Soundcheck

WNYC Studios
  • 4.5 (132)
  • PERFORMING ARTS
  • UPDATED SEMIWEEKLY
Soundcheck

WNYC, New York Public Radio, brings you Soundcheck, the arts and culture program hosted by John Schaefer, who engages guests and listeners in lively, inquisitive conversations with established and rising figures in New York City's creative arts scene. Guests come from all disciplines, including pop, indie rock, jazz, urban, world and classical music, technology, cultural affairs, TV and film. Recent episodes have included features on Michael Jackson,Crosby Stills & Nash, the Assad Brothers, Rackett, The Replacements, and James Brown.

  1. DEC 9

    Transcendent Grooves By Jeff Parker ETA IVtet, In-Studio

    Guitarist Jeff Parker is probably best known for his work in the Chicago-based post rock band Tortoise, but he’s had a prolific career as a soloist and a sideman. In the past few years he’s been leading his ETA IVtet, an all-star group of musicians (saxophonist Josh Johnson, bassist Anna Butterss, and drummer Jay Bellerose) -  on the L.A. experimental music scene. Together, they create transcendent, long-form journeys into innovative, often uncharted territories of groove-oriented, painterly, polyrhythmic, minimalist and mantric improvised music (Bandcamp liner notes). The Jeff Parker ETA IVtet plays in-studio. Set list: 1. Improvisation 2. Improvisation on Freakadelic

    28 min

  2. DEC 5

    Pom Pom Squad Blazes With Punk Attitude and Vulnerability

    Pom Pom Squad is the band led by singer and guitarist Mia Berrin; their debut album, Death of a Cheerleader, offered a gimlet-eyed, often ironic view of pop culture through a queer lens. Now Pom Pom Squad has released its sophomore LP called Mirror Starts Moving Without Me, full of punk attitude and blazing guitars, but also moments of intense vulnerability and reflection. The band plays in-studio.  Set list: 1. Downhill 2. Messages 3. Everybody's Moving On

    32 min

  3. DEC 2

    Songwriter Laura Marling Muses on the Mystical, In-Studio

    Grammy and Mercury Nominated and Brit award-winning songwriter Laura Marling has mapped out new musical territories, including chamber pop and electronics. Her latest record, Patterns in Repeat was written following the birth of her daughter in 2023 and contains lovely songs crafted with propulsive riffs in motion, augmented by string arrangements. The album itself is an intimate affair, recorded at home, often with Marling’s daughter in the room, and the songs look at how generations interact with each other, passing on old memories and making new ones. There are protective vows to a child, as well as reflections on “a transition between one way of being to another”. Laura Marling plays some of these new songs, solo, in-studio. Set list: 1. Patterns 2. Caroline 3. No One's Gonna Love You Like I Can

    26 min

  4. NOV 28

    Rodney Crowell Makes It Personal

    Mulitple Grammy winning singer, songwriter and producer Rodney Crowell was one of the founders of the style that’s come to be known as alternative country. His career has been marked by notable collaborations, like the one with Emmylou Harris that brought Rodney to our ground floor performance venue The Green Space back in 2013. Now Rodney is back, with a new album called Close Ties, and it features collaborators like Sheryl Crow, and Rosanne Cash and John Paul White. The new album draws on folk, blues, rock’n’roll, and, yes, alt country, but mostly it draws on Crowell’s own deep well of stories and characters, whether fictional or not.

    37 min

  5. NOV 25

    The Timeless Original West Georgia Blues of Jontavious Willis

    Jontavious Willis is a blues singer and guitarist from west Georgia, hence the title of his recent album, West Georgia Blues. He’s not even 30, but Willis has an old soul – he loves the blues musicians from the 1920s, 30s, and 40s, and when he writes his own songs they come from deep roots -and might easily be mistaken for music that could be nearly a century old. He has a soul singer’s croon, and an effortless sense of swing to his guitar playing; oh – and the wicked tunings and his slide playing! He has what legendary bluesman Taj Mahal thinks is “a great new voice of the 21st Century in the acoustic blues”. Jontavious Willis plays some of his recent songs, in-studio. Set list: 1. Keep Your Worries On The Dance Floor 2. Ghost Woman 3. Time Brings About a Change

    37 min

  6. NOV 21

    José Junior Waxes Psychedelic and Fuzzes It Up, In-Studio

    The singer, guitarist and songwriter José Junior recently released his debut album, called Spanish Leather, a mix of indie rock, Latin pop, and psychedelia, with the songs pretty evenly split between English and Spanish. The album is about overcoming the curveballs that life throws in the way - heartbreak, unemployment, and a near death experience -  and coming out the other side. “Rebirth is real, you just need to believe”. José Junior and his band fuzz it up, in-studio. Set list: 1. Death of a Party Boy 2. Chico Malo 3. Projections

    31 min

  7. NOV 18

    Dorado Schmitt and Sons Bring the Hot Club Jazz Manouche, In-Studio

    In the 1930s the style known as "jazz manouche" took over France and soon spread around the world, led by musicians like the legendary guitarist Django Reinhardt and the violinist Stephane Grappelli. That hot swinging style, a combination of American jazz elements and more traditional Romani music, has endured for almost a century. Over the past four decades that has been in part because of Dorado Schmitt, the French musician who plays both the violin and the guitar. In what is now a family affair, Schmitt leads the band on violin, joined by his sons Amati and Samson Schmitt on guitar, cousins on upright bass, and rhythm guitar, and Ludovic Beier on accordion, all of whom trade fiery solos, in-studio. Set list: 1. Miro Django 2. Piazza Italia 3. El Dorado 4. The Light of God

    37 min

  8. NOV 14

    Walk on the Quiet Wild Side With RY X, In-Studio

    The Australian-born, California-based singer/songwriter and producer RY X seems to have multiple careers: writing intimate, diaphanous folk/pop songs that offer connection and vulnerability; collaborating as a producer, singer, or DJ with some of the biggest names in electronic dance and pop, like Drake, Diplo,  and the band Odesza; and performing with orchestras, including the LA Phil, and the London Philharmonic. RY X spent the pandemic time looking inward and listening to nature. He walks on the quiet wild side, with regular collaborator Gene Evaro Jr., playing recent songs, in-studio. Set list: 1. Only 2. You 3. Howling

    40 min
See All (81)

4.5
out of 5
132 Ratings

About

WNYC, New York Public Radio, brings you Soundcheck, the arts and culture program hosted by John Schaefer, who engages guests and listeners in lively, inquisitive conversations with established and rising figures in New York City's creative arts scene. Guests come from all disciplines, including pop, indie rock, jazz, urban, world and classical music, technology, cultural affairs, TV and film. Recent episodes have included features on Michael Jackson,Crosby Stills & Nash, the Assad Brothers, Rackett, The Replacements, and James Brown.

Information

  • Creator
    WNYC Studios
  • Years Active
    2005 - 2024
  • Episodes
    81
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © WNYC Radio
  • Show Website
    Soundcheck

More From WNYC

You Might Also Like

To listen to explicit episodes, sign in.

Stay up to date with this show

Sign in or sign up to follow shows, save episodes, and get the latest updates.
Select a country or region

Africa, Middle East, and India

Asia Pacific

Europe

Latin America and the Caribbean

The United States and Canada