Ayòbámi Adébáyò on books and reading.
I love to reread books. If I enjoyed it the first time around, more often than not, the second read is even more illuminating. Occasionally, I go back to a book I did not like the first time to see if I missed something and I’ve discovered a few favourites this way. The books I’ve revisited the most include TS Eliot’s The Waste Land, Sefi Atta’s Everything Good Will Come, Wole Soyinka’s Death and the King’s Horseman, Cheikh Hamidou Kane’s Ambiguous Adventures and Toni Morrison’s Beloved.
Blue Broderick discussed her power pop project Diners with Paste.
eBook free today:
The Night Trembles: A Sampler of New Writing by Women in Translation
This week’s Largehearted Boy newsletter shared a playlist about animals (both actual & metaphorical) as well as the usual links, likes, and weekly recap.
All Songs Considered, Bandcamp Daily, Pitchfork, BrooklynVegan, and Paste recommended the week’s best new albums.
The New York Times interviewed author Amor Towles.
Stream a new song by Mutual Benefit.
Andrew Lipstein recommended books that combine wealth and humanity at The Week.
The Current interviewed Paul Janeway of St. Paul and the Broken Bones.
The New York Times listed Ursula K. Le Guin’s best books.
Stream two new songs by the National.
Gabriel Dozal recommended lyrical books about the language of the border at Electric Literature.
Nick Cave and Jeff Tweedy announced U.S. book tours.
The Creative Independent interviewed author Kevin Maloney.
The structure of the novel is loosely based on Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse, which is about a young man who wants to go on a religious quest, and then decides the only way to do that is to not join the monastery, but instead to go live a regular life and get married and have kids, and that’s where he has to learn the lessons of life. I thought that was an interesting model.
Stream a new song by Mac DeMarco and Eyedress.
The Creative Independent interviewed poet Willa Bennett.
Stereogum reconsidered the Constantines’ Shine a Light album on its 20th anniversary.
John West discussed his memoir, Lessons and Carols, with Electric Literature.
In some ways, this book is an effort to build community, and make something beautiful out of something that would otherwise be kind of tragic.
Stream a previously unreleased Joni Mitchell demo.
The Maris Review interviewed author Edan Lepucki.
The Hold Steady’s Craig Finn talked to Bullseye about the song that changed his life.
The Santa Fe Reporter interviewed author James Reich.
Our Culture interviewed Vines’ Cassie Wieland.
You have a background in composing music for others as well as interpreting other people’s music. What was your relationship to songwriting and writing lyrics beforehand, and how has it developed over the years?
Yeah, songwriting and writing lyrics is something that I have been afraid of for a lot of my musical career – or even before that, when I was first learning guitar and started to compose. The reason I gravitated towards music was because I could express myself in a way that didn’t use words.
The Guardian interviewed author Jonathan Coe.
Bandcamp Daily delved into Guåhan’s music scene.
BOMB interviewed author James Sturz.
Stream a new song by Kristin Kersh.
Read a new short story by Lincoln Michel.
Aquarium Drunkard interviewed ANOHNI.
AQUARIUM DRUNKARD: I’m loving this album. It’s so beautiful. It has a wonderful classic soul sound to it, and I understand you were inspired, at least partly, by Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On. I was wondering if you could tell me about how you first connected with soul music and why it spoke to you?
ANOHNI: The way I think of it now is that I first connected with soul music through new wave music. Through certain singers of new wave in the U.K. in the early 1980s. People like Boy George, Allison Moyet, Ellen Terry, certain singers that were singing in the American style, in a soulful style. Even, at times, Annie Lennox. That was my first brush with the resonance of soul music, but at the time I didn’t understand what it was.
Harper’s features a new essay by John Jeremiah Sullivan.
Stream a new song by the Streets.
Statorec interviewed author Debra Di Blasi.