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August 22, 2008
Shorties
The Boston Globe profiles Doveman's Thomas Bartlett, and reviews his Footloose covers album.
Indeed, the cheerful pop/soul/rock of the original versions is stripped away and replaced with ultra slo-mo takes that feature Bartlett's hushed vocals and layers of fragile piano lines, wistful accordion, squealing guitars, and droning organ noise. The Ann Wilson-Mike Reno power ballad "Almost Paradise" becomes a smoky noir soundscape. "Dancing in the Sheets" evokes not original pop funkateers Shalamar, but indie rock low-talkers Luna. And Kenny Loggins is going to have to listen a few times to the title track to find any evidence of his musical DNA.
Alina Simone talks to the Moscow Times about her Yanka Dyagileva covers album, Everyone is Crying Out to Me, Beware.
"There are also Russians who are unhappy about my singing Yanka's songs with my American accent. But being who I am, I could never satisfy these listeners. I think some dissent and friction is actually a good thing. Art should be a conversation starter, not a conversation stopper."
PopMatters interviews Camilia Gray and Leisha Hailey of Uh Huh Her.
The New York Daily News profiles Faun Fables.
The best music by Faun Fables has just that elemental spark. You can hear it flicker at their headline show at Knitting Factory Sunday, or on any of their four eccentric CDs. At times, McCarthy's music sounds like it was made by woodland creatures, cooing and hooting in the night. At others, it suggests the cries and howls of an untamed beast braying at the moon, or a pack of possessed Druids whipped into a religious frenzy.
The Guardian lists prices to have musicians play your next private party.
Ayelet Waldman talks to the Berkeley Daily Planet about her support of Barack Obama's US presidential bid (and being a delegate to the Democratic National Convention).
“But now I feel like I am putting my money where my mouth is. I had this epiphany while waiting for Barack to give his speech [in South Carolina]. I was standing next to some statue, you know, one of those really ‘southern’ statues, and here we were in this room, black and white, and up come Bill Clinton’s comments about Jesse Jackson on the big TV.” She is resolute, focused, sending chills down the listener’s spine as she continues. “I was standing with some students and they started chanting, ‘Race doesn’t matter! Race doesn’t matter!’ And here we were in the heart of Dixie chanting ‘Race doesn’t matter!’ She takes a breath, “And, of course, race matters. I just felt so excited with the possibility of electing a man [Obama] with such compassion and intellect.”
Haruki Murakami talks to the Korea Times about his book, What I Talk About When I Talk About Running.
"Most of what I know about writing, I've learned through running every day. I know if I hadn't become a long distance runner when I became a novelist, my work would have been vastly different. How different? Hard to say. But something would have been different,'' he said.
Tech Digest lists five reasons Songbird is its favorite media player.
Unconventional '08 is a free concert to be held during the Democratic National Convention in Denver. Artists scheduled to appear include Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Cold War Kids, Silversun Pickups, Nada Surf, DJ Z‐Trip and members of Death Cab for Cutie, Rilo Kiley, She and Him, sarah Silverman and more.
Fire.fm is a Last.fm Firefox add-on.
I Will Dare lists the ten best episodes of Dawson's Creek.
Drowned in Sound interviews singer-songwriter David Karsten Daniels.
WNYC's Soundcheck features Bon Iver's Justin Vernon with an interview and in-studio performance.
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
