Madison Music Review

Madison's trusted source for all good music - photos, reviews, previews, interviews, and more... The summer festival season is upon us and the shows we've seen this year have been a blast - Movement/Detroit's Electronic Music Festival, Yahara Waterfront Festival, Summerfest, and La Fête de Marquette. We'll continue posting reviews and pictures from the festival season and plenty of great music coming through town and around.

What a pleasure listening to cuatro music from Puerto Rico courtesy of the Nieves family this past weekend at Madison’s oldest park festival. The cuatro is a 10-stringed instrument belonging to the guitar family, and is the national instrument of Puerto Rico. Christian Nieves is today probably the most well known of the cuatristas and has been active in the revival and resurgence of tradition-inspired music akin to a country orchestra, with newer flavors of jazz and pop infused in. The brother and sister team were accompanied by William Gracia (conga), Josue Figueroa Ferrer (drums), Joy Emmanuel Santiago (bass), and Manolo Hernandez (chorus, percussion). The band does sure know how to get a crowd dancing on their feet, with Christian tearing it up on the strings… here are some pictures from the show. Enjoy!

I really dug this video. It’s a cool project, and I like the music too. But then, I’m a big time sucker for a choir.

I actually wound up watching several of their videos. I know some of my friends will enjoy this. I hope you are one of them!

Big Head Todd and the Monsters put on a great show last night. Todd Park Mohr led the Capitol Theater crowd through a memorable set list.  They came out strong with John Lee Hooker‘s  “Boom Boom” and later played the expected BHTM classics: “Resignation Superman”,  “Broken Hearted Savior” and “Bittersweet”.  The band felt really interested in showing it’s fans a good time and ended with a powerful encore version of  “Circle”.

Seldom do I come across an album that has me go searching the corners of the world to snag a copy on vinyl. That was the case with Charanjit Singh‘s Ten Ragas To A Disco Beat, first released back in 1982 on EMI India and more recently, restored and remastered edition in March 2010 on the Amsterdam/Mumbai-based label, Bombay Connection. I first heard about the album a couple of months ago through friends and blog post discussions centering on the use of the Roland Jupiter 8 synthesizer, TB-303 bass synthesizer and TR-808 drum machine by a Mr. Singh to create futuristic acid tracks on this 1982 release. I had come across the name once before in a Bombay Connection release A couple of listens to tracks on Youtube and I was hooked on the synthesized melodies, so-Detroit basslines and insanely-fast-for-the-times techno beats. The music sounded fresh, more like stuff produced in the current century rather than some 30 years ago! The tinny sounds emanating from my laptop speakers do not do justice to the sound and I had to get my hands on the sweet, sweet vinyl.

And so began the chase. We like to support local business so first a couple of e-mails and trips to all the local record haunts. No luck. In fact, none of the distributors for the local stores had the album listed on their catalogs. With no possibility of getting a copy in Madison, the search expanded to stores across the US but no luck there either. A couple of raised expectations but those withered away into the ether when I clicked on ‘submit order’… go figure? I had been trying to avoid shipping the album in from Europe, with the painful shipping charges and all, but had to succumb to the beat and ended up picking up the Bombay Connection release along with a stack of wax from Honest Jon’s in London… some Moritz Von Oswald, Scion, Rob Hood and more (:))… but I digress.

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Matthew Dear (Ghostly International)  is an American music producer, DJ and electronic avant-pop artist. His new full length release drops on August 17, 2010. Check out the teaser below…you can definitely hear the David Bowie and Nitzer Ebb influences.

Matthew Dear – Black City Teaser from Ghostly International on Vimeo.

Warm summer breezes, a multitude of colorful dragon flies and good bluegrass and traditional music greeted those who attended the 2010 Sugar Maple Festival. The scene was one of family friendly fun, with random bluegrass and Celtic jam sessions going throughout the day. Featured in the images are Tim O’Brien, Jackstraw (Bluegrass) and Ginny Hawker & Tracy Schwarz (Appalachian Mountain Music).

Memphis, Tennessee’s Lucero packed the High Noon Saloon with it’s unique flavor of punk rock roots twang. This band played for the first time in early 1998 and since 2001, they have played between 150 and 200 shows a year across the United States and Canada. They have released seven full length albums, the latest entitled 1372 Overton Park.