Music & More

Mindy Smith gave the listeners of WXPN and NPR.org a nice preview of her new album due next month during her Free at Noon concert broadcast live today from the downstairs stage at World Cafe Live in Philadelphia. Long Island Shores won't be released until October 10th but the set included a healthy sampling of songs from it, all seeming on first listen to feature the same exquisite melodic songwriting that made One Moment More (2004) such a remarkable debut album. Her band consisted of Lex Price who also co-produced the new album, on guitar and mandolin, and James DiGirolamo who added some really tasteful keyboards and accordion to the mix. The arrangements were delicate and beautiful and meshed perfectly with Mindy's voice and showcased the amazingly great sonic capability of the sound system at the World Cafe Live downstairs venue. The WXPN Free at Noon concerts are now being archived for on demand listening at NPR.org , so you can have a listen anytime. Here is the setli...

Zach Braff's handpicked music helped propel sales of the soundtrack from his Garden State (2004) to the tune of over a million copies, making it one of the top selling soundtracks ever. Although Braff didn't write or direct his new movie, The Last Kiss which opened today, he was tapped to select the music for it which makes the soundtrack something of an event unto itself. In one of the most ingenious movie promotion events ever, Braff was given the airwaves of radio station KDLD in Santa Monica for the entire afternoon of September 3rd and he invited five of his favorite artists to come and play live. The five artists naturally are all featured on The Last Kiss Sountrack (2006): Schuyler Fisk, Cary Brothers, Rachael Yamagata, Imogen Heap, and Remy Zero, three of whom were also on the Garden State Soundtrack. The live performances were also filmed in high definition video (deluxe edition bonus dvd perhaps?) and began streaming today on the Rehearsals.com website. I've b...

Despite the ever escalating hype surrounding the 5th anniversary of 9/11 that otherwise makes me want to avoid all television, radio and newpapers this week (do we really need Giant Supermarkets to tell us with a full page newspaper ad to "Remember 9/11"), Larry Kirwan's personal remembrance of that day and his take on it cuts through the media din like a breath of fresh air. Kirwan is an Irish-born New Yorker who leads the band Black 47; in addition to being a singer, songwriter, and musician, Kirwan is also a poet, author, and radio host. The following is reprinted by permission from his newsletter of 9/06/06. It will be five years on Monday since the Twin Towers were attacked. What changes have overcome us! It's not that we haven't recovered from the shock. Still, there is a rip in the fabric of our society that has yet to be repaired. I've often wondered why. All I can figure is that when those three thousand people departed the city, they took with them a...

Ebba Forsberg has just released her self-titled third album in Sweden. Known in the U.S. primarily for her excellent first album Been There (1997) , this intense singer-songwriter from Stockholm released her 2nd album True Love (2001) in Europe only, although it is currently available here digitally via emusic.com . The following description of the new album was posted on Ebba's MySpace blog by her MySpace Guru. Greetings all -- The new EBBA FORSBERG album is out today in Sweden! Reviews have been wonderful, feedback exceptional. Written by Ebba (words and music) and recorded either in her living room or in the studio together w/ her talented backing musicians, the album is both an amazing personal statement -- deep and dark -- and an exquisite musical adventure. As you have noticed with the tracks here on myspace, the voice -- ahh the voice -- is assured and knowing, the melodies simple and straightforward, the instrumentation warm and uncluttered. This is the heart of the musica...

There's just one week left to submit your selections for WXPN 's listener survey to determine the 885 Greatest Artists of all time. Go to xpn's website to submit your top ten list which also enters you in a contest to win the complete cd catalog of each of the top three artists as voted by the listenership. Voting deadline is September 10th. Check out the xpn discussion boards which always heat up during the countdown, with real time critiques, reaction and tears as the results are revealed. Also check out xpn's staff and artist picks , and xpn's music blog . For most music lovers, selecting ten artists as the all time greatest is a ridiculous task, and an incredibly arbitrary one at that. Station Manager Roger LeMay's goal is to get 10,000 listeners to vote their top ten in order to generate a master list of the 885 all time greatest artists which will be counted down this fall during a couple of great broadcast weeks in which the normal format is abandoned a...

Nina Gordon's first solo album Tonight and the Rest of My Life (Warner Brothers, 2000), with its excellent title track single, seemed to apply for the job opening vacated by Madonna when she gave up writing classic pop/rock songs in favor of sex/rap and electronica. Six years later, Bleeding Heart Graffiti nicely picks up right where the first left off. With a fresh sounding and appealing voice that falls somewhere between Madonna, Juliana Hatfield and Aimee Mann, and armed with a great set of new original tunes, Nina has come up with a very solid second album. Producer Bob Rock (his real name, thankfully), who also produced her first album, doesn't hesitate to pull out all the stops production-wise when needed, allowing Bleeding Heart Graffiti to fully realize the sort of quality pop/rock that you just don't hear much anymore on the radio or on the charts. Here's hoping that there's still an audience out there who will appreciate this. Visit Nina Gordon's We...