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

October 30, 2009

Book Notes - Amy Stewart ("Wicked Plants: The Weed That Killed Lincoln's Mother and Other Botanical Atrocities")

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

Amy Stewart's Wicked Plants is the rare book I find myself recommending to friends, family, and blog readers of all types. Aesthetically it is a thing of beauty, from its luscious cover illustration to the intricate black and white etchings inside. Stewart lists and examines poisonous plant life with a rare flair for combining anecdotal history and scientific background. Charming, funny, and smartly written, I will be giving more copies of this book as Christmas presents this year than any other.

In her own words, here is Amy Stewart's Book Notes music playlist for her book, Wicked Plants: The Weed That Killed Lincoln's Mother and Other Botanical Atrocities:

Music and writing. Writing and music. It's a loaded issue for me. I was born with a weird talent for memorizing song lyrics. If I hear a song two or three times, I've got enough of the lyrics to fake my way through it. If I hear it a few more times the entire song is mine forever—whether I want it or not.

I know all the lyrics to the WKRP in Cincinnati theme song. Not just the verses you heard on the show, but the obscure third and fourth verses that I heard once—only once—on a country station almost twenty years ago. I know an extraordinary number of soft rock favorites from the seventies and the eighties. A gang of Texas musicians made their deposits into my memory bank in the nineties—Nancy Griffith, Robert Earl Keen, Toni Price, Lucinda Williams. And over the last decade, the tricky and delightful lyrics of Cole Porter and Comden and Green have edged into this room inside my brain where all song lyrics reside. It's crowded and chaotic in there. Frankly, I wish they would all shut up and let me get some work done. But they almost never do.

Occasionally I find myself on a long, solo car trip with nothing to listen to. At those times, it's helpful to be able to sing every song on The Modern Sounds of the Knitters straight through, in order, never missing a chorus or getting a verse out of order. Carmen McRae Sings Monk is another entertaining one, with all those wonderfully clever lyrics by Jon Hendricks or Abbey Lincoln. Dizzy, he was screaming, next to O.P. who was beaming, Monk was thumping, suddenly in walked Bud, and then they got into something. That'll give me something to think about while I stare at the freeway.

But the rest of the time? When I'm in front of the computer, trying to write? Like now? It's not so great to have someone else's words rattling around in there.

Here are some of the songs that I couldn't get out of my head while I was writing Wicked Plants. It's kind of a weird list, but trust me: I didn't choose these songs. They choose me.

"Let's Go Eat Worms in the Garden," from the Fine and Dandy musical soundtrack. A lively little tune about what happens when life doesn't quite go the way you expect it to. In terms of subject matter, more closely tied to The Earth Moved, a book I wrote about earthworms, but it sticks around anyway, the way backlist titles do.

"Give Me Flowers While I'm Living" The Knitters! And—okay. Also more of a backlist song, what with the Flower Confidential connection. But also a zippy, upbeat tune about death, dying, and funeral flowers. I love that.

"Living With Reptiles" from Glass Eye's 1988 album Bent by Nature. This is one of the most beautifully frightening songs I know, and it was in my head constantly when I wrote Wicked Plants. It's about reptiles, not plants, but it's just creepy and ominous. I don't have the record anymore, but as best I can remember it goes something like this: Stella tells me about taking a shower/When one of them pops out of the drain with its big black eyes/Now three years later she's moved back to the same place/She suddenly remembers when one of them runs by.

Oh, I can't stop there. It continues along these lines: There are still salamanders living here/And Stella has nightmares where they leap six feet into the air…

All right, I'll stop.

"Teach Me Tonight," with lyrics by Sammy Cahn. I like the Dinah Washington version, which you can find on the wonderful Kissing Jessica Stein soundtrack. The research for Wicked Plants drove me crazy. Sorting myth from fact, tracing down primary sources, sifting through 150 year-old obituaries and 50 year-old medical journals. Really, it left me exhausted and bewildered but also full of wonder. I'd walk across the library parking lot singing, Did you think I've got a lot to learn? Well, don't think I'm trying not to learn…

"Am I Too Blue For You?" Lucinda Williams, baby. This should be the national anthem of writers. My husband comes home from a long day at the bookstore we own, and if I have been writing all day, I am almost certainly bedraggled, depressed, unhygienic, and unpresentable. He walks through the door with that upbeat aura that clings to people who have been out in the world among others all day, and that's the first thing I think when I see him. Am I too blue for you? Am I too blue?

But then. On a good day I can drop this song into the playlist: "Proud of the Blues," by Texas guitarist John Sprott, who is, by the way, my cousin. He told me one time that he didn't know where he'd be without the blues. The blues gave him his music, his life. Wicked Plants really brought out my dark streak, once and for all, but it also made me realize that I need the blues, too.

Amy Stewart and Wicked Plants: The Weed That Killed Lincoln's Mother and Other Botanical Atrocities links:

the author's website
the author's blog
excerpt from the book
video trailer for the book

At Home with Books review
Bookslut review
Boston Globe review
Brittanyflowers Weblog review
Buffalo Spree review
The Garden of Words review
Go Organic review
New York Times review
The Omaha World-Herald review
PopMatters review
Richmond Times-Dispatch review
SEED review
St. Petersburg Times review
Stacked review
Surprising Science review

AbeBooks interview with the author
Austin American-Statesman profile
Breakfast with Spanky interview with the author
CBS Sunday Morning profile of the author
Ecstatic Days interview with the author
Los Angeles Times interview with the author
New York Times profile of the author
NPR Morning Edition profile of the author
Omnivoracious interview with the author
WICN interview with the author

also at Largehearted Boy:

other Book Notes submissions (authors create playlists for their book)
Note Books (musicians discuss literature)
guest book reviews
musician/author interviews
52 Books, 52 Weeks

tags: books music literature non-fiction plants

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October 30, 2009

Today's Updates to the Best of the Decade (2000-2009) Online Music Lists

Today's additions to the list of the online best of the decade (2000-2009) music lists:

Aquarium Drunkard (favorite albums by individual writers)
City of Angels to Charm City (favorite albums)
Culture Bully (best albums)
fetch it! (best albums)
The Grace Notes (albums)
Gregory Alfred (albums)
Hank Is Creative (artist of the decade)
The Hurst Review (country albums)
Into the Abyss (top songs)
Into the Abyss - Ryan (top songs)
My Bass Rocks (top tracks)
Original Hipster (top albums)
The Panda Oleosa (top hip-hop albums)
Pop Headwound (albums of the decade)
The Punk Guy (albums of the decade)
Raging Against the Dying Light aka Cultural Observations of the Lost Generation (bands that defined the decade)
Ryanself's blog (top albums)
Save the Robot - Chris Dahlen (best albums)
A Shot of Incilin (albums)
smallmusic (albums)
Sound as Language (top albums)
Swear I'm not Paul (top pop songs)
Years for Beards (best albums)

also at Largehearted Boy:

daily updates to the list

2007 Online "Best Of" Music Lists
2007 Online "Best Of" Music Lists
2006 Online "Best Of" Music Lists
Online "Best Books of 2008" Lists
other lists at Largehearted Boy
Daily Downloads (free & legal mp3 downloads)
Book Notes (authors create playlists for their book)
Note Books (musicians discuss literature)
musician/author interviews

tags: music cd list lists indie 2000s albums

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Shorties (Mike Doughty, Vampire Novels, and more)

The Village Voice interviews singer-songwriter Mike Doughty.

About Twitter--you've said that writing in that 140-character format has changed your writing process. How would you compare writing Tweets to lyric writing?

I just dig having those constraints--I'm all about parameters. When I work, I try and set up parameters to work within just as a game to play with myself. A friend of mine says that Twitter is the CB radio of our time, and I totally agree. I don't know if it's gonna survive, because most people aren't that good at it.

At the Guardian, Kevin Jackson lists his 10 top vampire novels.

Macleans.ca reviews John Ortved's new Simpsons oral biography, The Simpsons: An Uncensored, Unauthorized History.

In some ways, this may be a more candid history of the show because we don’t hear from Brooks, Groening and their supporters. Ortved thinks Brooks “decided to cancel all co-operation when he found out I was asking questions about Sam Simon,” who ran The Simpsons originally and hired most of the staff. Many people feel that Simon, who left in 1993 after feuding with Brooks and Groening, is not given enough credit for shaping the franchise; Brian Roberts (now a director of such shows as Little Mosque on the Prairie) says in the book that Brooks “fell in love with the myth and the legend” that Groening was the sole creator. Ortved compares them to Walt Disney, who wanted us to think that “he created everything that was Disney.”

theBookseller.com breaks down the 2009 Guardian First Book award shortlist.

The Louisville Courier-Journal profiles the Avett Brothers.

Describing the band is still something of a game, with fans and writers throwing darts at a list of cobbled-together styles: “indie-folk,” “alt-country,” “punk-folk” and the wholly unfortunate “grungegrass.” At the end of the day, the Avetts are simply very good songwriters with moments of brilliance that have the unmistakable clarity and stubbornness of truth.

The Common Reader recommends literary Halloween costumes.

The Measure explains how indie rock killed the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

We've all known the day would come when things would get dicey for the Hall, and it's finally here. Right around the mid-80s, or 25 years ago, or the exact amount of time that needs to have passed since a band's debut in order for them to be eligible for induction, when hair-metal came along and ruined everything, it simply became cooler for rock bands to exist below the radar of the mainstream. With the exceptions of a period of a few years in the early 90s, with Pearl Jam and Nirvana, and then again a decade later with the White Stripes and Radiohead, all the best rock bands have been, for lack of a better term, indie rock bands.

Vanity Fair features audio of Augusten Burroughs reading from his new book, You Better Not Cry: Stories for Christmas.

Drowned in Sound interviews Gary Numan.

DCist interviews Trevor Anderson of the High Dials.

The War of the Wakening Phantoms seemed like the kind of psych-pop stuff that rock critics just eat up, but it somehow still seemed to fly below the radar, at least in the States. How do you think your last couple releases have been received?

Actually, that album got us quite a lot of attention from critics! I guess 4 years is an eternity in indie rock so it's understandable if it's obscure at the moment.The reality is, the world is just glutted with music. Everyone and their canary has a Myspace page. It's just hard to keep anyone's attention for long. But we do have pockets of loyal supporters. I'm not sure what would break us to a wider audience, as we are still very DIY. The world's softest sounding punk rock band! I have very modest goals, which is to continue to put these albums out and pay my rent.

Heeb interviews Yoni Wolf of Why?.

At The Skinny, Said the Gramophone's Sean Michaels talks about the Scottish music scene.

The Rumpus interviews author Lydia Millet.

Listorious++++ lists books and Twitter music lists.

The Wall Street Journal's Speakeasy blog profiles MTVu's new poet laureate, Simin Behbahani.

What the designation means is that starting on Nov. 2, and continuing on for one year, mtvU will air 19 short-films with verses from Behbahani’s decades-long career including unpublished works and poems dealing with the current turmoil. The videos will also feature interviews with American-Iranian college students reacting to the poems. In addition, mtvU will tweet Behbahni’s poems in their original Farsi as well as English translations. MtvU is MTV Networks’ 24-hour college network.

The Beatles' "Hey Jude" flowcharted.

NPR's Morning Edition interviews singer-songwriter Sufjan Stevens.

Win a copy of They Might be Giants' new children's book, Kids Go!, in this week's Largehearted Boy contest.

Follow me on Twitter for links that don't make the daily "Shorties" columns.

also at Largehearted Boy:

daily mp3 downloads
Try It Before You Buy It (mp3s and full album streams from this week's CD releases)
weekly music & DVD release lists

tags: music books popculture indie

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Daily Downloads (Loch Lomond, White Rabbits, and more)

Today's free and legal mp3 downloads:

Dragon Turtle: "Island of Broken Glass" [mp3] from Almanac (out November 10th on CD)
other Dragon Turtle posts at Largehearted Boy

The King of Rocksprings: "The Perfect Guy" [mp3] from The Milkman Vs. The Postman Problem EP (out December 8th)
other King of Rocksprings posts at Largehearted Boy

Loch Lomond: "Wax and Wire" [mp3] from Night Bats (out November 10th)
other Loch Lomond posts at Largehearted Boy

Mux Mool: "Ballad of Gloria Featherbottom" [mp3] from Moongadget: Nocturnal Suites (out November 3rd)
other Mux Mool posts at Largehearted Boy

New Villager: "Rich Doors" [mp3] from Moongadget: Nocturnal Suites (out November 3rd)
other New Villager posts at Largehearted Boy

Polite Sleeper: "Three Easy Steps" [mp3] from Lake Effect
Polite Sleeper: "Into Loud Talkers" [mp3] from Seens
other Polite Sleeper posts at Largehearted Boy

Shigeto: "Is This All for Real" [mp3] from Moongadget: Nocturnal Suites (out November 3rd)
other Shigeto posts at Largehearted Boy

White Rabbits: "Percussion Gun" [mp3] from It's Frightening
other White Rabbits posts at Largehearted Boy

Worst Friends: "I Wish I Don't Drop Dead" [mp3] from Moongadget: Nocturnal Suites (out November 3rd)
other Worst Friends posts at Largehearted Boy

Free and legal mp3s of live performances at other websites:

Or, the Whale: Daytrotter session [mp3]
other Or, the Whale posts at Largehearted Boy

also at Largehearted Boy:

previous free and legal mp3 daily downloads
2009 Bonnaroo downloads
2008 Lollapalooza downloads
other music festival downloads

Try It Before You Buy It (mp3s and album streams from weekly CD releases)
weekly CD release lists

tags: music download indie mp3

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October 29, 2009

Book Notes - Richard Rushfield ("Don't Follow Me, I'm Lost")

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

In his memoir Don't Follow Me, I'm Lost: A Memoir of Hampshire College in the Twilight of the '80s, Richard Rushfield captures the zeitgeist of the late 80's, when Ronald Reagan's presidency was a fresh bitter memory and the grunge era had yet to begin, all through the eyes of a student at a bohemian liberal arts college.

In his own words, here is Richard Rushfield's Book Notes music playlist for his memoir, Don't Follow Me, I'm Lost: A Memoir of Hampshire College in the Twilight of the '80s:

My book, Don't Follow Me, I'm Lost: A Memoir of Hampshire College in the Twilight of the 80's is very much about music, but not necessarily music than anyone can, or would want to listen to. DFM is the story of a band called The Supreme Dicks that somehow become the outlaws at a school of misfits, during that critical moment when the party of the 80's turned into the earnestness of the 90's. It's the story of how my generation (X) in our one moment dominating the cultural stage between the Baby Boomers and their children, choose a completely nihilist form expression (Grunge, slacking, etc). Nihilism unfortunately doesn't always make for the catchiest music, when the goal is to negate society, but I've picked a few of the songs that were in the air around that time and place that are actually still listenable. For me, these songs still make the idea of being bummed out and gloomy look fun and glamorous. These are the songs that I would listen to or hark back on to orient me to my setting as I wrote.

"Sister Ray" by The Velvet Underground

If this post-post-punk/pre-grunge period had a holy text it was VU, who were ubiquitous, constantly played everywhere. "Sister Ray" was the one cover song the Supreme Dicks performed, although audiences seldom recognized what it was. The song perfectly captured the anarchic impulses and depressive bedlam that inspired my era.

"Five Years" by David Bowie

If there was one song which established the ethos of detachment and gloom which my generation felt, this was it. The anthem of your youth.

"30 Seconds Over Tokyo" by Pere Ubu

The great white hope of avante-garde music at the time.

"Transmission" by Joy Division

One of the great debates of the day was what made something death rock vs. gothic. Joy Division was clearly the ne plus ultra on the death rock side of the ledger. Their songs still bristle with a kinetic static electricity while remaining hauntingly dark.

"Like a Hurricane" covered by Mission UK and "Gimme Shelter" by Sisters of Mercy

Before goth there was Gothic, which was the best friend of punk and didn't involve capes and fake fangs, but had a certain costumey panache to it that was setting it on the road in that direction. Bands like Mission UK and Sisters of Mercy were taking the post-punk depressive mood and creating a sound on a more epic scale,in this case adapting some of the great rock anthems to a moodier vibe.

"Fire" by The Cult

From the rockingest, poppiest album of the Gothic era.

"Just Like Heaven" by Dinosaur Jr.

Dinosaur Jr. was the local band around Hampshire College and its members were very much part of the scene I write about. Their cover of The Cure brilliantly channeled the pop-gothic vibe that was the dominant subcultural movement at the time and turned it into something gloomier, more depressive and somehow more genuinely ominous; a true harbinger of the era to come.

"Death Valley '69" by Sonic Youth

I recall one night on a long drive through the woods near Hampshire, driving through the darkness and listening to this six minute song and at the end feeling like I had emerged on the other side of some portal to the underworld. Takes you on a very spooky intense journey to a sinister place. More than any other Sonic Youth was the band in the mid 80's that seemed to lead the way from the circular wanderings of the post-punk period into something new and combustible.

"Come On Eileen" by Dexy's Midnight Runners

Not gloomy on the surface but this was the unavoidable song in the years just before this book is set, played so constantly on MTV - in the day when MTV only had five videos to play - that it was impossible to like after it had been so violently shoved down our throats. In a climactic scene in the book, my friend and I are Dj's on the radio station of neighboring Amherst College and start playing Eileen over and over to torment the school. But in the course of actually listening to it, the song comes to grow on us and by the time we're kicked off the air, we've come to like it. I like it still.

"Paint It Black" by the Rolling Stones

There was no darker more intense song to hit the nail on the head of our mood than this. However, it took an all night binge for me to really think about the lyrics and not just wallow in them, and when the meaning became clear, it was like my brain had split open in of of the great epiphanies of my life.

"The Killing Moon" by Echo and the Bunnymen

Still beautiful and spooky as ever. Transcends the make-up and hair theatrics.

Richard Rushfield and Don't Follow Me, I'm Lost: A Memoir of Hampshire College in the Twilight of the '80s links:

the author's website
Facebook group for the book

Neon Tommy interview with the author

also at Largehearted Boy:

other Book Notes submissions (authors create playlists for their book)
Note Books (musicians discuss literature)
guest book reviews
musician/author interviews
52 Books, 52 Weeks

tags: books music literature non-fiction memoir

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Shorties (Philip Roth, Google Music Search, and more)

NPR reviews (and excerpts from) Philip Roth's new novel, The Humbling.

The official Google blog explains the new Google music search.

I posted the list of the online best of the decade (2000-2009) music lists yesterday.

Today's additions:

Aiming to Misbehave (songs of the decade)
Bodyspace (best singles)
Captains Dead (top albums)
Experimental Music Love (top albums)
The Middle 8 (favorite albums)
O, Song! (influential albums)
Q (best albums)
A Slice of Fried Gold (favorite albums)

The Georgia Strait profiles the Raveonettes.

LA Weekly profiles recent Sub Pop signees Avi Buffalo.

Variety reports that U2's Rose Bowl concert attracted over 10 million streams, making it the single-largest YouTube streaming event.

Shonen Knife's Naoko Yamano talks to MetroActive.

The Minnesota Daily reviews the new book by Afternoon Records founder Ian Anderson, Here Come the Regulars: How to Run a Record Label on a Shoestring Budget.

“Here Come the Regulars” boasts an engaging format. Anderson addresses the reader head-on and tells them, for hypothetical purposes, they'll be running the imagined Thankyou Records and working with fictional indie up-and-comers The Readers. Such is the framework that guides the reader through basic branding, roster building, legal logistics, manufacturing, distribution, booking and promotion.

The Seattle Times lists spooky books for fireside nights.

MTV News previews the New York Yankees' World Series at-bat music.

The Wall Street Journal profiles cartoonist R. Crumb and his musical side.

Still free at Amazon MP3: the 21-track The Orange Mountain Music Philip Glass Sampler Vol.I album.

Audrey Niffenegger talks to the Edinburgh Journal about her latest novel, Her Fearful Symmetry.

The Loyola Phoenix interviews Mountain Goats bassist Peter Hughes.

The Arizona Daily Wildcat reviews the band's new album, The Life of the World to Come.

Padgett Powell talks to Minnesota Public Radio about his novel, The Interrogative Mood, which consists entirely of questions.

The Audiolife blog lists five music industry leaders you should follow on Twitter.

At Monitor Mix, Carrie Brownstein recounts her calming first experiences with The Buddha Machine.

Win a copy of They Might be Giants' new children's book, Kids Go!, in this week's Largehearted Boy contest.

Follow me on Twitter for links that don't make the daily "Shorties" columns.

also at Largehearted Boy:

daily mp3 downloads
Try It Before You Buy It (mp3s and full album streams from this week's CD releases)
weekly music & DVD release lists

tags: music books popculture indie

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Daily Downloads (Avi Buffalo, Xiu Xiu, and more)

Today's free and legal mp3 downloads:

Avi Buffalo: "What's in It For?" [mp3] from What's in It For?
other Avi Buffalo posts at Largehearted Boy

Awesome New Republic: "Last Drop" [mp3] from Hearts
other Awesome New Republic posts at Largehearted Boy

Brontosaurus Chorus: "Louisiana" [mp3]
other Brontosaurus Chorus posts at Largehearted Boy

Chip Taylor: "Bastard Brothers" [mp3] from Yonkers, NY
other Chip Taylor posts at Largehearted Boy

Heads Up Display: "Formula vs. Perfume" [mp3] from AS/IS EP
other Heads Up Display posts at Largehearted Boy

The Most Powerful Telescope in the Universe: free and legal The Moonlight's Fair Tonight album [mp3]
"Last of the Incas" [mp3]
other The Most Powerful Telescope in the Universe posts at Largehearted Boy

Post Post: "Say When" [mp3] from Meta Meta EP
other Post Post posts at Largehearted Boy

Shiny Toy Guns: "It's Halloween at the House of Spooks" [mp3]
other Shiny Toy Guns posts at Largehearted Boy

Ukulele Loki's Gadabout Orchestra: free and legal Ukulele Loki's Gadabout Orchestra album [mp3]
"Daylight Savings" [mp3]
other Ukulele Loki's Gadabout Orchestra posts at Largehearted Boy

Xiu Xiu: "Volcana (I Hope You Hear the Train Crashes remix)" [mp3] from SCORE! 20 Years of Merge Records: The Remixes! (out November 17th)
other Xiu Xiu posts at Largehearted Boy

*registration required

Free and legal mp3s of live performances at other websites:

Kittens Ablaze: 2009-10-22, New York [mp3]
other Kittens Ablaze posts at Largehearted Boy

The Matt Kurz One: 2009-09-17, Athens [mp3]
other Matt Kurz One posts at Largehearted Boy

Strand of Oaks: HearYa session [mp3]
other Strand of Oaks posts at Largehearted Boy

Thomas Function: Daytrotter session [mp3]
other Thomas Function posts at Largehearted Boy

Throw Me the Statue: Luxury Wafers session [mp3]
other Throw Me the Statue posts at Largehearted Boy

also at Largehearted Boy:

previous free and legal mp3 daily downloads
2009 Bonnaroo downloads
2008 Lollapalooza downloads
other music festival downloads

Try It Before You Buy It (mp3s and album streams from weekly CD releases)
weekly CD release lists

tags: music download indie mp3

Posted by david | permalink | post to del.icio.us

October 28, 2009

Best of the Decade (2000-2009) Online Music Lists

The decade is winding down, and lists of the best albums and songs of the 2000s are increasingly popping up. As these lists appear online, I will daily aggregate the links in this post. If you post or see a link on a blog, newspaper, magazine, or other media site that isn't listed, please feel free to e-mail me the link or leave a comment.

Read the daily updates to this list.

Aiming to Misbehave (songs of the decade)
The Album Project (best albums)
Alphaville (best albums)
andee's world (best albums)
Antville (best music videos)
Aquarium Drunkard (favorite albums by individual writers)
Atlanta's A-List (best albums)
Aught Music (best songs)

Bad Idea Blue Jeans (songs)
Barbara (best albums)
Blurred Clarity (best albums)
Bodyspace (best singles)
Born Under Punches (best rappers)
breakfast, lunch-n-dinner (top albums)
Broken Mic (most influential music figures)
Built on a Weak Spot (top albums)
The Bygone Bureau (best songs)

Can You See the Sunset? (favorite albums)
Captains Dead (top albums)
City of Angels to Charm City (favorite albums)
Clicky Clicky Music Blog (top albums)
CLUAS (best Irish albums)
Club Fonograma (best regional Mexican songs)
Club Fonograma (best songs)
Complex.com (best mixtape albums)
Complex.com (best music videos)
Complex.com (top albums)
Count Me Out (favorite albums)
crazier than shirttails (best songs)
Culture Bully (best albums)

David Katznelson (top albums)
Deckfight (top albums)
Delicious and Nutritious (top albums)
Delicious and Nutritious (top songs)
Diablogue (top songs)
Dimes for Nickels (favorite songs)
Don't Fear the Mainstream (favorite songs)
Don't Stay Up Too Late (top songs)
The Donnybrook Writing Academy (top overrated albums)
Dropkick's Kiosk (greatest albums)
Drowned in Sound (songs)
Dryvetyme Onlyne (best albums)

Eugenia's Rants and Thoughts (best songs)
Experimental Music Love (top albums)

Gigwise (best album covers)
Gigwise (greatest albums)
Gigwise (worst albums)
Gimme Tinnitus (best songs 2000-2004)
GISGISGIS (favorite albums)
The Good 5 Cent Cigar (best songs)
GorillavsBear (albums of the decade)
GorillavsBear (songs of the decade)
The Grace Notes (albums)
Gregory Alfred (albums)
Guuzborg (best French albums)

Hank Is Creative (artist of the decade)
The Hardest Button to Button (best albums)
The Hardest Button to Button (best songs)
Heiruspecs (favorite albums)
The Hurst Review (country albums)

I Guess I'm Floating (best songs)
Idolator (worst songs)
Into the Abyss (top songs)
Into the Abyss - Ryan (top songs)
Into the Galaxy (top songs)
It's a Squad Game (best albums)

J. Mensah's Billboard Files (singles)
Jaltcoh (greatest songs)
Junk (songs of the decade)

Lament for a Straight Line (best jazz albums)

Lost at Sea (albums of the decade)
Lost at Sea (songs of the decade)
Lucid Culture (best albums)
Lucy Michelle (favorite albums)

Marisol Segal (top albums)
Metro Distortion (best albums)
The Middle 8 (favorite albums)
Mlive.com (greatest albums)
MondoSonoro (top Spanish & international albums)
Mr. Frost (memorable rap mixes)
Music By Day (top albums)
Music Fan's Mic (songs that define the decade)
Music for Kids Who Can't Read Good (albums of the decade)
Music, Movies, Sarcasm (albums of the decade)
My Bass Rocks (top tracks)

Notzem Zum Pop (albums)

O, Song! (influential albums)
Original Hipster (top albums)

The Panda Oleosa (top hip-hop albums)
Paste (top albums)
Paste - Andy Whitman (favorite albums)
Pitchfork (music news)
Pitchfork (music videos)
Pitchfork (top albums)
Pitchfork (top tracks)
Pitchfork (various lists from musicians)
Pop Headwound (albums of the decade)
Pop Tarts Suck Toasted (best albums)
Pop Tarts Suck Toasted (best songs)
Pretty Much Amazing (best albums)
Pretty Much Amazing (best songs)
Prog Archives (top prog rock albums)
The Proper Lounge (best hip-hop singles)
The Punk Guy (albums of the decade)

Q (top albums)
Quizas Perhaps (best albums)

Raging Against the Dying Light aka Cultural Observations of the Lost Generation (bands that defined the decade)
The Rawking Refuses to Stop (top albums)
RedEye (overlooked songs)
Rock de Luxe (best albums)
Rollo & Grady (top albums)
Ross Gianfortune (best albums)
Ryanself's blog (top albums)

Save the Robot - Chris Dahlen (best albums)
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also at Largehearted Boy:

daily updates to this list

Online "Best Of 2009" Music Lists
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tags: music cd list lists indie 2000s albums

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Book Notes - Sophie Hannah ("The Wrong Mother")

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

The Wrong Mother is one of the most suspenseful books of the year. Amidst a murder mystery, Sophie Hannah explores the often overwhelming demands of motherhood with her richly drawn characters and involving plot.

The New York Times wrote of the book:

"Hannah goes in for all those bizarre plot twists and outlandish behaviors that have come to define the psychological-suspense story, but she does it with style and wit. And while these Gothic chords bring a dissonant note to the realistic chapters written in the police-procedural format, they can’t muffle the voices of the women in this story who persist in speaking intimately and honestly about the pressures on them as supermoms."

In her own words, here is Sophie Hannah's Book Notes music playlist for her novel, The Wrong Mother:

Sally is watching the news with her husband when she hears a name she ought not to recognise: Mark Bretherick. Last year, a work trip Sally had planned was cancelled at the last minute. Desperate for a break from her busy life juggling work and a young family, Sally didn't tell her husband that the trip had fallen through. Instead, she booked a week off work and treated herself to a secret holiday. All she wanted was a bit of peace, some time to herself but it didnt work out that way. Because Sally met a man: Mark Bretherick.

Now, to Sally's shock, Bretherick is on the news. All the details are the same: where he lives, his job, his wife Geraldine and daughter Lucy. Except that the photograph on the TV screen is of a man Sally has never seen before. And Geraldine and Lucy Bretherick are both dead . . .

My novel is about mothers who buckle under the pressure of motherhood, and, more generally, about families that implode. Sounds cheerful, doesn't it? It's also a detective story and hopefully a gripping mystery - I should probably have said that first! - but I wrote it when my kids were little and very hard work, and I was finding life a real struggle. It was cathartic to write about mothers who found mothering a total nightmare! There are three mothers in the book - an apparently perfect selfless one, a monstrously selfish one, and a normal one who 'has her moments', like most of us. I wanted to examine the different ways of being a mother. I must admit, though, I found the monstrously selfish mother's bits the most fun to write. I also enjoyed writing about a married mother committing adultery in a hotel. When you have kids, people expect you to become sensible and virtuous overnight, but if you were previously neither, why would you suddenly become both? My heroine Sally gets a kick out of doing something no one would think she'd do in a million years.

I do occasionally imagine my ideal soundtracks for my books, so it was great to be asked to choose a playlist for The Wrong Mother. Here goes:

1) "Rosco" by Midlake, from their album The Trials of Van Occupanther. This is one of my favourite albums of all time, and Rosco, track no. 1, is the best song on it. In The Wrong Mother, there's a character called Cordy (Cordelia) O'Hara who is reliable, perceptive, and who the police really ought to take seriously. To establish her reliability, I put a copy of Van Occupanther in her flat, hoping my detective characters would believe her on account of her good taste!

2) "My Baby Needs a Shepherd" by Emmylou Harris. One of the themes in the novel is mothers' protectiveness (or otherwise) towards their daughters. This brilliant song is all about a mother trying and tragically failing to protect her child and it's perfect soundtrack material for a sinister thriller - it contains the lyric 'To the cradle comes the crow', which has always made me shiver.

3) "Never Known" by Duritti Column. I have no idea what this strange and atmospheric song is about, but I think it would be the perfect soundtrack for the part of the novel where the heroine has been drugged and is feeling detached from reality and a bit hazy. It's very hazy, weird music - quite claustrophic and threatening, I imagine, if you're listening to it in the house of a psychopath who's recently kidnapped you, as of course my heroine would be.

4) "Elsewhere" by Sarah McLaughlin. This song relates specifically to the adulterous behaviour of the heroine. It contains the lyric, 'Mother, can't you see I've got to live my life the way I feel is right for me? It might not be right for you, but it's right for me.' What else need an unfaithful wife say? we ask ourselves. Also, in the novel there is a mother whose own mother disapproves of her for being such a rubbish mother, so it's relevant on that score too.

5) "Funeral" by Peter Tosh. This is a fantastic song in which Tosh says he has no intention of going to somebody's funeral, even though he's expected to. 'Let the dead bury the dead/And who is to be fed, bed fed./I ain't got no time to waste on you./I'm a living man, I've got work to do.' In The Wrong Mother, it emerges at a certain point that one of the murder victims possibly wasn't all that nice a person, and possibly won't be missed all that much...

6) "Mon Ami Francois" by John Gould. No one will have heard of this. It was on an album released in the sixties called Four Degrees Over. It's a comic song in deliberately bad French, and a verse of it is included in The Wrong Mother as part of a subplot involving clues in foreign languages. So the song is extremely relevant to the plot.

7) "The Promise You Made" by Cock Robin - this was in the UK charts in the 1980s, about 1984/85 I think. One of my detective characters, towards the end of the novel, says to another, 'Remember the promise you made?' and another asks if she is quoting Cock Robin. There was no real need to put this song in the book, but it's one of my all-time faves, so I indulged myself and put it in!

8) "El Preso Numero Nueve". I'm not sure who this is by. It's an old traditional Spanish song about a man who murders his wife and her lover. Again, this is connected to linguistic clues, Spanish characters and adulterous themes in the novel. Can't say more without giving too much away!

9) "She Ain't Going Nowhere" by the great Guy Clark, one of the most talented musical geniuses ever. This song is all about a woman who just wants to get out and go anywhere, anything to escape her life. This is how Sally, my heroine, feels after several years of looking after a husband and two small children.

10) "I Was the One" by the Hoodoo Gurus - a British song, all about guilt for the ruination of relationships. Perfect! All my novels are jam-packed with ruined relationships.

11) "High Time" by The American Ruse, another British band, no longer together, sadly. "High Time" is a brilliant song of unrestrained bitterness and vindictiveness, and contains the superb lyric, 'Face up to it, don't wanna end your days full of lead/Blood blood red/Bang bang you're f**king dead'. Sometimes that sort of unrestrained viciousness is just what the doctor ordered!

12) "Goodbye Lucille" by Prefab Sprout, from their album Faron Young. I can't say why this is relevant because it would give away something about the ending of the novel, but it could almost have been written with my book in mind!

Sophie Hannah and The Wrong Mother links:

the author's website

Bookmarks review
BookPage review
Kansas City Star review
New York Times review
O, The Oprah Magazine review
Pop Goes Fiction review
Readaholic review

Houston Press profile of the author
Marie Claire interview with the author
The Page 69 Test for the book

also at Largehearted Boy:

other Book Notes submissions (authors create playlists for their book)
Note Books (musicians discuss literature)
guest book reviews
musician/author interviews
52 Books, 52 Weeks

tags: books music literature fiction

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Shorties (The Simpsons, Girls in Trouble, and more)

John Ortved talks to Newsarama about his excellent oral history The Simpsons: An Uncensored, Unauthorized History.

“For the first 10 or 11 seasons, I’ve seen each episode, many times. Particularly seasons 3-9; God, those shows are good. I think that run of episodes, that body of work, can stand up to anything our culture has produced in terms of entertainment in my lifetime. I mean that. They can hold their own against The Sopranos, Michael Chabon's novels, Nora Ephron's films, even The Backstreet Boys."

Jweekly profiles Alicia Jo Rabins of Girls in Trouble, whose wonderful self-titled album was released digitally yesterday (the CD is released on November 3rd).

MTV News lists the scariest albums of all time.

Marvel interviews Say Anything frontman Max Bemis about his love for comics.

momlogic lists kids' music that doesn't suck.

Clash Music lists the best and worst songs about death.

Express Night Out interviews St. Vincent's Annie Clark.

Express Night Out also profiles Clark's current touring mate, Andrew Bird.

"Eventually, I want to try to do some sort of episodic thing, kind of 'Muppet Show'-style," Bird said. "Maybe if the CD is dead or dying, then the thing is more of an episodic-type thing where you take a song and kind of unfold all the little facets of the song into, like, a 25-minute show. Often times the songs I write have a lot of layers, and sometimes there's three of four different streams going on within one song, kind of like an episode where there's a couple of plot lines going on. [It could be] kind of like a musical 'Mr. Show' — that's it in a nutshell."

The Columbus Dispatch recommends books for Halloween gifts.

AfterEllen points out Joan Jett, Debbie Harry, and Cyndi Lauper dolls. (via)

NPR's All Songs Considered lists the highlights from the 2009 edition of CMJ.

The streaming radio show No Love for Ned this week features an in-studio performance by Knight School.

The Aquarian Weekly interviews Charlie Fink of Noah and the Whale.

New York Magazine's Vulture blog interviews Chuck Klosterman about his new essay collection, Eating the Dinosaur and the film adaptation of Fargo Rock City.

Singer-songwriter David Bazan talks to Pitch Weekly about his new album and crisis of faith.

Omnivoracious has started counting down Amazon's best books of 2009.

Orham Pamuk talks to NPR's All Things Considered about his new novel, The Museum of Innocence. An excerpt from the book is also presented.

Today is the last day to download 11 Mojo Nixon albums free at Amazon MP3.

NPR is streaming last night's performance by Ben Gibbard and Jay Farrar.

Win a copy of They Might be Giants' new children's book, Kids Go!, in this week's Largehearted Boy contest.