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April 3, 2006
Shorties
Singer-songwriter Sondre Lerche speaks to New York magazine.
For his growing American fan base—whom he humbly pegs as “music nerds like myself, a lot of girls, and a lot of Burt Bacharach fans”—the next one could be the one that gets him stalked on Bleecker Street. But if it happens, it won’t be from pandering to the eighties-worshipping masses. “That’s the deal with trends: Everything is blown out of proportion,” he explains. “One musical sound may seem like the most genuine thing you’ve ever heard at the moment, but it’s actually the stupidest thing in the world. I’m happy not to play too much of a part in that.”
The Boston Globe profiles local record stores that specialize in vinyl.
Smiths fans discuss their devotion to the band in the Guardian.
For a lonely teenager living in Bristol, it was incredibly powerful to hear Morrissey singing out of the crackling speakers: "And if the people stare, then the people stare. Oh, I really don't know and I really don't care." For me, it proved that somebody knew just how I was feeling. At that point, my life was turned upside down by four skinny men from Manchester: Steven Morrissey, Johnny Marr, Andy Rourke and Mike Joyce."
Drwoned in Sound gives the new Morrissey album, Ringleader of the Tormenters, 7 out of 10 stars.
Since his relocation to LA, and long time sojourn in Rome, where the majority of Ringleader Of The Tormentors was recorded, he seems to have developed a whole new lust for life, and for once, he isn’t afraid to let us know about it either.
RIP, Buddy Blue (of the Beat Farmers) (thanks, Jeff)
The Chicago Tribume offers options if your iPod battery dies.
Author Orhan Pamuk talks to the Guardian.
When is he happiest now? "If you leave aside sensual pleasures, sexual pleasures, good food, good sleep, and so on, then the happiest thing is that I have written two and a half, three good pages. I am almost assured that they are, but I need confirmation. My girlfriend comes, we are happy, I read to her, she says, 'This is wonderful' - that's it! That's the greatest happiness." It is an old need, felt also "when I lived with my father and mother, and did paintings and drawings when I was a child, and they said 'it's nice'".
Daniel Rubin of the Philadelphia Inquirer promises full disclosure of freebies in his Blinq! blog.
Popmatters is celebrating Continuum's 33 1/3 series of books on seminal albums with essays all week. Look for a "book notes" submission by, Alex Green, author of the book on The Stone Roses in the series, tomorrow on LHB.
Feuerzeig, 41, whose film won him the best documentary director honor at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival, was drawn into Johnston's story by a radio special featuring songs and comedy skits that the musician staged from the ward of a mental hospital in 1990. "After that show was over, I said to myself, if I could make a film of it — showing Johnston's songs, his highs, his lows, his manias, his obsession with fame, his obsession with the devil, his fragile beauty, his innocence…. If I could get all of that into a film — I thought, wow, that would be one hell of a film!"
The New Zealand Herald mentions the "bleating brilliance of singer/songwriter John Darnielle."
He's rallying fans with a new blog (johnkstuff.blogspot.com) that is updated daily with sketches, storyboards and hilarious celebrity caricatures (his depiction of a snout-nosed Pink is most enjoyable). If the blog stirs enough buzz, the money people will have to take notice.
"I started thinking I could use it as a marketing tool," says Kricfalusi. "I thought I'd remind people what a creative-minded cartoon was ... and announce that I'm back and still living."
January magazine shares its favorite recently reviewed books.
Gainful Employment is a site for independent comics creators to post their original material.
Help sponsor Mike (from the mp3 blog Take Your Medicine) as he treks from Great Britain to Latvia for several good causes.
rbally, the mp3 blog that posted many wonderful live performances, is shutting down the middle of this month, and will be missed.
