Month: December 2022

Where to hear music in the Twin Cities on New Year’s Eve

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Erik Thompson | The Current

As we close the book on 2022, here are 10 music events throughout the Twin Cities to celebrate the start of 2023. For even more New Year’s Eve options, check The Current’s Gig List for additional shows you can take in on Dec. 31.

New Year’s Eve with Davina and the Vagabonds at Dakota

The smooth soul-pop confections of Davina and the Vagabonds have the early birds, the night owls, and the homebodies all covered with their New Year’s Eve shows at the Dakota. They have an early dinner show scheduled at 6 p.m., and follow that up with a festive cocktail show starting at 10:30 p.m. which includes a champagne toast at midnight. If you don’t feel like leaving home, catch a livestream of their late show from the comfort of your own couch.

6 p.m. dinner show $140; 10:30 p.m. cocktail show $100; 10:30 p.m. livestream $15

Snowta Night 2 Featuring Tipper at Armory

This two-night EDM extravaganza brings 2022 to a rousing, bass-driven close on Dec. 30-31. The second evening features celebrated London trip-hop, downtempo ambient DJ/producer Tipper. Joining Tipper is a range of DJs, including Kursa, KLO, Resonant Language, Boggdogg, Base2, MikeRat and Conduit.

Doors and showtime at 6 p.m., $99 general admission, $129 VIP tickets

New Year’s Eve Day Brunch with Cornbread Harris Ensemble at Icehouse

Not all of us can stay up until midnight, but if you still want to enjoy some live music, the Icehouse has the perfect show for you. Beginning at 11 a.m., you can hear Minneapolis music legend Cornbread Harris as you take in a tasty, hearty brunch. (If late-night dance parties are more your thing, Icehouse has you covered as well, with Soul Friday: Collective Renewal New Year’s Eve Party for Queer Women of Color and Friends beginning at 9 p.m.)

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11 a.m.-2 p.m., $5 reservation fee which goes directly to the artist

Honky Tonk New Year’s Eve at Turf Club

The Turf gets countrified this NYE, as locals Cole Diamond, Turn Turn Turn, and Molly Brandt put on a festive hoe-down. Diamond will bring the classic outlaw country sound; Turn Turn Turn’s glorious Americana harmonies accent a smooth blend of folk, pop, and country; along with Brandt’s lyrical storytelling and stirring country sound.

Doors at 7 p.m., showtime at 8 p.m. $15 advance tickets, $20 at the door

The ’80s New Year’s Eve with DJ Jake Rudh at First Avenue

The celebrated Transmission dance party celebrates music of the ‘80s to ring in the new year. Led by The Current’s Transmission host Jake Rudh, this party will have the iconic checkered dancefloor of First Ave filled with revelers reliving the familiar hit songs from their youth — or, gasp, their parents’ youth.

9 p.m. doors and start time, $20 advance, $25 at the door

Kiss Me – A ’90s New Year’s Eve at 7th St. Entry

Next door to First Ave’s ‘80s-themed dance party, the Entry hosts a ‘90s night featuring massive hits from across all the genres presented by the DJs from You Oughta Know.

Doors at 8 p.m., showtime at 9 p.m., $22 advance tickets, $25 at the door

Frogleg New Years at Fine Line

Minneapolis’ Frogleg’s fusion of rock, reggae, bluegrass, soul, Americana and folk should go over perfectly at the Fine Line’s New Year’s Eve celebration. Also on the bill, Jaedyn James’ rich, soaring vocals will fill the club and get the crowd dancing for this NYE party hosted by beatbox extraordinaire Heatbox.

Door time at 7 p.m., showtime at 8 p.m., $25 advance, $30 at the door, $50 reserved balcony seating

Brothers Entertainment New Years at Palace Theatre

The Palace highlights the breakout talents of the local Somali music community on New Year’s Eve, including Ilkacase, Sharma Boy, Kiin Jama, and Hodan Abdirahman. DJ Flavio, DJ Feermo, DJ Cash and DJ Naciim will spin tunes throughout the festivities.

Doors at 8 p.m., show starts at 9 p.m., $83 general admission, $68 balcony, $200 VIP tickets

New Years at Mortimer’s Featuring Dumpster Juice

If you prefer your New Year’s Eve party loud, messy and chaotic, then get yourself to Mort’s for Dumpster Juice, Virgin Whores and Silt. Boisterous, high-octane rock ‘n’ roll, cheap drinks, and no frills will be the themes for a night to leave your ears ringing and your mind reeling long into 2023.

Doors at 9 p.m., showtime at 9:30 p.m., $10

New Year’s Eve with Sleeping Jesus at The Hook & Ladder

To craft a blissful noise to help usher in the new year, the Hook has booked the ethereal dream pop sounds of Sleeping Jesus, psych rockers the Immaculate Beings, and post-punk indie rock band Present Company. There will also be DJ sets by Pill Collin$ & The Bean to add to the festivities.

Maurice Ravel (orch. Colin Matthews) – Oiseaux tristes (World Première)

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In last year’s Advent Calendar i featured an arrangement of one of Ravel’s piano works by Boulez; this year i’m exploring one by UK composer Colin Matthews. Ravel completed his five-movement piano suite Miroirs in 1905. He subsequently orchestrated two of the movements himself, Une barque sur l’océan and Alborada del gracioso, and since then various others have stepped in to create orchestral versions of the other three. Colin Matthews‘ orchestration of the second movement, Oiseaux tristes (sad birds), dates from 2015.

Matthews’ approach is so intuitive and so effective, demonstrating such uncanny fidelity to Ravel’s original, that it’s hard to believe this isn’t how the music was always intended to sound. The small, gently playful opening is quickly weighed down by a heaviness that permeates everything. Ravel’s gorgeous suspended harmonies become even more achingly poignant in this context, particularly in light of the sprightliness that emerges soon after. We glimpse momentary hints of birdsong, lost in a boisterous acceleration of flurries and flapping that settle back into a languid, nocturnal dreamscape.

Not for long, though; the melancholy tune returns (Matthews adorning it with additional high chirps), its drone-laden weight making the following series of rising arpeggios sound like the dark reality to the light exuberant fantasy heard only a minute earlier. Though the conclusion eases off, turns gentle – and is again given more brightness than in the original – the work’s closing tilting chords are by now definitively a burden. For these sad birds flight is most definitely no longer an option.

The world première of Colin Matthews’ Oiseaux tristes took place at the 2015 Proms, performed by the BBC Philharmonic conducted by Nicholas Collon.

Reyna Roberts Says It Took Time to Find Musical Self-Confidence

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Reyna Roberts is getting comfortable being herself in her music — but it took some time before she was ready to show all the different sides of her artistic identity in her songs. The singer points to her recently-released “Pretty Little Devils” as an example of a song she might have been too timid to put out a couple of years ago.

“I feel like I had to discover myself more and get comfortable enough to actually put it out,” Roberts told Taste of Country on the red carpet before the 2022 CMA Awards in November. “I’ve always wanted to make sure that people see me as more classy, more in that vein, and I still believe that the new music and new songs have class to them. But at the same time, it shows a little bit more of my wilder side. Since I’ve never had confidence, it took me a minute to get there, to express that side of me.”

That “wilder side” is about more than just risque lyrics like “This ain’t the same old hoedown throwdown / Got my pretty little devils on the pole now.” It’s also about creating genre fusion, bringing a trap beat and pulsing, rhythmic vocal delivery to Roberts’ twangy foundation.

For the singer, who grew up listening to country mainstays like the Chicks and Gretchen Wilson, it was important to establish her country bona fides, but equally important to create a diverse body of work.

“Especially when I first got to Nashville — because I love traditional country, I wanted to have songs that were traditional country,” she explains. “But the more I found my sound, working with multiple people in Nashville, my sound started to expand.”

Roberts has realized that building a country music foundation doesn’t necessarily mean always making traditional country music. She’s rubbed elbows with legends of the genre, touring with country mainstay Reba McEntire, whose career is a reminder that country artists can cross over into pop, and even TV and movie roles, without abandoning their roots.

But as much self-confidence as she’s gained from the support of legends like McEntire, Roberts says her biggest boost came from learning to believe in herself.

“Definitely getting acceptance and help from other artists gives me more confidence in myself,” she continues, “but then also realizing, like, ‘Hey, you’re a pretty bada– girl!’ Just having to remind myself [to not] feel too shy all the time, not going back to my introvert self, saying, ‘Girl, you got this! Remember who you are!’ That’s been an essential for my mental state.”

Now hard at work on her next album, Roberts hopes that that journey of self-love and self-acceptance will show up loud and clear in the new music she’s planning to release in 2023.

“A hundred percent. A thousand percent,” she says with a grin, adding that she’s no longer afraid to make her own genre rules in her music. “… Outlaw country, classy country, trap country — it’s gonna be all the things.”

Who Is Reyna Roberts? 5 Things You Need to Know:



Columbus music scene thrives, with many big-name performers

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Guitarist and songwriter Pete Townshend performs with The Who on Oct. 9 at the Schottenstein Center.

The year in concerts saw a variety of performers representing a spectrum of genres. From indie to oldies, country to classic, rock to R&B and everything in between there was something for music lovers of all stripes.

The concert lineup for 2022 included tour stops by pop icon Elton John, classic rockers The Eagles, Joe Walsh and The Who, country queen Reba McEntire, Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli, and many other world-famous acts, as well as those known locally, regionally and nationally.

More music:Zac Brown Band to kick off ‘From the Fire Tour’ at Nationwide Arena in June

The Dispatch asked its concert reviewers — Margaret Quamme, Curtis Schieber and Lynn Green — to take a look back at the live shows they had attended in 2022 and render their opinions on the best of the bunch. Below are their favorites.

Margaret Quamme’s picks

Dua Lipa performs during a concert at the Schottenstein Center on Feb. 26.

∙ Dua Lipa, Feb. 26, Schottenstein Center

Performing 90 minutes of danceworthy music, the singer-songwriter bounced, strutted, jumped, skipped and kicked across two stages connected by a long runway, appearing thoroughly comfortable and at ease. Her “Future Nostalgia” tour, based largely on the 2020 album of the same name that has produced hit after hit and for which she won a Grammy for best pop vocal album, kept the focus on the songs from that album, with just a few detours into songs from her earlier work. Both the music and the visuals playfully harkened back to the ’80s, with a nod to that era’s shiny, iridescent vision of the future.

Tyler, The Creator performs at the Schottenstein Center on Feb. 27.

∙ Tyler, The Creator, Feb. 27, Schottenstein Center

The unsettling, intense and generally astonishing concert pulled the audience in the packed arena between a slickly polished surface and the roiling emotions and human malfunctions underneath. Navigating an allergic reaction, looking a little sweaty and occasionally hoarse, he fed on the enthusiasm of the audience as, in a special effects-heavy show involving a two-story mansion, a rocking boat and a beach grass strewn island, he ranged through 11 remarkably varied years of music, returning to his raw roots.

Keith Urban smiles while performing during a concert in September at Nationwide Arena.

∙ Keith Urban, Sept. 23, Nationwide Arena

Urban thrives on live performance, and his exhilarating show, carefully crafted and unfussy, didn’t let special effects get in the way of music. Not one of those singers who uses a guitar primarily as a prop to provide musical bona fides, Urban treats the instrument as an extension of body and voice, not showboating but frequently throwing in a brief, sizzling solo. He uses country music as a home base, respecting its traditions, and then stretching and playing with it, as he performed with excellent backing musicians whom he gave plenty of time to soar.

More music:Def Leppard, Motley Crue bringing ‘The World Tour’ to Ohio Stadium on Aug. 8

Curtis Schieber’s picks

∙ Tom Rush (opening for Janis Ian), May 18, Southern Theatre

Folkie Tom Rush opened a magical night of music-making, at 81 confirming he is a national treasure still. Singing the songs of several of the songwriters he brought to national attention first, including Joni Mitchell, Jackson Browne and James Taylor, and a few of his own, he delivered a set that will ring in this writer’s ear for years to come. His performance combined the nobility of his age and the skill learned from 60-plus years on stage, with a passion for song that lit the Southern. Ian’s set followed suit and the two ended the evening with an incandescent duet on the latter’s “Better Times Will Come.”

Kevin Parker of Tame Impala, whose May 26 show at Kemba Live drew more than 10,000 rain-soaked fans.

∙ Tame Impala, May 26, Kemba Live

It is difficult to imagine many other bands that could conjure as much sunny optimism under such challenging circumstances as Tame Impala had done for 10,000-plus soaked fans who had waited through five hours of rain in a parking lot concert venue. For 90 minutes, the drenched crowd danced as gleefully as if it were frugging on a sunny California beach. The pop and rave grooves of Impala’s newest album, “Slow Rush,” and its deep psychedelic back catalog inspired a euphoria that contradicted the dark storm that accompanied the entire set.

!!! (yes, that’s the band’s name) brought 70 minutes of “smart and stupid fun” to Rumba Cafe in June.

∙ !!! (chk chk chk), June 18, Rumba Café

“This is pop and there’s no defense/Silly, it’s stupid, it’s just pretend/Comes in waves, it’s got nothing to say/And if you ask me, it’s better that way.” This quote from !!!’s song “This Is Pop” puts it all into words for the New York band but it comes nowhere close to describing the experience of watching the motley crew put it into practice. During 70 minutes of sheer mayhem, the group turned Chic’s funk, ‘70s disco and ‘80s avant-punk into a potent political commentary on personal hang-ups and a humorless social climate. In short, it was both smart and stupid fun.

∙ Spoon (opening for Interpol), Aug. 30, Kemba Live

The concert season offered a textbook lesson on matching opener to headliner, when Spoon’s cheeky, smart and explosive pop introduced Interpol’s ponderous, bombastic drama in Kemba Live. A seemingly ideal balance of opposites, the billing was simply upside down. A newly injected love of funk gave Spoon’s set an expansiveness that Interpol’s monotone simply couldn’t match. And lead singer Britt Daniel’s brilliant, self-effacing songs were at times comical and at others emotionally baring. In fact, Spoon’s extended set could have satisfyingly filled the evening by itself.

More music:Shania Twain to bring ‘Queen of Me’ tour to Columbus’ Value City Arena on Oct. 27

Lynn Green’s picks

Taylor Meier, lead singer for Caamp and a former Worthington resident, seemed happy to be home during a performance Oct. 21 at Nationwide Arena.

∙ Caamp, Oct. 21, Nationwide Arena

Caamp’s Lavender Days tour brought a stage full of greenery, purple flowers, pastel instruments, cowhide rugs and strings of fairy lights. This, plus the band’s lavender suits, hinted at a touch of sentimentality, but the band delivered no such thing. Instead, Caamp delivered brash confidence, along with a substantial repertoire of songs from both “Lavender Days” and its earlier albums. Whether Meier is singing about colorful characters, shadowy introspection, running away to a new life or a tender and sincere romance, his lyrics are forthright and honest. The band, as a whole, steers clear of cloying sentimentality and approaches even the deepest and most conflicting of emotions with a dose of good old Midwest resilience. Meier’s raspy vocals add both a gritty charm and a wholesome realness.

∙ The Who, Oct. 9, Schottenstein Center

The infamous theatrics have toned down, as has the volume, but the defiant spirit is still there, and the music still speaks for itself. This is a band of guys who need to prove nothing more and can simply enjoy doing what they do best: being musicians. The band has grown up over the decades, and so have the songs, and that change isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Pete Townshend’s technique remains masterful and expressive. “I’m One” was beautifully packaged, the counterpoint of his vocals and guitar perfectly honed. Roger Daltrey’s singing is eerily unchanged from decades ago, still full of subtle control and a range of inflection that other singers struggle to master.

Reba McEntire performs on Dec, 2 at Nationwide Arena.

∙ Reba McEntire, Dec. 2, Nationwide Arena

Reba cruised through many of her biggest hits, often in small, thematic packages, keeping the energy flowing. There’s never a dull moment when she commands the stage. Whether it’s the spunk of “Little Rock,” the poignancy of “The Greatest Man I Never Knew” or the sass of her latest No. 1 hit, “Turn On the Radio,” she captures some of the deepest and most conflicted emotions adulthood has to offer. Her sparkle hasn’t dimmed a bit over the decades. She’s a bastion of resilience, the queen of broken hearts, and she continues to dance in the ashes of failed relationships. She’s as beloved today as she was 45 years ago.

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Year in review: Big music stars came to Columbus in 2022

Being Refugee & Dalit Is a Double Burden: Tamil Rapper Arivu

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Featuring Arivu and Dhee, ‘Enjoy Enjaami’ was backed by music composer Santhosh Narayanan and AR Rahman’s music label Maajja, which promotes independent music. The song was released on 5 March 2021. 

In July, the song which has garnered over 430 million views and 4.8 million likes on YouTube, ran into a controversy as Arivu claimed he was not paid or credited. 

In August, Tamil filmmaker Pa Ranjith called out Rolling Stone India’s magazine cover for not crediting lyricist, rapper, and singer Arivu. Later, allegations surfaced that Maajja had not paid the rapper for his work in the viral track.

Later, at the inaugural ceremony of the 44th Chess Olympiad, singers Dhee and Kidakuzhi Mariyammal performed the song, and Santosh Narayanan was credited as the music composer. Many social media users had expressed their disappointment that Arivu was not credited or even mentioned during the event.

Arivu then broke his silence and wrote that he spent over six months to composing, writing, and performing the track. He also clarified claims by Santosh Narayanan and Maajja that both Dhee and Arivu had contributed equally to the project, saying that he did not receive any kind of external support.

Later, Santhosh Narayanan claimed that the song’s rights and revenue were equally shared among him, Arivu, and Dhee.

Mokita shares a broody song called “High” – Aipate

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Following his Color Me In EP, which dropped in October, Mokita returns with a new single. He named this song “High”. While the track features crispy beats and bouncy production, it’s lyrically broody.

Mokita explains, “The bottom line to all addiction is that it is a day-by-day process. And even after three and a half years there are many days where I still crave the very things that were messing up my life. I can easily romanticize the past and forget how much hurt and pain all those addictions caused.“

This song kickstarts the process that leads to another EP; I can’t wait to hear the next singles.

Follow Mokita on Instagram.



Thomas Lemmer presents his brand new album HOPE

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www.thomas-lemmer.com

Sine Music is set to release the long-awaited new album “HOPE” by Thomas Lemmer. The album will be available on all known download stores and streaming services. The album will also be available in Dolby Atmos and High-Resolution Audio format.

“HOPE” – an album name that couldn’t fit better into our present time. Thomas Lemmer produced the 16 tracks and four bonus tracks of the album during the pandemic. But the current events encouraged Thomas Lemmer to form an antipole with his music. His music helps to retake courage and to continue, even in seemingly hopeless situations.

Thomas Lemmer proves his versatility again with “HOPE“. He uses different styles like chillhop, chillstep, downtempo, pop ballads, ambient with neoclassical influences up to deep house on his current long-player. Despite all the variety, a common theme runs through the album and his unmistakable compositional signature and sound.

It is also extraordinary that he has dedicated himself to covering a song for the first time. With “THE POWER OF LOVE” (originally by Frankie Goes To Hollywood), he produced a reduced, almost acoustic version of this world hit. The album was mastered in High Resolution Audio format at Monoposto Mastering Studio (Robin Schulz etc.).

In addition, the album is released in Dolby Atmos format. For this purpose, the album was remixed and prepared by Eric Horstmann (Moderat, Rodriguez Jr., and others) at Immersive Lab Studios in Berlin.

Listen to the tracks below.

Hitting more high than low notes in San Diego

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© Provided by San Diego Union Tribune
San Diego Symphony music director Rafael Payare (Nelvin C. Cepeda / The San Diego Union-Tribune)

Here’s an easy way to put a positive spin on what 2022 was like for San Diego’s classical music scene: compare it to the year before. The unpredictable, cancellation-riddled 2021 was a nerve-wracking challenge for music presenters, musicians and audiences alike.

This year, it’s true that some smaller or less established classical music organizations here struggled. Some have gotten back on their feet, thanks to COVID-relief programs, concerned donors and creative thinking.

Many classical-music organizations here have renewed their educational and outreach efforts, which are crucial to cultivating the interest in classical music and expanding the demographics of their audiences.

While classical music is built on — and justifiably reverent to — the works of dead White male composers, in 2022 local organizations included music by people of color and women, past and present. Hopefully, it’s a trend that will last.

Internationally, because of streaming services and increased listening activity during pandemic restrictions, classical music witnessed an uptick in popularity, including among millennials and Gen Z-ers. With luck, some will become concertgoers.

Choruses were hit especially hard by the pandemic. Singing in a mask is not fun.

So it was thrilling to hear the full-throated San Diego Master Chorale with the San Diego Symphony performing Verdi’s Requiem in October under the stars at The Rady Shell. Music Director John K. Russell told me that the chorale is in better financial shape than pre-pandemic. For the first time in its 61-year history, the choir has a full-time executive director in Jen Rogers, who formerly led Arizona’s Grammy Award-winning Phoenix Chorale.

In March, Bach Collegium San Diego presented “El Mesias,” its own Spanish-language version of Handel’s Messiah, here and at Centro Cultural Tijuana. Moreover, its indefatigable artistic director, Ruben Valenzuela, conducted Bach Collegium and La Jolla Symphony concerts on consecutive fall weekends.

The Sacra Profana choral group reported its audiences were a bit smaller than pre-COVID but are “more enthusiastic than ever.” The resilient troupe this month released its new CD, “A Longing For Christmas.”

La Jolla Symphony & Chorus went through a dramatic change this year with the retirement of Steven Schick, its music director since 2007. Schick’s distinctive fingerprints remain. As music director emeritus, he and chorus conductor Arian Khaefi put together the symphony’s 2022-23 season.

Schick brought an adventurous spirit, vast musical knowledge and a passionate advocacy for up-and-coming composers and musicians. LJS&C is conducting a search for his successor.

Also in La Jolla, Le Salon de Musiques is now well into its second season of intimate, French-style concerts. Like other presenters small and large here, it has faced rising costs.

Up the coast, the Carlsbad Music Festival’s board president Bryan Meathe told me the festival is financially stronger than pre-pandemic, thanks to COVID-relief funds and low overhead. But the 2022 edition shrank to one day from three and was held in November, rather than the traditional August.

Founded by musician Matt McBane in 2003, the festival had a national reputation for its eclectic mix of genres. McBane, artistic director of the festival since its inception, resigned earlier this year. The festival website has no reference to him as founder.

Meathe and the board hired a managing director and a talent buyer, but no artistic director. It’s encouraging that Meathe promised to resume classical music at next year’s edition. But given his apparent lack of interest in the cutting-edge and avant-garde music that set the festival apart, only time will tell if it will be a lesser or fuller image of its former self.

On the bright side …

La Jolla Music Society will have presented 49 concerts when its 2022-23 season concludes, up from 42 last year. They range from renowned pianist Daniil Trifonov to young saxophonist Jess Gilliam.

The society’s annual SummerFest achieved a record income of $407,008 in 2022, besting even pre-pandemic festival sales. Splendidly curated by SummerFest Music Director Inon Barnatan — who recently signed a new three-year contract with LJMS — the four-week festival reported a 36 percent increase over the number of tickets sold for the three-week SummerFest 2021.

The event brought together 100 artists, including such disparate performers as violinist Augustin Hadelich and singer Cécile McLorin Salvant. Almost 3,000 people attended the SummerFest Education and Outreach programs in those four weeks.

San Diego Symphony’s charismatic music director-conductor, Rafael Payare, had a banner year, leading the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, making his conducting debut with the New York Philharmonic at Lincoln Center and having his second child with his wife, cellist Alisa Weilerstein.

This calendar year, the symphony performed 20 indoor concerts at venues throughout the county and 14 open-air concerts at The Rady Shell.

The orchestra’s Shell season drew 148,961 attendees, 22,000 more than in 2021. Acclaimed pianists Emanuel Ax, Yefim Bronfman and Gabriela Martinez were featured. The symphony also hosted free events, including its inaugural FITFest day, Noche Familiar Night and weekly open rehearsals at The Shell.

Even before its successful June run at Del Mar Surf Cup Sports Park, Mainly Mozart has made pivoting an art. Led by Music Director Michael Francis, the dynamic all-star orchestra went back indoors for the first time since 2019. It performed works by Mozart and Ralph Vaughan Williams at the Del Mar Fairgrounds Events Center (a new venue now called The Sound).

Bodhi Tree Concerts’ “All Is Calm: The Christmas Truce of 1914” became a remarkable collaboration in mid-December with the New York City Opera. After presenting it here in November, Bodhi Tree’s Diana and Walter DuMelle produced four performances of this holiday-themed opera at a theater in Fairfield, Conn. Sacra Profana’s Juan Carlos Acosta served as music director and conductor.

La Jolla’s Athenaeum Music & Arts Library smartly named the talented musical duo of Kate Hatmaker (Art of Elan and San Diego Symphony) and Alex Greenbaum (Art of Elan and Hausmann Quartet) co-directors of its Barbara and William Karatz Chamber Concert Series.

Many other organizations — including UCSD ArtPower, Art of Elan, San Diego Early Music Society and Camarada — presented exciting programs throughout 2022. The relative calm of this year allowed classical music here to begin to flourish anew. It’s a hopeful sign for next year.

Wood is a freelance writer.

This story originally appeared in San Diego Union-Tribune.

‘No Country For Old Men’ & 9 Other Soundtrack-Free Movies That Feature No Music

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© Provided by Collider


It’s pretty much a given that most movies will feature music in some capacity. Honestly, background music – whether it’s a score written for a movie or a collection of pre-existing songs – probably goes unnoticed a great deal of the time. Plenty of movies have some sort of music in almost every scene, as it’s a way to heighten emotions and add to what’s playing out visually, in front of the viewer.

RELATED: From ‘Nosferatu’ to ‘Häxan’: The Greatest Horror Movies of The Silent Era

Then there are movies that stand out for featuring no music, or no music outside their credit sequences. It can be quite jarring to come across a movie without a traditional score, seeing as even silent movies tend to have music playing in the background. However, the following 10 examples show that it’s possible, and can even make a film more powerful.

‘No Country For Old Men’ (2007)

The movie that earned The Coen Brothers a Best Picture Oscar, No Country For Old Men, is a dark and brutally realistic crime-thriller about two men getting into a game of cat and mouse over a suitcase full of money. What adds to the sense of grit and realism is the lack of music, with its suspenseful scenes playing out without a traditional score.

It stands in contrast to many other well-known movies made by the Coens, as their films tend to have great soundtracks, with Inside Llewyn Davis, O Brother, Where Art Thou?, and The Big Lebowski standing out in particular. Here, the film’s silence adds to the experience immensely, with viewers having to wait until the end credits to hear music from the Coens’ regular composer, Carter Burwell.

‘Caché’ (2005)

Michael Haneke is an iconic director on the international scene whose movies are often characterized by their deliberate pacing, grim subject matter, and sparse use of music. Caché is a film of his that takes not using music up to 11, with this dark thriller about a French couple who are stalked and regularly given strange videotapes being remarkably quiet and free of a traditional score.

Naturally, this makes things extra eerie, allowing an already tense and nerve-wracking movie to become even more stomach-churning. It’s not an easy film to watch, like most of what Haneke makes, but the decision to keep things quiet adds to the suspense, strengthening Caché’s power in the process.

‘Alice’ (1988)

Even if Alice had the sort of background music you’d expect in a fantasy movie, it would still be deeply unsettling. This take on the story of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland mixes live-action with stop-motion animation in an extremely eerie way. While other takes on Alice in Wonderland might have some nightmarish scenes, this film adaptation feels like a feature-length fever dream.

RELATED: ‘Guillermo Del Toro’s Pinocchio’ & Other Dark Fairytales Not Aimed At Kids

And the fact that the title character’s trip into the well-known dream world doesn’t feature music just adds to the strange, otherworldly feeling of it all. This is definitely not a movie young viewers should watch, owing to how scary it can be, but older viewers who want a dark and disquietingly quiet take on the story of Alice in Wonderland might get something out of it.

‘Dog Star Man’ (1964)

Split into five parts (one of which is included in the ‘1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die’ list), Dog Star Man is a strange film that’s as simple or as complex as the viewer wants it to be. At its core, it’s about a man climbing a mountain with his dog, with plenty of strange visuals and inexplicable sequences that can be interpreted in any number of ways.

It’s also technically a silent film in the most extreme sense, containing no dialogue, sound effects, or music. It’s therefore all about the visuals, with the strange trip it takes viewers on likely to enthrall some whilst boring others, as many experimental films tend to do.

‘Sully’ (2016)

A somewhat overlooked directorial effort by Clint Eastwood, Sully tells the true story of Captain Chesley Sullenberger, a pilot who, in 2009, made an emergency landing while in control of a plane that had over 150 people onboard. All onboard survived, with the fact the landing happened on the Hudson River making it all the more dramatic.

Much of the movie covers the aftermath of the emergency landing and the post-crash investigation that put pressure on Sullenberger for his heroic actions. It may take some liberties with the truth – as historical movies tend to do – but the lack of a standard music score does help lend an air of realism to the film, particularly in its harrowing scenes that depict the emergency landing.

‘The Tribe’ (2014)

The Tribe is a Ukrainian film about a school for the deaf with a dark underbelly. It’s shown to have a criminal hierarchy of sorts within its walls, with the plot following the protagonist getting mixed up in a gang of organized criminals who effectively run the school, terrorizing those who don’t fall in line.

All the major characters are deaf, and to reflect this, The Tribe is a remarkably quiet movie. There are sound effects, meaning it’s not a silent movie, but the film lacks background music and dialogue, with conversations instead done with sign language… that’s also not translated via subtitles, meaning viewers who aren’t knowledgeable when it comes to signing will have to try to keep up with actions, body language, and the film’s visual language.

‘Dog Day Afternoon’ (1975)

A tense and nerve-wracking movie about a seemingly simple bank robbery that goes disastrously wrong, Dog Day Afternoon is one of the most iconic films from the 1970s, and also features Al Pacino at the height of his powers as an actor.

RELATED: The Greatest Bank Heist Scenes in Film History

Technically, Dog Day Afternoon does feature a song in its opening credits sequence, that helps set the mood and setting of the film. After that, though, it’s two hours of soundtrack-free cinema, helping the viewer feel as though they’re really in the bank as the attempted robbery is playing out, given that in the real-life story the film was based on, there obviously wouldn’t have been any background music.

‘Frankenstein’ (1931)

1931’s Frankenstein is a horror classic, and helped define how Frankenstein’s Monster looked in pop culture going forward. The story is of course a familiar one: there’s a scientist who wants to create life, and so with the help of his assistant, he steals body parts from a nearby cemetery and assembles them into a grotesque-looking human creature, who does indeed come to life, with disastrous results.

Music is kept to a surprising minimum throughout this early horror movie, as besides the opening and end credits, there’s almost none of it. It stands in contrast to many movies of the period, which often have sweeping, even bombastic music that’s hard to ignore or not notice.

‘The Panic in Needle Park’ (1971)

The Panic in Needle Park is a harshly realistic movie about two young people who fall in love, with one of them being a heroin addict, who drags the other into a lifestyle of drug dependency. It’s notable for being one of Al Pacino’s first leading performances, who impressed in this role one year before the first Godfather truly made him a star.

Naturally, no movie that deals with drug addiction is going to be an easy watch, but the pervasive silence in The Panic in Needle Park makes it extra haunting and real-feeling. It opts out of using music, meaning the focus is always on the characters and their struggles, with the quiet (and even boring) moments in the lives of those dealing with addiction hitting just as hard as the more outwardly dramatic moments.

‘The Birds’ (1963)

Few Alfred Hitchcock movies are as well-known as The Birds. This 1963 horror movie sees its characters dealing with a mysterious series of attacks by swarms of deadly birds, with an entire town’s existence becoming threatened by the unexplained phenomenon.

While many Hitchcock movies feature iconic music scores, The Birds was a film that notably didn’t feature a traditional score. It makes for a more immersive horror movie than expected, with the lack of music in the film’s deathly quiet final sequence ensuring that The Birds ends on an extra haunting and memorable note.

NEXT: The Best Silent Films Worth Watching If You’ve Never Seen a Silent Film Before

Justin Bieber the latest major act to sell music rights in reported $200 million deal [Video]

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Justin Bieber is reportedly close to finalizing a $200 million deal to sell his music rights.

According to The Wall Street Journal, Bieber is in negotiations with Hipgnosis Songs Capital, a Blackstone-backed investment and song management company, in a deal that would value his rights at “around” $200 million.

The potential deal includes both Bieber’s publishing and recorded music catalog, the Journal noted, and represents the largest to-date acquisition for Hipgnosis, which purchased Justin Timberlake’s song catalog rights for a reported $100 million earlier this year.

Music publishing encompasses the copyrights for songwriting and composition, such as lyrics and melodies. Although publishing rights are often not worth as much as actual recordings, they can still lead to a significant amount of revenue over time with radio play, advertising, movie licensing, and more.

Justin Bieber performs onstage during the 64th Annual GRAMMY Awards at MGM Grand Garden Arena on April 03, 2022 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Rich Fury/Getty Images for The Recording Academy)

The news serves as the latest in what has been a series of similar deals done by artists over the years, as streaming services like Spotify (SPOT), Apple (AAPL) and Amazon (AMZN) increase the value of back catalogs.

In December 2021, Bruce Springsteen sold both his master recordings and publishing rights to Sony Music in a deal worth north of $500 million, according to multiple outlets. The Red Hot Chili Peppers sold the rights to its song catalog for a reported $150 million that same year.

In 2020, Bob Dylan sold over 600 copyrights to Universal Music Group in a deal reportedly valued at over $300 million. Prior to that, Stevie Nicks sold a majority stake in her songwriting for a reported $100 million.

“It gets to the point where there’s money coming from so many different places that you can’t go wrong on any type of deal like this,” Guillermo Page, a former record label executive who worked for Sony and Universal, previously told Yahoo Finance.

Page, who now teaches in the music program at the University of Miami, noted “streaming has provided stability.”

“The key is that the business has become predictable,” Page explained, adding: “[Investors] can trust in the future of the business because it’s growing. When you eliminate the uncertainty, it opens up a new door for investors to come in and snap those assets.”

Bieber’s reported deal signals how younger artists are beginning to cash in on the growing trend; although buyers are having more difficulty financing deals within the current interest rate environment — something the pandemic-era avoided amid ultra-low rates.

“You’re seeing all major acts from the 70s, 80s, and 90s that are riding the wave of streaming,” Page said, explaining artists can now “capture a ton of money” in ways they were not able to do in the past.

“It’s the perfect storm for artists who can now maximize their return on the sale of those assets.”

Alexandra is a Senior Entertainment and Media Reporter at Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter @alliecanal8193 and email her at alexandra.canal@yahoofinance.com

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