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May 2, 2008
Shorties
The 2008 Coachella music downloads page has been updated with mp3s of the performances by Gogol Bordello, Dredg and Metric, and bittorrent downloads of performances by Perry Farrell, Stars, Mark Ronson, the Breeders, and Love & Rockets.
Stephen Malkmus talks songwriting with the National Post.
“I’m not compelled to write songs anymore in a certain way,” the 41-year old Malkmus says. “Maybe I was when I was younger and there was more ambition and more fear, like the ‘what should I do with my life’ thing, when you’re just starting. That’s not there now, because by now, I kind of know. Most people do that are my age, for better or worse.”
The Guardian's music blog examines the sudden rise to fame (and subsequent major label record contract) of the Black Kids.
Dan Bejar of Destroyer and the New Pornographers talks to the Denver Post.
"With every single line I write I'm just trying to hit it out of the ballpark," Bejar said over the phone from his home in Vancouver, British Columbia. "Maybe that's what people are referring to when they say I'm (pretentious). I'm not the most subtle writer. The way things get strung together, there's no real craft."
At Salon, Douglas Wolk offers a guide to Free Comic Book Day, grading the free comics available.
Pitchfork interviews Sarah Assbring of El Perro Del Mar.
Pitchfork: As both a musician and a technician, you not only come up with the overarching artistic vision, but then you have to find a way to execute it in the studio. How do you balance those two aspects of your job?
SA: I love going in and out of all those different roles working in the studio. But it means I need to have everything in my head all at the same time. An instant idea can easily and quickly get blurred by technical issues and then it's all about acting fast. I guess you just need to be creative and come up with ways to realize your vision.
In the Times Online, author Sebastian Faulks lists 40 books he cannot live without.
http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/article3860712.ece
Chicago Public Radio's Sound Opinions interviews Laurie Anderson today.
Glide's Hidden Track blog lists interesting setlists.
The Independent and the Scotsman profile Isobel Campbell.
The Age profiles Nicole Atkins.
"The more people see us, the more they realise what we are," she says later.
"We are a rock band. I'm not just a girl singer-songwriter with one song and an acoustic guitar."
The Independent interviews Ian Brown, former Stone Roses frontman.
Wye Oak talk to ChartAttack about the Baltimore indie scene.
"Baltimore is the hottest scene, I believe," says Andy Stack, one half of the fledgling duo. "According to Rolling Stone."
"I work at this restaurant in Baltimore, right down the street," adds the other half of Wye Oak, Jenn Wasner, "and someone just came in with the latest copy of Rolling Stone. In its 'Best Of Rock' issue, it had named Baltimore the best scene.
"You haven't seen it yet, Andy," she says to Stack. "There's a picture of us in the restaurant underneath the moose head.
"It's really funny because they got all the stats wrong. They were like, 'This restaurant is the place to go for a late-night after-show hangout.' We actually close at 10 o'clock."
The Guardian points out pop stars stealing their styles from the past.
LA Observed interviews author Larry McMurtry.
When you were starting your career, you wrote that publishers were eager for new fiction. Nowadays, there is a mania for memoirs, and in fact there are so many of them that they have come to be called in some quarters "mis lit" (misery literature). Obviously certain novelists, including yourself, have a large following and continue to be published. But has the truth trumped its recast version - fiction? Why are publishers encouraging writers to write memoirs instead of fiction? And what does this bode for the novelist?
I don't think that's widespread. There have always been young writers who have written memoirs, for example, Frank Conroy's Stop Time. I think it's just another fad, which will pass. There are far more first novels published in a given year than memoirs.
The Independent reviews Renegade, the memoir of Fall frontman Mark E Smith..
Although Smith has resisted a conventional biography, it offers a greater insight into his career and life than might have been expected. There are examples of Smith's fractured prose interspersed throughout, but the bulk of Renegade has a loose, conversational feel. As Smith has delivered the most entertaining interviews of anyone in the business, this approach achieves greater dividends than with lesser talents.
Brew Crew Ball lists the ten best baseball books (see my list).
Free Comic Book Day is tomorrow, support your local comic book store and get some free comics!
Portishead's Geoff Barrow and Adrian Utley are guest DJ's at NPR's All Songs Considered.
WNYC's Soundcheck features Peter Moren (of Peter Bjorn and John) with an interview and solo in-studio performance.
Drowned in Sound recaps April's album releases.
Northwestern University's Medill Reports profiles cartooonist Jeffrey Brown, who talks about his latest graphic novel, Little Things: A Memoir in Slices.
“Most of my earlier autobiographical stuff was about relationships, and this is kind of more about a wider variety of stuff,” Brown said. “The work is dealing with maybe bigger issues now, or a wider range of issues, thinking about how friendships change over time or what it means to be a father. It’s kind of about how little coincidences and little moments in your life add up to mean something else or something more.”.
Who's (sic) website is like blog.largeheartedboy.com?
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
