« older | Main Largehearted Boy Page | newer »
May 30, 2008
Shorties
Matt Friedberger of the Fiery Furnaces talks to the Los Angeles Times.
"We did a tour where we did a version of the 'Rehearsing My Choir' record, which is rearranged from the original material," Matt Friedberger says of the Furnaces' 2005 album, which features the siblings' grandmother telling the story of her life. "Then another tour we did for the 'Bitter Tea' album, it was totally rearranged. 'Bitter Tea' is not a very rock 'n' roll record, there's not much guitar playing. But on one tour we played it as guitar rock. You want to make it a different record live."
The Cleveland Plain-Dealer interviews Kim Deal of the Breeders about being in a band with her twin sister.
"I always wished we could be like the Gallagher brothers [of Oasis] or the Davies [Ray and Dave, of Kinks fame], where they just start hitting each other onstage," Deal says, reached by phone at home in Dayton.
"It seems so much cooler. But we've never gotten into a physical fight onstage, even though I'd like to."
The Guardian profiles singer-songwriter Thea Gilmore.
Bruce Springsteen has her on his iPod, Joan Baez invited her on tour, and she has collaborated with members of the Zutons and the Waterboys as well as Martha Wainwright. She has been described as "the best singer/songwriter of the last 10 years", is not yet 29 and has just released her seventh album of self-penned songs (having written her first when she was 16). Yet there's a good chance you've never heard of Thea Gilmore.
Metromix New York interviews Jeff Curtin, who along with Adam Schatz recaps every episode of Lost by posting a song as the band Previously on Lost.
Are you musicians who happen to be fans of “Lost,” or rabid fans of “Lost” who happen to play instruments?
Our main interest is in recapping. In order to recap successfully, you have to be familiar with the subject you aim to sum up. Since we have watched every episode of "Lost" multiple times and have been with it since season 1, we decided it was a good place to start. We have a variety of music projects going on right now between the two of us. We plan to widen the scope of our recapping to include other J.J. Abrams shows beginning with “Felicity” and move from there to books, movies, restaurant menus and weeks in politics.
Popmatters argues for the value of hype.
For all our complaining about hype, we would be somewhat lost without it. By roughly aggregating public opinion, hype frames the terms of the cultural conversation about music, making us collectively responsible for it. Thus, rather than making every discussion of music reveal perhaps more about ourselves than we intend, hype actually it liberates us from having to worry about revealing our “true tastes” at all. If we really like to bath in a warm bath of Andreas Vollenweider, no one has to know when we are arguing about the significance of Vampire Weekend or American Idol competitors for that matter. And once the conversation is established, hype gives us a reason to join in. Ultimately, it allows us to consume through culture things not always in ample supply: participation, the sense of belonging to something larger than ourselves, the feeling of being excited.
The Los Angeles Times examines alternative book marketing methods ion the publishing industry.
Some experts caution that videos aren't the instant solution to the industry's woes. "I haven't seen any bottom-line evidence where somebody can point to a video and say, 'Oh, we've sold X thousand copies of a new book because we did that new trailer,' " said Ron Hogan, who runs Galleycat.com, a publishing industry blog. But he added, "They do generate long-term buzz and create author awareness, and publishers must have an instinctive sense that this approach has been working."
Popmatters profiles Mark Eitzel of American Music Club.
The Guardian gets authors' reactions to the placement of age ranges on children's books.
Marcus Sedgwick, who won last year's Booktrust teenage prize with a sinister vampire tale, My Swordhand is Singing, described the initiative as a "disaster", while Carnegie medal-winner David Almond called it "silly". Francesca Simon, author of the bestselling Horrid Henry series, said the proposals were "ridiculous", while the Carnegie medal-winner Mal Peet, called them a "very bad idea".
Rolling Stone lists the 100 greatest guitar songs of all time.
WXPN is streaming live performances by Ryan Bingham and Hayes Carll at noon eastern today.
IGN lists 10 songs about sex and 10 songs about the city.
The Georgia Strait profiles Los Campesinos!.
“When the band came together in 2006, and also leading up to that period when we all wanted to be playing music, the British music scene was primarily dominated by the post-Libertines and post-Strokes bands,” Gareth says. “They were doing something incredibly derivative and not particularly inspiring—it seemed they were only interested in doing something that would get them signed, or make them seem cool. We were more interested in U.S. college rock—your basic bands like Pavement, Dinosaur Jr., Sonic Youth, and Sebadoh. We’re all avid readers of Pitchfork, so that also obviously forms a reference point for what bands that we might listen to. But basically there aren’t a lot of British bands that draw a lot of influences from the U.S.”
Seattle Weekly has Tapes 'n Tapes frontman review reviews of the band's latest album, Walk It Off.
American Public Media's Marketplace examines the shrinking market for hardback books and how the publishing industry is adapting.
The Scotsman's album of the week is Paul Weller's 22 Dreams (out June 10th in the US).
There are 21 tracks on 22 Dreams, and most of them are worth the time of day (or season). In scale, ambition and variety, this is Weller's equivalent of The White Album, or at least his Ogden's Nut Gone Flake. Stylistically, he visits places he hasn't been before, breaking into a tango on One Bright Star, embarking on a Moog and Mellotron odyssey called 111, and using esoteric instrumentation such as bouzouki, hornpipes and other poncy stuff you might have thought Weller would have no truck with. He even breaks out a celeste at one point.
Rilo Kiley bassist Pierre de Reeder talks to Aquarian Weekly about his band's comparisons to Fleetwood Mac.
Bassist Pierre de Reeder is both modest and humble about the comparison. “That’s a flattering comparison. Fleetwood Mac is an incredible band and we take it as a compliment. I don’t know if there’s similarities in terms of social structure, there’s nowhere near that much sex happening in our band (laughs), but musically it’s more accurate,” says de Reeder, on the phone from California during a “weird in-between” where the band has recently made some festival appearances and the first few dates of their headlining North American tour, which has kept them in Los Angeles.
Blender lists music's most dastardly villains.
Drowned in Sound interviews the Swedish duo Wildbirds & Peacedrums.
io9 lists 10 books that "prove science fiction just got harder."
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
