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Joel Roston Composer | Instrumentalist

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Aug

Giving Credit(s) to Chopin

in Actual News, Blog, Work tags: Chopin, McOmber, see you next tuesday, Tobia

For those of you keeping track at home, a few months ago I posted about an arrangement of a Chopin piece that I recorded* for a film. The film is Drew Tobia's [...]

Aug

Linking Sibelius and Digital Performer

in Blog

This week, I found myself wanting to link Sibelius (7.1.3) with Digital Performer (8.06) in such a way that each individual Sibelius instrument was connected to its own track in DP. This would allow me to compose in Sibelius, but use samples and processing effects from DP. Seeing as there isn’[...]

Jul

Beyond Assonance: Rhyme Attempts in Popular Music 1

in Blog, Just For Fun tags: Anthrax, Cat Stevens, Danzig, Flaming Lips, Lennon, NWA

Below are five of my favorite rhyme attempts in popular music. I did my best to list instances that give me the impression that the artist is sincerely and unambiguously attempting to make two words rhyme. For instance, I didn't include Danzig's "Not of this World" because I get the feeling he's[...]

May

NPR and, Tangentially, Prince

in Blog, Hard Bloggin', Just For Fun tags: Chant, Guitar, MBTA, NPR

A while back, I received a call to improvise a "Heartbreaker"-meets-"When-Doves-Cry" guitar solo for a PSA that the city of Boston was doing to promote safety on the T. As is often the case with these sorts of projects, though the production department loved it, whoever had the final say thought[...]

May

Defensible Lyrics 1

in Blog, Just For Fun tags: Bowie, Buggin', Lyrics, Truth

This is the first blog post in what will be a lazy series of blog posts cataloging lines from songs that I feel are mostly, if not utterly, defensible. NOTE: This blog post contains language that may not be suitable for people who don't enjoy reading the word "fucker." Here we go: Arti[...]

May

Nice, But Bummy

in Blog, Hard Bloggin', Just For Fun, Work tags: Chopin, Ferrara, Guitar, Scarborough Fair

I received a call from a film-composer friend a few weeks ago asking if I could record a classical guitar version of Chopin's [...]

Jan

How’s Carl This Time?

in Blog, Hard Bloggin', Just For Fun

There's good preliminary evidence to support this claim: As the excitement builds over the course of each hour-long Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me! episode, Carl Kasell’s exclamation of the last two syllables of the word “Chicago,” commensurately, rises in pitch. -- The Backstory Perh[...]

Jan

A Coalition United for Awesome Music

in Actual News, Blog, Work

I'm psyched to have had the chance to work with composer John Kusiak on a short film for the Eisenhower Memorial website. The video, NATO: A Coalition United for Peace, details Eisenhower's role in the formation of NATO. Check it out!.[...]

Dec

Erlewine Guitars

in Blog, Hard Bloggin', Just For Fun

So, at least once a year I head down to the great and glorious state of Texas to visit family. A few blocks away from my home base here in Austin is a store called Erlewine Guitars. I've attempted, on many occasions, to check out the shop, but it's never been open -- until yesterday. Apart fr[...]

Oct

Critical Band

in Actual News, Blog, Work

I'm excited to be playing guitar in a new project, Critical Band, which will have its first show on October 11th, 2013 at MIT's Kresge Auditorium in Cambridge, MA. The eleven-piece ensemble was put together by Evan Ziporyn to celebrate the music of composer Steve Martland. Also on the program is [...]