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August 7, 2008
Shorties
The 2008 Lollapalooza music downloads page has been updated with an mp4 download of the MGMT performance; video downloads of Rogue Wave and Holy F*ck's sets; and bittorrent downloads of lossless audio from the Nine Inch Nails, Black Keys and MGMT shows.
The Winston-Salem Journal profiles seminal Athens band Pylon.
Pylon's influence was subtle, something that grew over time as the band's classic, near-perfect album Gravity, released in 1980, rolled through the rock underground. Lack of solos made each song an ensemble experience -- minimalist and precise. The band's determination to promote the value of space created an oddly angular breed of dance-rock, colored by splats of guitar, driven by a locked-in groove, deceptively simple and repetitive. The overall experience was trance-like and infinitely danceable.
The Guardian's music blog examines the history of musicians' gear being stolen.
Carl Newman talks to the Hartford Courant about the New Pornographers.
"I never imagined it would really do anything. Of course everybody when they make a record, they're secretly daydreaming about becoming massive, but I never expected it. I figured, why would anything change?" Newman says. "This band was really a labor of love for me. I had come to a realization in my life that I was probably never going to make my living making music, but I still wanted to make music, so why not make the music I wanted to make?"
The Valley Advocate also interviews Newman.
Do you have plans for another A.C. Newman solo album?
Yeah, actually I start mixing it in about eight days. The album is due to come out in January. My record label Matador's schedule is pretty backed up, so it got pushed. I think '09 is going to be a very busy year for me—with the solo record in January, and I'm also shooting for the next Pornographers record to come out in October. That's what I'm shooting for. It's a real Robert Pollard move. I've got to try and do my 69 Love Songs. One up Magnetic Fields, put out 70 Love Songs. Instead of 69 Love Songs it'll be 70 Songs That Don't Make Much Sense.
Hypertext interviews author Cory Doctorow.
In addition to bookstores, you’ve been doing a lot of classroom appearances for the book. How’s that going?
It’s going really well. In young-adult fiction, one of the things that lured me into trying it is there’s a consequentiality that isn’t present in writing for the adult audience. Adults primarily read for entertainment but young adults read partly for finding out how the world works. They’re not only willing to listen closely to what you have to say but they’re also willing to push back when they don’t agree, and you can have some very challenging discussions, especially when it comes to subjects as politically charged as the ones in “Little Brother.”
Popcuts is a new online music store that can actually pay you if you buy a song that becomes popular.
Popmatters profiles the Dodos.
Despite their minimalist exterior, the Dodos perform fast-paced rhythms and old-school blues licks with surprising potency. Their songs on their new album Visiter inevitably display Meric Long’s sentimental musings but are driven by the duo’s tom-tom heavy drumming and rhythmic guitar playing. Their single “Fools” portends to be a ballad until Long’s vocals drop and the group’s raw underbelly exposes itself: breakneck phrasing which belies the traditional folk aesthetic.
Grizzly Bear's Ed Droste talks to the Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star about opening for Radiohead.
"We're not going to play our slower, stripped-down songs," he said. "They are engaging in a different way, but it's not right for the end of the day for all sorts of people who are drunk and waiting for Radiohead to play."
In the New Statesman, Daniel Trilling examines the resurgence of folk music.
So does the proliferation of folky stylings currently doing the rounds indicate a widespread hatred of modern life and a desire to return to some imagined pastoral idyll? Actually, no. Like any other genre, folk music is too nebulous to have a single political meaning imposed on it. Old melodies and instruments provide a palette which, when used well, allows musicians to innovate. (I'd defy anyone, for example, to find a recent album more thrillingly modern than Joanna Newsom's Ys.)
Mother Jones' The Riff Blog lists the top 5 stoner metal albums.
Ta-Nehisi Coates, author of the riveting memoir, The Beautiful Struggle: A Father, Two Sons, and an Unlikely Road to Manhood, shares a music playlist in the New York Times' Paper Cuts blog.
PRWeek examines the Lollapalooza festival's online presence (even after the festival ended).
Independent Weekly profiles the Bowerbirds.
Beyond their Appalachian ties, Bowerbirds' songs take a hint of European flavor in Tacular's accordion, and Moore's warm tenor carries a jazzy crispness. Each movement springs with an eased forcefulness that is consistently surprising to behold, but always feels as natural as rain turning dust to mud. "Bowerbirds make music that I know I'll listen to for the rest of my life," says Dead Oceans president Phil Waldorf. "It's like Caetano Veloso or Bert Jansch or something."
PLAYBACK:stl reviews Alina Simone's new album, Everyone Is Crying Out to Me, Beware.
For an album composed of lyrics solely sung in Russian, Everyone Is Crying Out to Me, Beware is eerily surreal. Without the knowledge of Dyagileva's story, or Russian at all for that matter, the album still has a deep eerie feeling about it that borders on psychotic. You wonder if Simone is simply living through the pain of life or about to commit suicide. Either way, the mere thought is proof enough of the pure talent she possesses and the emotion she's able to bring to Dyagileva's music.
The Art of Manliness lists 52 songs to help you "get bigger, stronger, and faster."
Daniel Staemmler lists places to find DRM-free music online.
IGN lists the ten best DC comics.
Hold Steady frontman Craig Finn talks to IGN.
Drinking, the act and after effects, have always factored heavily into THS's lyrical slant. "I've always been kind of fascinated by how people use drugs and alcohol to kind of escape and to enhance and whatnot their normal, daily lives," ruminates Finn. "I think I do always try to be careful to write about the hangovers as much as I do the high."
The Observer profiles bands with "poetry on the brain."
Silver Jews' David Berman agrees: 'Over time, I've started to consider myself more a songwriter than a poet. Poetry is traditionally privileged as being a higher art [but] for me, there's more exciting work to be done today in song lyrics. Songs are an interesting place to try out different things that aren't being done in other parts of culture. In music, you can still work with sentiment, you can still make a song a slogan.'
With the Olympics set to begin, NPR's Morning Edition offers a primer to national anthems of the world.
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
