As those of you who listen to our podcast series already know (courtesy of Glenn Kotche), Wilco is curating the Solid Sound Festival at MASS MoCA. We were planning to do a playlist for the festival — but Jeff Tweedy beat us to it. So, instead, here is a trip through Wilco through their studio albums — in mostly non-studio versions, of course. Wilco fans are invited to debate how we fared in our selections on the forum — and everybody else is invited to enjoy some of the smartest songs around:

1995: A.M. — “I Must be High”
1996: Being There — “I Got You (At the End of the Century)”
1999: Summerteeth — “She’s a Jar”
2002: Yankee Hotel Foxtrot — “Jesus, Etc.”
2004: A Ghost Is Born — “Spiders (Kidsmoke)”
2007: Sky Blue Sky — “Impossible Germany”
2009: Wilco (The Album) — “Bull Black Nova”

If there’s one musical genre that is best appreciated live, it’s jazz. So, as you look over the wealth of festival options available to you this summer, you might want to listen to some of the hottest performances from the past year. From classic vocal jazz to avant-garde experiments, we’ve got something for everybody. And never mind what Terry Teachout thinks — there’s plenty of fresh blood onstage and in the audience, along with some old foxes with new tricks up their sleeves.

Arve Henriksen & Per Jørgensen — NYI
Keith Jarrett & Charlie Haden — For All We Know
Jaga Jazzist — One-Armed Bandit
Nancy King & Dan Gaynor — Perennial
Sarah Manning — The Peacocks
Medeski Martin & Wood — Cajun Boogie
Enrico Rava and the Jazz Lab Tentet with Gianluca Petrella & Gianluigi Trovesi — Rhapsody In Blue
Christian Scott Quintet — Rumor
Jessica Williams — Love and Hate
Matt Wilson Quartet — Rear Control

You’ve heard it over and over again — classical music is dead, audiences don’t want tough music, if not for state patronage classical music would be gone. Well, guess what? As reported in our Culture News, classical music festivals are on the rise. And from looking at the performers and playlists on the bill for this summer’s concerts, the bulk of the offerings are anything but watered down. Who’d a thunk it — you treat your audience as intelligent adults, feature challenging new composers, intelligent reviews of the classics, or discoveries of forgotten masters — and whaddya know, they come! Here’s our guide to some of the best of what the summer festivals have to offer — and if you think we missed someone, or make any discoveries of your own, please don’t hesitate to share them with us on our Forum:

Mira Calix — Umbra Penumbra
Joseph Haydn — String Quartet Op. 64, No. 5 — Elias Quartet
Hans Werner Henze — Gogo no Eiko — RAI Orchestra, Gerd Albrecht Cond.
Thomas Hewitt Jones — In My Craft or Sullen Art — Christina Haldane, Soprano
Michael Jarrell — Congruences — Ensemble InterContemporain
Frank Martin — Le Vin Herbé — Ensemble Domestica Rotterdam
Maurice Ravel — Sonata for Violin and Piano — Patricia Kopatchinskaja, violin and Fazil Say, piano
Steve Reich — 2X5 — Bang On A Can
Giuseppe Tartini — Concert in D — Markus Wuersch, trumpet and Peter Solomon, organ
Mieczyslaw Weinberg — Sonata for Solo Double Bass, Op. 108 — Petru Iuga, double bass

A third of the year has gone by, and it’s time to plan what festivals to go to, and what acts to see this summer. At KadmusArts, we believe that a well-proportioned mix makes for the most fun. So, here’s a list of some of the more interesting music to come out this year — and we’ve made sure to include some newcomers with honed classic licks, some old-timers with new tricks, and some regulars that keep the show going all night long:

Gil Scott-Heron — Me And The Devil
Gogol Bordello — Sun Is On My Side
Surfer Blood — Swim
The Radio Dept. — David
Merle Haggard — I’ve Seen It Go Away
Crystal Castles — Empathy
Hole — Samantha
Mose Allison — My Brain
Local Natives — Camera Talk
Gorillaz (feat. Lou Reed) — Some Kind Of Nature

For this playlist, we’ll focus on the eccentric works of a musician driven by lust and murderous revenge. No, not the current youth idol — he’s a very nice young man, quite incapable of these shocking deeds. And while the British Home Office might think that broadcasts of this artist’s work should be banned until after 9pm due to his reputation, BBC Classical radio would surely suffer as a result. We’re talking here about Carlo Gesualdo da Venosa, the late sixteenth century madrigalist, whose life has recently come under the pitiless scrutiny of a tell-all biography. Even more shocking than his life are Gesualdo’s brilliantly innovative madrigals – let’s listen to some of them to see why:

Sospirava il mio core — Alter Echo
Ecco, morirò dunque — The Monteverdi Choir
Io tacerò, ma nel silenzio mio — Gesualdo Consort
Itene, o miei sospiri — The Northwest Madraliers
Mercè grido piangendo — Madrigalisti dell’Ensemble Vocale di Napoli
S’io non miro non moro — Concerto Italiano
Beltà, poi che t’assenti — Meridian Arts Ensemble
Deh, come invan sospiro — Tafelmusik Baroque Summer Institute
Gia Piansi Nel Dolore — Robert Craft Ensemble
Mille volte il dí moro — Meridian Arts Ensemble
Moro, lasso, al mio duolo — The Deller Consort