Kaki King

I've been a fan of Kaki King for a few years now. The first album I ever bought of hers was called "Dreaming of Revenge", and to this day I listen to that album in it's entirety a few times a week. The Album is just a piece of art in the sense that you can to one song and capture one thing, listen to another and it gives you a totally different feeling/image. After I bought that back in 2008, I needed to hear more.

I've listened to everything by Kaki King. Everything from "Everybody Loves You" to her 2010 release "Junior" and I love it all. All of her pieces, whether it's from an album of hers or a soundtrack she's worked on (Sean Penn's "Into the Wild" for example) it's all beautiful.

Kaki is known for her percussive playing, jazzy melodies, intense live shows, interesting tunings on her guitars and lap steel, and her diverse range in different genres.

Kaki King is definitely an artist that must be listened to.

http://www.kakiking.com/
http://www.facebook.com/kakiking

Have a good one!

Jake Ryan

QX String Quartet at Clark University

So today I was invited to see a free classical show at Razzo Hall, which is around Clark University, and I didn't know what I was going expect. Normally I'm not a classical kinda guy but I was willing to check it out. QX String Quartet was the name of the group playing and it's comprised of Violinists Krista Buckland Reisner and Rohan Gregory, Violist Peter Sulski and Cellist Jan Muller-Szeraws.

The first half of show consisted of two pieces of music, the first was Kreutzer Sonata by Leos Janacek, and the story behind that was that this man killed his wife because she was playing Bethovens "Kreutzer Sonata" with another man. As the band started playing you can hear the intensity, the shear terror of this man just killing his wife in the music, but it was also very beautiful. From start to finish I was just blown away, and I felt the story behind the music being played. The Second piece was String Quartet No. 3 by Viktor Ullman, and that had to do with a man living at a concentration camp, and in revolt the Jews who were there would make art and music. Same as the first when it came to my reaction, I was simply blown away. Then they had a brief intermission.

The third and final piece was called String Quartet Op. 96 by Antonin Dvorak, and compared to the first two pieces, It was very happy, cheerful, and bouncy. Watching these musicians play was just incredible, you could just see that they were very into what they are playing, kinda like how a metal musician head-bangs while they play, these guys were jerking their whole bodies around, haha.

In Conclusion, QX was incredible and I had a great time. I'll post a link below if anyone is interested in listening to this talented group of musicians.

http://www.qxstringquartet.org/

Peace,
Jake Ryan.