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January 8, 2009
Shorties
The Portland Mercury reviews Jon Raymond's new short fiction collection, Livability.
These stories stand on their own, but the book as a whole is a welcome addition to the literature of the region. And there's something satisfying about locating these stories within Portland, whether riding the bus from 135th and Stark to the Lloyd Center with a young Russian girl or imagining an overdose in Washington Park. Take this eulogy for what I can only assume is Ozone Records, from Old Joy: "The record store on Burnside had gone out of business and the last albums on the shelves were all by friends of ours."
Yesterday's additions to the "best of 2008" online book lists includes PopMatters' non-fiction books of the year.
Yesterday's additions to the "best of 2008" online music lists include Mobtown Shanks top albums and The 9513's overlooked albums.
Author Jonathan Evison is teaming up with Jamseed to raise money for the Muscular Dystrophy Association. For a $20 donation, you receive a personalized snowglobe featuring Evison, a unicorn, a rainbow, and a rabbit.
The Charleston Post and Courier profiles some of the city's vinyl music lovers.
The Daily Beast lists the "thinking man's sex symbols."
The Chicago Reader examines several recently published breast cancer memoirs.
At Locus Magazine, author Cory Doctorow explains how to write amid life's many distractions.
Daytrotter's Thursday session features in-studio mp3s from Black Joe Lewis and the Honeybears.
The New Yorker features new short fiction, "Pumpkin Head," by Joyce Carol Oates.
Eye Weekly profiles Montreal's AIDS Wolf.
In the mythology of the Montreal music scene, AIDS Wolf are the anti–Arcade Fire. Both bands began in 2003, and soon found themselves at the epicentre of an unlikely musical moment where New York Times coverage and Seattle-esque generalizations about Montreal’s “sound” became de rigeur. That, however, is where the similarities end. With a cacophonous crossbreed of noise-rock and hardcore punk, AIDS Wolf’s bickering guitars, spazz-jazz drumming and screeching female vocals can singe the hairs off of even the most open ears. Consequently, as Arcade Fire rose like a mushroom cloud over Montreal’s indie-rock explosion, AIDS Wolf settled into the cracks and crevices of the scene like radioactive fallout.
Pitchfork reports that Our Band Could Be Your Life author Michael Azerrad will help Bob Mould write his autopbiography.
Wired's The Underwire interviews book designer/author/musician Chip Kidd.
The New York Times reports that iPod docking stations have been installed in the city's newest marriage bureau.
Manhattan’s new marriage bureau, which opens on Monday with a melange of high-tech accouterments, will also feature iPod docking stations so that people can bring their own music. It’s good to see the city becoming tech savvy on this front, adding charm to the old wedding mill. This was not a feature of the old Room 257, unless people brought their own speakers.
The Stranger lists singers who should stop singing.
Woven Hand (David Eugene Edwards) plays a Tiny Desk Concert at NPR.
Minnesota Public Radio interviews Dobby Gibson about his new poetry collection, Skirmish.
LaundroMatinee features in-studio video and mp3s by Sweden's Mary Onettes.
also at Largehearted Boy:
Online "best of 2008" music lists
Online "best of 2008" book lists
daily mp3 downloads
Try It Before You Buy It (mp3s and full album streams from this week's CD releases)
weekly music & DVD release lists
tags: music books popculture indie news
