January 28, 2012
Shorties (Elmore Leonard, Books About Leonard Cohen, and more)
The Guardian profiles author Elmore Leonard.
With Leonard Cohen releasing his new album, Old Ideas, this Tuesday, the Montreal Gazette recommends several books about the legendary singer-songwriter.
Lifehacker offers musicians tips to release music independently online.
Wil Wheaton shares his thoughts on self-publishing. (via)
The Allentown Morning Call profiles the band Girls in Trouble.
Rabins, 34 years old and seven and a half months pregnant, is the songwriter and leader of the art-pop trio Girls in Trouble. It may sound like the perfect name for a powerhouse all-female punk band laying down driving beats and staccato guitar, but Girls in Trouble is really more a reference to Rabins' lyrical inspiration. She's inspired by the rather complicated lives of the women found in the Torah, which is the written tradition found in the Five Books of Moses that begin the Hebrew Bible, as well as the traditional word of mouth interpretations embodied in the Talmud and Midrash.
Brain Pickings lists quotes from writers on truth vs. fiction.
All Songs Considered lists its least favorite music genre names.
PWxyz lists the five books that inspire the most tattoos.
The Fix is creating Spotify music playlists for every primary state. First up, Florida.
The Guardian profiles the crime writing MFA program at London's City University.
Launched in response to student demand, and to the growing popularity of the genre, the UK's first creative writing masters dedicated to crime and thriller novels is another harbinger of a "second golden age of crime writing".
The Wall Street Journal profiles Joel Beckerman, a composer who sepecializes in "sonic logos" for brands.
He's one of a handful of composers who specialize in sonic logos, or the audio equivalents of the Nike "swoosh" or John Deere's leaping deer. More concise than a theme song and subtler than a jingle, sonic logos are brief melodies or sound effects designed to cement a brand in the consumer's subconscious mind. Famous examples include the five-note Intel bong, McDonald's "Ba da ba ba ba" signoff and NBC's three-note chime, in use since 1929.
Gene Luen Yang and Thien Pham discuss their graphic novel Level Up (one of my favorites of 2011) with Comic Book Resources.
The Outlet shared some kind words and photos about this week's Largehearted Boy 10th anniversary celebration.
Weekend Edition interviews Penelope Lively about her new novel How It All Began.
Read an excerpt from the book.
The Record explores music subscription plans offered by indie labels Stones Throw and Ghostly.
All Things Considered has launched a new series, Newspoet, where a poet will recap the day's news in a poem.
Funk Archeology goes vinyl crate digging at Manhattan's East Village record stores.
Weekend Edition interviews John Green about his new young adult novel, The Fault in Our Stars.
Read an excerpt from the book.
Amazon MP3
Follow me on Twitter, Google+, Tumblr, 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)
List of Online "Best Books of 2011" Lists
List of Online Year-End 2011 Music Lists
100 Online Sources for Free and Legal Music Downloads
Atomic Books Comics Preview (the week's best new comics & graphic novels)
daily mp3 downloads
Largehearted Word (the week's best new books)
Try It Before You Buy It (mp3s and full album streams from this week's CD releases)
weekly music & DVD release lists
Posted by david | permalink | post to del.icio.us
January 28, 2012
Daily Downloads (The Alabama Shakes, Beirut, and more)
Every day, Daily Downloads offers 10 free and legal mp3 downloads, plus free and legal live sets from around the internet.
Today's free and legal mp3 downloads:
The Alabama Shakes: 2011-11-045, Waverly [mp3,ogg,flac]
The Alabama Shakes: "Rise to the Sun" [mp3]
search for more Alabama Shakes posts at Largehearted Boy
Beirut: 2012-01-23, Tokyo [mp3,ogg,flac]
Beirut: "East Harlem" [mp3]
search for more Beirut posts at Largehearted Boy
The Black Angels: 2010-12-01, Vancouver [mp3,ogg,flac]
The Black Angels: "Mission District" [mp3]
search for more Black Angels posts at Largehearted Boy
Justin Townes Earle: 2011-02-11, Bloomington [mp3,ogg,flac]
Justin Townes Earle: "Racing in the Street (Bruce Springsteen cover)" [mp3]
search for more Justin Townes Earle posts at Largehearted Boy
Kristin Hersh: 2011-11-19, Woods Hole [mp3,ogg,flac]
Kristin Hersh: "Summer Salt" [mp3]
search for more Kristin Hersh posts at Largehearted Boy
Low: 2011-11-26, Frankfurt [mp3,ogg,flac]
Low: "Starfire" [mp3]
search for more Low posts at Largehearted Boy
Mogwai: 2011-02-23, Oxford [mp3,ogg,flac]
Mogwai: "Friend of the Night" [mp3]
search for more Mogwai posts at Largehearted Boy
Mountain Goats: 2011-04-03, Toronto [mp3,ogg,flac]
Mountain Goats: "Houseguest (Nothing Painted Blue cover)" [mp3]
search for more Mountain Goats posts at Largehearted Boy
The National: 2011-07-10, Naas [mp3,ogg,flac]
The National: "Abel" [mp3]
search for more National posts at Largehearted Boy
The Walkmen: 2011-07-03, Roskilde [mp3,ogg,flac]
The Walkmen: "Everyone Who Pretended to Like Me Is Gone" [mp3]
search for more Walkmen posts at Largehearted Boy
Free and legal mp3s of live performances at other websites:
Pillars and Tongues: Epitonic Saki session [mp3]
search for more Pillars and Tongues posts at Largehearted Boy
also at Largehearted Boy:
other daily free and legal mp3 downloads
100 Online Sources for Free and Legal Music Downloads
List of 2011 Year-End Online Music Lists
Try It Before You Buy It (mp3s and album streams from weekly CD releases)
weekly CD and DVD release lists
Posted by david | permalink | post to del.icio.us
January 27, 2012
Book Notes - Keshni Kashyap - "Tina's Mouth: An Existential Comic Diary"
In the Book Notes series, authors create and discuss a music playlist that relates in some way to their recently published book.
Previous contributors include Bret Easton Ellis, Kate Christensen, Kevin Brockmeier, George Pelecanos, Dana Spiotta, Amy Bloom, David Peace, Myla Goldberg, and many others.
Keshni Kashyap's graphic novel Tina's Mouth is aptly subtitled "An Existential Comic Diary." Written in the form of a school-assigned diary written to philosopher Jean Paul Sartre, the book follows a sophomore in high school through the ups and downs typical of the teenage years, but with the additional conflict that comes with being the progeny of immigrants to this country. Kashyap's Tina is relatable yet unique, a protagonist who grabs the attention of both teen and adult readers.
The book is more illustrated novel than graphic novel, and Mari Araki's simple yet elegant illustrations are the perfect accompaniment to Kashyap's prose.
Tina's Mouth is the rare book I didn't want to end, and is a graphic novel I have tirelessly recommended to friends and family of all ages.
SF Weekly wrote of the book:
Instead of just charting the discoveries of a smart kid's adolescence, Tina's Mouth can make you feel them. This is familiar material, yes, but it's familiar the way of philosophy and pop songs can be: At their best, the breathless feelings dramatized by Kashyap and Araki might match up to a corresponding one in you — and then set it off like fireworks.
Stream a Spotify playlist of these tunes. If you don't have Spotify yet, sign up for the free service.
In her own words, here is Keshni Kashyap's Book Notes music playlist for her graphic novel, Tina's Mouth: An Existential Comic Diary:
Tina's Mouth: An Existential Comic Diary which came out this month is a graphic novel written by me, Keshni Kashyap, and illustrated by my friend and collaborator, Mari Araki. The book is about a fifteen year old Indian American girl who attends a private school in Southern California. For an English Honors class in philosophy, she is given the assignment to keep an 'existential' diary. She addresses the diary to the dead French existentialist Jean-Paul Sartre and it becomes a treatise, of sorts, that charts her life and times during a particularly trying semester during her sophomore year of high school.
Music definitely played a large role for me in creating this book. I listened to music often – while writing, while working on the visual stuff with Mari, while spending endless hours in front of the computer. Maybe because I'm in my thirties and the protagonist is fifteen, I often found myself listening to songs that were the type of music that I would have loved in my teen years…music that captured the spirit of the book, which is young, sweet, joyful but also portends adulthood. To that end, I’ve compiled this list.
“Around the Bend” by The Asteroid Galaxy Tour
How can you not be happy listening to this song? Asteroid Galaxy Tour is a Danish band that just makes you want to be fifteen and drive illegally around L.A! Also, I love Scandinavia (I lived in Norway last summer) so I'm partial to the weirdness that is inherent to that part of the world and it comes across in these songs.
“And Then I Dreamt of Yes” by The Dandy Warhols
There are several songs by Dandy Warhols (mostly from their album Thirteen Tales From Urban Bohemia but also from Earth to the Dandy Warhols) that I have listened to non-stop while working on Tina's Mouth from the very beginning. I NEVER tire of this album. I can listen to it over and over and over. It seems to capture the spirit of this book in a deep, mysterious, inexplicable way. A lot of songs by the Dandy Warhols are also just really funny, such as "Bohemian Like You" about young love between two hipster vegans. "And Then I Dreamt of Yes," however, is more sad and makes me think of beautiful things from the past that are now gone. It’s exciting and painful at the same time. I particularly like the trumpet section towards the end.
“Only Love Can Break Your Heart” by Neil Young
I wouldn't be able to do this sort of a list without adding "Only Love Can Break Your Heart" by Neil Young because it is featured so much in Tina's Mouth. It is a nearly perfect song, in my opinion. One of my favorite tiny lines from this book is when Su Ming tells Tina that you have to be a 'basically good person to love Neil Young.' I concur!
"The Brandenburg Concerto #2 in F" (Christopher Hogwood) by Bach
I was given this album by a friend who is a film composer, and it has become indispensable. Bach has always evoked pure joy in me, and this album is, indeed, pure joy! Concerto #2 is the pinnacle (in my opinion). Tina takes violin and I feel that the school that Tina goes to is the sort of school that instills an appreciation of classical music so it feels appropriate. The thing is, when I listen to the Brandenburg Concertos – in particular this piece - I have the same breathless feeling as when I listen to a head-banging, modern pop song.
“Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town” by Pearl Jam
Speaking of head banging rushes of a modern pop song….I'm going to age myself here and pick a Pearl Jam song. Hardly the most 'head-banging' of Pearl Jam songs (I think that the men's acappella group at Berkeley did a rendition of this one when I was a student), this song, with its quirky title, just makes me feel a whole smorgasbord of clichés, the most obvious one of which is saying good bye to a past self. The song brings up visceral feelings of being a student at Berkeley, going camping in some old mountain in Big Sur, driving around with my four best friends, getting drunk on cheap wine you carried for 14 hours in your backpack. But memories aside, it is just very evocative: 'I change by not changing at all.' It's the essence of being true to yourself which is probably what we were all discussing out there in those mountains anyways. It's also what lies at the heart of Tina's Mouth.
“Minor Swing” by Django Reinhardt
What a Franco-Belgian gypsy has in common with the Indian American Tina M., I don’t know. But, I love his jazz guitar and this piece, in particular, has male voices counting time and even cheering a little in it and you can just see a group of old gypsy guys playing guitars in Paris and drinking coffee and simply having a great time. There always seems to be a sense of humor in Django Reinhardt's music as well as a sort of sad whimsy.
“Aaye Bhairav Bholanath” by Cheb I Sabah
Cheb I Sabah is a famous North African DJ who specializes in Indian and Pakistani remixes. He has spun music on Tuesday nights at Nicky's BBQ in San Francisco for many, many years. In the meantime, he has put out a lot of albums, some to great critical acclaim. This album – called Devotion – focuses on Indian and sufi devotional music. This song is not one of his most famous ones, but I really love it. Like all of Cheb's music, it is at once dance-able and also mystical and takes you to a different state of mind.
"Paper Planes” by M.I.A.
How could I do a list like this without naming a song from Slumdog Millionaire?? I’m not a huge M.I.A. aficionado, but this song is both catchy and intriguing, perhaps due to the combination of a poppy, cheery tune with the locking and exploding of guns in the background, not to mention her menacing words about how she’s 'M.I.A. Third World Democracy.' For a while, I was at a writing retreat in upstate New York. I would go running everyday with my head phones and play this song and it really generated a lot of energy in me. Helped me run from scary upstate New York wild dogs.
"Bonnie and Clyde” by Serge Gainsbourg and Bridgette Bardot
I am a sucker for Serge Gainsbourg. Yes, he's a little sleazy and I don't think I agree with much of Bridgette Bardot's politics. But, there is just an energy to this song that simply makes you want to shut up, get up, dance and sip lillet! And, of course, there is the line in Tina's Mouth where Alex tells the winner of a French teacher that he looks like Serge Gainsbourg.
“A Flower is not a Flower” by Ryuichi Sakamoto
I learned of the plaintive piano music of Ryuichi Sakamoto by listening to Tom Schnabel's famous Sunday world music radio show on KCRW called Café LA. While many of the songs I have picked for this list have a sweet, fun quality to them, Ryuichi Sakamoto's music really evokes melancholia in me, plain and simple. It feels like the denouement of a sad, arty movie where the protagonist learns to accept disappointment as a way of life. For me, listening to Ryuichi Sakamoto is never an upper. Yet, on a good day, when the weather is just right, his music transports me.
“Firecracker” by Frazey Ford
Frazey Ford was one of the founding members of the Be Good Tanyas, and I love how her way of singing is so simple but also very unique and idiosyncratic. "Firecracker" is from her solo album, Obadiah. What is so interesting about this song is that it strikes a very particular balance - a girl who hasn't yet felt true, adult pain but she knows it's coming. I find it to be elegant and also evocative.
“Ego Trip by Nikki Giovanni” by Blackalicious
Nikki Giovanni's poem is set to music by Blackalicious and it’s one of my favorite songs on the generally awesome album Nia. I love Blackalicious and have been listening to them for a long time which means I have a lot of memories associated with their music. Being a spoken word song, however, this one doesn't really evoke memories, but I find that I listen to it often – I think because I like the words. They work on a lot of different levels.
Keshni Kashyap and Tina's Mouth: An Existential Comic Diary links:
the author's website
the book's website
A.V. Club review
BermudaOnion's Weblog review
BookDragon review
Hyphen review
Kirkus Reviews review
NYLON review
Republic of Brown review
San Francisco Chronicle review
Satia's Reviews review
SF Weekly review
Stories Are Good Medicine review
The Story Girl review
Tzer Island review
The Contextual Life interview with the author
Hero Complex interview with the author
India RealTime profile of the author
Nervous Breakdown interview with the author
also at Largehearted Boy:
other Book Notes playlists (authors create music playlists for their book)
List of Online "Best Books of 2011" Lists
List of 2011 Year-End Online Music Lists
100 Online Sources for Free and Legal Music Downloads
52 Books, 52 Weeks (weekly book reviews)
Antiheroines (interviews with up and coming female comics artists)
Atomic Books Comics Preview (weekly comics highlights)
Daily Downloads (free and legal daily mp3 downloads)
guest book reviews
Largehearted Word (weekly new book highlights)
musician/author interviews
Note Books (musicians discuss literature)
Shorties (daily music, literature, and pop culture links)
Soundtracked (composers and directors discuss their film's soundtracks)
Try It Before You Buy It (mp3s and full album streams from the week's CD releases)
weekly music & DVD release lists
Posted by david | permalink | post to del.icio.us
Shorties (Write a Book on Your Favorite Seminal Album, Craig Finn on Friday Night Lights, and more)
The 33 1/3 series of books on seminal albums has opened its call for new proposals.
Hold Steady frontman Craig Finn talks about his solo album and Friday Night Lights with Billboard.
"The only thing about the record that really deals with 'Friday Night Lights' is the title. I've seen it overstated in a few places, like that I wrote a record about a TV show," Finn says, chuckling. "That said, one thing I love about the show and just can't get over is that when the kids get older and graduate, they go away - but you're staying there. You know the teacher, the football coach, the guidance counselor, but you have a new group of kids coming in. That was a very smart plotline."
Book Boroughing posts photos of last night's Largehearted Boy 10th anniversary party at WORD (disclosure: I am co-founder of Book Boroughing, but Gabrielle Gantz, the other co-founder, wrote that post).
The Charlotte Observer interviews Mountain Goats frontman John Darnielle.
Q. Where does your literary approach to songwriting stem from?
A combination of my love of poetry and fiction. With fiction, you immerse yourself in the story. With poetry, it's like breaking into a castle. With a lot of poetry you have to figure out the riddles, the actions. There isn't a big scene setting. You have 16 lines and you read it multiple times. Maybe you memorize it and see how it sounds on your tongue. It's not like fiction and poetry haven't interacted a lot. I was writing poems, and I saw that the main people reading poetry are just other poets. I started setting them to music.
The A.V. Club interviews Weakerthans frontman John K. Samson about his new solo album, Provincial.
At HTMLGIANT, author Roxane Gay shares lessons she's learned starting a micropress.
On sale for $3.99 today at Amazon MP3: The Roots' latest album Undun.
Comic Book Resources interviews comics writer Gene Luen Yang about the first book in the Avatar: The Last Airbender series, The Promise - Part 1.
Pop Candy lists items whose design is inspired by the cover of Joy Division's Unknown Pleasures album.
The Seattle Times reviews Warren Ellis: Captured Ghosts, a documentary about the comics writer and musician.
Monkey See examines how the Academy Awards have lost touch with movie music.
Christopher Paul Curtis talks to All Things Considered about his novel The Watsons Go to Birmingham - 1963.
Singer-songwriter Anna Calvi plays a Tiny Desk Concert at NPR Music.
Cartoonist Craig Thompson walks the Guardian through the creation of his graphic novel Habibi in a slideshow.
Win three of my favorite New York novels and a $100 Threadless gift certificate in this week's Largehearted Boy contest.
Amazon MP3
Follow me on Twitter, Google+, Tumblr, 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)
List of Online "Best Books of 2011" Lists
List of Online Year-End 2011 Music Lists
100 Online Sources for Free and Legal Music Downloads
Atomic Books Comics Preview (the week's best new comics & graphic novels)
daily mp3 downloads
Largehearted Word (the week's best new books)
Try It Before You Buy It (mp3s and full album streams from this week's CD releases)
weekly music & DVD release lists
Posted by david | permalink | post to del.icio.us
Daily Downloads (Sweet Billy Pilgrim, The Mary Onettes, and more)
Every day, Daily Downloads offers 10 free and legal mp3 downloads, plus free and legal live sets from around the internet.
Today's free and legal mp3 downloads:
Cuff the Duke: "Cold Blooded Old Tunes (Smog cover)" [mp3]
search for more Cuff the Duke posts at Largehearted Boy
The Elkcloner: "Crossfire" [mp3] from The Elkcloner (out February 28th)
search for more Elkcloner posts at Largehearted Boy
The Mary Onettes: "Love's Taking Strange Ways" [mp3] from Love Forever (out February 28th)
search for more Mary Onettes posts at Largehearted Boy
Pelican: "Lathe Biosas" [mp3] from Ataraxia/Taraxis EP (out April 10th)
search for more Pelican posts at Largehearted Boy
Radiation City: "Park" [mp3] from The Hands That Take You
Radiation City: "The Color of Industry" [mp3] from The Hands That Take You
Radiation City: "Babies" [mp3] from The Hands That Take You
search for more Radiation City posts at Largehearted Boy
Rocketship Park: "It's Not You (Revue Rehearsal)" [mp3]
search for more Rocketship Park posts at Largehearted Boy
Sweet Billy Pilgrim: "Brugada" [mp3] from Crown & Treaty (out April 16th)
search for more Sweet Billy Pilgrim posts at Largehearted Boy
Terry Malts: "Nauseous" [mp3] from Killing Time (out February 21st)
search for more Terry Malts posts at Largehearted Boy
Free and legal mp3s of live performances at other websites:
The Diamond Center: Violitionist session [mp3]
search for more Diamond Center posts at Largehearted Boy
also at Largehearted Boy:
other daily free and legal mp3 downloads
100 Online Sources for Free and Legal Music Downloads
List of 2011 Year-End Online Music Lists
Try It Before You Buy It (mp3s and album streams from weekly CD releases)
weekly CD and DVD release lists
Posted by david | permalink | post to del.icio.us
January 26, 2012
Book Notes - Bret Lott "Dead Low Tide"
In the Book Notes series, authors create and discuss a music playlist that relates in some way to their recently published book.
Previous contributors include Bret Easton Ellis, Kate Christensen, Kevin Brockmeier, George Pelecanos, Dana Spiotta, Amy Bloom, David Peace, Myla Goldberg, and many others.
A sequel to his 1997 book, The Hunt Club, Bret Lott's new novel Dead Low Tide is a literary thriller set in the South Carolina Lowcountry.
Stream a Spotify playlist of these tunes. If you don't have Spotify yet, sign up for the free service.
In his own words, here is Bret Lott's Book Notes music playlist for his novel, Dead Low Tide:
I can't tell you how important music is to the writing of every one of my books (Dead Low Tide is number thirteen). I listen to music the entire time I am writing each book, from first day to last, my headphones on every minute, whether I'm writing a novel or stories or nonfiction. Music, rather than serving as the traditional distraction most people think of it as being to the specific act of writing, actually focuses images in my head, complements them, serves them, brings them to bear in surprising ways I've found silence cannot.
But it has to be the right music. I sit and audition CDs when I am first embarking upon a book, seeking out the right tone, the right texture, the right resonance and narrative that tunes and CDs can have, trying to find the one that comes closest to what I see in my head, but that will also exhibit the ability to expand that narrative. And when I hit the right one, there's no turning back. That's the CD I'll listen to from then on out. Looking at my iTunes playlist for Dead Low Tide, I see I've listened to Pat Metheny's Secret Story 479 times – the total time for the CD is around 76 minutes, so that means I've listened to it, in the last two and a half years, over 25 days straight. And this doesn't count the number of times I've listened to it in my car during that time, too.
Dead Low Tide is a mystery about a young man, Huger (pronounced YOU-gee) Dillard, and his father, Unc (it's complicated, and covered in the novel The Hunt Club, DLT its sequel), who find a dead body anchored in the mud of a tidal creek down here in Charleston. The story starts at 2:30 in the morning – at dead low tide – when Huger and Unc are poling their jon boat in on that creek so they can sneak onto a tony and very private golf course Unc wants to play. He's blind (I said it was complicated) and too proud to golf in daylight, and once they find the body, all hell breaks loose. It's also a story about Huger and how, at 27, he finds himself still living at home with his mom and dad and wondering exactly how he's supposed to make his way in the world, given the scars he has from what happened in The Hunt Club. Secret Story, with its lush atmospherics, its layered and sometimes spooky texture (this CD is one of his orchestral pieces), spoke to me all the way through the book's writing, and still does as I listen to it right now, writing this. I am back again with Huger, on that jon boat in that darkness.
This is only a sampling of the tunes, too, as I could sit here and write all day on the 14 tunes that make up this album. Can't do that: I have to write the next book.
"Above the Treetops"
This sets the tone for the whole novel, though the recording is based on a sample of the Choir of the Royal Cambodian Palace with members of the Pinpeat Orchestra of the Royal Ballet. That is, it has nothing whatsoever to do with the Lowcountry of South Carolina. But there is in its mystery, its layers, its pace and orchestration – low and moving strings, the crisp finger cymbals and multi-toned drums just allowing themselves to be heard that makes this the one tune to start the mystery that is the book: water at night, live oak, the briny smell of a tidal creek.
"Facing West"
There's a pace that hits hard with the first strum at the outset of this, giving me the fact the story at hand has to move, that things have to happen. There's also a sense in the high-pitched almost flutelike synthesizer and its nearly-happy melody line that makes me think there's a worthy heart inside this confused kid Huger, and that the deeper horror of what he's had visited upon him might very well be surmountable.
"Cathedral in a Suitcase"
Here's that pace again, but this time with a sharp dose of tension – the single-note offbeat syncopation sustained throughout belies the seemingly harmless melody. There's also a meandering into a minor key that reminds me, along with the building choir of what sounds like human voices almost cackling, that there's a deeper thing at stake, that there is another story, and it's a dark one.
"Finding and Believing"
This is, next to "Above the Treetops," my favorite tune on the album, and is built note by note and rhythm by rhythm into what I can only and always see as a chase through woods, heavy and dark and malevolent. The cymbal drive to this, along with Steve Rodby's relentless bass line, finds itself invaded time and again by a sort of harpy-like shrill over-voice, coupled with another, lower and relentless (again) voice-rhythm – there aren't words for this! – that sound for all the world like ghosts shouting down from inside the trees at Huger and Unc as they make their way away from the evil after them. I see this. I feel it. There is no better music than this, in that it brings me into a world I have no words for but yet is as real as this desk before me, this window and the gray light out there seeping in. There is life and death at stake here, and when finally that bass line stops and the cymbal crashes into a forest glade of some sort, I'm terrified and relieved at once. Oh, and did I mention the harp-glides throughout, and that lost oboe calling out into the dark?
"The Longest Summer"
This is the breather after "Finding and Believing," that mayhem and sorrow and fear all seemingly defused by the calm piano at the outset. The piece reminds, in its break, its beauty, its moment to breathe, that a story needs moments when its reader can breathe. If a story is only and always a frantic pace, there is no chance for reflection, no chance for illumination. Huger is trying to figure out who he is. Here he has a chance to take a breath, put his hands on his knees and look at the ground, then up what lies ahead.
"The Truth Will Always Be"
This comes near the end of the album, and gives us with its vibraphone-synth a sort of melancholic slow march, a movement that begins to herd, as it were, the story as a whole – the novel – toward its end, when Huger, now lost himself and nearing his death at the hands of he knows not who, is forced to piece together the shards of his family, his love, his life in the face of losing them all. There's a quiet snare drum throughout this, following at its own independent tempo a complex cadence, and finally, halfway through, the bass drum bangs in at each bar, as though it were a heart beating. Metheny's scrambled up synth shouts out that this is Huger's last moment for meaning, and he better face it well, to save himself and those he loves.
Am I making this all up? No. It's right here, in my head. Words have nothing to do with writing a novel, I believe. It's the feeling, the being there that matters, and this music does that.
"Not to Be Forgotten (Our Final Hour Together)"
The final tune could very well be mistaken as a lugubrious orchestration of melancholy strings, but it actually saves itself from such a fate because of its willingness to be as thick and luxuriant – and melancholy – as it is. Huger now has broken through to the other side of his life – the real beginning of it (I am at work right now on the third in the series of Huger and Unc books, listening to "Above the Treetops" each morning to get the tone, but now Bill Frissell's The Willies for the rest), but doing so with the knowledge of who he was, and the hope of who he might one day be.
I could go on. Could I ever.
Bret Lott and Dead Low Tide links:
Publishers Weekly review
Wilmington Star News review
The Banner interview with the author
Charleston City Paper profile of the author
also at Largehearted Boy:
other Book Notes playlists (authors create music playlists for their book)
List of Online "Best Books of 2011" Lists
List of 2011 Year-End Online Music Lists
100 Online Sources for Free and Legal Music Downloads
52 Books, 52 Weeks (weekly book reviews)
Antiheroines (interviews with up and coming female comics artists)
Atomic Books Comics Preview (weekly comics highlights)
Daily Downloads (free and legal daily mp3 downloads)
guest book reviews
Largehearted Word (weekly new book highlights)
musician/author interviews
Note Books (musicians discuss literature)
Shorties (daily music, literature, and pop culture links)
Soundtracked (composers and directors discuss their film's soundtracks)
Try It Before You Buy It (mp3s and full album streams from the week's CD releases)
weekly music & DVD release lists
Posted by david | permalink | post to del.icio.us
Largehearted Lit with Emma Straub, Jennifer Gilmore, and Alina Simone Tonight
Largehearted Lit is a reading series inspired by this blog's Book Notes feature. Inspired and previously hosted by the talented author Jami Attenberg, the series presents readings by authors featured in the Book Notes series along with musical guests.
The January edition of Largehearted Lit monthly reading is tonight at 7:00 p.m. at WORD bookstore in Brooklyn's Greenpoint neighborhood.
Celebrate Largehearted Boy’s 10th anniversary with a birthday-themed reading and fundraiser for Girls Write Now. Cupcakes will be on hand, courtesy of The Brooklyn Baker, and readers Emma Straub (Other People We Married) and Jennifer Gilmore (Something Red) will share birthday stories. Alina Simone is the musical guest, she will play a couple of songs and tell a literary anecdote or two. A raffle of book bundles, gift certificates, and cake dates with authors at the end of the evening will benefit Girls Write Now.
The Participants' Largehearted Boy Contributions:
Alina Simone's Book Notes essay for You Must Go and Win
Largehearted Boy interview with the author (with Eugene Mirman)
Largehearted Boy interview with the author (with Mark Everett)
Largehearted Boy Note Books essay by the author
Largehearted Boy Why Obama interview with the author
Emma Straub's Book Notes essay for Fly-over State
Emma Straub's Book Notes essay for Other People We Married
Jennifer Gilmore's Book Notes essay for Something Red
also at Largehearted Boy:
52 Books, 52 Weeks (weekly book reviews)
Antiheroines (interviews with up and coming female comics artists)
Atomic Books Comics Preview (weekly comics highlights)
Book Notes (authors create music playlists for their book)
Daily Downloads (free and legal daily mp3 downloads)
guest book reviews
Largehearted Word (weekly new book highlights)
musician/author interviews
Note Books (musicians discuss literature)
Online "Best Books of 2010" lists
Online "Best Music of 2010" lists
Shorties (daily music, literature, and pop culture links)
Soundtracked (composers and directors discuss their film's soundtracks)
Try It Before You Buy It (mp3s and full album streams from the week's CD releases)
weekly music & DVD release lists
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Shorties (Craig Finn, Nathan Englander, and more)
Craig Finn talks to the Dallas Observer about his new solo album Clear Heart Full Eyes.
Capital New York profiles author Nathan Englander.
People recognize Englander. They recognized him in the coffee shop where he was interviewed, and they know his name from The New Yorker, where he's published a number of stories. But despite such notoriety, Englander keeps a lower profile than many of his contemporaries, not a chronic over-blurber like Shteyngart, not behind a non-profit or an indie press like Dave Eggers or a genre-dabbler like Michael Chabon, and not yet the winner of any of the big prizes or a presence on the lecture circuit. He appears to be more content teaching masters students how to write fiction at Hunter College than getting his face on the cover of Time.
Surf-Drift interviews John Darnielle of the Mountain Goats.
Drift: So many of your past albums have been tied together by themes. Is there anything like that on the next one, tentatively titled Transcendental Youth?
JD: There is, but I’m really reluctant to say what it is. I can do it in one word, but if I do people are going to get all excited and probably think the wrong thing. It's kind of about Satan, bit not the Church of Satan or anything like that. It takes place in a town in the Pacific Northwest, and it’s about the things inside that do evil to you. Which is to say when you're depressed and your mind is your worst friend, or you can't get a clear picture because there’s something inside you that won't let you see things clearly. So the short answer is it's about the devil, but it's also about a cast of characters living in the same town, all of whom are sort of last-chancers.
Three Guys One Book interviews author Matthew Norman.
The Rumpus interviews musician Momus.
The Free Music Archive gathers music blogs' responses to the MegaUpload shutdown.
The Telegraph profiles Rodrigo y Gabriela.
Has there been a more romantic musical story than that of the two Mexican heavy-metal aficionados – lovers as well as musical collaborators – who traded in their electric guitars and amps for a life of acoustic adventure on the road: blowing into Europe via Dublin, busking the streets, then setting festivals alight with their incendiary blend of metal-inspired riffing, jazz dexterity and latin rhythm. With stocky, pointy-bearded Rodrigo taking the lead, and clear-browed Gabriela more rhythmic and intuitive, their talents and personalities feel at once clearly defined and fused into one entity.
Smithsonian Magazine interviews Eric Klinenberg about his new book, Going Solo: The Extraordinary Rise and Surprising Appeal of Living Alone.
Nonstop Sound lists five egregious Oscar music snubs this year.
Bookworm interviews photographer Annie Leibovitz about her new book, Pilgrimage.
The Quietus excerpts from Matt Ingram's new book 100 Lost Rock Albums From The 1970s.
Stumptown Trade Review lists seven things independent comics did first.
Nerve ranks every Guided By Voices album from worst to best.
Pop Candy reviews the new webcomic by author Jeff VanderMeer, The Situation.
Fresh Air looks back on The Smiths discography and the band's recently released box set.
From April 16th -30th, publisher Angry Robot Books features open book submissions for epic fantasy as well as science fiction and fantasy YA novels.
Drowned in Sound interviews Air's Jean-Benoit Dunckel and Nicolas Godin about scoring Georges Melies' 1902 silent film Le Voyage dans la Lune.
The Wall Street Journal reviews William Patry's new book, How to Fix Copyright.
Win three of my favorite New York novels and a $100 Threadless gift certificate in this week's Largehearted Boy contest.
Amazon MP3
Follow me on Twitter, Google+, Tumblr, 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)
List of Online "Best Books of 2011" Lists
List of Online Year-End 2011 Music Lists
100 Online Sources for Free and Legal Music Downloads
Atomic Books Comics Preview (the week's best new comics & graphic novels)
daily mp3 downloads
Largehearted Word (the week's best new books)
Try It Before You Buy It (mp3s and full album streams from this week's CD releases)
weekly music & DVD release lists
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Daily Downloads (Damien Jurado, Cheyenne Marie Mize, and more)
Every day, Daily Downloads offers 10 free and legal mp3 downloads, plus free and legal live sets from around the internet.
Today's free and legal mp3 downloads:
Ariane Moffatt: "In Your Body" [mp3] from Audiogram (out February 27th)
search for more Ariane Moffatt posts at Largehearted Boy
Carnivals: free and legal 2-track Absences/Ino (Parts 1 & 2) single [mp3]
search for more Carnivals posts at Largehearted Boy
Damien Jurado: "Museum of Flight" [mp3] from Maraqopa (out February 21st)
search for more Damien Jurado posts at Largehearted Boy
The Ex-Girlfriends Club: "The Witch (The Sonics cover)" [mp3] from Boo Hoo Hoo (out January 31st)
search for more Ex-Girlfriends Club posts at Largehearted Boy
Grace Woodroofe: "Battles" [mp3] from Always Want
search for more Grace Woodroofe posts at Largehearted Boy
Italian Horn: "Red Affair" [mp3] from Red Affair
search for more Italian Horn posts at Largehearted Boy
The Just Barelys: "Lions" [mp3] from Mad Bits (out February 14th)
search for more Just Barelys posts at Largehearted Boy
Rosie and Me: free and legal Arrow of My Ways album [mp3]
Rosie and Me: "Arrow of My Ways" [mp3] from Arrow of My Ways
search for more Rosie and Me posts at Largehearted Boy
Various Artists: free and legal Bang Bang Boogaloo: Beyond Beyond Is Beyond psych compilation album [mp3]
Yukon Blonde: "Stairway" [mp3] from Tiger Talk (out March 20th)
search for more Yukon Blonde posts at Largehearted Boy
Free and legal mp3s of live performances at other websites:
Cheyenne Marie Mize: LaundroMatinee session [mp3]
search for more Cheyenne Marie Mize posts at Largehearted Boy
also at Largehearted Boy:
other daily free and legal mp3 downloads
100 Online Sources for Free and Legal Music Downloads
List of 2011 Year-End Online Music Lists
Try It Before You Buy It (mp3s and album streams from weekly CD releases)
weekly CD and DVD release lists
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January 25, 2012
Book Notes - Stewart O'Nan "The Odds: A Love Story"
In the Book Notes series, authors create and discuss a music playlist that relates in some way to their recently published book.
Previous contributors include Bret Easton Ellis, Kate Christensen, Kevin Brockmeier, George Pelecanos, Dana Spiotta, Amy Bloom, David Peace, Myla Goldberg, and many others.
Stewart O'Nan's new novel The Odds is a brilliant depiction of a marriage on edge, clinging to hope while its participants' vulnerabilities are fully on show both to themselves and each other.
In the Washington Post, Ron Charles wrote of the book:
"It's O'Nan's attention to the murmurs of exasperation and smothered ardor that will unsettle you. I read “The Odds” over my 27th anniversary, and I defy any long-married husband to make it through these pages without feeling the bracing wind of exposure. Our neediness, our brittle impatience, our loony sense that sexual satisfaction redeems the universe: It’s all laid out here in prose that’s deceptively modest. A few hours with this witty, sad, surprisingly romantic novel might be a better investment for troubled couples than a month of marriage counseling."
In his own words, here is Stewart O'Nan's Book Notes music playlist for his novel, The Odds: A Love Story:
It's funny that Largehearted Boy asked me to write about the songs in The Odds, because of all my novels, it probably has the least music in it. My earlier books like Everyday People or The Speed Queen have extensive contemporary soundtracks and even featured artists, like Cat Stevens in Snow Angels, or Fleetwood Mac in The Good Wife. Sibelius and Nielsen color The Names of the Dead, and a piped-in mix of corporate top 40 anchors Last Night at the Lobster, while Emily in Wish You Were Here and Emily, Alone prefers Bach, Gabrieli and Purcell.
But Art and Marion Fowler aren't great music lovers, and since they're on vacation, they don't control the music they listen to, so the songs they run into--as with Niagara Falls itself--are public and mainstream. At the casino where they spend Valentine's weekend, the gaming floor jangles with the electronic pinging of video poker and slot machines, the only songs maddening snatches of traditional ditties like "Camptown Races" and "The Yellow Rose of Texas" and "La Cucaracha." At a Sunday brunch on Valentine's Day they find a jazz trio tackling that old warhorse "My Funny Valentine," its predictability emptying the standard of any real emotion Even at the Heart concert they attend, where Art wants to apply the lyrics of "Crazy on You" to their precarious marriage, he realizes that the classic rock the Wilson sisters are dishing up is the musical equivalent of fast food--endlessly replicated and unthinkingly consumed by millions, therefore belonging to no one. Two of the encores Heart plays aren't even their own songs--Led Zeppelin's "Rock 'n Roll" and The Who's "Love Reign O'er Me"--further preventing Art from taking the experience personally.
Rather than the music being attached to characters and their moods or personalities in programmatic fashion, in The Odds it seems the music--like the casino and the tourist attractions surrounding Niagara Falls, or the ceaseless roaring of the Falls itself--exists outside of the characters, another impersonal force. Like the pouring Falls and the plinking machines, it distracts them, but to no purpose, and only briefly. At the end of their long marriage, Art and Marion have a lifetime of things to say to each other but can't quite bring themselves to do it. The pricey restaurants they eat at and the lavish hotel suite they return to are far too quiet. Music would be a balm, an escape, but, as with the life savings they put down on the roulette wheel, their fate is out of their hands. Like the gamblers and daredevils drawn to Niagara, they're at the mercy of forces greater than themselves--in their case the twin mysteries of Love and Time. And maybe that's why there's so little music in The Odds: because there's so much silence.
Stewart O'Nan and The Odds: A Love Story links:
Cleveland Plain Dealer review
Columbus Dispatch review
Los Angeles Times review
Miami Herald review
Minneapolis Star Tribune review
NPR review
Three Guys One Book review
Washington Post review
Bat Segundo interview with the author
The Book Bench interview with the author
Niteside interview with the author
Reluctant Habits interview with the author
also at Largehearted Boy:
other Book Notes playlists (authors create music playlists for their book)
List of Online "Best Books of 2011" Lists
List of 2011 Year-End Online Music Lists
100 Online Sources for Free and Legal Music Downloads
52 Books, 52 Weeks (weekly book reviews)
Antiheroines (interviews with up and coming female comics artists)
Atomic Books Comics Preview (weekly comics highlights)
Daily Downloads (free and legal daily mp3 downloads)
guest book reviews
Largehearted Word (weekly new book highlights)
musician/author interviews
Note Books (musicians discuss literature)
Shorties (daily music, literature, and pop culture links)
Soundtracked (composers and directors discuss their film's soundtracks)
Try It Before You Buy It (mp3s and full album streams from the week's CD releases)
weekly music & DVD release lists
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Atomic Books Comics Preview - January 25th, 2012
In the weekly Atomic Books Comics Preview, Benn Ray highlights notable new comics and graphic novels.
Benn Ray is the owner of Atomic Books, an independent bookstore in Baltimore. The Mobtown Shank is his blog, and his comic Said What? is syndicated weekly in the Baltimore Sun's B-Paper.
Atomic Books has been named one of Bizarre Magazine's 51 geekiest places on the planet, as well as one of Flavorwire's 10 greatest comic and graphic novel stores in America.
A.D.D.
by Douglas Rushkoff / Goran Sudzuka / Jose Marzan Jr.
From the famed media theorist, this original Vertigo graphic novel is about a group of special powered gamers, and provides a sharp look at media and corporate culture.
Blobby Boys
by Alex Schubert
Alex has a remarkable style - one that reminds me of several other artists styles that I'd never thought could be synthesized, and the result is something fresh and funny. If you like Boy's Club, you'll like Blobby Boys.
Fantastic Life
by Kevin Mutch
It's with good reason this graphic novel received both a Xeric Award and inclusion in America's Best Comics. It's a pervy mix of punk culture, the undead, and quantum mechanics. Yes, you read that right.
Kramers Ergot Volume 8
by Sammy Harkham (editor) / Robert Beatty (designer)
Kramers Ergot is the Cadillac of comics anthologies. It's the rare anthology whose contributors are every bit as stellar as the design of the book. In this volume, there's Gary Panter, C.F., Kevin Huizenga, Ben Jones, Jason T. Miles, Sammy Harkham, Johnny Ryan, Dash Shaw, Frank Santoro, and many more.
Rub The Blood
by Paul Aulisio (editor)
Who doesn't love Rob Liefeld? Well, aside from those who teach anatomy illustration. And even they must get a laugh out of him. Regardless, Rub The Blood is a tribute to the Image Comics co-founder by a collection of underground indie artists and the results are awesomely surreal and frequently psychedelic. Including contributions by Bald Eagles, Box Brown, Jim Rugg, Benjamin Marra, Josh Bayer, Keenan Marshall Keller, and more.
Questions, concerns, comments or gripes – e-mail benn@atomicbooks.com. If there’s a comic I should know about, send it my way at Atomic, c/o Atomic Books 3620 Falls Rd., Baltimore, MD 21211.
Atomic Books & Benn Ray links:
Atomic Books website
Atomic Books on Twitter
Atomic Books on Facebook
Benn Ray's blog (The Mobtown Shank)
Benn Ray's comic, Said What?
also at Largehearted Boy:
other Atomic Books Comics Preview lists (weekly new comics & graphic novel highlights)
the list of online "best books of 2011" lists
52 Books, 52 Weeks
Antiheroines (interviews with up and coming female comics artists)
Book Notes (authors create music playlists for their book)
guest book reviews
Largehearted Word (weekly new book highlights)
musician/author interviews
Note Books (musicians discuss literature)
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Largehearted WORD Books of the Week - January 25th, 2012
In the Largehearted Word series, the staff of Brooklyn's WORD bookstore highlights several new books released this week.
WORD is an independent neighborhood bookstore in Greenpoint, the northernmost neighborhood of Brooklyn, that will celebrate its fifth anniversary in March 2012. Our primary goal is to be whatever our community needs us to be, which currently means carrying a lot of paperback fiction (especially classics), cookbooks, board books, and absurdly cute cards and stationery. In addition, we're fiends for a good event, from the classic author reading and Q&A to potlucks and a basketball league (and anything set in a bar). We're a small operation, just 1000 square feet and four people, but we read too much, so it all works out. If a weekly dose of WORD here isn't enough for you, follow us on Twitter: @wordbrooklyn.
WORD also hosts the monthly Largehearted Lit reading series, featuring authors who participated in this blog's Book Notes series and musical guests.
Century Girl
by Lauren Redniss
Redniss's first graphic biography, Radioactive: Marie & Pierre Curie, made a huge splash, and we're thrilled to have something new by her to shove at people.
JR
by William Gaddis
If you felt like there weren't enough books poking the capitalist system with a stick, boy are you in luck! JR was a National Book Award winner when it first came out in 1976, which is no mean feat for a novel about an eleven-year-old becoming a newspaper magnate.
The Orphan Master's Son
by Adam Johnson
Says Stephanie: "In this novel, Johnson has taken the bizarre Kim Jong Il anecdotes and the horror stories of defectors and combined them into a book that reminds us that behind the lives we can barely imagine, there are people who want the same things we do."
All the Time in the World
by E.L. Doctorow
If you need new reading for the subway, may we recommend this new short story collection? It's a combination of classics and previously unpublished works, which sounds like us to the best of both worlds.
WORD Brooklyn links:
WORD website
WORD blog
WORD on Twitter
WORD's Facebook page
WORD's Flickr photos
also at Largehearted Boy:
other Largehearted Word Books of the Week (weekly new book highlights)
List of online "best of 2011" book lists
52 Books, 52 Weeks (my yearly reading project)
Antiheroines (interviews with up and coming female comics artists)
Atomic Books Comics Preview (weekly comics & graphic novel highlights)
Book Notes (authors create music playlists for their book)
guest book reviews
musician/author interviews
Note Books (musicians discuss literature)
Posted by david | permalink | post to del.icio.us
