largehearted boy: a boy, a girl, and his radio

February 9, 2007

Shorties

The A.V. Club lists "15 pop songs owned by movie scenes."

The A.V. Club interviews Shins frontman James Mercer.

AVC: It seems inevitable that some people have attempted to woo partners by playing "New Slang" and telling them that it will change their lives. How often do you think that actually works?

JM: I don't know. I hope it's worked quite a bit. One of the members of My Morning Jacket pulled Dave Hernandez, our guitarist, aside and said—and I think he was kind of drunk—"Man, my wife and I, we put on Oh, Inverted World, and we just get down, man." He was saying that they have sex—that's one of the records that they like to listen to when they're getting it on. That was pretty cool.

Singer-songwriter Anais Mitchell talks to the Vermont Guardian about her new album, The Brightness.

“For me, the recurring theme of the record is a kind of sweet, frustrated nostalgia. On the one hand, it’s the feeling of arriving on a scene or in a town where there was a real moment of cultural brightness, a moment which is long gone: Greenwich Village in the sixties, say, or Paris in the thirties, or Alexandria between the wars. It’s the feeling of having been born too late, trying to make one’s way among the ghosts."

The A.V. Club interviews former XTC frontman Andy Partridge.

AVC: Does songwriting get easier or tougher with experience?

AP: It's tougher, because you end up dry-retching. You don't have a lot left. I actually think the creative process is finite, and I'm wondering whether I've retched everything up. Because it's like vomiting or shitting. People ask, "Do you listen to your own stuff?" Rarely. What do you want to return to your own vomit for? You got it out to get it out. If I get really, really drunk, on the edge of passing out, I might lie on the floor and put some music on. And just before I pass out, I say, "This is fucking great, they were brilliant, that band. I love this band." Then I'm gone. I can get over the vomity barrier if I get ludicrously drunk.

Science fiction author Terry Pratchett talks to the Age about his Discworld series.

The author says the ability to deal with important issues "via sock-puppet" killed off the need for dreary, po-faced commentary in his books. "The nice thing about Discworld is that in some respects it mirrors this world and enables you to make oblique references about this world."

The Raleigh News & Observer recommends songs for a Valentine's Day mix CD.

Get Reading has Paul Gambaccini review the five discs nominated for "best album" by the Brit Awards.

The New York Sun offers a history of the PLUG awards.

Stylus collects the best videos from MTV's "Amp."

The Times Online profiles the legendary British folk band, Pentangle.

A convert of some ten years, the Smiths’ Johnny Marr articulates the reason why so many disparate music fans wanted a piece of Pentangle. “You only had to see pictures of them back in the day to know why people like Led Zeppelin thought they were so cool,” he says. “I remember asking Bert, ‘When you were doing it, did you know that you were, like, heavy? Heavier than all those bands that were heavy?’ He nodded this thoroughly appropriate nod and passed me a biscuit — as if to say, ‘Yes, and I’m too heavy to even talk about it!’ ”

Comics Should Be Good examines early examples of comics aimed at an adult audience.

Director John Waters talks to Harp about his compilation album, A Date with John Waters.

If John Waters was after your honeybuns, wouldn’t you like to know the plan of attack? Evidently he’s a sportin’ guy because he’s laying it all out on A Date with John Waters (New Line). The compilation’s 14 songs, says Waters, are sequenced “in the order if I was trying to seduce you, and had you over to my house.”

Singer-songwriter Sondre Lerche talks to NPR's Day to Day.

"I have this idealistic and maybe naïve thought that almost any song can be anything," Lerche says. "If you record one song today, it would maybe be exciting and cool. But I could record the same song next week and it would be something completely different."

NPR recommends five songs for Valentine's Day.

Singer-songwriter Vashti Bunyan talks to the Washington Post about her two albums, released 35 years apart.

"The first album was all optimism, dreams and imagination," Bunyan says. "The second one was looking back over what had actually happened. The 'Diamond Day' songs were very much descriptive of the outside of my life and the landscape I was experiencing. The second album was more about the internal landscape. One looking forward, one looking back -- they're like bookends."

The Independent reviews the new Fall album, Reformation Post TLC (giving it 4 out of 5 stars).

The end result is probably the best Fall album since the halcyon days of This Nation's Saving Grace and Hex Enduction Hour, another worthy addition to the guy's track record.

Shins frontman James Mercer talks to the Independent about the band's new album, Wincing the Night Away.

Mercer is a smart guy, though. Rather than popping champagne corks, he's weighed up the numbers carefully. "What it is, I think, is that we have a large fanbase who have been waiting anxiously," he says, "and they all bought the record as soon as it came out. I expect it to decline pretty quickly - I don't think we'll be number two next week. But it's good, it's fine. Nobody expected the sales to be like this, but we aren't affected by it. Thus far, we're doing the same as we ever did." So, no concerns about waving goodbye to cult acclaim and saying hello to the big time? "I might have more perspective on that in six months' time," he laughs. "We have to get back home and see if there's people waiting on our doorsteps. I doubt it, though."

Singer-songwriter Jesse Sykes talks to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

"I sense that people now, more than ever, seem to feel apologetic about being vulnerable or having strong opinions," she said. "I notice that people don't even want to talk about war or about politics. We're pretty jaded as a culture. It's just a really strange time."

Inside Bay Area lists new "hip, sassy" books about love and dating.

Time profiles the young, hip parenting movement.

The Howl of this movement is Neal Pollack's new memoir Alternadad (Pantheon). Pollack, a novelist and erstwhile punk-rock frontman, sets out to make sure that in a world of Disney and Barney, his baby Elijah, now 5, will be cool (and thus that Dad will remain so). He home schools the boy in hipster culture, taking him to blues shows and playing him a curated collection of punk. Goodbye, Baby Mozart; hello, Baby Ramone.

JamBase profiles Spank Rock.

Erik Kang, violinist for Margot & the Nuclear So and So's, talks to the Daily Northwestern.

"We've been blessed with really loyal fans and really vocal fans," says Kang. "There are quite a few blogs that have said very favorable things about us. Everyone likes hearing good things about themselves."

Podbop lists 8 reasons "why bands/labels should offer an mp3."

Singer-songwriter Jennifer O'Connor talks to the Riverfront Times.

"Inevitably a lot of my life comes out in my writing," O'Connor explains. "The songs are the surface of how I am thinking and feeling. I do like to be detail-specific; it's more interesting that way. The trick is to not be so specific that you can't apply something of your own. The great thing about music is that it can mean anything."

Author John Banville reviews the new Martin Amis novel, House of Mirrors, in the New York Review of Books.

House of Meetings is a rich mixture, all the richer for being so determinedly compressed. In fewer than 250 taut but wonderfully allusive, powerful pages Amis has painted an impressively broad canvas, and achieved a telling depth of perspective.

Neatorama lists authors who wrote in the nude.

In my favorite blog post of the year so far, chef/author Anthony Bourdain examines the state of Food Network and its celebrity chefs.

PAULA DEEN: I’m reluctant to bash what seems to be a nice old lady. Even if her supporting cast is beginning to look like the Hills Have Eyes--and her food a True Buffet of Horrors. A recent Hawaii show was indistinguishable from an early John Waters film. And the food on a par with the last scene of Pink Flamingos. But I’d like to see her mad. Like her look-alike, Divine in the classic, “Female Trouble.“ Paula Deen on a Baltimore Killing Spree would be something to see. Let her get Rachael in a headlock--and it’s all over.

see also:

this week's CD & DVD releases

tags: music books

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February 9, 2007

Bittorrent Brunch

Arcade Fire: 2005-05-20, Berlin [flac]*
Beatles: "Mythology, Vol. II" [flac]*
Bjork: 1998-08-09 [flac]*
Casper and the Cookies: 2007-02-03, Athens [flac]*
Jeff Tweedy & Scott McCaughey: 2007-01-20, Dallas [flac]*
Jon Brion: 2001-04-19, San Francisco [flac]*
Lemonheads: 2007-02-06, New Orleans [flac]*
Rufus Wainwright: 1998-02-17, Los Angeles [flac]*
Television: 1976-01-14, New York [flac]*
X: 1994-03-31, KCRW [flac]*

*registration required

tags: music download bittorrent

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Daily Downloads

Barr: "The Song Is the Single" [mp3] from Summary
@myspace
other music blog posts: @elbo.ws @hype

Black Belt: several tracks [mp3]
"Hold On" [mp3] from Hold On
@myspace
other music blog posts: @elbo.ws @hype

Cantona: several tracks [mp3]
@myspace
other music blog posts: @elbo.ws @hype

Chris Garneau: "Not Nice" [mp3] from Music for Tourists
@myspace
other music blog posts: @elbo.ws @hype

Dawn Landes: several tracks [mp3]*
"Kissing Song" [mp3] from Dawn's Music
@myspace
other music blog posts: @elbo.ws @hype

J Dilla: "Make 'em NV" [mp3] from Ruff Draft (out March 20th)
@myspace
other music blog posts: @elbo.ws @hype

Marnie Stern: "Every Single Line Means Something" [mp3] from In Advance of the Broken Arm
@myspace
other music blog posts: @elbo.ws @hype

The Masons: "Spaceman" [mp3] from Let You Down Easy
@myspace
other music blog posts: @elbo.ws @hype

McGovern-Goldwater Ticket: two downloadable and two streaming tracks [mp3]
@myspace
other music blog posts: @elbo.ws @hype

MSTRKRFT: "Street Justice" [mp3] from
@myspace
other music blog posts: @elbo.ws @hype

*updated since last mention

see also:

this week's CD & DVD releases

tags: music download mp3

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February 8, 2007

Largehearted Valentine's Gift Guide

Every Valentines day, I try to find a unique way to surprise my wife of eight years. This year, we gave our family a puppy, and combined with some chocolate, a romantic dinner and some wine, our Valentines Day will be a huge success.

This year, I have asked my favorite booksellers and pop culture zealots (and LHB sponsors for my 52 Books, 52 Weeks project), Benn Ray and Rachel Whang of Baltimore's Atomic Books for Valentines Day gift suggestions.

In their own words, here are the Valentines Day gift suggestions from the proprietors Atomic Books, Benn and Rachel (each other's Valentine, by the way):

As all of us who have ever been in a relationship know, giving the wrong Valentines Day gift can sentence you to a lifetime of bitter loneliness.

VALENTINES DAY GIFT SUGGESTIONS

2gether 4ever by Dene Larson

Remember the days you used 2 use numbers 4 words? When love was the biggest deal in your life? When you had to pass notes in class cuz texting hadn't been invented yet? This book is a collection of junior high love notes.

Classic Valentines Cards

Remember in elementary school when you had to make a paper bag mailbox and give everyone in your class, even the kids you hated, Valentines Day cards? These are those cards.

Clumsy by Jeffrey Brown

Many Largehearted Boy readers may recognize Jeffrey from his Deathcab For Cutie video, but this book is his debut graphic novel of romantic dysfunctionalism. It's sweet and pathetic and creepy, just like you, my Valentine!

Date With John Waters CD by John Waters

Here, cult film director John Waters collects his favorite love songs to help you set just the right Valentines Day mood. Songs include "I'd Love To Take Orders From You," "Sometimes I Wish I Had A Gun," and "Johnny Are You Queer". 14 tracks in all, plus, our CDs come signed by John.

Love Rats

They're cute and squeaky and done up in Valentines Day colors so as to not be mistaken for the real thing and solicit screams of terror from the one you love.

Position Of The Day by Nerve.com Editors

Hey, it's Valentines Day, why not try something new.

Prison Killing Techniques by Ralf Omar Dean

Is your significant other doing a little work for the state? Nothing says "I'm waiting for you" better than this prison survival guide.

Striptease Kit by Jennifer Axen/Leigh Phillips/Barbara

Be careful - giving this as a Valentines Day gift may be seen as the same as giving sexy undies (a big no-no to many). But if it's well received, this could be the Valentines Day gift that keeps on giving...

When Someone You Love Is Kinky by Dossie Easton/Catherine A. Liszt

You know that secret you just haven't been able to share with your lover? The one about the thing that really gets you off? Giving this book helps send that message.

Yummy Donut Keychain by Heidi Kenney/My Paper Crane

These adorable donut keychains are mystery packaged, so you don't know exactly which one you'll get. But believe me, the surprise adds to the fun. These things are so cute that their adorability spills over onto the person who gives them as a gift. You want to be adorable, don't you?

ANTI-VALENTINES DAY GIFT SUGGESTIONS

Because those who are single during Valentines Day deserve gifts too...

Against Love: A Polemic by Laura Kipnis

A look at the meaning and cultural significance of adultery. Who here hasn't cheated at some time in their life? Didn't raise your hand? You lie.

Final Exits by Michael Largo

This illustrated encyclopedia of how people die goes well with a bottle of bourbon for that special someone you know is alone on Valentines Day.

Let Me Finish by Udo Grashoff

If you're going to end it, this collection of suicide notes will help give you insight on what to say and what not to say when composing your final words.

Party Of One: The Loner's Manifesto by Anneli Rufus

If you answer this question, "So, why are you alone on Valentines Day" with the words, "by choice," then Rufus' manifesto is just the book for you.

Redefining Our Relationships by Wendy O-Matic

Did they want to date other people? Did they utter the phrase "open relationship" and you bugged out? Wendy O-Matic's book may be just the thing for you.

tags: valentines books gifts

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Shorties

The Kansas City Star gets independent music retailers' reactions to the mainstream success of the Shins.

“As an indie merchant, it pains me,” said Steve Wilson, a musician and manager of Kief’s Downtown Music in Lawrence. (Wilson is also an occasional freelance music reviewer for The Star.) “You like to think there is some indie fealty and some recognition for the roles stores like ours play in establishing artists’ careers. But it’s a ‘what have you done for me lately’ world.”

Portastatic's Mac McCaughan talks to Vancouver's Straight.

“I’m very interested in it [modern art],” says McCaughan. “It gives me a similar pleasure and excites me in the same way as music. It inspires me, and makes me think about things in a certain way. And I like anything that, when you’re looking at it or listening to it, makes you think ‘How did they do that?’ There’s music that I like, but when you’re listening to it you just know it’s formulaic. You have an understanding of how it came to be. Then there are other things, especially in the art world, where you’re like, ‘How did someone’s brain work that allowed them to end up with this?’ ”

Tokyo Police Club's Graham Wright talks to the Winnipeg Sun about the band's debut album.

"I don't know that it's going to sound exactly like the EP," he muses. "A lot of what we do in music comes from the fact that we have musical ADD, so we get bored really easily."

Jeff Chang, author of Can’t Stop Won’t Stop — A History of the Hip-Hop Generation, talks to SOHH Atlanta about his new book, Total Chaos: The Art and Aesthetics of Hip-Hop.

“Hip-hop arts are thought of only as rap music, but our generation has taken it into the visual arts, photography, graphic design, literature, poetry, dance and theater,” the 39-year-old Chang says from his home in Berkeley, Calif. “It’s gone well beyond rap music. Critics don’t recognize it, but the artists feel they are working in a hip-hop tradition.”

Austin360 interviews Donewaiting's Rob Duffy.

Robert Duffy: I started the SXSW blog on donewaiting.com four years ago when I was heading to Austin for the first time for the festival. At the time, there wasn’t really any solid source online outside of the main SXSW site covering the event, so I decided to be that person. I’ve always found it funny that my site is such a huge source of information on the festival, considering I’m based out of Columbus, Ohio, but that’s how the Internet works, I guess.

LSU's Daily Reveille examines labels streaming albums online before their release dates.

Michael Kaufmann, assistant director at Asthmatic Kitty records, said streaming albums online for free is gradually becoming the standard for his label. The trend was highlighted last year when Sufjan Stevens - the label's most well-known artist - released his album "Songs for Christmas" and agreed to allow fans to hear the record for free online.

"[The album] was getting very heavy, very consistent traffic," Kaufmann said. "It drove a lot of traffic to our site, for sure, and I think that's one of the reasons why we liked it."

Singer-songwriter Eleni Mandell talks to Harp.

The Living Sisters is a group I have with Inara George and Becky Stark. We sing harmonies and wear matching outfits. Sometimes we have birds in our hair and crazy glitter disco dresses, but we sing kind of old-fashioned songs with really pretty harmonies. There’s something about harmonies that I just love. They resonate in my body or something. I know that sounds really corny.

Drowned in Sound offers a playlist for a snow day.

Author Cornelius Medvei talks to NPR's All Things Considered about his novella, Mr. Thundermug.

Caught in the Carousel interviews Jim Shepherd of the Jasmine Minks.

CITC: What was a particularly humbling moment for you in the early days of the 'Minks? Did you ever come face to face with someone who you admired quite a bit?

JS: Morrissey came to see us--The Smiths had already become a cult overnight sensation. (I went to see them with the Go-Betweens and Felt supporting--what a bill!) We were playing at the Living Room supporting some Manchester band, who for now I forget the name of. But no one really talked to him--he just sat at a table in the bar and looked a bit pensive. I was quite lacking in confidence myself and it just seemed a bit odd for a pop star to be on his own--no one would go near him and he never ventured over to us. Alan McGee talked to him but he was far more confident than most of us.

The Village Voice has posted results from its 2006 Pazz & Jop music poll.

NPR's Morning Edition examines indie bands who license their music for commercials.

The Montreal Gazette reviews the first night of the Arcade Fire's Montreal shows.

Shins guitarist Dave Hernandez talks to the Pulse of the Twin Cities.

"I think something about our sound is really palatable to a lot of movie figures and TV shows, I guess," Hernandez reflects. "We're not like, 'Let's get a Gap commercial!'--that just kind of happened. We're all from working-class family backgrounds. Traditionally, it's not a good thing to glorify being poor; we don't really think it's cool to pretend to be poor. I mean, fuck, I want to have a roof over my kids' heads. So our knee-jerk reaction is just, um, OK. It's not for Camel cigarettes, or war, or Bush, so what the hell? We're not letting the U.S. Army use it for a commercial."

Deerhoof's Greg Saunier talks to the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

The article also points out the ballet inspired by the band's Milk Man album.

"I have to admit, the truth is, as long as we've been in the band I've felt like we were getting more attention than I thought we would."

Deerhoof guitarist John Dieterich talks to AM New York..

amNY: Why do you think you guys stick out as a live act?

John: So many times people over the years have come up to us after the shows and been like, 'We've heard the records, and thought that the live show was utterly different,' and that was always mystifying. We would arrange things differently for live and ... the version on the record is one version and the version we play live is another but we never actually understood why it was so different.

The New York Times excerpts the first chapter of Joe Hill's novel, Heart-Shaped Box.

E! Online's Answer Bitch answers the question, "Why is it that mainstream music seems to suck so much lately?"

Jesse Sykes talks to the Los Angeles Times about her new album, Like, Love, Lust & the Open Halls of the Soul.

"I think our music is more hopeful than people realize," Sykes says. "Some people who loved us for a more pastoral, minimalist sound might not like this, but we're not reinventing the wheel."

Sykes also talks to Seattle Weekly.

"I now so completely understand the mechanics of how things work in this business that I don't take things personally anymore," affirms Sykes. "I've never thought of quitting, but I've been kicked in the chest and let it get to me. The only difference now is that the anguish only lasts 24 hours. You realize that quitting is not an option. You don't have a choice."

The Nashville Scene recommends two books for Valentine's Day gifts: Kitchen Kama Sutra: 50 Ways to Seduce Each Other Outside the Bedroom and Modern Love: 50 True and Extraordinary Tales of Desire, Deceit, and Devotion.

The Guardian and Telegraph report on author Stef Penney's Costa award win with her debut novel, The Tenderness of Wolves.

Between the Lines lists five reasons why Apple's Steve Jobs wants to abolish DRM.

Seattle Weekly interviews Jack Rainwater, guitarist for the Merle Haggard tribute band, Mama Tried.

It's funny, because Merle Haggard seems to embody that weird American dynamic. We're always the first to adopt radical viewpoints, yet we're some of the most conservative people on the planet.

Oh yeah. Y'know, the Drive-by Truckers said that "Okie From Muskogee" was written from Merle's dad's point of view. I thought that was interesting. But then I'm thinking, 'Merle's gotta be pushing 70. That would make him 40 years old in 1960.' I don't think it was written from his dad's perspective. I think that's really Merle singing what he believed. He's like a combo of John Steinbeck and James Dean. Steinbeck was that kind of old codger out there traveling America. I think Merle really is that kind of guy from the Grapes of Wrath. And you know, we're playing this show with a rockabilly band called Fistful of Cash—they do all Johnny Cash stuff from the Sun Records days. Plenty of people have done that already. Nobody's really done an all Merle Haggard tribute. Actually, a friend of mine told me about a band from Texas called Girl Haggard, an all-female Haggard cover band.

Wilco's John Stirratt talk to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch about his other band, Autumn Defense.

Q: The Autumn Defense reflects a musical sensibility that is very different from Wilco. How would you describe it?

A: It's an appreciation for the records that Pat and I realized both of us like a lot: "Forever Changes" by Love, which everybody seems to love now (laughs). But also stuff by the Zombies and Colin Blunstone. Scott Walker. Stuff on that end of the pop spectrum.

Kathryn Yu has updated her invaluable "SXSW Music Festival FAQ, How To, and General Guide" at SXSW Baby!.

The Daily Californian reviews Of Montreal's three recent San Francisco performances.

Their “final” song, “Rapture Rapes the Muses,” would’ve been a strong finish, with the crowd jumping in the air, the floor pounding and the chandelier shaking dangerously overhead. But instead, Of Montreal chose to come back for an encore and close with a rousing rendition of the Fiery Furnaces’ off-kilter “Tropical Iceland.” It’s an odd, but fitting choice, as Barnes became the glittery she-male lover to Eleanor Friedberger’s androgynous croon, capping off a series of performances defined by their showy antics.

see also:

this week's CD & DVD releases

tags: music books

Posted by david | permalink | discuss (0)

Bittorrent Brunch

Arcade Fire: 2007-02-06, Montreal [flac]*
Alejandro Escovedo: 2007-02-03, Fall River [flac]
Beatles: "The Martin Mix" [flac]*
Beatles: "Mythology, Vol. 1" [flac]*
Brian Eno: "Music for Prague" [flac]*
Camera Obscura: 2006-07-19, Hollywood [flac]*
Lily Allen: 2007-02-05, Hollywood [flac]*
Neil Young: 1976-03-23, Paris [flac]*
Patti Smith: 1976-08-11, New York [flac]*
Wilco: 2006-11-24, Chicago [flac]*

*registration required

tags: music download bittorrent

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Daily Downloads

In this 2006 show, the Mother Hips start their set by covering Neil Young's Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere album in its entirety.

Mother Hips: 2006-03-10, Solana Beach [flac]
"Cinnamon Girl (Neil Young cover)" [mp3]
@myspace
other music blog posts: @elbo.ws @hype

The Affair: "Left At The Party" [mp3] from Yes Yes To You
@myspace
other music blog posts: @elbo.ws @hype

Arrah and the Ferns: "Emo Phillips" [mp3] from Evan Is A Vegan
@myspace
other music blog posts: @elbo.ws @hype

Busdriver: "Less Yes's. More No's." [mp3] from Roadkill Overcoat
@myspace
other music blog posts: @elbo.ws @hype

Ditty Bops: 2006-08-18, Cleveland [mp3,ogg,flac]
"Packrat" [mp3]
@myspace
other music blog posts: @elbo.ws @hype

Peter Bjorn and John: "Let's Call It Off (Single Mix)" [mp3] from Writer's Block
@myspace
other music blog posts: @elbo.ws @hype

The Postmarks: "Goodbye" [mp3] from The Postmarks
@myspace
other music blog posts: @elbo.ws @hype

Secret Mommy: "Kool Aid River" [mp3] from Plays
@myspace
other music blog posts: @elbo.ws @hype

Tornavalanche: "Man, I Love the Beatles" [mp3] from No Money, No Problem
@myspace
other music blog posts: @elbo.ws @hype

Under Byen: "Af Samme Stof Som Stof" [mp3] from Samme Stof Som Stof
@myspace
other music blog posts: @elbo.ws @hype

see also:

this week's CD & DVD releases

tags: music download mp3

Posted by david | permalink | discuss (0)

February 7, 2007

Hot Freaks at SXSW

If you are attending SXSW this year, check out the blogger-curated Hot Freaks event Friday and Saturday. Two venues, 3 stages, and 32 bands (with possibly more to be announced) hand-picked by the bloggers at Chromewaves, Gorilla vs Bear, You Ain't No Picasso, Rock Insider, My Old Kentucky Blog, and myself make this event something I am proud to help put together. Plus, I get to finally meet my favorite music blogger, Frank Yang of Chromewaves.

Stop by, say hello, and enjoy the music.

Friday, March 16

Mohawk (outside):
12:00 pm - Catfish Haven (MySpace)
1:00 pm - Thunderbirds Are Now! (MySpace)
2:00 pm - Apostle of Hustle (MySpace)
3:00 pm - Imperial Teen (MySpace)
4:00 pm - Annuals (MySpace)
5:00 pm - Shearwater (MySpace)

Mohawk (inside)
12:30 pm - Briertone (MySpace)
1:30 pm - Sea Wolf (MySpace)
2:30 pm - St. Vincent (MySpace)
3:30 pm - Midnight Movies (MySpace)
4:30 pm - Bishop Allen (MySpace)

Club DeVille (Insound stage)
12:30 pm - Apes and Androids (MySpace)
1:30 pm - The Black Lips (MySpace)
2:30 pm - Walter Meego (MySpace)
3:30 pm - Shout Out Out Out Out (MySpace)
4:30 pm - Pelican (MySpace)

Saturday, March 17

Mohawk (outside)
12:00 pm - The Early Years (MySpace)
1:00 pm - Malajube (MySpace)
2:00 pm - The Ponys (MySpace)
3:00 pm - Viva Voce (MySpace)
4:00 pm - Menomena (MySpace)
5:00 pm - Special guest headliner from Dallas, TX.

Mohawk (inside)
12:30 pm - White Denim
1:30 pm - Page France (MySpace)
2:30 pm - Twilight Sleep (MySpace)
3:30 pm - Young Galaxy (MySpace)
4:30 pm - RJD2 (MySpace)

Club DeVille
12:30 pm - Prototypes (MySpace)
1:30 pm - Land of Talk (MySpace)
2:30 pm - The Young Knives (MySpace)
3:30 pm - The Rosebuds (MySpace)
4:30 pm - Margot and the Nuclear So and So's (MySpace)

see also:

this week's CD & DVD releases

tags: music sxsw

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Book Notes - Nick Antosca

Nick Antosca's debut novel, Fires, is an apocalyptic gem. The book's intensity carries it through its 200 pages, and I am definitely looking forward to more from this talented young author.

In his own words, here is Nick Antosca's Book Notes submission for his novel, Fires:

I wrote the novel Fires when I was in college. At the time, I lived in a tower. It was the highest dorm room on the campus; I had the penthouse room, which sounds great but wasn't. It was lonely, and I would rest in bed all day and write while supine, setting the laptop aside and taking shallow naps if I become frustrated. The shutters were closed. That was during the day.

The Velvet Underground & Nico - Sunday Morning: This song is eerie not just because of the bells but because Nico's androgyny is so menacing. Carnal enough to draw you in, cold enough to kill you. And so languorous, strung out, ruined. It's probably not even Sunday morning. It's probably Thursday afternoon.

At night I was more awake and creatively aggressive. I'd pace and smoke and paint things in black ink on the walls. But most of the time, I'd write. I wrote the first draft of Fires pretty fast. The end of that draft had a person in a mask being hanged with an electrical cord, but I took that out.

Pearl Jam - The Kids Are All Right: This roaring cover, from a 2003 Brisbane show, is much more vibrant--and wistfully epic--than The Who's original version. I listened to it while revising Fires through the night. I don't care that its title creates a pleasing irony in juxtaposition with my novel's scarred children; I just think it is everything a rock song should be.

Around four or five a.m., a big clanging truck would go down the street far below, and hearing it, I would begin to wind down for the evening. Hot miso soup helped put me in a mood to sleep. At night, the sky above New Haven gets a sort of bloody black. Somehow it has red in it. I liked to go to sleep just as the redness drained out and everything turned blue.

My Morning Jacket - I Will Be There When You Die: Almost a lullaby. The refrain, "As long as you keep a straight face, I will be there when you die" could be ironic, but isn't. You want to walk across America in your sleep, starting in New York City and ending up in cornfields.

After I finished Fires, my agent thought it was "too dark" and wanted a certain catastrophe that is visited upon our protagonist eliminated. My next agent was more accommodating but less competent. He didn't sell it. The novel was shelved for some time, undergoing periodic surgical procedures. Let us out, my characters said, we're very confused.

Nobody wanted us.

Patti Smith - Rock n' Roll Nigger: If I ignore her self-aggrandizing lyrics and focus on the anarchic, awesome anger in her voice, I really love this song. The coked-up music runs through me like blood. Don't touch me. I need a little zone of space around me when I'm like this that no one gets to enter except people who have prior permission to touch me, and anyone else who breaches the space will be struck in the throat.

After college I got a job doing assistant work at a big company. Particularly at first, listening to music with earbuds was a good way to contain the hatred I felt for my job, my coworkers, and myself. I liked to listen to the most brutal, vile music I could find.

Necro - S.T.D.: "This bitch giggled as I snuffed her/She said, 'You can find me everywhere, my name is S.T.D., I'll be your lover.'" You can't escape the stupid choices you've made. Necro knows. Don't come in my office and try to make small talk with me; can't you see I'm writing a story on Post-It notes? You fucking tool.

Two major elements of Fires are jealousy and rage. I feel traces of both right now, as I type this. In fact, I feel both almost every day. At this point we are pretty comfortable, like friends.

Nirvana - Where Did You Sleep Last Night: The best track off the awesome Unplugged album. Jealousy and rage--and hurt--define Cobain's version of the song. "My girl, my girl, don't lie to me/Tell me, where did you sleep last night?" A man is looking for a woman. She spends the night "in the pines, in the pines." Her husband's head is found, but his body isn't. Yeah, that's the kind of story I like. In fact, I wrote a story whose seeds were scattered in my brain by this song. It's called "Winter Was Hard."

I like the injury, so naked, in Cobain's voice as he does the final verse.

Medium doesn't matter. Most of my favorite art is about the things that make him have to scream those final lines.

author's blog

interview with Bookslut
Impetus Press
identity theory profile
Tao Lin's review
"Where You Can't Go Again" short story

see also:

Previous Book Notes submissions (authors create playlists for their book)
Note Books (musicians discuss literature)
52 Books, 52 Weeks (2007 Edition)
52 Books, 52 Weeks (2006 Edition)
52 Books, 52 Weeks (2005 Edition)
52 Books, 52 Weeks (2004 Edition)

tags: books music

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Shorties

The Lansing State Journal interviews Mariah Cherem of the Avatars.

Q. Would you ever just focus on music?

A. It's hard to say. My two best friends, that's what they do full-time. They're called the Von Bondies. The first time the Avatars played here, we were on tour with the Von Bondies. I've known the singer Jason (Stollsteimer) for eight years. I'm like part of the extended family. I was in Jason's wedding. I'm so happy to see them succeed. At this point in my life, if something like that amazing were to happen, I'd have to go with it. But musicians who do it full time don't get enough credit for what a hard life that is.

The Des Moines Register lists the top 5 songs over 10 minutes.

The New York Sun profiles author (and Brooklyn native) Jonathan Littell.

Selling in droves and inspiring acres of newsprint, the standout novel in France this publishing season is Jonathan Littell's "Les Bienveillantes." This sensationalistic Holocaust story, which presents itself as the confessions of a gay, incestuous, patricidal S. S. officer living incognito in rural France, is stirring up controversy as well. Of course, a little notoriety about a celebrated French novel is not unheard of, but the nationality of this particular novel's author is. By season's end, Jonathan Littell, a Brooklyn native and son of Cold War spy novelist Robert Littell, had walked away with the grand jury prize of the Academie Française, along with the most prestigious of all, the Prix Goncourt — only the second time in history the juries have anointed the same book.

The Boston Globe reviews the short story compilation, New Sudden Fiction: Short-Short Stories From America and Beyond.

Some might harbor the notion that these abbreviated stories are the natural byproduct of a society with an ever-diminishing attention span. Instead, this "sudden fiction" is as piquant as a private joke, as laden with unspoken meaning as a sigh. Time and again, these writers prove good things can come in small packages, and that size doesn't always matter.

Heidi James, owner of the publisher Social Disease, talks to the Guardian about her internet-centric publishing philosophy.

James sums up Social Disease's raison d'être as: "Zadie Smith is not fucking interesting", and neither are Monica Ali and the dozens of other writers of similar social comedies that emerged in the wake of White Teeth's huge success. "All this postmodern irony is just so dull," James explains. "And I realised that I really hate the homogeneity of the publishing world where it's next to impossible to get genuinely interesting work published. The big publishing houses would have you believe that there isn't a market for new and exciting work that takes a few risks and makes a demand on it's readers, but that's bollocks. Absolute bollocks."

Wikipedia lists steampunk books.

Popmatters interviews Menomena guitarist/keyboardist Brent Knopf.

Let’s talk about your second album, Under An Hour. It was an accompaniment to a dance piece that one of your friends made, right?

Yeah, we have a couple friends. One is Tahni Holt, she is the choreographer, and another friend Marty Schnapf, and he is an installation artist and they were putting together a dance performance for an international arts festival in Portland and they asked us to do the music for it. It seemed like an interesting challenge so we agreed to do it.

New York magazine interviews indie comic Eugene Mirman.

Who should be the next president?

Harrison Ford. I would like to see him punch Mitt Romney during a debate. Actually, as long as it's an actor, I don't care who it is.

Bich Minh Nguyen talks to NPR's All Things Considered about her memoir, Stealing Buddha's Dinner.

No Fact Zone has a preview of Stephen Colbert's "Americone Dream" Ben and Jerry's ice cream flavor.

NPR's Fresh Air interviews Elif Shafak, author of the novel, The Bastard of Istanbul.

Singer-songwriter Erin McKeown visits WXPN's World Cafe.

Yoko Ono talks to Salon.

Chicago's Metromix interviews singer-songwriter Lily Allen.

Shins guitarist Dave Hernandez talks to Newcity Chicago about the band's new album, Wincing the Night Away.

"There was way more pressure for `Chutes Too Narrow,'" guitarist Dave Hernandez says of what the band was feeling while preparing the record. "That was my impression of the vibe. With `Wincing,' we felt less pressure because we were given more time to record, write and everything."

Bookslut's February issue is yet another wonderful collection of articles, including interviews with Edmund White, Clifford Chase, Robert Olen Butler, and Nick Antosca (whose Book Notes essay for Fires will be posted later this morning).

Author Kevin Brockmeier talks to Newcity Chicago about writing his novel, The Brief History of the Dead.

The methodical switching of story lines, chapter by chapter, could've created a disjointed, choppy final product, but the author seamlessly transitions from one hero to the other. "I split it up," he says of the process. "I wrote the first chapter, to begin with. Then I wrote all the even-number chapters, the Antarctic chapters, then I filled in the odd-number chapters. There were a couple of advantages. One of them was that the Laura chapters are from a self-contained perspective--there's a close third-person centered around her point of view. I felt that if I kept interrupting myself [it wouldn't have worked]. Because I wrote her section of the book first, I kind of kept a running tally of who she remembered, who was in The City."

Director John Waters puts his iPod on shuffle for the A.V. Club.

Keren Ann, "Sailor & The Widow"

John Waters: I don't listen to iPods that much. When I do, it's always in Provincetown at the beach, when I'm riding my bicycle, which is probably dangerous. I can barely work the iPod. I'm technologically challenged. I try to put songs on that I don't know, that I'm not sick of, ones that at first I don't even know what they are when they pop up, and I think, "What's this song?" But there are some CDs that I like. I have Keren Ann's CDs. I like her. She sang in French a lot, but this one was an early one. I looked it up and it's from an album called Not Going Anywhere, which I think is mostly in English. She talks so fast, but she's so French and so cool. I'm a big fan of understated stuff sometimes, especially at the beach, and this is a story about a sailor and a widow, and it's just very cool. I love the name, Not Going Anywhere. She's not making any great claims.

Sarah Silverman answers love and sex questions at he A.V. Club.

Singer-songwriter Mitch Easter talks to Greensboro's Yes! Weekly.

"It was just stupidity, being busy," Easter says by way of explaining his hiatus as a recording artist. "When Let's Active fell apart I said I would be back with another record soon. During that time I would record songs. In the nineties I had this completely pointless crisis of confidence. 'I'm a fluffy eighties guy, and now this is something different.' You should always put the stuff out there, and let people take it or leave it."

Music critic Robert Christgau lists every Pazz and Jop list from 197--2005, and includes his own lists as well as his year-end essays.

Metal Underground reports that this summer's 25-date Ozzfest tour will be free for fans (no mention of what Ticketmaster fees for the "free" tickets will be).

Drowned in Sound rounds up January's music releases.

T-shirt of the day: "Petrolicide"

The Deli offers musicians home recording tips.

see also:

this week's CD & DVD releases

tags: music books

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