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May 20, 2006
Shorties
The Louisville Courier-Journal compares the anti-war albums of Neil Young and Pearl Jam.
The Houston Chronicle interviews Mono drummer Yasunori Takada.
Q: Can you give me an idea what an audience in Japan is like and how it differs from, say, a show in Texas?
A: The Japanese audience is usually very quiet at the show. ... Sometimes it gives the musicians the wrong impression and makes (them) wonder if they are doing something wrong or if the audience doesn't like the music at all. But it is their way of showing their respect and appreciation. It's quite different from Texas. In the U.S., especially in Texas, people rock.
The members of Hot Chip talk to the Sunday Times.
The man who plays synths and guitar with Hot Chip is struggling under the weight of his metaphor. “If you’ve got a girl in some beautiful clothes, then that’s a particularly good thing,” says Al Doyle. “Whereas if you’ve just got some good clothes, it’s only good for a little while.” His fellow band members are now giggling.
“What I’m saying,” he continues valiantly, “is that the song is the girl and the style is the clothes. You’ve got to have a good song.”
The Sun interviews the Pet Shop Boys about their new album, Fundamental.
The album covers such political issues as ID cards and immigration. Was that intentional?
Neil: It’s good to write about contemporary issues but in general I hate political pop songs. For I’m With Stupid, I was thinking about Blair and Bush but with humour. Integral is about ID cards which we feel strongly about but it’s done in a fun way.
We’re like The Beatles — we always have some serious ones, some funny ones, some ballads and ones you can dance to. Chris likes the more serious ones and I like the silly ones.
Chris: Neil would like Yellow Submarine and I would like A Day In The Life.
He's posting all the jeers on his own website, right next to the cheers.
Rather than clutching tight to the artistic blinders that allow most musicians (and actors) to see only the praise that comes their way, Young's latest move seems more geared to sparking dialogue than in initiating impeachment proceedings on Capitol Hill.
"I found what people said about this music to be the real story, both pro and con," Young wrote in an e-mail in response to questions from The Times about his reason for laying bare the jabs as well as the plaudits his latest work has inspired.
NME reviewed the London Radiohead show last night.
At times, Pridemore's 11-track release is doused with humorous lyrics like ``The prettiest girl in the whole rotten world/Is a waitress in a strip club that also sells eggs'' from a song titled ``John Darnielle,'' the namesake of which is half of the Canadian duo Mountain Goats. Pridemore said he was frequently listening to the Mountain Goats while writing ``Reflecting Skin.''
``I don't think he'll ever hear it, but I hope he does,'' Pridemore said of Darnielle. ``I don't want that to skew my chances of getting to meet him and have him think I'm some obsessed guy.''
Stream "John Darnielle" at Pridemore's MySpace page.
Mark off August 6th for the summer's most interesting band reunion (even if it is only a one-off performance), Eric's Trip at the Sappy Records Music Festival in Sackwick, New Brunswick.
