Brandon Taylor discussed his new novel The Late Americans with Shondaland.
Matthew Herbert discussed his discography with Bandcamp Daily.
“The biggest revolution in my time is that music can be made out of anything,” Herbert says from his home in the coastal town of Whitstable in South East England. “We are in a new period of musical history where you can use the sound of a football crowd, the victims of modern slavery on a Thai fishing trawler, or a brick to make music. So that creates such a philosophical shattering of what music has been all these years that I feel I have a responsibility to take that seriously.”
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Tegan and Sara discussed their middle grade graphic novel, Junior High, with Publishers Weekly.
“We were really excited about reimagining what our life would be like if we were young now,” Tegan said. “We were such confident, gregarious, outgoing kids. [Growing up today] we probably would have come out earlier. We probably would have felt more confident about who we were because we had such an alternative left of center family. We probably would have felt okay with telling them [we were queer]. We would have absolutely started writing earlier. It was just easier for us to tell an aspirational story by adding in some of the modern thinking.”
Book Riot recommended the week’s best new books.
Stream a new Teenage Fanclub song.
BBC Culture listed the best children’s books of all time and the best children’s books of the 21st century.
The Ringer explored the best closing songs on television series.
Susanna Kaysen discussed her memoir Girl, Interrupted with The Cut on the 30th anniversary of its publication.
I’m glad I left so much out. One shouldn’t say this about one’s own work, but I think it’s one of the good things about the book that I left so many particulars about myself out. I wouldn’t put anything more in. There’s a kind of blankness, to some extent, to my portrayal of myself. It leaves a lot of room.
Stream a new Guided By Voices song.
Courtney Sender discussed her story collection, In Other Lifetimes All I’ve Lost Comes Back to Me, with Electric Literature.
A lot of this book comes from deep empathy for people who are lonely. I spent a lot of my life very lonely in ways that seemed like this unsolvable problem. These stories are a real expression of what people do in response to that sadness, so if I’m putting something like this out into the world, I think it’s my responsibility to offer some light out of that darkness, too.
Pitchfork profiled recording engineer Marta Salogni.
Over the last five years or so, dual senses of openness and immersion have made Salogni, 32, one of the world’s most in-demand mixing engineers operating at the experimental edges of pop and rock. Since mixing Utopia, Salogni has been central to Bon Iver’s i,i, Lucrecia Dalt’s ¡Ay!, Circuit des Yeux’s -io, and Animal Collective’s Time Skiffs, to name a few. Artists tend to talk of her as a confidant rather than a freelance hire. “It was like creating a new friendship,” says Animal Collective’s Brian “Geologist” Weitz. “The job just took care of itself.”
The Creative Independent interviewed author John Wray.
I do just enough research to get to the point at which I start to feel confident and comfortable making things up.
Juliana Hatfield covered ELO’s “Don’t Bring Me Down.”
The Kirkus podcast interviewed author Max Porter.
PopMatters interviewed singer-songwriter M. Ward.
R.F. Kuang wrote about literary mean girls at Harper’s Bazaar.
Stream a new song by Anjimile.
Georgi Gospodinov’s novel Time Shelter has been awarded the International Booker prize.
Aquarium Drunkard interviewed singer-songwriter Lael Neale.
3:AM shared an excerpt from Juliet Jacques’s forthcoming novella Monaco.
Moses Sumney covered Billie Holliday’s “I’ll Be Seeing You.”
So Many Damn Books interviewed author Rebecca Makkai.
Stream a new song by Cable Ties.
Joyce Maynard wrote about writing and innkeeping at the New York Times.
Stream a new song by Marci (TOPS’ Marta Cikojevic).
Full Stop interviewed author Syd Staiti.
Stream a new song by Runnner.
Stream a new song by Lemon Cellar.
Stream a new song by Ichiko Aoba.
Stream a new song by Jess Williamson.
King Hannah covered Madonna’s “Like a Prayer.”
Stream a new song by Damon Locks and Rob Mazurek.
The Quietus interviewed folk legend Shirley Collins.