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June 14, 2007
Shorties
The Detroit News interviews singer-songwriter Manu Chao.
Entertainment Weekly interviews singer-songwriter Cary Brothers.
The Telegraph and New Statesman review the new Haruki Murakami novel, After Dark.
JamBase interviews Nickel Creek mandolin player Chris Thile about his side project, How to Grow a Band.
Stylus lists the top ten musical moments from film.
The AskMetafilter community recommends songs for an "80s emo ballad mix."
In the Los Angeles Times, publisher Kurt Hanson and attorney Jay Rosenthal debate the economics of online music.
The Nashville Scene offers a primer on "how to grow a (cool) rock band" in Nashville.
Creative Loafing lists the top 5 reasons drone music isn't boring.
The Knoxville Metro Pulse has local musicians preview the Bonnaroo music festival.
The A.V. Club interviews author Chuck Palahniuk.
Q: Do you think there can really be true "underground" movements anymore, or is the Internet making everything too readily available to everyone? —MollyPocket
CP: There will always be an underground. Maybe the reaction to the current "public" atmosphere with its confessional memoirs and reality shows will be a backlash of veiled, hidden societies wherein folks swear to keep their involvement secret. If I can imagine it, that's already happening.
The National's Bryce Dessner talks to Cincinnati's City Beat.
"I think a lot of bands work on formulas like that but it just never works for us. Like when Matt started screaming, it wasn't a conscious decision, it just happened live. I think we'd like to preserve that exploration in our music and keep moving forward. Any band that's had some success with a record, the follow-up has a certain amount of pressure. You don't want people to be disappointed. And it's show biz -- you've got to live in the light like the sun for a little while. Of course, you don't want to go back to the dark."
Dessner's brother and bandmate Aaron talks to Kansas City's the Pitch.
Springsteen evidently loves the National. "We hung out with him one night after this Nebraska tribute," recalls Aaron. "One thing he talked a lot about was, as your audience grows, you've gotta figure out how to play to the people in the very back, standing up. I remember thinking, 'That's pretty irrelevant advice for us right now.' I think he had a skewed idea of how big we are. Now it's all coming true."
John Linnell of They Might Be Giants puts his iPod on shuffle for the A.V. Club.
Hot Hot Heat, "Get In Or Get Out"
JL: Their sound got sort of described like The Cure meets XTC, but they're from this decade. I don't know, I just like it. I don't know whether it's considered horribly derivative, but as an old man, I find it kind of like the way my dad was into those swing-era records that were recreations of music from the '40s. "It sounds like the old days! It sounds like the '80s! I love the '80s!"
Drive-By Trucker Patterson Hood shares his love of Athens with Creative Loafing.
"Just when you think it's over around here, there's a new crop of bands that come up, seemingly from nowhere," says Patterson Hood of the evergreen Athens music scene. "I still get amazed when I stumble on things that just blow me away, right here in my back yard. That's why I love this town and that's why I stay here."
The A.V. Club lists 10 wonderfully weird moments from the Fantastic Four comic books.
Tiny Mix Tapes interviews singer-songwriter John Vanderslice.
It makes me happy that it seems to be sort of a trend that people who can write really good stories within their lyrics are being noticed.
Yeah, and it is happening all the time. I think in general there are a lot of good people writing lyrics right now and they’re getting attention because of it, you know? When Rubies came out, the Destroyer album... that’s an incredible album, and he’s not an easy guy to figure out lyrically. You definitely have to dig in and be very patient with him. You have to follow his logic. That guy is mind-blowingly good, but there’s this metaphysical absurdity in his writing. Nobody knows what he does, but that so many people got into it... I thought it was really amazing.
The Arizona Republic lists the top 5 comic book films on DVD.
Drowned in Sound interviews Devo's Gerry Casale.
You’ve also mentioned the possibility of a Devo movie at some point. Any news on that?
I’ve been working on that with this writer, Matt Beale. He used to be a Rolling Stone music writer. He’s a big Devo fan and knew a lot about us already. So we conducted these interviews and we’ve given him all kinds of archival material, and we came up with the story of the early days of Devo. It’s kind of like …Spinal Tap with brains. It’s as entertaining and insane, but instead of being dim-witted, they’re crazy artists.
NPR's Shadow Classics examines the second album by A.C. Newman's band, Zumpano, Goin' Through Changes.
All the expected power-pop attributes are in place: On "Broca's Ways" (audio), the band links the spangly vocal harmonies of The Beach Boys to firm Badfinger-ish guitar patterns and a mystic aura reminiscent of The Zombies.
Minnesota Public Radio's the Current features a streaming in-studio from Fountains of Wayne.
The Bat Segundo literary podcast features author Scarlett Thomas this week.
Daytrotter's SXSW Mountain Goats session has been posted.
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