listening to repeating

The KEXP “Civil Rights” documentary on Curtis Mayfield’s classic, “People Get Ready,” is now in the archives, should you wish to give it a listen.  Below is a description, and there are more documentaries, including one on James Brown, coming soon!

“People Get Ready” was a song Curtis Mayfield wrote for the Impressions. And it would become one of Martin Luther King’s favorites and a standard used for demonstrations during the civil rights struggles in the 1960′s. Throngs of famous people would later record the song, including Bob Dylan, U2 and Aretha Franklin. Curtis shared a philosophy with Martin Luther King, Jr. – that what really mattered about people was not “the color of their skin but the content of their character”. And this song’s lyrics have the stamp of sincerity, intelligence and soul shared by both great men.

I’m happy to say that, during the winter quarter at the UW, I’ll be a research assistant at KEXP.

The internship is supported by the American Music Partnership of Seattle (AMPS), a collaboration among Experience Music Project, KEXP, and the University of Washington.  AMPS is funded by a grant from the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation and administered by the Simpson Center for the Humanities at the UW.

No doubt, I’m looking forward.  It’ll be good to discover how my dissertation work on sound intersects with conducting research for KEXP.  And I’m sure I’ll learn a lot in a short period of time.

The Animal Collective documentary for KEXP‘s Psychedelics series is now archived online.  Transmit it.  Participating in this was a lot of fun.  Hope you enjoy it, too.  Here’s a snippet description written by Michele Myers, who produces the KEXP documentaries:

“And our final episode was on Animal Collective. This is a band who people react to. Some people herald them as the most brilliant group in today’s alternative scene. Others just don’t seem to get it. I have to admit I was among those who didn’t get it. When I first heard Animal Collective I thought they sounded a lot like a group of kindergarteners sitting in a cardboard box humming and pounding on the sides. In this doc I actually find a clip that sounds EXACTLY like that. But I also talk to academics who say that Animal Collective embrace the spirit of punk. And the band themselves get to speak up as well. And some of the music is actually very sophisticated. What do you think?”