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February 16, 2007
Shorties
Forbes examines "music's online holdouts," artists whose albums cannot be bought in digital form.
Chicago Reader profiles Daytrotter.
Moeller has his own ideas about why bands sound different in their Daytrotter sessions. "They don't have to impress that person in the front row or the person in the back row that they're hoping will come buy their T-shirt or CD," he says. "They're on the road for a month, two months, whatever, and they're playing the same set every night. This gives them an outlet to be creative."
Daytrotter founder Sean Moeller also talks to the Stanford Daily.
As Moeller explains in the middle of an exuberant, 10-minute riff, “If you take most of the writing done about music, it’s all, ‘I think these guys are great, they’re amazing.’ There’s a place for that, but I really like being absurd and experimental, really focusing on the band, and what the music conjures in you and really brings.” Daytrotter “really encourages [these sessions] to be different... and for the musicians to be creative,” and the staff fiercely follows the same guiding principles in their work, as well.
Hold Steady frontman Craig Finn talks to the Irish Times.
"You're raised to think of someone in a rock'n'roll band as someone you couldn't know or be. It's Mick Jagger, it's Steven Tyler. Then you go see the Replacements in your home town and there are maybe 200 people there. The band are standing right there in front of you and they're a brilliant rock'n'roll band. They didn't look like Jagger or Tyler either . . . It opened up the possibility that rock 'n' roll could be part of my life."
Singer-songwriter Vashti Bunyan talks to the Sydney Morning Herald about the success of her second album, 2005's Lookaftering.
"It was something that was totally unexpected and all the more magical for that. I didn't manage very well with not having any kind of feedback in the '60s, whereas now people actually speak to each other [she laughs] and tell each other that they like their music. The [first] album only had two reviews that I saw, and they were so dismissive and completely misunderstood what I was trying to do. If I'd been a more confident person inside myself maybe I would have managed."
Ladytron's Mira Aroyo talks to Peta2.
How long have you been a vegetarian, and why did you decide to make the switch?
It was about nine years ago, and I wasn’t enjoying meat that much. I wasn’t that much into it, and why eat it if I’m not that much into it? When there are other people – growing economies – who start eating more and more meat, that puts more and more pressure on the land, like in Brazil, cutting down the rain forests and turning them into cattle fields and stuff like that.
SkullRing interviews artist and author Bob Fingerman about his novel, Bottomfeeder.
How did you arrive at the idea of telling the story of a workaday vampire like Philip Merman?
I watch a lot of vampire movies (and horror movies in general), but was struck by the way vampirism is always glamorous or romantic in some fashion. Or cool. Definitely cool. I was thinking if you took a regular guy and made him a vampire, would it still be cool? And my answer was no. I really thought about what a lonely, stripped down existence one would lead if you couldn’t go out in the sun; if you stopped aging. All that. You’d have to disconnect from your friends and family. You couldn’t advance in your career because you’d have to change jobs every several years. So many things would be taken from you. Plus, you’d have to come to peace with being a murderer. I just wanted to play with that.
Sugarcubes drummer Sigtryggur Baldursson talks to Harp about the band's reunion.
“Well, the 20th birthday of [our song] ‘Birthday’ is a pretty good reason for a grand celebration,” says drummer Sigtryggur Baldursson. “But our purpose with these concerts is to refresh the business for Smekkleysa [their record label, roughly translated as “Bad Taste”] so we can continue with our work of promoting great Icelandic music that doesn’t necessarily bring home any big bucks.”
At Salon, Douglas Wolk reviews Lighting Bolt drummer Brian Chippendale's graphic novel, Ninja.
Dylanbase is an unofficial Bob Dylan bootleg database.
The New York Times reviews Tuesday evening's Arcade Fire performance.
Oasis guitarist Noel Gallagher shares his opinions with the Independent.
On happiness
"Listen, I've got £87m in the bank. I've got a Rolls Royce. I've got three stalkers. I'm about to go on the board at Manchester City. I'm part of the greatest band in the world. Am I happy with that? No I'm not! I want more!"
The Montreal Mirror interviews Eric Allen of the Apples in Stereo.
M: Could you shed some light on this “non-Pythagorean scale” that Robert devised?
EA: It’s completely beyond me. Robert’s explained it to me about four times and he’s dumbed it down so much, but I don’t know what the hell it’s all about. His hobbies are theoretical physics and mathematics that you can’t even conceive the application of—at least I can’t. I studied literature.
Besnard Lakes guitarist/vocalist Jace Lasek talks to the Montreal Mirror.
“I guess people have mentioned that they hear a bit of a musical history in us,” she says. “I think that as a musician, you have to dig deep and go past just bands that are happening now. In fact, I think I’m a bit oblivious to most current music.”
Shins' keyboardist Marty Crandall talks to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer about the band's future.
The big question is: Will the Shins remain with the label that launched a slew of famous Seattle bands -- Soundgarden, Nirvana and Mudhoney, to name a few -- or set off on its own?
"We'll see when that moment comes around. But I think we're probably leaning toward taking things into our own hands," Crandall said.
LA Brain Terrain is searching for the hottest bookstore employee in Los Angeles.
Singer-songwriter Anais Mitchell talks to the University of Buffalo's Spectrum.
"I'm a songwriter of the Dylan school," she said. "My records are rooted in that folky, songwriter tradition but with some indie influences."
Table of Malcontents offers a "how to read" guide to Mark E. Danielewski's novel, House of Leaves.
Hunter S. Thompson's 1978 documentary, "Fear and Loathing in Gonzovision," is available to stream on Google video.
The Big Takeover lists 15 underrated albums.
Circa 45 is a new mp3 blog devoted to 45s brought to you by the same folks as So Much Silence.
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