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January 23, 2009
Shorties (Andrew Bird, Kaki King, and more)
The A.V. Club interviews Andrew Bird, whose Noble Beast album was released Tuesday.
AVC: Do you ever get tired of always being tagged as "the guy who whistles," "the guy who plays the violin," "the guy who does loops," and so forth?
AB: It's pretty harmless. There's lots of worse things that could be attached to your name. Since I started doing the New York Times thing, sometimes they say on the ad at the theater, "Multi-instrumentalist, cultural commentator." I'm like, "No, that's a bad expectation to start to develop." I guess it's better than "blogger," which is such an ugly word. It's always been such a pain to describe to anyone what I'm doing, so it might as well be a matter-of-fact thing like "violinist," "whistler," "multi-instrumentalist." It's all pretty harmless. If they said, like, "swing impresario" or something like that, then I would have an issue. Or "indie rock" is another one that gets me. I just never felt like I had anything to do with indie rock. When you think indie rock, you think more about haircuts and fashion than about music.
The Ventura County Star interviews Kaki King.
Who goes to a Kaki show? Guitar players taking notes?
Guitar players taking notes, underage lesbians that snuck in and hipsters that have halfway decent taste in music.
The Yorkshire Evening Post interviews Richard Thompson.
A.C. Newman talks to Metro Vancouver about his new solo album, Get Guilty.
“I think Get Guilty is a louder record than Challengers is,” says Newman, comparing his latest solo effort to his last New Pornographers record in the same breath. “I think I’m always trying to change it up, it doesn’t matter whether it’s a Pornographers album or not.”
The Telegraph reviews Roberto Bolano's novel, 2666.
2666 is a major literary event. It is a supernovel comprising five sections, each capable of standing alone (as was Bolano’s original idea, with one eye on the increased sales that would accrue).
In the Chicago Sun-Times, Jim DeRogatis delivers a glowing review of Animal Collective's Merriweather Post Pavilion.
On "Merriweather Post Pavilion," the group's ninth studio album, released Tuesday, the newly pared-down trio of the trippily named Avey Tare (a k a Dave Portner), Panda Bear (Noah Lennox) and Geologist (Brian Weitz) sobered up long enough to polish and perfect their songcraft, yielding a psychedeli-pop masterpiece winning praise from every corner as an irresistibly sunny idyll in ever darkening times.
T-shirt of the day: "Baracktimus Prime"
Amazon is selling the mp3 version of the Sex Pistols' Nevermind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols for $1.99 today.
Get a random Jack Kerouac quote.
Mick Harvey has left Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds.
Daytrotter's Friday session features in-studio mp3s from Royal Bangs.
Southern Shelter shares mp3s from the Whigs' recent Athens performance.
Paul's SXSW Artist Catalog allows sorting of 2009 participating acts by popularity, alphabetical order, and other metrics.
Craig Finn and Tad Kubler's pre-Hold Steady band, Lifter Puller, plans an anthology and book release this year according to their website.
Bradley's Almanac lists its favorite albums of 2008.
Good Is Dead. is book designer/author/musician Chip Kidd's website.
IGN previews 2009's major music releases.
Washington Monthly asks 25 writers and thinkers what books President Obama should read.
WHYY's Fresh Air interviews Weezer frontman Rivers Cuomo.
Sound Opinions features an interview and in-studio session with the Hold Steady.
Drowned in Sound has started a message board for musicians to share and discuss their music.
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
