http://blogs.wnyc.org/soundcheck Thu, 20 Nov 2008 18:43:39 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Fifteen years. Thirteen million dollars. One Axl Rose. This Sunday, the once-mythical Guns ‘n’ Roses album “Chinese Democracy” will finally see the light of day. (Well, the official version. It leaked like an antique dinghy.) But was it worth the wait? YOU TELL US! As of this morning, the full album is ... http://blogs.wnyc.org/soundcheck/2008/11/20/review-chinese-democracy-for-soundcheck/ My own experience with marching bands is pretty negligible – see my blog from Nov. 6 for the sad tale. Growing up in New York City, as the rest of the country likes to constantly remind us, is not like growing up in… well, the rest of the country. ... http://blogs.wnyc.org/soundcheck/2008/11/20/putting-the-i-in-marching-band/ The Clash, "Live At Shea Stadium" (Sony) The date was October 13, 1982. It was a rainy night at Shea Stadium, but 50,000 people turned out early for the concert by The Who. The reason they came out early, in the rain, was to hear the opening act. ... http://blogs.wnyc.org/soundcheck/2008/11/20/cd-picks-of-the-week/ I don’t remember when I first heard Frank Sinatra’s 1965 song "It Was A Very Good Year," mainly because that was grown-up music -- something for old people like my parents, who must’ve been well into their thirties, to listen to. I do remember when I first really listened ... http://blogs.wnyc.org/soundcheck/2008/11/19/a-happy-thought-whats-your-favorite-song-about-death/ Poor iTunes. Well, not literally poor… iTunes has become the world’s largest music retailer, selling 50 gazillion songs and bringing in a pile of money a mile high. But everyone seems to hate iTunes. They hate the DRM, or Digital Rights Management, that restricts the devices you ... http://blogs.wnyc.org/soundcheck/2008/11/18/why-hate-on-itunes/ The Beatles “White Album” is a mess. Whether it’s a glorious mess or a tedious scavenger hunt for good songs among two LPs worth of filler depends on your point of view. When the album came out, I was too young to know anything but the songs that ... http://blogs.wnyc.org/soundcheck/2008/11/17/the-white-album/ The term "Renaissance man" gets thrown around a little too easily these days. If you can sing and you can act, you’re proclaimed a Renaissance man (usually by writers who can do neither). Quincy Jones, though, comes close. One of music’s great arrangers and producers (already two ... http://blogs.wnyc.org/soundcheck/2008/11/14/quincy-and-henry-whats-next/ Compiling any sort of “best of” list is a provocative thing to do. Yes, on one level all you’re doing is saying, hey, I like these songs, or these athletes, or whatever the list is about. But on a deeper level, you’re putting the list out there so other ... http://blogs.wnyc.org/soundcheck/2008/11/13/naming-the-500-best-songs-of-the-past-30-years/ The Pulitzer Prize-winning music critic Justin Davidson wrote a review a few years back about the opera “St. Francis of Assisi,” by the 20th century Frenchman Olivier Messiaen. Messiaen’s musical language is a blend of the modernist and the mystic – incorporating allusions to medieval chant, Hindu rhythms, and ... http://blogs.wnyc.org/soundcheck/2008/11/12/gospel-message-and-medium/ I think “Lili Marlene” is a great example of how a song can be appreciated by people for things that were never intended by its author. Liel Liebovitz and Matthew Miller have told the gripping story of how the song spanned two World Wars, and became a kind ... http://blogs.wnyc.org/soundcheck/2008/11/10/the-remarkable-story-of-lili-marlene/