyn Jaeger to produce this graphic of Jack White’s musical lineage, layered in the rings and bark of his own music. Vining upwards are the branches and leaves of the artists he’s produced and/or collaborated with. And of course his tree’s roots are robust with the influences that helped birth his sound, tone and vision. Click the image for detail.

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Hail to the King!

by on January 8, 2015

As we celebrate what would have been Elvis Presley’s 80th birthday, it’s crucial to remember four important sentences once sung by Mojo Nixon:

“Elvis is everywhere. Elvis is everything. Elvis is everybody. Elvis is still The King.”

Maybe Nixon wasn’t aware of it at the time, but the chorus of this 1987 recording can also be juxtaposed to the four main eras of Elvis.

Elvis is everywhere.

elvisrocknrollThis perfectly describes young Elvis. Memphis Elvis. In 1954 Sam Phillips rolled tape at Sun Studios of Elvis recording Arthur Crudup’s “That’s All Right (Mama).” By blending blues, honky tonk and rockabilly; Elvis changed the game. For a while it looked like teenagers and rock ‘n’ roll might just take over the world. Suddenly this young blue-eyed, pelvis-swaying sensation was everywhere. He was omnipresent. …
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From the Working Musician – Interview with Nina Lee of the Brentano String Quartet

by on November 1, 2012

Nina Lee has played cello in the Brentano String Quartet since 1998, a quartet founded in 1992 by four Juilliard graduates who now teach at Princeton, Columbia and Juilliard among others. As a member of a string quartet, Nina believes that the goal, unlike that of musicians in other genres, is to create the closest thing possible to what the composer envisioned. She told me that many times she has wished that she could simply call Beethoven and ask him, “Is this what you meant?”

Screen Shot 2012-11-01 at 9.18.04 AM.pngI was lucky to speak with Lee after she worked on the movie A Late Quartet, debuting November 2nd. The film is inspired by and structured around Beethoven’s Opus 131 String Quartet in C-Sharp minor. A Late Quartet’s director Yaron Zilberman was connected with the Brentano String Quartet because they, like Zilberman, had a fascination with Beethoven’s late quartet pieces and were creating their own project around these works. …
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