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July 28, 2005
Shorties
Singer-songwriter Sufjan Stevens talks to Salt Lake City Weekly.
On tour, Stevens was hard-pressed to re-create studio versions of the Michigan tracks, which some—Stevens included—lamented. "I just don’t think that I was prepared to do that," he confesses. To be fair, Stevens’ stripped-down performances, which featured himself on guitar and banjo, a trumpet player and a few backup singers are as stunning as the fully-orchestrated album versions. Still, he'd like to come as close as possible to re-creating the album. "This time around, we’re trying to do a better job of that."
Singer-songwriter Denison Witmer shares some of his favorite road places with Paste magazine.
The Daily Pennsylvanian previews 2005's coming music releases.
You Ain't No Picasso collects a CD's worth of indie covers plus some bonus songs.
Flagpole rekindles old times with the Athens Rewind Committee.
FP: Many people cite 1980 as the peak of Athens' "golden age." What was 1980 like for you?
PS: People were very interested in forming bands. Disco was still dying a very slow death, but you had clubs like the Mad Hatter that still did dance stuff. Athens was morphing, really.
Teenage Fanclub's Raymond McGinley talks to Pulse of the Twin Cities.
"If we’re amongst ourselves doing whatever it is that we’re doing as a band and musicians and songwriters, any thoughts of any kind of legacy we might have or influence we might be on other bands couldn’t be further from our minds. I’m definitely really proud of what we’ve done over the years, but it’s not something I really think about. We’ve been around for a long time and people have been fairly complimentary of what we do, but I think if you allow yourself to become conscious of other people’s perceptions of what you do it’s hard to keep actually doing it."
Norman Blake talks to the Pioneer Press.
"We're so much happier now," said Blake, one of Teenage Fanclub's trio of songwriters. "We were in a position we didn't want to be in, dealing with labels that didn't know what to do with us. This album is on our own label, and we're responsible for every aspect of the release."
Joe Pernice talks to the Boston Phoenix.
"I try to make songs that I would like to listen to. [Producer/collaborator] Thom Monahan and I sit around and say, 'What would I have thought of if I were hearing this for the first time?' We think back to when we were teenagers and say, 'Gee, what if I was 16 and I heard this for the first time?'"
Suicide Girls interviews Barry Yourgrau, author of the children's book, NASTYbook.
DRE: Some of the stuff seems kind of “Roald Dahlish.”
BY: Exactly, it’s like beyond Roald Dahl. The amazing thing is that I thought that boys would get this particularly but people bring their little eight year-old daughters with them and they love it too. They like all the nasty stuff. Someone said, “What’s the difference between writing for an adult and writing for a kid?” An adult author also writes for kids said, "The difference is this: I write the same way I write for kids as I write for adults except better."
Washington's Metro Weekly call Feist and Erin McKeown's recent albums "a double-feature soundtrack for a leisurely summer brunch."
Is The Olympian the only newspaper in America with an mp3 blog?
The Daily Texan talks to the founder of the Austin Podcasting Network.
Insound's sumer sale continues until Labor Day, with new customers getting 25% off their entire first order.
"I have a huge rejection rate - so when I die, they're going to have a party, with all those posthumous albums."
Singer-songwriter Aimee Mann talks to Toronto's Metro Weekly.
"I've also been fascinated with the psychology of people and their problems: my boxing friend, it turned out, had a couple of drug-addiction issues in the past. It made me want to educate myself more about this — if you're a musician, you always see these sort of things are around you."
