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May 16, 2008
Shorties
The Boston Globe profiles "Ole Miss rockers" Colour Revolt.
Colour Revolt, which co-headlines its own shows with the Atlanta mope-rock outfit Snowden at Pearl Street in Northampton tomorrow night and Great Scott on Sunday, is not a blues band, although its bleary indie-rock sprawl recalls the grit, gristle, and gravel of Southern indie brawlers like the Grifters. Credit the band's three-guitar attack for the delectably tangled snarl and woozy swagger of songs like "A Siren" and "Swamp." Also seeping in as an influence is the fact that several members play in a Pavement cover band (check out the album's first track, "Naked and Red," for proof), although there's not nearly as much time for that indulgence these days as there once was.
The Augusta Chronicle lists criminally underrated albums.
At the A.V. Club, Death Cab for Cutie frontman Ben Gibbard interviews Mark Kozelek.
Popmatters profiles the Traveling Wilburys.
The Traveling Wilburys were a fluke. Endearing and spirited, they were nonetheless a spontaneous accident, a perplexing interruption in rock ‘n’ roll history. Together, George Harrison, Tom Petty, Roy Orbison, Jeff Lynne, and Bob Dylan wrote surprisingly guileless, unpretentious songs, but guilelessness and genius rarely go hand-in-hand.
The Los Angeles Times and New York Times eulogize author Oakley Hall.
Drowned in Sound lists its top ten songs about soccer.
Quiet Color interviews Bianca Cassidy of Cocorosie.
QC: Totally. Well, I heard you never released your hip-hop record, “Word to the Crow”. What I find amazing is that in this scary as hell information age where EVERYTHING ANYONE does is documented on the Internet somewhere, despite all my searching, I couldn’t find it. Will that album ever see the light of day? Or is that a ship that has passed?
Bianca: It’s really mysterious to us. We’ve kind of locked it away from ourselves even. It’s a strange little something that’s just kind of brewing and we’ll see if it’s something that’s matured well with time or if it’s just dissolved because it’s really just on a tape, it’s not backed up in anyway.
Destroyer's Dan Bejar talks to the San Diego Union-Tribune.
"Destroyer has become more a band on the last couple of records,” said Bejar. “Especially if you come and see the show: It's not like James Taylor with a bunch of session musicians. We're all pretty loud and going for it. It's not like a platform for me to delicately sing the songs. So, yeah, I think of it as a rock band.”
TIME readers ask questions of This American Life's Ira Glass.
Do you have a relationship with your cousin, composer Philip Glass? David Potosky, MINNEAPOLIS
When I was growing up in Baltimore, he had long moved away to become [laughs] one of the most famous composers of the 20th century. I remember when I was thinking of leaving Baltimore to do journalism, my mom said to my dad, "Well, Philip moved away, and he did O.K." And I remember thinking, Can we lower the expectations a little here?
Hold Steady frontman Craig Finn talks to Billboard about the band's forthcoming album, Stay Positive.
Of the new material, lead singer Craig Finn recently told Billboard.com that he was "influenced a lot about getting old. There's less party talk. I don't think anything is a radical departure, but there are things that I wanted to talk about. I was influenced a lot [by] getting old, and attempting to age gracefully. The idea is to not wake up washed up. You want to keep progressing, intellectually."
Documentary filmmaker Pete Ohs and his crew has put together a video montage of day two of our Hor Freaks SXSW party (Live Music Blog founder Justin Eard makes a cameo behind the members of Le Switch at the 0:45 mark).
see also: the video montage for day one
TV Crunch lists the worst reality TV shows ever made.
NY Times Crossword Drawings are inspired by the daily crossword puzzle.
io9 explains how superhero movies "made comic books cooler (if not better)."
The Independent profiles comics legend Jack Kirby.
Kirby and Stan Lee, his creative partner at the Marvel Comics company, were the Lennon and McCartney of the comic book business. Together, they helped to overhaul the industry, paving the way for generations of innovative artists and creators. Kirby died in 1994, but his pop cultural influence is everywhere. His disciples include not only leading graphic novelists such as Frank Miller and Alan Moore, but also fine artists, film-makers and even novelists, all of them inspired by Kirby's groundbreaking artwork and storytelling flair.
NPR's All Things Considered profiles musician-run record labels.
At a time when many record labels are complaining about a seven-year slump in CD sales, independent Merge Records is coming off some of its best years, with albums by critical favorites Spoon and Arcade Fire cracking the Top 10 on the Billboard charts.
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
