Saturday Night at the Palladium

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Aditya Sareen, Adventure Club, Bach Off, balcony, bassline, Caked Up, Daily Trojan, dance floor, Destroid, drum and bass, drumset, dubstep, electric guitar, Flux Pavilion, guitar, heavy metal, Hollywood, Hollywood Palladium, I Can’t Stop, Los Angeles, melody, Oscar Wylde, Queen, Safe In Sound Festival, Star Wars Rebels, synth-pop, synthesizer, Terravita, Tetris, Toccata and Fugue in D minor, Tron, Vegas Banger, We Will Rock You

The Hollywood Palladium

Flux Pavilion recently said he does not believe dubstep is dying as a genre, and that certainly seemed to be the theme of the Safe In Sound Festival. Five artists lined up at the Hollywood Palladium on 18 October 2014 to prove that catchy synths and wobbling basslines are still very much in fashion.

One would not peg the Hollywood Palladium as a venue to host a music “festival,” but surprisingly, it gelled extremely well with the size and theme of Safe In Sound. The circular dance floor, surrounded by balconies on all sides, ensured that everyone could have the type of concert experience they preferred. Lines were manageable for the concert, and getting inside took less than fifteen minutes, which is almost unheard of for a lineup such as this one.

The lineup could best be described in one word: eclectic. Every single artist brought something new to the floor that distinguished him or her from the rest, yet kept with the dubstep genre in some way. Terravita opened up the night with some pulse pounding basslines and revved up the crowd in preparation for the bigger acts to come. The band’s style is most distinctly reflected in their popular single Bach Off, where they combine orchestral sounds akin to those of Bach [Toccata and Fugue in D minor (BWV 565)] with nervewracking bass to create a powerful mixture. The trio, hailing from Los Angeles, proves that not everything in dubstep is generic.

Caked Up, the duo comprised of Oscar Wylde and Vegas Banger, went on next, showcasing the kind of music that can only be enjoyed with bass that pops eardrums. Their blend of trap and dubstep featured some surprises, such as a remix of the Tetris theme that nobody expected in what was an applause-worthy set.

It was at first confusing to see a drumset and guitars being set up on stage next, but all was explained once Destroid, the heavy metal trio, came on. Never has the medley of dark chords on the guitar, metal band screaming and wobbling bass sounded so right. Donning matching suits with Tron-esque lights synced to the music, their performance was certainly one to remember.

Then came on the first of the two headlining acts: Adventure Club. Their signature style of dubstep infused with reflective melodies and heartwarming vocals are always a pleasure to hear. They played tracks that have shot them up to fame and also debuted two unreleased singles. With some stage dives and bouncy props, they interacted with the crowd the most out of any act, which is admirable considering the size of the event.

Staying true to tradition, the festival saved the best for last, as a roaring crowd welcomed Flux Pavilion himself to the stage. His thumping beats infused with catchy synths stand as a testament to his superior control over this genre. But rather than stick to dubstep, Flux played tunes from a whole range of genres, including trap, drum and bass, and a great rendition of Queen’s We Will Rock You. He sent shivers through the crowd with his signature track, I Can’t Stop, and surprised everyone when he pulled out the theme for Star Wars Rebels that he had been working on. This was one night where Flux proved he was as diverse as any artist in the electronic dance music scene.

All in all, Safe In Sound was as its name describes; a comfortable and fun music experience that brought along some great surprises, a sold out Hollywood Palladium and stellar performances from each of the artists.

Aditya Sareen – Daily Trojan

A Guitar God Lives

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amplifier, arpeggio, Caprice no. 24 in A minor, CD, computer, Concerto Suite for Electric Guitar and Orchestra in E-flat minor, Dreaming (Tell Me), DVD, Eddie van Halen, electric guitar, Fender Musical Instruments Corporation, Fireball, Genesis, grunge, guitar, Guitar Hero, guitar pick, heavy metal, Jim Fusilli, Jimi Hendrix, karate, long-playing record, Los Angeles, Marshall Amplification, Orlando, Paganini, popular music, Pro Tools, Rising Force, rock and roll, Rock Band, Ron Thal, Sayreville, shred guitar, shredding, Stockholm, Stratocaster, Swedish, Tampa, tennis, The Wall Street Journal, Tony Banks, video game, Woodland Hills, Yngwie Malmsteen, YouTube

Yngwie Malmsteen

A household name in heavy-metal shredding, guitarist Yngwie J. Malmsteen describes himself as stubborn and dictatorial. “I’m very set in my ways and not necessarily in a bad manner,” he said over breakfast. “I know what I want and I go for it.” Though his style of music isn’t as popular as it once was, he presses on with renewed vigor, his titanic talent intact.

Now on tour with Guitar Gods, a mind-warping, blizzard-of-notes-per-bar bill that also features guitarists Bumblefoot – Ron Thal‘s stage name – and Gary Hoey, Mr. Malmsteen, 50, is getting ready for the release in August of a live DVD and CD, recorded in Orlando and Tampa, respectively.

Ranked with Jimi Hendrix and Eddie Van Halen as innovators of electric rock guitar, the Stockholm native became obsessed with the instrument after he received a copy of Deep Purple‘s Fireball for his eighth birthday. But though he admired the band’s guitarist Ritchie Blackmore, young Yngwie was even more intrigued by the work of Genesis keyboardist Tony Banks, who made references in his compositions to J. S. Bach. In fact, it was a recording of a Niccolò Paganini composition that helped Mr. Malmsteen find his musical voice. Paganini’s Caprice no. 24 in A minor would eventually become a model for his style, which relies heavily on clearly articulated arpeggios and dazzling speed. “Niccolò Paganini and Johann Sebastian Bach with a Strat and a stack of Marshalls” is how Mr. Malmsteen described his approach last week, referring to his Fender Stratocaster guitar and Marshall amplifiers, his preferred gear.

He arrived in Los Angeles in 1983, recruited by a producer who placed him in a group that was beneath his talents. “It was the most banal band I could be with, but I wanted to be on a piece of vinyl,” Mr. Malmsteen said. “It wasn’t an ideal situation, but I knew I was going somewhere.” He released his first solo album a year later.

With ear-splitting, classically influenced shredding as his trademark, Mr. Malmsteen quickly became a star – and lived the lifestyle that went with it: In 1987, while driving drunk, he plowed into a tree near his home in Woodland Hills, CA, and was in a coma for a week.

“A lot of people pine for the ’80s,” he said. “I don’t.” No longer a drinker, Mr. Malmsteen’s game these days is tennis. Framed by right-angle mutton chops, his moon face was bright, his smile engaging. Vitamins went down with his scrambled eggs.

With the arrival of grunge music, the ’90s were a bleak period for gonzo guitarists such as Mr. Malmsteen, who had no US record deal and relied on touring in Japan and South America to keep going. Late in the decade, he composed Concerto Suite for Electric Guitar and Orchestra in E-flat minor, op. 1. Many rock artists have played with full orchestras, but Mr. Malmsteen said his concerto was the first to be composed in a classical mode with electric guitar as the solo instrument.

The recording industry in a shambles, his career received an unexpected boost via Guitar Hero and Rock Band, video games that featured his challenging music. Footage of his wild performances were viewed by millions on YouTube – the kind of exposure, Mr. Malmsteen said, that was impossible when the industry was in control. Resistant initially to new recording techniques, he eventually used Pro Tools software on his home-studio computer to record his most recent album, Spellbound (2012), which he released on his own label.

“In a bizarre way it’s like I was going back to when I was seventeen years old,” he said of life in rock’s new model. “I had no expectation of radio airplay, no anything else.” As a teen in Stockholm, he explained, “I would play a seventeen-minute guitar solo, sing four bars, and do another seventeen-minute guitar solo. That was the greatest means of expression then. I love to have that feeling.”

At the Starland Ballroom in Sayreville, NJ, a wall of Marshalls at his back, Mr. Malmsteen jumped and karate-kicked, spun the guitar around his back, flung picks at the rabid audience and discharged a torrent of fully articulated thirty-second notes – all during Rising Force, his first number. Later, he offered the Bach-influenced Dreaming (Tell Me) on acoustic guitar before returning to his Strat for metal’s roar. His relentless attack seemed effortless, and never did he seem to mind that he was playing for far fewer people than when he filled stadiums in his glory days.

“I don’t know what the carrot in front of me is,” he said the morning before the show. “I take criticism and praise the same way. Of course, everyone likes to hear good things, but I don’t change. I know what I’m doing.”

Jim Fusilli – The Wall Street Journal

The Hip Side of the Accordion

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accordion, Accordions Around the World, American Accordionists’ Association, Arcde Fire, Art Linowitz, Art Now, bachata, Beethoven, Beirut, bluegrass, Bob Goldberg, Bob Marley, Bruce Springsteen, Bryant Park, Calexico, Chantale Urbain, Chopin, Copland, Dancing with the Stars, Decemaberists, drums, Eric Clapton, Euclid, Flogging Molly, forró, Frank Zappa, Frankie Yankovic, Gogol Bordello, gospel song, Graceland, Grammy Award, Green Day, guitar, heavy metal, hipster, Jean-François Leclerc, Jimi Hendrix, John Mellencamp, Journey, kitsch, klezmer, Lady of Spain, Larry Rohter, Lawrence Welk, Les Poissons Voyageurs, Linda Soley Reed, Marion Jacobson, Matt Dallow, melody, Montréal, Mumford & Sons, musette, musicology, New York, No Woman No Cry, Paint It Black, Paul Simon, Peaches en Regalia, percussion, Phillip Racz, piano, Pogues, polka, popular music, qawwali, Quebec, reggae, rock and roll, Rolling Stones, Scriabin, Sheryl Crow, Squeeze This!: A Cultural History of the Accordion in America, tango, The New York Times, The Voice, Thelonious Monk, They Might Be Giants, Titano Accordion Company, Tom Waits, vallenato, zydeco

Matt Dallow playing a Titano “Combo ‘Cordion”

The accordion just can’t get no respect.

Guitar players have Eric Clapton and Jimi Hendrix as avatars; accordionists are stuck, at least in the public mind, with Lawrence Welk and Frankie Yankovic. Pianists have the works of Bach, Chopin and Scriabin to challenge them; accordion players are saddled with requests for Lady of Spain and the monotonous oompah oompah of the polka.

But the free Accordions Around the World festival at (New York’s) Bryant Park this summer is offering accordionists an opportunity to change the stodgy image of their instrument, which was invented in Europe in the nineteenth century. Every Thursday through 29 August 2013, from 5pm onward, accordion players are stationed around the park, where they perform a varied repertory meant to show off their instrument’s versatility and range.

In keeping with its name, the festival’s emphasis is on folk and international genres like zydeco, vallenato, tango, klezmer, musette, qawwali, forró, bachata and the music of the Balkans. But last week’s edition, with twenty accordionists involved, also found Matt Dallow playing the Rolling Stones’ Paint It Black, Phillip Racz covering Frank Zappa’s Peaches en Regalia and Art Linowitz, who performs as Art Now, serving up Bob Marley’s No Woman, No Cry.

“People will still say, ‘Hey, play a polka,’ because they still have that niche thing in their heads and pigeonhole the accordion as lame and kind of kitschy” said Mr. Linowitz, who will also be performing at the festival this week. “But I’ll play anything – Journey, heavy metal, Jimi Hendrix. It’s a goof, but I think you can do anything on an accordion.”

Conversations with the accordionists at the festival revealed a clear generational divide. Those in their fifties or older, like Mr. Linowitz, who is 64, showed a certain defensiveness about their choice of instrument. But the players in their thirties or younger had an entirely different attitude: proud, assertive, even arguing that their instrument has acquired an aura of hipness.

“Lawrence Welk played the squarest music this side of Euclid, and because of him, the accordion was lambasted as corny,” explained Marion Jacobson, a musicologist who is the author of Squeeze This!: A Cultural History of the Accordion in America. “But teenagers and people in their twenties are unlikely even to have heard of him, which means the accordion is now baggage-free and ready to participate in all the world music, ethnic and folk styles that have developed since the 1980s.”

Ms. Jacobson also mentioned that she had noticed what she called a “wave of hipster accordion playing.” She then rattled off a list of indie and punk rock performers who include the accordion in their instrumentation – They Might Be Giants, Arcade Fire, the Decemberists, Beirut, Calexico, Green Day, Gogol Bordello, Flogging Molly, the Pogues – and also noted that “certain rock stars, like John Mellencamp, Bruce Springsteen and Sheryl Crow, have adopted it as a side instrument to show their links with rootsiness.”

Among the performers featured at the festival last week was the Montreal-based ensemble Les Poissons Voyageurs, which will be playing again this Thursday. The group is notable not only for its eclectic style, which members describe as “Russian bluegrass and Gypsy gospel,” but also because it has two accordion players, Jean-François Leclerc and Chantale Urbain.

“The goal of Les Poissons Voyageurs is to gather music and songs from everywhere we go, and the accordion is an instrument that can be put into every kind of music style or situation,” Mr. Leclerc, 23, said. “Really, there is no limit. At the beginning, it wasn’t my primary instrument; I studied classical percussion, but you can’t really play alone as a drummer, whereas with an accordion you can, because it’s complete, an orchestra in itself.”

Ms. Urbain, 28, was originally a pianist but switched to the accordion because, she said, “it’s pretty hard to carry a piano and travel,” adding that pianos are often out of tune at bars and clubs. “This is a good instrument for traveling, it doesn’t need amplification, and you can play melody and accompaniment,” she continued. “In Quebec, the accordion had an image as something for old people, mainly men, but I have really come to love this instrument.”

On 15 August 2013, as part of festivities marking the seventy-fifth anniversary of its founding, the American Accordionists’ Association plans to bring seventy-five accordionists to Bryant Park to play and jam together, with New York, New York already on the set list. The organization will also be holding its annual convention here that week, and the group’s president, Linda Soley Reed, said that both turnout and interest in the instrument have grown in recent years, especially among young people. “A lot of our younger crackerjack players are going to come over, to show that we are not a dying breed,” she said. “I think we are long past the oompah problem. You see accordions on TV shows like The Voice and even Dancing With the Stars, and it was uplifting for me to see Mumford & Sons win a Grammy with an accordion on stage. All of that adds to a positive vibe.”

To a longtime accordionist like Bob Goldberg, who played the festival last week, that news comes as something of a mixed blessing. Mr. Goldberg, 54, cited Tom Waits’s 1980s recordings and Paul Simon’s Graceland as works that encouraged him to pick up what was then viewed as “a square and cheesy instrument, associated with boring pop stuff or straightforward two- or three-beat music.” Since then he has found ways to adapt Bach, Beethoven, Aaron Copland and Thelonious Monk to the accordion, and makes a living teaching music and playing on advertising jingles. But one aspect of the accordion’s apparent resurgence seems to make him fret.

“I feel like right now the instrument is in a very strong moment and still in a state of evolution,” he said. “People have tended to look at the accordion as a novelty, not really accepted into serious instrumentdom – you know, the one-man band with a silly hat on his head and a kick drum. The accordion is a bit of an outlier that has tried to make its way in. But part of its identity comes from being outside.”

Larry Rohter – The New York Times

Heavy Metal Meets J. S. Bach

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axe man, Classical Guitar Magazine, electric guitar, German Schauss, guitar, headbanger, heavy metal, legato, Paul Fowles, pick, picking, shred guitar, shredding

J. S. Bach is one of the greatest composers and most virtuosic musicians of all time. His amazing compositions are technically demanding, which make them the perfect match for heavy metal shred guitar.

According to the publisher,

Shredding Bach introduces you to the unique style of this musical master and stretches your playing to the limits. It shows you all the essential techniques to play Bach’s music on your electric guitar, including sweep picking, tapping, legato, and rapid alternate picking. Every example has been arranged to be as true and accurate to the original compositions as possible, with only minor adjustments made to accommodate the guitar and shred style. The DVD features German Schauss demonstrating examples from the book. The accompanying CD features all of the examples recorded at multiple speeds to help you practice and to get you on your way to mastering Bach’s challenging compositions.

Paul Fowles of Classical Guitar Magazine adds, “German Schauss has produced a highly professional package that is clearly aimed at the intelligent apprentice axe man (or woman), rather than the wannabe headbanger.”

– Alfred Music Publishing

Bach’s Music Soothes Dogs

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Beethoven, Colorado State University, dachshund, dog, heavy metal, Journal of Veterinary Behavior, Judas Priest, Lori Kogan, Motörhead, Mozart, popular music, psychoacoustic music, Slayer, tempo

Judas Priest

Bach is better than Judas Priest, Strauss is preferable to Slayer, and Mozart is a wiser choice than Motörhead – at least when it comes to keeping dogs calm in kennels and shelters. A Colorado State University study suggests classical music might be the best way to calm an anxious dog, and that heavy metal – no big surprise – seems to do the opposite.

The study, reported in the latest Journal of Veterinary Behavior, found that classical music was more soothing than any other music, even “psychoacoustic” music and pet CDs designed to calm animals. Dogs listening to classical music – whether they were rescued dogs being sheltered, or pets being kenneled – barked and shook less often, slept more and had slower heartbeats. The authors of the study say playing classical music may help mitigate some of the stress inherent for dogs being kenneled as well as those awaiting adoption in stressful shelter environments.

Their research analyzed the behavior of one hundred seventeen dogs of various breeds, all at one kennel in northern Colorado. Of the group, eighty-three were boarders of different breeds and thirty-four were rescued dachshunds. Lead author Lori Kogan and her researchers did thousands of behavioral assessments over a period of four months. The dogs were exposed to forty-five minutes of three different genres of music while their behavior was recorded every five minutes.

Classical music was linked to more relaxed and restful behavior, while heavy metal was linked to greater anxiety and unrest. Dogs listening to heavy metal had speeded up heartbeats: Motörhead’s Ace of Spades led to 140 beats a minute, while Turbo Lover, by Judas Priest, resulted in 151. In contrast to that, Beethoven’s Für Elise produced average heart rates of 111 and Bach’s Air on a G String (BWV 1068) a relatively mellowed-out 100.

In addition to heartbeats, researchers recorded the amount of time the canine listeners spent sleeping, barking, shaking, and whining. Both boarded and rescue dogs responded to all the classical music selections by sleeping more. The dogs were most silent while listening to classical music and noisiest when no music was playing at all. Researchers said the results are consistent with human studies showing music can reduce agitation, promote sleep, improve mood and lower stress and anxiety. “It is suggested that shelters play classical music as a cost-efficient, practical way to enhance the environment and, therefore, the welfare of shelter dogs. Classical music can reduce dogs’ stress levels and potentially increase the likelihood of adoption.”

– Ohmidog!