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November 27, 2007
Shorties
Yesterday's additions to the constantly updated master list of online 2007 music lists:
Amazon editors
Another Beautiful Day (best albums)
Chinese Ending (favorite songs)
The Creature Speaks (top albums)
Culture Bully (late night television performances)
Ed Droste of Grizzly Bear (favorite albums)
Muzzle of Bees (best concerts)
Nic Harcourt (via LAist) [top albums)
Paste (best albums)
PLUG via Brooklynvegan (best videos)
Stereogum (music readers poll)
Surface Noise (best albums)
track_three (top albums)
the full list of online "best of 2007" music lists
Rounder Records A&R director Dave Godowsky talks to the Boston Globe.
The label's only criteria for signings, says Godowsky, is the passion someone at Rounder feels for the music.
"For an independent label, almost 40 years in - especially considering the industry is going down the toilet - it's a pretty exciting place to be right now."
Popmatters examines the impact of home recording on the music industry.
Technology changes in recording practices have evolved so quickly that explanations of the movement’s larger social effects are lagging. Observers have generally tended to take either a utopian or apocalyptic view of the home-recording phenomenon. Jon Pareles wrote in the New York Times that artists like Mice Parade and Aesop Rock, who record music in their homes instead of professional studios, represent key players in what he calls a “quiet revolution” in music making. Other scholars are less optimistic: Critic Steve Jones agrees that home recording has affected how pop music is made and sold but has done little to change the core of how the music industry operates. Because little data has been collected on the home-recording movement (if it can be called that), it’s hard to assess its impact on the pop-music marketplace.
SF-Books is an online book-swapping site dedicated to science fiction and fantasy titles.
Rolling Stone lists the top 25 live albums of all time.
Senses Working Overtime is collecting links to online holiday mix CD downloads.
Indie Selections for Your Erections has been posting Christmas songs.
The Independent notes that big publishers can learn lessons from independent presses.
Key amongst these successes is The Life of Pi, Yann Martel's fable which enchanted so many and which won the 2002 Man Booker Prize. Sales of the book in all editions currently stand at an astonishing two million copies. Byng puts its success down to passion and belief. "If you are bigger, you tend to have greater distribution and more resources at hand, but this doesn't mean you will publish books better. I feel pretty bullish about what independent publishers can do with a book."
The Village Voice interviews the three members of the Big Sleep.
The Seattle Post-Intelligencer's SPI blog lists "Christmas songs... but better."
The Creative Capitalist interviews literary agent Andrea Somberg.
The San Francisco Chronicle reviews two rock 'n roll video games, Rock Band and Guitar Hero III.
Rock Band and Guitar Hero III can provide such a great time that I almost hate to ruin the fun. But even as the professional video game critic in me must bow to the wicked awesomeness of Rock Band, the amateur cultural anthropologist says "Oh, hell no." There's something mildly distressing about living in a society where cash-strapped public schools are more likely than ever to be cutting their music programs, and yet the must-have game of the season teaches you to play a fake guitar.
Entertainment Weekly's entertainer of the year is Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling.
USA Today examines the history (and future) of music documentaries.
The A.V. Club offers a list of 18 "kiss-off songs to cities."
The Commentary interviews author Ha Jin about his latest novel, A Free Life.
My favorite food writer and television culinary personality Anthony Bourdain talks to Minnesota Public Radio.
The Boston Herald lists gifts for the comic book geek.
The WOXY Holiday Mixer is streaming indie rock winter holiday songs.
Drowned in Sound has launched an mp3 blog, Drownloads.
The Threadless $10 t-shirt sale continues through December 16th. Yesterday many shirts were added, including Drum 'n Bass, Put the Needle on the Record, and a reprint of "I Listen to Bands That Don't Even Exist yet."
The Futurist recaps Oppenheimer's WOXY Lounge Act session and offers a couple of the in-studio mp3s.
also at Largehearted Boy:
2007 online music lists
Daily Downloads
Try It Before You Buy It (mp3s and full album streams from this week's CD releases)
this week's CD releases
tags: music books popculture indie news
