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June 22, 2007
Shorties
The 2007 Bonnaroo download page has been updated.
New download links include:
mp3 downloads of the String Cheese Incident, Xavier Rudd, MIchael Franti & Spearhead, David Cross, Ben Harper, Black Keys and Sound Tribe Sector 9 performances.
Lossless bittorrent downloads of the Feist, the Police, Bob Weir & Ratdog, and Clutch performances.
and much more...
National frontman Matt Berninger talks to the Boston Globe.
"The truth is, this is a case of the songs being written when we literally were trying to hold on to relationships or to reconnect with people and things, whether they're girlfriends or wives or friends we hadn't seen because we had been gone and touring for so much of 'Alligator,' " Berninger continues. Some of the tracks, he says, reflect "desperate attempts to rekindle something, and a desire to just stay home, settle down, not go out, and spend as much time in a private space as possible. The record was described somewhere as 'agoraphobic,' and I thought that was funny but also appropriate."
The Washington Post reviews a recent show by the band.
"Boxer," the new album from critical darlings the National, is a superlative, subdued song cycle -- a textured collection of forlorn chamber-pop that seems particularly well suited for late-night listening in a darkened room after several glasses of syrah. It's the perfect moping-around music for bookish indie-rock fans who always wondered what the love child of Leonard Cohen and Tom Waits might sound like, circa 2007.
The Boston Globe interviews arranger Sean O'Loughlin, who works with orchestras who bring in rock bands for pop series.
"It's not a slam dunk when you bring in a rock band to play with an orchestra," he says. "It's one thing if you're a five-piece band. It's another if you're in a 90-piece orchestra. What's the line from 'Back to the Future'? 'B-flat blues, follow me and watch for changes.' That doesn't work."
The Chicago Tribune offers road trip music suggestions.
Ireland's Epoch Times offers a summer reading guide.
Pitchfork reviews Hallelujah the Hills' Collective Psychosis Begone.
see also: Jami Attenberg's Largehearted Boy interview with the band's frontman, Ryan Walsh
Stylus lists the top ten albums from 1996 "(as chosen by an obnoxious seventeen-year-old)."
Glide lists their 20 essential songs for summer 2007.
The Philadelphia Daily News interviews singer-songwriter Richard Thompson.
Richmond Fontaine's Willy Vlautin discusses his songwriting with Harp.
“I’ve always written from that [dark] side,” says Vlautin. “It’s like that writer Jim Harrison said, they asked him why his stories are dark and he says he just writes them so he doesn’t implode.” Vlautin’s dad left when he was two, his brother when he was 12, and his mom was “the hardest-working woman I ever seen.” Vlautin grew up in Reno’s seedy old man bars, afflicted with a crippling shyness that didn’t break until around the age of 19, when he discovered the joy of mixing music with alcohol.
WXPN's World Cafe is streaming a performance by Ian Hunter at noon eastern today.
Shoutmouth interviews Panda Bear's Noah Lennox.
OC Weekly profiles the music streaming and discovery website, Pandora.
Rolling Stone offers theories on the future of the music industry.
Birmingham Weekly interviews Kelly Crisp of the Rosebuds.
Given that your albums are all so different, do you have a hard time drafting set lists?
We have this interesting position of having to play songs live from all three records, but because all of the records are so different, each night the set list has to follow its own narrative arc, and have its beginning and end. So to pool these songs together with some cohesion is like putting together a greatest hits records, and we have to figure out which method of organization to use. We try to put songs together feeling-wise, and determine which ones feel like they should follow the previous songs, so that the set list has its own narrative or emotional arc and makes sense and can stand alone as a performance art piece.
The Seattle Post-Intelligencer makes its summer reading suggestions.
Guardian readers recommend a playlist of rural songs.
The Brooklyn Paper interviews author Rick Moody.
GO: What bands do you listen to?
RM: I love Animal Collective and I’m friends with the One Ring Zero guys, so I go see them play sometimes.
Bryce Dessner of the National talks to the SF Gate.
Although Boxer broke out of the gate as an immediate critical and fan favorite, its predecessor, Alligator, garnered a following more slowly, in keeping with The National's patient approach to career-building. "With Boxer we made the kind of music we wanted to make," Dessner said, "and didn't really worry about what the expectation was. We've really started to be appreciated as more of a song band -- not a buzz band or a hype band. You don't come to our shows if you want to look cool. So we're not getting that three-fourths of an audience for whom it's just the latest cool night out on the town."
LAist examines the potential "botch factors" of several book-to-film adaptations.
The Guardian's books blog asks its readers which book the British government should give every citizen.
Joanna Newsom lists some of her favorite music for Pitchfork.
Minnesota Public Radio's the Current features an in-studio set by the Australian singer-songwriter Xavier Rudd.
Dungen's Gustav Ejstes talks to Harp about the band's latest album, Tio Bitar.
In remarkably strong English, Gustav explains, “The outstanding guitar parts are made by a guy named Reine Fiske, he’s the hero.” Reine’s searing, out-of-this-world guitar is absolutely critical to Dungen (pronounced doon-yen, and translating roughly as “a clump of trees”), but this is Gustav’s baby. It’s his vision, his songs, his pain; he plays the majority of instruments (violins, flute, keyboards, rhythm guitar, drums, bass) and is the sole producer. “It’s personal stuff, it’s my feelings and things that I’ve experienced—there is no concept,” says Gustav. “It’s something that I need to get out of myself.”
IGN lists the top 10 greatest band names ever.
see also:
