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November 20, 2006
Shorties
Strokes guitarist Albert Hammond, Jr., talks to the New Zealand Herald about his solo career.
"Look, don't get me wrong, I do like Julian's music and I do like playing with them, so it's not like I have to choose between them, right?" So he'll willingly put the solo career on hold for the day job? "What I mean is, you never know what's going to happen, do you? Time changes a lot of things. We'll see, yeah?"
reax magazine interviews Hold Steady frontman Craig Finn.
REAX: When you write comically about tragic Midwest characters in such a deadpan manner are you afraid of coming across more ironic than your original intent?
CF: Well, irony is certainly not something I want to be accused of. I’m not that worried about it. I think its more of a matter-of-fact kind of way I say it. Like a narrator is sort of how I think of it.
Columbia University's BWOG examines the connection between the college's radio station, WBAR, and CMJ.
WBAR doesn't have the money to buy 50 or even 10 new records a week, and neither does almost every other college radio station in the country. Instead, they rely on freebies bestowed by the promoters. In short, the stations need the promoters to be able to play music and the promoters needs the stations to play their music. It seems like a happy symbiosis, but it depends totally on a third party—CMJ.
The Los Angeles Times reviews Thomas Pynchon's new novel, Against the Day.
Although clearly this book was written without the forced-march pace of its reviewers in mind — probably the most satisfying interpretations of "Against the Day's" labyrinthine workings, its frequently glorious excesses, will come from its more leisurely critics or from percipient readers willing to devote a couple of months to its slow uncoiling — I'm willing to grant Pynchon the benefit of the doubt. A book this long that amazes even 50% of the time is amazing, and I suspect Pynchon would be the first to suggest we skip the boring parts.
The Village Voice examines the "brilliant" synergy between Nike and LCD Soundsystem.
LCD Soundsystem's 45:33, 45 continuous minutes of original music commissioned by Nike to accompany exercise, may be the best thing the corporation has ever done. Better than wildly inventive labor schemata, better than its tenure as whipping boy at college sociology departments nationwide. The pairing—wry, indie disco saviors and joggers—is weirder than Nike's new surrealistic Lebron James ads. And sonically it stands up with anything LCD head James Murphy has released previously, proving that a paycheck can be as much of a motor as precious inspiration when it comes to making a good record.
The Seattle Post-Intelligencer profiles National Book Award-winning author, Tim Egan.
Winning a National Book Award brings a lot of stilted, formal accolades but Tim Egan will always be known to friends as a rocker and Bruce Springsteen fan, and as a fast-moving, perspiring mountaineer nicknamed "Lord of the Deer Flies."
The Guardian's art & architecture blog is collecting a list of the 50 pieces of art you must see before you die, and is asking for your suggestions.
One of my favorite artists, Kate Bingaman-Burt is profiled by the New York Times magazine.
This led to a project she called Obsessive Consumption, which involved documenting pretty much all of her purchases; soon she started collecting those images on a Web site. And this turned out to be the first iteration of something that continues to this day: “I basically built a brand out of Obsessive Consumption,” she says, “and ran with it.”
Beta Music interviews singer-songwriter Jason Molina.
Jason, you’re also an accomplished visual artist, and you’ve exhibited at the Brooklyn Fireproof Gallery in New York City with other rock people like David Berman, Archer Prewitt and Pall Jenkins, and John Darnielle. Tell us about your painting?
I'VE BEEN PAINTING AND DRAWING SERIOUSLY FOR ABOUT 15 YEARS. IT IS A SHAME THAT TOURING TAKES SO MUCH TIME AWAY FROM DOING MY ART, BUT IT'S A FAIR TRADE. PEOPLE SEEM TO LIKE WHATEVER I AM DOING AT A GIVEN MOMENT. I DON'T FEELANY PRESSURE TO BE DOING ONE OR THE OTHER.
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