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February 25, 2006
Shorties
Liars talk to Drowned in Sound about their new album, Drum's Not Dead (out March 21st).
Do you expect that certain people won’t ‘get’ Drum’s Not Dead?
Andrew: We really want people to get it, and we’re not trying to be difficult. We want to be straightforward and make songs, and what Aaron’s saying is similar to what I think. You can’t complain too much, but the idea we’ve surrounded ourselves with now is that wherever we record, or what we record about, there’s going to be an issue of ‘concept’. It’s hard for us to avoid this idea of us being ‘high-minded’, or something, which is a bit difficult for us to deal with. Sometimes you just want to be straightforward.
Gross: If someone gives an honest critique, then I like to hear what people are saying about it, ‘cause I did produce it.
Eye Noise designs (and sells) indie music show posters.
I put my iPod on shuffle this morning, here are the results:
1) "Crater Lake" by Liz Phair, from Whip-smart
2) "Lazer Beam" by Super Furry Animals, from Love Kraft
3) "What Good Am I" by Solomon Burke, from Make Do With What You Got
4) "Leap Year" by Maria Taylor, from 11:11
5) "Hey Mama" by Kanye West, from Late Registration
6) "Birds" by Electrelane, from The Power Out
7) "Remote Control" by the Clash, from The Clash
8) "Psalm" by M. Ward, from The End of Amnesia
9) "Shrine to the Dynamic Years" by Guided By Voices, from Do the Collapse demos
10) "Know the Way" by the Mountain Goats, from 1999-01-27, Chapel Hill
"At this point MP3s are a necessary evil," says one New York-based new media specialist. Legality prevents PR firms from leaking material themselves, he says, but when an MP3 blogger is contacted, the expectation is that s/he will leak at least a song or two. The strategy preys on the blog world's unquenchable thirst for the new—both rarities and pre-releases. "I'm doing you a favor and you're doing me a favor at the same time," says another new media specialist. "We'll scratch each other's back."
Hold Steady frontman Craig Finn speaks to the Los Angeles Times.
"Springsteen is a huge influence," said Finn, sitting with guitarist Tad Kubler in the band's dressing room at the Avalon in Hollywood, where they shared a bill with a couple of other bands from the small independent label FrenchKiss Records, Les Savy Fav and the Thunderbirds Are Now!
"He used a lot of words," Finn said of Springsteen. "He tried to be very specific and descriptive, which is something I try to be as well. But also his literary take on what I call the American teenage experience ... rock 'n' roll always sounds best when covering that topic.... Springsteen had teenage dramas that were so vivid."
PocketMixes offers mixes of Cat Power, Antony and the Johnsons, and Joanna Newsom (and much more).
It's SXSW Baby! again offers online SXSW calendaring (also available for your PDA or iPod).
YouTube hosts this fan-made Mountain Goats tribute video.
