Vance Gilbert is, in his own words, "big in the music business like a barnacle is big in shipping". Performing solo with acoustic guitar, his
original music (including songs about
Old White Men,
Gilligan and
the planet Pluto) and some
well-chosen covers, as well as his
on-stage banter, have
charmed audiences all over* for umpteen years. He has
made a reply to CeeLo's infamous song,
performed alongside Arlo Guthrie while having an attack of gout and in his spare time, he makes
free-flying models of
antique airplanes. But sadly, he has just gotten the most publicity of his career... as an
unwilling participant in one airline's Security Theater. (Story picked up by
The Consumerist,
the Economist, and
James Fallows at the Atlantic.)
[more inside]
posted by oneswellfoop
on Aug 26, 2011 -
55 comments
The Avant Garde Project is a series of recordings of 20th-century classical, experimental, and electroacoustic music digitized from LPs whose music has in most cases never been released on CD, and so is effectively inaccessible to the vast majority of music listeners today. Until now, of course.
[more inside]
posted by carsonb
on Jun 28, 2011 -
17 comments
Aman
da Walther and Shei
la Carabine became friends in Canadian high school band. They now make up
Dala, an accoustic folk pop duo who sing songs like the cutesy pop song
Levi Blues,
Alive about a hellish New Years Eve in an old cabin,
Marilyn Monroe about coming of age, and the more serious
Horses, a song dedicated to a paraplegic teenager. They have opened for Neko Case, Tom Cochrane, and Matthew Good and covered
Neil Young.
posted by mccarty.tim
on May 19, 2010 -
9 comments
Much-missed acoustic guitarist Isaac Guillory thrilled audiences around the UK, accumulating die-hard fans wherever he went. For those who never had the chance to see him perform, this extremely
rare broadcast-
quality footage of a classic 1991 concert (made available on YouTube by one of the cameramen who filmed it), is the next best thing.
[more inside]
posted by tomcooke
on Feb 2, 2010 -
6 comments
Visualizing Whale Songs "
Mark Fischer, an expert in marine acoustics, has come up with another way to
illustrate whale song. He uses a more obscure method, known as the wavelet transform, which represents the sound in terms of components known as wavelets: short, discrete waves that are better at capturing cetacean song."
posted by dhruva
on Jan 29, 2010 -
12 comments
Concert promoter LiveDaily has an acoustic live sessions program (video starts playing). It's been running since March of this year and so far 33 artists have performed:
Priscilla Ahn,
The Raveonettes,
Black Lips,
Paddy Casey,
Dawn Landes,
Lykke Li,
The Duke Spirit,
Frightened Rabbit,
Foreign Born,
The Dodos,
The Virgins,
Radar Bros.,
Langhorne Slim,
Shwayze,
Joseph Arthur,
Missy Higgins,
Wild Sweet Orange,
Le Switch,
Deadly Syndrome,
Steve Poltz,
Weather Underground,
Imaad Wasif,
Rogue Wave,
David Ford,
Takka Takka,
Black Ghosts,
The Airborne Toxic Event,
Tally Hall,
Lionel Loueke,
Calico Horse,
Rademacher,
Judith Owen and
Carrie Rodriguez
posted by Kattullus
on Sep 30, 2008 -
10 comments
Folk/acoustic Friday: braving
infatuation, heartbreak, pregnancy, Thatcherism, corporate drudgery and bad 90s hair, these artists come bearing gifts.
[more inside]
posted by aihal
on Apr 11, 2008 -
2 comments
He wasn't the greatest technician on earth (he only studied a short time with a teacher, as states his
biography), he wasn't really famous outside Brazil, in spite of the
many recordings available under his name, of his various talents (
drawing, designing a
new string instrument), but his playing is really endearing, and whatever the material,
originals,
bach or
chico buarque, he made his point across easily.
posted by nicolin
on Aug 11, 2007 -
9 comments
Isaac Guillory was widely regarded as probably the best acoustic guitarist in Britain.
These three clips from a Berkeley performance in 1989 show why he is still much missed.
posted by teleskiving
on Jul 2, 2007 -
13 comments
Does concert music have a place in our digital future? These musicians are making a strong case in the affirmative--
Aphex Twin at Lincoln Center? Listen to samples
here (I particularly like
this one), and a
whole track here.
Concert music (live music, composed mostly in advance, played mainly on acoustic instruments) has had a hard time this past century, adjusting to all of the paradigm shifts that technology has brought, from player pianos all the way to iPods. Classically trained musicians are branching out in some divergent, clever ways….A few interesting examples can be heard
here, and
here (from
this album), and
here (I especially like
this one).
posted by LooseFilter
on Jul 24, 2005 -
22 comments
Mystery of 'chirping' pyramid decoded: "A theory that the ancient Mayans built their pyramids to act as giant resonators to produce strange and evocative echoes has been supported by a team of Belgian scientists." Others are not so sure... Coincidence, or engineering? Did the designers of
El Castillo pyramid cannily build in a sound effect that mimics the warble of the sacred quetzal bird? Listen for yourself, with the
.wav file (first set is the real bird, the second is the pyramid) featured in
this Acoustical Society of America page. I prefer to think it's deliberate; after all, it's possible that early man was experimenting with cave acoustics to to create
sound-enhanced rock art (there are sound samples for this included
here - unfortunately a Geocities site). Also of interest, the BBC programme "
Acoustic Shadows"
(requires RealPlayer - *heavy sigh*).
posted by taz
on Feb 8, 2005 -
24 comments
