« older | Main Largehearted Boy Page | newer »
August 10, 2009
Shorties (Stone Roses, Nick Cave's Enhanced Audiobook, and more)
Stone Roses bassist Mani talks to BBC News about the 20th anniversary edition of the band's self-titled album (out September 8th in the US).
The Stone Roses: 20th Anniversary Edition, which is available in three different formats that includes previously unreleased demos, special slipcases and booklets, has been re-mastered by Brown and Leckie.
"Knowing Ian, I think he'd probably have turned up the bass and the drums and made it a bit more rhythmic," Mani said.
"There's unheard-of demos as well on there which which I'd really like to hear."
The Guardian examines the iTunes app version of Nick Cave's new novel, The Death of Bunny Munro, which will include a soundtrack.
It could be regarded as a gimmick, but if it catches on, it will subtly change the way we experience fiction. If you half-read, half-listen to a book, your experience of reading will partly be shaped by the voice of the audiobook; your memories of the text will be coloured by how you took it in, passage by passage. The other thing is that it comes with a soundtrack, composed by Cave and Warren Ellis, one of his Bad Seeds. Soundtracked novels: now that really will change the experience. Could the soundtracked novel be to fiction what song is to verse? Or could it be what Smell-O-Vision was to cinema? Inevitably, some authors – like Cave – will be more suitable for the treatment than others. I can't see a huge market for an iPhone edition of Hotel du Lac, with Anita Brookner improvising scat jazz accompanied by a steel band.
The Village Voice interviews Phil Elverum of Mount Eerie about the infliuence of the television series Twin Peaks on the band's new album, Wind's Poem.
Twin Peaks is all over the album. How does the television series fit into this project?
Well [pause] I like that show a lot. When it was on TV, I was [pause] 12, I think? Not quite old enough to stay up and watch it, but old enough to be aware of its existence and to see a few episodes. It really marked me. Living in a place that looked just like the TV show, it kind of I guess informed my own romantic view of the creepiness in the woods. Which has stayed with me and I guess become part of my whole aesthetic that I try to create, this idea of a dark presence in nature. For some reason that's interesting and beautiful to me. Also, when I'm traveling the world, that TV show is semi-popular. It's got a cult following everywhere. And being in some place like Poland and having someone say, "Oh yeah that place you're from, Anacortes, WA, is that near Twin Peaks?" [laughs] and just really loving that reference. It's a form of patriotism I think.
Former Shins drummer Jesse Sandoval talks to the Guardian about his departure from the band.
Gothamist interviews Benjamin Davis of Bad Veins.
PopMatters interviews Dan Bitney of Tortoise.
Free at Amazon MP3: the 9-track JDub Presents: Wild Peace sampler album.
Rock's Backpages lists 30 great vacation songs.
CNET's Digital Media blog points out the hurdles to ad-supported music on the web.
Captains Dead offers the unofficial soundtrack to Ferris Bueller's Day Off.
This week Five Chapters is serializing a new short story by Evie Wyld.
USA Today's Whitney Matheson wraps up her Lollapalooza coverage.
Chicago Now discusses musicians' houses in the Windy City.
Where I Write offers photo tours of fantasy and science fiction authors' creative spaces.
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
