Graceland has a new offering for true Elvis fans – luxury bus trips to Presley's Tupelo, Mississippi, birthplace and to the Mississippi Delta.
Graceland offers Elvis excursions to Tupelo, Mississippi Delta
Della Reese: Singer and ‘Touched by an Angel’ star dies at 86
radio.string.quartet: In Between review – rich colours and seductive grooves
(Jazzland)
Vienna’s charismatic radio.string.quartet have shown how much they understand about jazz spontaneity and urban groovemaking as well as classical perfectionism on covers of John McLaughlin‘s Mahavishnu Orchestra and the music of the late Joe Zawinul in recent years. Now at Norway’s Jazzland label, with that imaginative operation’s pop-jazz and electronica-savvy founder Bugge Wesseltoft co-producing, matters have taken a more ambient turn – with live sampling, Wesseltoft’s and electronicist Henrik Schwarz’s instrumental skills, and their own vaporous singing voices now in the mix. Arching high violin sounds whisper above cello motifs that are sometimes bowed, sometimes plucked like a jazz bass. Women’s voices exhale hymnal strains, or lullabies that reflect the members’ inspirations in newborn babies. Rougher-hewn hoedown-like dances spring up, solemn pop-tinged songs drift by, and The World According to Hugo and Jun powers along over an infectious vamp in which the strings snap as crisply as a tabla. It’s a session glowing with rich colours and seductive grooves, though with less spontaneous bite than its popular predecessors.
Netflix Announces Dave Chappelle New Year’s Eve Special
e·qua·nim·i·ty comes with a teaser featuring “Stranger Things’” Eleven
Readers recommend playlist: songs about slowing down
Mos Def, Shelby Lynne and Jethro Tull are among the artists on this week’s reader-curated playlist asking us to take things easy
Here is this week’s playlist – songs picked by a reader from hundreds of suggestions on last week’s callout. Thanks for taking part. Read more about how our weekly series works at the end of the piece.
I had no idea whether the topic would generate enough nominations to fill a single cyberpage this week, given that I could only think of a couple of qualifying tunes myself. Two things quickly became apparent, however. First, my concern was groundless, because everyone else in the RR community has far greater breadth of musical knowledge than I do, and second, I obviously don’t listen to lyrics properly, because there are some classics with relevant lines that have utterly escaped me. It’s as well there’s no qualifying exam to take a turn in the chair.
From Fleet Foxes to Grizzly Bear: has the ‘Pitchfolk’ scene finally burned out?
With Bon Iver going awol and sales falling steadily, it looks as if the era of the heartsore wildman may be over
It is now for ever ago since Bon Iver released For Emma, Forever Ago. Ten years, to be exact. First out in July 2007, it achieved huge success after getting a wider release in February 2008, going on to top many of the end-of-year lists. This month, a re-release was announced to coincide with that anniversary. Justin Vernon famously wrote the album in his family’s Wisconsin hunting lodge, mid-winter, to recover from his break-up with Emma (for ever ago). Most of the early reviews mentioned this fact. It became the totem of a whole age: that heartsore wildman in his snowy log cabin came to stand in for a certain kind of masculinity in music: lonesome, beardsome, wounded, yet rugged. Some began to call it Pitchfolk – a group of high-IQ yet horny-handed acts, championed by the still-rising music website Pitchfork, clustered around Bon Iver, Fleet Foxes, Iron & Wine and Grizzly Bear.
Related: CD: Bon Iver, For Emma, Forever Ago
Post Malone Has a Huge Arsenal of Guns and Maybe Thinks the End Times Are Coming
Rolling Stone has a revealing profile of Post Malone, in which the “Rock Star” discusses his love of Masterpiece Theater, speaks thoughtfully about the current political crisis in Saudi Arabia, and shows off his surprising collection of ultra-luxury fountain pens. Just kidding! Post comes off pretty much exactly as you’d expect him to, but more so: he loves…
Oneohtrix Point Never Announces New “Concertscape” Art Installation
myRiad debuts May 2018 at New York City’s Park Avenue Armory
Daniel Lanois is still keen to push boundaries
Producer and artist, who plays Danforth Music Hall Nov. 15, not resting on laurels of success with U2 and others.
Where is Kanye West? Tracking the rapper's year-long disappearing act
Since his hospitalization in Nov. 2016, West has spent most of the following year out of sight.
We Are What We Sing 