Sounds of NOLA with Alex

Alright, music fans, this weekend offers an especially impressive array of music in town. Check it out.

The Glorious Sons (photo credit: Vies Magazine)

Hayley Thompson-King – Thursday March 15, 9:00 pm at Portside Lounge

Powerful. While certainly not the only word to describe Haley Thompson-King’s performances, it may be the best. Whether of it’s one of her rock, country, or operatic songs, her vocals resonate throughout the venue. When you fuse together Thompson-King’s country roots with her opera training and interest in the wicked women of the bible, you get quite the combination.

The result is a happy marriage of something between punk rock, honky tonk country, and a splash of Renée Fleming. Thompson-King’s wonderfully named debut album Psychotic Melancholia, which she describes as a “Sodom and Gomorrah concept album,” is the perfect representation of this. Have a listen:

https://open.spotify.com/album/22Rr6XN2SvVgboTZ8jHu5j?si=_1RGu-HERw6OhKCfD8SVew

She displays an impressive ability to bounce in and out of different octaves, hitting each one just as well as the other. You may get the feel that you’re listening to different albums, or even artists, because of how she’s able to jump out of one genre and into another.

Yet, my favorite aspect of her album is the songwriting. Each song tells a different story either relating directly to her life or how she views the world. It is evident that Thompson-King regards this as possibly the most crucial aspect of her music. As she said, “I knew I had this big voice and I wanted to use it in a serious way, but it needed to be my vision. I needed to write for myself.” Well, she did just that. Her “big voice” surely didn’t hurt in getting her message across either.

Béla Fleck with the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra – Thursday and Saturday, March 15 and 17, 7:30 pm at Orpheum Theater

Another week, another banjo. Although this is not just another banjo. Béla Fleck may be the best to ever play the instrument. He has practically reinvented the sound and the way that the banjo is played. The New York City native is a sixteen time Grammy Award winner. He has played everywhere, with everyone, and every possible style of music.

He is not traditionally one thing or another; part of what makes him so great is that he can do everything. When I say everything, I mean everything (jazz, bluegrass, funk, rock, country, classical, you name it). I bet he’d find a way to play EDM if you wanted him to.

This weekend Fleck will be debuting an original work commissioned by the LPO, paying homage to New Orleans’ tricentennial. His “Louisiana Concerto” will contain elements of, “jazz, gospel, brass band, and Cajun music.” What I would describe as five strings of perfection, the way that Fleck picks the banjo is a sight to behold. Just like any master of their craft, he makes even the most difficult sequences look effortless. Check out this solo: 

New Orleans is incredibly fortunate to be able to host an artist like Fleck to celebrate its heritage. Béla Fleck is simply the best.

Here’s an awesome jazz performance to give you an idea of what you might get to see: 

Animal Collective – Friday and Saturday, March 16 and 17, doors open at 6:30 at Music Box Village

David Portner, Noah Lennox, Brian Weitz, and Josh Dibb founded Animal Collective in 2003 in Bailitmore, MD. For purposes of their performances this weekend, however, you should focus on the first three and come to know them as Avey Tare, Deakin, and Geologist, respectively. This should be your first hint that these guys aren’t just your typical band.

This trio is as much of an experience as they are anything else. Every group is different and unique in their own way. But this crew is really out there, in an awesome, funky, psychedelic, and entertaining way. To get a good idea of who these guys are, you should really take a visit to their website and play around a little bit. I would love to see your reaction when you do, and you’ll see why.

The creativity is off the charts and the manner in which this group is able to execute everything that they do with such precision is remarkable. The different instruments, harmonies, noises, and accoutrements (such as headlamps and costumes) are just part of what makes these guys unrivaled.

You can try to describe what they do as experimental pop, freak folk, or psychedelia. Albeit, you don’t come close to conveying everything that they are with one or all of these descriptions and attempting to do so is an injustice. They employ components of all three of these genres and much more, including elements that I don’t think the music industry has even defined yet. Frankly, I don’t know what it is but it gets the people going.

Have a listen (my favorites are “Fireworks” and “Summertime Clothes”):

https://open.spotify.com/artist/4kwxTgCKMipBKhSnEstNKj?si=zqD4ZcvoQCO1qynjlThTPg

The Glorious Sons – Sunday March 18, 9:00 pm at Gasa Gasa

One of the fastest ascending rock groups around, you need to find a way to go see these guys. Their recent album, Young Beauties and Fools, is one of the best albums of the past year. In short, they’ve found it. The quartet is well on its way to full stardom.

For them, it is a robust combination of guitar shredding, up-tempo keys, muscular drums, and the blistering vocals of Brett Emmons. The group brings everything they have every time they perform. Every night is a little different but is nothing short of entertaining. As Emmons puts it, “You don’t know what you’re going to get night to night from us…it’s also an inch from either side of falling off the tracks every single night.”

Emmons can also be credited with the songwriting for their most recent album. Emmons admits most of his lyrics are autobiographical and describes them as, “All the listlessness and confusion of young adulthood in 10 doses of modern rock.” So much about these guys from the guitar to the vocals makes me think about Kings of Leon. The Glorious Sons have achieved their biggest success with recent hit “Everything Is Alright”

https://open.spotify.com/track/42lrhaZzqJqCYHlfQTGozP?si=UZlQPB60RGe6iQVMCOh_QA

With that said, I would really recommend listening to both of their albums. Their transition from harder rock to more alternative rock has really paid off. The Ontario based group is just moments away from completely exploding, in the best sense of the word.