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July 25, 2006
Shorties
NME reports that Concretes singer Victoria Bergsman has left the band.
Paul DeGeorge of Harry and the Potters talks to the Oregonian about the people who come to their shows.
"We get the really hardcore 'Harry Potter' fans, and then also the indie-rockers who can kind of appreciate what we're doing on a conceptual level, the idea that we're trying to get kids involved in books and music," says elder brother Paul. "And there are other people that just appreciate a good spectacle, something fantastical. Literary characters who have come to life and formed a band."
Popmatters eulogizes mystery author Mickey Spillane.
Harmonium interviews Gary Lightbody of Snow Patrol.
Harmonium: What are some up-and-coming Irish bands that Harmonium should look out for?
Lightbody: Oppenhiemer are like the Irish Flaming Lips or Mates of State. It’s extremely rare for a band from Belfast to have that otherworldly sound. They’re an incredible new band I believe only have a US deal at the moment so look out for them. Another great Belfast band are Desert Hearts. They have the darkness of Joy Division and the low-slung humour of Pavement.
The Washington Post examines the Birmingham (Alabama) music scene.
"We suffered inertia for a long time. Civil rights was the overriding theme for the past decade," says Birmingham native Alan Hunter, one of MTV's original VJs, who returned home in 1994 and opened WorkPlay, a multimedia center. "But the potential is here for greatness, if we can just get beyond the low self-esteem. We're looking forward, not backward."
T-shirt of the day: "Shakespeare hates your emo poems"
Seattlest loves the new Silversun Pickups album, Carnavas.
Carnavas is the rare album that stimulates as it captivates. It buzzes, chomps, and whirls through eleven tracks teeming with spacey guitar fuzz, shimmering melodies, thoughtful lyrics and a voice so sweet and distinct, brushing away notions of what a rock front-man should sound like.
Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore talks to the Sydney Morning Herald.
"We don't really sell that many records; we do most of our business as a live band," Moore says. "Plus, I think we all generally enjoy playing live. I go to see bands all the time and not necessarily because I want to hear the music but because I want to be witness to the performance. I go to see a lot of things but most of what I see is really subterranean to the mainstream. I'm not really interested in clap-your-hands-above-your-head rock'n'roll bands, I'm not really interested in much that you can see on TV or [anything that is] middle-of-the-road or traditional."
A couple of Guided By Voices related YouTube videos:
Townshend Research (Robert Pollard): "Game of Picks (live)"
Pearl Jam & Robert Pollard: "Baba O'Reilly (Who cover)"
Status Ain't Hood reviews the Roots' Game Theory, comparing them to the Band in the process.
I finally got around to watching The Last Waltz last night, and something occurred to me: the Roots have become basically a rap equivalent of the Band. Both groups exist at the center of a loose circle of artists as didactic as they are talented, both are made up of road-wizened virtuosic veterans, both play self-consciously archaic takes on popular music, both sometimes clutter up their music with too much piano, both have terrible names. In Dave Chappelle, the Roots even have an equivalent to Martin Scorsese, a famous artistic type openly and endearingly besotted with this group of musicians way less famous than he is.
The Times Online lists online "sites that killed TOTP."
The scuttling of the BBC’s pop flagship is stark proof of a radically reshaped youth culture. Generation @ struggles to comprehend the influence of one half-hour weekly music show, having grown up on music channels and websites, such as the outrageous www.fuse.tv, and high-speed internet connections that bring the sounds and videos they want from across the world 24/7.
At UNLV's student newspaper, a music blogger gives a firsthand account of the RIAA's intervention over a leaked Killers track.
The file in question, an MP3 version of the new Killers single "When You Were Young," was placed on a directory of my Web site which I use for file transfer and occasional, limited sharing. The only link to the file made public was posted on my weblog, included with a review of the song posted last week, along with a direct link to Amazon.com for readers to purchase Killers music and merchandise. Much like any reputable entertainment/MP3 blog (which mine is only occasionally, not typically), I always include a link to purchase the album or other works by the artist featured whenever possible, thusly providing essentially free advertising for said artists.
Mixed Content weighs in on the XIPF ( Extensible Interactive Packaging Format) standard for digital media.
UGO lists the top 50 albums "of our time."
The Amazing Website of Kavalier & Clay tracks all projects related to Michael Chabon's Pulitzer-winning novel, The Adventures of Kavalier & Clay.
Bassist Wanted is a comic strip "about music, man."
Newsweek has an exclusive excerpt from Nora Ephron's new book, I Feel Bad About My Neck: And Other Thoughts on Being a Woman.
Author Tara McCarthy (author of the conjoined twin pop stars novel, Love Will Tear Us Apart)reviews the conjoined twin rock star film, Brothers of the Head for About.com.
If there is a target audience for Brothers of the Head, a new film about fictional British conjoined twin punk/rock stars Tom and Barry Howe, I am it. If you knew me, you would, upon hearing about this film for the first time, immediately send me an email called "Have you heard about this?"—all CAPS. In fact, if there is a person in the world more likely to have gone to see this film, I'd wager he or she has a sibling attached to head or hip.
Peta2 and Barsuk Records are giving away an iPod nano filled with releases by Barsuk artists.
Currently, Barsuk’s roster includes Smoosh—the sister duo who are too cute for words (and even cuter to peta2 because one sister is vegetarian)—and the unbearably adorable fur-free husband-and-wife team Mates of State.
