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Russ Gershon is the saxophonist and composer who leads Either/Orchestra, a jazz group that has been performing and recording for 25 years.

Either/Orchestra's discography includes Dial "E" (1986), Radium (1988), The Half-Life of Desire (1990), The Calculus of Pleasure (1992), The Brunt (1994), Across the Omniverse (1996), More Beautiful than Death (2000), Neo-Modernism (2001), Afro-Cubism (2003), Ethiopiques 20: Live in Addis (2005), and Mood Music for Time Travelers (2010).

Either/Orchestra has two shows upcoming in New England, including February 3rd at Fete in Providence, Rhode Island and on February 24th at the ICA Boston.

Continue reading Episode 069: Either/Orchestra

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My first exposure to Gang of Four's music was from either WNYU's legendary New Afternoon show in the latest of 70s or from Hofstra University's Jeff Foss. (To hear me ramble on more about these stations, listen to my 50th episode with Mike Dreese of Newbury Comics.

It was likely "I Found that Essence Rare" or "Damaged Goods" that pulled me in at first...punky guitars, funky bass, tribal beats, angry vocals, socio-political lyrics, and Marxist ideals. Who could resist?

As a part of an amazing era of post-punk music (including some of their peers, like The Au Pairs, Bush Tetras, Delta 5, The Mekons, Mission of Burma, and Wire, among others) Gang of Four was funky and abrasive, tribal and confrontational, political and personal, and best of all, their albums from the late 70s and early 80s have stood the test of time and Gang of Four has become one of the most influential bands of the last 30 years.

Continue reading Episode 068: Dave Allen of Gang of Four, Shriekback, Pampelmoose, and NORTH

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Long before the internet came barreling along, music magazines were one of the most important ways for music fans to read about their favorites and discover new artists.

I've spent my share of time and money reading great 4-color, glossy, music magazines and newspapers through the years: Rolling Stone. Creem. Trouser Press. NME. Melody Maker. The Big Takeover. Goldmine. Musician. The Bob. Record. Matter. Forced Exposure. Spin. Magnet. Ray Gun. Jazz Times. Paste. Filter. Harp. Mojo.

How would the audiences of modern music have grown and expanded were it not for all these magazines and dozens more like them? I'd be lying if I said all these wonderful publications didn't greatly shape my tastes in music, art, culture, and prose--and my record collection.

But why are they important? Just like blogs or podcasts, it was and is the people behind them...the writers and editors, photographers and designers, sales reps and trafficking and subscription folks. People who, by and large, really loved music and played the roles of tastemakers and critics and curators, bringing their favorites to the masses.

No Depression was another magazine I often bought, too. No Depression published its first print edition in 1995 and continued through 2008, carrying on the great traditions of smart writing and in-depth interviews with a focus on Americana or roots music or, alt-country, as it was called in its earliest days.

Continue reading Episode 067: Kyla Fairchild of No Depression

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Festival owner and producer George Wein may not be one of those names in the history of music that everyone knows as he so often kept himself behind the scenes, but Wein has had an enormous impact on the world of live music and festivals, especially jazz.

Last year I interviewed Jay Sweet, who co-produces (with Bob Jones) the Newport Folk Festival; Sweet has worked with George Wein since 2005. You can hear that interview and check out the line-up for this year's folk festival, taking place July 30-August 1.

The Newport Jazz Festival takes place August 6-8, 2010.

Wein was born in in 1925 in Lynn, Massachusetts and grew up in Newton, where he learned to play jazz piano and performed in a variety of jazz groups. As he details in our conversation, after serving in the second World War, he opened Storyville, a jazz club that solidified his lifelong relationship with jazz musicians.

In 1954, Wein started the Newport Jazz Festival; five years later, with the help of Pete Seeger and others, the Newport Folk Festival was born. Wein went on to start a number of festivals in other cities, including the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival and the Playboy Jazz Festival in Los Angeles, and JVC Jazz Festivals in cities around the world, including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Paris, Warsaw, and Tokyo.

Continue reading Episode 066: George Wein of the Newport Jazz + Folk Festivals

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As you might imagine, I listen to a lot of music. I've always been pretty damn picky, but in some regards, Well-Rounded Radio now has me acting like the radio DJs and A&R people I used to hate so much when I was in bands (and trying to get them to listen to me!). So much stuff, you put it on, and if something doesn't grab your attention in a minute or two, you start reaching for the stop button.

My favorite album of 2009 was Song Sparrow Research's Welcome to the Potato Famine. I downloaded it in the fall via Bandcamp and found myself going back to it again and again for many months. Needless to say, given the amount of music now available to all of us, that doesn't happen as much as it used to for me.

You might recall the 50th episode of Well-Rounded Radio with Mike Dreese of Newbury Comics where I talked about the origins of Well-Rounded Radio. My friend, Marion Seymour, who played a big part in the story, has two sons. Her oldest, Harrison Boyce, is a terrific designer and you can see his work at harrisonboyce.com. Harrison also created the current Well-Rounded Radio site (in Movable Type).

Marion's younger son, Hamilton Boyce, is a musician who Marion has been telling me about over the years, from going to Garfield High School in Seattle and playing jazz to his first band, Grotto Fork, to the recording of Song Sparrow Research's first EP, The New Ragtime Revolution.

Last fall, I downloaded Song Sparrow Research's first full album, Welcome to the Potato Famine, from Bandcamp and was, to put it plainly, blown away.

Continue reading Episode 065: Song Sparrow Research

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At a moment where what being a record label means is certainly in flux, Rounder Records is celebrating its 40th anniversary and, in many ways, showing what it means for artists who share a label and what that means to its customer and fans. (News on 4/14/10: Concord Records acquires Rounder Records)

Rounder Records was started in March 1970 by Ken Irwin, Marian Leighton-Levy, and Bill Nowlin (left to right). In our interview, Irwin tells us how the label came to be, and how they began with blues and bluegrass, and evolved the label to include folk, Cajun, Celtic, and reggae music.

Rounder also manages 18 subsidiary labels, including Heartbeat and Zoe Records.

As someone who knows a bit about bluegrass music, but wanted to learn more, I also ask Irwin to take us through the history of bluegrass.

Continue reading Episode 064: Ken Irwin of Rounder Records

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This episode is dedicated to Dan Nash, a friend of mine in England who passed away on January 22. Dan was working on a number of different music projects including New Musical Order and Rockin' Daily. We were fans of each others' work online and were working together on Musicians for Music 2.0. Dan had a congenital heart defect and has left us at the young age of 28. I hope he is listening to this episode up there and enjoying it...

In many music and entertainment circles, the name Lawrence Lessig needs no introduction, but for those who don't know his work, here's some background.

Lessig is a lawyer and activist whose interests are mostly in intellectual property, copyright, technology, and political reform. He's has written five influential books, including Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace (2000), The Future of Ideas (2001), Free Culture (2004), Code: Version 2.0 (2006), and Remix: Making Art and Commerce Thrive in the Hybrid Economy (2008).

Remix was just published in paperback in October 2009.

Continue reading Episode 063: Lawrence Lessig of Remix: Making Art and Commerce Thrive in the Hybrid Economy

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The first time I heard Yoko K.'s music, through a submission I received via SonicBids, I found myself pulled into her alluring soundscapes and songs and kept coming back for more over the following weeks. With layered recordings hinting at influences like Bjork, Massive Attack, Portishead, Brian Eno's ambient work, and jazz vocalists, Yoko K.'s music is all her own.

Yoko Kamitani, who works under the name Yoko K., was born in Japan and moved to the United States in 2004. Her debut album, 012906, was released in 2006 by Asahra Music in Washington D.C., which won her the Best Album in Electronica/Dance award at the 6th annual Independent Music Awards.

Yoko K. performed, produced, programmed, and recorded the album almost entirely by herself. As singer and keyboardist, she also has the help of some string and horn players, but the scope of 012906 doesn't feel like an album recorded at a home studio with the help of a few musical friends. Instead, it's the kind of project an early-era Bjork might have created with a level of confidence, risk, and adventure that made me think Yoko K. was overdue for more attention. And, as with most albums that reward repeated listens, I kept finding new layers to what Yoko K. was doing on the album, truly moving electronic music a step forward through her choices of instruments that she pairs. I love the mood that the entire album creates when heard in sequence.

Continue reading Episode 062: Yoko K.

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I've been a fan of Jill Sobule (left) and Erin McKeown (right) for a long time and, in the last year or so, they have become pioneers of new fundraising models for the music industry.

They both also have new albums out (buy them from Sobule and McKeown direct) were on a US tour together from October through December 2009. I was lucky enough to have some time with them both just before their first show of the tour at Club Passim the famed club in Cambridge, Massachusetts that started as Club 47 in 1958. You can find their upcoming dates at on McKeown's site or Sobule's site.

Sobule has released eight albums since her first, Things Here are Different in 1990, including releases on the Atlantic and Artemis Record labels. Her latest album, California Years, was financed entirely by her fans with tiers of donation levels and corresponding tiers of how donors were involved with hearing or participating in the record itself. Aiming for $70,000, Sobule ultimately raised close to $90,000 from 500 of her fans.

McKeown has also released eight albums since her first, Monday Morning Cold in 1999, including releases on Nettwerk Records and Signature Sounds. McKeown raised money to produce her new album, Hundreds of Lions, by producing a series of online video variety shows, each webcast from different spots at her home in Western Massachusetts. McKeown charged a subscription rate to view all four episodes. You can still subscribe and view these. The album was just released by Ani DiFranco's label Righteous Babe Records.

Continue reading Episode 061: Erin McKeown and Jill Sobule

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Somewhat unintentionally, a number of the last handful of episodes of Well-Rounded Radio have been about what may well be the future of the music business, with interviews featuring Michael Bracy of The Future of Music Coalition, Ariel Hyatt of Ariel Publicity, Jeff Price of TuneCore, and Joshua Boltuch of Amie Street.

As more and more power has been taken out of the hands of the traditional music industry and put in the hands of musicians, it's feeling like the goals are no longer a major record label deal, massive amounts of commercial radio airplay, a hit video on MTV, or the cover of Rolling Stone, even if those things are still all very welcome.

So what's next, for both musicians and music fans who want to discover their next favorite band or recording?

Continue reading Episode 060: Scott Kirsner of Fans, Friends, & Followers

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The Newport Jazz Festival started in 1954 by George Wein and is celebrating its 55th anniversary on August 8th and 9th in Newport, Rhode Island.

It's slightly younger sibling, long known as the Newport Folk Festival and going by the name George Wein's Folk Festival 50 this year, is celebrating its 50th anniversary on August 1st and 2nd. The folk festival was started by Theodore Bikel, Oscar Brand, Albert Grossman, Pete Seeger and George Wein.

Jay Sweet (pictured with founder George Wein) has been producing the festival for the last few years and you may also know his name as Editor-at-large for Paste magazine. Sweet also co-owns a music services company called Sweet & Doggett.

This year's line-up includes The Avett Brothers, Balfa Toujours, Joan Baez, Billy Bragg, The Campbell Brothers, Neko Case, Guy Clark, Judy Collins, Dala, Dear Tick, The Decemberists, Brett Dennen, Ramblin' Jack Elliott, Elvis Perkins in Dearland, Tim Eriksen and the Shape Note Singers, Fleet Foxes, Arlo Guthrie, Iron and Wine, Ben Kweller, Langhorne Slim, The Low Anthem, Del McCoury, Tift Merritt, Tom Morello: The Nightwatchmen, Joe Pug, David Rawlings Machine, Josh Ritter (listen to the Well-Rounded Radio interview with Josh Ritter), Tao Rodriguez-Seeger, Pete Seeger, Mavis Staples, and Gillian Welch. You'll hear some highlights from many of these artists woven into my conversation with Sweet.

You can buy tickets to next weekend's festival at folkfestival50.com and if you can't make it to Newport, listen to NPR Music's webcasts.

Continue reading Episode 059: Jay Sweet of George Wein's Folk Festival 50

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So, back in the 70s, my older siblings Michael, Maureen, Joseph, and John respectively turned me onto Arlo Guthrie (and David Bromberg), Carly Simon (and James Taylor), Led Zeppelin (and The Rolling Stones, Peter Tosh, Bachman, Turner, Overdrive, and Yes) and The Monkees (and The Beatles, Paul Revere and The Raiders, The Association, and The Dead Kennedys, and my cousin Thomas turned me onto The Clash (and The Ramones and Talking Heads).

With that kind of introduction and education, it's no surprise I got hooked on music and started buying vinyl.

If I remember correctly, Elton John's Goodbye Yellow Brick Road was my first in 1973 at Korvettes in Flushing, Queens...of course a double album. My dad told me that if it affected my grades in any way, he would take it away. I was seven.

Continue reading Episode 058: Josh Boltuch of Amie Street

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Rick Berlin started making music in the early 1970s and continued through a handful of bands over the last three decades, including Orchestra Luna, Orchestra Luna II, Luna, Berlin Airlift, Rick Berlin: The Movie, The Shelley Winters Project, and, most recently, simply as Rick Berlin.

As a piano player and songwriter, Berlin's style has run the gamut from the theatrical to the confessional. In several of these incarnations, Berlin came close to breaking it in the music industry, but as he's learned, sometimes the stars don't always align the way they should. During our interview, Berlin takes us through anecdotes about some of these bands and we'll get to hear musical highlights from throughout the years.

Having grown up in New York, I was aware of Berlin's music over the years and learned about his 2006 album Me & Van Gogh from Hi-n-Dry Records from feature articles in The Boston Globe and The Boston Phoenix. His latest CD, Old Stag, was released in 2008.

Continue reading Episode 057: Rick Berlin

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As anyone who buys music knows, the way we are finding it and buying it has changed radically over the last 15 years.

For musicians, it used to be that if you wanted someone to release your music, you'd have to get the attention and approval of an artist and repertoire (or A&R person) at a label, work to sign a deal either big or small so that the label would then press up your product and work with distributors to get your vinyl or 8-track or cassette or CD to ship them out to record stores where the music fan could have access to them.

Now, all you have to do it is get some audio files online and instantly be able to have your music available to the current online global audience of 1.5 billion people, which is still just about 23% of the world's population, so the potential for reaching new audiences continues to grow. As mobile devices get smarter, it's inevitable that consumers will be downloading more music and playing it without a desktop or laptop computer even being involved, too.

As a result of the rise of digital download stores such as iTunes and Amazon mp3, the need has come for new companies to aggregate songs and distribute them out to all these growing online stores.

That's where TuneCore comes in.

Continue reading Episode 056: Jeff Price of TuneCore

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The first time I learned about Monique Ortiz (visit her Facebook or Myspace pages) was in The Boston Phoenix four or five years ago in an article about Bourbon Princess, the band she played in for several years and who released three albums: Stopline (2000), Black Feather Wings (Accurate Records, 2003), and Dark of Days (Accurate Records and Hi-N-Dry Records, 2005). Reading about Ortiz, who is a singer/songwriter who plays fretless bass and 2-string slide bass, and Bourbon Princess, and their approach to jazz, rock, and blues, I knew I had to hear more.

Over these releases, Bourbon Princess' members have included Dana Colley of Morphine and Twinemen (baritone and tenor saxophones, bass clarinet, melodica, samples; listen to his interview with Twinemen on Well-Rounded Radio from 2002), Jerome Dupree (drums and percussion), Russ Gershon of Either/Orchestra (baritone, tenor, and soprano saxophones; stay tuned for the Well-Rounded Radio interview in the coming months), Dave Millar (drums and percussion), Jim Moran (guitars, piano), and Jonah Sacks (cello and backing vocals). Other musicians who appeared on their albums include Jimmy Ryan (mandolin, listen to his Well-Rounded Radio interview from 2005).

In recent years, Ortiz has released a sparse, solo album with Reclining Female (Obskur Vudu Records, 2007) and a new venture into "low-rock" with the band A.K.A.C.O.D. with Happiness (2008). A.K.A.C.O.D. includes Dana Colley along with Larry Dersch of Binary System, Angeline, and the Bad Art Ensemble on drums. The band's acronym name stands for "also known as Colley Ortiz Dersch."

Continue reading Episode 055: Monique Ortiz