Tag Archives: Mel Hsu

FEATURED
Mel Hsu ’13 releases new album, “i was a phoenix”

This past December, Wesleyan’s very own Mel Hsu ’13 released her third album, i was a phoenix. It features original jazz compositions and performances by Hsu, who studied music composition at Wes. Her previous record, 2014’s Call Home the Crow, is comprised of her senior music thesis and was recorded in Memorial Chapel.

Hsu dedicated i was a phoenix to Claire Randall ’12, who passed away just before its release. She describes Randall as “the fierce and transcendent force that taught us how to be our most courageous and vulnerable selves– an anchor and a rock of this ensemble who breathed magic into every nook and cranny of this album.”

i was a phoenix is available for CD, MP3, and streaming on Bandcamp.

EVENT
Dave Kopperman LP Release Party & Concert at the Buttonwood Tree

This Friday at the Buttonwood Tree:

Singer/songwriter Dave Kopperman’s music dodges between the twin poles of jangly folk rock and taut new wave – with a hint of lush art pop thrown in. Celebrating the release of his first solo album (and inaugural vinyl LP from RMI Records),  “Island off the Coast of America”.

Dave Kopperman’s eclectic music at once evokes the folksy harmonies of the Byrds, the tuneful songwriting of Paul McCartney, the literate yet emotive lyrics of Paul Simon, the ambient, progressive textures of Pink Floyd and the no-nonsense rocking of Talking Heads. Kopperman recently released his self-produced album Island off the Coast of America, and created a music video for his lead single, “Don Henley.”  The video is animated with charcoal drawings by Kate TenEyck, and these works will be on display at The Buttonwood Tree throughout the month of September.

Dave Kopperman (guitar, bass, keys, lead vocals)
Noah Baerman (keys, guitar, vocals)
Mel Hsu ’13 (bass, cello, vocals)
Karl Mueller (lead guitar)
Edz O’Leary (drums, vocals)

Learn more about Dave Kopperman here:
www.davekopperman.com
www.resonantmotion.org
FB

Seats may be reserved by emailing thebuttonwoodtree[at]gmail[dot]com or by calling (860) 347-4957

Date: Friday, September 11
Time: 8-10 PM
Place: The Buttonwood Tree
Cost: $15

FEATURED
Most Honest Self: A Conversation With Mel Hsu ’13 About ‘Call Home the Crow’

Screen Shot 2014-03-23 at 5.24.00 PM

On February 22, Mel Hsu ’13 and Josh Smith ’11 came together with a cohort of their friends—students and recent alumni—to play an intimate living room show on campus. Although the concert was ostensibly a Mel and Josh reunion, it also marked the official release of Hsu’s second album, Call Home the Crow, comprised of music written for her senior recital. Hsu and I agreed that instead of having an interview, we wanted to just talk as friends and have a conversation in the spirit of Hsu’s music: honest, slow, and maybe even vulnerable.

Mel Hsu: There’s just a lot in my head right now. At this point, I have no idea what to do next with this thing. But in a lot of ways, Wesleying seems more intimate than Facebook because it’s a community that I know, as opposed to this giant abyss.

Gabe: Which is why I thought we could just have this as a conversation. I have a few questions, and we can just abandon them as we go.

MS: I’m excited for the slow-going-ness of this. Right now I’m feeling really anxious, so I’m excited to have a slow-going conversation.

G: Let me pull this up in iTunes, because I put the new CD on my computer as soon as I got home from the living room concert, actually. The album is called Call Home the Crow, and it was your senior recital concert. Did you write each song individually, or did you the write the concert as one long piece?

MS: Let me think about this for a quick second. I feel as though it became more cohesive as the songs were written. When I began, I had no idea what was going to happen, and so it wasn’t a full work until probably the Monday before my recital.

Continue reading →

FEATURED
E. Oks – Unlearn a Chair (LIVE @ NYC Bowery Poetry Club)

He done done it again. That crazy gifted dude E. Oks (Evan Okun ’13) headlined his first show at the famous Bowery Poetry Club, with the help of some super talented Weskids. He describes his performance, “Unlearn a Chair,” as “a fus[ion] of spoken word poetry, Hip Hop (written and freestyle), and jazz (improvisational piano, harmonica, cello, and singing). The subject matter explores the way the elite label certain people ‘crazy’ so as to normalize suffering and self-obsession. This collision of media yielded something truly interdisciplinary, elucidating and effectively subverting the binary of sanity and insanity through the tensions and convergences of artistic forms.

This is worth your watch; between Okun’s flexibility between forms and alarming degree of skill in all of them (he recites a poem about addiction using each letter of the word “addiction” to begin the poem’s next word, cycling this about twenty times), the musical dynamism of Mel Hsu ’13, Sam Friedman ’13, Nate Mondschein ’12 and Jess Best ’14, the poetic range showcased between Lily Myers ’15, Alok Vaid-Menon and Chekira Lashley ’15, the powerful belt of Tanaya Srini ’15 and all the Weskid cameos in between, the cohesiveness of artistic forms to comprise a larger, charged product was not only entertaining, but also inspiring.

MUSIC
King at Bay Releases Debut EP

Wow!

King at Bay, a collaboration between the extremely talented musicians Jess Best ’14 and Mel Hsu ’13, just released their first album Libation. With a cello holding down the bass and the keys building a bluesy core, the duo’s razor-sharp harmonies pull you into a place as sweet as it is wild.  This debut EP also features Sam Friedman ’13 and Mark Bennett ’13 to fill out the sound with a dirty harmonica and soulful pocket. Contact Jess (jsbest@wes) or Mel (mhsu@wes) to purchase a physical copy of the album for $10.

From Mel:

Dear Wes,
We are so excited to share this with you!!! Thank you for listening!!

You can download their album on bandcamp here.

Continue reading →

FEATURED
Even if the Words Are Wrong: Amanda Palmer at the Humanity Festival

 “So play your favorite cover song, especially if the words are wrong
‘Cause even if your grades are bad, it doesn’t mean you’re failing”

amanda palmer 1

After a mysterious week or so of trying to guess exactly what this Humanity Festival was all about— between the unexplained promotions, the flyers, and the recruitment — the one constant was the promised presence of Amanda Palmer ’98. And, combined with the excellent organizing efforts of Raechel Rosen ’15, that was more than enough to draw a huge crowd onto Foss Hill this past Saturday afternoon for the “one-day musical celebration in solidarity against bigotry, racism, and social divisions within a community.”

After performances by Don Minott, a group comprised of Jess Best ’14, Mel Hsu ’13, and Sam Friedman ’13, Siren, and Oz Rhys Langston & Izzy, Palmer finally arrived, unaccompanied except for her ukulele. After releasing Theatre is Evil this past year, Palmer booked herself for a large slew of international shows with her new backing band, The Grand Theft Orchestra. Here, though, was more like a large scale, heavily-planned ninja gig. Like her impromptu performance in 2011 at Eclectic, her appearance at the Humanity Festival was an intimate affair, despite the large crowd. Her stage was just a few carpets on the grass, a monitor, some speakers, and a stool. Her orchestra was that beaten-up ukulele.

Some commentary, some more photographs, and a high-quality recording of the entire performance (!) after the jump.

Continue reading →

MUSIC
Mel Hsu Needs Your Support in Bringing Even More Beauty to The World

Yes, this is a screenshot from the video posted below -- isn't Mel's enthusiasm contagious?

Update 4/8/2013: This campaign has been canceled, but if you’re interested in supporting Mel’s music or learning more, you should contact her at melanielhsu(at)gmail(dot)com.

Wes legend Mel Hsu ’13 needs some monetary assistance putting out two new albums before her graduation. To hear some of the beauty she’s unleashed previously, check out her solo album This Living Room and her album with Josh Smith ’11, Analogue. She was also a member of Honey and the Sting, the music thesis band of Sam Long ’12. These amazing albums just brush the surface of Mel’s many accomplishments throughout her time here. It’s upon us to support Mel in her last large musical endeavors at Wesleyan.

From Mel:

Dearest Wes,I have been working on a lot of new music that is near and dear to my heart. Jess Best ’14, Jared Paul ’11 and I have been finding the most cost-efficient, high-quality and financially sustainable ways to record all the music (in the form of two albums) before I graduate. Any amount you might feel comfortable donating to our Indiegogo campaign would help us out significantly with recording costs. The support from this campus has meant the world to me over the past four years, so I thank you (with a giant bear-hug) for helping me make the music happen.

With love and gratitude,
Mel Hsu

Here’s the link to her indiegogo campaign. Go past the jump to watch the video from that campaign.

Continue reading →

EVENT
Save the Date for Mel Hsu’s Senior Recital

Ladies and gentlemen, Mel Hsu!

The melodious Mel Hsu ’13 writes in:

Hi Wes!! I realize that there are a bajillion things going on in the spring and that schedules get packed quickly. I just wanted to start getting the word out early that my senior recital is Friday, April 26th at 8:30PM in Memorial Chapel. It would mean the world to me if you could make it. Thank you!!

Date: Friday, April 26
Time: 8:30 p.m.
Place: Memorial Chapel
Cost: Free

FEATURED
Let Us Not Become Tragedies: Buddy Wakefield at Crowell

Sorry, we don’t actually have photographs. We were too in the moment. Sue us.

BuddyHomePageImage

Until now, I hadn’t realized just how much of Buddy Wakefield‘s poetry dealt with tragedy. But not in a soul-crushing, terrible way. Actually, the opposite of that. And it wasn’t quite clear until he left the stage on Thursday night.

I’ve listened and watched his material for years, ever since I got into performance poetry.  Because everyone who knows performance poetry knows Buddy. He is, of course, a two-time Individual World Poetry Slam Champion and author for Write Bloody Publishing, and since the last time he came to perform on campus, he got a venue upgrade. Crowell Concert Hall was pretty impressively filled, and no surprise: the WeSlam team advertised the hell out of the event.

It was also a chance for the WeSlam team to show off their newest poetry, with which they’re currently competing this weekend.  My prediction? They’ll sweep up. After having gone to the first slam last semester, I was blown away by what the team members have developed over the past few months. They were the openers, but they could have well been the main event.

Buddy is not a slam poet in that same sense, however, so the hour and a half he occupied the stage was a completely different world. Instead of confining his works to 3-minute, competition-ready pieces (which some of them are, but not many), Buddy stretches his out in every sense of the word. He walks softly past six, seven, even eight minutes, often with gorgeous, textured piano or guitar in the background. And as I’d hoped, cellist/vocalist and woman-about-campus Mel Hsu ’13 and pianist  Simon Riker ’14 not only introduced Buddy but accompanied him throughout the performance. Hard to believe they improvised it all.

After the jump, read more about Buddy’s performance, and catch up on some heart-wrenching recordings of his poetry. It may just change your life, or at least make you think closer about it.

Continue reading →