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June 3, 2008
Shorties
Daytrotter features a music performance by actor Jeff Daniels.
The Line of Best Fit interviews Justin Vernon of Bon Iver.
Salon recaps this year's Book Expo America.
Things didn't look so bad at BEA, what with attendees lining up into the aisles to score autographed books. True, some of the most popular authors had earned their celebrity in other fields: Billie Jean King, John Dean, Brooke Shields, both William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy (in separate booths) and Barbara Walters. There were parties for Alec Baldwin and Prince -- the latter, thrown at the artist's Los Angeles home, constituted the hot ticket of the weekend. Actual writers still managed to command crowds, however, with crime novelists Michael Connelly and Brad Meltzer generating some of the longest lines. (Even this usually jaded reporter was thrilled to stumble upon Neal Stephenson autographing galleys of his new novel, "Anathem," in the William Morrow booth.)
The New York Sun reviews the documentary about author Harlan Ellison, Dreams With Sharp Teeth.
"Dreams With Sharp Teeth," Erik Nelson's documentary opening tomorrow at Film Forum, is utterly agog at Mr. Ellison's larger-than-life persona, but knowingly so. This is not a standard biography with old television clips, talking-head interviews, and historical montages — although it has all of those things. What Mr. Nelson takes advantage of, and also indulges, is Mr. Ellison's hammy streak. He gives the writer generous face time to blast off on all his favorite topics: the abuse of writers, the stupidity of Hollywood, the cruelty of his fellow man, and, most of all, Harlan Ellison.
The June edition of Bookslut is online, and contains an interview with Rivka Glachen, author of Atmospheric Disturbances.
When You Are Engulfed in Flames, the new essay collection by David Sedaris, is in stores today.
Ars.Technica profiles TuneCore, a service to get your music into digital stores incredibly cheaply.
TuneCore charges $19.98 a year to store an uploaded album from any artist. It charges an additional $0.99 per song on that album, along with a $0.99 charge for each music store that it submits to (iTunes, eMusic, Amazon, and Rhapsody, among others); these are one-time charges. That's it.
Drowned in Sound interviews the members of Times New Viking.
Were you all big noise-rock fans when you started out with the band was it more the case that the songs you wrote just sounded better the more distortion you used?
Jared: Well you know I can’t stand to listen to noise stuff most of the time, I like the noisy stuff that’s kind of rock-based…
Beth: But we didn’t really figure any of that stuff until after we started the band and people referenced us in relation to these bands... But In Columbus there were a lot of noise bands like two or three years ago. You either go to some art space to see your friends do something really weird or you go to a really terrible bar and see all these terrible bar bands.
T-shirts of the day: everything on sale at the Threadless Summer Sale
The Village Voice's Sound of the City blog interviews Jon Langford.
You were still a member of the Mekons when the Waco Brothers started. What did you think you were doing?
Playing country covers in bars that didn't normally have bands playing in them for beer money. Basically. With Dean (Schlabowske). You know, the whole thing was that I'd produced a record for Dean and his band Wreck for Wax Trax Records. But we just discovered we both really liked George Jones and Merle Haggard.
The National Post features a monthly column, "Six Free Songs," written by Said the Gramophone's Sean Michaels.
Filter's "undiscovered band of the month" is the Antiques.
Who are your main influences?
These rotate, but mainstays include classics such as Neil Young and the Beatles; and more recently Tim Bluhm and M Ward - and authors like Steinbeck and Gabriel Garcia Marquez
MSNBC interviews Aimee Mann, whose latest album @#%&*! Smilers is out today.
Hirsh: How often do you get recognized for your role in “The Big Lebowski”?
Mann: It’s mostly for music, and every now and then somebody will realize that I’m in “The Big Lebowski” and they’ll flip their lid, because people who know “The Big Lebowski” enough to recognize me are… I mean, there is a weird cult following of “The Big Lebowski,” so if they can recognize me, it means that they’re really into that movie. I’ve only seen “The Big Lebowski” once, so I’m not hooked into it in that way. (laughs)
NPR's All Things Considered profiles singer-songwriter-cartoonist Jeffrey Lewis.
Anti-folk songwriter Jeffrey Lewis isn't content to sing about love and loss. He finds inspiration in less-covered topics such as the true origins of punk music or mistaken identity on the subway. In an interview with guest host Guy Raz, Lewis talks about his muse, his other life as a comic book artist, and anti-folk music.
The Futurist recaps the Winterpills WOXY Longe Act performance with a couple of in-studio mp3s.
Minnesota Public Radio's The Current features Death Cab for Cutie with an in-studio performance and interview.
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
