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August 4, 2009
Shorties (Mountain Goats Tourdates, Kim Deal, and more)
The Mountain Goats have announced fall tour dates for Europe and the US.
PopMatters interviews Kim Deal of the Breeders and the Pixies.
Vincent Lam talks to the Globe and Mail about adapting his novel, Bloodletting and Miraculous Cures, into a television miniseries.
“There are differences between the book and the screenplay – and I think that's absolutely necessary because they're different formats,” says Lam, whose parents immigrated to Canada from Vietnam in the late sixties, settling first in London, Ont., and later in Ottawa, where Lam and his younger sister grew up. “They're not considered the same way. They're not viewed the same way. So I think changes must be done to make it work."
Wired's Epicenter blog examines the growing number of iPhone apps devoted to a single musical artist.
Today, six of the 20 most recently submitted music apps to appear in the App Store feature a single artist: Jason Carver, Jessica Harp, Jimmy Cliff, John Butler Trio, Kadence, and The Cribs. Each showcases music videos, photos, news, photo-jumble games, concert listings, and/or community features that let fans share photos with each other.
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly's Shelf Life blog, Neil Gaiman calls for an end to the vampire fiction fad.
Pitchfork reviews Joe Pernice's new album, It Feels So Good When I Stop, a companion piece to his new novel of the same name.
It's a smart way for a songwriter-turned-novelist to break the fourth wall without distracting from his prose, complementing the story (some snippets of which, as read by Pernice, appear interspersed through the disc) while emphasizing his parallel musical background and prowess. To that end, the covers here are particularly diverse, ranging from Sebadoh and Plush to Tom T. Hall and Todd Rundgren. Pernice's instinct for assembling the whole package comes in handy, too-- not just in the music's connection to the novel but how Pernice takes this eclectic slate of source material and fits it to his established melodic métier.
Travis Elborough, author of The Vinyl Countdown: The Album from LP to iPod and Back Again, talks to The Quietus about his book.
The Guardian's music blog ponders the future of the album format.
The Times Online lists the best 60 books of the past 60 years.
Venus Zine offers a guide to this weekend's Lollapalooza music festival.
NPR's Morning Edition talks to Richard Russo about his new novel, Old Cape Magic. An excerpt from the book is also presented.
Pop Candy reviews three recently released music books, and points out a Morrissey biography, Morrissey: The Pageant of His Bleeding Heart, that I simply have to read.
Drowned in Sound recaps July's album releases.
On sale for $3.99 at Amazon MP3: the 11-track debut solo album by Interpol's Julian Plenti, Julian Plenti Is... Skyscraper for $3.99.
Elizabeth Strout talks to the Washington Post about her Pulitzer Prize-winning short story collection, Olive Kitteridge.
ARTISTdirect interviews Perry Farrell of Jane's Addiction.
Singer-songwriter Kaki King talks to the Phoenix.
With her singing, King's music began to attract indie attentions. John Darnielle (a/k/a the Mountain Goats), whom she affectionately describes as "one of the worst guitar players I've ever met," fell head over heels for . . . Until We Felt Red. Last year the two toured together, and they ended up releasing an EP called Black Pear Tree (4AD). "He doesn't need to be a good guitar player," she says. "The songs just work."
The 9513 lists the top 30 country songs about angels.
Wired's Underwire blog lists 10 space-rocking astronaut songs.
Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes visit The Current studios for an interview and live performance.
Bookslut's August issue is online.
The Guardian's summer short fiction special is online, and features stories by Dave Eggers, A.M. Homes, David Mitchell, and others.
The members of Pearl Jam talk to Billboard about the band's forthcoming album.
Follow me on Twitter for links that don't make the daily "Shorties" columns.
also at Largehearted Boy:
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
