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April 2, 2008
Shorties
Yesterday's addition to the list of 2008 SXSW streaming and downloadable music performances:
An mp3 recording of a Project Jenny, Project Jan performance.
The Virginian-Pilot interviews Kimya Dawson.
How important is Sen. Barack Obama's candidacy at this point in American history?
Anyone who can inspire people and make them realize that they don't have to sit back and take things, I think that's pretty fantastic; to make people feel motivated and hopeful. But at the same time, I do feel a lot of people sit around and wait for a politician to come along to inspire them and change things and save the day.
I think people need to be proactive at all times and even make changes on a grass-roots level in their own communities and support their local businesses. And getting to know their neighbors and having compassion toward other people, and not just accepting what is being done and thinking they can't make a difference.
The Washington Post's Express interviews Jens Lekman.
» EXPRESS: You seem to be as enamored of love as The Beatles were. Heck, you could probably rival Rodgers and Hammerstein, come to think of it. What drives that?
» LEKMAN: Why write about love? Well, I mean, how much time do you have? I write about love because I can't see the opposite of it. I don't understand people who can't be ultra-romantics.
Elf Power frontman Andrew Rieger talks to the Charleston City Paper about the band's new album, In a Cave.
"It's not really conceptual," Rieger says of the new album. "Eric brought in several instrumental demos of songs. I came up with lyrics, melodies, and arrangements. That was a different way of writing, which yielded some interesting results. Eric's contributions to the albums were valuable. He actually made a magic tape organ, which is basically a thrift-store mellotron [an electro-mechanical, polyphonic keyboard, first used on Harris' The Frosted Ambassador album] where you can choose different instruments to drone on notes. It makes a really warbly, dreamy, psychedelic sound, which adds to the mix.
The Daily Texan interviews Stacy DuPree of Eisley.
DT: On the topic of media, what else are you enjoying right now - movies, television, books?
SD: I'm reading a book right now, "Blink." It's really interesting, but I feel like it's not the book for me. It's for people who are super analytical, but I think I'm more instinctual.
I don't watch a lot of TV. [As for movies,] seriously, me and my sister, we put on a Harry Potter movie almost every night. I don't know why, but Harry Potter is always good. Also, I love "Rushmore" or any Wes Anderson movie.
The Calgary Herald profiles Leslie Feist, talking to bandmates from her musical past.
Boise Weekly examines the city's struggling independent bookstores.
Here in Boise, the number of independent bookstores has displayed similar highs and lows. In the '70s, only a handful were around. By the '90s, both Waldenbooks and B. Dalton operated in Boise, but the city also supported more than a half-dozen indies. Over the years, almost all of those have closed their doors. Today, the number of unchained, locally owned bookstores selling new books across genres (that is, those booksellers who aren't filling a niche, like Christian literature) is three. And we're about to lose one.
Library Journal reviews the current crop of political books.
Minnesota Public Radio examines the growing appeal of vinyl to Twin Cities music fans.
The Line of Best Fit has several interesting recent interviews, including Anand Wilder of Yeasayer.
Philadelphia Weekly interviews author Richard Price (in Price's style).
Drowned in Sound interviews members of Tapes 'N Tapes.
Where previously mumbled and grumbled, there seems a newfound confidence to Grier’s vocal delivery, still a neurotic rasp, but muscular in the same way as Modest Mouse ringleader Isaac Brock. Yet the ambiguity remains with lyrics eternally muddled and it difficult to figure out the themes of tracks with what seems a deliberate confusing of states.
“I think for me on this record I was more confident with the stories I had in mind whilst leaving things abstract enough for there to be an open interpretation. Rather than a hard line of instruction of what a song is about we'd rather people read their own interpretation of the lyrics.”
Time Out New York interviews Kim Deal of the Breeders.
Did the success of that song ("Cannonball") cause any jealousy among your indie-rock peers?
You know, [Pavement’s Stephen] Malkmus is being a bit of a bitch in interviews recently. One thing he said last summer referred to me as “trashy mouth.” And he just did this article in Spin where he alluded to me unpleasantly, saying [something like], “You know, I always thought that Pavement could have had one of those big hits in the early ’90s with ‘Cut Your Hair,’ but I guess people preferred ‘Cannonball.’ ”
Drowned in Sound interviews Radiohead drummer Phil Selway.
NPR's Day to Day examines the value of Moby's music at Mobygratis.com (where he gives tracks away for free to independent filmmakers).
Minneapolis Public Radio's The Current features Ingrid Michaelson with an interview and in-studio performance.
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
