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January 20, 2007
Shorties
The Ottawa Citizen reviews the last night's Arcade Fire high school performance.
“They all knew their cues and the songs," Bostelaar said. "I can't believe how they play those instruments ... It wasn't the best acoustics, it being a cafeteria, but they still sounded phenomenal.”
The Times Online profiles Mark E. Smith, frontman for the Fall, as he nears the half-century mark.
On Franz Ferdinand and Bloc Party: “To me, there’s no belief in what they’re doing . . . It’s like they just want a career in music. I’m always suspicious of people like that.”
The Times Online profiles the music of Carla Bruni, who has used classic poetry by Auden and Yeats as lyrics to her pop songs.
In the Tennessean, author Neal Pollack weighs in on the current crop of indie music aimed at children.
"I think there is a semi-profound movement afoot. And yeah, some of it is superficial — especially those annoying Ramones onesies," he says. "But I think parents in their 30s and 40s, who themselves had an extended youth, want to share something that was meaningful in their lives with their kids, something that made them who they are."
The Santa Cruz Sentinel chronicles the highs and lows of this year's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees.
The Louisville Courier-Journal reports that the city will be reading Zora Neale Hurston's novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, in February as part of a citywide reading project.
"This is the most ever we've bought of any one title," said Craig Buthod, director of the Louisville Free Public Library. "This goes beyond just reading. It's about coming together and talking about what you've read. It forces you to think differently and more deeply about what you've read."
Cracked lists the 20 worst rhymes in pop music history, and Rolling Stone adds a couple more.
The Waterloo Record reviews an interesting book, Invaders from the North: How Canada Conquered the Comic Book Universe.
IGN lists the top 10 songs about airplanes.
An AskMetafilter member asks the community, "Will it be worthwhile to attend SXSW in order to promote my album?"
NPR's News & Notes profiles black writers and artists using graphic novels and comics as art form.
Stream the Last Town Chorus performance at WXPN's World Cafe.
Of Montreal bassist Bryan Poole talks to the Arizona Republic about the band's frontman, Kevin Barnes.
"He's one of the hardest-working songwriters I've known," Poole said. "He's never had writer's block that I can recall. Even out on the road, he takes little notes. If I was riding shotgun, and he was driving, he'd be like, 'Bryan, write this down.' He collects ideas and then we he gets home, he feverishly starts recording and starts fleshing them out."
Stephen Malkmus talks to the Columbian about playing with Sleater-Kinney and Quasi drummer Janet Weiss.
"It's challenging," Malkmus said of the process of playing with a revamped band. "It's good for me to be working with someone (Weiss) who's always trying to play at the edge of her abilities. It's made it a little bit more of a showcase on the playing in the songs sometimes, but the song's always there, too."
Metro New York interviews James Mercer of the Shins.
I heard that Eric Johnson from the Fruit Bats has officially joined the band. Is that true?
It is. I’ve known Eric for a long time. He worked on the record with us. After working with Chris Funk from the Decemberists, and working with Eric, I realized it would be great to have a multi-instrumentalist. Eric can also sing very beautifully. It’s just a dream.
Carey Lander of Camera Obscura talks to the Brooklyn Paper about the bands comparisons to Belle & Sebastian.
“The two bands have certainly gone in different directions,” Lander said. “I think we’re making very different music from each other now, and that’s just a natural progression. We weren’t thinking about them when we were making our new record.”
The A.V. Club lists "11 intriguing lost albums."
The Guardian's book blog is asking its readers to name their "unsung literary hero."
The Los Angeles Times profiles singer-songwriter Lee Hazlewood.
Being regarded as an idiosyncratic genius didn't hurt as he issued a succession of offbeat, personal albums overseas in the 1970s. Several of them were among the Hazlewood reissues put out in the late '90s by Smells Like Records, an independent label owned by Sonic Youth's drummer Steve Shelley, and the expatriate troubadour's legend burgeoned in the alternative-music world.
The Los Angeles Times reviews Neal Pollack's memoir, Alternadad.
Poetry editor Al Alvarez talks to the Daily Scotsman, recounting poets whose careers he helprd further.
Sylvia Plath: There was more life and liveliness and appetite in Plath writing about death than there is in the collected works of Philip Larkin writing about what a bitch it is to be alive.
IGN lists the top 25 metal albums.
In the Guardian, author Zadie Smith concludes her 15 tips on writing and reading (see also: part one)
Said the Gramophone has artist Keith Warren Greiman illustrate a couple of songs as part of its "Said the Guests" series.
Author Norman Mailer talks to the Sydney Morning Herald about his new novel, The Castle in the Forest, a fictional biography of Adolph Hitler.
Long ago, Mailer might have felt some apprehension with this project, knowing the kind of reviews it would spark. Now he says he doesn't care.
"One of the advantages of getting old, is you really don't give a f--- any more. What are they going to do, come and kill me? Fine, make a martyr of me! Make me immortal!"
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reviews the book.
IGN lists the top ten manga of 2006.
Haystack is a social networking service built around music.
Mog, another music social networking service, has added an embeddable Flash music player.
The Stones Throw Records podcast this week features a tribute to James Brown, a three-part mix by PB Wolf, J.Rocc and Egon.
see also:
Largehearted Boy's favorite albums of 2006
2006 Year-end Music List Compilation
this week's CD & DVD releases
