Largehearted Boy

39 Down, 13 To Go "Cult Magazines: From A to Z:" (52 Books, 52 Weeks)

Cult Magazines: From A to Z: A Compendium of Culturally Obsessive And Curiously Expressive Publications wasn't what I expected. I chose the book thinking it was an exploration of zines and zine culture, but in fact the book covers professionally published cult magazines published in the United States between 1925 and 1990. The book's essays examine the histories and inner workings of these niche magazines covering a variety of subjects (true crime, horror, comedy, etc.). Accompanied by full color reproductions of over 500 magazine covers, these stories of a bygone era often capture some of the pop culture wonder of the times and tell some fascinating tales.

For one month, enter the coupon code "LHB001" at Atomic Books and receive 15% off this title.

My next book is Death With Interruptions, edited by Jose Saramago.

also at Largehearted Boy:

52 Books, 52 Weeks (2009 Edition)
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)
Online "best of 2009" book lists
Online "best of 2008" book lists
Book Notes (authors create playlists for their book)
Note Books (musicians discuss literature)

tag: books literature non-fiction

38 Down, 14 To Go "Achewood Volume 2: Worst Song, Played On Ugliest Guitar" (52 Books, 52 Weeks)

Achewood Volume 2: Worst Song, Played On Ugliest Guitar is much more than a collection of the cult classic webcomic. The book collects the comics that predate Chris Onstad's widely acclaimed Achewood: The Great Outdoor Fight, and the cartoonist's notes about both the individual strips as well as the characters and the series' story arcs make this book as entertaining for the artist dialogue as for its incredibly funny comics.

For one month, enter the coupon code "LHB001" at Atomic Books and receive 15% off this title.

My next book is Cult Magazines: From A to Z: A Compendium of Culturally Obsessive & Curiously Expressive Publications , edited by Earl Kemp and Luis Ortiz.

also at Largehearted Boy:

tag: books literature comics

November 21st 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:

2 U I Bestow (top Irish albums)
About.com (best rock albums)
Associated Content (best albums)
the_bastard_son (worst music acts)
Berkeley Place (best independent hip-hop albums)
Best Ever Albums (best albums)
The Cookblog (best albums)
Eyes Open Like Sores (top albums)
Millsy's Blog (albums)
Nowalking on the Blog (top musical sequences)
Thoughts of a Frustrated Visionary (band of the decade)
Times Online (best classical albums)
Times Online (best jazz albums)
Times Online (best pop albums)
Times Online (best world music albums)
Top 30 or So (top albums)

also at Largehearted Boy:

daily updates to the list

list of the online best of the decade (2000-2009) music lists

Online "Best Of 2009" Music Lists
Online "Best Of 2008" Music Lists
Online "Best Of 2007" Music Lists
Online "Best Of 2006" Music Lists
Online "Best Books of 2009" 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

November 21st Updates to the Online Best of 2009 Music Lists

Today's additions to the list of the online best of 2009 music lists:

About.com (great debut albums)
About.com (top breakout acts)
Austin Town Hall (album covers)
Broadcast Beach (albums)
Countpopula (best songs)
Hold My Life (albums)
In GOB We Trust (top EPs & albums)
Jamey Jasta (Hatebreed) (top albums)
Jeremy Maciak (albums)
Katie Arbuthnot's Blog (top albums)
Pitchfork (year in techno)
Sean // Drowned in Sound (best songs & albums)
Theme Park Experience (year in music)
Troutspace (best albums)
Vox Acerbus (songs)
Winged Migration (best albums)

also at Largehearted Boy:

other daily updates to the list

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

2008 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

November 21st Updates to the Online Best of 2009 Book Lists

Today's updates to the list of online "best of 2009" book lists:

Amazon.com (best book covers)
David Wolach (best poetry books)
Libraries Matter (children's books)
Library Journal (best books)
Library Journal (best genre fiction)
Library Journal (best how-to books)
Library Journal (best YA for adults)
Living Read Girl (best books)
London Evening Standard (best books)
Mayhem and Magic (best books)
Sampson Starkweather (best poetry books)
Susan Denning (best poetry books)

also at Largehearted Boy:

Online "Best Books of 2009" Lists
Online "Best Books of 2008" Lists
daily updates to the list

Online Best of the Decade (2000-2009) music lists
2009 Online Year-end Music Lists
2008 Online Year-end Music Lists
2007 Online Year-end Music Lists
2006 Online Year-end Music Lists
other lists at Largehearted Boy
Book Notes (authors create playlists for their book)
Note Books (musicians discuss literature)
Anitiheroines (interviews with up and coming female comics artists)
guest book reviews
musician/author interviews
52 Books, 52 Weeks

tags: books literature list lists indie 2009 fiction nonfiction

Shorties (Lou Barlow, Why Novelists Write Essays, and more)

Lou Barlow visits The Current studio for an interview and live performance.

In the Guardian, Zadie Smith examines the appeal of essay writing to novelists.

Perfect essays abound in this world – almost every one of Joan Didion's fits the category. Perfect novels, as we all know, are rarer than Halley's comet. And so, for a writer, composing an essay instead of a novel is like turning from staring into a filthy, unfathomable puddle to looking through a clear glass windowpane.

Crosscut profiles indie music label Mt. Fuji Records.

The Top 13 lists the top 13 concert films of all time.

The Wall Street Journal lists the five best fictional books about World war II.

The National Post reviews Hilary mantel's Booker Prize-winning novel, Wolf Hall.

Just Out offers a fall reading guide.

The New York Times profiles the indie music scene of Athens, Greece.

The New York Times profiles Dinner with the Band chef Sam Mason.

“Playing music onstage is like Halloween: you can be whoever you want up there,” Mr. Mason said recently over coffee near his apartment in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. “This show is about taking musicians out of that comfort zone, putting them in a situation where they come out of their shells.”

A tongue in cheek glossary of book publishing terms.

The Louisville Courier-Journal reviews Michael Chabon's essay collection, Manhood for Amateurs.

His new book, Manhood for Amateurs, is a unique example of Chabon's immense gift as a builder of sentences, and his deep love for his characters. Except in this book, which is most a collection of his short essays written for Details magazine, Chabon's characters are the real people who surround him — his wife, fellow writer Ayelet Waldman, their four kids, his parents, his younger brother Steve (to whom the book is dedicated) and the vague sketches of past lovers and comrades.

The Nuns Are on the Sea Wall shares unreleased Lou Reed and Velvet Underground rarities and live shows.

Robot 6 interviews Larry Gonick, the cartoonist behind the four volume Cartoon History of the Universe.

The Oxford American's website features two blogs: Southern Girl and South Toward Home.

The Sacramento News & Review offers suggestions for winter reading.

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

also at Largehearted Boy:

online "best of 2009" book lists
online "best of 2009" music lists
best of the decade (2000-2009) online music lists

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

Daily Downloads (Mogwai, The Walkmen, and more)

Today's free and legal mp3 downloads:

Chatham County Line: 2009-11-07, Carrboro [mp3,ogg,flac]
"Lonesome in Caroline" [mp3]
other Chatham County Line posts at Largehearted Boy

Corb Lund: 2009-10-03, Raleigh [mp3,ogg,flac]
"Devil's Best Dress" [mp3]
other Corb Lund posts at Largehearted Boy

Drive-By Truckers: 2009-10-31, New Orleans [mp3,ogg,flac]
"Strutter (KISS cover)" [mp3]
other Drive-By Truckers posts at Largehearted Boy

Grace Potter: 2009-11-16, Baltimore [mp3,ogg,flac]
"Apologies" [mp3]
Grace Potter: 2009-11-14, Atlanta [mp3,ogg,flac]
"Oasis" [mp3]
other Grace Potter posts at Largehearted Boy

Lucy Kaplansky: 2003-04-03, Owings Mills [mp3,ogg,flac]
other Lucy Kaplansky posts at Largehearted Boy

Mogwai: 2009-05-15, Solana Beach [mp3,ogg,flac]
Mogwai: 2001-06-17, Dallas [mp3,ogg,flac]
"Christmas Steps" [mp3]
other Mogwai posts at Largehearted Boy

Pelican: 2009-05-20, Dallas\ [mp3,ogg,flac]
"Bliss in Concrete" [mp3]
other Pelican posts at Largehearted Boy

The Walkmen: 2009-11-14, Urbana [mp3,ogg,flac[]
"Little House of Savages" [mp3]
other Walkmen posts at Largehearted Boy

Free and legal mp3s of live performances at other websites:

JBM: Daytrotter session [mp3]
other JBM posts at Largehearted Boy

also at Largehearted Boy:

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

online "best of 2009" book lists
online "best of 2009" music lists
best of the decade (2000-2009) online music lists

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

tags: music download indie mp3

Book Notes - Blake Butler ("Scorch Atlas")

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

Blake Butler is the rare young writer who consistently and effectively challenges his readers. Scorch Atlas is a haunting collection of interconnected stories and vignettes, a dystopian work of genius.

The book itself is a work of art. The internal pages are individually distressed, and the page edges and cover appear burnt and scarred, and the design complements the book's theme perfectly.

Matt Bell wrote of the book:

"Scorch Atlas contains fourteen interlocking stories, each one rendering some family relationship apocalyptic and imperiled. What at first may seem merely bizarre--especially given the shifting forms that provide much of the textual delight of the book--eventually becomes terrifyingly familiar. Butler excels at forcing the familiar through the a sieve of strange until it is stripped clean of its everyday banality, until it is once again made so fresh you can smell the decay it contains, until you can taste the despair that threatens to destroy not just his characters but also the dangerous worlds they inhabit."

In his own words, here is Blake Butler's Book Notes music playlist for his novel, Scorch Atlas:

Scorch Atlas is a novel consisting of 14 kinds of rain, rain that fall on homes where families live and try to survive, including gravel, glitter, blood, meat, light. The original soundtrack for this book was the sound of every piece of fruit remaining on the earth crushed at once between two cars that two different people used to love so much they could not drive them. This is the second soundtrack to this book.

1. "Summons" by Mount Eerie

I had never heard this song when I wrote Scorch Atlas. It begins with guitar swells and small singing. It is a quiet start. It instructs something to, "Scream through my house." When I was little I would walk around the front yard and sing in the way it feels like Phil Elverum makes. Though he sounds better. Songs this quiet make me feel like I am about to die.

2. "Subject" by Prurient

Prurient is far beyond the feeling of impending dying. It is far beyond the realm of death. He makes a terror comes out of machines like nothing. This kind of sound is what it feels like often to be awake when you feel you should not be awake. The voice comes out of some massive sound recorder. If there were a narrator for Scorch Atlas, I would ask it to be the voice inside this song, and I would be afraid. BONUS: My friend Sam Pink said Scorch Atlas "is like little-kid+lsd+prurient on full blast+repeated punches to the face+an old man laughing and taking steroids and coloring his penis black with a magic marker=gottdang kid."

3. "Die And Get The F**k Out Of The Way" by Agoraphoric Nosebleed

When I was writing this book I often felt like the sentences were telling me to do exactly that.

4. "Village Oblivia" by Wolf Eyes

I had hoped this book would be all texture. Anywhere emotion comes in is an accident, which is fine. Emotions comes from rocks and money also. This song reminds me of when the father is laying on the bed in one of the stories in the book looking at the glass window he has ripped out in the ceiling over his marital bed, while through the floor below him the mother is wallowing in soot. More stars should detonate in books without the description of stars detonating. Anywhere this feeling comes in is beyond my control, which is the only way.

5. "Drum Gets A Glimpse" by Liars

There aren't really any liars in this book. All of the characters say exactly what they mean. I imagine for me this is one of the book's strengths, and helps it to work in a way that might feed. If the book feels brutal, which people seem to think it has, I think it is not brutal enough. This is a children's book. Drum Gets A Glimpse is a children's song. All the best things were made by children, if inside adults. I am not an adult. I sing this song in my car and feel nice. It says, "Why can't we just try start again?" More swells, though this time they are cymbals. "There's so much light we couldn't see."

6. "Respect" by Flying Saucer Attack

This song reminds me of waking up on a beach covered in whale meat. Not rotting yet, but about to, so that you can see the pockets on the flesh where the bugs are going to land but there are no bugs yet. The only questions that get asked in this book if I can remember right are asked by birds. Oh, there is a question asked by a girl to a bear. Actually there are many questions, but I think the questions are the answers. I like when the guitars come in over the noise rolls in this song. I like to think of Scorch Atlas as intricately layered sheets of noise and sometimes someone singing words you can't quite make out.

7. "Seed Me" by Retconned

A lot of questions like to ask about where is the light inside the dark of this book. Perhaps it feels the dark is so deep the light is not there. Instead all I see is the light, because it works in contrast to the black so that any thread is mega-magnified. This Retconned song sounds like a machine having a painful orgasm, like it hasn't had one in years. It has a good underlying rhythm, like all good things. This soundtrack is about to get more brutal. I like quiet parts the best when you are afraid of them because you are waiting for it to get brutal, and then the song never does.

8. "Hypostasis" of the Archons by Secret Chiefs 3

When I can smell myself because I have been writing so hard, I like to delete everything I've written up to that point and start again right there in the middle of the stink. This song reminds me of another of my favorite parts in my own book, being forced during this writing to think about the book, when the father is naked covered in mud coming back from looking for the son he drowned in dark liquid, and anticipates the dogs that have been throwing themselves against the house for weeks coming back right then while he is outside, and wondering if he would go inside or if he would let him eat them. Then he wonders what his son would have tasted like. And what would his wife. I think these thoughts about my relatives and friends when I am feeling young.

9. "Song for Dead Time" by Swans

I like to think of Michael Gira as one of the characters in Scorch Atlas but I'm not going to say which one. I think I thought about Swans a lot during the whole time I was writing these sentences. I listen to "Blood Promise" at least 50 times a year. It is the perfect song. I like the title ‘Song for Dead Time.' If I were in a black metal band I would have named the book that.

10. "Mezzo Forte" by Burning Star Core

This song is a bunch of weird breathing layered all on top of one another, again in a fantastic rhythm. I like to drive my red car with this song as loud as will go and not seem like it's going to rip my hair out. I have subwoofers. If I could give any piece of advice to a writer asking for advice, I'd say buy some subwoofers and put them in your car. This song also reminds me of my dad.

11. "Foe Life" by DJ Screw

DJ Screw (RIP) writes novels made of sound by taking rap tracks and f**king them in the ass. What more could you ask for. If there were a radio station alive somewhere in the ruinland of the architecture of Scorch Atlas, DJ Screw would be the magic playing the only remaining music in that earth air. DJ Screw smoking fat blunts and eating chocolate cherries while the white kids in Television Milk gag and bag their mother and make her guess what they are sticking in her flesh. Night transmissions. Money logic. Ass rip. Scorch Atlas.

12. "Hands That Mold" by Dystopia

People say you should forget your parents while you are writing. Every sentence I write I am thinking only and ever about my mother. This was the favorite band of my friend Jeffrey Patterson, who was shot in the face in downtown Atlanta when we were kids in a hardcore band. He cared so much about the music one time gave himself a concussion during band practice. The dedication to this book is in his memory.

13. "We Never Sleep" by Boredoms

All the houses buried. Eating chocolate. Why would you ever want to sleep. More music should be just someone throwing around a microphone while they roll in the floor eating things and trying to destroy the house. I wish the Boredoms would write a novel. It would sound like paper dogs being torn up and a moon made of gross.

14. "Vacuum" by Fennesz

Stop saying you are tired and just look into the box. Climb ladders more often if you can find them. There are at least 4 ladders underneath my parents' house, which is where I wrote most of this book. I drive there when my own house is small noisy, which is every day. My white noise machine is my favorite thing I own.

15. Side A of the Fresh Air 7" by Emeralds

I've looked all over for the name for this song and can not find it so let's end with this gleaming unnamed song.

Blake Butler and Scorch Atlas links:

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

Boston Phoenix review
BSCreview review
Dennis Cooper review
Dispatches from Utopia review
Matt Bell review
Outside Writers Collective review
Pank review
Tarpaulin Sky review
Three Guys One Book review

Eclectica interview with the author
The Faster Times interview with the author
Flavorpill profile of the author
Keyhole interview with the author
Largehearted Boy Book Notes music playlist by the author for his novel, EVER
Writers' Bloc interview with the author

also at Largehearted Boy:

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

online "best of 2009" book lists
Note Books (musicians discuss literature)
guest book reviews
musician/author interviews
52 Books, 52 Weeks

tags: books music literature fiction

Book Notes - Ben Shaberman ("The Vegan Monologues")

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

Ben Shaberman's essay collection The Vegan Monologues is more than a book about not eating animals. Shaberman touches on political, social, and environmental issues while recounting his own experiences, always in his humorous yet poignant voice.

In his own words, here is Ben Shaberman's Book Notes music playlist for his essay collection, The Vegan Monologues:

The Ad Hoc Soundtrack for The Vegan Monologues

In my book of essays, The Vegan Monologues, there's a hodge-podge of musical citations, most of which I use in humorous or ironic contexts. The variety even surprised me after I went back to identify all the references. The inclusion of them had never been intentional; it just happened.

Musical allusions are a powerful device for evoking all sorts of memories, images, and emotions. Of course, the music needs to be relatively well known or it's an empty moment for most readers.

Here are several of the songs and artists that appear in the book:

"The Fall of Troy" by Tom Waits

The following line from "The Fall of Troy" is the epigraph (opening quotation) for the book: "It's the same for men as with horses and dogs. Nothing wants to die." It was the most succinct statement I could identify about why I am vegan. And Waits' rugged voice has a way of reaching into your gut and not letting go. (Interestingly, the song appears on the Dead Man Walking soundtrack.)

"We've Only Just Begun" by The Carpenters

This song is mentioned in an essay where I lament the loss of a bumper from my old Volvo, but later feel a sense of redemption for driving an old beater rather than a resource-devouring SUV. Whether or not you like The Carpenters — they're music is the epitome of easy listening — the brother and sister team were ubiquitous during the 1970s. For me, the reference is nostalgic more than anything. I was about 9 or 10 when it was hit. At the time, I wore shirts with Nehru collars and my family drove around an Impala convertible covered in flower-power stickers. Looking back, it was all pretty creepy, yet it was the happiest I had ever seen my family. While Karen Carpenter was best known for her voice, she was an accomplished drummer, as well. She was also the "she" in "She's out of my Life," a song written for Michael Jackson. Karen died in 1983 due to complications from anorexia.

"Zip-a-dee-do-dah" from Song of the South (Disney film, 1946)

Little did I know when I used this nonsensical phrase how loaded it was. It appears in an essay about eating nothing but Chinese food for 30 days, and it describes the highly active state of my gastrointestinal system from being on so much fiber. I never knew much about the song or the film it appeared in, but I later learned that it was sung by the character Uncle Remus, an African American who is having a grand old time working on a plantation. Who knew that a good soundtrack could make slavery so much fun?

"Scarborough Fair" by Simon & Garfunkel

My girlfriend and I went to see Dan Rather give a talk at the historic Willard Hotel in Washington, D.C., and a harpist in the lobby was playing this tune. I guess you could call it live Muzak or Muzak for rich folks. While the essay is more about Rather, I also take a moment to describe the old-money opulence of the lobby. Rather's talk was impressive; he had a remarkable grasp of American history over the last 45+ years and a keen eye toward the future.

"Sound of Silence" by Simon & Garfunkel

By the way, I am a big fan of Simon & Garfunkel, especially the Simon half. He's poetic, rhythmic, emotive, and forthright. This particular song evokes a feeling of reckoning in me, and I use it to humorously refer to the experience of picking at a garden salad while large-framed people around me are stuffing themselves silly with barbecue. Simon actually wrote the song right after JFK was assassinated. "Hello darkness my old friend…"

"Knockin' on Heaven's Door" by Bob Dylan

Here's another song that evokes a feeling of reckoning. It's the song that I hummed as I used an ancient push-mower to cut my girlfriend's lawn, which I refer to as a "half-acre, knee-high garden of sadism." But times change; the girlfriend thankfully hired a neighbor to maintain the lawn and Bob Dylan now has a Christmas album.

"Dust in the Wind" by Kansas

Kansas was a welcome addition to the progressive rock movement of the 1970s. Their music included symphonic orchestration and complex arrangements, and their song writing was more sophisticated than that of most straight-ahead rock bands of that era. But the group fell victim to classic rock radio, whose limited play-lists have driven many great songs and bands into the ground. I used to read to a group of seniors at an assisted-living facility in Iowa, and "Dust in the Wind" served as a fitting soundtrack for my reading of an article about how our galaxy is hurdling toward another galaxy. Worry not; the galactic collision is still billions of years away.

Pink Floyd

Most people imagine that Pink Floyd fans of the 1970s sat around in black-lighted rooms, pulling on bongs as they listened to classic albums such as Dark Side of the Moon and Wish You Were Here. Well, that's exactly what I did. Nothing was quite as fun as getting stoned and taking in Floyd's large, atmospheric sound. Unlike many of my smoking buddies, I also got absorbed by the dark, socially reflective lyrics of Roger Waters, who I credit with inspiring me to put pen to paper. He is a masterful lyricist, a fact that gets overshadowed by the band's musical innovations.

Here's a favorite passage from the song "Time" — the crescendo of Dark Side — which was perhaps best known for David Gilmour's soaring guitar solo: "And you run and you run to catch up with the sun but it's sinking, racing around to come up behind you again. The sun is the same in a relative way but you're older, shorter of breath and one day closer to death."

Four essays in my book include references to Pink Floyd, including an homage to my first live concert experience, "Pink Floyd 1977," which I report "was like losing my virginity to a super model."

My Favorite Groups and Artists — Genesis (before 1978), Tangerine Dream, Led Zeppelin, Renaissance, Steely Dan, Hem, Bill Evans, The Avett Brothers, Josh Ritter, Carole King, and anything spacey and electronic, including most artists appearing on the public radio show Music from the Hearts of Space.

Ben Shaberman and The Vegan Monologues links:

the author's website

Largehearted Boy review
Vegetarians in Paradise review
VegFamily review

also at Largehearted Boy:

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

online "best of 2009" book lists
Note Books (musicians discuss literature)
guest book reviews
musician/author interviews
52 Books, 52 Weeks

tags: books music essays non-fiction vegan vegetarian

November 20th 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:

50 Songs, 10 Years (songs)
atysbooks (top albums)
Blowin' in the Wind (best albums)
Brian Currin (favourite songs)
Freedom from the Blog (albums)
limjorino (top albums)
Monitor Mix (genre dictionary)
Monitor Mix (musical mistakes)
Monitor Mix (songs, movements or artists that sums up the decade)
nc_seventeen (favorite albums)
The Prometheus Syndrome (top albums)
Reverb (worst song about Seattle)
Song of the Day (favorite artists)
Wolfie Wolfgang (favourite albums)

also at Largehearted Boy:

daily updates to the list

list of the online best of the decade (2000-2009) music lists

tags: music cd list lists indie 2000s albums

November 20th Updates to the Online Best of 2009 Music Lists

Today's additions to the list of the online best of 2009 music lists:

4 Girls, 4 Lives, 4 Ever (top albums)
Andy Barlow Blog (top albums)
The BAcksliders (music)
Fierce & Nerdy (best & worst albums)
The Fishpork (favorite albums)
Flavorwire (top vinyl album covers)
Gunsling Birds (favorite albums)
The Heights (top albums)
Indie Rock Reviews - Barry Moore (best albums)
Indie Rock Reviews - Natalie Salvo (best Australian albums)
Listen Up! (music)
Nick Hipa (As I Lay Dying) (top albums)
Press Play (best albums)
Rhymin and Stealin (Canadian hip-hop)
Rough Trade (top albums)
Sean Horton (top albums)
Something Awful (top albums)
Stadiums and Shrines (best songs)
Stuff and Such (best & worst albums)
The Telegraph (top classical crossover albums)
Tom Searle (top albums)
Uncut (best songs)

also at Largehearted Boy:

other daily updates to the list

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

tags: music cd list lists indie 2000s albums

Shorties (Best Debut Novels of the Decade, David Rawlings, and more)

Paste lists the best debut novels of the decade.

Paste interviews David Rawlings about his debut solo album, A Friend of a Friend.

Paste: You cover some songs on this record—including a medley of “Method Acting” by Bright Eyes and “Cortez the Killer” by Neil Young. How did that come to be?

Rawlings: A couple years ago, at the end of ’07, Conor [Oberst] called me and asked me if I would come play guitar with Bright Eyes because Mike Mogis was producing a record and it was running on, and they had dates booked and Mike couldn’t do it. I was very excited to go play electric guitar for two or three weeks on his tour. He was playing stuff from all his records, and a couple things form Fevers and Mirrors, including “Method Acting.” I loved the song, and we played it every night. I guess it sunk in, because about six months after that tour. I was sitting playing guitar and I started singing that song. which I didn’t know I had learned. Then I thought about covering it, and I monkeyed with the lyrics a little because I felt like it was important that it stay as autobiographical and as personal seeming as it does when Conor does it—I love that there’s no skin between the singer and the audience.

The Escapist lists the literary inspirations of the game Dungeons & Dragons.

The Boston Globe profiles singer-songwriter Devendra Banhart.

The Guardian explores the current trend of rock stars writing movie scores.

Yeah Yeah Yeahs' Karen O composed the music for Spike Jonze's forthcoming adaptation of Where the Wild Things Are, Nick Cave and Warren Ellis have composed the score for the film adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's novel The Road, while Badly Drawn Boy (Damon Gough) has written the soundtrack to Caroline Aherne's new full-length feature The Fattest Man in Britain, which airs on ITV over Christmas. Even Jarvis Cocker made a humble offering to Wes Anderson's Fantastic Mr Fox.

The Guardian lists websites to stream and/or download live music sessions.

Monolith Festival director Josh Baker talks to the Denver Westword about the Colorado music festival's dire financial position.

The London Evening Standard examines the greening of the music industry.

The Boston Herald recommends '80s underground rock bands.

The Tallahassee Democrat profiles singer-songwriter Neko Case.

The Irish Independent interviews singer-songwriter Mick Flannery about his experiences living in Brooklyn.

On sale at Amazon MP3: John Lennon's 10-track Imagine album for $2.99.

The Irish Times profiles Colum McCann, who just won the National Book Award for his novel, Let the Great World Spin.

io9 interviews author Michael Chabon about literary genres.

Justin Taylor needs pictures of your literary tattoos for his book.

Foss Forward lists under-appreciated bands.

io9 lists the greatest swashbuckling heroes form 100+ years of science fiction books.

John Darnielle talks to the Nashville Scene about the new Mountain Goats album, The Life of the World to Come.

Darnielle has used Bible verses to title songs before, and the idea intrigued him. "There's just something portentous about having a title that refers to this big book that is central to so much culture and so much literature, and has spawned so many big ideas," he says. "To refer to Bible text opens a bunch of internal doors."

The best book blogs for history buffs.

The Louisville Courier-Journal lists its favorite albums produced by Steve Albini, and also interviews him.

DailyFinance examines why superhero comics are recession-proof.

The Guardian books blog lists some of its favorite science fiction story titles.

The Graphic Novel Reporter interviews Fables creator Bill Willingham.

Cory Chisel visits The Current studios for an interview and live performance.

Monitor Mix lists four musical mistakes of this decade.

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

also at Largehearted Boy:

online "best of 2009" book lists
online "best of 2009" music lists
best of the decade (2000-2009) online music lists

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

Daily Downloads (Efterklang, Nouvelle Vague, and more)

Today's free and legal mp3 downloads:

Boy Genius: "Ramona Saves the Day" [mp3] from Staggering (out January 26th)
other Boy Genius posts at Largehearted Boy

Chip Taylor: "No Dice" [mp3] from Yonkers, NY
other Chip Taylor posts at Largehearted Boy

Downtown Harvest: "Anita Leave" [mp3] from Discovering Dinosaurs (out February 14th)
other Downtown Harvest posts at Largehearted Boy

Efterklang: "Modern Drift" [mp3] from Magic Chairs (out February 23rd)
other Efterklang posts at Largehearted Boy

Georgia Anne Muldrow: "Run Away" [mp3] from Early
other Georgia Anne Muldrow posts at Largehearted Boy

A History Of: "Action in the North Atlantic" [mp3] from Action in the North Atlantic (out December 1st)
A History Of: "Dagger Woods" [mp3] from Action in the North Atlantic (out December 1st)
other A History Of posts at Largehearted Boy

Kate and After: "Snow Angel" [mp3]
other Kate and After posts at Largehearted Boy

Nouvelle Vague: "Ca Plane Pour Moi" [mp3] from 3
other Nouvelle Vague posts at Largehearted Boy

Sia: "You've Changed" [mp3] from We Are Born (out in spring 2010)
other Sia posts at Largehearted Boy

Free and legal mp3s of live performances at other websites:

Cory Chisel: Daytrotter session [mp3]
other Cory Chisel posts at Largehearted Boy

Imogen Heap: 2009-11-09, Los Angeles [mp3]
other Imogen Heap posts at Largehearted Boy

Mason Proper: Luxury Wafers session [mp3]
other Mason Proper posts at Largehearted Boy

Mission of Burma: WOXY Lounge Act [mp3]
other Mission of Burma posts at Largehearted Boy

Thao with The Get Down Stay Down: The Bay Bridged session [mp3]
other Thao posts at Largehearted Boy

also at Largehearted Boy:

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

online "best of 2009" book lists
online "best of 2009" music lists
best of the decade (2000-2009) online music lists

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

tags: music download indie mp3

Book Notes - Lydia Millet ("Love in Infant Monkeys")

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

Lydia Millet is one of my favorite writers, and her first collection of short fiction, Love in Infant Monkeys marries celebrities with animals to great effect. These keenly written interactions of human and animal move these tales forward and offer rare insights into the human psyche as well as our celebrity-obsessed culture.

The Los Angeles Times wrote of the book:

"Lydia Millet's first collection of short fiction, "Love in Infant Monkeys" (Soft Skull: 178 pp., $13.95 paper), is a superb book. Featuring 10 stories -- all of which revolve in some sense around the interaction of animals and famous people -- it asks all sorts of uncomfortable questions: about ourselves, about the world around us, about the very essence of being, of belonging, of what it means to exist.

In her own words, here is Lydia Millet's Book Notes music playlist for her short story collection, Love in Infant Monkeys:

Love in Infant Monkeys is a book of short stories about famous people and their relationships with particular animals. All the stories are based on nuggets of nonfiction and then spun out from there—from biography or soundbite into fleshy cultural shapes.

"Sexing the Pheasant," the first story, is about Madonna, when she shot a pheasant on her English estate and then decided to give up hunting. It's an internal monologue as she watched the bird die, her thoughts on her marriage and religion and the thorny issue of whether she would still be able to wear tailored hunting clothes if she wasn't actually hunting anymore. I'd pick "Pablo Picasso," maybe the John Cale version.

Pablo Picasso never got called an asshole.

The second story, one of my two favorites in the collection, is "Girl and Giraffe," about George Adamson, of Born Free fame, and two of the lions he raised, a brother and sister. One of them, the brother, stays half-tame and lives with Adamson and eventually becomes a brutal killer and has to be shot dead, though Adamson loves him deeply. The other, a female simply named Girl, readjusts to the wild and disappears into it and is never seen again. The setting is postcolonial Africa. I would set this to the timeless Mekons song "Waltz."

A pair of giant's hands/Sink into the sand/And tear out the family silver/To pay off the stooges we hired…You will never come home, now/You will never come home.

"Sir Henry" is about David Hasselhoff's dogwalker and his dogs. If the story was about the Hoff, primarily, you'd have to go with something iconic eighties and plasticky, maybe The Cars, "Drive" or "Let's Go" or similar. But the story is more about dogs, and the love of dogs, and the loneliness of people and perhaps of dogs too. Also it features a dying violinist who's a dog owner. So I'd pick Tchaikovsky's sad and beautiful Violin Concerto in D.

"Thomas Edison and Vasil Golakov" is about Edison's obsession with a film of Topsy the circus elephant being publicly electrocuted, and an alleged relationship between Edison and his drug-addled valet. The song for this has to be the Bryan Ferry cover of "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes."

They say someday you'll find/All who love are blind /When your heart's on fire/You must realize/Smoke gets in your eyes.

"Tesla and Wife," about a couple of maids and Nicola Tesla and his romantic love for a pigeon. I think "Che farò senza Eurydice," from the Gluck opera, where Orpheus searches for his lost love in the underworld and finally finds her and loses her again.

What will I do without her? What will I do without my love?

The title story "Love in Infant Monkeys," about infamous experimental psychologist Harry Harlow and the baby monkeys he took away from their mothers and isolated in cages with only monkey mothers made of wire to keep them company, would read well to Gillian Welch's "Orphan Girl."

I am an orphan on God's highway/But I'll share my troubles if you go my way/I have no mother no father/No sister no brother/I am an orphan girl.

"Chomsky, Rodents" is a fictionalized anecdote about a real-life episode when my husband ran into Noam Chomsky in a town dump on Cape Cod and Chomsky was trying to give away a gerbil cage. It's a lot about mothers too, women and men and parenting, so though I'm not much of a Sinead O' Connor fan in general I think I'd recommend "Emma's Song" to go with it.

The first time I saw you/I loved you/I loved you/Your face blue/Your eyes too/Your mouth too/Your mouth too.

"Jimmy Carter's Rabbit" chronicles a fictional visit by Jimmy Carter to the office of a psychotherapist after he leaves office, in the wake of the killer swamp rabbit episode that arguably helped emasculate the President in the public eye. I'd set it to something earnest, folksy and a little nostalgic — maybe "Our Town," by Iris DeMent.

Go on now and say goodbye to our town, to our town/Can't you see the sun's settin' down on our town, on our town/Goodnight.

"The Lady and the Dragon," about Sharon Stone's ex-husband being bitten on the toe by a Komodo dragon—and what happened to the giant lizard afterward—I'd put with Cat Power's "The Greatest."

Once I wanted to be the greatest/No wind or waterfall could stall me/And then came the rush of the flood/The stars at night turned deep to dust.

The last, brief story in the collection, "Walking Bird," is the only one without a celebrity. A small family goes to the zoo, and suddenly at the end of the day the mother notices that all the animals have disappeared. For this I'd go back to the Mekons, as I always do in the end—say, "One X One."

All the eyes are closing/one by one/one by one.

Lydia Millet and Love in Infant Monkeys links:

the author's website
the author's Wikipedia entry
animated video of a line from the book
excerpt from the book

Austin Chronicle review
Black Gate review
BOMBLog review
Bookforum.com review
Bookmarks Magazine review
Eye Weekly review
Frisbee: A Book Journal review
Globe and Mail review
The Internet Review of Books review
Los Angeles Times review
New York Times review
Publishers Weekly review
Quill & Quire review
The Second Pass review
The Rumpus review
Venus Zine review