Latest news with #Rother
CBS News
22-03-2025
- Entertainment
- CBS News
German guitar great Michael Rother brings rare tour to San Francisco
Iconic German guitar master Michael Rother -- a member of such influential groups as Kraftwerk, Neu!, Harmonia and La Dusseldorf -- brings his current tour playing classic songs from the '70s to Gray Area in San Francisco Monday evening . Developing an early interest in music, by 1965 Rother had joined the band Spirits of Sound as a teen, collaborating with keyboardist Wolfgang Riechmann (who later was in the prog rock group Streetmark before releasing his unsung solo album Wunderbar under his surname in 1977) and future Kraftwerk drummer Wolfgang Flür. The group would split up when Rother left to join a short-lived line-up of Kraftwerk. Part of the monolithic German band's pre- Autobahn era that the principles Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider refused to acknowledge in the modern era, the trio version of the band led by Schneider with Rother on guitar and effects and drummer Klaus Dinger did not release any studio recordings (Dinger appears on one tune from Kraftwerk's debut). However, their output was documented in at least one German television appearance in 1971 that is closer to the minimalist experimental rock of the band's first two albums than their later synthesizer-dominated sound. Rother and Dinger split from Kraftwerk that same year to form their own group Neu! -- the German word for "new" -- recording their first effort with another important figure in German music, producer and engineer Conny Plank, who had already worked with the avant-garde electronic group Kluster featuring Hans-Joachim Roedelius, Conrad Schnitzler and Dieter Moebius and Kraftwerk. The band's groundbreaking minimalist sound built around Dinger's propulsive 4/4 beat that would later be called the "motorik" rhythm and Rother's layered, pulsing guitar and synthesizer atmospheres did not have the major commercial success Kraftwerk found with the title hit to Autobahn a few years later, but their self-titled 1972 debut would prove enormously influential. The album was later cited by David Bowie, Brian Eno and Iggy Pop as an important inspiration to their recordings later in the decade and is a cornerstone of the German rock underground that was a guiding star for early new wave and electronic artists as well as later bands including Stereolab, Tortoise and Broadcast who were heavily indebted to the Neu! aesthetic. While making their second album Neu! 2 the following year, the duo found themselves short on money to fund the recording of more than half of the new songs needed for the effort. Neu! ended up pioneering the concept of the remix, filling out the album with sped up, slowed down and otherwise manipulated versions of tunes they had already completed. Rother also branched out by working with Roedelius and Moebius from their now rechristened duo Cluster to record the first album by Harmonia. Though he had initially approached the pair to see if they would be interested in being part of the live line-up for Neu!, the chemistry they found while playing together over primitive drum-machine beats led to the new collaboration. The resultant 1974 album Musik Von Harmonia would become a landmark of the hypnotic style of German "kosmische musik." Rother toured with Harmonia, but eventually rejoined Dinger to work on the next Neu! album. The fact that Neu! '75 would essentially be made up of solo songs by each member -- Rother continuing his exploration of more ambient sounds while Dinger took a more aggressive, experimental rock approach, particularly on the proto-punk tune "Hero" -- illustrated the diverging interests of the two musicians. Dinger's side saw the drummer switching to guitar and vocals with the beat provided by dueling drummers, Klaus's brother Thomas Dinger and Hans Lampe. The shifting musical focus along with some personal friction led Neu! to split after the album came out. Rother would rejoin Harmonia for the follow-up recording Deluxe that featured Guru Guru drummer Mani Neumeier on several songs, while Dinger would found the equally influential and far more commercially successful group La Düsseldorf with his brother and Lampe, releasing three well-regarded albums between 1976 and 1980. Rother, Roedelius and Moebius also held sessions with Brian Eno -- who had joined the players live onstage on one occasion -- intended for a third Harmonia record, but that music would not see official release for over two decades. Rother released his first proper solo album in 1977, the more pastoral Flammende Herzen that featured the musician playing all the instruments save for drums performed by Can's Jaki Liebzeit (who would serve as Rother's drummer on recordings well into the '80s). The instrumental tracks would also provide the soundtrack for the German movie of the same name, marking the guitarist's first foray into film music. While Rother and Dinger attempted a Neu! reunion in the mid-1980s to put a modern spin on the band's metronomic pulse, personal and professional tensions resurfaced that derailed the project. The recordings they made saw release as Neu! 4 a decade later and were eventually revised and reissued as Neu '86 in 2010. The guitarist remained productive into the late '80s and sporadically issued new music in the decades since, recording albums where he produced and played all the instruments as well as embracing electronic music with a variety of remix projects. The 1999 compilation A Homage to Neu! featured interpretations of songs by electronic artists including Autechre, the Legendary Pink Dots and System 7 in addition to a new song from Rother, presaging a new era of cooperation between the guitarist and Dinger to remaster and reissue the band's classic catalog through the Grönland Records legitimately for the first time in decades. While the two musicians never reteam to make new music before Dinger died from heart failure in 2008, the reissues sparked a new round of interest in their band, leading to the new tribute compilation Brand Neu! in 2009 including covers and Neu!-inspired songs by Oasis, Primal Scream, LCD Soundsystem, Cornelius and Sonic Youth in their Ciccone Youth guise as well as tours by Rother performing both his solo material and the music of Neu! and Harmonia. Rother's tours have mostly focused on Europe, but his current visit to the U.S. to play both the Big Ears Festival in Knoxville, TN, and the Intuition Festival in Los Angeles brings the musician back to the States for the first time since his Hallogallo 2010 project with Sonic Youth drummer Steve Shelley and Tall Firs bassist Aaron Mullan toured here 15 years ago. For this evening of solo songs and music from his influential groups, the guitarist will be joined by '70s collaborator Lampe on drums, Franz Bargmann on guitar and Vittoria Maccabruni on electronics and vocals. Opening this show presented by (((folkYEAH!))) at Gray Area in San Francisco's Mission District Monday night will be acclaimed guitar phenom Isaiah Mitchell -- best known for his psych power trio Earthless, who has also played with Nebula, Howlin' Rain and Golden Void -- who performs with his ambient duo featuring keyboardist Adam MacDougall (Circles Around the Sun, the Black Crowes). Michael Rother plays Neu!, Harmonia and solo works Monday, March 24, 7 p.m. $54.24 Gray Area
Yahoo
04-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
School board narrowly approves Newton's 2025-2026 school year calendar
Feb. 4—Disagreements over the approval of Newton's 2025-2026 school year calendar — which narrowly passed in a 4-3 vote — largely focused on combining spring break and Easter break, professional development days for teachers and the feedback the district received from teachers and community members. Superintendent Tom Messinger said the district received 71 responses from its school year calendar survey. Many of the overlapping comments were shared in an infographic during the Jan. 27 school board meeting. The most repeated comment came from six individuals who disliked having two weeks off in winter. "Some of the specific comments on that did have to do with the fact that there might be a way to get out earlier in the spring if we didn't have the two full weeks off there," Messinger said. "There were five people (all staff members) who put that they did like having two full weeks off at Christmas." Other responses wanted more early-out days or additional time off before Thanksgiving, built in snow days in the calendar, no school on Martin Luther King Jr. Day or even a four-day school week for students. Some said there were too many Mondays off school or that there were too many early outs in the first week. Of those 71 who responded to the survey, 49 people approved the calendar as proposed while 22 people disapproved. Messinger said even through some of the comments showed a dislike towards certain details in the proposed calendar, it did not necessarily mean they did not approve of it. According to the 2025-2026 calendar, the school year would begin for students on Aug. 25 and end on May 29, 2026, three days after Memorial Day. In the event of inclement weather cancelling school, the calendar states that both students and staff make up all snow days at the end of the school year. Jess Rother, a Cardinal mom to three kids in Woodrow Wilson Elementary, suggested the district get kids out of school before Memorial Day, which is observed on the last Monday in May. She said a number of families are already planning summer vacations around that time or are in "summer mode." "Some suggestions to make that possible would be to shorten spring break to possibly maybe just do it Friday through Monday, or build it into an Easter break," Rother said. "...I know that what teachers need comes into play in this as well, but if it's possible to eliminate early outs I don't know how big of a priority that is." Still, Rother argued removing early outs or excessive professional development days could be a way to work in those extra hours. She said there could also be ways to build in snow make-up days, like making students and teachers come to school on Presidents' Day. "I think the kids should come in school on Presidents' Day learning about the presidents that we observe and celebrate for our great country," Rother said. School board members Robyn Friedman, Kristi Meyer and Ray Whipple voted against the approval of the 2025-2026 school year calendar. Whipple disagreed with having a professional development day in September when there are three consecutive professional development days in August. "We can't skip September without a PD day?" Whipple said. "And I'm with her on combining Easter and spring breaks. Even moving the PD days in August ... move them ahead of the teacher workdays. I mean what sense does it make to have teacher workdays and then your PD?" Messinger said many of the professional development days in August were tied to the mandatory tasks before the school year starts. The superintendent also addressed a comment brought up in the survey feedback that said school should be able to start earlier. Districts are restricted from doing that thanks to state law. However, Messinger said legislators may change that rule in the near future. Friedman said a number of school districts have opted to have the day off for MLK Day, but Newton has not. To her, it seems like it is more accepted now to take off MLK Day for both students and staff. For Presidents' Day, too, she suggested a consistent approach is for the best. Either they both are considered holidays and no one comes to school, or the district requires students and staff to come to school on those days. Whipple agreed with Friedman's sentiments. Part of the challenge in reviewing the calendar, Meyer said, is making sure it makes sense through the lenses of teachers and families. School board member Cody Muhs argued a committee was formed to tackle this subject and many of these questions and concerns were brought up, and he didn't want to discredit their work. Which is why he moved forward with a motion to approve the 2025-2026 school year calendar. Still, there was some scrutiny over the calendar committee itself. Messinger said the calendar committee had no parents on it and was largely comprised of staff members. School board Donna Cook was not OK with that. Messinger said at one point the School Improvement Advisory Committee handled the calendar. "When I started calling people up and inviting people in on it, the one answer I heard over and over from people was: 'We're not going to be a part of it if we're going to talk about the calendar,'" Messinger said of his experience trying to recruit members for SIAC. "...We opted to go out and get public feedback." Messinger said the district "advertised the heck" out of the survey to solicit feedback from the public. The district accepted comments over one week staring Jan. 14 and ending Jan. 19. Staff reviewed the feedback the week of Jan. 20 and then presented the 71 responses at the Jan. 27 school board meeting. Friedman asked what would happen if the new calendar was not approved by the school board. Messinger said it would return to the committee with the board's input for another try. From there another calendar would be created and submitted to the school board for approval.
