Orozco Team at East West Studio 2, Leland Sklar, Rafa Sardina, Antonio Orozco, Randy Cooke, Cheche Alara.

 

Antonio Orozco released the first single from his new album, Llegará last week with over 250,000 YouTube visitors.  He recently renewed his contract with Universal Music . The Orosco team gathered at East West Studio 2 in Hollywood to record the tracks with Leland Sklar, Randy Cooke, Cheche Alara (Christina Aguilera, Pink, Destiny's Child,  Laura PausiniLady Gaga), and Rafa Sardina (Stevie Wonder, Placido Domingo, Elvis Costello & The Roots, Lady Gaga, Rodrigo y Gabriela ) who engineered the sessions at East West Studios 2.

 
Neil Young To Be Honored At The Village Studios

 

 

The Recording Academy® Producers & Engineers Wing® will celebrate its seventh annual GRAMMY® Week event this year honoring two-time GRAMMY winner Neil Young for his commitment to excellence and ongoing support for the art and craft of recorded music. The event will be held on Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2014, at the Village Studios in West Los Angeles. GRAMMY Week culminates with the 56th Annual GRAMMY Awards® on Sunday, Jan. 26, 2014, airing live on the CBS Television Network, at 8 p.m. ET/PT 

Tommaso's Listening Party 
Produced by Marvin Etzioni 

Jasmine began performing in Italy with her father, bassist Giovanni Tommaso, and other well-known musicians. She received a scholarship to attend Berklee College of Music in Boston. Produced by Marvin Etzioni, the jazzy/acoustic album by Jasmine Tommaso  is called "Listening Party." It's just what you want from a debut artist. Her vocals are put at center stage with tasteful accompaniment (specially in the closing track, "Wild Bird") and choice of material. Released on August 20th, 2013 it is filled with 11 songs that are emotional and balanced with familiar covers by renown artists (Stones, Donovan, Steppen Wolf) and a few delightful originals too!  The album is engineered and mixed by Dave Cooley and the late David Vaught and mastered by Sheldon Gomberg

"The opening track is a reinvention of the high octane Steppenwolf classic "Born to Be Wild," says producer Etzioni.  Jasmine sings in English and she covers Donovan's Catch the Wind in Spanish and Italian. There's also a cover of the Stone's "As Tears Go By" sung in Italian.  An early Norah Jones meets Peggy Lee (per Steppenwolf's John Kay). On Oct 24, she accompanied Diane Birch live on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.

Next show: at The Troubadour in West Hollywood, CA. Performance on Oct. 30th, 2013 @ 8:15pm    Here the album  here 

 

Experience Hendrix LLC and Legacy Recordings, the catalog division of Sony Music Entertainment, will release, on DVD and Blu-ray , the expanded home video edition of the American Masters documentary Jimi Hendrix - Hear My Train A Comin available on Amazon

Here's a PBS American Masters Special you won't want to miss!
In addition to rare Hendrix performance and interview footage, the program will  profile the guitar icon's (still active) Electric Lady Recording Studio. Hendrix's producer/engineer Eddie Kramer and studio designer, John Storyk will share reminiscences of their collaboration on the studio.It  premieres on PBS  on Tuesday, November 5th at 9PM. 

Palo Alto:  Music By Robert Schwartzman 
Directed and written by Gia Coppola

Palo Alto is a film based on James Franco's own short story collection known as the Palo Alto stories. The film was directed and written by Gia Coppola (her directorial debut), the granddaughter of Francis Ford Coppola and the niece of Sofia and Roman. Music is by  Beachwood Park Studio owner, singer, songwriter, and producer  (LA alt pop band leaser Rooney) Robert Schwartzman who scored the soundtrack for Palo Alto.

What's Cooking at AES  
Sample Gear From Trans Audio Group

 

At show close, AES reported a 16% increase in registration since the last time the convention was in New York two years ago (131st AES) and a staggering 71% increase over last year's San Francisco event (133rd AES) (smaller attendance due to Hurricane Sandy).   From the opening keynote address by Josh McDermott from MIT; and the Heyser Lecture by legendary producer, technologist and multi-GRAMMY® Award winner George Massenburg; to Friday's lunchtime keynote by multi-GRAMMY Award winner Jimmy Jam; the Project Studio Expo and Knowledge Center; the "Sound For Picture" Deadliest Catch workshop; the GRAMMY SoundTables event honoring the late Phil Ramone; presentations by engineer and Jay-Z collaborator Young Guru; and more, AES135 hit it out of the park for attendees and exhibitors alike.  

Today's scale of business forces most companies to serve huge numbers of customers.  For working professionals, users who depend on their gear to earn their keep, cheaper is definitely not better. Better sound is their way to maintain their edge, their advantage. These clients want someone who can understand their unique and personal application, to help evaluate possible investments in new gear within their context. These clients realize the "right buy" is the lowest cost "buy" over time. TransAudio has organized its business to serve these few and do it very well. "All our employees are ex-musicians with a lot of pro audio professional with over 25+ years experience.  This value is then passed on to our clients, who regularly discover that all the experience and selective product/company evaluations have a direct result on the quality of the sound they get," says Brad Lunde, President of TransAudio Group (Booth 3132) who presented products from its lines with demos and designers on hand that include: Bock iFet, Daking RS500 loaded rack, ATC SCM110ASL, Crane Song Syren Mic pre, Chameleon 581 and more...including the New ATM Bettermaker™542 with its amazing features (photo above courtesy of its facebook)!  And the product lines are growing indeed. Just in the Crane Song family, products have grown to nine pieces; the STC-8 compressor, *HEDD (Harmonically Enhanced Digital Device), FLAMINGO, a stereo microphone preamplifier, TRAKKER, a single channel compressor, SPIDER, an eight channel microphone preamplifier, mixer and A/D convertor, AVOCET, a discrete class A studio controller, IBIS, a stereo analog equalizer, EGRET, a highly flexible digital audio workstation back end and PHOENIX, an analog modeling TDM plug-in suite for Pro Tools HD.

 

Ok, you say that's a lot of gear talk.  But, look at two products featured from Electrodyne who teamed up with Pete's Place Audio to bring back the classic Electrodyne brand in 500 Series module form with the launch of the 501 discrete two-stage studio preamp and 511 two-band inductor EQ.
Now, almost five years since they teamed up, the two companies have come together once again to offer dual mono-channel, 19-inch rack-mounted versions of both products known as the Electrodyne 2501 and 2511.

"When we first launched the 501 and 511, they quickly gained a loyal following from studio gurus like Joe Barresi, Joe Chiccarelli and Dave Way who had long been aficionados of vintage Electrodyne gear," says Pete's Place Audio President Lisa Montessi. "After hearing numerous engineer requests to make these 500 Series products available as standard rack-mount units, we've finally responded with the New York City AES introduction of our 2501 and 2511, which each house two single-channel devices in a 19-inch frame."

  

Electrodyne 2501
Like the Electrodyne 501, the new 2501 is a two-stage, discrete transistor, transformer-coupled preamp with active DI based primarily on the modules found in the classic 1608 console. Each amp stage is individually optimized for peak performance using detailed Electrodyne factory engineering notes and select high performance components identical to the originals. In fact, the 2501's transformers are made by Electrodyne's original supplier to exacting factory specifications.
The preamp's active DI circuit presents an almost immeasurable load (over six megohms!) to sensitive musical instrument outputs allowing incredibly accurate capture of the instrument's true tone. Furthermore, the output of the DI circuit is designed to directly connect and interact with the mic input transformer to permit an extremely broad spectrum of tonal options.

The faceplate of the Electrodyne 2501 features two sets of dual large rotary gain controls offering up to 68dB of gain - adjustable over 50dB in 2dB steps with two ranges via a 20dB pad switch - and two smaller output level pots infinitely adjustable from 0 (off) to +6dB over unity. Additional switches for impedance selection (50 or 200 ohms), phase reverse, +48V phantom power and DI (with 1/4" input jack) are also present, as well as a clip LED on each channel that monitors all three amp stages and illuminates when any stage is 3dB from clipping.

  

Currently available, the Electrodyne 2501 preamp carries a price of $2,095.50 (USD) while pricing for the 2511 equalizer is set at $2,300.00.

 The SRP 500 is a new compact near field active reference monitor. This SRP excels at monitoring effects and other such subtleties in the mix. The enclosure is pressure die cast aluminum that maximizes rigidity and lends it a unique form. The silk dome tweeter is nested in a custom waveguide to produce on and off axis linearity and a wide, detailed soundstage. The 5.25" kevlar woofer produces deep bass and exceptional transient response. A new 50 + 50 watt biamplifier drives the transducers optimally while providing adequate headroom and dynamics. The maximum SPL measures in at an impressive 104dB. DSP based internal processing with high quality ADC and DAC is employed for the crossover and also provides the 0.75dB step calibrated HF and LF room compensation EQs at the rear. On the front is a level control ranging from mute to +6dB with centre detent at 0dB. Tapped inserts at the rear and bottom allow for various mounting options. The SRP 500 accepts both XLR and TRS balanced inputs and is available in the following durable powder coat finishes: rich black, charcoal grey or snow white.    

  

The MP2A replaces the MP1A in the Tube-Tech line and is an improvement in both sound and feature set. 
Featuring a course switch for 10dB increments, and a ±10dB switch in 2dB steps for fine adjustments, as well as multiple input impedances,  it is a perfect match for any microphone or instrument.  

     

Front Row L - R: Scott Jacoby, Richard Burgess, Carlos Alvarez, Phil Nicolo, Mike Clink; Middle L to R: Eric Boulanger, Bob Ludwig, Maureen Droney, Chuck Ainlay; Top Corner: Glenn Lorbecki. Photo by Deston Bennett/The Recording Academy®. © 2013.

The new steering committee co-chairs Mike Clink and Chuck Ainlay will lead the committee as the P&E Wing continues to advocate for excellence in sound recording, audio technologies, education in the recording arts, and the rights of music creators overall. "We owe great thanks to all of our past Steering Committee members, including John Alagia, Jeff Balding, Ed Cherney, Jimmy Douglass, Nathaniel Kunkel, Sylvia Massy, James McKinney, Keith Olsen, the late Phil Ramone, Elliot Scheiner, Tommy Tallarico, Eric Schilling and Dan Workman," states Maureen Droney, Sr. Executive Director of the P&E Wing.  

 

Daking 500RS was back at AES 2013 by Popular Demand   

Seriously convenient and ready to plug in, the Daking 500RS "comes right out of the shipping carton, cards installed, ready to use, no wiring, jumper cutting or moving, just attach the included d-sub connecting cable on the rear panel, plug it in and start enjoying an incredible 2 channel mic-pre, compressor, equalizer recording solution," says Brad Lunde of Trans Audio Group who will be at booth  3132 along with Mr Daking himself! 

By now most of the old consoles have been parted out and their mic-pre's and eq's sold off in pairs. These "vintage" devices often have switches and capacitors that are worn out and require extensive repair and restoration. The costs and lost time frequently take the charm away from dabbling in these antique audio devices. Mic Pre 500 uses Class A, fully-discrete transistor circuitry. The Mic Pre 500 uses a tri-color LED metering setup and accepts both line and hi-Z inputs via the 1/4" jack, in addition to the XLR microphone equipped with +48V phantom power. With a -20dB pad for added versatility, the Mic Pre 500 microphone preamplifier is ready for anything. 

"Daking uses modern production techniques along with time proven designs and components to create products that give you the performance of the classics without the headaches," says Lunde. 

Plus all Daking products are built in the U.S.A., and are lead free. Got to love that!  

  

Trans Audio Group's Brad Lunde (left) withSukanya Mukherjee and Dave West at Messe Frankfurt, 2013.

  

 
  

TransAudio Group, founded by industry veteran Brad Lunde, has quickly become the premier US importer/distributor and/or US sales and marketing representative for high-end audio.

  

contact Brad Lunde  or Phone (702) 307-2700 or visit www.transaudiogroup.com 

  

Swhihart Scores We Are Men

 

John Swihart (Napoleon Dynamite, How I Met Your Mother) has been tapped to score the upcoming CBS comedy "We Are Men". The show is created by Rob Greenberg and stars Tony Shalhoub, Jerry O'Connell, Kal Penn, Chris Smith and Rebecca Breeds. The series follows four single guys living in a short-term apartment complex who unexpectedly find camaraderie over their many missteps in love. Greenberg is also executive producing the CBS Television Studios production with Eric and Kim Tannenbaum ("Two and a Half Men"). Greenberg has previously produced and directed numerous episodes of the CBS hit comedy "How I Met Your Mother," which is also scored by Swihart and returns for a ninth and final season this fall. "We Are Men" premiered on September 30, 2013 and will air every Monday night on CBS. 

Earlier Swihart was nominated at the ISFMF (International Samobor Film Music Festival) in the category for Best Original Score for the film Proof of Love.  The festival took place in Samobor, Croatia between October 23 and October 26 and included screenings, live performances by symphony orchestra, jazz bands, and other respected artists from around the world

  

 

A Look At Latin Grammy Award Nominees 
 

l-r: Chicarelli, Sardina, Fischer

This year's Latin GRAMMY Awards process registered a record-breaking 9,400-plus submissions over a 12-month eligibility period (Jul. 1, 2012 - Jun. 30, 2013). The 14th Annual Latin GRAMMY Awards, set for Thursday, Nov. 21 at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas, will be broadcast live on the Univision Network from 8-11 p.m. ET/PT (7 p.m. Central).View full list of nominees here 

It's our pleasure to feature three artists from studioexpresso community: 

 

Joe Cicarelli worked on Bajofondo's "Presente", nominated for Album of the Year and Best Instrumental Album, and  Café Tacvba's "El Objeto Antes Llamado Disco", nominated for Best Alternative Music Album.

Joe's production touches on a diverse slate of forthcoming releases fromSpoon (Merge), Hellogoodbye (Fearless), Russian Red (Sony Spain), Madden Brothers (Capitol), Needtobreathe (Atlantic), Saints of Valory (Atlantic). Look for Joe's production touches on forthcoming releases from Spoon (Merge), Hellogoodbye (Fearless), Russian Red (Sony Spain), Madden Brothers (Capitol), Needtobreathe (Atlantic), and Saints of Valory (Atlantic) .

  

Rafa Sardina (Stevie Wonder, Lady Gaga, Placido Domingo, Rodrigo y Gabriela, Elvis Costello & The Roots)  is best known for working on pop/rock and R&B sounds or albums. He has recorded and mixed just about any genre of music you can imagine: orchestra, big band, choir, film/TV soundtracks and movie scores. He mixed San Francisco PM, a mambo featuring Poncho Sanchez and Alex Acuña for ¡Ritmo! featuring The Clare Fischer Latin Jazz Big Band Directed and Produced by Brent Fischer. Sardina also engineered La Música No Se Toca by Alejandro Sanz.

Brent Fischer  (Michael Jackson, Usher, D'Angelo, Elvis Costello & The Roots) produced and directed ¡Ritmo! featuring The Clare Fischer Latin Jazz Big Band and Poncho Sanchez and Alex Acuña.

 

Also congrats to Eli Wolf, Carlos Alvarez (Buika), Poncho Sanchez, Daivd Foster, Rudy Pérez, Bruce Swedien (Natalie Cole Duet With Juan Luis Guerra), Sebastian Krys, Alejandro Sanz  and Benny Faccone, Bob Ludwig (Draco Rosa Featuring Ricky Martin). Good luck all! 

 

 Yumi Records with Al Schmitt

   

Multiple Grammy-winning engineer/producer Al Schmitt recently dropped in at Ocean Way to work on the new album from Japanese superstar Yumi Matsutoya.  Schmitt, who is tracking and mixing her 37th album, was joined by fellow engineer Steve Genewick for the recording of guitar overdubs by the virtuoso Dean Parks.
 

 

 

 

GRAMMY® winner Drake, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, Robin Thicke, and four-time GRAMMY winner Keith Urban are the first acts announced to perform on "The GRAMMY Nominations Concert Live!   Two-time GRAMMY winner LL COOL J returns to host the one-hour special, which takes place at Los Angeles' Nokia Theatre L.A. LIVE on Friday, Dec. 6. The show - which will announce nominations in several categories as well as feature performances by past GRAMMY winners and/or nominees - will be broadcast in HDTV and 5.1 surround sound on the CBS Television Network from 10 - 11 p.m. ET/PT.

  

Clare Fischer Jazz Festival at Typhoon

Four Bands One Night in Santa Monica

Imagine a full-blown marching band complete with bugles, French horns and half a dozen clarinets cleverly disguised to resemble an orthodox Jazz ensemble. Thanks to Clare Fischer's superior arranging skills, the disguise is seldom less than convincing.  Then imagine  solos by Shelton on clarinet, Huffsteter on mellophone bugle, and Saunders on trumpet. Other soloists of note include Gary Foster (alto sax, alto clarinet), Andy Martin (marching trombone), Alex Budman, as concert master. Then came the Clare Fischer Latin Jazz Group, The Clare Fischer Big Band and The Clare Fischer Clarinet Choir all performed on October 20, 2013 at Typhoon, Santa Monica -- Celebrating the late composer's 85th with his son, Brent Fischer directing. Numbers like "Fuzz Blues,"  "Cherokee" and "Neophonic Piece," (composed some 30 years ago for but never used by Stan Kenton's neophonic orchestra). There is nothing like hearing the CF Jazz Corps live in an intimate setting. A tour de force and a real treat for senses! The next best thing is to buy the recording at ClareFischer.com  November 28th, The Clare Fischer Latin Jazz Group, Directed by Brent Fischer at the Riviera Maya Jazz Festival

Watch the  Making of Wise Up Ghost Orchestral Sessions with Brent Fischer at Conway Studios here

 

Steppin' Out With Herb Alpert & Lani Hall  

L-R:  In session are Lani Hall and Herb Alpert with mastering engineer Bernie Grundman.  
Photo by David Goggin.

At 77 Grammy-winning jazz great Herb Alpert is working on his 34th studio album, a collection called "Steppin' Out" (Almo Sounds) .
Combining pop instrumentals and timeless jazz along with Latin-influenced rhythms reminiscent of the Tijuana Brass, "Steppin' Out" explores standards from the American Songbook as well as Alpert's own catalog, and features the Grammy-winning vocalist Lani Hall (Alpert's wife) on several tracks.  Steppin' Out includes 16 songs, including a contemporary version of Irving Berlin's "Puttin' on the Ritz," a video for which has just been released. The music video features an energetic and intricate dance routine choreographed by the Emmy award-winning team from So You Think You Can Dance, Napoleon & Tabitha D'umo.  The album was mastered at Bernie Grundman who worked with Alpert since the 60s, when he was a staff mastering engineer at A&M Studios before founding his own mastering facilities.  The "Puttin' on the Ritz" video features musicians Lani Hall, Bill Cantos, Hussain Jiffry, Michael Shapiro and dancer Vincent Noiseux in one single seamless camera shot, without any edits, on a musical journey.  Alpert makes a cameo as both a busdriver and a bartender. Watch the video here   Closing out the album is the 50th Anniversary version of "The Lonely Bull," composed by Sol Lake and first released on Alpert's debut album on A&M Records. "Steppin Out" will be released as a CD by Shout! Factory on November 19. The album is currently available on popular digital platforms.

Songwriter Square
Held on the third Sunday of the month at the Lyric-Hyperion Theatre & Cafe in SIlverlake, Bill Berry's Songwriter's Square features the best of L.A.'s songwriters in a great listening environment. On October 20th, it was Shelly Peiken, Marvin Etzioni and Edward Tree.  The Cafe serves beer, wine and great food and the theater is intimate, quiet and comfortable
Next:

Lyric-Hyperion Theatre & Cafe, 2106 Hyperion, LA, CA, 90027.  

Hall & Oates On The Road

Nirvana, Linda Ronstadt, Peter Gabriel, Hall and Oates, and The Replacements are among first-time nominees to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The hall of fame announced its annual list of nominees Wednesday morning and half the field of 16 were first-time nominees. YES, Link Wray and The Zombies also received their first nominations. More than 600 voters will determine the class of 2014. Inductees will be announced in December and a ceremony will be held next April in New York. The induction will be aired on HBO in May.

 

  

Kindred Souls  

  

 

A Song and A Cry For  Myanmar

The Rohingya are a stateless Muslim minority living in Rakhine -- thought to number between 800,000 and one million -- who claim they have been persecuted by Myanmar's military during its decades of authoritarian rule.

Though many Rohingya have only known life in Myanmar, they are viewed by Rakhine's estimated three million Buddhists as intruders from neighboring Bangladesh. Witnesses described how security forces stood by or joined in with Arakanese men wielding machetes, swords, homemade guns and Molotov cocktails as they descended on villages. While Buddhism has a 1,600-year well-documented history of monastic-led rebellions and conflicts, the association of Buddhism in the Western mind is with pacifism. Hear Rohingya song by Habib Batata with pictures. Helps to put face and voice to this minority under siege.

Christmas Comes Early For Bill 

A Gift of Music and Friends

For an organist, having both legs amputated might be a devastating, career-ending event.  Not so for 79-year-old Bill Otis, who continues to play keyboard at his church and shrugs off his disability as just something that must be dealt with. On a sunny Saturday afternoon in October, several Ventura County and Los Angeles Chapter AGO (American Guild of Organist) members converged on Bill's home with a new Roland Classic C-200 organ keyboard in tow.  Bill needed a practice keyboard for his home.  This inspired few friends to quietly solicit their fellow members to chip in to get Bill a new keyboard.  Nelson Dodge of Church Keyboard Center provided the keyboard at cost and suggested a gathering at Bill's home for a surprise presentation. Bill was off and running after Nelson demonstrated many of the capabilities of this feature-rich keyboard. The party continued with a buffet of pies to celebrate the occasion. "Bill's love for organ performance was most evident when he shared copies of the programs of every organ recital he had played throughout his life, carefully preserved in a plastic bag," says Dodge.  "When I look at these now, I can't believe I played some of that stuff," Bill said.  "I was younger then."

 
RIP Lou Reed 

I am tired, I am weary
I could sleep for a thousand years

--from "Venus In Furs"

Experimental, bold and innovative are words that come to mind when you think of Lou Reed. The quintessential rebel and New Yorker, he walked on the wild side as front man for The Velvet Underground introducing avant-garde rock to the mainstream. With 22+ solo albums (not including VU), Reed collaborated with and was influenced by contemporaries like John Cale, Andy Warhol, Jim Morrison, David Bowie, among others. He offered a uniquely stripped down style of guitar playing and poetic lyrics with a massive influence across many rock genres, including punk, glam and alternative. You could say Reed lived to express the raw human experience, always looking for emotions through music and photographs .  

This self expression is most present in his 4th book, Rimes Rhymes': A Collection of Photographs by Lou Reed. 
The images are inspired by movement and energy. Watch Reed exhibit here where he talks about it.
Reed was the spirit of urban America from 60s on. He was inspired by his teacher/mentor/poet, Delmore Schwartz who wrote a short story called  "In Dreams Begin Responsibilities."  Reed was not afraid to take on difficult subject matters for his songs. Cancer and death of a close friend inspired "Magic & Loss."  Despite the pain, somehow his work came through liberated with a Lou Reed COOL.
Watch this excellent doc by Timothy Greenfield-Sanders for American Masters (screened at the Sundance Film Festival in 1998). Sweet dreams Mr Reed. 

How High Will You Fly?  From The Icarius Deception   Book by Seth Godin

Art isn't Pretty. Art isn't a painting. Art isn't music. Art is what we do when we're truly alive. Art is what we do and what we need. Art is brave, creative, bold with insight. Art takes process and feedback. Art might bust you. Art isn't a result; it's a journey.
The challenge of our time is to find a journey worthy of your heart and your soul. Art might scare you, unless you're an artist. BOO!   

  

Until next month, Choose Art 

Music Lives & Moves! 

 Claris Sayadian-Dodge, Founder I Editor studioexpresso

  

  

  

  

  

courtesy of Record Production & Babblefish    

Salsa At Trilogy Studios

136th AES Convention 

April 26-29, 2014 - AES (Berlin, Germany)

Besdies being an attractive  band, you can hear the Margin brothers' vocal depth and harmonizing skills wrapped in textured arrangements on "I'll Surely Die," that spells PRIME TIME. "Never Be The Same" could be this band or any 20 something-year-old's anthem who has found their passion and can see doors opening. "Cowboy" takes you back to classic soundtracks in a good film. It starts getting easier to love this band in "Elvis." Take a listen on iTunes  

How The Rubens got on WB? Their home recorded demo would find its way to the ears of producer David Kahne (Paul McCartney, Regina Spektor and The Strokes). In France for an audio engineering seminar, Kahne met young Sydney engineer Dean Tuza, a friend of the band from their hometown who had helped with the initial home recordings. What did Kahn hear? Combination of deep rhythms, loud clanging guitars, powerful lyrics, and Sam's haunting voice. And the rest is history!

The Margin brothers have their parents to thank for much of their musical heritage too. Raised on a diet of Van Morrison, Fleetwood Mac, Tracy Chapman and Led Zeppelin as well as old soul, hip hop and gospel records, they were all 'forced' to play musical instruments at a young age - 'forced' meaning encouraged with chocolate treats. We promised treats and you got them! 

This week Arcade Fire played songs off their new album "Reflektor" live from Capitol Records' famed Studio A available for streaming via KCRW