Sam Long, the gorgeous genius man behind the best album we never posted, has been hard at work for the past year writing an album of songs that celebrate and explore the Connecticut River. The album, From Source to Sea, is a beautiful testament to Sam’s vision, and will finally be played in its full form this weekend. Combining his deep interests in music, nature, environmental science, and sustainability, he will be presenting this project at 2 pm on Saturday afternoon at Wesleyan University’s Memorial Chapel, performing these songs with a small ensemble of musicians who have aptly named themselves The Honey and the Sting. Gemma Smith, Jessica Best, Mel Hsu, and Howe Pearson round out this talented crew, which you can watch in the video above singing the album’s first song while sitting together at Sam’s dinner table.
Sam originally intended to present this music in an outdoor concert running off of electricity created by friends pedaling bicycle-powered generators, intended to counteract any harmful impact the concert might have on the environment. Sadly and somewhat ironically, nature has thwarted that plan, and due to a terrible weather forecast for Saturday, The Honey and the Sting have decided to compensate by unplugging completely, and will be playing the music totally acoustic in the chapel. If you watch even five seconds of the teaser video, you’ll know beyond a shadow of a doubt that this group will be right at home presenting the warm, rich textures of Sam’s music in that organic and intimate setting. If you are anywhere near the Wesleyan campus tomorrow afternoon, you know where you need to be.
Sam Long, with The Honey and The Sting
“From Source to Sea: A River Album”
Saturday, March 30th at 2 pm
Memorial Chapel at Wesleyan University
The Robert Glasper Experiment is back with a sharp new cover of “Afro Blue,” with help from none other than neo soul royalty Erykah Badu. The first single off of the band’s forthcoming release, Black Radio, Glasper and his team (drummer Chris Dave, bassist Derrick Hodge, and sax player Casey Benjamin) slip a shot of modern soul into the intricate fusion of Glasper’s signature warm, dark jazz. Hints of the Experiment’s well-known technical virtuosity peek their heads around the corners on this one, but for the most part, they keep it simple, locking into the groove and letting Erykah’s vocals take us home.
Black Radio drops February 28th on Blue Note/EMI. Cop it when it drops.
Jay Smooth recently gave a talk at TED x Hampshire College in which he discussed race, more specifically, how to have careful and constructive conversations about race and discrimination with the people in one’s life. This section of the talk is a response to his own Ill Doctrine video blog from 2008, “How to Tell People They Sound Racist.” While his commentary in that video was very much on point, Jay Smooth’s TED talk goes to much greater lengths to really get to the heart of why race can be such a divisive issue even among close friends, and about how to be mindful in a way that allows us to be more open to acknowledging our own inherent prejudice, and how to engage others about theirs. While fact that this TED talk happened at all is beautiful in itself, the actual substance of the talk is so vitally important that I sincerely hope everyone who sees this post watches this video. This is one of the most brilliant and conscientious social commentators of our time addressing one of the most sensitive and divisive issues of our time in way that is simultaneously incisive and compassionate. Watch the video to see why this man is worth learning from.
Last week, Bon Iver stopped by Later…With Jools Holland with their 9-piece armada of a tour band, a group that has helped Justin Vernon bring his songs to new heights on stages around the world this year. Not much else needs to be said here. The performances of “Perth” and “Towers” stand for themselves, examples of one of the most talented and innovative artists making music right now, surrounded by talented friends and collaborators, doing what he does best. Check out the videos above and below.
For more, check out NPR’s stream of the Washington D.C. show from Bon Iver’s recent U.S. tour right HERE.
At a time when the Occupy Movement rages around the country, a network of protesters fueled by the idea that the modern-day monarchs of our society (read: corporations) have not acted responsibly in their positions of power, the Minnesota-bred Doomtree crew has unveiled a brand new record, No Kings. “It’s sort of a general philosophy that we have that to me means acknowledging your own sovereignty,” Doomtree emcee Sims said in a recent interview with Mezzic.com, “You accept no oppression and no authoritarian rule over yourself. And you make up the rules for you. And you treat everyone with the same amount of respect. You don’t try to rule over anybody else. And you accept no rules over yourself.” That definitely sounds like the kind of philosophy that could come out of an Occupy Wall Street protester’s mouth, but Sims also gets even more specific when it comes to what the phrasemeans for Doomtree as independent musicians: “We never tried to work with a major label or anything like that. We sort of don’t take losses, we do this on our own. We appreciate people who have done it on their own in their past and those in the future who will do it on their own.” With this mantra, Doomtree has been Occupying the music industry for years, doing their own damn thing and steadily gaining clout through a do-it-yourself approach that relies on passion, determination, and hard work. And that work has definitely paid off.
For those who are unfamiliar, Doomtree is a close-knit 7-member independent hip-hop collective from the Twin Cities made up of P.O.S., Dessa, Sims, Cecil Otter, Mike Mictlan, Paper Tiger, and Lazerbeak. It’s been 3 years and change since the group released their first full-length collaborative album, and while the following years were stacked with critically acclaimed solo albums from Doomtree members, there were only cursory mentions of another crew record until recently, when the label kicked things into high gear for a new project. Mainly written and mapped out at a Wisconsin cabin during an intensive recording retreat, and tracked back in the Twin Cities at The Hideaway, the album’s overall sound has largely been a mystery until this past Wednesday night, when TheNewConfusion team and many others got a chance to hear some of the new tracks live during Doomtree’s midnight set at The Knitting Factory in Brooklyn. Fans and readers, rest easy. No Kings is full of the aggressive, DIY, genre-busting hip-hop sound that Doomtree fans know and love, but with a fresh infusion of crunchy electronic synths and rhythmic alterations that innovate on the group’s sonic aesthetic while remaining true to what they do best. Doomtree’s self-proclaimed most cohesive and collaborative crew effort to date, No Kings drops on November 22nd. The first single, “The Grand Experiment,” is right here to back up the hype.
Yasiin Bey (formerly Mos Def) and Talib Kweli swung through The Colbert Report last week to perform “Fix Up,” the first brand new Black Star song we’ve heard in ages. If you’re no longer paying attention to this post because you are wondering why the hell Mos Def is changing is name to Yasiin Bey, [...]
This week marks a decade since the tragic passing of the beloved R&B singer Aaliyah, who died in a plane crash near the Bahamas in 2001. An artist who powerfully pushed the boundaries of R&B in the late 1990′s, Aaliyah combined her trademark falsetto with edgy, innovative hip-hop beats and unconventional cadences to innovate on [...]
Of course, many music fans have been buzzing about Kanye West and Jay-Z’s upcoming Watch The Throne, but this new remix of their single, “Otis,” by Philly-born musician Mike Taylor is definitely something most fans won’t be expecting. You might remember Mike as Tu Phace, who we’ve featured on this site before, but though this [...]
Who else but the Twin Cities’ own Doomtree crew would be behind a project that combines the music of legendary hip-hop group the Wu-Tang Clan with that of infamous post-harcore band Fugazi? The answer: probably no one. To Doomtree fans who heard Doomtree’s own P.O.S. reference Fugazi on his song, “Savion Glover,” from the Never [...]
Drake is back, and the first leaks from his upcoming album, Take Care, are definitely a step in the right direction. Some of you might remember me posting last May about an up-and-coming artist out of the UK named Jai Paul, who was turning a lot of heads with his song “BTSU.” Though Jai Paul, [...]
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