largehearted boy: a boy, a girl, and his radio

May 17, 2008

Shorties

The New York Times magazine profiles Owen Pallett of Final Fantasy.

“Unprecedented” isn’t a term you hear much in pop music these days, not even in indie circles, and the obvious comfort with which Pallett uses it is closely tied to Final Fantasy’s appeal. An unabashedly articulate 28-year-old with a degree in classical composition from the University of Toronto, Pallett makes no secret of his commitment to reinvigorating pop. “There’s this utopian idea — a cult, really — that an artist should have infinite means at his disposal,” Pallett told me over lunch at a vegan cafe. “But to me that’s not interesting. The boundaries of what I’m doing as Final Fantasy define the whole project: I choose to perform solo, and to write songs in the pop idiom, so neither of those two things are limitations. They’re choices I made.” When I asked whether both those decisions had the same objective — liberation through a kind of radical economy of means — Pallett bobbed his head enthusiastically. “Absolutely. I feel liberated by them every day.”

The Globe and Mail examines the hurdles facing Toronto's alternative weekly papers.

Since Now and Eye made their debuts (in 1981 and 1991 respectively), the media universe has grown more competitive. Where alt-weeklies used to be the near-exclusive province of far-left voices, the blogosphere now offers a ceaseless stream of pink-tinged commentary. Daily news sites such as Torontoist.com fill the niche of intensely local reporting, and music sites such as Pitchfork and PopMatters have supplanted Now and Eye as cultural tastemakers.

Topless Robot lists the best comic book moms.

The Minneapolis Star Tribune reviews three recently published books on Bob Dylan: Positively Main Street: The Minnesota of Bob Dylan, A Freewheelin' Time: A Memoir of Greenwich Village in the Sixties, and Bob Dylan: The Drawn Blank Series.

The Arizona Republic interviews Dan Bejar of Destroyer.

The Utne Reader examines collectors of "hypermodern literature" (books published in the past 20 years.

So what makes a good investment? Literary fiction of lasting value—classics to be. Today, first editions of Hemingway, Fitzgerald, and Faulkner can go for six figures. Hypermodern collectors are wagering on what will be deemed classic 50 years or so down the line. At last spring’s fair, hot authors included Raymond Carver (Will You Please Be Quiet, Please?: $2,500), Tim O’Brien (If I Die in a Combat Zone: $4,500) and D.B.C. Pierre (Vernon God Little: $400). But the clear darling of the hypermodern posse is Cormac McCarthy. McCarthy is perfect for collectors: He is male, writes in difficult prose, attends few book signings (making signed copies scarcer), and once published in small print runs.

Gothamist interviews John Darnielle of the Mountain Goats about his 33 1/3 book, Black Sabbath's Master of Reality.

Why ultimately did you choose writing songs over books?

I don't know how most people come to do what they do but for me anyway it's not like I sat down with a list of my options and went "I shall now choose to do this! Because this is what I desire to do!" You know? I am not really a rational plan-it-out dude like that. I'm a nurse by nature and vocation, I just sort of started writing songs one day because I was sitting around my room thinking about Frankie Valli, and things kinda snowballed from there. If writing books was a quicker process I might have ended up being an author earlier.

WXPN's Live Fridays features streaming performances by the Black Kids and Does It Offend You, Yeah?.

Minnesota Public Radio's The Current features Dizzee Rascal with an interview and in-studio performance.

WXPN's World Cafe features Kathleen Edwards with an in-studio performance and an interview.

NPR is streaming last night's Basia Bulat and DeVotchKa concert.

The Futurist recaps The Little Ones' recent WOXY Lounge Act performance with a couple of in-studio mp3s.

also at Largehearted Boy:

2007 online music lists
Daily Downloads
Try It Before You Buy It (mp3s and full album streams from this week's CD releases)
this week's CD releases

tags: music books popculture indie news

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May 17, 2008

Bittorrent Brunch (Bjork, Bruce Springsteen, and more)

Today's free and legal recordings of live shows, rarities, and demos available via bittorrent:

Allison Moorer: 2002-08-11, Atlanta [flac]*
other Allison Moorer posts at Largehearted Boy

Bjork: 2008-05-01, Blackpool [flac]*
other Bjork posts at Largehearted Boy

Bruce Springsteen: 2008-04-27, Charlotte [flac]*
other Bruce Springsteen posts at Largehearted Boy

Elvis Costello: 1989-05-15, Pinkpop [flac]*
Elvis Costello: 1978-03-04, Buffalo (sound check) [flac]*
other Elvis Costello posts at Largehearted Boy

My Morning Jacket: 2006-12-31, San Francisco [flac]
other My Morning Jacket posts at Largehearted Boy

Patti Smith: 2008-05-04, Bergen [flac]*
other Patti Smith posts at Largehearted Boy

Pixies: 1989-06-16, Glastonbury [flac]*
other Pixies posts at Largehearted Boy

Radiohead: 1992-2007, Amnesiac live (live compilation) [flac]*
other Radiohead posts at Largehearted Boy

Salt and Samovar: 2008-05-16, KCRW [flac]*
other Salt and Samovar posts at Largehearted Boy

also at Largehearted Boy:

previous Bittorrent Brunch entries

2007 Coachella music downloads
2008 SXSW music downloads and streams
2008 SXSW music downloads and streams
2007 Austin City Limits Music Festival downloads
2007 Lollapalooza downloads
2007 Bonnaroo downloads
previous music festival downloads

tags: music download flac bittorrent bittorrents torrents

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Daily Downloads (Wild Sweet Orange, Daniela Cotton, and more)

Today's free and legal mp3 downloads:

Calico Horse: "Father Feed Me" [mp3] from Mirror (out June 24th
other Calico Horse music blog posts at Largehearted Boy

Daniela Cotton: "Testify" [mp3] from Rare Child (out May 20th)
other Daniela Cotton music blog posts at Largehearted Boy

Earlimart: "For the Birds" [mp3] from Hymn and Her
other Earlimart music blog posts at Largehearted Boy

The Gang Zero: "Sea So" [mp3] from Zero Hits (out June 3rd)
other Gang Zero music blog posts at Largehearted Boy

Kate Gaffney: 2006-12-28, Manayunk [mp3,ogg,flac]
"Tangled Up in Blue (Bob Dylan cover)" [mp3]
other Kate Gaffney music blog posts at Largehearted Boy

Ponytail: "Celebrate the Body Electric (It Came from an Angel)" [mp3] from
other Ponytail music blog posts at Largehearted Boy

Ryan Adams: 1994-02-04, Raleigh [mp3,ogg,flac]
other Ryan Adams music blog posts at Largehearted Boy

Sunny Day Sets Fire: "Brainless" [mp3] from Brainless EP
Sunny Day Sets Fire: "Stranger" [mp3] from Stranger/Remix EP
other Sunny Day Sets Fire music blog posts at Largehearted Boy

Wild Sweet Orange: "Ten Dead Dogs" [mp3] from We Have Cause to Be Uneasy (out July 15th)
other Wild Sweet Orange music blog posts at Largehearted Boy

also at Largehearted Boy:

2008 SXSW music downloads and streams

previous Daily Downloads
music festival downloads
Try It Before You Buy It (mp3s and album streams from weekly CD releases)
weekly CD releases

tags: music download indie mp3

Posted by david | Permalink | Comments (View)

May 16, 2008

Book Notes - Tara Altebrando ("What Happens Here")

In the Book Notes series, authors create and discuss a music playlist that is in some way relevant to their recently published books.

Tara Altebrando's second young adult novel, What Happens Here, is a stunning example of the current renaissance in young adult fiction. Altebrando creates believable characters dealing with life-changing issues in a well-written novel that entertains without being overly sentimental.

Thanks to Tara for her third Largehearted Boy Book Notes essay (the first two were for her adult fiction works published under the name of Tara McCarthy, Love Will Tear Us Apart and Wouldn't Miss It for the World).

Author Sara Zarr wrote of the book:

""A compulsively readable tale of complicated friendships, life-changing loss, and the search for authentic experience in a world full of artifice."

In her own words, here is Tara Altebrando's Book Notes essay for her novel, What Happens Here:

My first book for young adults, The Pursuit of Happiness, was written entirely to the Flaming Lips’ Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots. Probably wouldn’t have made for a very interesting Book Notes. But here I am, a few years down the line, with my second YA book being published. It’s called What Happens Here, but it had a few other titles along the way, one of which was Eye in the Sky—because the main characters are two longtime best friends who live in Las Vegas and are sort of obsessed with surveillance cameras and satellite images. I somehow managed to avoid the Alan Parsons Project song entirely while writing—okay, it wasn’t that hard—and then I changed the title again, to Exploding Hearts, because, well…maybe I’ll just dig in:

Exploding Hearts: Guitar Romantic

What Happens Here is largely about learning how to cope with tragedy, learning how to live with all the awful shit that happens in the world. [Suffice it to say that something BAD happens in the book, something I’d rather not give away, and it tears these two girls and their families apart.] I was introduced to Exploding Hearts after the car accident that killed three of the band’s four members so I’ve never been able to listen to Guitar Romantic uninfluenced by the band’s tragic story. This lends the record, for me, a sort of shocking amount of poignancy and sadness. Even though the title of my book eventually changed yet again, there is still a moment where Chloe, the narrator, imagines her own heart—and God’s—exploding with the pain of the modern world. All of which sounds unbearably corny in this context, but hopefully not in the book.

Elvis: “Viva Las Vegas”/Frank Sinatra: “Luck be a Lady”

You can’t write a set mostly in Vegas without listening to these two songs at least a few times. Can you? Well, I couldn’t. They helped put me in a Vegas state of mind.

Silversun Pickups: “Lazy Eye”

I feel like the lyric “I’ve been waiting for this moment all my life/But it’s not quite right” pretty much sums up adolescence. Chloe’s goes on a trip to Europe with her family—a trip she’s been dreaming about forever—and once she’s there, there are all sorts of mixed emotions that come up that she hadn’t been expecting. Also, if there’s one thing that Silversun Pickups excels at—and I think there are several—it’s building songs to these raging climaxes (see also: “Kissing Families”). I think both of my YA books so far strive to build to that one moment where it feels like everything is on the line.

Frankie Goes to Hollywood, “Relax” “Two Tribes”

I went to Europe with my family the summer between 8th grade and high school so when I was writing about Chloe’s trip I wanted to do a few things to try to put me back in the frame of mind I’d had when I’d first gone abroad. I had a journal from the trip that provided some pretty hilarious insights, but I also decided to go back to some of the music of the time. On our trip, my brother decided to buy the #1 and #2 singles on the music charts in each of the three countries we went to—England, France, Italy—and it just so happened that Frankie Goes to Hollywood held both slots the week we were there. This was my introduction to the band and, really, to Brit Pop/new wave/what have you and I dare say it changed my life.

Built to Spill, “Carry the Zero”

I go through these phases a few times a year wherein I honestly cannot get over how great Built to Spill are. I picked “Carry the Zero” as a sort of emotional touchstone for the character of Noah, the book’s main love interest. He’s a sort of mysterious, tragic guy and the song works for some reason. I have no idea what it’s about, but as a former math team–type I like that there’s a math metaphor. I think of Built to Spill as the band that you marry after maybe going out with The Killers for a month or two and the Arcade Fire for a couple of years.

Tara Altebrando and What Happens Here links:

the author's website
the author's Livejournal
the author's MySpace page
the book's page at the publisher
Tara McCarthy website (the author's adult fiction nom de plume)

Little Willow review
Teen Book Review review

the author's Book Notes essay for her novel Love Will Tear Us Apart
the author's Book Notes essay for her novel Wouldn't Miss It for the World
Slayground interview with the author
Teen Book review guest blog by the author

also at Largehearted Boy:

Previous Book Notes submissions (authors create playlists for their book)
Note Books (musicians discuss literature)
guest book reviews
musician/author interviews
directors and actors discuss their film's soundtracks
52 Books, 52 Weeks (2008 Edition)
52 Books, 52 Weeks (2007 Edition)
52 Books, 52 Weeks (2006 Edition)
52 Books, 52 Weeks (2005 Edition)
52 Books, 52 Weeks (2004 Edition)

tags: books music fiction literature ya youngadult

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Book Notes - Donald Ray Pollock ("Knockemstiff")

In the Book Notes series, authors create and discuss a music playlist that is in some way relevant to their recently published books.

One day I was listening to NPR's Weekend Edition and heard a fascinating segment profiling Donald Ray Pollock and his new book of short fiction, Knockemstiff. The concept of the collection grabbed my interest, linked short stories are a favorite genre of mine and the author himself had a story of his own. A former paper mill worker, Pollock was publishing his first book at age 53 and brought a fresh perspective to both writing fiction as well as the publishing industry.

These stories are hauntingly dark, and the characters will stay with you long after you finish the book.

The New York Times wrote of the book:

"Pollock, who grew up in the actual Knockemstiff, Ohio (which may or may not resemble the town he depicts), and who worked in a paper mill for more than 30 years before enrolling in Ohio State University’s M.F.A. program, conveys all this in steely, serrated prose that — along with his crippled, disfigured or otherwise damaged characters, as well as his jolting sparks of humor — calls to mind Harry Crews.'

In his own words, here is Donald Ray Pollock's Book Notes essay for his novel, Knockemstiff:

As far as music and writing go, though I never listen to it while I’m working on new stuff (generally in the morning), I often turn to it for inspiration when I’m revising at night. I think that’s one of the main reasons I like revision so much—I get to listen to kickass music! I grew up in the Sixties, and even out in the sticks where I lived, music was a big deal. My buddies and I might have been hicks, but we worshiped Hendrix and Blue Cheer, Joplin and the Stones, Cream and The Doors. When I’m revising something, I tend to play the same album over and over while I’m working, until I’m just immersed in the emotion of it, but not hearing the words, etc. anymore (creating, I guess, something like a “background” effect). So, in a way, if things are going well, that album becomes a part of me and my writing for a short time. Some of the words that have been used to describe my collection of short stories, Knockemstiff, include, gritty, profane, warped, rough, and sad. I guess those same words could be used to describe a blues song, and most of the stuff I listened to while revising Knockemstiff is influenced by the blues in one way or another. With that said, below is a pretty comprehensive sample of the music that I listened to while writing my first book.

Tommy Bolin. “Post Toastee” from Private Eyes
Chris Whitley. “Can’t Get Off” and “Din” from Din of Ecstasy
The Rolling Stones. “Moonlight Mile” from Sticky Fingers
R. L. Burnside. “Bad Luck City” from I Wish I Was in Heaven Sitting Down
Dave Alvin. “Mary Brown” from Blackjack David
Monster Magnet. “Superjudge” from Superjudge
Johnny Dowd. “Pictures from Life’s Other Side” and “Ballad of Lonnie Wolf” from Pictures from Life’s Other Side
Clutch. “Immortal” from Pure Rock Fury
The Replacements. “Unsatisfied” from The Best of the Replacements
Jim White. “Handcuffed to a Fence in Mississippi” from No Such Place
Acid King. “Not Fragile” from Busse Woods
Blackfoot. “Highway Song” from Strikes
R. L. Burnside. “Let My Baby Ride,” “Don’t Stop Honey” and “It’s Bad You Know” from Come On In
Toadies. “Possum Kingdom” from Rubberneck
The Handsome Family. “Weightless Again” from Through the Trees
The Black Keys. “When the Lights Go Out” from Rubber Factory
Sleater Kinney. “Let’s Call It Love” from The Woods
Chris Whitley. “Radar” from Rocket House
Monster Magnet. “Nod Scene” from Spine of God

Donald Ray Pollock and Knockemstiff links:

the author's website
the author's blog
the author's page at the publisher
the book's page at the publisher
"Discipline" excerpt from the book
"Real Life" excerpt from the book

The Believer review
Cleveland Plain Dealer review
Dayton Daily News review
Los Angeles Times rreview
New York Times review
The Oregonian review
Powell's Books review
USA Today review

Chuck Palahniuk interview with the author
Columbus Alive profile of the author
Columbus Dispatch profile of the author
Corduroy Books interview with the author
Hobart interview with the author
Los Angeles Times profile of the author
Metro Boston profile of the author
NPR Weekend Edition profile of the author
Ohio State University Do Something Great profile of the author
Seattle Post-Intelligencer interview with the author
The Stranger interview with the author
Wall Street Journal profile of the author

also at Largehearted Boy:

Previous Book Notes submissions (authors create playlists for their book)

Note Books (musicians discuss literature)
guest book reviews
musician/author interviews
directors and actors discuss their film's soundtracks
52 Books, 52 Weeks (2008 Edition)
52 Books, 52 Weeks (2007 Edition)
52 Books, 52 Weeks (2006 Edition)
52 Books, 52 Weeks (2005 Edition)
52 Books, 52 Weeks (2004 Edition)

tags: books music fiction literature

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Shorties

The Boston Globe profiles "Ole Miss rockers" Colour Revolt.

Colour Revolt, which co-headlines its own shows with the Atlanta mope-rock outfit Snowden at Pearl Street in Northampton tomorrow night and Great Scott on Sunday, is not a blues band, although its bleary indie-rock sprawl recalls the grit, gristle, and gravel of Southern indie brawlers like the Grifters. Credit the band's three-guitar attack for the delectably tangled snarl and woozy swagger of songs like "A Siren" and "Swamp." Also seeping in as an influence is the fact that several members play in a Pavement cover band (check out the album's first track, "Naked and Red," for proof), although there's not nearly as much time for that indulgence these days as there once was.

The Augusta Chronicle lists criminally underrated albums.

At the A.V. Club, Death Cab for Cutie frontman Ben Gibbard interviews Mark Kozelek.

Popmatters profiles the Traveling Wilburys.

The Traveling Wilburys were a fluke. Endearing and spirited, they were nonetheless a spontaneous accident, a perplexing interruption in rock ‘n’ roll history. Together, George Harrison, Tom Petty, Roy Orbison, Jeff Lynne, and Bob Dylan wrote surprisingly guileless, unpretentious songs, but guilelessness and genius rarely go hand-in-hand.

The Los Angeles Times and New York Times eulogize author Oakley Hall.

Drowned in Sound lists its top ten songs about soccer.

Quiet Color interviews Bianca Cassidy of Cocorosie.

QC: Totally. Well, I heard you never released your hip-hop record, “Word to the Crow”. What I find amazing is that in this scary as hell information age where EVERYTHING ANYONE does is documented on the Internet somewhere, despite all my searching, I couldn’t find it. Will that album ever see the light of day? Or is that a ship that has passed?

Bianca: It’s really mysterious to us. We’ve kind of locked it away from ourselves even. It’s a strange little something that’s just kind of brewing and we’ll see if it’s something that’s matured well with time or if it’s just dissolved because it’s really just on a tape, it’s not backed up in anyway.

Destroyer's Dan Bejar talks to the San Diego Union-Tribune.

"Destroyer has become more a band on the last couple of records,” said Bejar. “Especially if you come and see the show: It's not like James Taylor with a bunch of session musicians. We're all pretty loud and going for it. It's not like a platform for me to delicately sing the songs. So, yeah, I think of it as a rock band.”

TIME readers ask questions of This American Life's Ira Glass.

Do you have a relationship with your cousin, composer Philip Glass? David Potosky, MINNEAPOLIS

When I was growing up in Baltimore, he had long moved away to become [laughs] one of the most famous composers of the 20th century. I remember when I was thinking of leaving Baltimore to do journalism, my mom said to my dad, "Well, Philip moved away, and he did O.K." And I remember thinking, Can we lower the expectations a little here?

Hold Steady frontman Craig Finn talks to Billboard about the band's forthcoming album, Stay Positive.

Of the new material, lead singer Craig Finn recently told Billboard.com that he was "influenced a lot about getting old. There's less party talk. I don't think anything is a radical departure, but there are things that I wanted to talk about. I was influenced a lot [by] getting old, and attempting to age gracefully. The idea is to not wake up washed up. You want to keep progressing, intellectually."

Documentary filmmaker Pete Ohs and his crew has put together a video montage of day two of our Hor Freaks SXSW party (Live Music Blog founder Justin Eard makes a cameo behind the members of Le Switch at the 0:45 mark).

Bittorrent Brunch (Radiohead, Wilco, and more)

Today's free and legal recordings of live shows, rarities, and demos available via bittorrent:

Bob Dylan: Live On the Tracks (live compilation) [flac]*
other Bob Dylan posts at Largehearted Boy

Bruce Springsteen: 2008-04-05, San Jose [flac]*
other Bruce Springsteen posts at Largehearted Boy

Laurie Anderson: 1997-01-22, Asheville [flac]*
other Laurie Anderson posts at Largehearted Boy

MGMT: 2008-05-12, Manchester [flac]*
other MGMT posts at Largehearted Boy

Mia Doi Todd: 2008-05-15, KCRW [flac]*
other Mia Doi Todd posts at Largehearted Boy

Morcheeba: 2008-05-12, Brussels [flac]*
other Morcheeba posts at Largehearted Boy

PJ Harvey: 1992-07-01, Chicago [flac]*
other PJ Harvey posts at Largehearted Boy

Radiohead: 2008-05-14, St. Louis [flac]*
other Radiohead posts at Largehearted Boy

Scout Niblett: 2008-05-14, Munich [flac]*
other Scout Niblett posts at Largehearted Boy

Wilco: 2008-05-14, Lawrence [flac]
other Wilco posts at Largehearted Boy

also at Largehearted Boy:

previous Bittorrent Brunch entries

tags: music download flac bittorrent bittorrents torrents

Posted by david | Permalink | Comments (View)

Daily Downloads (Futureheads, Explosions in the Sky, and more)

Today's free and legal mp3 downloads:

Bloodkin: 2007-09-01, James Island [mp3,ogg,flac]
"Jazz Funeral" [mp3]
other Bloodkin music blog posts at Largehearted Boy

Eluvium: 2008-05-06, Malmo [mp3,ogg,flac]
other Eluvium music blog posts at Largehearted Boy

Explosions in the Sky: 2008-05-06, Malmo [mp3,ogg,flac]
"Six Days at the Bottom of the Ocean" [mp3]
other Explosions in the Sky music blog posts at Largehearted Boy

Futureheads: "Broke Up the Time" [mp3] from This Is Not the World (out June 3rd)
other Futureheads music blog posts at Largehearted Boy

Grace Potter: 2008-04-25, Scottsdale [mp3,ogg,flac]
"Here's to the Meantime" [mp3]
other Grace Potter music blog posts at Largehearted Boy

Kate Gaffney: 2008-04-09, San Francisco [mp3,ogg,flac]
"Miss Ohio (Gillian Welch cover)" [mp3]
Kate Gaffney: 2008-04-09, San Francisco [mp3,ogg,flac]
"The Ballad of Sleepy John" [mp3]
other Kate Gaffney music blog posts at Largehearted Boy

Local H: 2008-05-12, Chicago [mp3,ogg,flac]
"Birth, School, Work, Death (Godfathers cover)" [mp3]
Local H: 2008-05-10, Chicago [mp3,ogg,flac]
"Joey (Concrete Blonde cover)" [mp3]
Local H: http://www.archive.org/details/localh2008-05-08.cabbage.AKGck93.flac16 [mp3,ogg,flac]
"President Forever" [mp3]
other Local H music blog posts at Largehearted Boy

also at Largehearted Boy:

2008 SXSW music downloads and streams

previous Daily Downloads
music festival downloads
Try It Before You Buy It (mp3s and album streams from weekly CD releases)
weekly CD releases

tags: music download indie mp3

Posted by david | Permalink | Comments (View)

May 15, 2008

Note Books - Jonathan Zeitlin (Mezzanine Owls)

The Note Books series features musicians discussing their literary side. Past contributors have included John Darnielle, John Vanderslice, and others.

The Mezzanine Owls are one of the most interesting Los Angeles bands to pop up in the past few years, and definitely one of the most talented. Their 2006 self-released album Slingshot Echoes was an impressive debut and their recently released "Snow Globe" single is one of 2008's musical highlights for me.

Thanks to Mezzanine Owls guitarist Jonathan Zeitlin for sharing some of his favorite novels with Largehearted Boy readers.

In his own words, here is the Note Books entry from Jonathan Zeitlin of Mezzanine Owls:

A common question asked of bands by music journalists (an enthusiastic lot, however spotty their record of ingenuity) is, “Who would like your music”, and one of the finest answers I’ve ever heard is “People who like to read novels”. Some of my favorite musicians are writers who seemed to wander absent-mindedly (this seems to be a common affliction among these word-obsessed folk) off the glue-bound path and into the tangled wilderness of noise and songs. From opaque image casting to deliberate (if somewhat concise) storytelling, I like music made for people who love novels. That said, here are a few novels worth clearing off some shelf space for next to all that treasured vinyl.

Warlock – Oakley Hall

I’m not a genre miner -- a lot of the formal elegance of Mysteries and Westerns seems formulaic, the worn in sweater feel of conventional structure is lost on me as, um, conventional -- but Warlock transcends the archetypal gunslinger narrative. Oakley Hall was an inspiration for the king of lunatic laffs himself, Thomas Pynchon, but writes with a far more steady and deliberate hand. For all its revolutionary stylings, both in the structure and content of the novel, Warlock is some of the cleanest prose of the 20th century. I read the bulk of it while stranded for a day in Zurich after missing a connecting flight in the sleepy haze of transatlantic travel, and slipped effortlessly through some fold in the curtains into that old companion, the American West. I slurped down duty free liqueur and airport priced Euro-beers and ripped through the chapters under the audio blanket of monotonous trilingual flight announcements and a Switzerland tourism video looped in the terminal. Threatening vibes ripple through the pages as a small town dances drunkenly on a high wire, chaos and violence seething everywhere like black inevitability. As outlaw ranchers and a merchant committee wrestle over the fate of town, hired guns and citizen lawmen, peripheral vision Indians and the dangerous idiot pair of government and military collide and disintegrate, consume and give birth to each other. Idolaters beware, in Warlock all those principles of civility touted by today’s flag pin fanatics are marred and scarred in this sorta allegorical struggle for society.

You Bright and Risen Angels – William Vollmann

Did I confess my undying love and all-consuming obsession with Thomas Pynchon yet? This thing would quickly collapse into over salivated ramblings if I took up Gravity’s Rainbow as a topic, so I defer to You Bright and Risen Angels. Vollmann reads like a shy scientist with a mujahideen heart. The novel is both wildly cartoonish and painfully intimate, like a slapstick comedy about the unmitigated veil of sadness that drapes over this modern existence. I read You Bright and Risen Angels working my first job in a cubicle, tearing through 12 packs of diet Cokes and sleeping in my car on my lunch break. I was fired amid suspicions (false suspicions, I’ll have you know) about drug use, but my relentless craving to escape from the industrial carpeting and low radiating computers made me the perfect victim for Vollmann’s first and most freely experimental novel. In You Bright and Risen Angels ruthless jaw-jutted men strangle technology out of the ether; men with an acid bellied need for total dominance over nature and the universe. Vollmann’s time in Afghanistan in the 80’s during the Soviet invasion is made plain in the spirit of his revolutionaries – elementary school teachers blasting automatic rifles into hostages, guerilla warfare on the streets of San Francisco, solitary journeys through the artic wilderness, and dogged pursuit by the relentless forces of industry and men of destiny. Yes, it is about insects versus humans, but c’mon, this thing is a shimmering epic that has the roar and electricity of a blockbuster special effects blitz in Dolby 5.1.

The Fermata – Nicholson Baker

Parental warning: The Fermata isn’t just a dirty book; it is at times sincerely pornographic. Above all else, however, it is sincere. Nicholson Baker may be more curious about putting various objects in various orifices than is typically healthy, but he is anything but a misogynist. Baker is painfully absorbed in the minutia of our tender existence (this is, after all, the guy who wrote an entire novel that takes place in the narrator’s mind as he travels up an escalator from the first floor to the second in his office building) and this ass-obsessed book pushes his obsession with the intimate to its furthest potential. Our narrator has possessed, for most of his life, the ability to freeze time and move freely in what he calls “the Fold” (astute LA scenesters take note: there is no evidence to date that the folks of “The Fold”, who book bitchin’ shows at the Silverlake Lounge, El Cid, the Bordello, etc. are connected in any way to Mr. Baker or his works of fiction). While the sole purpose our narrator can divine for his gift involves a lot of voyeurism and unauthorized exposure of the female populous, he comes off bizarrely more as a humanist than a pervert. He will string you spellbound for pages of staring into a time-frozen laundry machine in mid-cycle. He obsesses over the intimate details in the face of a woman in mid-orgasm. He is a giver, not a taker, to say the least. You will needlessly hide this book when friends or family come over, even though you know there is nothing to be ashamed of. You will read and re-read it and agonize over whether it is the wordplay or the foreplay you are drawn to. I am actually feeling the guilt of committed sin just typing this. I’m actually sort of blushing.

Mezzanine Owls links and mp3s:

"Snow Globe" [mp3] from "Snow Globe" 7" single
"Lightbulb" [mp3] from Slingshot Echoes

the band's website
the band's MySpace page

Mezzanine Owls posts at Largehearted Boy

also at Largehearted Boy:

Previous Note Books submissions (musicians discuss literature)
Book Notes (authors create playlists for their book)
guest book reviews
musician/author interviews
Soundtracked (directors discuss their film's soundtracks)
52 Books, 52 Weeks (2008 Edition)
52 Books, 52 Weeks (2007 Edition)
52 Books, 52 Weeks (2006 Edition)
52 Books, 52 Weeks (2005 Edition)
52 Books, 52 Weeks (2004 Edition)

tags: books music literature mezzanineowls fiction indie

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Shorties

The Georgia Strait profiles Zach Condon of Beirut.

What makes this struggle surprising is that the 22-year-old seems like he’s never had to work at taking the music of other countries and shaping it into something new. In 2006, the soft-spoken Condon went from Williamsburg–via–Sante Fe nobody to blogger-blessed breakout artist, thanks to Beirut’s Balkan-flavoured debut, Gulag Orkestar. As Gorilla vs Bear devotees know, at the age of 17 Condon visited Paris, where he discovered throwback-Gypsy artists like Goran Bregovi? via roving street bands. He then set about the process of assembling a band and trying to do justice to the music he’d heard.

The National Post's Soundcheck blog offers a video interview with Bry Webb of the Constantines.

Popmatters profiles Tickley Feather's Annie Sachs.

Sachs builds her songs with drum machines, samples, and dense layers of keyboards, making them at once murky and iridescent. The songs are strange and beautiful off-kilter bits of thick, distorted synth composition. But what gives the music its body is Sach’s vocals—she has a breathy, urgent delivery that shimmers over the swampy, industrial backdrop and creates an ethereality that mesmerizes the listener.

Patterson Hood of the Drive-By Truckers talks to the Charleston Post and Courier about the vinyl version (out June 24th) of the band's latest album, Brighter than Creation's Dark.

'The sides break down really well,' Hood explains, 'and even the sequencing is to where there was a definite side one, two, three and four, and there was a lot of thought that went into that order and how it broke up.

'Each side is like a story, and with that long of a record, it might make sense that you just want to play one side. ... All of our records have been an attempt at making that record.'

io9 lists 7 reasons why Scifi book series outstay their welcomes.

Rhett Miller of the Old 97's talks to the Dallas Observer about the band's career.

"During the course of our band, we've had to weather a lot of weird stuff," the lead vocalist says over the phone, as he's vacationing at his parents' Dallas-area home. "Being a part of the alt-country movement and then trying to distance ourselves from it and being on a major label... and then being ousted from that label and then sort of being along for the ride at the end of the major-label reign...

"It's made for a lot of storm-weathering."

Eye Weekly interviews British Sea Power frontman Yan Wilkinson.

Your songs pay careful attention to historical events and details — is that a reaction to cultural cycles moving so fast, and that so many bands are ripping off what came out last week?

You get so many generalized songs about very general things like, “I love you baby” or “I’m getting over you,” and I like detailed songs that relate to the world outside of music. I like listening to BBC Radio 4 a lot, I find it relaxing — in a history program or a science program, I just think the words and stories are more interesting. I’ll take a lot of notes, steal them all, and mix them in. If you can understand something from the years gone by, you can get a better picture of where you’re at nowadays. Everything is very “instant” nowadays — it’s good to get a bit of distance, time-wise.

Newsweek examines the biggest growing segment of publishing, young adult fiction.

Levithan and others cite several reasons for this perfect storm for teen lit, the most obvious two being the increasing sophistication and emotional maturity of teenagers and the accompanying new freedom for writers in the genre to explore virtually any subject. Another is that bookstores and libraries are finally recognizing this niche and separating teen books from children's books. "Teenagers don't want to walk past the Curious George books to get to their books. They want and deserve their own section," says Levithan, who points out that "because of MySpace, Facebook, blogs and authors' and publishers' Web sites, young readers are communicating interactively now with each other and with authors." Another reason for the YA boom cited by Levithan and others is that teen books have become an integral part of today's overall pop-culture entertainment menu. They segue into television series, movies, videogames, cartoons and the Internet. If teens see that, say, "The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian" is coming out in theaters, they'll read the book in advance of the movie.

Bostonist interviews author Augusten Burroughs.

So this is the beginning of your tour, do you like the touring the aspect of being an author?

Yeah, I do. I like people, I like meeting people. The actual touring; the flights and the hotels and all that sort of thing is complicated. Thank God they handle it or I’d end up in the middle of nowhere somewhere. But yeah, it's great, because its when I get to actually meet the people who read my stuff. It's such an intense experience…even though the exchanges are pretty quick, at a signing, it's just quick. It's so intense, it's indescribable, you know you can’t make someone who’s not an author understand how much information you can get across emotionally that quickly.

The Augusta Metro Spirit profiles Dead Confederate.

That’s because they take the best of related genres, like psychedelic and noise rock, and blend it till the batter is smooth. They create an amalgamation of Southern rock storytelling and chord-heavy grunge, with a rainbow tossed in for good measure. In short, Dead Confederate creates a soundscape of its own that conjures both beauty and intensity.

Newsweek profiles Sloane Crosley, author of the essay collection I Was Told There'd Be Cake.

She's no Sedaris yet, but she strikes a chord, particularly among twentysomethings living in New York. And for those of us who'd love to hate her, maybe we should follow her lead. PR sure is a good way to sell a book.

Creative Loafing compares the recently published memoirs by Rick Bragg and Augusten Burroughs.

In one of those flukes of the publishing world, both authors have released memoirs about their fathers at roughly the same time, and they'll be speaking in Atlanta within days of each other this month. In their new books, both writers dearly hope that the sins of their fathers will not be visited on them. Burroughs' The Wolf at the Table (St. Martin's Press) feels like an attempt to exorcise his father's memory, while Bragg's The Prince of Frogtown (Knopf) seems more like a bid to make peace with his father's spirit.

Hypeful lists the top super hero songs.

The Chattanooga Pulse interviews Claire Campbell of Hope for Agoldensummer.

P: Give me your take on your music and what it means to you. And what do you want it to mean for your fans?

CC: Writing songs feels like the most natural thing in the world to me; it comes when it comes, but it’s in my nature. I’ve tried to walk away from (music) before and I keep getting drawn back into it. Somehow the opportunities to do a show or record almost always take precedence over everything else. But I hardly ever write for the fans. I think of songwriting as storytelling; songs are glimpses of life. People can relate to that and feel a sense of community; that’s probably the most important thing to me.

The Art of Manliness lists the 100 books in the essential man's library.

Minnesota Public Radio's The Current features Clinic with an in-studio performance and an interview.

KCRW launched its Guest DJ Project yesterday, featuring celebrities including Conan O'Brien and John Cusack spinning tunes and talking about music.

NPR's All Things Considered profiles Beatles' Apple Records on its 40th birthday.

"As far as I can tell, the idea behind Apple was a tax dodge," music journalist Douglas Wolk says. "The top tax rate in England at that time was enormous. And John Lennon said something to the effect of, 'We talked to our accountants. We realized we could either give the money to the government or we could put it into a business.'"

also at Largehearted Boy:

2007 online music lists
Daily Downloads
Try It Before You Buy It (mp3s and full album streams from this week's CD releases)
this week's CD releases

tags: music books popculture indie news

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