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February 20, 2007
Shorties
The A.V. Club interviews Franz Ferdinand's Alex Kapranos about his book, Sound Bites: Eating on Tour with Franz Ferdinand.
AVC: Had you read much food-writing?
AK: I'd read a little bit. My favorite food book is Much Depends Upon Dinner by Margaret Visser. It takes each element of a standard American meal and traces the history and the social history of how it ended up on the plate. I read Down And Out In Paris And London, and Kitchen Confidential when I was a chef—it was the first book I read that caught some of the dirty side of working in a kitchen, as well as the excitement of working in a kitchen, which until that point had remained a pretty well-kept secret.
That Truncheon Thing is a new music blog. Notable post: Bob Dylan's Thin Wild Mercury Music bootleg
Lemony Snicket author Daniel Handler puts his iPod on shuffle for the A.V. Club.
Silver Jews, "There Is A Place"
DH: I like them a lot. The song on this album, Tanglewood Numbers, that I really love is called "How Can I Love You If You Won't Lie Down," but this one is nice, too. David Berman, the singer-songwriter, has a collection of poetry that's really good. Also, Silver Jews are part of my theory that the side band is usually better than the main band, because they were sort of regarded as a Pavement side band for a long time, and I always thought they were better than Pavement. Further examples of this theory include Latin Playboys, who are way better than Los Lobos, and Bossanova—they're this great band that is being touted as a side project of The New Pornographers.
The Miami Herald reviews two recent hip hop books, Other People's Property: A Shadow History of Hip-Hop in White America by Jason Tanz, and To the Break of Dawn: A Freestyle on the Hip Hop Aesthetic by William Jelani Cobb.
The A.V. Club lists 14 television shows that deserve to be released on DVD.
The Portland State University Vanguard interviews Gena Gastaldi of Day of Lions.
The A.V. Club interviews DIY music legend Ian MacKaye.
AVC: It's interesting that you and Fugazi spent so long trying to be straightforward and honest, yet so many people have these misconceptions.
IM: That's one of the great fortunes of The Evens. At least getting into smaller shows, a lot of people are like, "God, you're not like this Charlton Heston character." It's so weird; I'm a super-approachable person.
The Red and Black interviews Deerhoof guitarist John Dieterich.
Q: What are some of your earliest memories of music?
A: I have three musical memories that all seem to come from around the same time.
The first was the Sunkist commercial with "Good Vibrations" by the Beach Boys. That song really stuck with me. I was four and living on a farm, and it is amazing how important it was to me. That was 1977, I think.
I also remember that song "The Gambler" from the same period.
The third and most vivid is memories of my grandfather playing organ when we would go visit them. He was a real maestro and could play all kinds of jazz standards and sing along with it. I got him to play the Girl from Ipanema last year, and it was amazing!
The Guardian lists 40 essential driving albums.
The Belfast Telegraph ponders the legacy of Nirvana's Kurt Cobain.
At Popmatters, Sarah Feldman defends her lover for Bright Eyes.
Cool French Comics lists the top 20 French comics.
The Hoodoo Gurus' Dave Faulkner talks to Harp.
“I’d say the Cramps and the Fleshtones were the ones that really gave me the desire to do the Hoodoo Gurus,” says Faulkner. “Not that I knew it at the time, of course. But back in Australia a year later, I was seeing the legacy of Radio Birdman and all the so-called ‘Detroit bands.’ There was also this sort of homemade art-rock scene—I called them the suitcase synthesizer bands. But not much in between. And I just wanted to have something a bit more brash, more pop I guess. In the case of the Hoodoo Gurus, in the early days, the songs had a lot of jokey themes and titles. But I mean, ‘a wop bop a lu bop, a wop bam boom!’ had this exuberance; it didn’t necessarily have to make sense, and it’s still just as exciting and direct today.”
Drowned in Sound offers a "Gonzo Guide to Closure," a guide to the works of Hunter S. Thompson.
Director John Waters is the guest DJ for NPR's All Songs Considered.
Singer-songwriter Lily Allen talks to NPR's All Things Considered.
Her musical influences draw from the many albums she listens to, and include ska, hip-hop, New Orleans jazz and polkas.
"That's what making music is about," says Allen. "It's about sitting down, listening to other people's music and being inspired."
T-shirt of the day: "Poet-trees"
Lawrence.com interviews the Roman Numerals.
Paste's band of the week is Montreal's Besnard Lakes.
Chartattack lists the ten Canadian indie albums vying for he CBC's Galaxie Rising Stars Award.
The Seattle Post-Intelligencer profiles Readergirlz, "an online book salon being launched by four gutsy "divas" of teen lit with big ideas about changing the world."
Lit to Go is a free online collection of stories and poems in mp3 format.
The Mountain Goats official website has added forums.
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