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July 11, 2008
Shorties
The Asheville Citizen-Times interviews singer-songwriter Langhorne Slim.
The Boston Globe profiles the Fleet Foxes.
So, yeah, the men of Fleet Foxes have big beards and sing big-hearted, major-key folk songs about loving the land and the sky and one another, but they are not - emphatically not - hippies. (As for the MySpace greeting, which professes "Endless gratitude & infinite gladness, woah!" [sic] - well, best to ignore that.) What the Foxes are is a hirsute, Technicolor, opposite-of-rock phenomenon, a folk act that's gone from zero to 60 in about a month and a half.
Gothamist interviews Kelley Deal of the Breeders.
It seems like you and Kim going on the road together for so long might be tough. Was the Breeders tour in the spring your guys' first time away since your mom got sick?
Well, Kim did Pixies touring and I went with her as a companion. Sort of like the Agatha Christie novel, Murder on the Orient Express. Where they had the Grand Dame and they had the woman who sits and reads to her and knits for her. That's what I did. Isn't that a great visual?
The New York Times reviews Books, the memoir of novelist (and bookseller) Larry McMurtry.
A purpose of this memoir, Mr. McMurtry writes, is to “raise ghosts” of booksellers past, in the same way that Booked Up has become an “anthology” of their wares. In 1950, when Fourth Avenue was bookstore row, Manhattan had 175 bookstores. The online business that replaced them, Mr. McMurtry laments, is precise and efficient but lacks the human contact and serendipity of poring through shelves of dust in search of treasure.
Speakers of the day: 500XL GIANT Earbud Speakers
The US Federal Highway Administration has updated its list of road songs.
Salman Rushdie talks to the Guardian about his career (and book signings).
He even seems to get a weird kick from signing books. "You know what," he told me earlier as we rode the lift down from his hotel suite on the 32nd floor, "I beat Jimmy Carter in his home state." How so? "I signed 475 copies in an hour when I was in Atlanta. But that was nothing.
In Nashville, I signed 1,000 copies in an hour, which I think is a record."
Robert B. Parker talks to NPR's Morning Edition about his Spenser novels.
Parker says the fictional Boston that Spenser lives and works in is the actual city "filtered through my imagination and the needs of my book." He mixes real sites in the city with places he invents.
"If I want him to have a terrible meal at a restaurant, for some reason," Parker explains, "I don't use a real restaurant, because why badmouth somebody?"
Silicon Alley Insider examines the pitfalls of ad-supported music.
Good Experience lists "secrets of book publishing I wish I had known."
Billboard lists the top 20 Sub Pop moments in the indie record label's first 20 years.
The Seattle Times profiles Sub Pop.
Kimya Dawson talks to the Hartford Courant about her children's album, Alphabutt.
"It's not too far removed from my normal [records]," she says. "It's a little political. It's a little about body image. Maybe people don't really talk to kids about those things. I didn't want to just make a totally silly record."
Dan Boeckner of Wolf Parade talks to the Georgia Straight.
Gothamist interviews Hold Steady frontman Craig Finn.
What can you tell us about your inspiration for the songs on your new album?
Well, one of the big things was when, pretty early in the recording, I found my roommate’s John Cassavetes box set and I watched all of them. But Opening Night in particular really hit me and filtered into the songs, not just the last song but the whole record. It deals with the idea of getting older and also being a public figure. You know, we’re far from a household name but even with the limited success of our records I’ve become more aware of what it means to go out and what it feels like when people know who you are and how it makes you react in situations.
NPR is streaming video of a "tiny desk concert" by singer-songwriter Sera Cahoone.
Sound Opinions talks to Sub Pop co-founder Jonathan Poneman today.
also at Largehearted Boy:
daily mp3 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
