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September 24, 2012
Shorties (Great Novels Paired with Cocktails, Stream the New Beth Orton Album, and more)
Flavorwire pairs great novels with cocktails.
NPR is streaming the new Beth Orton album, Sugaring Season (out October 2nd).
Orton talks about the album with the Guardian.
Sufjan Stevens talks to New York Magazine about scoring a ballet.
It's taken time for Stevens to get used to "the idea that ballet is so physical and athletic, but you don't show it," Peck says. By contrast, "in independent music, it's very low mastery and very high presentation of effort," Stevens explains. He and Peck have just left a studio rehearsal, and Peck mentions that they'll see their dancers performing the piece onstage for the first time that weekend. Stevens is mock-antsy: "What if it’s boring? What if you're like, 'There’s not enough color!' " he asks, laughing. "Striking the right balance between too simple and too complex, with the movement, is really hard to do," says Peck. "I think there tends to be too much a lot of the time." "I don't believe in too much!" Stevens jokes. "I'm a maximalist."
The Richmond Times-Dispatch previews fall's new books.
PopMatters explores the issue of authenticity in folk music.
Queerty recommends five must-read books for fall.
Weekend Edition profiles the band Mumford and Sons.
With a name like a hardware store, Mumford & Sons is a British folk-rock band with a huge stateside following. Babel is the new follow-up to the band's breakout debut, Sigh No More, but its fans haven't had to wait to hear the new material. That's because Mumford & Sons' members have tested new songs at tour stops as they are written. For them, it's part of the creative process.
NPR is streaming the new Flying Lotus album, Until the Quiet Comes (out October 2nd).
All Things Considered interviews Emma Straub about her debut novel, Laura Lamont's Life in Pictures.
On the theme of her book, Laura Lamont's Life in Pictures
"I heard [writer] Ann Patchett speak at an event in Brooklyn, and at this event she said that people always say to her that they think that her novels are very different from one to the next, but she thinks that she really just has one subject matter. And I started thinking about it, and I think that might be true for me, too. That the subject matter that's really at the heart of this book, and that's at the heart of many of my short stories also, is this idea of the self that we present. And like how is that different from the self we are inside. You know, Elsa Emerson becomes Laura Lamont, but of course she's always Elsa as well."
Stereogum interviews Natasha Khan of Bat for Lashes.
Stereogum: Given your background, it must be nice to be able to make music and also be involved in these other media that support what you’re doing creatively.
Khan: I feel like music’s a really good thing for me, because I like writing — so lyrically that satisfies me — and I love really detailed production. I got to do the orchestral arrangements [for the new album] and record them at Abbey Road, which was amazing. I love the idea of doing film and music. And I’ve been writing the treatments for all the videos, so film-wise it is very satisfying. I just think for me at the moment, the pop-music arena is somewhere that I can bring in all of those things that I love doing and try to subvert the generic way of doing it. Later I do think I’d like to have a family and maybe do more writing or make more films again. I feel really lucky that I get to do so much stuff. I’m really controlling and I’m allowed to be this demagogue, do all these horrible things and tell everyone what to do.
Smithsonian lists 10 famed literary figures based on real-life people.
Flavorwire lists Bruce Springsteen's 63 finest lyrics.
Win Shani Boianjiu's debut novel The People of Forever Are Not Afraid and a $100 Threadless gift certificate in this week's Largehearted Boy contest.
Amazon MP3
Amazon MP3
Amazon MP3 offers over 300 jazz albums on sale for $1.78.
Follow me on Twitter, Google+, Tumblr, Pinterest, Facebook, and Stumbleupon for links (updated throughout the day) that don't make the daily "Shorties" columns.
also at Largehearted Boy:
previous Shorties posts (daily news and links from the worlds of music, books, and pop culture)
100 Online Sources for Free and Legal Music Downloads
Atomic Books Comics Preview (the week's best new comics & graphic novels)
Book Notes (authors create playlists for their book)
daily mp3 downloads
Largehearted Word (the week's best new books)
musician/author interviews
Note Books (musicians discuss literature)
Try It Before You Buy It (mp3s and full album streams from this week's CD releases)
weekly music & DVD release lists
