« older | Main Largehearted Boy Page | newer »
October 18, 2006
Shorties
The Houston Chronicle wonders if the recent police incident with the Two Gallants will hurt the city's live music scene.
"When things like Two Gallants happens, I really wish the city or the mayor would take note of it and see that we're trying to bring in this sort of culture of music and art," Chavez said. "Managers are trying to give their bands a chance in Houston. But there's absolutely nothing we can say to help our case to get bands into town when they're being attacked by cops. Whatever the official report is, there's no excuse for it."
Patterson Hood of the Drive-By Truckers talks to Chartattack about being pigeonholed as "southern rock.
While the Drive-By Truckers are often dubbed southern rockers, it's a label that Hood isn't particularly fond of. "I have never liked it," he says.
"I'm not sure [Lynyrd] Skynyrd liked it. It just has so much baggage with it. People hear that and they expect rebel flags and right-wing politics… a lot of baggage that we don't carry around."
The Onion A.V. Club interviews Craig Finn and Tad Kubler of the Hold Steady.
AVC: Tad, when it comes to writing big riffs, do you check yourself against repeating what other guitarists have done?
TK: Oh no, I just let it happen. And I think I wear my influences on my sleeve. [Laughs.] I should probably just cut Jimmy Page a check. But you know what? If it sounds good, it is good. You've just got to keep it that simple. Obviously you want to grow as an artist and a musician and a songwriter, and that's something I always try to stay conscious of, but at the same time, it's rock music, you know? It's fun. We're havin' a good time. It doesn't need to be any more complicated than that.
Author Michael Chabon talks to the Daily Iowan.
"I'm desperately trying to finish a book, right now," he said, wryly. "Getting to the end of it, that's pretty much [the goal] - to finish the next book."
Kathryn Yu celebrates Pompeii's "Miracle Mile" for NPR's Song of the Day.
Sophisticated, shimmering instrumentation and moody atmospherics are rarely executed so effectively, especially by a band this young. With any luck, the ambitious and deserving group will soon land on teen dramas and commercials for bittersweet romantic comedies, where its songs belong.
The Miami Herald reviews two music books, Robert Greenfield's Exile On Main Street: A Season in Hell With the Rolling Stones and Catch A Wave: The Rise, Fall & Redemption of the Beach Boys' Brian Wilson by Peter Ames Carlin.
Miami rock books review
T-shirt of the day: "In Case of Zombies"
Califone guitarist Tim Rutili talks to Boston's Phoenix.
When I ask about their quilting of clashing sounds and timbres, Rutili reveals that the juxtapose is crucial to Califone's aesthetic: "At the bottom of it is the idea of putting two very different things next to each other to create something that is neither of those things. That's what the music is about: accepting the fact that you can put anything together, and if you put it together right, it will work."
Madison's Capital Times interviews author Michael Chabon about his next book.
Your next novel, "The Yiddish Policemen's Union," isn't coming out until next May. What's it like to be in that place where the book's finished, but it'll be six months until people get to read it?
This is a beautiful time, actually. You're done, you go through this diverting production process, where it's getting the galleys and seeing it all typeset and seeing the jacket art. It's really fun, very low-key and pleasurable. What's awful is once it's out there. That's when it gets really nerve-wracking.
The Minneapolis City Pages reviews the Hold Steady's new album, Boys and Girls in America.
It's good to hear the band pushing the epic reach of their music to match the epic reach of their everything-else, and if that dredges up a litany of Springsteen comparisons, so be it.
Harmonium reviews "Monkey and Bear," my favorite track on the new Joanna Newsom album, Ys.
“Monkey & Bear” is a microcosm of Ys itself, a masterpiece from start to finish. From its opening dulcet twin tones to its orchestral finish, it takes the listener on a melodic and lyrical journey, an exploration of a quasi-mythological relationship between monkey and bear set against a pastoral and primitive backdrop.
matt pond PA performs in the Minnesota Public Radio studio.
Singer-songwriter Rocky Votolato lists "Top 10 Records to Keep Me Awake While Driving Straight from Seattle, WA to Memphis, TN Before a 2-Month Tour"
see also:
