largehearted boy: a boy, a girl, and his radio

November 29, 2008

Shorties (Airborne Toxic Event, Nam Le, and more)

The Montreal Gazette looks back on the career of Neil Young.

BBC 6 Music's Steve Lamacq has declared December 4th "Wear Your Old Band T-shirt to Work Day."

Bookride lists bands with literary names.

Boing Boing recommends comics and graphic novels for holiday gift giving.

Jbooks features an audio interview of Harvey Pekar by cultural historian Paul Buhle.

Metro.co.uk previews the top ten films of 2009.

In the Washington Post, Diane Johnson shares her life as a writer.

The Times Online interviews author Nam Le.

What is it about the short story that you like as opposed to poetry and novels?

Of course poetry can be narrative, and novels poetic, but generally the two forms move language through different elements. Short stories, to my mind, are suited to transition between these elements. A short story can do everything a novel can do – except be long. Conversely, a short story is arguably better suited than a novel to adopt poetic logics such as compression, ellipticism, associativeness, metaphorical charge, etc. In this way, even though short stories are shorter than novels, I like their capaciousness. They can tell a story whilst simultaneously claiming poetry’s prerogative to communicate before it means. I like that everything – including mistakes – is accentuated in short stories; that readers need to be persuaded to fall deeper, even though they know the end is near; all this makes the stakes higher.

ChartAttack interviews Carl Newman about songwriting.

You must be constantly writing songs. What is your process like? Do you write a new song everyday?

There're a lot of songs that nobody gets to hear. For me, it's not a compact thing. I don't sit down and write a song and then six hours later or a day later the song is done. A lot of the time, they just evolve over months and months. So over a period of a year, I might have written 16 songs or whatever, but I don't know how long each of them took or when I finished them or when I started them. There are songs I just don't know where they came from. Like, I honestly can't remember them at all. It's like I didn't even write them.

Contactmusic interviews Mikel Jollett of Airborne Toxic Event.

You've been compared to various high profile artists along the way; U2, Bruce Springsteen and The Arcade Fire are three that spring to mind. Do you see this as a compliment or a hindrance?

Mikel: Personally I see it as being very premature. All of those are amazing artists who we admire and respect so of course it is extremely flattering. It's quite funny too though. I mean, there's a website that's actually been compiling all of our comparisons! They're up to 50 bands so far and most of them even we're at a loss to explain.

HTMLGIANT is hosting the first annual Secret Santa Gift Exchange to support independent literature. (via)

The Times Online recommends the best Christmas gifts for music lovers.

The Guardian shares a literary crawl of New York featuring books from the 1930s to the present.

Cartoonist Art Spiegelman talks about his career with the Financial Times.

Spiegelman’s breakthrough from lewd, taboo-breaking comics to something more challenging came in 1972 with a three-page comic-strip Maus, out of which the book eventually grew. It was the idea of cats and mice that made it possible to tell the tragic story, he explains. “On the one hand, it makes it more intimate, and, on the other hand, it makes it more distant.” Which would be a good way to sum up Spiegelman himself, too – a man whose suffering is the subject of his work but who protests in person that, “I’m doing just fine, thanks.”

Drowned in Sound interviews Cassie Ramone of Vivian Girls.

Musically your sound seems to owe a lot to British bands like Talulah Gosh, The Shop Assistants and The Rosehips. How did you first discover those artists and would you say they've had a major influence on the Vivian Girls' sound?

Actually, hardly any. It was more of an accident. I liked Talulah Gosh a lot when I was a teenager but I'd never even heard the Shop Assistants until people started comparing us to them and I still don't think I've ever heard the Rosehips. Our primary influences were the Wipers, Dead Moon, punk bands like the Ramones and Descendents, and girl groups - but with a definite Wall Of Sound/shoegaze aesthetic in mind.

also at Largehearted Boy:

Online "best of 2008" music lists
Online "best of 2008" book lists
daily mp3 downloads
Try It Before You Buy It (mp3s and full album streams from this week's CD releases)
this week's CD releases

tags: music books popculture indie news

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November 29, 2008

Daily Downloads (Matt Pond PA, Deastro, and more)

Today's free and legal mp3 downloads:

Backyard Tire Fire: 2008-11-07, Kansas City [mp3,ogg,flac]
"Indie Hipster Wannabe" [mp3]
other Backyard Tire Fire posts at Largehearted Boy

Deastro: "The Shaded Forests" [mp3] from Keeper's
other Deastro posts at Largehearted Boy

Desoto Jones: "Nonfiction" [mp3] from Deep Elm Sampler No. 8, Bonfire of Trust
other Desoto Jones posts at Largehearted Boy

Faunts: "M4 (Part I) (DVAS Macho Mix)" [mp3] from Remixed
Faunts: "Memories of Places We've Never Been (T.H. White Remix)" [mp3] from Remixed
other Faunts posts at Largehearted Boy

Matt Nathanson: 2008-11-19, Madison [mp3,ogg,flac]
"This Heartbreak World" [mp3]
other Matt Nathanson posts at Largehearted Boy

Matt Pond PA: free and legal (long) EP [mp3]
other Matt Pond PA posts at Largehearted Boy

The Weather Machines: "Last Stop" [mp3] from The Sounds of Pseudoscience
The Weather Machines: "Modern Text on Love" [mp3] from The Sounds of Pseudoscience
The Weather Machines: "202" [mp3] from The Sounds of Pseudoscience
other Weather Machines posts at Largehearted Boy

Today's free and legal recordings of live shows, rarities, and demos available via bittorrent:

Bob Dylan: 1994-02-11, Nagoya [flac]*
other Bob Dylan posts at Largehearted Boy

Bruce Springsteen: 1973-06-02, WHFS [flac]*
Bruce Springsteen: 1973-05-31, WGOE [flac]*
other Bruce Springsteen posts at Largehearted Boy

Duke Spirit: 2008-11-24, New Orleans [flac]*
other Duke Spirit posts at Largehearted Boy

The Fall: 2008-11-21, Vienna [flac]*
other Fall posts at Largehearted Boy

Helena Espvall (ESPERS) & Masaki Batoh (Ghost): 2008-11-27, Tokyo [flac]*
other Helena Espvall posts at Largehearted Boy

Leonard Cohen: 1990-11-24, Tel Aviv [flac]*
other Leonard Cohen posts at Largehearted Boy

Matthew Sweet: 2008-11-20, San Francisco [flac]*
other Matthew Sweet posts at Largehearted Boy

Neil Young: 1999-03-25, Las Vegas [flac]*
other Neil Young posts at Largehearted Boy

The Stone Roses: 1989-04-24, Uxbridge [flac]*
other Stone Roses posts at Largehearted Boy

*registration required

also at Largehearted Boy:

previous mp3 and bittorrent downloads

2008 Lollapalooza downloads
2008 Bonnaroo downloads
2008 Coachella music downloads
2008 SXSW music downloads and streams
2007 Austin City Limits Music Festival downloads
other music festival downloads

Try It Before You Buy It (mp3s and album streams from weekly CD releases)
weekly CD release lists

tags: music download indie mp3 bittorrent

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November 28, 2008

Today's Updates to the Year-End "Best of 2008" Books & Music Lists

Today's additions to the "best of 2008" books and music lists (keep up with daily additions at the update archive page):

"Best of 2008" Books Lists additions:

AdHouse Books (comics)
Chris Spagnulo's Edgehopper (best books)
New York Times: Janet Maslin (favorite books)
New York Times: Michiko Kakutani (favorite books)
New York Times Art Critics (favorite books)
The Telegraph (biography)
The Telegraph (history books)
The Telegraph (politics books)
Times Online (art books)
Times Online (biography and memoir)
Times Online (children's audiobooks)
Times Online (children's books, ages 2-10)
Times Online (crime books)
Times Online (fiction)
Times Online (film & theatre books)
Times Online (food books)
Times Online (graphic novels)
Times Online (music books)
Times Online (poetry)
Times Online (travel books)
Wizard Magazine (comics)

"Best of 2008" Music Lists additions:

Beats So Fast (best live shows)
The Blog of Gus (best albums)
Dreck Factory (top electronic albums)
Drew Is Cool (top albums)
Image of a Contradiction (best songs)
KCRW: Nic Harcourt (top albums)
Manuel Variations (top albums)
Medio Ruby (top albums)
Morningtime (top H!P singles)
The Muse (albums)
Mystic Writing Pad (best albums)
Off Her Rocker (top albums)
swanktastic dot org (best albums)
Times Online (best music books)
WBGO (best jazz albums)
Wonderland (best albums)
The Worst Taste in Music (best albums)
WXPN: Kathy O'Connell (best children's albums)

also at Largehearted Boy:

daily updates to the 2008 year-end "best of 2008" books & music lists

2008 Online Year-end Book Lists
2008 Online Year-end Music Lists
2007 Online Year-end Music Lists
2006 Online Year-end Music Lists
other lists
MP3 Downloads
Book Notes (authors create playlists for their book)
Note Books (musicians discuss literature)
guest book reviews
musician/author interviews
directors and actors discuss their film's soundtracks
52 Books, 52 Weeks

tags: books literature list lists indie 2008 fiction nonfiction music

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Shorties (Under the Radar, Wally Lamb, and more)

The Toledo Free Press profiles Madhouse Designs, a local poster designer.

Designers at Madhouse, a graphic arts firm located Downtown on Jackson Street, has begun creating and selling concert posters for rock shows in the region. In the past couple of years, Madhouse designers have done posters for bands such as Wilco, The Black Keys, Crowded House, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Explosions in the Sky, Bon Iver and Blitzen Trapper. Printings generally run from 50 to 400 posters, which Madhouse designers sell at the shows for $10 to 20 a piece (also available for sale on the company’s Web site, www.madmadmad.com under the “Capital A” link).

New York Times critics Janet Maslin and Michiko Kakutani list their favorite books of the year.

The Scotsman profiles the new Under the Radar online venture.

Under the Radar has always had a strong online presence: every month Derick and Olaf pick a track they like by an unsigned band and post it on scotsman.com for readers to listen to. But Under the Radar's online operation is going to step up a gear. As of today, it won't just be a place where we tell you what we like – it will become a forum for people from all four corners of the Scottish music scene to come together and swap music and ideas.

The Irish Independent interviews Eugene Hutz of Gogol Bordello.

Are you still channelling MacGowan today?

Maybe not so much. In the past, I was influenced very much by traditional music. My goal was to put new words to old melodies, which I think is something The Pogues have excelled at. Today, my head is in a different place. The members of the band bring their own influences: I'm into Ethiopian music and Brazilian music and Greenlandian music. It's all in there.

The Rocky Mountain News reviews one of my favorite short fiction collections of the year, Yasutaka Tsutsui's Salmonella Men on Planet Porno.

Tsutsui's introduction to America is witty and sometimes wise. He may not supplant Haruki Murakami any time soon, but his dark satire should find a loyal audience in the states.

Amazon.com is selling their 50 bestselling mp3 albums for $5.

Boing Boing recommends holiday book gifts.

Daytrotter's Friday session features mp3s from Golden Boots.

The Independent profiles Glasvegas.

Their intense and deafening epic Phil Spector-esque wall of sound with the fuzzy droning guitars of The Jesus and Mary Chain is balanced by James Allan's sensitive vocals in his soft Glaswegian burr. And beneath the intimidating appearance (leather jackets, towering hairstyles and stoic stares) is a vulnerable side revealed by songwriter James's thoughtful and poetic lyrics – not to mention their ever approachable attitude towards their fans.

NPR's Monkey See blog lists five hefty graphic novels "to see you through your turkey coma."

In a post I eagerly await every year, the Morning News lists 2008 good gift games.

MPR's Talking Volumes interviews author Wally Lamb.

also at Largehearted Boy:

Online "best of 2008" music lists
Online "best of 2008" book lists
daily mp3 downloads
Try It Before You Buy It (mp3s and full album streams from this week's CD releases)
this week's CD releases

tags: music books popculture indie news

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Daily Downloads (Free Joe Pernice Audiobook, Alice Russell, and more)

Today's free and legal mp3 downloads:

Audible is offering a free download of the audiobook of Joe Pernice's 33 1/3 book, Meat Is Murder.

Joe Pernice: Meat Is Murder free and legal audiobook [mp3]
other Joe Pernice posts at Largehearted Boy

Alice Russell: "Got the Hunger?" {mp3] from Pot of Gold
other Alice Russell posts at Largehearted Boy

Blitzen Trapper: "Christmas Is Coming Soon" [mp3] from I'll Stay 'Til After Christmas
other Blitzen Trapper posts at Largehearted Boy

Dartz!: "Once, Twice, Again!" [mp3] from Deep Elm Sampler No. 8, Bonfire of Trust

Georgia Anne Muldrow: "Shine On" [mp3] from Shine On

Le Loup: "Shenandoah" [mp3] from I'll Stay 'Til After Christmas
other Le Loup posts at Largehearted Boy

Los Campesinos!: "We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed" [mp3] from We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed
other Los Campesinos! posts at Largehearted Boy

Moving Mountains: "Move On, Move Up, Move Out" [mp3] from Deep Elm Sampler No. 8, Bonfire of Trust
other Moving Mountains posts at Largehearted Boy

Peachcake: "Souls Have No Drum Machine" [mp3] from What Year Will You Have the World?
other Peachcake posts at Largehearted Boy

A Silver Mt. Zion: 2008-05-30, Milwaukee [mp3,ogg,flac]
"Could've Moved Mountains" [mp3]
other Silver Mt. Zion posts at Largehearted Boy

Bittorrent downloads will resume Saturday:

also at Largehearted Boy:

previous mp3 and bittorrent downloads

Try It Before You Buy It (mp3s and album streams from weekly CD releases)
weekly CD release lists

tags: music download indie mp3 bittorrent

Posted by david | permalink | post to del.icio.us

November 27, 2008

Today's Updates to the Year-End "Best of 2008" Books & Music Lists

Today's additions to the "best of 2008" books and music lists include an mp3 compilation of OC Weekly's favorite local musicians (keep up with daily additions to these lists at the update archive page):

"Best of 2008" Books Lists additions:

Fast Company (best business books)
Hero Spy (best in comics)
New York Times (notable books)
New York Times (notable children's books)
NPR (best political & current affairs books)
Strategy & Business (best business books)

"Best of 2008" Music Lists additions:

also at Largehearted Boy:

daily updates to the 2008 year-end "best of 2008" books & music lists

tags: books literature list lists indie 2008 fiction nonfiction music

Posted by david | permalink | post to del.icio.us

Shorties (NYT Notable Books, Clare and the Reasons, and more)

Confessions of a Would-Be Hipster has produced a holiday compilation, Plastic Snow. The $10 digital download features 16 DRM-free tracks, and 100% of the proceeds go to Midnight Mission, Los Angeles' longest running homeless shelter.

Great music for a great cause, plus you might find something to add to your holiday mixtape...

the tracklisting:

. breaking up for christmas - the breakups
2. Holiday – I Make This Sound
3. Icicles (Plastic Snow Session) – Let’s Go Sailing
4. Christmas Drill – Dreaming Ferns
5. I’ll Be Home For Christmas – Earlimart
6. Shortest Day of the Year – Letting Up Despite Great Faults
7. The Last December – The Hectors
8. This King – Great Northern
9. As The Day Breaks – Carmen Rizzo
10. Christmas, California – The Sweet Hurt
11. Winter, That’s All – Fol Chen
12. Hot Sleigh – The Monolators
13. Christmas Break – The Dandelion Council
14. Where’s My Christmas Morning – Princeton
15. What Brings You Back (Plastic Snow Session) – Pierre de Reeder
16. Silent Night – Sara Lov & Dustin O'Halloran

The San Jose Mercury News has area musicians give thanks.

John Vanderslice, musician and Tiny Telephone Recording owner: "Echium and aloe blooming in November. The new Of Montreal and Lil Wayne records. 'Entourage' repeats on HBO. Homemade strawberry jam!"

Permanent Damage lists the 20 most significant comics in American comics history.

Apartment Therapy Los Angeles shares photos of rock stars parents' homes (culled from the LIFE magazine photo archive).

Daytrotter shares an in-studio session by Jacob Golden.

Tucson Weekly profiles Clare and the Reasons.

The music of Clare and the Reasons recalls a time when sophisticated lyrics and arrangements ruled the pop charts, but it never feels retro or vintage.

Feeling nostalgic? Amazon is offering mp3 downloads of Vince Guaraldi's A Charlie Brown Christmas for $1.99.

The New York Times lists its 100 notable books of 2008.

Minnesota Public Radio's The Current has singer-songwriter Sebastian Grainger in the studio for an interview and performance.

The Arkansas Times interviews cartoonist Nate Powell, whose graphic novel Swallow Me Whole is one of the year's finest. The newspaper also profiles Powell.

Laundromatinee has Elf Power in the studio for a video session.

nyctaper shares mp3s of Rafter's recent New York performance.

Daytrotter features an in-studio session by Baby Teeth.

The Oxford American has posted a teaser page for its annual music issue (which this year includes 2 CDs and 55 songs).

The Futurist features some in-studio mp3s from the Scotland Yard Gospel Choir's recent WOXY Lounge Act session.

also at Largehearted Boy:

Online "best of 2008" music lists
Online "best of 2008" book lists
daily mp3 downloads
Try It Before You Buy It (mp3s and full album streams from this week's CD releases)
this week's CD releases

tags: music books popculture indie news

Posted by david | permalink | post to del.icio.us

Daily Downloads (Ryan Adams, Uncle Earl, and more)

Today's free and legal mp3 downloads:

Bloodkin: 2008-11-08, Jackson [mp3,ogg,flac]
"Easter Eggs" [mp3]
other Bloodkin posts at Largehearted Boy

Cracker: 2008-04-08, Boston [mp3,ogg,flac]
"Sidi Ifni" [mp3]
other Cracker posts at Largehearted Boy

Grace Potter: 2008-11-07. Kansas City [mp3,ogg,flac]
"Sweet Hands" [mp3]
other Grace Potter posts at Largehearted Boy

Ryan Adams: 2008-11-19, Brighton [mp3,ogg,flac]
"Meadowlake Street" [mp3]
Ryan Adams: 2008-11-17, Birmingham [mp3,ogg,flac]
"Stop" [mp3]
other Ryan Adams posts at Largehearted Boy

Tishamingo: 2008-11-22, James Island [mp3,ogg,flac]
"Tennessee Mountain Angel" [mp3]
other Tishamingo posts at Largehearted Boy

Uncle Earl: 2006-01-06, Lyons [mp3,ogg,flac]
"Ida Red" [mp3]
Uncle Earl: 2005-10-11, Portland [mp3,ogg,flac]
"Stacker Lee" [mp3]
Uncle Earl: 2005-12-31, Denver [mp3,ogg,flac]
"Willie Taylor" [mp3]
Uncle Earl: 2005-10-09, Ballard [mp3,ogg,flac]
"Sugar Babe" [mp3]
other Uncle Earl posts at Largehearted Boy

Bittorrent downloads will resume tomorrow:

*registration required

also at Largehearted Boy:

previous mp3 and bittorrent downloads

Try It Before You Buy It (mp3s and album streams from weekly CD releases)
weekly CD release lists

tags: music download indie mp3 bittorrent

Posted by david | permalink | post to del.icio.us

November 26, 2008

Today's Updates to the Year-End "Best of 2008" Books & Music Lists

Today's additions to the "best of 2008" books and music lists (Keep up with daily additions at the update archive page):

"Best of 2008" Books Lists additions:

Bookmarks (best books)
Bradenton Herald (award-winning children's books)
Detroit Metro Times (best music books)
GOODSCARES (books)
King County Library System (best books)
No Tells (best poetry books)
School Library Journal (best adult books for high school students)
School Library Journal (best books)
Times Literary Supplement (authors' books of the year)

"Best of 2008" Music Lists additions:

About.com (breakout acts)
About.com (killer under the radar albums)
blackfolk (best albums)
Citizen of the Planet (best albums)
Detroit Metro Times (best music books)
East Bay Express: Dave Gil de Rubio (top albums)
East Bay Express: Kathleen Richards (top albums)
East Bay Express: Nate Seltenrich (top albums)
East Bay Express: Rachel Swan (top albums)
East Bay Express: Tom Chandler (top albums)
et electro pour tous (best electronic songs)
Filter (top albums)
Gigwise: Paul Adams (top albums)
Guitars, Cadillacs (top albums)
It's as Bad as Can (best albums)
PopMatters Media Center (top music videos)
Sad Songs for Dirt Lovers (best albums)
Straight to the...Grindcore (top splits and compilations)
Uncut (top albums)
Words Won't Save Your Life (albums of the year)

also at Largehearted Boy:

daily updates to the 2008 year-end "best of 2008" books & music lists

tags: books literature list lists indie 2008 fiction nonfiction music

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Book Notes - Maria Semple ("This One Is Mine")

In the Book Notes series, authors create and discuss a music playlist that is in some way relevant to their recently published books.

Maria Semple's debut novel, This One Is Mine, surprised me with its cutting humor and satirical streak. After finishing the book, I wasn't surprised to learn of Semple's background as a television writer (notably Arrested Development).

Publishers Weekly wrote of the book:

"Former television producer and writer Semple (Arrested Development; Mad About You) bashes Hollywood celebrity, New Age nonsense and struggling relationships in this smart and funny debut."

In her own words, here is Maria Semple's Book Notes essay for her debut novel, This One Is Mine:

Maybe the greatest thing about writing a novel happens when you cross over into that trippy realm where everything you see and hear seems to fit eerily into your book:

-Your fifteen year old nephew sends you a CD of his new band, "Hanging With Yoko" and you can't fucking believe it because for two years you've tried to think of the perfect name for an indie band and now you have one.

-You're clearing plates at the end of a dinner party and see that one plate has been wiped clean except for the eight pieces of fried garlic that a guest has meticulously eaten around. And this thrills you because earlier that very afternoon you were writing a scene where a high-minded woman is irrationally critically of someone. So you stop doing the dishes, race to the computer and write, "She didn't trust people who didn't like garlic, especially big fried pieces."

-You overhear someone at Starbucks speaking too loudly into their cell phone that they "bought a Picasso for $17,000... a really small Picasso," and you think, I have a witless character in my book, I'm going to have them say that.

The whole universe seems to be funneling its treasures onto your pages. It's an exhilarating paranoia, one that makes you pity those who aren't writing novels, because they'll never know its pleasure.

This cosmic alignment also happens with songs. You hear one and gasp at how perfectly it fits into your novel, even old songs you've heard a million times but now make you question the space-time continuum because they actually seem to be inspired by characters in your book.

Here's some songs that I had that experience with...

1. "Everything In Its Right Place" Radiohead

The first time I saw Radiohead play this live forever changed the way I heard it. What seemed like a slightly over-produced studio gem, when played live, became a hard-rocking dance anthem. Similarly, the lyrics first struck me as intentionally opaque until I got into writing my character Sally, a diabetic ex-ballerina control freak. When she's first introduced, she's just awoken and is lying in bed going through a mental list of how clean her apartment is. For me, this song will now always be her anthem, the sickening loop of a neurotic trying to convince herself everything's OK.

2. "Sultans of Swing" Dire Straights

My boyfriend once became alarmed when it appeared I started crying for no reason. I explained that I did have a reason: we were driving along Mulholland listening to "Sultans of Swing." This didn't assuage his alarm. The next day, I was trying to write about a woman's fragile mental state. So I transcribed our conversation verbatim.

3. "Tiny Dancer" Elton John

I sat next to someone in a Who concert who started going off on how criminal it is that a lame song like "Tiny Dancer" had become a staple of classic rock radio. A week later, I heard "Tiny Dancer" three times on classic rock radio. So this guy actually had a point. I gave his thought to a character in my book. Oh, the character is a complete tool.

4. "Enter Sandman" Metallica

In my book, the first time we meet the husband-- who manages Metallica-- he sits down at his computer and serenades his gold stocks to the tune of rock songs. (It's complicated, read the book.) I had randomly assigned one of the stocks the symbol X-N-I. So I have him singing, "X-N-I, X-N-I, take my hand, off to never never land...." Come one, do you really want me to believe James & Lars didn't have that stock symbol in mind when they wrote those lyrics?

5. "Temptation" New Order and Moby

I heard this song a hundred times in the eighties and never thought much about it. Twenty years later, when I was in the thick of writing my first draft, I went to a Moby concert where he performed a cover of it and it just about killed me. In my book, all the characters are trying to possess people instead of love them. And somehow, this song sums up to the pain of that struggle. I'm embarrassed to say it shows as having been over 600 times on my iTunes.

6. "Rhinoceros" Smashing Pumpkins

If every song began slow and interesting, then slowly built and got better and more complex until it busted into glorious chaos, I'd listen to more music than I do now. This song, by Smashing Pumpkins, is a great example of such a thing. At the end of my novel, the control-freak ballerina visits a junkie in the hospital who's dying of Hep C. He's asleep and then suddenly opens his jaundiced yellow eyes. The climactic lyrics of "Rhinoceros" seem written for that moment:

Open your eyes
To these mustard eyes.

OK: That's that's what I thought the lyrics said until I googled it five seconds ago. Apparently the lyrics are, "Open your eyes/ To these I must lie." Oh well, I guess that just makes my point of living in a fatasy world where every song you hear seems written for your book.

7. "Finishing the Hat" Stephen Sondheim

This song, from the musical Sunday in the Park With George, has long been considered to be the seminal song about being an artist. In it, the painter George Seurat has just dumped his pregnant girlfriend, alienated his friends and isolated himself from his peers all because he's so obsessed with painting a hat just right. I never really got the song. But then, during the copy-editing process, I was in New York and saw a revival of Sunday in the Park. When George has driven everyone he loves out of his life, he stands alone and sings the last line of the song:

Look I've made a hat
Where there never was a hat

That's all there is to say about writing a novel. Because you're written a fucking book!!! Which is nothing, and everything.

8. "Now/Soon/Later" from The Little Night Music cast album.

Okay, I can't leave with just one Stephen Sondheim song. Let's just say that I had 300 pages to capture the complexity of marriage and longing, and I couldn't come close to accomplishing what Sondheim does in one song.

Maria Semple and This One Is Mine links:

the author's website
the author's book tour
the book's backstory
the book's page at the publisher

EditorEve.com review
Population Statistic review
Publishers Weekly review
Seattle Post Intelligencer review

BlogTalkRadio interview with the author
Red Room profile of the book
twitter moms group discussion of the book

also at Largehearted Boy:

Previous Book Notes submissions (authors create playlists for their book)
Online "Best Books of 2008" Lists
Note Books (musicians discuss literature)
Why Obama (musicians and authors explain their support of the Democratic presidential candidate's campaign)
guest book reviews
musician/author interviews
directors and actors discuss their film's soundtracks
52 Books, 52 Weeks (2008 Edition)
52 Books, 52 Weeks (2007 Edition)
52 Books, 52 Weeks (2006 Edition)
52 Books, 52 Weeks (2005 Edition)
52 Books, 52 Weeks (2004 Edition)

tags: books music fiction literature novel

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Shorties (Julian Koster, Glasvegas, and more)

Decider interviews Julian Koster about his holiday album, The Singing Saw at Christmastime.

Decider: How did you get into playing the musical saw, and what makes it particularly good for Christmas music?

Julian Koster: When I was little, I had a dream that one walked into my bedroom and sang to me all by itself. When I grew a bit older, I saw the most wonderful old man with a saw singing in his lap near the Sheep’s Meadow in Central Park. I was and have been in love with the sound of their singing ever since, and I am grateful they sing for me as well. Most saws are children, and it feels to me their voices sing in the language angels might speak in. They sound like the memory of something you miss, or a story someone once told you, maybe your favorite uncle late one holiday evening.

The Detroit Metro Times lists the year's best music books.

TIME reviews The Pitchfork 500: Our Guide to the Greatest Songs from Punk to the Present.

Pitchfork 500's reviews have been pleasantly stripped of their supercilious phrases (well, for the most part — one critic sounds like a high school student thumbing through a thesaurus when he deems the 1983 hit "Relax" by Frankie Goes to Hollywood "Fellini-esque") and its tributes to popular songs are exquisite.

The Guardian's books blog examines the state of fiction in newspapers.

Amazon has five digital albums for sale for only $5:

Portishead's Third
The Walkmen's You & Me
Beck's Modern Guilt
The Dodo's Visiter
Coldplay's Viva La Vida Or Death And All His Friends

Ar Drowned in Sound, Paul Donoghue from Glasvegas shares five things he loves.

3. The X Files.

I'm a big sci-fi geek and get ribbed by the rest of the band regularly for this. Don't care though, it's an amazing show. You can't help but think there is serious conspiracies going on. But Obama is in power now so if there's anyone the aliens are gonna like, it would be him.

Conversational Reading finds clues to Thomas Pynchon's next novel, Inherent Vice, in Penguin's Summer 09 catalog.

Author Joseph O'Neill discusses his personal immigrant experience with NPR's Morning Edition.

The Times Online ponders who will be the next Poet Laureate.

The University of Texas has a new litblog.

Rachel Johnson shares her joy at winning the Bad Sex Award with the Guardian.

Johnson said it was an "absolute honour" to win, taking her place alongside former winners including Norman Mailer, Sebastian Faulks and Tom Wolfe. "I'm not feeling remotely grumpy about it. I know that men with literary reputations to polish might find it insulting," she said, "but if you've had a book published in the year any attention is welcome, even if it's slightly dubious attention of this sort."

LAist interviews Eric Earley of Blitzen Trapper.

Entertainment Weekly's PopWatch blog interviews Death Cab for Cutie frontman Ben Gillard about the 10th anniversary of the band's Something About Airplanes album.

Autopia lists the 10 best songs about cars.

Mashable pits music recommendation websites Pandora and Mufin against each other.

Drowned in Sound interviews Mastodon's Brett Hinds.

Minnesota Public Radio's The Current has Calexico in the studio for an in-studio performance and interview.

At NPR's Weekend Edition, Brian Eno shares the benefits of singing.

also at Largehearted Boy:

Online "best of 2008" music lists
Online "best of 2008" book lists
daily mp3 downloads
Try It Before You Buy It (mp3s and full album streams from this week's CD releases)
this week's CD releases

tags: music books popculture indie news

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