Make Room: Art from the Outside’s Coming In
Make is the brainchild of artists and filmmakers Scott Ogden and Malcolm Hearn. Produced by Asthmatic Kitty and released to DVD just this year, the documentary highlights the inspiring force behind the recording artist Sufjan Steven's 2010 album, The Age of Adz. The film received good reviews from many a substantial source, while outsider art has been welcomed further and further inside. Perhaps you ought to ...
Sufjan Stevens’s The Age of Adz and the Irony Spectrum
Recently, the indie music world has been pulled taut between two very distinct ends of its Irony-worldview spectrum. Irony – that all- encompassing value of conscious discordance held by artists and audiences dwelling in places like Brooklyn and Portland – is an ingredient that you could say gives music its “indie” status. And for all the smug defeatism on the Gen Me periphery, the independent music world see...
Ten Favorite Recordings from 2008(Give or Take Fifteen)
What would it mean to offer "The Top 10 Albums of 2008"? Not much. Even an elaborate description of how the selection process would not be enough to make sense of such a list. We all experience music differently. We have very personal encounters. And while there is such a thing as excellence, and yes we can discern the difference between a good song and a better song, it's almost impossible to come to a decision ...
Sandra McCracken:A Red Balloon of Hope (Part 2)
This is the second of a two-part interview with singer-songwriter Sandra McCracken. You can read the first part here. Is there a certain atmosphere in which you write best? A time of day, room in the house; tea or coffee? It happens sporadically; it's somewhat unexpected when that actually occurs. If I feel inspired to write something, I have to take advantage of it as quickly as I can because they are flee...
Sandra McCracken:A Red Balloon of Hope (Part 1)
Singer/songwriter Sandra McCracken has crafted beautiful, thought-provoking songs for seven albums now. Musically, she's well-known for folk-rock, pop, and Americana sensibilities; lyrically, she frames attentive, abstract ideas. On her latest album, Red Balloon, she marries her trademarks with innovative layers of electronic sound creating a work of ethereal spirit, as in the first song, "Guardian" - an organ ...
