Sign in In more than 50 years of reporting, I have never disclosed the raw interviews or full transcripts of my work. But after listening again to the 20 interviews I conducted with President Donald Trump during his last year as chief executive, I have decided to take the unusual step of releasing them. I was struck by how Trump pounded in my ears in a way the printed page cannot capture. In their totality, these interviews offer an unvarnished portrait of Trump. You hear Trump in his own words, in his own voice, during one of the most consequential years in American history: amid Trump’s first impeachment, the coronavirus pandemic and large racial justice protests. This essay was adapted from “The Trump Tapes: Bob Woodward’s Twenty Interviews with President Donald Trump,” by Bob Woodward. It will be published Oct. 25 by Simon & Schuster Audio. Reprinted by permission of Simon & Schuster Audio. All rights reserved. Much has been written about that period, including by me. But “The Trump Tapes,” my forthcoming audiobook of our interviews, is central to understanding Trump as he is poised to seek the presidency again. We spoke in person in the Oval Office and at Mar-a-Lago, as well as on the phone at varying hours of the day. You cannot separate Trump from his voice. In the summer of 2020, for example, when the pandemic had killed 140,000 people in the United States, Trump told me: “The virus came along. That’s not my fault. That’s China’s fault.” I asked him: Woodward Was there a moment in all of this, last two months, where you said to yourself, “Ah, this is the leadership test of a lifetime”? Trump No. On the printed page his “no” reads flat, a simple declaration. Now listen to the audio of that exchange.This “no” is confident, dismissive, full of self-assurance. It leaves no doubt about the finality of his judgment. This “no” distances him from bearing responsibility. Sound has an extraordinary emotional power, an immediacy and authenticity. A listener is brought into the room. It is a completely different experience from reading Trump’s words or listening to snatches of his interviews on television or the internet. Trump’s voice magnifies his presence. Consider this from my 14th interview with Trump, on May 22, 2020. Trump You’re probably going to screw me. Because, you know, that’s the way it goes. Look, [George W.] Bush sat with you for hours and you screwed him. But the difference was, I ain’t no Bush. The mockery in Trump’s voice does not come through as powerfully or as memorably on the printed page. In the “The Trump Tapes,” I share my personal reporting journey through the eight hours of interviews. I provide commentary at more than 200 points in the audiobook, explicitly offering my own reactions, hesitations, conclusions, and explanations of my method of gathering and confirming information. When Trump came on the political scene in 2015, he was immediately a big presence, regularly making outrageous statements. He seized the attention of the media and gave regular interviews before and after he was elected president. But for someone who talked so much, he insulated himself from long and sustained questioning. In our extended conversations, I was able to press him for prolonged periods and with dozens of follow-up questions. Trump agreed that all of our interviews were on the record and could be recorded. “When did it become yes?” I asked about his decision to run for president. On his handling of the coronavirus, “What grade would you give yourself?” And about the presidency, “What have you learned about yourself?” In all, I asked him more than 600 questions. I am also releasing “The Trump Tapes” for the historical archive. The content of the interviews was comprehensively quoted in my 2020 book, “Rage,” and some of the audio of the most dramatic news released. But the full exchange amplifies an understanding of Trump and the unique concentration of power in the presidency. In these interviews, you hear Trump relishing the authority of the presidency and relying on his personal instincts as the basis for major decisions. It’s a self-focus that gets in the way of his ability to do the job. “I’m the Lone Ranger,” he said during our interview in March 2016. At one point in early 2020, for example, I asked Trump about his relationship with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. Woodward The CIA says about Kim Jong Un that he’s “cunning, crafty but ultimately stupid.” Trump I disagree. He’s cunning. He’s crafty. And he’s very smart. You know. Woodward Why does the CIA say that? Trump Because they don’t know. Okay? Because they don’t know. They have no idea. I’m the only one that knows. I’m the only one he deals with. He won’t deal with anybody else … Trump The word chemistry. You meet somebody and you have a good chemistry. You meet a woman. In one second you know whether or not it’s all going to happen. … Woodward And is this all designed to drive Kim to the negotiating table? Trump No. No. It was designed for whatever reason, it was designed. Who knows? Instinctively. Let’s talk instinct. This single-handed and impulsive approach — one that deeply worried and even traumatized his national security team — became a hallmark of Trump’s foreign relations. Woodward Do you get a sense he’s wooing you? Trump No, I get — Woodward Or building a relationship of trust? Trump — a sense — I get a sense he likes me. I think he likes me. Okay, so, you know he’s got a great piece of land. He’s in between Russia, China and South Korea. In the real estate business we’d say, “Great location.” You understand? Woodward I do. … It is chilling to report on North Korea. I’ve looked in-depth at this. The secretary of defense sleeps in his gym clothes because he has an — do you know this? — an alarm and a light in his bathroom in case he is called to an emergency conference. In response, Trump repeated disparaging remarks about his former defense secretary, Jim Mattis. Trump Mattis was the world’s most overrated general. Woodward I know, you’ve said that. Trump Oh, just terrible. Trump did not understand the value of involving the CIA or the State Department in devising a coherent strategy for a new initiative with North Korea. He was going it alone. I tried to take Trump as seriously as he took himself. I asked questions directly and did not adopt a hostile posture. While I pushed him and did not necessarily agree with his categorical declarations or self-praise, I let him have his say. Trump’s voice is a concussive instrument. Fast and loud. He hits hard and will lower his volume to underscore for effect. He is staggeringly incautious and repetitive, as if saying something often and loud enough will make it true. Trump There’s nobody that’s tougher than me. Nobody’s tougher than me. You asked me about impeachment. I’m under impeachment, and you said, You know, you just act like you just won the fucking race. Nixon was in a corner with his thumb in his mouth. Bill Clinton took it very, very hard. I just do things, okay? Though he shows his anger and grievances, his tone can shift quickly to engaging and entertaining. He laughs, ever the host. These interviews also took place during Trump’s first impeachment. In late 2019, the House Democrats impeached Trump for a telephone call he had with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that July. In the rough transcript of the call, which Trump later released, he asked Zelensky to speak to the U.S. attorney general about investigating his political opponent, Joe Biden, and Biden’s son Hunter. In more than 50 years of reporting, I had never heard of such a request from a sitting president. The transcript caused a political storm. In an interview at Mar-a-Lago on Dec. 30, 2019, I pressed Trump in long exchanges on his defense. Woodward Do you want the policy of the United States to be that the president of the United States can talk to foreign leaders and say, “Investigate. I want you to talk to the attorney general about investigating somebody who’s a political opponent”? Trump No. No. No. I want them to investigate corruption. Going back and forth for 30 minutes, he insisted it was just a request for a corruption investigation though the transcript clearly showed he wanted an investigation of Biden and his son. A listener will get a chance to decide. I believe the tapes show that Trump’s greatest failure was his handling of the coronavirus, which as of October 2022 has killed more than 1 million Americans. In a 34-minute interview on April 5, 2020, three weeks after the country shut down, I presented Trump with a list of about a dozen executive actions his own top medical and scientific experts had told me were critical to mobilize the country against the virus. They had been unable to convey this information to Trump because he wouldn’t listen or wasn’t paying attention. The list included improving the medical supply chain, coordinating with other countries, clearly defining an essential worker, establishing airline travel rules and coordinating with intelligence agencies. In preparation, I had talked at length to Anthony Fauci, the country’s top infectious-disease expert, and Robert Redfield, then director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as well as many others in Trump’s administration. Multiple officials had told me that the president was not listening to these experts. Since Trump was willing to answer questions from me on any subject, I used the opportunity to press aggressively. Overall, I wanted to see if he had any plan. Woodward I’m telling you as a reporter, I’ll emphasize this again. They want a sense of World War II mobilization — President Trump up there saying, these are the 12 areas — this is the person who is going to come before you and tell you — Trump All right, I got you. I understand. I got you. I think we’re doing a very good job, but I’ve got exactly what you’re saying… Later during the same interview Woodward This is a question about your leadership. And I just want to know how you feel about it. Second thing is the medical — Trump I feel good. I think we’re doing a great job. I think we’ll never get credit from the fake news media no matter how good a job we do. No matter how good a job I do, I will never get credit from the media, and I’ll never get credit from Democrats who want to beat me desperately in seven months. Later during the same interview Woodward During the Nixon case — Trump Right. Woodward Nixon did not understand the goodwill that people feel toward a president. You know that is a problem now in this country, the polarization, no question. But — Trump Yeah, but the ones that like me like me a lot, okay? Woodward But, but people know this is a survival issue. People are talking about their kids, and they’re saying, “What kind of world are we going to give to our kids?” And — Trump They’re right. But Bob, when you talk about that — Nixon was an unpopular guy. I have great support out there, Bob. You don’t see it … Later during the same interview Trump Give me the list of the things you said. Did you write them down, or not? Woodward Yes, I wrote them all down. Trump Read ’em out. Go ahead, read ’em. Woodward Okay, the first is testing. In this April 5 interview, I listed all the recommendations and then repeated them at his request. But I hung up the phone feeling distressed. He didn’t see the virus as his responsibility and pushed a lot of the problems off onto the states. There was no management theory for how to organize an enterprise to deal with one of the most complex emergencies the United States had ever faced. The absence of leadership at the top was contributing to the nation’s inability to respond. After the phone call, I turned to my wife, Elsa Walsh, who had worked for many years as a reporter for The Post and then as a staff writer for the New Yorker. She had been in the room during the interview. She spoke to Trump a number of times when he called me at home and was in the room during this call. Woodward: What do you think? Walsh: You were really shouting at him. Woodward: I was. To get in a word edgewise. Walsh: Your shouting, though, was really loud. Woodward: It’s okay. It’s okay. Walsh: You want to get more information from him, not– Woodward: I know. Like this. I agree. Walsh: — telling him what he needs to do. Walsh: You kind of sounded like you were telling him what to do. Woodward: Yeah. Well — Walsh: You don’t want to do that. Woodward: Okay. But we’re in a different world now, sweetie. In the audiobook I also include excerpts of my interviews with Trump’s national security adviser Robert O’Brien, and his deputy, Matt Pottinger. Trump had told them to speak to me, even urged them to do so, making them his agents. I believe they would not have spoken to me about a sensitive, top-secret intelligence briefing without his authorization. My discussions with them became a turning point in my reporting on Trump’s handling of the coronavirus. During an interview with O’Brien and Pottinger on May 1, 2020, I learned that they had personally warned Trump about the magnitude of the threat of the coronavirus during a President’s Daily Brief on Jan. 28, 2020. O’Brien had told Trump that “this will be the biggest national security threat you face in your presidency.” I was stunned. I had never heard of such a direct warning to a president. I then went back and reviewed Trump’s comments to me and his public statements after that Jan. 28 warning. It was clear that Trump never communicated the magnitude of the threat to the American people. It amounted to a large-scale deception and coverup. This was an earthquake in my reporting. I was 7½ weeks away from my publishing deadline for “Rage,” which up until that point dwelled extensively on foreign policy and North Korea. The new information from O’Brien and Pottinger about the top-secret, Jan. 28 warning shifted my focus to Trump’s handling of the virus. I continued to conduct multiple interviews with O’Brien, Pottinger and others and was able to cross-check with firsthand witnesses. I was trying to piece together the chronology to establish the important decision-making points. The new reporting was evidence of Trump’s abdication of presidential responsibility. His self-focus was crippling. A key interview occurred July 21, 2020, six months into the pandemic, when I again pressed Trump for his plan. To my astonishment, he said: Trump It’s flaring up all over the world, Bob. By the way, all over the world. That was one thing I noticed last week. You know they talk about this country. All over the world, it’s flaring up. But we have it under control. The virus had been out of control in the United States for months. You hear Trump editing his own narrative. It reminded me of President Richard Nixon releasing edited transcripts of his secret White House tapes. They had extensive deletions. When Nixon personally edited the conversations, he directed his lawyers to insert “Materials unrelated to presidential actions deleted,” or, when there was profanity, “expletive deleted.” It was Nixon’s way of saying he would tell only the parts of the story that he wanted told. Nothing more. This is exactly what Trump was trying to do. He acknowledged that he did not have a plan and told me in that July 21 interview: Trump Bob, you’ll see the plan over the next four weeks. Woodward This is what — Trump You will see the plan, Bob. I’ve got 106 days. That’s a long time. You know, if I put out a plan now, people won’t even remember it in a hundred — I won the last election in the last week. Woodward No, no. But it’s not just put out the plan. It’s execute it, isn’t it? Trump No, I, I am executing it. You’ll see it starting. I wondered how you execute a plan that doesn’t exist. Woodward People want their president to succeed. Now, you’re right. There’s some people who don’t. Trump No, no, no. I think you’re wrong. No, people don’t want me to succeed. Woodward No, no, but if you succeed, they succeed. Trump I have opposition like nobody has. And, and that’s okay. I’ve had that all my life. I’ve always had it. And this has been — my whole life has been like this. In the meantime, right now, I’m looking at the White House. Okay? I’m staring right at the walls of the White House. I understood this to be his way of reminding me he was president. Trump I was unlucky with the virus, because it came in and whether it was me or anybody else — Woodward But you got it. You got it. The country’s got it. And the world’s got it. But you’re in charge of this country. And, you know — Trump We’ve done better than any other country. Just about, done better than any other country, in handling it. And it’s a bigger, more diverse, more difficult country. And we’ve done better than any — other than with the press. Other than with the press, I’ve done a great job. But with the press, I can’t do a good job because it’s fake. It’s fake news. It’s a fake group of people and you know it, and you won’t write it. On listening to the tapes this year, I realized I had become entangled in the disorder of Trump’s presidency. An informal practice evolved. Knowing that he could and would call me at any time, I started leaving recorders around my house. Knowing that I could call him and inquire about anything — including the events of that day — was an unprecedented reporting opportunity. It was also unnerving. Trump became the primary focus of my life for nine months. When “Rage” was published in September 2020, Trump said publicly that it was a “political hit job.” He also said: White House press briefing Trump I said really good things in that book. From the vantage of October 2022, it is, of course, impossible to know Trump’s political future. The midterm elections loom. The House committee on Jan. 6 is still investigating Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election and has subpoenaed him to testify. And many criminal and civil investigations into Trump’s conduct are ongoing, including into sensitive documents Trump took with him from the White House. After Trump’s four years as president, there is no turning back for American politics. Trump was and still is a huge force and indelible presence, with the most powerful political machine in the country. He has the largest group of followers, loyalists and fundraisers, exceeding that of even President Biden. In 2020, I ended “Rage”with the following sentence: “When his performance as president is taken in its entirety, I can only reach one conclusion: Trump is the wrong man for the job.” Two years later, I realize I didn’t go far enough. Trump is an unparalleled danger. When you listen to him on the range of issues from foreign policy to the virus to racial injustice, it’s clear he did not know what to do. Trump was overwhelmed by the job. He was largely disconnected from the needs and leadership expectations of the public and his absolute self-focus became the presidency. At one point in June 2020, I asked Trump if he had assistance with a speech he had given about law and order. Trump I get people, they come up with ideas. But, the ideas are mine, Bob. Want to know something? Everything is mine. The voice, almost whispering and intimate, is so revealing. I believe that is Trump’s view of the presidency. Everything is mine. The presidency is mine. It is still mine. The only view that matters is mine. “The Trump Tapes” leaves no doubt that after four years in the presidency, Trump has learned where the levers of power are, and full control means installing absolute loyalists in key Cabinet and White House posts. The record now shows that Trump has led — and continues to lead — a seditious conspiracy to overturn the 2020 election, which in effect is an effort to destroy democracy. Trump reminds how easy it is to break things you do not understand — democracy and the presidency. Researcher Claire McMullen contributed to this essay. Top image: Washington Post staff illustration based on a photo by Jabin Botsford of The Washington Post.
Ally Roden November 8, 2022 Pop-punk superstars Paramore will embark on a massive 2023 North American tour, hitting 26 cities with support from special guests Bloc Party, Foals, The Linda Lindas and Genesis Owusu. Produced by Live Nation, the tour is set to begin at the Spectrum Center in Charlotte, NC on May 23rd, making stops at iconic venues including New York’s Madison Square Garden, the Scotiabank Arena in Toronto, Austin’s Moody Center, the Kia Forum in Los Angeles, the Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle and more. The stint will come to a close on August 2nd at Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, MN.
A portion of all North American ticket sales will be given to Support + Feed and environmental nonprofit REVERB. The band looks forward to collaborating with REVERB to positively impact people and the planet. In addition to the partnership for a comprehensive tour sustainability program, Paramore and REVERB will put on an Eco-Village at each show to provide fans with the opportunity to take action on environmental and social causes. The exciting tour announcement comes on the heels of the group’s festival appearances at Austin City Limits and When We Were Young.
Paramore also gave a stunning debut performance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon of “This Is Why,” the title track from their upcoming sixth studio album, set to drop on February 10, 2023, via Atlantic Records. Watch the band’s performance of “This Is Why” below.
American Express Card Members can secure early access for North American dates by registering for American Express Early Access through Ticketmaster Verified Fan. Verified card members that are chosen for the presale can buy tickets beginning on Wednesday, November 9th at 10am local time to Thursday, November 10th at 7:30am local time. Tickets will be available to the general public beginning on Friday, November 11th at 10am local time on paramore.net.
PARAMORE IN NORTH AMERICA TOUR DATES: Tue May 23 – Charlotte, NC – Spectrum Center*× Thu May 25 – Atlanta, GA – State Farm Arena*× Sat May 27 – Atlantic City, NJ – Adjacent Festival! Tue May 30 – New York, NY – Madison Square Garden*× Fri June 02 – Washington, DC – Capital One Arena*× Sun Jun 04 – Cleveland, OH – Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse*× Mon Jun 05 – Indianapolis, IN – Gainbridge Fieldhouse*× Wed Jun 07 – Detroit, MI – Little Caesars Arena*× Thu Jun 08 – Toronto, ON – Scotiabank Arena*× Sat Jun 10 – Columbus, OH – Schottenstein Center*× Sun Jun 11 – Pittsburgh, PA – PPG Paint Arena*× Tue Jun 13 – Orlando, FL – Amway Center*× Wed Jun 14 – Hollywood, FL – Hard Rock Live*×
Thu Jul 06 – New Orleans, LA – Smoothie King Center+° Sat Jul 08 – Fort Worth, TX – Dickies Arena+° Sun Jul 09 – Austin, TX – Moody Center+° Tue Jul 11 – Houston, TX – Toyota Center+° Thu Jul 13 – Denver, CO – Ball Arena+° Sun Jul 16 – San Diego, CA – Viejas Arena+ Wed Jul 19 – Los Angeles, CA – Kia Forum+ Sat Jul 22 – San Francisco, CA – Chase Center+ Mon Jul 24 – Seattle, WA – Climate Pledge Arena+° Tue Jul 25 – Portland, OR – Veterans Memorial Coliseum+° Thu Jul 27 – Salt Lake City, UT – Vivint Arena+° Sat Jul 29 – Tulsa, OK – BOK Center+° Sun Jul 30 – St Louis, MO – Enterprise Center+° Wed Aug 02 – St. Paul, MN – Xcel Energy Center+° *With Support Bloc Party +With Support from Foals °With Support from The Linda Lindas ×With Support from Genesis Owusu !Festival Performance
The band is currently on their 12-stop North American fall tour. The stint kicked off on October 2 in Bakersfield, CA and will wrap up on November 19 in Mexico City, MX. Sharing is caring! Tags paramore April 5, 2021 April 6, 2020 February 17, 2020 Avril Lavigne released her newest single “I’m A Mess” featuring YUNGBLUD via Travis Barker’s DTA Records, … Enter your email address to get the latest news & updates on all your favorite artists!
The Observer Media Group Inc. respects your privacy and values the relationship we have with you. We use technology to collect information that helps us enhance your experience and our products and services. The cookies we use help us understand what information and advertising are most useful and valuable. Please take a moment to review our Cookie Policy and Privacy Policy. By clicking “Accept,” you agree to our use of cookies and similar technologies. Jazz Thursday: David Pruyn Quartet 5:30 p.m. at Sarasota Art Museum, 1001 S. Tamiami Trail $20 Visit SarasotaArtMuseum.org. Sarasota Art Museum is open late and the Marcy & Michael Klein Plaza will be the scene of people moving and grooving. New Orleans jazz musician David Pruyn, who moonlights as the director of the Fabulous Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra, will bring his trumpet and ensemble to serve as guests of honor, and Bistro will remain open for light bites. Postponed: Chuchito Valdés 7 p.m. at Fogartyville, 525 Kumquat Court $28 Visit WSLR.org/Fogartyville. Third generation piano man Chuchito Valdés will bring his Cuban and Caribbean-inflected jazz stylings to bear at Fogartyville for one evening only. Valdés, the son and grandson of famed Cuban musicians Chucho and Beto Valdés, draws inspiration from several styles of music including Latin jazz, bebop, cha-cha-cha and more. Editor's note: The Chuchito Valdés concert was postponed after press time; it will be made up in January. Larry Reeb 7 p.m. at McCurdy’s Comedy Theatre, 1923 Ringling Blvd. $25 Visit McCurdysComedy.com. Larry Reeb has been sharing his cracked perspective on the world for decades, and people keep coming back for more. His comedy bio reads: "Where others cringe, Reeb thrives," and this isn't just marketing jargon. It's the comedian's honest truth. Runs through Nov. 13 Rhapsody For Golda 7:30 p.m. at Studio 1130, 3501 S. Tamiami Trail $27 Visit ThePlayers.org. It's a one-woman show that brings a political figure from yesteryear — Israel's Golda Meir — back to life. David and Sharon Ohrenstein wrote this piece, which will run through Nov. 12, and it's directed by Blake Walton.
Siesta Key Crystal Classic Through Nov. 14 at Siesta Key Beach, 948 Beach Road From $10; children from $5 Visit SiestaKeyCrystalClassic.com. Sand artists of all stripes will compete over the weekend for the most impressive sand sculpture. Sarasota Veterans Day Parade 10 a.m. at downtown Sarasota Free Visit SarasotaFL.gov. Sarasota will again pay tribute to its veterans with a parade that will travel through downtown Sarasota. The parade starts at Osprey Avenue and goes through Main Street ending at Gulfstream Avenue. Rotary Veterans Day Event 11 a.m. at Temple Beth Israel, 567 Bay Isles Road, Longboat Key Free Visit LongboatKeyRotary.org. Guests of honor are Tuskegee Airman George Hardy and retired Major General Scott Gray. Registration is recommended. A Salute to Veterans Concert 7 p.m. at Church of the Redeemer, 222 S. Palm Ave. $25 Visit RedeemerSarasota.org. Trumpeter Chuck Seipp and organist Randall Sheets have lived a life of music and a life of service, and perhaps nobody is better positioned to play a tribute to Veterans Day. Sheets recently retired as ceremonial organist for Arlington National Cemetery, and Seipp spent three decades with the United States Army Band.
Veterans Paddler Day 9 a.m. at Nathan Benderson Park, 5851 Nathan Benderson Circle Free Visit NathanBendersonPark.org. The NBP Veterans New Paddler Day is a chance for military veterans who are interested in dragon boat racing to try the sport for free. The session will start with on-land training before moving to the boat. Sarasota Medieval Fair 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. at Woods of Mallaranny, 29847 S.R. 70 E., Myakka City $22.9; seniors, students, military $19.95; children 5-10 $11.95; children 4 and under are free Visit SarasotaMedievalFair.com. The 18th annual Sarasota Medieval Fair continues its run at the Woods of Mallaranny in Myakka City. The event, which includes local artisans, craft demonstrations, live performances, food, a children's play area, rides, games, and vendors, runs every Saturday and Sunday in November. St. Armands Circle Art Festival 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at St. Armands Circle Free Visit ArtFestival.com. National and local artists will fill the sidewalks and Circle park with art and handmade goods. Continues Sunday. Puppy Pals Comedic Stunt Dog Show 2 p.m. at Manatee Performing Arts Center, 502 Third Ave. W., Bradenton $13-$23 Visit ManateePerformingArtsCenter.org. Do you like dogs? Do you like stunts? Then what's not to like about dogs doing stunts? The Manatee Performing Arts Center will play host to this show that features adopted and rescued dogs performing tricks that will blow your mind. Children of all ages will delight in watching these dogs prove how good they are. Symphony on the Sand 4:30 p.m. at Coquina Gulfside Park, 2651 Gulf Drive, Bradenton Beach $25-$125 Visit Amicco.org. Who said that classical music and the beach don't mix? Conductor Alfred Gershfeld will lead the Anna Maria Island Concert Chorus & Orchestra through a performance at one of the most beautiful venues imaginable: Coquina Gulfside Park. It's the eighth annual Symphony on the Sand, so bring your bathing suit and also your appetite. Rocks! Aerosmith Tribute 7 p.m. at Venice Performing Arts Center, 1 Indian Ave., Venice $35-$60 Visit VenicePerformingArtsCenter.com. This isn't your grandfather's Aerosmith. The Boston-based rockers made their mark on the American scene starting all the way back in 1970, and this tribute band brings back all the "Sweet Emotions" from their seminal run of chart-topping albums. Janie may or may not have a gun, but you don't want to miss a thing. Neil Berg’s ‘50 Years of Rock and Roll Part V’ 8 p.m. at Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall, 777. N. Tamiami Trail $24-$82 Visit VanWezel.org. Pretend you've got a living jukebox that can play anything from the dawn of rock and roll all the way through the 80's. Now stop pretending. Neil Berg and his traveling cast of singing All-Stars are here to rock the Van Wezel. You'll hear everything from Chuck Berry to Bruce Springsteen and a lot of standout hits from the decades in between.
Tropical Modernism: Climate & Design 8:30 a.m. at Historic Asolo Theatre, 5401 Bay Shore Road $40 members, $50 non-members Visit ArchitectureSarasota.org. A variety of professional architects and scholars will be on hand as part of Architecture Sarasota's Mod Weekend, and the keystone symposium event will take place Sunday at the Historic Asolo Theatre. Why does architecture look the way it does? What drives design decisions? These are just some of the questions that will be answered at Mod Weekend. Chamber Soirees: Orion Weiss and Friends 4 p.m. at Holley Hall, 709 N. Tamiami Trail $40-$50 VisitSarasotaOrchestra.org. World renowned pianist Orion Weiss will guide you through works by Bach and Franck as part of this Sarasota Orchestra performance. Weiss, supported by flutist Betsy Hudson Traba, violinist Mia Laity, and cellist Christopher Schnell, will play Bach's "Trio Sonata" from "The Musical Offering." The second piece, Franck's "Piano Quintet," will see Weiss play with violinists Daniel Jordan and Christopher Takeda, viola player Rachel Halvorson and cellist Natalie Helm.
Jonathan Dotson, Classical Guitarist 7:30 p.m. at St. Paul Lutheran Church, 2256 Bahia Vista St. Free Visit GuitarSarasota.org. Dotson, who holds a doctorate in musical arts from the University of Texas at Austin, is bringing the sound of classical guitar back to a wide audience. Dotson is a founding member of the Texas Guitar Quintet, and he's a regular on public radio stations in Houston and Austin.
Sybarite5 7:30 p.m. at Historic Asolo Theater, 5401 Bay Shore Road $30-$50 Visit ArtistSeriesConcerts.org. This band, founded by double bassist and Sarasota native Louis Levitt, explores the intersection between everyday sounds, human communication and current events. The performance will include a world premiere of "Apartments," a composition penned by Jackson Greenberg.
‘A Place in the Sun: A Tribute to Stevie Wonder’ 6 p.m. at FST's Goldstein Cabaret, 1239 N. Palm Ave. $34 Visit FloridaStudioTheatre.org. The songbook of American icon Stevie Wonder takes center stage in this original revue written by Jason Cannon, Richard Hopkins and Sarah Durham. You'll hear selections from all over Stevie's stratospheric career including "Superstition," "Isn't She Lovely" and more. Runs through March 26. Violins and Hope 7 p.m. at Michael’s On East, 1215 S. East Ave. $75 Visit PerlmanMusicProgramSuncoast.org. Violinist Niv Ashkenazi and pianist Matthew Graybil will perform selections from their album “Violins of Hope”, and author/photographer Daniel Levin will speak about his experiences with Amnon Weinstein and his restoration of violins that survived the Holocaust. Share the evening as they discuss salvaging art from the jaws of historic tragedy. Join the Neighborhood! Our 100% local content helps strengthen our communities by delivering news and information that is relevant to our readers. Support independent local journalism by joining the Observer’s new membership program — The Newsies — a group of like-minded community citizens, like you. Be a Newsie. View the discussion thread. Verified Audit 1101 Fifth Ave. Ste, 270 San Rafael, CA 94901 (415) 461-6006 www.verifiedaudit.com
Attack Magazine is funded by advertising revenue. To help support our original content, please consider whitelisting Attack in your ad blocker software. Find out how
Houston’s independent source of local news and culture account Concerts Tom Richards November 8, 2022 4:00AM New Biography Examines the Life of Stones Drummer By Tom Richards Benny the Butcher’s A Nightmare in Texas Tour Hits Houston By DeVaughn Douglas Em Beihold Scores a Hit and Parries the Attacks of Sudden Success By Jesse Sendejas Jr.
You are using an outdated browser. Please upgrade your browser to improve your experience. The Texas Library Association’s (TLA) 2023-2024 Texas Bluebonnet Award (TBA) Master List was announced at the Texas Book Festival in Austin on Saturday, November 5, 2022. As is tradition, students in grades 3 – 6 from across Texas revealed the books on the list. The Texas Bluebonnet Award Master List is one of the most distinguished children’s literature lists in the country. Jacqui Bridges-Sheppherd, TBA coordinator, said “this prestigious list is composed of titles from creative, talented and diverse authors. The titles on the list offer students in third through sixth grades quality fiction and nonfiction literature to be read for pleasure.” The TBA selection committee considered a whopping 1018 books for this year’s master list. “Titles were chosen that allow the books to act as windows into reality and imaginary worlds while offering a view into someone else’s experiences; and mirrors that reflect a reader’s own life or culture while building their identity. This literature also keeps student’s interests in mind and provides positive reviews for parents, teachers and librarians,” Bridges-Sheppherd said. The primary goals of the TBA list are to introduce children to a variety of quality books, develop critical reading skills, and honor and encourage authors. To compose the list, the committee selected five outstanding books of various genres for grades 3, 4, 5, and 6. Each year, more than 75,000 third-through-sixth graders from across Texas vote for their favorite title from the master list. “Read 5, then decide” is a slogan known by school librarians, public librarians and homeschooling parents across the state. The TBA Award winner is announced in the spring. Bridges-Sheppherd expressed thanks to her hard-working committee members, for volunteering their time. “To the members of the selection committee, I thank you for completing all the reading you did to create this list. I appreciate your critical thinking, your thoughtful and insightful comments, and conversations. I appreciate you stepping up to complete whatever was asked of you. But most of all, I appreciate each of you for your dedication and the time you took to thoughtfully select the books on this year’s master list,” she said. “To the members of the program committee (who develop resources used by teachers and librarians in conjunction with TBA books) I thank you for completing all of your tasks on a quick turnaround timeframe. Your hard work is always thorough and valued. To both committees, I thank you for what you do for the librarians and students of Texas.” Here is the list, alphabetized by title: 3420 Executive Center Drive, Suite 301 Austin, Texas 78731 P: 512-328-1518 F: 512-328-8852 E: [email protected]
Play Now Football Pick’em Play Now College Football Pick’em Week 9 Recap U.S. Soccer Podcast It’s Week 9 of the 2022 NFL season, and we’re keeping you updated on all the action and biggest storylines throughout the day. The Week 9 slate has some fantastic matchups and storylines, and we’re here to help you watch it unfold. Check back often to find out everything you need to know. Thursday Eagles 27, Texans 19 (Takeaways) Sunday Jets 20, Bills 17 (Takeaways) Patriots 26, Colts 3 (Takeaways) Dolphins 35, Bears 32 (Takeaways) Vikings 20, Commanders 17 (Takeaways) Bengals 42, Panthers 21 (Recap) Lions 15, Packers 9 (Recap) Chargers 20, Falcons 17 (Recap) Jaguars 27, Raiders 20 (Recap) Seahawks 31, Cardinals 21 (Recap) Buccaneers 16, Rams 13 (Recap) Titans at Chiefs, 8:20 p.m. ET (Preview) Monday Ravens at Saints, 8:15 p.m. ET (Preview) For 59 minutes and 16 seconds, the Buccaneers failed to get the ball into the end zone. But with 44 seconds to play, they had one more chance starting from their own 40-yard line. That’s when Tom Brady worked his late-game magic: 28 yards over the middle to rookie tight end Cade Otton. Spike. Four more to Leonard Fournette. Another 14 to Scott Miller, who dropped a wide-open touchdown on the previous drive, and then seven more. An end-zone pass interference call put the ball at the one-yard line, and with nine seconds to play, Brady completed the second-latest touchdown pass of his career by connecting with the 23-year-old Cade Otton. .@TomBrady & the @Buccaneers take the lead with nine seconds remaining!
📺: #LARvsTB on CBS 📱: Stream on NFL+ https://t.co/sjhHSVuY5Ppic.twitter.com/x6gOGepZuP With the score, Brady passed Peyton Manning for most career game-winning drives in the fourth quarter or overtime. More importantly for this season, the Buccaneers (4-5) are back atop the NFC South midway through the 2022 campaign. 100,000 passing yards for Tom Brady. What an incredible feat, which Brady accomplished on a 15-yard pass to Leonard Fournette in the fourth quarter. Read more about Brady’s historic pass, here. 100,000 passing yards for the 🐐 @TomBradypic.twitter.com/QrXpeWtWpi Just like CBS Sports lead NFL Insider Jonathan Jones said (via Twitter): Can we just give Kenneth Walker III the NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year award? Past four games: more than 450 rushing yards and seven touchdowns. Beastly. OROY? @Kenneth_Walker9 just keeps scoring touchdowns 🔥
📺: #SEAvsAZ on FOX 📱: Stream on NFL+ https://t.co/kMZLWAYkDLpic.twitter.com/gFDokjgSs6 Kenneth Walker III has been on an absolute tear since taking over as RB1, and the second-round rookie has delivered again Sunday. Walker hasn’t been as effective as previous games (3.6 yards per attempt), but he’s grinded out 80 yards on the ground — plus three catches for 20 more — and this touchdown. to put Seattle up double digits. October’s Offensive Rookie of the Month finds the end zone! @Kenneth_Walker9
📺: #SEAvsAZ on FOX 📱: Stream on NFL+ https://t.co/kMZLWAYkDLpic.twitter.com/vnqVOPTgq6 Never thought I’d say this in 2022, but you can’t give Geno Smith second chances. He’s just been too good this season. On second-and-6 from the nine, multiple Cardinals defenders could not corral what should have been an easy interception. On the next play, Smith delivered a laser to Tyler Lockett to put the Seahawks back on top. Putting the TD in @TDLockett12. 🙌
📺: #SEAvsAZ on FOX 📱: Stream on NFL+ https://t.co/kMZLWAYkDLpic.twitter.com/ofeam1jcPo Zaven Collins has not lived up to his 2021 first-round billing just yet, but the Cardinals linebacker made an All-Pro-caliber play with his team in need of some momentum. Rushing off the edge, Collins recognized the bubble pass to the running back, got his right hand on the Geno Smith pass, tipped it to himself and then rumbled his way for a 30-yard touchdown. It marked his first career interception. Picked and going the other way! Spectacular play by @ZavenCollins! 🔥
📺: #SEAvsAZ on FOX 📱: Stream on NFL+ https://t.co/kMZLWAYkDLpic.twitter.com/Hzead9kM4P The Buccaneers offense is … still broken. Tampa Bay managed just three points in the first half and had a second field goal blocked right before intermission. Future Hall of Fame linebacker Bobby Wagner got in there for the block. Bobby Wagner times the jump to block the field goal! 💪 @Bwagz
📺: #LARvsTB on CBS 📱: Stream on NFL+ https://t.co/sjhHSVuY5Ppic.twitter.com/8lEo7J5em2 Cooper Kupp’s ankle seems to be just fine, as the reigning triple-crown receiving champion ran right past the entire Buccaneers defense and caught a go-ball for a 69-yard score. Safe to say Tampa Bay does not like playing against Kupp after what he did to them in last year’s NFC Divisional Round game. Cooper Kupp go route. 🔥 #RamsHouse
📺: #LARvsTB on CBS 📱: Stream on NFL+ https://t.co/sjhHSVuY5Ppic.twitter.com/ZxXNzsg7zf The most entertaining game of the early window was Dolphins-Bears, and Justin Fields was the star — even in his team’s 35-32 defeat. Not only did Fields become the first player in NFL history to rush for 140-plus yards and throw for three touchdowns, but he came up four yards short of breaking the all-time single-game rushing record for a quarterback, which Colin Kaepernick set in the 2012 NFC Divisional Round. All in all, Fields finished 17-for-28 passing for 123 yards and three scores; he rushed 15 times for 178 yards and a dazzling 61-yard touchdown. JUSTIN. FREAKING. FIELDS.
📺: #MIAvsCHI on CBS pic.twitter.com/jFMAg0BeH7 The Super Bowl favorite Bills are 6-2 but 0-2 in the AFC East — and no sure thing to win the division halfway through the season. The Jets (6-3) are right on their tail after their defense put together an inspiring performance to upset their division rival. At the center of it all was first-round stud Sauce Gardner, who recorded a team-high seven tackles to go along with an interception and the game-clinching pass breakup on fourth and long. J-E-T-S JETS JETS JETS! pic.twitter.com/dI55IircF6 The miserable season for Aaron Rodgers and the Packers continue. Green Bay got inside the Detroit 20-yard line with a chance to take the lead with 42 seconds left, but four straight incompletions from Rodgers, who threw three picks, sealed the Packers’ most embarrassing loss of the season. Defense delivers the dub 🙅♂️#GBvsDET 📺 FOX pic.twitter.com/phKIRYmDB7 A double fumble? In the final minute?! You always deliver, NFL. First Austin Ekeler fumbled at the Falcons’ 20-yard line, but then defensive lineman Ta’Quon Graham, rumbling down the right sideline, just lost control of the ball, allowing the Chargers to get possession back. WHAT just happened in Atlanta?!
📺: #LACvsATL on FOX 📱: Stream on NFL+ https://t.co/6cnVqEemUWpic.twitter.com/9xeLvxRyYe Backed up outside the 40-yard line, Justin Herbert delivered a strike to his seemingly only healthy receiver, Josh Palmer, for 22 yards to put the Chargers back in business. And on the final play, rookie Cameron Dicker played hero as his 37-yard field goal lifted Los Angeles to a last-second victory. Crazy enough, this is the second team Dicker has hit a game-winning field goal for. His 23-yarder in Week 5 lifted the Eagles past the Cardinals. Cameron Dicker for the @Chargers win! #LACvsATLpic.twitter.com/LIzxf0B5Mq If you’re a Commanders fan, watching Taylor Heinicke brings out a large range of emotions. Sometimes they’re elated, because Heinicke tosses up a prayer and their receiver comes down with it. Other times, they’re furious at the back-breaking turnovers. Heinicke has done it all Sunday, with his terrible interception setting up the Vikings’ game-tying touchdown from Dalvin Cook. Harrison Smith INT!@Vikings take the ball down by 7.
📺: #MINvsWAS on FOX 📱: Stream on NFL+ https://t.co/rhDoPc9SFWpic.twitter.com/bDcQGZiHy5 When it’s the fourth quarter and Aaron Rodgers leads the Packers in rushing, that’s a very bad sign. Still, look at the 38-year-old carving up the Lions defense with his legs for 18 yards to keep the drive alive. Rodgers has four rushes for 40 yards. Aaron Rodgers picks up the first down on 3rd and 17!
📺: #CARvsCIN on FOX 📱: Stream on NFL+ https://t.co/1fT7ls0CIXpic.twitter.com/rNqlIfb71M Sauce Gardner seems like he’s going to run away with NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year, and intercepting Josh Allen will certainly help his cause. Not sure where Allen was going here, but the No. 4 overall pick secured the turnover and brought the ball to the edge of the red zone. The offense then delivered with Zach Wilson connecting with newly acquired James Robinson for the go-ahead score. SAUCE PICKS IT OFF 🔥
📺: #BUFvsNYJ on CBS 📱: Stream on NFL+ https://t.co/pSFLuCQneJpic.twitter.com/w8isuX8roL For just the fifth time in his illustrious NFL career, future Hall of Famer Aaron Rodgers has thrown three interceptions in a game. And these have to be the worst combination of interceptions of his life. Two were intercepted in the end zone, while the third — and second from rookie Kerby Joseph — came on the Lions’ one-yard line. THE ROOKIE. Kerby Joseph has his second INT today! @JKERB25
📺: #GBvsDET on FOX 📱: Stream on NFL+ https://t.co/NERF3hGPfVpic.twitter.com/ED68cVxVxa I said last week that Taylor Heinicke’s best play is just throwing up Hail Mary’s and having Terry McLaurin come down with them. Turns out that also applies to Curtis Samuel, who somehow came down with his grab in between three defenders and found the end zone without being touched. It marked a 49-yard score as the legend of Heinicke continues to grow. Heinicke throws into triple coverage… CAUGHT by Curtis Samuel!
📺: #MINvsWAS on FOX 📱: Stream on NFL+ https://t.co/rhDoPc9SFWpic.twitter.com/ap2MolFicw Welcome to the NFL, Drake London. Trying to make a move after catching a pass at the 5-yard line, the Chargers defense held up the No. 8 overall pick in this year’s draft. That allowed Khalil Mack to come in and literally take the ball away from the rookie, who could only watch as the six-time Pro Bowler rumbled down the right sideline. Khalil Mack rips the ball away! @FiftyDeuce
📺: #LACvsATL on FOX 📱: Stream on NFL+ https://t.co/6cnVqEemUWpic.twitter.com/ZazKAUSnTS The Bears have fully unleashed Justin Fields over the past month, and he’s delivered. I mean, how many other quarterbacks can reel off this 61-yard touchdown? JUSTIN FIELDS GOES 61 YARDS FOR SIX! 🔥
📺: #MIAvsCHI on CBS 📱: Stream on NFL+ https://t.co/PrdJzxjse4pic.twitter.com/EaiuoLqHYO If you have Joe Mixon on your fantasy team and you lose this week, just quit the league, because the rest of your team is obviously awful. The Bengals running back has had a historic first half, amassing 171 yards and FOUR TDs … in the opening 30 minutes. JOE MIXON IS CARRYING YOUR FANTASY TEAM 🔥
📺: #CARvsCIN on FOX 📱: Stream on NFL+ https://t.co/1fT7ls0CIXpic.twitter.com/c788wvX2BV If you can believe it, that was Davante Adams‘ stat line IN THE FIRST HALF. One of the best wideouts in the NFL is dunking all over the Jaguars as the Raiders entered halftime with a 10-point advantage. Davante Adams already has 6 catches for 88 yards, including this 25-yard TD! #RaiderNation
📺: CBS pic.twitter.com/tVFwzK9JxW Allen has not been as effective through the air as usual, but he’s done major damage with his legs. On just four carries, Allen has racked up 55 yards and two scores, including this 36-yard burst into the end zone. Designed run for @JoshAllenQB. He’s gone for a 36-yard TD! 🙌
📺: #BUFvsNYJ on CBS 📱: Stream on NFL+ https://t.co/pSFLuCQneJpic.twitter.com/dlgyH3G1Sq Justin Fields is hanging with the high-flying Dolphins in Miami, rushing and passing his way to 17 first-half points. His best throw of the day so far was a back-shoulder laser to Darnell Mooney for the 16-yard score. TO THE MOON(EY) 🚀🌙
📺: #MIAvsCHI on CBS 📱: Stream on NFL+ https://t.co/PrdJzxjse4pic.twitter.com/NLkz56XUBR Joe Mixon entered Sunday with two touchdowns in 129 rush attempts (one every 64.5 attempts). He’s obliterated that average in the first half against the Panthers, scoring THREE TDs on just 13 carries. Cincinnati is all over Carolina. JOE MIXON HAT TRICK 🔥
📺: #MIAvsCHI on CBS 📱: Stream on NFL+ https://t.co/PrdJzxjse4pic.twitter.com/fLsZZJppng Aaron Rodgers threw a combined nine interceptions en route to back-to-back NFL MVP honors. He entered with four through eight weeks, and he’s already added two more in the first half against the Lions. Even worse, both have occurred in the end zone. AND it’s been versus the NFL’s worst defense. The struggles just keep getting worse for Green Bay. Ever see a @cheetah do flips?
📺: #MIAvsCHI on CBS 📱: Stream on NFL+ https://t.co/PrdJzxjse4pic.twitter.com/65iW6lOCdw Tyreek Hill entered Sunday leading the NFL in receptions and receiving yards, yet he somehow only had one target inside the red zone. That changed in the second quarter Sunday, as Tua Tagovailoa found him from three yards out. As is tradition, a back handspring into a back flip ensued. Ever see a @cheetah do flips?
📺: #MIAvsCHI on CBS 📱: Stream on NFL+ https://t.co/PrdJzxjse4pic.twitter.com/65iW6lOCdw The Packers offense swiftly moved down the field on its opening possession, but as has been the case all season, it just couldn’t put a full drive together. On first-and-goal, Rodgers’ pass was tipped high in the air, and safety Kerby Joseph, a member of the CBSSports.com’s midseason All-Rookie team, came down with it for the crucial end zone interception. Deflected and PICKED in the end zone! @Lions
📺: #GBvsDET on FOX 📱: Stream on NFL+ https://t.co/NERF3hGPfVpic.twitter.com/BSj6VoP6Ol When Kirk Cousins was in Washington, he never had a receiver as good as Justin Jefferson. So with Cousins back at FedEx Field for the first time since leaving in free agency, he showed off by far his best weapon by just throwing the ball up to Jefferson in the end zone. And, of course, Jefferson came down with it for the opening-drive score. He may look covered. But Justin Jefferson never is.
📺: #MINvsWAS on FOX 📱: Stream on NFL+ https://t.co/rhDoPc9SFWpic.twitter.com/j3Q7GMUINJ NFL media reported the Falcons were going to ease Cordarrelle Patterson back after he missed four games after undergoing a cleanup procedure in his knee, but the veteran sparkplug saw three carries on the first drive. They only went for 10 yards, but the third opened the scoring for Atlanta from one yard out. The return of Cordarrelle Patterson! @ceeflashpee84
📺: #LACvsATL on FOX 📱: Stream on NFL+ https://t.co/6cnVqEemUWpic.twitter.com/Ya35QDLFJe While inconsequential, Josh Allen threw two fourth-quarter interceptions in last Sunday night’s win over the Green Bay Packers. His turnover spree continued on the first drive against the Jets. After Braden Mann fell on the opening kickoff, giving them great field position, Allen hit Stefon Diggs on a deep ball and the Bills were set up to jump on their division rivals early. However, Allen rolled out and threw the ball right to the Jets’ Jordan Whitehead in the red zone. Good recovery from the New York defense. Picked! Jordan Whitehead said I’ll take that.
Thanks for visiting ! The use of software that blocks ads hinders our ability to serve you the content you came here to enjoy. We ask that you consider turning off your ad blocker so we can deliver you the best experience possible while you are here. Thank you for your support!
Zaytoven, Ray G and Justin ‘Meezy’ Williams pay tribute to the youngest of rap superstar trio Migos, who shunned the spotlight to remain a humble student of his craft No matter how Atlanta’s music community first learned, on 1 November, that Takeoff had been killed – whether via alarmed texts or social media posts – the overwhelming response was one of disbelief. Not just because one-third of rap superstar trio Migos had died at age 28 from a shooting at a Houston bowling alley, but also because the whole incident seemed so out of character for Takeoff in the first place. “A lot of people are good people but get caught up and do bad things. Mistakes happen – I know that happens in life,” says Justin “Meezy” Williams, who manages rapper 21 Savage. “He’s not one of them. So it doesn’t hit me as something like, ‘Damn, where was he at? What was he doing?’ I know he wasn’t doing something he wasn’t supposed to do.” In the immediate aftermath of Takeoff’s death, rap luminary Chuck D blamed the music industry for “normalising” gun violence, telling TMZ, “You have people who’ve grown up thinking that hip-hop death is a normal thing.” Yet those who knew Takeoff best don’t want to paint his death as some cautionary tale for hip-hop writ large – not when the man himself so consciously avoided the public eye, and the troubles and antagonisms that can plague celebrities of his stature. Instead they remember Migos’ youngest member, born Kirshnik Khari Ball, for his ambition, which was impressive even before 2013 breakout hit Versace. At 16, he was too young to drink when Migos were taking over Atlanta’s nightclubs, courting its DJs and buying sections to make a splashy impression before patrons had even heard a single verse. Williams worked as a promoter at the 2,500 capacity club Mansion Elan, where the group’s hold was so strong – off the strength of performing early hits such as Bando and Jumpin Out Da Gym – that the club was nicknamed “Migos Elan.” “Back when [Migos] were worth $30,000 or $40,000 for a club performance, we could get them for $15,000,” Williams said. “But even if you paid them $35,000, you’re gonna win. You’re gonna make your money back.” Takeoff had established himself as a reliable performer, and he was content to let his bandmates – his uncle Quavo and Offset, Quavo’s cousin – network on the group’s behalf and claim the lion’s share of the limelight. DJ Ray G, who spins for Cardi B on tour and hails from Migos’ native Lawrenceville, Georgia, linked up with the group during those initial club takeovers – from their first meeting in 2011 at Pink Flamingo, to Mansion Elan on Fridays and Obsessions on Saturdays. “Sometimes [Takeoff] didn’t even go out,” he says. “We’d come back home and he’d still be awake – smoking, chilling, vibing. And you check the YouTube history and it’s Tupac and Biggie, shit like that. This kid’s 16, studying his craft – like, ‘I ain’t going out with you tonight. I’m going to stay here and listen to Big, Pac, Eminem.’” Xavier Dotson, better known as Zaytoven, is a longtime fixture of Atlanta’s production scene who collaborates closely with Future and Gucci Mane. He remembers the first time Takeoff and Quavo visited his basement studio in Atlanta’s east side: “You didn’t even notice [Takeoff] until he started rapping,” he says. Takeoff got his moniker from how he’d be able to record a verse in a single take, with no flubs or fouls. “Everybody else can go in the booth, and they’re piecing their verses together, thinking of a line,” Zaytoven says. “You ain’t gotta worry about [Takeoff] taking too long or none of that ‘cause he got his stuff together. Every time I seen Takeoff get in the booth, I know he’s gonna knock out his part real quick.” In the early days, when Migos were stationed at Quavo’s mother’s basement in Lawrenceville, the trio would record their verses separately. “Takeoff would make a song when Quavo was running the day’s errands, and it was like they were in competition with each other: ‘Oh, you gon’ leave this song? I’m going to go harder than you on this one,’” Ray G says. And so Takeoff gave an early glimpse of what became the signature “Migos flow” in precisely that fashion, without warning. “He just played a song one day, and the flow was there. It was the triplets, and everyone went, what?” The iconic Migos flow is a punched-up take on hip-hop’s staccato triplets, a lyrical style of delivery first popularised two decades prior by groups such as Bone Thugs-n-Harmony and Three 6 Mafia. The Migos flow first rose to public consciousness with Versace, which Takeoff and Quavo recorded over a Zaytoven beat immediately after that first basement studio session. Hip-hop has never been the same since. The Migos flow is now fully mainstream, crisscrossingfrom one musicalgenre to the next (and notching up an SNL parody by Donald Glover along the way). “When they came out with Versace, everyone’s rap pattern changed – it was like, you gotta rap like this for people to even want to listen to you,” Zaytoven says. And yet right up until his death, Takeoff was the sort of rapper who shunned the spotlight, preferring to make his presence felt through the kind of lyrical precision that – no matter how one felt about trap music going mainstream – gave Migos undeniable street cred as masterclass hip-hop technicians. “Quavo, he’s going to talk. Offset, he’s going to talk. Takeoff, he’s going, ‘Hey, when I need to rap, let me know,’” Williams says. “When they’re not booked, I might run into Offset or Quavo at a bowling alley, just chilling or having fun. If Takeoff wasn’t working, me personally, I’d never really seen him. He was the team player. He was the glue: ‘Yo, what we doing?’ He was the youngest one, but he was the most chill.” “I don’t think you’re going to hear anything negative about Takeoff,” Williams adds. “Honestly bro, if it wasn’t about some money, some business or his family, he definitely was the No 1 candidate for ‘That don’t got shit to do with me.’” Hip-hop has had to reckon with a seemingly non-stop string of high-profile deaths in recent years, a fact that Zaytoven finds particularly bitter as this violence has touched many artists with whom he’s collaborated. He struggles to remember how many Instagram memorial posts he’s done, for past collaborators such as King Von, Lil Keed, Trouble and Young Dolph. “To be honest with you, me being a music producer that produces rap music, it’s hard to listen to the music now,” he says. “The lyrics are street and some of it is gangster, but when people are really dying, it makes you not want to hear it. It’s not fun or exciting any more when someone like Takeoff dies.” And yet this recent rise in gun violence is by no means exclusive to hip-hop. “I just got off the phone with my mom,” Zaytoven said. “Some kids had assault rifles four houses down from [her] house, just shooting at 3:00 in broad daylight. And it’s almost off a TikTok challenge or something.” In the aftermath of Takeoff’s death, videos of the rapper’s body lying at the scene began to circulate. To Williams, it’s one more example of Black death going viral in the social media age. “We’ve grown numb. We try to mourn and move because it happens so much.” He hesitates to pathologise hip-hop culture for what happened. “I want us to say that we gotta do better as a culture, right?” he says. “But in some of these situations, it’s not necessarily the culture. This could have happened anywhere, anytime. From what I’m seeing, Takeoff was just there chilling at a bowling alley, and it just happened to be late. It wasn’t like he was in a back alley or a trap house, that they were in a shootout and he was shooting back. The only thing you can tell people is – don’t celebrate success when you’re somewhere as a Black man. It’s unfortunate.” By Friday, one Atlanta muralist had honoured Takeoff by painting his smiling likeness on the city’s public BeltLine trail. Ray G’s voice breaks when he mentions it. The violence from 1 November feels senseless. “Doing shows, riding planes together – we had a lot of firsts together, because this was our first big break,” he says. “I cherish all the memories, the smile he put on a lot of our faces, the love he showed us, the unselfishness. I don’t know how I’m gonna be able to deal with this one.”
Everybody loves a free plugin. We’d wager that even the most affluent music-makers, smugly reclining in their padded studio chairs while they bask in the radiant glow of a specced-out M1 Mac, feel a twinge of excitement when a gratuitous VST pops up on their 6K Retina display. This is our monthly free software round-up’s raison d’être. It exists to serve you, the sonically curious and financially prudent producer, in your pursuit of the internet’s finest freeware. We know you’re a busy bunch, so here we present the most intriguing freebies from our regular news coverage that you may have missed, plus anything else that’s caught our eyes (and ears) over the past 30 days. • The best free music software and plugins: DAWs, synths effects and more Looking for great deals on plugins and music production software? Keep it locked to our Black Friday plugin deals page for all the latest savings and offers. For even more music-making discounts, explore our Black Friday music deals hub. Platforms: PC | Formats: VST/VST3 | Download There’s a ton of free emulations of Roland’s iconic, genre-defining TB-303 out there, but very few that you can download absolutely free. However – the RF-AB303, from Ronan Fed, delivers instant acid goodness for the low, low price of $0. The single-oscillator monosynth is capable of sawtooth and square waveforms, and is equipped with a multimode filter and several effects, including compression, distortion, delay, and reverb. Platforms: Mac/PC | Formats: AU/AAX/VST3 | Download Kiive Audio’s XTressor is an effective, versatile plugin compressor that takes inspiration from Empirical Labs’ powerful EL8 Distressor rackmount compressor, a staple of high-end studio set-ups. Though the XTressor will set you back $149.99, Kiive have made the XTressor Nuke, the plugin’s “little brother”, absolutely free. Despite its stripped-back feature set, the Nuke still packs a punch, as you can hear in the video above. Perhaps not the right choice if you’re after a full-featured, go-to compressor plugin, but certainly worth a download for some instant (and free) punch and power. Platforms: Mac/PC | Formats: AU/AAX/VST3 | Download If you missed out on Arturia’s giveaway of its $99 Tape Mello-Fi plugin last holiday season, you’ve now got another chance to download it for free courtesy of Audio Plugin Deals. This is a vintage tape-emulation and lofi effect based on the sound and behaviour of the classic Mellotron (and, in turn Arturia’s Mellotron V emulation). Parameter knobs enable you to adjust the amount of Noise, Flutter, Wow, Wear and ‘Mechanics’, and you can also dial in subtle distortion and saturation. This leaves you with an effect that promises to apply lo-fi vibes to anything you stick it on – drum loops, vocals or even your entire mix. Platforms: Mac/PC/iOS/Android | Formats: Standalone | Download This month, PreSonus unveiled Notion Mobile, a freemium, cross-platform music composition tool that builds on the blueprint laid out in Notion for iOS. By cross-platform, PreSonus means more than just Windows, macOS and iOS/iPadOS, as Notion Mobile also runs on Android, ChromeOS and Amazon Fire OS devices. You can compose using both standard music notation and guitar tab, and switch between operating systems at will. While you can download Notion Mobile for free, if you want to go beyond the core sound library and access full functionality, you’ll need to purchase the optional Feature Bundle. Platforms: Windows | Formats: VST3/Standalone | Download ReplicatAudio describe the GreenWave as a “flexible, modern software synthesizer with classic roots.” That’s marketing copy that we can get down with. Their claim that the synth is capable of producing “handcrafted waveforms”, however, has us stumped. What’s next? Artisan filters? Fair trade presets? Locally sourced lo-fi? Silliness aside, this subtractive, dual-oscillator number packs in a decent amount of features for a free synth plugin, and deserves your attention. Platforms: Mac/Windows | Formats: AU/AAX/VST3 | Download This free delay plugin from Kilohearts is equipped with two stereo delays that are coupled together, enabling you to set the second delay time as a ratio of the first, before panning the pair outwards into each speaker. The Crosstalk control allows you to route the feedback of each into the other, creating complex systems of echoes. Dual Delay is part of Kilohearts Essentials, a bundle of free effects plugins that you should most definitely check out. Platforms: Mac/Windows | Formats: Standalone | Download Avid are known for manufacturing Pro Tools, the industry-standard DAW that’s used in top recording studios across the globe. This month, they announced the release of Pro Tools Intro, a free version of their flagship DAW. Pro Tools Intro gives you eight audio tracks, eight instrument tracks and eight MIDI tracks. There’s also AAX support – so you can run compatible third-party plugins – and Pro Tools Intro uses the standard .ptx session format. Pro Tools Intro ships with 35 Avid plugins, including a channel strip, compressor, EQ, filters, reverb and delay. You also get the AIR Xpand!2 virtual instrument, which includes more than 2,500 presets. Platforms: Windows | Formats: VST3 | Download The launch of a new collection of chorus, flanger and phaser plugins might not sound like too much to get excited about, but GPU Audio’s Modulation Bundle is a little different in that all the effects are powered by your computer’s graphics card. The company’s GPU-powered platform was launched at this year’s NAMM Show, with the first evidence of its capabilities being an early-access convolution reverb. The Modulation Bundle is the next step; the first in a new ‘beta-suite’ of plugins, it uses GPU Audio’s patented technology to harness the parallel processing power of your computer’s graphics system, taking the pressure and workloads off your CPU. The Modulation Bundle is available initially for Windows machines with NVIDIA GPUs only, but AMD support is coming soon. GPU Audio says that it’s working closely with Apple and that it hopes to roll out macOS support in November. Platforms: Mac/PC | Formats: AU/VST3 | Download The second free compressor plugin we’re highlighting this month comes from our friends over at Bedroom Producers Blog. The Dirty LA takes its name from the legendary LA-2A compressor, aiming to reproduce the sound of this storied bit of vintage kit and bring classic-sounding compression and saturation to your productions. Get involved. Platforms: Mac/PC | Formats: Standalone | Download Having previously worked on a synth with Novation and a microtuning plugin with Oddsound, Aphex Twin (AKA Richard D. James) has now released a free “custom sample mashing app” known as Samplebrain. This open-source software works by chopping samples up into a ‘brain’ of small, interconnected sections called blocks, which are grouped into a network based on their similarity. This then processes a target sample, chopping it up into blocks in the same way, and attempts to match each block with one in its brain for realtime playing. The idea is that you’re interpreting one sound with another. Discussing the origins of the software (it’s actually been in development since 2015) and what it’s capable of, Aphex Twin said: “What if you could reconstruct source audio from a selection of other MP3s/audio on your computer? What if you could build a 303 riff from only a cappellas or bubbling mud sounds? What if you could sing a silly tune and rebuild it from classical music files? You can do this with Samplebrain.” Platforms: PC | Formats: VST2/VST3 | Download It’s a shame this one’s PC-only, because everybody should be able to take advantage of this powerful, experimental free drum machine plugin. Here’s the lowdown: Off-Grid is based around seven channels, each of which is equipped with four cells, or voices. Each cell can be independently controlled and holds one of the plugin’s 448 built-in sounds, which can be reversed, looped and pitch-shifted as you please. That’s not all – there’s a ton of potential for randomization, meaning glitchy, unpredictable drum grooves are just a click away. Platforms: Mac/PC | Formats: VST3/AU | Download You may already be familiar with the sound of OTT (over-the-top) compression, but now Sixth Sample and Integraudio are giving you the effect for free with their new Cramit plugin. Many will know the term OTT from the name of a preset in Ableton Live’s multiband compressor, and it’s also been adopted by third-party plugin manufacturers such as Slate Digital and Xfer Records. Sixth Sample’s take on the concept gives you three bands of upwards/downwards compression and expansion, and also enables you to apply seven types of distortion (pre or post) that are integrated into a single control. You also get 10 factory presets and a resizable interface. Platforms: PC | Formats: VST | Download Nothing beefs up a mix like a tasty bit of analogue saturation, but not all of us can afford a smorgasbord of outboard. Enter TesslaPRO. This Windows-only saturator updates Variety of Sound’s TesslaPRO plugin for a third iteration, bringing the rich tones of classic transformer-based circuit designs of yore straight into the modern era. Aimed at mixing and mastering engineers nostalgic for the “extra vibes” delivered by highend analogue equipment, TesslaPRO blesses your audio with those all-important artifacts, bringing depth, dimension and warmth where it’s needed. Platforms: PC | Formats: VST3 | Download Have you ever found yourself at a creative standstill? Stuck in a production rut? Fear not, because Movementron, a free synth from Flandersh Tech, is all about movement. This dual-oscillator gem enables you to sequence your choice of waveforms over 8 steps, creating complex, evolving patterns with the first oscillator, while the second allows you to draw your own waves into the plugin. Flandersh Tech have even thrown in a sequence-able filter, LFO, compressor, delay and reverb too. Neato. Platforms: Mac/PC | Formats: VST3/AU | Download Most DAWs come bundled with a free filter plugin, but these are often pretty basic and uninspiring. When you’ve maxed out your stock filter’s capabilities, it’s a good idea to test the waters with something new. A great place to start would be TheWaveWarden’s Filter Force Free, a free version of their (still fairly cheap, at €29) Filter Force Pro plugin. This dual filter shines in its modulation capabilities, offering producers two sequencer lanes for rhythmic filter manipulation that’ll generate life and movement in your source audio. The free version’s restricted to two filter types, but it’s a decent plugin nonetheless. Platforms: Mac/PC | Formats: Kontakt | Download Every so often a free plugin comes along that stops us in our tracks. Aria Libera is one of those plugins. A Kontakt instrument from Sonora Cinematic, it’s based around a collection of recordings of vocalist Emma May Price, that have been processed through a granular modular synthesizer. Haunting and ethereal, this one will add a touch of mood and colour to any track. Platforms: Mac/PC | Formats: VST/AU | Download This curiously named granular synth plugin is equipped with four voices, each of which has its own filter, envelope and delay controls. It’s basically four complete synths in one. Each voice can hold a .wav audio file and has familiar granular controls for manipulation. Use the on-screen dials to adjust grain, density, position, detune, spread and pitch. The filter has multiple modes and there’s full cut-off and resonance knobs to play with. And that’s not all. There’s an extensive modulation section offering 12 different modulation sequencers so you can use them as a simple LFO or get your groove on with controls over pitch and timing for more complex sequences. There’s even a drone button for rapid envelope-ignoring creation of moody soundscapes and animating pads and textures. Platforms: Mac/PC | Formats: VST/AU | Download While many audio degradation plugins are designed to add vinyl, tape or cassette-style vibes, Lese’s Codec freebie takes a more contemporary approach: it’s based on the sound of internet compression algorithms. Codec is basically a container that holds an ‘audio compressor’, though not the sort that’s usually associated with music production. You can use it to compress and decompress your sounds in real time. Platforms: Mac/PC | Formats: VST/AU | Download This sample-based instrument from Spitfire Audio is packed full of lovingly recorded vintage drum sounds that were captured at KERWAX, a French studio complex centred around vintage analogue recording technology. There’s not much more to say here, as it’s a no-brainer: expect warm, saturated hits perfect for use in pop, hip-hop and neo-soul productions. Platforms: Mac/PC | Formats: VST/AU/AAX | Download Get it while it’s molten… You can now grab yourself Black Rooster Audio’s RO-GOLD vintage reverb plugin for free. Black Rooster’s RO-GOLD is an accurately modelled recreation of the classic EMT 140 featuring the same pre-delay and dry/wet controls but simplifying the original’s Input Filter to a Bass Cut control and the Reverberation Time to a plate Damper control. What makes the RO-GOLD extra special is that it’s all set to sprinkle 24k magic on your tracks by virtue of the solid gold plate hidden inside. Yes, while all other plate reverbs have to do with plain old steel, RO-GOLD has a golden touch all thanks to the gold plate that’s physically modelled inside. Platforms: Mac/PC | Formats: VST/AU | Download SampleScience are regularly featured in this round-up, thanks to a habitual generosity that’s seen them share more than 19 free plugins on their website. Their latest gift to the music production community is a sample instrument called Sitar Renaissance, which brings the exotic sounds of the sitar into your DAW. Now you can finally inject the vibes of Hindustani classical music into your next face-melting dubstep track. Platforms: Mac/PC | Formats: VST/AU | Download TugGlicento is a multi-effect plugin that’s ideal for creating glitchy, unpredictable sequences out of your source audio. Surprisingly powerful for a free tool, the plugin’s equipped with a filter, reverb, delay, chorus, distortion, phaser, pitch-shifter, vibrato, tremolo, ring mod and bitcrusher, all of which can be sequenced using five channels that can run at independent speeds, and modulated using the onboard LFO. Platforms: Mac/PC | Formats: VST/AU | Download The team behind Google’s Magenta research project has been tasked with exploring how machine learning and AI can be integrated into the creative process. A couple of years ago, they blessed us with Magenta Studio, a set of five music creativity tools that use cutting-edge ML techniques for music generation. Their next release, DDSP-VST, uses ‘neural synthesis’ to transform source audio into the sound of different instruments: in the video they’ve shared, a guitar’s used to trigger the plugin’s synthesis engine, capturing the nuances of articulation in the guitarist’s performance through the sound of modelled instruments like the flute and trumpet. The sound selection is a bit limited, but you’re able to make your own models by entering new audio clips. Platforms: Mac/PC | Formats: VST/VST3/AU/AUv3 | Download IK Multimedia’s MixBox is a colossal modular effects package that gives users the ability to build a complete processing chain within a single plugin. The paid version is certainly worth your consideration, but what we’re really here for is MixBox CS, a slimmed-down version that IK are giving away absolutely free. This should give you a taste of what MixBox has to offer, as it comes bundled with 8 starter modules (including a compressor, tape delay and overdrive) equipped with over 30 presets to help you get started. Pro tip: IK have a ton of other free stuff, including a free version of their flagship soft synth Syntronik 2, available on their website – go take a look. Platforms: Mac/PC | Formats: VST/AU | Download Built to emulate two of the company’s ‘90s/noughties hardware synths, Novation’s Bass Station and V-Station plugins are now pretty long in the tooth themselves. In fact, the company has now discontinued them as commercial products and made them available for free as ‘legacy’ software. It’s worth bearing in mind that there’s no guarantee that they’ll be compatible with your OS and DAW. Bass Station is designed to create the monophonic 1993 hardware of the same name in your DAW. Like the original, which was used on countless dance records in the ‘90s, it offers two digital oscillators and an analogue filter. V-Station, meanwhile, is an emulation of the K-Station synth that was released in 2002. It has a 3-oscillator sound engine with noise and FM capabilities, an arpeggiator, effects, 200 user programs and 200 factory presets. Platforms: Mac/PC | Formats: VST3/AU/AAX | Download Previously available either for $49 or as a free download to anyone who was prepared to answer a questionnaire and then wait 14 days, Spitfire Audio’s BBC Symphony Orchestra Discover plugin is now free for everyone. Designed to be an easy-to-use entry point into the world of orchestral composition, Discover features 33 instruments (these cover strings, woodwinds, brass and percussion) and 47 playing techniques, all mixed into a single signal. The instrument offers simple controls and weighs in at just 200MB, though Spitfire claims that the sound is “remarkable” nonetheless. Platforms: Mac/PC | Formats: VST/VST3/AU | Download The car test is an age-old method for test-driving a final mixdown. Just leave the house, jump in the car and bump it through your vehicle’s stereo system to get a sense of how it might sound when you’ve made it big and they’re playing your hit single on the radio. The only problem is, we don’t all own a car. And even if we do – well, gas is expensive these days. For those reasons and more, we’re glad to see Rocket Powered Sound have devised a workaround in the form of a new free plugin. Car Test does exactly what you’d expect, processing your mix in order to produce a simulation of how it’ll sound coming out of a car stereo. All you need to do is load it up on your master channel, hit the big green button, and you’re away. Platforms: Mac/PC | Formats: VST3/AU | Download This free synth from developer Nathan Blair is a nifty little plugin that makes use of Karplus-Strong synthesis, a variant of physical modelling synthesis that’s often used to emulate the sound of a plucked or bowed string, or just to design synth sounds with a string-like character. Karp has an undeniably pleasing, elastic tone to it – sample the sound in the video above. Platforms: Windows | Formats: VST2/VST3 | Download Bass sounds are notoriously difficult to design, mix and process in comparison to the higher-frequency elements of a track. It’s especially tough to achieve an impactful, sub-heavy bass sound that doesn’t overwhelm the rest of your mix. Substrate’s new free plugin, the Subharmonic Bass Booster, may be able to help you in that regard. Designed to embellish your low-end with additional sub-harmonics, it should make sub bass frequencies more audible on weaker systems. Platforms: PC | Formats: VST2/VST3 | Download Pneuma is a subtractive polyphonic synthesizer plugin that’s absolutely packed with features. Equipped with four multi-voice oscillators, one noise oscillator and two sample oscillators, it’s got a multi-mode filter, two LFOs and a modulation matrix for tone-shaping and sound design. The real draw here is the bumper FX capabilities: Pneuma comes with an EQ, chorus, phaser, delay, reverb, compressor, saturation and distortion all built in. It’s a shame it’s not Mac-compatible. Platforms: Mac/PC | Formats: VST3/AU | Download If your tracks are falling short in the vibes department, look no further than Viator DSP’s Vibe Mechanic, a new lo-fi effects plugin that’s “designed to give you different vibe-shaping flavors.” Vibe Mechanic does it’s magic by running audio through EQ, distortion and reverb modules, which can each be manipulated and controlled independently. That’s good vibes. Platforms: PC | Formats: VST3 | Download If Vibe Mechanic wasn’t quite your vibe, see how you get on with Quantize, another free lo-fi plugin of the vibe-imparting variety. The makers promise that it’s capable of reproducing everything from classic 8-bit grit to dusty old-sampler goodness, thanks to the onboard bitcrusher and filter, and two switchable circuit modes. Platforms: Mac/PC | Formats: Ableton-only | Download If you’re a Max for Live user, we’d recommend maxing out your modulation capabilities with this bumper pack of 15 modulators from Manifest Audio. Designed to ‘inject life into your sets and compositions,’ the set is made up of six MIDI effects and eight audio effects, all mappable to up to eight parameter targets and capable of producing probability-driven and generative ADSR envelopes, LFO cycles and more. Formats: AU/VST3/AAS | Platforms: Mac/OSX/iOS | Download Monolit is a monophonic synth with a clean, uncluttered interface that’s available as a plugin to use in your DAW, or a standalone app to run on iOS. The synth is equipped with two oscillators that output continuously variable waveforms, FM capabilities, a multimode filter with slope and drive controls, built-in arpeggiator and surprisingly versatile LFO. The synth’s also capable of unison with up to 7 voices for producing those big, fat analogue-inspired sounds, and there’s a dice tool for parameter randomization, helping you inject some indeterminism into your sound design. Formats: VST2/VST3/AAX/AU| Platforms: Mac/OSX | Download Another month, another free delivery from the unbelievably generous folks at Spitfire Audio. This time around, they’ve put something together that’s likely to appeal to producers working within the ever-growing lo-fi hip-hop community: the Tape Piano. A modern upright piano processed with vintage tape machines, it’s got a warm, warbly and welcoming tone that’s laced with nostalgia. Download on sight. Formats: VST2/VST3/AU | Platforms: Mac/PC | Download Amurg Lite is a stripped-down version of Audiolatry’s Amurg, a virtual instrument aimed at producers crafting dreamy, lo-fi ambient music. Though Amurg only has 33 presets, compared to its big brother’s 132, it’s still worth a look, and is capable of laying down some pleasantly floaty sounds that can be manipulated using the onboard reverb, filter, and envelopes. Formats: VST2/VST3/AU/AAX | Platforms: Mac/PC | Download Released to celebrate Papen’s 25th anniversary as a plugin maven, this creative panning effect not only enables you to record panning movements, but there’s also a tempo-based ‘spring back’ feature that will send the control ‘sphere’ back to the centre, left or right. It’s also equipped with a Doppler FX option and – for producers like us – a so-called Lazy Mode for automated panning movements and more experimental panning effects. Thanks for thinking of us with that one, Rob. Formats: VST2/VST3/AU | Platforms: Mac/PC | Download Explorer is a 4-oscillator synth plugin that looks to give you plenty of sound-shaping options. Oscillators 1 to 3 can each access sine, triangle, sawtooth and square waveforms, while oscillator 4 is reserved for noise. There’s also a waveshaper, a filter section with multiple types, extensive modulation facilities (including three LFOs) and three envelopes. You don’t get any effects, but Explorer looks like it could take you to some interesting sonic places. Formats: CLAP/VST2/VST3/AU | Platforms: Mac/PC | Download This free synth’s admittedly been around for a little while already, but Full Bucket have just re-released it in the new CLAP format, recently announced by Bitwig and u-he. That’s more than enough reason to highlight this highly capable instrument, which delivers 64-voice polyphony, two oscillators that can produce four waveforms and handle ring mod and soft/hard sync, two multimode filters, three envelopes, and three LFOs. Formats: AU/VST3/VST3/NKI | Platforms: Mac/PC | Download Stylo Synthesis is a virtual instrument from SampleScience that recreates the idiosyncratic sound of the Stylophone, a pocket-sized stylus-operated synthesizer manufactured by Dubreq. According to the developers, “most Stylophone plugins and libraries use very short samples that don’t reflect the unstable nature of this instrument,” but this one does, capturing those “magic imperfections” that make the sound of the Stylophone so memorable. Formats: VST2/VST3/AU | Platforms: Mac/PC | Download Okay, okay – we know, Valhalla’s mind-bendingly good Supermassive reverb has already been out for two years now. BUT, there’s a good reason we’re including it in this month’s constellation of free plugins. Valhalla are celebrating their 2-year anniversary by updating Supermassive, and the 2.0.0 version includes two all-new reverb modes, Aquarius and Pisces. According to Valhalla, these two modes operate using “modified feedback delay networks” that can be used for “standard delays, delays with reverb mixed in, reverb with a strong pre-delay, or weird and wild echo sounds.” Anything from Valhalla is worth downloading – if you haven’t checked out their other creations, we’d highly recommend it. Formats: VST3/Standalone | Platforms: Windows | Download Do you dream of producing squelchy 303-esque bass patterns without dropping stacks on an expensive software emulator? Witech have the plugin for you. The BassMatrix is a free synth plugin that reproduces the sound of the legendary Roland TB-303. Now you can make acid house without getting burned by the price. Mac users, watch out – this one’s Windows only. Formats: Standalone | Platforms: Windows | Download This one’s a bit of an oddball. Auralis is described as an “experimental ambient tool,” and as far as we can discern, it’s a synthesizer and sequencer equipped with modulation and effects capabilities that make it a suitable choice for those producing ambient, New Age and experimental music. Currently, it’s Windows-only, and it’s not available as a plugin, so you’ll have to export your creations as audio files to drop into your DAW. Formats: AU/AUv3/VST3/AAX | Platforms: Mac/PC/iOS | Download July 1st was International Joke Day, an occasion that developers Caelum Audio celebrated by putting out a particularly peculiar free plugin. Dustbin is a convolution-based effects plugin that operates using an impulse response recorded in – you guessed it – a trashcan. Dubbed the Dustbin Electroacoustic Transducer, it allows you to achieve the kind of sound that you might get from reamping your music inside of what us Brits call a wheelie bin. Though it’s clearly intended as a bit of a wind-up, the plugin actually produces some fairly interesting lo-fi effects that could be useful for a variety of applications. Dustbin’s only free for another 10 days, so download it now and decide for yourself whether it belongs in the trash. Platforms: Mac/Windows | Formats: VST2/VST3/AUX/AU | Download Last month, Spitfire Audio put us in a good mood with their free Cello Moods plugin, and it looks like they’re doubling down this month with another orchestral freebie, Harmonic Flights. Built around a sample library from Pianobook contributor Sage Reynolds, this sample instrument pitch-shifts and processes the sound of double bass harmonics to create gritty and evolving organic textures. Platforms: Mac/Windows/iOS | Formats: VST2/VST3/AUX/AU/AUv3 | Download There’s a wide variety of free effects plugins available on the internet these days – plenty of tape emulators and distortion plugins, in particular – but we don’t often see a free panner land in our inbox. Imagine our surprise, then, when Audiomodern released Panflow, a creative panning modulator that’s designed to shape complex patterns across the stereo field and add fluid, rhythmical movement to any sound. Platforms: Mac/PC | Formats: VST/AU/AAX | Download This is a free sample instrument from Vienna Symphonic Library that focuses on the most blissful of sounds: the harp glissando. These heavenly flurries of notes evoke angelic scenes and celestial feelings, and could provide a fitting accompaniment to your next spaced-out ambient track – or an unexpected addition to an industrial techno thumper. Platforms: Mac/Windows | Formats: VST/VST3/AU | Download One of the most popular free plugins out there, Xfer’s OTT is a powerful multi-band compressor that brings the in-your-face dynamics processing of Ableton Live’s legendary OTT preset to any DAW, free of charge. Though it’s been around for a good few years, OTT received an update this month that fixed some pesky bugs, giving us the perfect excuse to include it in June’s round-up. Platforms: Mac/Windows | Formats: VST/VST3/AU | Download Smaolab have truly delivered the goods this month with a set of not one (and not two) but three free distortion plugins aimed at helping you get the filthy tones you know you deserve. TaraTube emulates the tasty sound of vacuum tube distortion, TaraLead is a simple lead enhancer that utilizes asymmetric wave clipping and oversampling, and Tarabia MK1 is a subtle affair that’ll apply the sound of what Smaolab call ‘Indian distortion’ to your audio. Platforms: Mac/Windows | Formats: VST3/AU | Download Tape emulation plugins are admittedly ten a penny these days, but does that mean we’re not still on the hunt for that perfectly imperfect blend of lo-fi warmth, hiss and crackle? It certainly doesn’t. SuperflyDSP have satisfied our cassette-based cravings this month with Lost-Tapes, a free audio effect that’ll allow you to fine-tune the tape emulator’s crunch, depth, noise and flutter frequency. Platforms: Mac/Windows | Formats: VST/VST3/AU/Standalone | Download If Lost-Tapes and Tarabia Nation aren’t providing enough heat to keep your signals warm and toasty, here’s a third option. ToneLib’s TubeWarmth is a tube emulator that aims to replicate the saturated, characterful sound of the tube amplifier. By adding even-numbered harmonics and gentle overdrive, TubeWarmth is said to bring “cold and precise digital sound closer to the warm and vivid sound of the tube”. Platforms: Mac/Windows | Formats: Kontakt | Download Majetone emailed in to tell us about the free drum loops they’re giving away, and while we were perusing their website, we spotted this free Kontakt instrument that – while it may not technically be new – deserves a look. The ACX8 is an acoustic recreation of Roland’s classic TR-808 drum machine, built from meticulously recorded acoustic drum samples that use mic placement, dampening, stick choice and drum tuning in an effort to imitate the 808’s sound with a real kit. Neat idea. Platforms: Mac/PC | Formats: VST/AU/AAX | Download Orchestral instrument specialist Vienna Symphonic Library unveiled its latest free plugin this month, the Soft Imperial piano. Designed to bring the sound of the Bösendorfer Imperial concert grand to your DAW, it promises “clear and transparent tones” that can be used in all manner of styles. Much like Vienna’s other free instruments, Big Bang Orchestra and Fujara Flute, the Soft Imperial is an essential addition to any library of orchestral emulators. Platforms: Mac/PC | Formats: VST/AU/AAX | Download This free cello instrument from Spitfire Audio’s ever-generous LABS project is built from a collection of samples from “emotive micro-performances by celebrated folk cellist Alice Allen.” Featuring four ‘mood’ settings that vary in tone and texture, this one is a whole mood. Platforms: Mac/PC | Formats: VST/AU/AAX | Download While PaulXStretch isn’t exactly new – the PaulStretch algorithm has been knocking about since 2006, and Xenakios’ version was initially released in 2018 – this new plugin from Sonosaurus has updated and repackaged the tool into a new GUI that’s compatible with all the latest platforms. Ideal for experimental sound design, PaulXStretch is capable of time-stretching any sample into an unrecognizable ambient soundscape. Platforms: Mac/PC | Formats: VST/AU | Download Agus Hardiman’s MonsterDAW series has previously brought us the Monster Drums, Monster Bass and Monster Piano plugins, and in his latest offering, he turns to the synthesizer. Monster Synth isn’t itself a synthesizer, but a sample-based virtual instrument drawing on a 760MB sound library packed with synth sounds. Loaded with 100 presets, it’s got an easy-to-use interface that gives users the option to adjust ADSR envelope, glide, modulation parameters and the instrument’s built-in filter and reverb. Platforms: Mac/PC | Formats: VST/AU/AUv3/AAX | Download SampleScience tells us that their Marimba Renaissance plugin is “based on a damaged marimba recording” that’s been restored using a number of audio engineering techniques that includes “spectral repair, adaptative noise removal, manual retuning, and physical modelling”. What they didn’t tell us is why they haven’t simply used an undamaged marimba recording, which are presumably not difficult to come by. Mysteries aside, this is a useful instrument that’ll deliver some plinky and percussive melodies suitable for Bonobo-adjacent organic electronica. Platforms: Mac | Formats: AU | Download Developed by the company behind TikTok, Mawf is a plugin that uses machine learning to ‘morph’ incoming audio signals into emulations of real instruments in your DAW. The plugin’s ML synthesis engine can also run on MIDI input alone. This means you can use Mawf as an effect to colour an existing sound, or use it as a virtual instrument by itself. In its beta version, Mawf offers models of three instruments: saxophone, trumpet and the khlui, a Thai flute. Mawf can be downloaded for free by users outside of the United States, but beta testing is limited to the first 500 sign-ups, so move quickly. Platforms: Mac/PC | Formats: Browser-based | Visit Launched in 2019 as a partner for Ableton’s free web-based guide to making music, Learning Synths is an interactive tool built around a browser-based 2-oscillator synth. It starts with the basics, discussing the likes of amplitude and pitch, before explaining concepts and features such as envelopes, modulation, oscillators, LFOs and filters. There’s also a handy Playground section that dispenses with the ‘Learning’ and just provides access to the synth. Two of the best of the new features make it possible to take your Learning Synths creations into your DAW so that they can be used in a music-making context. The Export option turns your work into a Max for Live synth contained in a Live Set – this will work in both Live 11 Lite and Live 9.7-10 Suite – and you can now capture up to 60 seconds of audio from the synth (recordings are instantly downloaded as WAV files). Platforms: iOS/Android | Formats: Standalone | Download Billed as an “intelligent musical sketchpad,” CoSo enables you to build Stacks – groups of samples that complement each other and work together to create a complete groove. Choose a style and CoSo will create a unique Stack for you – no effort required. If you don’t like what you hear, press a button and you’ll get a different Stack. Once you’re happy with a Stack, you can share it on TikTok, send it to your friends or download the layers in the Splice app so that you can continue working on your groove in your DAW. Platforms: Mac/PC | Formats: VST/AU | Download The good folks over at Spitfire Audio possess a near-legendary reputation in the world of free music software: their LABS series of free software instruments is an essential resource, and covers everything from granular whalesong to Philip Glass’ piano. The latest creation to come out of Spitfire’s sonic lab is a gorgeous vocal instrument created by cinematic pop quartet Sons of Serendip. Powered by a lovingly recorded collection of vocalist Micah Christian’s ‘oohs’ and ‘ahhs’, this one’s perfect for injecting some emotional character into your tracks. Platforms: Mac/PC/Linux/iOS | Formats: VST/VST3/AU/LV2/AAX/AUv3/Standalone | Download ChowDSP is another favourite over here at MusicRadar – this editor has been known to use their superb free tape emulator Chow Tape Model on more than one occasion when a tasty dose of crunch and crackle is required. Speaking of crunch, ChowDSP have recently shared a distortion plugin they’re calling BYOD, or Bring-Your-Own-Distortion. The plugin enables the user to dream up custom effects by linking together various digital tone-shapers in a modular fashion. It’s aimed primarily at guitarists and contains emulations of some classic amps and pedals, but we don’t see why you can’t run Serum through it, or even a trombone. Go nuts. Platforms: Mac/PC | Formats: Ableton-only | Download Ableton are here to free you from the shackles of equal temperament with their new MIDI device, Microtuner. With microtuning, you can find the notes between semitones – the ones that would fall between the keys on a piano, for example – and any scale that you import into Microtuner can be saved for future use. You can also create your own from scratch using parameters such as number of pitches (up to 128), octave frequency ratio, and pitch distribution randomisation. Lead and Follow modes enable you to sync tuning systems across entire tracks. Microtuner also offers support for Scala tuning files – more than 5,000 scales can be downloaded for free from the Scala archive. Platforms: Windows/Mac | Formats: VST/VST3 | Download Billed as a “character effect”, Hz Delay isn’t your typical delay: it’s been designed to emulate the unique character of vintage analogue gear, and as such it does some things differently. Higher Hz have provided a conveniently labelled signal flow diagram to illuminate the internal workings of the plugin and help you achieve the sound you’re after – or discover a sound you weren’t expecting. Capable of producing simple and multi-tap echo, saturation, chorus and even a rudimentary reverb effect, Hz Delay is a nifty little delay plugin that’s well worth adding to your arsenal. Platforms: Windows/Mac | Formats: VST/VST3/AU | Download We’re living in troubling times, and now more than ever, music makers are in need of a little relaxation. It’s fortunate, then, that Sample Science have produced a virtual instrument based on the sounds of a crystal harp, an unusual instrument used in meditation, yoga and sound therapy. Ideal for adding some restorative tones to your ambient and new-age productions, the Crystal Harp is equipped with an LFO, high and low-pass filters, and a room reverb. Platforms: Mac/PC | Formats: VST/AU | Download Audio Damage surprised music-makers this month by making not just one or two, but 33 of its products available for free download. Weary of providing ongoing support for older software that may not work on newer systems, the manufacturer decided to chuck the whole lot online for free. The upshot is that you now have access to 33 previously paid-for plugins for free, though there may be a bit of trial and error involved to find the ones that will work on your system. There are some real zingers to choose from, including the Phosphor and Basic synths, the Mangleverb reverb, the Bitcom bitcrusher, the Filterstation filter, the PanStation auto-panner, the Discord 3 pitchshifter, the Automaton buffer effect, the Kombinat multiband distortion and the Axon ‘neural network’ drum machine. Platforms: Mac/PC | Formats: VST/AU | Download Audio Damage appear to have started a trend: following their announcement, Toneboosters also decided to make 23 of their ‘retired’ plugins available to producers for free. These legacy effects will come without any support or warranty, but that’s no reason not to give them a try. They hail from Toneboosters’ TrackEssentials and BusTools series’, and cover everything from dynamics processors to EQs, tape sims, de-essers, reverbs and pitch-shifters. Platforms: Mac/PC | Formats: Standalone | Download Waves made waves in the music production world this month with the announcement of a free sample management tool, Cosmos, that comes bundled with 2,500 free royalty-free one-shots and loops. Cosmos is designed to bring order to your sample collection, putting all the loops and one-shots on your hard drive into one easy-to-search place. Waves says that its Neural Networks technology can analyse, auto-tag and sort your samples, leaving you with a single unified database where you can easily find everything you have. The tool runs as a standalone app, or can be integrated with Waves’ CR8 creative sampler plugin. Platforms: Mac/PC | Formats: VST/AU/AAX | Download We’re big fans of all of Spitfire Audio’s free LABS instruments, but the new Glass Piano plugin – a collaboration with composer Philip Glass – looks particularly appealing. Powered by samples that were captured at Glass’s home in Manhattan, NYC, and released to mark his 85th birthday, this gives you the sound of his baby grand piano, which has been in the same room since the 1990s. Glass Piano comes with six presets that cover everything from ‘standard’ grand piano tones to more atmospheric and warped sounds. The fittingly minimalist interface and control set means that both beginners and more experienced players will be able to get started quickly and easily. Platforms: Mac/PC | Formats: VST/AU/AAX | Download In what’s certainly the month’s strangest free plugin news, car manufacturer Kia announced that they’re switching gears, changing lanes and taking a sharp left turn into the world of music-making software. Launched as part of a marketing campaign and created in collaboration with DaHouse Audio, Kia’s free software instrument move.ment is based on the sounds of nature. Its development was driven by science, we’re assured: “The sounds of movement in nature produce what’s known as pink noise,” says Kia. “This increases the alpha waves in the brain, inducing the flow state of consciousness, the state in which the brain is at its most creative.” Beyond the marketing flim-flam, move.ment isn’t quite the car crash you might expect. After selecting your nature sound source, you can shape it in the Mixer section, which comes with individual controls for the Sampler, VCO, Noise and Reverb effect. There’s also a filter, an ADSR envelope and an Output section. Platforms: Mac/PC | Formats: VST/AU/AAX | Download This one’s for the guitarists amongst you – in a delightful mashup of cutting-edge tech and classic gear, GuitarML have used machine learning techniques to recreate the sound of the legendary Ibanez Tube Screamer overdrive pedal in a free plugin. Using sophisticated neural networks, the developer has created a faithful emulation of the Screamer that should reproduce the full spectrum of sonic possibilities presented by all combinations of the Tone, Drive and Level knobs. Platforms: Mac/PC | Formats: Browser-based | Play Though it’s not technically music ‘software’, Tahti.studio is a free music-making tool that’s so powerful we couldn’t bear to exclude it from this list. Released in December last year, the browser-based groovebox received an update this month, with the most exciting addition being an open source library of free-licensed drum samples that features, among others, 808, 909, and household percussion kits from Bedroom Producers Blog. Inspired by Elektron’s hardware grooveboxes, Tahti.studio offers some pretty advanced sample-based sound generation and sequencing possibilities. You have eight tracks to work with, and plenty of flexibility. For example, each track has its own multimode filter, distortion, frequency shifter, sample-rate reducer, and amp envelope. Almost all parameters can be modulated on a per-step basis, and there are three freely assignable modulation sources per track. Each step can have its own micro-timing, retriggering, probability, and trigger conditions, while tracks can have individual lengths and sequencer speeds. There are four send effects (chorus, phaser, reverb, delay) and a master compressor and soft clipper. Collaboration is possible, too, thanks to the option to export and share patterns in their proprietary file format. You can also render patterns to WAV files so that you can continue to work on them in your DAW.
Showbiz Cheat Sheet Binge-worthy entertainment news and celebrity interviews John Lennon had problems with Paul McCartney, but he generally seemed to like Bob Dylan and Mick Jagger. Early in his career, he spoke about how much he liked Dylan’s music, and he spent a good deal of time with Jagger while living in New York. An unearthed recording that experts believe belonged to Lennon told a different story, though. On the tape, Lennon insults Dylan’s music and refers to him, Jagger, and McCartney as company men. Lennon discovered Dylan in the early years of The Beatles, and he became a fan. While he didn’t think Dylan would ever be as big as The Beatles, he predicted success for the American musician. RELATED: John Lennon Said He and Bob Dylan Were ‘Uptight’ Around Each Other “The first time you hear Dylan you think you’re the first to discover him,” Lennon said, per the book No Direction Home: The Life and Music of Bob Dylan by Robert Shelton. “But quite a lot of people have discovered him before us … I think Bob Dylan’s music will grow steadily in this country, but I can’t see him becoming the new craze.” He also spoke about how Dylan helped inspire The Beatles’ 1965 song, “In My Life.” Lennon and Jagger were also friends, and they spent a lot of time together in the 1970s. While he had his well-publicized problems with McCartney, they’d worked out many of their differences by 1980. Still, Lennon insulted all three men on a recovered tape from 1979. The 13-minute recording was reportedly part of an audio journal he kept in the months leading up to his murder. “I was listening to the radio and Dylan’s new single or album or whatever the hell it is came on. ‘Everybody’s got to be served.’ I mean, what was it?” Lennon said, per Rolling Stone. “‘You’ve got to serve someone’ … ‘You’ve got to serve somebody.’ So he wants to be a waiter now? A waiter for Christ.” He referred to the song as “embarrassing” and the singing as “pathetic.” Lennon later took another jab at Dylan, and threw Jagger and McCartney into the mix. “So here we sit, watching the mighty Dylan and the mighty McCartney and the mighty Jagger slide down the mountain, blood and mud in their nails … [They’re] all company men in various disguises, but basically company men.” While it’s difficult to confirm the veracity of an audio recording, voice analysis expert Dr. Phil Harrison believed the tape was authentic. “All you can do in terms of forensic phonetics is to say there are similarities,” he said. “And there were. It appeared to be dead-on everywhere I looked. I’m personally sure that it is the right voice, but it’s not something I would say as a legally binding statement. But I can’t see how it couldn’t be the voice of John Lennon. I would be very surprised if this was a forgery.” In 2006, some of Lennon’s written diaries, among many other items, were stolen from Yoko Ono. Eleven years later, German police recovered some of the items at an auction house. Per The Independent, “two pairs of his iconic round spectacles, a recording of a Beatles concert on tape, sheet music, and a cigarette case” were also discovered with the diaries. German police present stolen John Lennon diaries https://t.co/14tLV8ZBo9pic.twitter.com/A5SoHh14G8 As Beatles memorabilia can be sold for enormous sums at auctions, the diaries likely would have fetched a large sum of money.
By Jeff Niesel on Mon, Nov 7, 2022 at 10:40 am Town of Chickasha, Oklahoma Somehow Builds 50-Foot-Tall Leg Lamp Statue Before Cleveland By Vince Grzegorek Martha on the Fly in Tremont Adds Lunch Service and Expands Days of Operation By Douglas Trattner Subscribe now to get the latest news delivered right to your inbox. Dominick Farinacci To Bring ‘Modern Warrior Live’ to Tri-C’s Eastern Campus on November 17 By Jeff Niesel Black Keys To Release Live Album Recorded at Beachland in 2002 By Jeff Niesel Singer-Songwriter Marc Lee Shannon To Release His First Book on November 10 By Jeff Niesel Cleveland Producer/DJ Cardio Releases New Single From Forthcoming Debut LP By Jeff Niesel Paramore To Play Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse in 2023 By Jeff Niesel Trans-Siberian Orchestra Drummer Discusses the Tour Coming to Youngstown and Cleveland By Jeff Niesel Rebelution To Bring Good Vibes Summer Tour to Jacobs Pavilion at Nautica in July 2023 By Jeff Niesel Yo La Tengo To Play Beachland Ballroom in March 2023 By Jeff Niesel View more issues Read our sister publications 737 Bolivar Road Cleveland, OH 44115
Canny Lando is passing a busy time releasing several singles following the fantastic album “Dropped Into A Fantasy World” earlier this year. In just October, he released three singles, one of which was an emotional track, “Betray Too Much,” that reached the heart’s core. Memphis-based hip-hop and rap artist Canny Lando was passionate about listening to a wide range of music from an early age. He was raised in such a music-friendly environment that he was bound to become a musician. At first, he started producing beats using FL Studio and then ventured into a deep sea of making music.
The amazing fact about twenty-year-old Canny Lando is he is a self-taught musician. He loves to use freestyle music ideas in composing his songs and always tries to explore something new that you will discover in his music. “Betray Too Much” is truly Inspired by the pain of close relationships. Sometimes, we unexpectedly get hurt by our near and dear ones who feel like life will stop and fall into a deep emotional breakdown. Canny Lando explains those feeling with poetic and touching lyrics that will hit the core of the listener’s heart.
Jonathan Larson‘s 1996 Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winning musical RENT comes to life in a Porchlight production that captures the ethos of the original Broadway production. It also the fresh energy of the musical’s message about love, acceptance, and living in the moment. In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, RENT’s messages about holding onto loved ones and the theme of “No Day But Today” ring especially true. Stylistically, director Adrian Abel Acevedo’s production clearly draws inspiration from the original Broadway staging across casting and production design. The actors in Porchlight’s production provide youthful, vibrant energy, and some interesting vocal choices that are unique to this particular staging. RENT was one of the first musicals that made me fall in love with musical theater; I became an instant fan after watching director Christopher Columbus’s 2005 film, which featured many of the original Broadway cast members including such icons as Idina Menzel, Anthony Rapp, Adam Pascal, and more. To watch Porchlight’s production was a simultaneous exercise in nostalgia and seeing different moments and songs of the show hit in a different light at this stage of my life. Larson has an uncanny ability to infuse raw emotion into his music and lyrics, and Porchlight’s ensemble beautifully captures the show’s emotional highs and lows. While not every moment of RENT holds up from a dramaturgical perspective (though dramaturg Deborah Blumenthal here clearly guided elements of the storytelling), the emotions in the musical hold up here. RENT has an immense capacity to move audiences, and Porchlight honors that. To borrow some of Larson’s most iconic lyrics from “Season of Love,” RENT focuses on “a year in the life of friends” in early 1990s New York City. It’s about a community of artist friends struggling to make their way as young adults, honor their art, honor their sexual and gender identities, and contend with the AIDS crisis. Through these intertwined friendships, romantic relationships, and themes, RENT cemented itself as a revolutionary musical of its time-following in the footsteps of HAIR and paving the way for more recent musicals like HAMILTON. Audiences familiar with RENT will clearly see parallels between Porchlight’s cast and the original Broadway company. The ensemble numbers are especially breathtaking; all of the voices come together in terrific harmony. A particular highlight is Act Two opener “Seasons of Love.” Not only is it generally a treat to hear one of the musical’s most iconic songs live, but ensemble member Bridget Adams-King brings down the house as the “Seasons of Love” soloist. Her powerhouse moment is also augmented with vocal support from Teressa LaGamba, who plays Joanne, and has an out-of-this-world belt. RENT is almost entirely sung-through so having compelling and skilled singers is a necessity. Luckily, Porchlight’s ensemble mainly has the talent needed to make this show sing. David Moreland gamely takes on the narrator role of Mark, a documentary filmmaker who also serves as the surrogate between the audience and the characters onstage. Moreland nicely nails Mark’s pop rock vocals; his voice has power, but he also delivers his songs with a gentle touch reflective of the character’s documentarian role. As Mark’s roommate and best friend Roger, Shraga D. Wasserman captures the rockstar angst of the aspiring guitarist and songwriter. Wasserman sounds quite a bit like his original Broadway counterpart Adam Pascal, who perhaps has one of the most distinct voices from the RENT OBC. Wasserman has a magical ability to supply so much power in their high notes and also makes an interesting choice to speak-sing other vocal moments. The variation between Wasserman’s belt and speak-singing creates an interesting dynamic for Roger that I haven’t seen before, and I applaud the choice. Wasserman’s vocals also pair well with Alix Rhode, who plays Roger’s romantic interest Mimi. Wasserman and Rhode’s voices blend together beautifully, especially on “I Should Tell You.” Rhode has a pure and beautiful tone to her voice; in some moments, the sound mixing overpowered some of her vocals. That aside, her singing voice is one of the loveliest I’ve heard in the role of Mimi; her tone lends an ethereal nature to the part. Abraham Shaw nails Benny’s superior nature as the friend who decides to grow up, marry, and take advantage of the benefit of having money; Shaw’s vocal performance isn’t as strong as some of the other leads, but he has an energy that’s both laidback and slightly pretentious-Benny in a nutshell. Eric Lewis and Josh Pablo Szabo are charming as the iconic RENT couple Tom Collins and drag queen Angel Dumott Schunard. Lewis is a vocal standout in the company, and his ability to emote while singing is unparalleled. Lewis easily breaks hearts with his rendition of “I’ll Cover You B” in Act Two. While Szabo’s vocals are not quite as powerful as some of the other cast members, he portrays Angel’s energy, big heart, and flair with ease. From a dramaturgical perspective, I also appreciated that the characters referred to Angel using the Spanish pronunciation “An-hel” throughout the show; it’s a nice touch that honors the character’s Latine identity. It’s no exaggeration to say that Lucy Godínez is the best Maureen I’ve seen in a production of RENT-and I’ve seen quite a few productions! I’ve never much cared for Maureen’s protest song “Over the Moon,” but Godínez makes the wacky number an absolute highlight of the show. She infuses the number with so much humor, unique character choices, and her powerful belt. Together with LaGamba as her partner Joanne, the pair are unstoppable. Joanne and Maureen’s powerhouse duet “Take Me or Leave Me” is one of the best moments of this production; I could listen to these two actors compete in their “belt off” all night long. Scenic designer Ann Davis sets this RENT in a familiar open loft space, but I particularly appreciated that one of the main set pieces is shaped like a video cassette-that detail not only anchors us in the production’s 1991-1992 setting, but also constantly reminds us of Mark’s role as the documentarian of this year in the life. Gregory Graham’s costumes evoke the archetypes of RENT’s characters precisely. Maggie Fullilove-Nugent’s lighting design and Smooch Medina’s projections place nicely together to ground us in the show’s setting. This is not a dance heavy production, and Laura Savage‘s choreography can be hit or miss, but there’s some nice moments of movement here. The incorporation of a dedicated tango dancer in “Tango Maureen,” for example, is a wise choice, and Savage’s choreography for Act One closer “La Vie Boheme” doesn’t disappoint at an especially critical moment for movement and energy in the show. Watching Porchlight’s production reminded me of why RENT has always resonated with me on such an emotional level. I literally both laughed and cried over the course of this production’s two hours and 45 minutes. Whether you’ve been a Renthead for years or you’re looking to experience this musical for the first time, Porchlight’s production honors the spirit of Larson’s story beautifully. Porchlight Music Theatre’s RENT plays the Ruth Page Center for the Performing Arts, 1016 North Dearborn, through December 11, 2022. Review by Rachel Weinberg Photo Credit: Liz Lauren Chicago native Rachel Weinberg has been one of the most frequent contributing editors and critics for BroadwayWorld Chicago since joining the team in 2014. She is a marketing professional specializ… (read more about this author) Most Popular
Photos: First Look at RENT at Porchlight Music Theatre
iO Theater Reopens After Two Years, Providing Chicago Improv Community A New Home For Comedy In The City Music Theater Works Celebrates The Season With IRVING BERLIN’S WHITE CHRISTMAS Taylor Swift Announces ‘Eras’ Tour Dates Photos: First Look at RENT at Porchlight Music Theatre BroadwayWorld TV TICKET CENTRAL
Starring Hugh Jackman and Sutton Foster, the Meredith Willson revival is running at the Winter Garden Theatre. Seven-six trombones will march a little longer! Broadway’s The Music Man, led by Tony winners Hugh Jackman and Sutton Foster, has postponed its closing date and will now play through January 15, 2023, at the Winter Garden Theatre. The revival had originally announced a January 1 closing date. Also leading the Meredith Willson musical are Tony winners Shuler Hensley as Marcellus Washburn, Jayne Houdyshell as Mrs. Shinn, and Marie Mullen as Mrs. Paroo, plus Mark Linn-Baker as Mayor Shinn, Remy Auberjonois as Charlie Cowell, Gino Cosculluela as Tommy Djilas, Emma Crow as Zaneeta Shinn, Benjamin Pajak as Winthrop, Emily Jewel Hoder as Amaryllis, Garrett Long as Ethel Toffelmier, Linda Mugleston as Alma Hix, Jessica Sheridan as Maud Dunlop, Rema Webb as Mrs. Squires, Tony nominee Phillip Boykin as Olin Britt, Eddie Korbich as Jacey Squires, Daniel Torres as Ewart Dunlop, Nicholas Ward as Oliver Hix, Lance Roberts as Constable, and Max Clayton as the standby for Harold Hill. The Music Man, which features a book, music, and lyrics by Meredith Willson, tells the story of what happens when con artist Harold Hill arrives in River City and falls in love with the straight-laced librarian, Marian. It first opened on Broadway December 19, 1957, at the Majestic Theatre. A 2000 revival played the Neil Simon Theatre. Jerry Zaks directs the production, which also features choreography by Warren Carlyle, sets and costumes by Santo Loquasto, sound design by Scott Lehrer, lighting by Brian MacDevitt, vocal and dance arrangements by David Chase, orchestrations by Jonathan Tunick, and music direction by Patrick Vaccariello. The production was nominated for six 2022 Tony Awards, including Best Revival of a Musical. Hamilton‘s Michael Luwoye stars as the anti-apartheid activist in the new musical beginning performances later this month. The Late Show with Stephen Colbert hosted the first-ever late night television performance of the landmark opening number.
The fashion icon joined the long-running Kander and Ebb musical November 7. The U.K. premiere of the 2015 Broadway musical will play a 13-week engagement at the Charing Cross Theatre. The new musical set in 1920s Paris opened Off-Broadway at MCC Theater Space November 7. The international hit will welcome a mostly new company beginning in March 2023 at the Apollo Victoria Theatre.
Rebecca Taichman directs the Lincoln Center Theater production. The Tony winner takes on all the roles in this solo version of Charles Dickens’ holiday classic. Brett Smock directs the new production at the Charing Cross Theatre. Sign up for reopening news, announcements, and exclusive discounts on tickets to your favorite shows! Blocking belongs on the stage, not on websites. Our website is made possible by displaying online advertisements to our visitors. Please consider supporting us by whitelisting playbill.com with your ad blocker. Thank you!
