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Classical Accordionist Hanzhi Wang Brings Darkly Dynamic New Nordic Compositions to Carnegie Hall
Hanzhi Wang isn't the first accordionist to specialize in new classical music, but she is the first-ever squeezebox player to earn inclusion on the Young Concert Artists roster. Even though more composers these days are writing for the accordion, that's still a pretty big deal. Wang has a magically dynamic album of concise new works by Nordic composers, On the Path to H.C. Andersen, streaming at Spotify. She's making her Carnegie Hall debut on Oct 22 at 8:30 PM in Zankel Hall, where she'll be joined by the Zorá String Quartet, playing works by Bach, Gubaidulina, Moszkowski, Piazzolla and Martin Lohse. You can get in for as little as $10. Along with this past summer's Bryant Park Accordion Festival – and maybe Golden Fest, which always has plenty of accordion music – this is THE big accordion event of the year in New York.
The first composition is Lohse's Menuetto, a steady, Philip Glass-ine, austerely waltzing theme punctuated by airy, rather still interludes, growing more uneasy as its distantly baroque-tinged, cell-like variations rise and then recede.
Lohse's triptych Passing begins with a similarly circling if almost marionettishly pulsing allegro section. The steady, moonlit waltz that follows is deliciously ominous; the concluding variation is 180 degrees the opposite until that same resonance is artfully interpolated amidst the starry, flitting optimism. Wang's precision, all the way through a persistent strobe effect, is striking.
A final Lohse piece, The Little Match Girl begins with sparse, Ligeti-esque syncopation and expands from there: the central theme reminds of the old English folk tune Scarborough Fair. Wang has gone on record as having a close personal connection to its persistent melancholy since it reminds her of her first solitary days and weeks as a Chinese accordion student abroad for the first time in Denmark.
She negotiates the twisted turns and sudden bursts of Jabberwocky, by Jesper Koch with carnivalesque vigor and finesse. The creepiest number here is Tears, by Bent Lorentzen, building to from ethereal suspense to phantasmagorical Flight of the Bumblebee clusters, murky low atmospherics and poltergeist accents bursting in from the shadows.
Wang concludes the album with Svend Aaquist's practically fifteen-minute Saga Night, which quickly becomes a dissociatively eerie, rhythmically challenging fugue. A heroic theme is alluded to but never hit head-on; then a variation on the opening quasi-fugue makes an enigmatic return. In a way, it's practically a synopsis of the album as a whole. While some of these pieces could conceivably be played on organ or by a string ensemble, nothing beats the plaintive lusciousness of Wang's instrument of choice.
October 17, 2018 Posted by delarue | avant garde music, classical music, Music, music, concert, review, Reviews	| 21st century music, accordion music, album review, avant-garde music, Bent Lorentzen, classical music, Hanzhi Wang, Hanzhi Wang carnegie hall, Hanzhi Wang On the Path to H.C. Andersen, Hanzhi Wang On the Path to H.C. Andersen review, Hanzhi Wang review, Jesper Koch, Martin Lohse, new music, Svend Aaquist. music | Leave a comment
Kimmo Pohjonen and Jeffrey Ziegler Battle With Noises from the River
You know electroacoustic? Finnish accordionist Kimmo Pohjonen and ex-Kronos Quartet cellist Jeffrey Ziegler's duo show last month at South Street Seaport was diesel-acoustic. Positioned at the tip of a former shipping pier, possibly for the sake of approximating a nordic fjord, the two jammed their way through alternately rustic and assaultively improvisational themes against a rumbling backdrop of ferries, tugboats and water taxis. And it was totally punk rock, a style that Pohjonen seems to spring from.
When Ziegler wasn't playing elegant washes of counterpoint to complement Pohjonen's spiraling phrases, he was scraping on the strings, sticking a conductor's baton under the bridge of his cello, wailing and screeching and shrieking to the point where it looked like something was about to break. Cellists from famous string quartets typically play ancient instruments from centuries past: this cello looked like it could have been a recent model, straight from the factory floor. Pity the musician who gets it secondhand: it's been abused.
Pohjonen brought a pedalboard and played like a noiserock guitarist much of the time, with loops and distortion and also a setting that gave his squeezebox a majestic church organ sound. His technique was spectacular: blistering, machinegunning volleys of notes decaying to a drone or vice versa. Ziegler typically got to play good cop to Pohjonen's viking madman when he wasn't trying to burn holes in his fingerboard with his rasping attack. They hit a couple of big anthemic peaks, took a departure into a gracefully lilting dance that could have been Celtic – it's amazing how much cross-pollination ancient folk music hints at – then a Middle Eastern-flavored interlude with a spiky acoustic guitar cameo from Gyan Riley and wound up on an ecstatic note. Props to the River to River Festival folks for having the courage to book an act this adrenalizing and cutting-edge.
July 1, 2014 Posted by delarue | avant garde music, concert, Live Events, Music, music, concert, New York City, review, Reviews	| 21st century music, accordion music, avant-garde music, cello music, chamber music, folk music, folk rock, indie classical, instrumental music, instrumental rock, Jeffrey Ziegler, Jeffrey Ziegler review, Kimmo Pohjonen, Kimmo Pohjonen Jeffrey Ziegler, Kimmo Pohjonen Jeffrey Ziegler review, Kimmo Pohjonen review, Music, new music, noise rock, noiserock | Leave a comment
Devious Accordion Fun from Guy Klucevsek
Music blogger reading Downbeat on the subway spies a mention of Guy Klucevsek's most recent album The Multiple Personality Reunion Tour. How could a (relatively) new release by such an important figure in jazz and its outskirts have slipped under the radar here? Breathless email to the publicist at Innova – who put out this delightfully witty album at the end of January – results in a package of files which translates, at least to some extent, into what you are reading right now. This is not a heavy album, but it's very smart, a bright, playful mix of short, droll numbers along with a handful of more expansive tunes. Novoya polka stars Brave Combo join Klucevsek along with a vast supporting cast mostly hailing from the downtown New York scene.
Marcus Rojas' pulsing tuba drives the Balkan-flavored opening track, Breathless and Bewildered, shifting from major to minor with twin accordions in perfect unison. The pensive, slow Waltz for Sandy features drummer John Hollenbeck at his most tersely coloristic, adding vividly sepulchral brushwork. Jo Lawry's deadpan, breathless layers of vocalese color the tongue-in-cheek Gimme a Minute, Please (My Sequins Are Showing).
Klucevsek follows that with Larsong, a diptych for solo accordion that shifts from a purposeful Nordic folk theme to a rather wary canon. Likewise, Ratatouille builds a circular west African motif up to a lavish choir of voices and then back again. There are also three imaginative rearrangements of Erik Satie "hymnopedies," the first being a sort of mashup of Satie and a European hymn, the second a slightly more hopeful version of the famous Gymnopedie No. 2 featuring bright Dave Douglas trumpet, and the third a stately klezmer-inflected dirge that goes unexpectely bouncing with a surreal off-centeredness that would make its composer proud.
The best song here is Pink Elephant, climbing from an insistent Taxi Driver-style intro to a balmy but bracing Balkan dance. Klucevsek doesn' t show off much on this album, but he pulls out all the stops on a deliriously thrilling, trilling solo. He follows that with O'o, a jauntily swinging psychedelic calypso number with all kinds of trippy efx. The album winds up with Ladereld, extrapolating on the riff from California Girls; The C and M Waltz, a coyly orchestrated schoolyard jumprope theme, and the irresistibly funny party-gone-wrong scenario Moja Baba Je Pijana, complete with understandably distraught English translation. Big up to Klucevsek's like-minded supporting cast, which also includes fellow squeezebox guy Alex Meixner, guitarist Brandon Seabrook, bassist Pete Donovan, drummer Kenny Wollesen, singers Theo Bleckmann and Peter Eldridge, saxophonist Steve Elson and Texas bandleader Little Jack Melody.
Klucevsek works fast: he's already got a lavish double album featuring even more collaborations than this one due out later this fall from Starkland.
September 25, 2012 Posted by delarue | jazz, Music, music, concert, review, Reviews	| accordion jazz, accordion music, Alan Emert, album review, Alex Meixner, balkan music, Brandon Seabrook, Brave Combo, Carl Finch, Dave Douglas, eastern european music, guy klucevsek, guy klucevsek multiple personality reunion tour, guy klucevsek multiple personality reunion tour review, guy klucevsek review, instrumental music, jazz, Jeffrey Barnes music, Jo Lawry, john hollenbeck, kenny wollesen, Little Jack Melody, marcus rojas, Music, music review, Pete Donovan music, Peter Eldridge music, Steve Elson, Theo Bleckmann | 4 Comments
The Debutante Hour Cover Up For Once
Musicians know that if you really want to keep an audience's attention with a cover song, you have to find a way to make it different from the original. Usually the more you change it, the funnier it gets. The Debutante Hour's new album Follow Me is all cover songs: hip-hop, new wave pop, bluegrass, Phil Spector and indie rock done oldtimey style with accordion, cello and percussion. Is the band being silly? Sarcastic? Serious? With the Debutante Hour, you never know. Accordionist Maria Sonevytsky, cellist Mia Pixley and multi-instrumentalist Susan Hwang's stagewear may not leave much to the imagination, but their songs do the opposite: their deadpan surrealism isn't always easy to figure out. Which is what makes them so appealing – aside from their perfectly charming three-part harmonies. And the outfits of course. They definitely were serious about putting the album together, with crystalline production from World Inferno's Franz Nicolay.
The first song is No Scrubs, originally done by TLC, recast here as a ukelele shuffle. The original was mildly funny and this is funnier (live, it's absolutely hilarious). When it comes time for the bridge, Baltimore hip-hop diva TK Wonder reminds that girl in the song isn't a gold digger, she's just sick of getting hit on by scuzzy guys – beeyatch!
Just What I Needed by the Cars is a horrible song, one cliche after another, absolutely unredeemable unless maybe as death metal or industrial. Here it's reinvented as a tongue-in-cheek accordion tune, as the Main Squeeze Orchestra might have done it. When Nicolay comes in with his banjo, that's when it gets really funny.
The third track is an acoustic hip-hop hit by popular Ukrainian duo 5'Nizza (whose name is a Russian pun, meaning "Friday"). It seems to be a come-on (the hook seems to mean something along the lines of "I'm not like that"). To a non-Ukrainian speaker, it comes across as catchy, innocuous trip-hop. The first serious song here is an unselfconsciously beautiful version of the Stanley Bros.' If That's the Way You Feel, evocative of the Roulette Sisters. Another serious one is Be My Baby, where they take the generic white doo-wop hit burned out by oldies radio decades ago and make it downright sultry. They close with the Flaming Lips' Do You Realize. If you missed the original, it's Brian Jonestown Massacre-style nouveau psychedelia, in this case a third-rate John Lennon imitation with really awful (and kind of morbid) lyrics. The Debutante Hour's version plays down the death fixation and plays up the pretty tune. They're at Joe's Pub on 3/25 at 7 PM.
Since now we know that the Debutante Hour's covers are as fun and interesting as their originals, here's some other cover ideas: John Sheppard or Thomas Tallis' death-fixated sixteenth-century plainchant with intricate harmonies that scream out gothically for a reinterpretation by the Debutante Hour! How about Combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell, which is so idiotic that it wouldn't be hard to have a little fun with – maybe bring back TK Wonder for that one? Gogol Bordello's Start Wearing Purple, which pretty much everybody knows, and could use some harmonies? Camay by Ghostface Killah? The Girl's Guide to the Modern Diva by Black Box Recorder? Vladimir Vysotksky's acoustic gypsy-punk revolutionary anthem Okhata Na Volkov (The Wolf Hunt)? Just brainstorming here…
March 13, 2011 Posted by delarue | country music, Music, music, concert, review, Reviews, rock music	| 5'nizza, accordion music, bluegrass, bluegrass music, comedy music, comedy songs, cover albums, cover songs, debutante hour, debutante hour follow me, debutante hour follow me review, debutante hour review, flaming lips, franz nicolay, hip-hop, indie pop, indie rock, joke songs, maria sonevytsy, mia pixley, musical comedy, novelty songs, oldtime music, parody songs, pop music, rap, rap music, roulette sisters, stanley bros., stanley brothers, susan hwang, tk wonder, tlc band, ukelele music, World Inferno | Leave a comment
Gorgeous Rainy Day Music from Pickpocket Ensemble
Sometimes the best albums take the longest to get to know: that's our excuse for sitting on this one as long as we have (it came out last fall). Bay Area instrumentalists Pickpocket Ensemble's latest album Memory is one of the most unselfconsciously beautiful ones to come over the transom in recent months. Their dark, austere, gypsy-tinged acoustic melodies linger over tricky rhythms that sometimes shift shape to the point where it's impossible not to get lost. Plaintive but not sentimental, wistful without being hokey, this is tremendously captivating rainy-day music.
The opening cut, Home, blends elements of Belgian barroom musette with tricky gypsy rhythms, bandleader/accordionist Rick Corrigan layering one track over another like a piece of baklava, guitarist Yates Brown and violinist Marguerite Ostro's lines mingling with the wary ambience over the shifting pulse of bassist Kurt Ribak and percussionist Michaelle Goerlitz. The aptly titled 3 AM veers closer to gypsy jazz with staccato piano and memorably spiky solos from both piano and guitar. The third track, If (not to be confused with the cheeseball 70s hit by Bread…or the Pink Floyd tune, come to think of it) is another brooding minor key number, violin taking the lead over incisive, thoughtful fingerpicked guitar. Brown's gorgeously spiraling solo over shuffling acoustic guitar and bright piano on the fourth track, Sometimes Never, is one of the album's high points.
Baroque meets jazz on the wistful ballad Bird in a Web, featuring another beautiful Brown solo. They follow that with the bittersweet, elegaic waltz For Those Who've Left and then Seriously, which blends gypsy jazz with a cosmopolitan, Astor Piazzolla-ish elegance. The title track adds banjo and brass – and a sizzling muted trumpet solo – over a bracing minor-key gospel melody; after a brief Arab-flavored spot for solo cello, they close the album with a characteristically pensive, rhythmically dizzying number titled Nowhere Else. Fans of eclectic pan-global bands from Beirut to Kotorino will enjoy this: count it among the best we've heard lately.
February 20, 2011 Posted by delarue | gypsy music, jazz, Music, music, concert, review, Reviews, world music	| accordion music, album review, balkan music, cd review, eastern european music, gypsy jazz, gypsy music, instrumental music, jazz, kurt ribak, marguerite ostro, michaelle goerlitz, musette, Music, music review, pickpocket ensemble, pickpocket ensemble memory, pickpocket ensemble memory review, rick corrigan, rick corrigan accordion, world music, yates brown | Leave a comment
Fishtank Ensemble's New Album Is More Gypsy Than Ever
Fishtank Ensemble boast that they're the "leading American gypsy band." Their third album, Woman in Sin goes a long way to back up that claim: they just might be right. Energetically speaking, they raise the bar for pretty much everybody else. Frontwoman Ursula Knudson's dramatic four-octave voice soars to the stratosphere along with Fabrice Martinez' violin over Doug Smolens' fleet, nimble acoustic guitar and Djordje Stijepovic's incisive bass, frequently augmented by accordion or Knudson's singing saw. Their previous album Samurai Over Serbia mixed Asian melodies into a wide range of gypsy and Eastern European styles; the melodies on this one run from Spanish flamenco to a Greek ouzo anthem to the shores of Tripoli. It's an excellent approximation of their high-energy live show.
The title track is a scurrying oldtimey swing number, a feel replicated on the gypsy jazz version of Bessie Smith's After You've Gone and, later, the Betty Boop flapper vibe of CouCou, both punctuated by inspired, spikily virtuosic Smolens solos. The instrumental Espagnolette, a live showstopper, is basically a Belgian barroom dance featuring some wild singing saw and vocalese. The somewhat epic Amfurat de la Haidouck kicks off with the gypsy equivalent of a heavy metal intro, a tricky sway with furious, rapidfire chromatic accordion and a long, methodical buildup to a wild, frenzied, swirling coda. They follow that on a smaller scale with the shapeshifting dance Djordje's Rachenitza and then Pena Andalouz, which sounds like an acoustic Alabina song. The album also includes another crazily metamorphosizing dance tune, a stately waltz that gives Knudson and Martinez a chance to show off a more introspective side, an ecstatic Greek drinking song and another dance that interpolates dark Middle Eastern passages within a more upbeat gypsy framework. It's another winner from one of this era's most adrenalizing, captivating bands in any style of music.
August 24, 2010 Posted by delarue | folk music, Music, music, concert, review, Reviews, world music	| accordion music, album review, balkan music, cd review, Djordje Stijepovic, doug smolens, Douglas Smolens, eastern european folk music, eastern european music, fabrice martinez, fiddle music, Fishtank Ensemble, fishtank ensemble review, fishtank ensemble woman in sin, fishtank ensemble woman in sin review, flamenco music, folk music, greek music, gypsy jazz, gypsy music, gypsy rock, music review, old time music, oldtime music, oldtimey music, romanian music, singing saw, swing jazz, swing music, ursula knudson, world music | Leave a comment
3 Leg Torso Do the Time Warp Again
Animals and Cannibals, the all-instrumental fifth album by Portland, Oregon's 3 Leg Torso is of the year's most enjoyably eclectic releases. Playfully, often psychedelically and amusingly blending elements of gypsy music, Belgian barroom songs, the baroque and jazz, the group is anchored by acclaimed violinist Bela R. Balogh and accordionist Courtney Von Drehle. T.J. Arko, Kyle MacLowry and drummer Gary Irvine take turns on the vibraphone, along with bass, tuba, weissenborn, piano and French horn. As the individual song titles indicate, they don't take themselves particularly seriously (although they do the music): some of these pieces veer off into parody. Although the juxtaposition of the medieval and the modern here might seem jarring, it isn't: this crew somehow makes it work.
The album opens with a swaying, 6/8 accordion tune with a lush string and vibraphone arrangement, a scurrying Balogh solo and a trick ending (a device that will recur here often). The tango standard Csardas, by Vittorio Monti is a joyous exercise in tempo shifts and doubletime. The cinematic, Brueghelesque The Life and Times and Good Deeds of St. Penguin – yup, that's the title – works variations on a plaintive waltz with a tricky turnaround. Moving from a tv theme-style bounce to more complex, jazzy passages with incisive accordion and bluesy vibraphone, Toothless Cannibal winds up on the wings of another wailing Balogh solo. Driving Along with My Cow in My Volga could be a Spike Jones backing track, including a rustic Russian dirge, a blithe, tongue-in-cheek gypsy dance, and a bucolic waltz. And Von Drehle's According to Chagall sounds suspiciously like a cumbia-tinged version of the Twin Peaks theme arranged for string band – it would make a great addition to the Chicha Libre catalog.
The mini-epic Bus Stop to Oblivion builds from rustic sentimentality to a wildly fusionesque stomp, violin blasting through a distortion pedal as the band roar their way out at the end. An original, Frailach #1 is a bracing klezmer raveup with a woozy bass solo and a deliciously long crescendo out of it. The album winds up on a pensive note with the cinematic theme The Last Dream. Somewhere there's a contemporary black comedy set in a rainy Balkan milieu that needs this album for its soundtrack.
August 10, 2010 Posted by theamyb | Music, music, concert, review, Reviews, world music	| 3 leg torso, accordion music, album review, balkan music, bela r. balogh, cd review, cinematic music, courtney von drehle, eastern european music, film music, gary irvine, gypsy jazz, gypsy music, instrumental music, jatrik clark, jen harrison french horn, klezmer music, kyle maclowry, michael papillo, mike murphy bass, movie music, movie theme, Music, music review, portland bands, string band, tango, tango music, tj irko, world music | Leave a comment
A Bosnian Emerald Gleams in the Dark
In Bosnia, the title of singer Amira Medunjanin and accordionist Merima Kljuco's new album Zumra means "emerald," which is a double entendre: it has a nonconformist connotation. Together the two musicians offer a new approach to a wide variety of traditional folk songs from the region, alternating between terse, starkly intense arrangements and more avant-garde interpretations. The group they most closely resemble is innovative Balkan/Appalachian vocal duo Æ, substituting Medunjanin's stagy, operatic, traditional delivery for Eva Salina Primack and Aurelia Shrenker's otherworldly, primal intensity. Most interestingly, Kljuco's accordion goes a lot further out than Medunjanin's voice, firing off bracing, whistling overtones, breathless staccato passages and crashing waves of atonalities along with menacing chromatic runs and cadenzas that contrast with an eerie stillness. The songs are strung together as something of a suite: if you don't speak the language or aren't paying attention to beginnings and endings, you can get completely lost in this. It's a brooding, beautifully atmospheric album.
The songs evoke a difficult and war-torn past. People long for home and lovers can't consummate anything because of differences in their religion – in fact many of these songs concern people who go mad with love because society won't let them have what they want. Kljuco meanders her way sadly through a gracefully ornamented, rubato solo instrumental of Svedah, a song from the 1920s, a bitter account of wartime destruction. The duo harrowingly deliver a metaphorically charged tale of a mother ripping out her child's heart, white noise of the accordion quietly panting with understated anguish. The album winds up with a love song to a nonconformist – the best kind – and a Bosnian Sephardic song sung in Ladino, a vivid illustration of the kind of cultural cross-pollination that went on in their part of the world despite centuries of repression. It's out now on World Village Music.
July 20, 2010 Posted by delarue | folk music, Music, music, concert, review, Reviews, world music	| accordion music, ae band, ae singers, amira medunjanin, aurelia shrenker, balkan folk music, balkan music, balkan vocal music, bosnian folk music, bosnian music, bosnian vocal music, eastern european music, eva primack, Eva Salina Primack, folk music, folk songs, merima kljuco, slavic music, vocal music, world music, world village music | Leave a comment
CD Review: Katzenjammer – Le Pop
Katzenjammer's new album Le Pop is pretty amazing, a strong contender for best of 2010. With their gorgeous harmonies, old-fashioned instrumentation and frequently lush production, the accordion-driven all-female Oslo quartet sound like the Dresden Dolls but better (more energetic, less cutesy and a whole lot darker as well). The self-styled "queens of sultry sound" balance an eerily rustic noir edge with tongue-in-cheek humor, and lyrics in English. On the new cd, multi-instrumentalist Solveig Heilo, accordionists Anne Marit Bergheim and Marianne Sveen and bassist Turid Jørgensen – who plays the largest four-string instrument in all of rock – bounce, scamper and blast their way through a mix of tempos and styles that evoke such diverse acts as the B-52s, Gruppo Sportivo and Gogol Bordello.
The album opens on a surprisingly pensive note with an instrumental "overture," followed by the scurrying Keystone Kops vibe of A Bar in Amsterdam, which amusingly morphs into a Pat Benetar-style power ballad on the chorus. With its jaunty gypsy swing, Demon Kitty Rag evokes satirical New York trio the Debutante Hour. Tea with Cinnamon is an absolute delight, a vintage Toots and the Maytals-style rocksteady number with accordion and a surprisingly wistful lyric. The title track, a snidely exuberant Gruppo Sportivo-style satire of American corporate music is great fun, and the outro is absolutely priceless.
The darker material here is just as captivating. Hey Ho on the Devil's Back sets charming harmonies and barrelhouse piano to a Nashville gothic arrangement with a funny but disquieting edge, and a series of trick endings. The big, anguished crescendo on the lushly orchestrated suicide anthem Wading in Deeper packs a visceral punch; the violin-driven To the Sea showcases the band's harmonies at their most otherworldly, with an off-center, Icelandic vibe. There's also the sternly tongue-in-cheek Mother Superior, with its eerie carnival organ; Der Kapitan, a macabre-tinged surf instrumental done oompah style; the coy country bounce of Play, My Darling; Ain't No Thang, an oldtimey banjo tune; and Virginia Clemm, a sad, eerily atmospheric waltz. The depth and intelligence of the songs matches their good-time appeal: it's been a long time since we discovered a band who could do that as consistently as Katzenjammer do. The group are currently on US tour (at Milwaukee's Summerfest on July 3 and 4, opening for Elvis Costello), with a date at the Mercury Lounge on July 6.
June 29, 2010 Posted by delarue | Music, music, concert, review, Reviews, rock music	| accordion music, acoustic punk, Anne Marit Bergheim, b-52's, cabaret music, debutante hour, Dresden Dolls, gogol bordello, gruppo sportivo, gypsy music, gypsy punk, gypsy rock, katzenjammer, katzenjammer band, Marianne Sveen, noir cabaret, oldtime music, oldtimey music, punk music, punk rock, ragtime, Solveig Heilo, swing music, toots and the maytals, Turid Jørgensen | 1 Comment
CD Review: The Debutante Hour – The Birth and Death of Meaning
The Debutante Hour play oldtimey-flavored existentialist pop music. Clever and quirky but with an understated angst that sometimes goes straight down into the abyss, their soaring, soulful three-part harmonies deliver deadpan humor that's sometimes completely black, other times totally absurdist and often hilarious. Their torchier songs remind a lot of Nellie McKay; their darker, more rustic stuff evokes the Dresden Dolls (whose drummer, Brian Viglione, guests here) as well as New York oldtimey stars Bobtown; World Inferno's Franz Nicolay produced the album, squeezing every ounce of plaintiveness out of the songs. Pianist/accordionist Maria Sonevytsky and cellist Mia Pixley previously played together in indie harmony-pop band the Baby Pool, joined here by songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Susan Hwang. The trio romp, shuffle and sometimes tiptoe through an impressively diverse collection of styles.
There's a couple of accordion oompah tunes, one a gentle kiss-off to somebody who takes himself a little too seriously, the other titled Watching Carrie Eat. The blackly funny Miracle Birth pokes fun at an impressive display of "origin stories" from around the globe, like the Roulette Sisters with an accordion, and a neat cello solo that leads nicely into guest Jonathan Vincent's barrelhouse piano. Galax is an ominously chirpy oldtimey Nashville gothic swing tune about a couple on a doomed camping trip – and is that a theremin at the end? Sunday in the Trailer follows in the same vein, but even more creepy and more stream-of-consciousness:
As you pressed my shoulders
I thought of the claws of my feet.
I tried to hide them, but you found them eventually
Croak Hiss and Sputter, a swirling New Orleans reel, recounts a surreal road trip:
Wax dripped off the cylinders, frogs chirped like birds
The archive dust got windexed off by archive nerds
A tango, Organizing My Planner For Next Week transcends the mundane with the philosophical:
Can you plan surprises, like hope or skirting inevitable dread
The dread that killed your father, and all your mother's regrets
That you swore would never get to you because you're different from them
Other songs here tackle the zen of zombies as well as subatomic theory, along with a country waltz as Kurt Vonnegut might have done it; Scheherezade, which recasts the storytelling girl as a real schmoozer; and the chirpily sardonic Be Yourself:
So even if they assume you're an Alyssa Milano
And you know you're more like Jennifer Jason Leigh
Don't let it affect what you do tomorrow
As much fun as this album is, it's a likely bet that the band is just as fun live. The Debutante Hour play the Jalopy on June 15 at 8:45 PM, sandwiched between two other first-rate acts, ferocious New Orleans art-rock pianist Lady Baby Miss who kicks off the night at 8 and then irresistibly charismatic, deviously lyrical oldtimey siren Kelli Rae Powell at 9:30.
June 11, 2010 Posted by delarue | Music, music, concert, review, Reviews, rock music	| accordion band, accordion music, baby pool band, birth and death of meaning, bobtown band, brian viglione, debutante hour, debutante hour birth and death of meaning, Dresden Dolls, existential music, existential songs, existentialist music, existentialist songs, folk music, franz nicolay, goth music, goth rock, gothic music, gothic pop, gothic rock, indie pop, jonathan vincent piano, Kelli Rae Powell, lady baby miss, maria Sonevytsky, mia pixley, nashville gothic, nellie mckay, new orleans music, old time music, oldtimey music, pop music, susan hwang, swing music, torch songs, World Inferno | Leave a comment


As the close of the year approaches, 2018 planning is ramping into high gear. Leadership teams use this time to discuss plans, goals and initiatives they will implement with the aim of delighting customers, meeting the commitments of constituents and, ultimately, guiding their organization forward.
How should I start this type of business analysis?
What skills are required myself, and by my teams?
Which management systems should I use to measure progress?
If you ask yourself these questions and don't have immediate answers, you may need to rebuild your organization's strategy planning muscle.
Verizon Partner Solutions (VPS) takes the strategy challenge very seriously, and focuses on defining and refining our strategy to achieve continuous improvement against the execution of our strategic plan throughout the year.
Our strategic muscle leverages several proven methods – Playing to Win (Roger Martin) to inform strategy choices; Red Teaming (Bryce Hoffman) to mitigate risks; and The Execution Premium (Robert S. Kaplan and David P. Norton) to drive strategies into actions and desired outcomes.
These books have stretched our thinking and have helped our organization to see our customers, markets and competitors in a clearer light. At the core, VPS' strategy formulation begins with the needs of our customers. These requirements are always complex, as we operate in a multi-layered market, serving our partners who – in turn – need to serve their end-user clients. We are therefore dealing with a triangulation of needs, and this must be considered when we frame our problem statement, strategic choices and possibilities.
Partnering for success is a key anchor of our commitment to delivering the digital world to VPS customers, by connecting people, places, and things across the globe. Throughout 2018, as we execute against our plan, VPS will be sharing exciting new developments which have the potential to transform our customers' businesses.


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This is my first visit, so I am not sure what is going on. I like the site's looks. I love the characters, but h is running things? Do you always saw each other in half? 🙂 Can't wait for the next show.
On our site we do two types of posts "one-shots" or a series. This one was a one shot. Usually we have an idea for a fun picture and write a short story to go along with it (this is definitely one of our shorter ones) or we write a series that make a complete story and takes a couple of weeks (The Case of the Missing Sloth or The Mystery of the Desert Sands). I hope you visit more and enjoy our crazy stories.
We haven't written a book, yet. Just a couple of series that you might enjoy. We are just doing this for fun. That is why there are so many one shots. One day it would be nice to make a book, but jobs are currently getting in the way.
« We're Back! & Guten Tag!


A lawsuit was filed on behalf of investors in Uxin Limited (NASDAQ: UXIN) shares over alleged securities laws violations.
San Diego, CA -- (SBWIRE) -- 02/12/2019 -- The Shareholders Foundation announces that an investor, who purchased shares of Uxin Limited (NASDAQ: UXIN), filed a lawsuit over alleged violations Securities Laws by Uxin Limited in connection with the Company's June 27, 2018, initial public offering ("IPO").
Investors who purchased shares of Uxin Limited (NASDAQ: UXIN) have certain options and for certain investors are short and you should contact the Shareholders Foundation at mail@shareholdersfoundation.com or call +1(858) 779 - 1554.
China based Uxin Limited, through its subsidiaries, operates an used car e-commerce platform in China. On November 19, 2018, Uxin Limited reported that transaction volume for one of its business segments had declined 8.5% year-over-year and gross merchandise value had declined 14.8% due to its "recent change of approach in serving customers with car-selling needs."
According to the complaint the plaintiff alleges that the Registration Statement was materially false and misleading and omitted to state that the company was likely to stop providing complementary services such as inspections to its customers, that instead, the company would connect consumers to dealers who would provide such complementary services, that as a result, the company's 2B business would be materially impacted, and that as a result of the foregoing, defendants' statements in the Registration Statement regarding Uxin's business, operations, and prospects, were materially false and/or misleading.


text:
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RyanPannyMusic
The rantings of an obsessive musician and music fan
Top 10 Hip-Hop Albums of 2016
December 16, 2016 Ryan Panny
Hey everyone, welcome to my Top 10 Hip-Hop albums of 2016, a.k.a. Shit-on-Panny-For-His-Terrible-Music-Taste Round One! This will be my only blog exclusive Year-End List! So be sure to catch the rest on my YouTube channel in the next couple weeks, including the one I already put out. A few clarifications before we get into this:
As always – and it's kinda frustrating that I have to even say this – this list is 100 percent my personal taste! C'mon guys, none of this shit is ever "objective", whatever the hell that means. These records are arranged solely based on how much I ENJOYED them. An album in the number three slot is not "better" than an album in the number seven slot – I just dug it more!
Kendrick Lamar's untitled unmastered was not eligible, because it wasn't an official full-length release.
Death Grips' Bottomless wasn't eligible either – I'd rather file that one under "experimental" music. Dug the hell out of it though!
With all that nonsense out of the way, let's dive in!
10. THE DIVINE FEMININE – MAC MILLER
Likely to be my most controversial pick, Mac Miller's fourth record (and best yet) is as fun, wide-eyed, blissful, and heartwarming as any music I heard all year. It's this brazen celebration of love and sexuality that carves its own unique niche in Hip-Hop. Mac's whole-hearted commitment to the LP's concept, his (as usual) great beat selection, and his flawless balancing of his talented guests made this one the ultimate not-so-guilty pleasure.
Top 3 Tracks: "Cinderella", "Dang!", "Stay"
9. COLORING BOOK – CHANCE THE RAPPER
Unfortunately, I've had a love/hate relationship with Chance's hugely hyped third project because, well, it was HUGELY HYPED. Overly so, to the point where I got so fucking sick of hearing about it. But that doesn't mean I didn't like it! Chance's playful personality and seemingly unending charisma continue to set him apart. Not to mention, Coloring Book has more than enough bars, soul, and inventive genre fusions to go around.
Top 3 Tracks: "Angels", "No Problem", "Blessings"
8. 3001: A LACED ODYSSEY – FLATBUSH ZOMBIES
The debut full-length from these Brooklyn upstarts gives me high hopes for the future of the genre. Though its clearly rooted in '90s nostalgia, 3001 has one eye looking out the front windshield, embracing some trap-based production and molding it to fit the Zombies' over-the-top O.D.B.-esque charisma. And there's a sizable melodic undercurrent that makes it all feel like more than just a gritty, drug-addled cypher.
Top 3 Tracks: "R.I.P.C.D.", "Bounce, "Good Grief"
7. LAYERS – ROYCE DA 5'9
Royce's unbelievable rhyming skills are on display once again? Zero surprise there. Where the surprise did come: the Detroit OG did right by his phenomenal bars by surrounding them with legitimately great songs, something he and his Slaughterhouse counterparts have struggled with in the past few years. His beat selection is outstanding, with the swaggering production on tracks like "Wait" and "Layers" guiding him to the finish line like a spotter on a bench press. Other times, like on the opening track "Tabernacle" – the single best Hip-Hop song of 2016 – his lyrics and storytelling are so mindblowing that I could literally listen to him a cappella.
Top 3 tracks: "Tabernacle", "Pray", "Layers"
6. HANDSHAKES WITH SNAKES – APATHY
CT's own Apathy came through with an album so directly up my alley, it's like he made the damn thing with me in mind (I'll take a second to pause while you wonder if I'm a paranoid schizophrenic). It's got hard-hitting, sample-based boom bap production, it's got intricate lyricism up the wazoo, and Ap's constantly railing against the youngest generation of rappers and the autotune and "emo-rap" that's becoming all the rage with the kids these days. Don't sleep on this project!
Top 3 Tracks: "Pay Your Dues", "Charlie Brown", "Amon Raw"
5. FISHING BLUES – ATMOSPHERE
My initial review of the latest from these Minneapolis veterans was a bit more mixed, but this fucking record just grew on me and grew on me and grew on me. A lot of it has to do with Ant's gorgeous production, as well as Slug's endless likability on the mic. Even when he's not expressing it in the most impressive or clever of ways, I vibe with everything Slug says here. And that's how this LP snuck into my Top 5 – I had a profound emotional connection with it. At the end of the day, fuck the critic shit – that's what music's about.
Top 3 Tracks: "Fishing Blues", "Everything", "The Shit That We've Been Through"
4. WE GOT IT FROM HERE…THANK YOU 4 YOUR SERVICE – A TRIBE CALLED QUEST
Tribe's sixth LP and swansong is better than anyone could've hoped for. The fucking thing picks up RIGHT where classics like Midnight Marauders left off – it combines thoughtful, semi tongue-in-cheek rhymes with rich, instrument-driven production. The only difference, of course, is We Got It From Here feels incredibly TIMELY. In a year where American politics devolved into sickening chaos and everybody seems to hate each other for ten million different reasons, Tribe are exactly who we needed to hear from. Oh, and the features are out of this world. Are you gonna pass up an album that has Andre 3000, Kendrick Lamar, Elton John, Busta Rhymes, and Talib Kweli on it? Didn't think so.
Top 3 Tracks: "We the People", "Dis Generation", "Kids"
3. TOP OF THE LINE – RITTZ
The third LP from this criminally underrated Strange Music Signee is a spectacular blend of head-splitting double-time flows, meticulously crafted multi-syllabic rhyme schemes, banging production, and infectious pop hooks to top it all off (the latter of which helps set him apart). But most importantly, Rittz has so much to say, touching on a myriad of interesting topics and not wasting a single bar. To give you an idea, here's a brief list of things the Georgia MC discusses (and chronicles in detail, really) throughout these 21 tracks: his battle with substance abuse, the death of his dog ("Nostalgia" is the most touching moment on the album), race relations in America and how they relate to the white rapper, suicidal thoughts, spirituality, the decadent touring lifestyle, infidelity in relationships, his come up in Gwinnett County, Georgia, and loads more. And it's all compelling, lyrically dazzling, and packaged into digestible, straightforward tunes.
Top 3 Tracks: "The Formula", "Nostalgia", "KISA"…then the other 18
2. ATROCITY EXHIBITION – DANNY BROWN
As an MC, Danny Brown is occupying a lane entirely his own. Though some may be turned off by his eccentric, almost cartoonish delivery, Atrocity Exhibition is undeniably one of the most unique, dark, zany, and wildly stimulating Hip-Hop records ever made. Brown's tortured rhymes sit atop an A.D.D.-inducing array of beats that contains nods to Rock, Punk, a bit of R & B, and whatever the hell "Ain't It Funny" is. The all-star posse cut "Really Doe" and the bare "Pneumonia" are two instances where Brown dials back the crazy and serves up some straightforward bangers, but most of the time his mind is off in cacophonous La La Land, and I wouldn't have it any other way.
Top 3 Tracks: "Ain't It Funny", "Rolling Stone", "Really Doe"
1. THE LIFE OF PABLO – KANYE WEST
Man, I really had to dig deep on this choice. Once I had my Top 3 narrowed down, I immediately started stressing, my mind racing through every possible negative reaction to my opinions – the worst thing to pay attention to as a music writer. But I planted my feet firmly, blocked out all the outside noise, blocked out all of my friends' and peers' opinions, and listened to my gut. What was the Hip-Hop album I got the most enjoyment out of in 2016? What album defined the year for me? What album had the most great songs, and the least not-so-great songs? The answer: The Life of Pablo. Sure, Atrocity Exhibition would've been the safe "critic-approved" choice, and Top of the Line is the ultimate underdog, but the dopamine receptors in my brain keep pointing toward the wacked-out, schizophrenic genius of Kanye's seventh record. For me, this is his best since Graduation. It's got everything – incredible features, suberb production, lyrics that are as thought-provoking as they are confrontational, incendiary, and outrageous…I know few agree, but this record is a classic. Thanks Kanye, I'll forgive all your other dumb shit.
Top 3 Tracks: Jesus Christ….ummm….."Famous", "Waves", "Real Friends"?
And here are five HONORABLE MENTIONS:
The Impossible Kid – Aesop Rock
The Art of Hustle – Yo Gotti
Don't Smoke Rock – Smoke DZA & Pete Rock (full review here)
Black America Again – Common
Do What Thou Wilt. – Ab-Soul (it's only been out a few days, but wanted to shout it out! It's HARDD!)
UncategorizedA Tribe Called Quest, Album Review, Atmosphere, Atrocity Exhibition, Best Hip-Hop of 2016, Best Rap Songs, Best Songs of 2016, Chance the Rapper, Coloring Book, Danny Brown, Donald Trump, Fishing Blues, Interview, Kanye West, Kim Kardashian, Layers, Live Performance, Mac Miller, Rittz, Royce da 5'9, Slug, Strange Music, Tech N9ne, The Divine Feminine, The Life of Pablo, Top of the Line
Previous Article November 2016 Album Round Up!
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Q: Output the longest word in a text file I have created a text file writes every word written in the editText box of the android app. I also tried to read the contents of the file using bufferedreader. The problem is, I want to get an output only the longest word in the list created but I can't seem to compare all the strings inputted. My googling only provided info about comparing the length of two strings. How can I compare the length of each line in the text file? Can anyone please guide me on what to do next?
my code looks like this:
 try
   {
        File myFile = new File("/sdcard/logger.file");
        FileInputStream fIn = new FileInputStream(myFile);
        BufferedReader myReader = new BufferedReader(
                new InputStreamReader(fIn));
        String aDataRow = "";
        String aBuffer = "";
        while ((aDataRow = myReader.readLine()) != null)
        {
            aBuffer += aDataRow + "\n";
        }
        show.setText(aBuffer);
        myReader.close();
        Toast.makeText(getBaseContext(),
                "Done reading SD 'mysdfile.txt'",
                Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
        }
   catch (Exception e)
   {
        Toast.makeText(getBaseContext(), e.getMessage(),
                Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
   }
}

A: i don't know what your textfile looks like, but if you only have a single word each line, you can use your comparation of two strings. in fact that you already "touch" each word/line while reading it out from the file, why you don't just compare them right there? i modified your code, so that it should do what you want it to do.
try
{
    File myFile = new File("/sdcard/logger.file");
    FileInputStream fIn = new FileInputStream(myFile);
    BufferedReader myReader = new BufferedReader(
            new InputStreamReader(fIn));
    String longestString ="";
    String aDataRow = "";
    String aBuffer = "";
    while ((aDataRow = myReader.readLine()) != null)
    {
        if(longestString.length()<=aDataRow.length()){
            longestString = aDataRow;
        }
        aBuffer += aDataRow + "\n";
    }
    //So here you defenitly got your longestWord in "longestString"
    show.setText(aBuffer);
    myReader.close();
    Toast.makeText(getBaseContext(),
            "Done reading SD 'mysdfile.txt'",
            Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
    }
catch (Exception e)
{
    Toast.makeText(getBaseContext(), e.getMessage(),
            Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
}

A: You can use java.util.Scanner,
    try
   {
        File myFile = new File("/sdcard/logger.file");
        Scanner scanner = new Scanner(myFile);
        String bigWord = "";
        while (scanner.hasNextLine()) {
            Scanner wordScanner = new Scanner(scanner.nextLine());
            while (wordScanner.hasNext()) {
                String str = wordScanner.next();
                if(str.length() > bigWord.lenght())
                    bigWord = str;
            }
        }
        show.setText(bigWord);
        Toast.makeText(getBaseContext(),
                "Done reading SD 'mysdfile.txt'",
                Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
   }
   catch (Exception e)
   {
        Toast.makeText(getBaseContext(), e.getMessage(),
                Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
   }
}

A: An easy to understand method to solve this problem is to break it into two steps.
The first step is to read all of your separate words into a big array or list.
The second step is to go through the array or list, and find the longest word.
I'm not sure if you want to get the longest line or the longest word. Maybe they're the same.
Anyway, for your problem specifically, you need to have:
List lines = new ArrayList<>();
Then you need to replace aBuffer += aDataRow + "\n"; with this: lines.add(aDataRow);
Then when you have finished reading the file, you simply have to have some code like this:
int biggest = 0;
String big_word = "";
for (String row : lines) {
    if (row.length() > biggest) {
        biggest = row.length();
        big_word = row;
    }
}

Toast.makeText(getBaseContext(), "Biggest word is " + big_word, Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();

People will recognise that you can combine the creation of the list and the reading of the file, but this method is easier to understand.

A: Guava solution:
    String longestWord = Files.readLines(new File("/sdcard/logger.file"), Charsets.UTF_8,
        new LineProcessor<String>() {

            TreeSet<String> set = new TreeSet(new Comparator<String>() {
                @Override public int compare(String o1, String o2) {
                    return o1.length() - o2.length();
                }
            });

         @Override public boolean processLine(String line) {
             set.addAll(Sets.newHashSet(Splitter.on(" ").split(line)));
             return true;
         }

         @Override public String getResult() {
            return set.last();
         }
    });

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


..., Verisimilitude, and the Responsibility of Expectations. Obsidian's Nathaniel Chapman ponders the issue.
Something that seems to frequently come up when discussing the design of a game system is whether or not some aspect of that system adheres to reality. Or, more precisely, whether the outcomes of that system accurately simulate the results that the person making the argument expects, based on their particular interpretation of reality.
Generally, these arguments come from players, or from non-designers, or less experienced designers, and will take the form of, "But XXXX isn't realistic!" or "Realistically, YYYY should happen instead". And, frequently, experienced game designers will turn around and say "Who cares?" and merrily go on their way designing an "unrealistic" system.
I wanted to give a quick explanation of why this is, explain what role I see realism as having in game design, and then provide a bit of a defense of "realism" as it relates to something I call the "responsibility of expectations" that is placed on any game design.


The tour starts in Deltebre and leads you by bike along the rice fields until you reach the village of Balada at the right riverside of Ebro river. Now you're changing to kayaks and glide on the water through the riparian forests of the biosphere reserve.
The approx. 2-3 hours tour leads you first by bike along ebro river, passing by picturesque rice plantations until we reach the quaint village Balada, on the opposite of the river island Isla de Gràcia. There you'll switch to a comfortable kayak, with which you'll paddle through the nature reserve Delta del Ebro. Thick riparian forests and a unique flora and fauna await you in the second-biggest wetlands of Spain. At the same time, it's also the second-biggest delta in the Mediterranean region. Besides numerous other animals, approx. 400 different species of birds inhabit the delta. The tour through Ebro Delta is also well-suitable for children.
Your bike and kayak tour close to Tarragona can be booked previously before your travel. Plan your vacation activities upfront and concentrate on the bare essentials on site: relaxation and fun. Decide in favour of a kayak- and bicycle tour through Ebro Delta and discover the most beautiful sides of the picturesque nature like this. The advantage of a tour is that all the necessary equipment is provided and you'll get to know the most lovely places of the area at your own pace.
Enjoy the calm of the large delta on your excursion by bike before you're changing to the kayak to explore the delta by water. Even untrained cyclists and kayakers usually don't have any problem during the two- or three hours tour, because the delta is flat and the waters quite placid. On the relaxed kayak tour in Delta del Ebro, you deeply dive into the diversified nature. Especially impressive are the rice fields along the Delta del Ebro and while your bicycle tour, you'll see more of the rice plantations and the agriculture. The kayak serves as a pleasurable and safe means of transportation in order to probe into the nature park and quietly watch the big variety of the endemic animal- and plants species.
What a Bacano ride! It has been fun and active. I will sign up again on my next visit!
Qué paseo más bacano! Ha sido divertido y activo. Me apuntaré nuevamente en mi próxima visita!
It is very well priced but at my taste it lasted very little. For more money, I would extend it to enjoy more. It is a very good combination of kayaking with the bike, we have enjoyed it a lot.
Está muy bien de precio aunque a mi gusto a durado muy poco. Por algo más de dinero lo alargaria para disfrutar mas. Es una muy buena combinacion eso del kayak con la bicicleta, hemos disfrutado mucho.
You're reviewing: Picturesque kayak- and bike tour through Delta del Ebro. How do you rate this product?


text:
Liberia bans travel from affected countries after 1st virus case
16 March 2020 | 1:05 pm
Liberian President George Weah on Monday said that all travel from countries with over 200 coronavirus cases would be banned after the West African state recorded its first infection.
FILE PHOTO: Motorcycle taxis, called kekeh in Liberia, stand in line waiting to refuel at gas station amid shortages of supplies in Monrovia, Liberia January 30, 2020. REUTERS/ James Giahyue/File Photo
The impoverished country on Monday announced that head of its Environmental Protection Agency, who recently returned to Liberia from Switzerland, had tested positive for the virus.
Following the confirmation, Weah gave a televised address in which he said: "all travels from all countries" with over 200 cases were henceforth banned.
"All citizens or residents are urged to avoid public gatherings and large crowds," he said, adding that people should also minimise travel within Liberia.
Liberia is still recovering from a deadly Ebola outbreak between 2014 and 2016 that claimed over 4,800 lives.
On Monday, Weah said that the spread of coronavirus "represents the greatest threat to the health and the wellbeing of the people of Liberia since the Ebola epidemic".
He urged regular hand washing and avoiding unnecessary physical contact with strangers.
"There should be no handshaking whatsoever. Use a nod of the head for greeting each other," the footballer-turned-president said.
Travellers caught bypassing mandatory health screenings will also be arrested and placed in compulsory quarantine, he said.
Weah added that "an intensive tracing exercise" was underway to identify people with whom the coronavirus patient had come into contact.
BoI, IFC partner on trade, supply chain financing for MSMEs
The International Finance Corporation (IFC) and Bank of Industry (BoI) have partnered to strengthen trade and boost access to finance for micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) in Nigeria.