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June 17, 2011
Shorties (Bob Mould, David Foster Wallace, and more)
NPR reviews and excerpts from Bob Mould's new memoir, See A Little Light: The Trail Of Rage And Melody.
Mould also reads from the book and performs several songs at Minnesota Public Radio.
The Nation reviews David Foster Wallace's posthumous novel, The Pale King.
At the Atlantic, John Darnielle of the Mountain Goats shares the handwritten first draft of his song "Dance Music," and explains his songwriting process.
Here's the challenge of song-writing: when you write lyrics you're writing poetry. And people tend to read poetry as though it all has the same rhythm and the same vibe. But in fact, every poem has its own rhythm. Sometimes it's frantic and up-tempo and other times it's jumpy and swinging and other times it's slow and somber. And it's the songwriter's job to pick the right rhythm that sets the lyrics in their home, or contrasts them in some way. "I'm seventeen years old"—you want that to come out a certain way, you don't want to put that to a slow IV. I mean, you can. We actually have done this song slow, but for the platonic, initial look at the song I wanted something that conveyed the actual, in-the-moment speech rhythms.
Added to the 2011 Bonnaroo downloads page today:
Videos of performances by Alison Krauss, Big Boi, Cold War Kids, Mumford & Sons, My Morning Jacket, Ratatat, The Strokes, and Wiz Khalifa.
Lossless downloads of sets by John Bell, Mumford & Sons, and My Morning Jacket.
The Takeaway discusses the best dads in literature.
The Guardian profiles Brassland Records.
Community is crucial to the Brassland ethos, albeit a different kind of community to the more traditional rock "scene". "Bands like Arcade Fire finding a larger audience has opened a lot of doors," Bryce says. "They've empowered a whole community in Montreal. The same is happening in Brooklyn. For the first four or five years of the National, interviewers, especially in Europe, used to say: 'You don't seem to be part of the New York scene,'" says Bryce. "Now we get: 'You seem like the centre of the New York scene.' Those things shift."
Author Amy Greene recommends her favorite books.
The longlist of albums vying for Canada's 2011 Polaris Music Prize has been named.
PopMatters profiles EELS frontman Mark Oliver Everett.
At Talk of the Nation, Laura Miller recommends books "to satisfy your summer wanderlust."
Metallica announced a future album collaboration with Lou Reed.
The New York Times profiles Vincent Moon, the filmmaker behind the innovative music video series Take Away Shows.
At Haaretz, Paris Review editor Lorin Stein and author Nir Baram discuss the current state of literature.
Paste interviews Blake Sennett of Rilo Kiley and The Elected.
Variety reports that Darren Aronofsky will direct the pilot of Michael Chabon and Ayelet Waldman's HBO series, Hobgoblin.
Robin Pecknold of Fleet Floxes talks to the Guardian about the band's sophomore album, Helplessness Blues.
On sale for $3.99 at Amazon MP3: Foo Fighters' Wasting Light album.
Aquarium Drunkard interviews the Rosebuds about their new album, Loud Planes Fly Low.
Poets & Writers shares the short story "The Great Frustration" from Seth Fried's collection of the same name.
Stream the new Japanese Popstars album, Controlling Your Allegiance (out June 21st) at the band's MySpace page.
Poets & Writers lists 33 Twitter feeds to follow.
Drowned in Sound interviews composer Steve Reich.
Is there any new music that you’re particularly interested in?
SR: I can't think of the title of it, but there was one tune on Radiohead's In Rainbows album that really knocked me out. I'm very impressed with the fact that there are a lot of young musicians like Jonny Greenwood, who originally trained as a violist, and reads music and is a composer, are also rock musicians. In the recording of my 2x5, the rock piece which was played live at the Barbican a couple of weeks ago, in that ensemble there's Bryce Dessner who is the guitarist in The National, who is a graduate of Rio School of Music, who has composed some very beautiful pieces… He really is a rock musician and he really is a classical musician. Same thing with Mark Stewart. He's the music director for Paul Simon and he's a regular guitarist for Bang On A Can. Monday he's a rock musician, Tuesday he's a classical musician. There are more and more people like this and I find that very exciting.
Flavorwire lists 10 indie rock acts your dad might enjoy.
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 (news and links from the worlds of music, literature, and pop culture)
Atomic Books Comics Preview (highlights of the week's new comics & graphic novels)
daily mp3 downloads
Largehearted Word (highlights of the week's new books)
Try It Before You Buy It (mp3s and full album streams from this week's CD releases)
weekly music & DVD release lists
