To supplement this year's Pazz & Jop launch, Sound of the City asked a few critics to expand on the reasonings behind their voting. We'll start off the series with Seth Colter Walls of New York City, who has a constant itch to do the deep dive and find the single-voter albums out there. Find his ballot here.

​Damn do I ever love voting in, and then reading, Pazz and Jop. All these serious music-listening people, expressing opinions, mostly with a high degree of sincerity: admit it, it's a nice break from the social media-enabled review cycle, in which a lot of people apparently feel obliged to sound off on topics about which they may only kinda sorta have an aesthetic stake. (Read: The Internet.)

Consumers (and/or voters) often look to the number ones, to talk about the consensus where it exists—me, I liked but did not love Merrill Garbus's poll-winning record, outside of the stunning tracks "Powa" and "Bizness"; I suspect her masterpiece as a composer may yet be written for forces larger than her multi-tracked self—but in times where a 10-vote album ballot feels ever more confining and statistically unrepresentative of broader listening habits, I'm always fascinated to look at the sheer number of lonely minority reports on this side of the poll.

Critics cited 1,734 different full-lengths this year; way more than half of those titles had only a single champion. Multiple votes for albums only start to occur with real consistency around poll position #341 (Gang of Four's Content). If you're a true Pazz freak you're gonna do the deep dive, and try to find something new in that glut of passions rebuffed (or ignored) by the hivemind. As in: wow, East River Pipe put out a record this year? I didn't know that. Same-ish thing goes for Brooklyn Rider and their disc of Philip Glass string quartets.

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​While The Flaming Lips might currently be without a contract at Warner Bros., there are signs that the relationship is far from expired—including but not limited to the fact that their handler there still hooks up email interviews, for example.

At a Boston in-store appearance on Tuesday, Wayne Coyne distributed the first test-pressings of a four-song, 12" EP between the Lips and the Lightning Bolt. For a certain kind of noise freak, this amounts to a meeting of psych-damaged minds that feels far too long in having come about. Yet, despite the Warner logo on the back of the vinyl, there's no distribution through the label. Meantime, over on eBay, the first sealed copy purchased direct from Coyne's hands has popped up; with two days left on the auction, the bidding is already up to $66.

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John Luther Adams' Inuksuit gets its NYC outdoor premiere at 5 p.m. at Morningside Park.

​City advisory: If you were too lazy (or too experimental-music hungover from the Bang On A Can Marathon) to get out to Central Park this morning at 5 a.m. to play Yoko Ono's "Secret Piece," do not be too upset with yourself. There are still, by my count, three very exciting Make Music New York events to get your ears in front of today.

Not just things that are fun because, oh, the day is long and they happen to be free, like those pop-up pianos scattered about the city (also a Make Music NY thing). These are events I'd normally suggest you pay money to see/hear.

"Make Music NY?" you say. "What is this you speak of?" etc. Well, there's an answer to be sure—here's the site. But if you haven't already made your plans, you don't have time for the backstory. You need to know what's happening where.

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Stephanie Berger

Glenn Branca

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Bang On A Can Marathon: Philip Glass, Sun Ra Arkestra, Glenn Branca, Asphalt Orchestra, Talea Ensemble, BOAC All-Stars, JACK Quartet (and many more)
Winter Garden, World Financial Center
Sunday, June 19

Better than: Any 13-hour stretch of the Northside Festival.

It's not uncommon for a composer to introduce some colleague or another as one of history's greats. And so it was on Sunday night at the finale of 2011's 13-hour-long Bang On A Can Marathon, an annual festival celebrating music that "falls between the cracks" (as one is often told) of classical, rock, world, jazz and other genre definitions.

Just before 11 p.m., festival co-founder Michael Gordon testified to the crowd at the World Financial Center's indoor Winter Garden how Glenn Branca—the pioneering guitar symphonist who taught Lee Ranaldo and Thurston Moore how to de-tune and rock out in his bands dating from the late '70s—was one of his "favorite composers of all time." A few people whistled in agreement. But it was also late for many marathoners; even the most die-hard fans of "new music" get tired after half a day of sitting still and concentrating on sound while situated in the middle of a spacious, echoing mall expanse.

Branca decided the room needed a hype man.

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Dani Gurgel

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Maria Schneider laughs at your genre distinctions; like Duke Ellington, she aims for a stylistic plateau "beyond category." For decades, that has meant music that can be both soaringly lyrical--no apologies, academics--even as it finds root in some deeply original orchestration. Schneider learned from Gil Evans (the guy who arranged Miles Davis's charts on Sketches of Spain), and she's since passed her knowledge on, as an instructor, to next-gen innovators like Darcy James Argue.

This Friday sees the New York premiere of her first piece for an orchestra, Carlos Drummond de Andrade Stories (for Soprano and Chamber Orchestra), which is being presented as part of Carnegie Hall's Spring For Music festival. (Since the idea is for audiences to take a flyer on unusual repertoire, tickets are priced at $25.)

Schneider spoke to SOTC by phone about the differences between jazz and classical composition, her Brazilian influences, and whether or not composition is a boys' club. (The conversation has been lightly edited for concision and clarity.)

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© Stefan Cohen

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Music of Steve Reich
Bang on a Can All-Stars and Friends (feat. Bryce Dessner), eighth blackbird, Kronos Quartet, So Percussion
Carnegie Hall
Saturday, April 30

Better than: The ritual, anniversary replay of news broadcasts from the morning of 9/11.

There is no other way to begin but by acknowledging that this review of a classical music concert from over the weekend was re-written after word spread, on Sunday night, of a successfully lethal military strike by U.S. forces against Osama bin Laden.

Your individual mileage may vary, in terms of whether you think that a mockable reality. Though even before news of bin Laden's death crossed social media wires, there had been a feeling that the window for critical commentary on Saturday night's concert at Carnegie Hall would need to be held open for some time--if only to accommodate reflection, let alone breaking news developments. The show was two things, at least: an evening-long celebration of New York musical eminence Steve Reich's 75th birthday this year; and the local premiere of his long-anticipated, only recently completed work about 9/11 and its aftermath.

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