Music | The Hanslick Girls

October 2, 2017

Take My Word: “LeVar Burton Reads”

Meet the Hanslick Girls: Gwen, Eleanor and Dania. Created by writer Zach Barr, they are a trio of friends who are always out experiencing the best of entertainment. Be it plays, films, concerts, exhibits, or games, they’ve learned that the arts are best when experienced together. They may not have the same opinions, but their conversations tend to make for an entertaining read. Recently, the Girls rediscovered the magic of LeVar Burton’s voice, returning from his Reading Rainbow days, on a brand new podcast. Let’s listen in on their conversation…

Gwen liked to listen to music while she cooked. Usually, it was slow, casual music, the kind that she could describe as “floating” through the air, complementing the scent of the food. Musicals, she often said, were ideal.

So she was initially dismissive when Eleanor and Dania both, independently, suggested she listen to a podcast instead. Gwen loved podcasts, certainly, but preferred to cook to music that she could acknowledge distantly. Podcasts required your attention to be undivided – or, at least, less divided than she could give while cooking. But both her flatmates insisted that LeVar Burton Reads was still ideal.

September 18, 2017

Shadow Folk: Alabama Shakes’ “Sound & Color”

Meet the Hanslick Girls: Gwen, Eleanor and Dania. Created by writer Zach Barr, they are a trio of friends who are always out experiencing the best of entertainment. Be it plays, films, concerts, exhibits, or games, they’ve learned that the arts are best when experienced together. They may not have the same opinions, but their conversations tend to make for an entertaining read. Recently, the Girls discussed “Sound & Color,” the 2015 genre-mixing album from blues rock band Alabama Shakes. Let’s listen in on their conversation…

Dania laid on her bed, headphones on, eyes closed. She was in a funk, and was attempting to de-funk herself the most effective way: music. American folk seemed the right pathway to follow, with the chill of Fall descending on the city – Gwen had already decked out the kitchen with decorative gourds. So Dania laid still, focusing her attention on the music of Alabama Shakes.

It had initially been a jarring experience. Following their début Boys & Girls, Dania had expected the more pure folk sound of that first album, which gave her the earworm “Hold On” in 2012. But the opening vibraphone sounds of Sound & Color‘s title track, immediately set an entirely new tone. What is this album? wondered Dania. It was calming, certainly. But it hadn’t been what she was expecting.

July 9, 2017

Blue Trashman Group: The Hanslick Girls on Boomshaka’s “Hit The Switch”

—Originally published May 9, 2016—

Meet the Hanslick Girls: Gwen, Eleanor and Dania. Created by writer Zach Barr, they are a trio of Northwestern students who always go to see plays together. They may not have the same opinions, but their conversations tend to make for an entertaining read. Recently, the Girls saw “Hit The Switch,” the spring show by rhythm group Boomshaka. Let’s hear what they had to say on their way back from the theater…

“I don’t think you really needed the earplugs, Gwen.”

“Gwen took them out of her ears as the lights in McCormick Auditorium rose again.

“Just to be safe,” she said. “I had heard it was very, very loud.”

“Well, nothing is amplified, so it’s only as loud as they can make it naturally,” Eleanor pointed out.

“Which is still pretty loud,” Dania added.

Category / Music