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December 6, 2006
Shorties
2006 best music lists:
About.com (annoying pop songs)
NPR's All Songs Considered (best albums)
Aquarium Drunkard (assorted topics)
Bryan Richie (the Sword) for Filter (top albums)
Cherry Coloured (albums)
Come Closer and I'll Tell You (top albums)
The Daily Texan (top albums, ongoing)
Drinking Liberally in Cincinnati (top albums)
The Dwarf's Musings (top albums)
Elastic Heart (EP's)
The Explosive Generation (best albums)
Gorilla vs. Bear (best songs)
Hipcat Yo Boy (top albums)
Joe's Blog (top albums)
KEXP Chilly (favorite albums)
La Bodega (favorite albums)
Largehearted Boy (favorite albums)
The McGill Tribune (best albums)
MIC Norway (best album)
the middleCoast (best albums)
modernlife now! (top albums & singles)
Molly Ringwald Blues (top albums)
Movies of Myself (favorite albums)
Orangejello Lemonjello (top albums)
Passion of the Weiss (best debut albums)
Ricardo's Hearing Aid (best albums)
Wolf Notes (albums)
Peaches talks to the Miami Herald about her latest album, Impeach My Bush.
'The title superceded the actual music. Different people find the meaning of electroclash in different ways. When you just use it as mixing up different genres, that's cool. But when people talk about it as this trashy music that never was trying to be its own thing, I'm like: no. I just wanted to mix up music, all different kinds, and put together my favorite parts of rock riffs and hip-hop choruses and rock 'n' roll attitude and electronic new sounds.''
Harmonium interviews singer-songwriter Christine Fellows.
Harmonium: You recently toured with the Mountain Goats, how was that?
Fellows: I had a lovely time. The Mountain Goats put on such great shows and I very much enjoyed their company.
After our last show in New York City we were all having a few farewell glasses of bourbon at the hotel – we’d already gotten a noise complaint from the neighbour in the next room, so the evening was nearing its end – when Franklin Bruno picked up my ukulele and very, very quietly started playing Ask by the Smiths. One by one, John Darnielle, Peter Hughes, and my drummer, Barry all started singing along. I’m all for impromptu, almost whispered sing-alongs, but it’s especially poignant in situations like these to discover which songs everyone knows by heart. You’d never think they would include lines such as: “... Spending warm summer days indoors writing frightening verse to a bucktoothed girl in Luxembourg….” But of course, they should.
Popmatters offers holiday gift ideas.
The Houston Chronicle reviews this year's batch of holiday albums.
The Boston Herald predicts Grammy nominations, if they were based on artistic merit.
Harp examines the music behind NPR's This American Life.
On This American Life: Stories of Hope & Fear (Shout! Factory), the music of Calexico, Portastatic, John Lurie, Thurston Moore, the RZA and Philip Glass underscores and transitions the stories. Cook says the producers sometimes spend many hours—even full days—sifting through their immense catalog of instrumental music, hoping to find the right song with the right stuff.
Rolling Stone reports that Clap Your Hands Say Yeah has posted new songs to its website.
">Cracked lists the "5 most un-athletic sports movie performances."
Moby puts his iPod on shuffle for the Onion A.V. Club.
Echo & The Bunnymen, "Heaven Up Here"
M: I think if I had to pick a favorite album of all time, it'd probably be Heaven Up Here. It's odd, because it's a very overlooked record. You know, everybody loves Joy Division, justifiably, and New Order, but somehow Echo & The Bunnymen get passed over in the hipster canon.
Lemonheads frontman Evan Dando talks to Newcity Chicago.
He cleaned up again, and decided The Lemonheads deserve a retry. "[I got the band back together] perversely just to confuse people," he says. "But also because I did put a lot of work into the band, the trademark, that name. I think we could have done a little better. Leave a better legacy."
Bookslut's December issue is online, and features interviews with authors Jennifer Egan, Laird Hunt, and Meg Tilly. Also included is Bookslut's list of the best book cover art of 2006.
Popmatters reviews this year's selection of holiday music CDs.
Yiyun Li, author of the First Book Award-winning collection of short stories, A Thousand Years of Good Prayers, talks to the Guardian.
She is also extremely reluctant to have her work translated into Chinese. She has seen other Chinese writers working in English, such as Ha Jin, come in for storms of criticism at home, and "I'm just not ready." Some Chinese Americans already disapprove of her; she says they "are very upset because they think I am presenting a wrong picture of China. You know, it's my interpretation. If they don't agree, they can write another book." She's equally fierce about any expectation that she should feel herself a representative of her country, required to cover certain topics, to take a particular line. "I really hate that. It feels unnatural. Nobody would ask an American to represent America."
MSNBC lists the "coolest Xmas movies you have never seen."
Downed in Sound previews this weekend's All Tomorrow's Parties festival.
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