« older | Main Largehearted Boy Page | newer »
March 21, 2011
Shorties (John Darnielle's Novel-in-Progress, J.D. Salinger, and more)
John Darnielle of the Mountain Goats talks to Exclaim! about his novel-in-progress.
"I'm working on it really slowly, and at this point, I expect to finish it when I'm 80 or something because I'm being really meticulous about revising it and am really ambitious about it," he explains. "It's about a guy who, when he was young, damaged himself very badly and finds himself in a position reflecting on other people who are as young as he once was and are also in the process of damaging themselves. It's a novel and I'm happy with the individual chapters I have, but I wish it went quicker. When I write songs, I burn through 'em. I sit down and I don't get up until I'm done writing one. I sit there with a guitar and a notebook and I stay there and, at some point, one to four hours later, I stand up and I'm done. This is very much like trying to polish a stone."
The New York Times examines Ursinus College's attempts to cash in on J.D. Salinger's one semester of attendance at the school in 1938, as well as the resistance from Salinger's representatives.
AudioMulch interviews Gregg Gillis of Girl Talk about his mixing methods.
The Wall Street Journal profiles the Brooklyn music scene.
Keren Ann's new album 101 (out March 22nd) is streaming at Rolling Stone.
Jonny's self-titled album is streaming at the Merge website. Jonny is a collaboration between Norman Blake of Teenage Fanclub and Euros Childs of Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci.
The Charleston City Paper profiles Vetiver.
Led by Andy Cabic, they burst onto the scene with their 2004 self-titled debut alongside San Francisco buddies Devendra Banhart and Joanna Newsom. However Vetiver's acoustic-driven folk-psych veers closer to Sub Pop's folk-rockers like the Shins, Fruit Bats, Fleet Foxes, and Iron & Wine. Indeed, Sam Beam's Iron & Wine seems a particularly apt touchstone, as there's an unhurried delicacy and tender melodic drift to the music that mirrors Vetiver's understated presence. Many have described their albums as "growers."
NME lists 30 bootleg albums you need to hear.
At The Nervous Breakdown, author Jennifer Gilmore interviews herself.
Missing SXSW already? Read six-word reviews of each of the 1,302 mp3s by participating artists made available by the conference at the Morning News.
Paste lists its 10 favorite SXSW 2011 performances.
Pop & Hiss and the New York Times also list memorable artists and moments from SXSW.
At Beyond the Margins, authors list the best & worst advice from editors and agents.
An interesting series about fans and their value to musical artists: "That's What Fans Are For" at NPR's The Record blog.
Follow me on Twitter and Stumbleupon for links (updated throughout the day) that don't make the daily "Shorties" columns.
also at Largehearted Boy:
previous Shorties posts (daily links from the worlds of music, literature, and pop culture)
Atomic Books Comics Preview (highlights of the week's comics & graphic novel releases)
daily mp3 downloads
Largehearted Word (highlights of the week's book releases)
Try It Before You Buy It (mp3s and full album streams from this week's CD releases)
weekly music & DVD release lists
