Blog
links for 22 October 2006
Lyrics for “Majesty Snowbird” sitting on the piano I really like that you can see that Sufjan Stevens has edited his lyrics for Majesty Snowbird.
links for 16 October 2006
Miniatures – a photoset on Flickr These tiny, working synths are exactly what I want for Christmas.
links for 14 October 2006
Schmindie Friday! Helping You Discover New Music. This post has lots of music and words, but I can’t help thinking about how stupid 80% of bands look in their publicity photos.
links for 21 September 2006
Weed Carriers Your handy guide to weed carriers, weed holders, and jewelry holders.
Recently in IRL
Two short profiles of M. Ward and Emily Haines, in the last and current issues of Paste (along with a couple of reviews in the former). Paste is becoming my favorite place to write for (next to Pitchfork, because nothing beats hate mail), and I’m not just saying that
Two short profiles of M. Ward and Emily Haines, in the last and current issues of Paste (along with a couple of reviews in the former). Paste is becoming my favorite place to write for (next to Pitchfork, because nothing beats hate mail), and I’m not just saying that because my editor there reads and comments on my entries.
Also, some short reviews in Paper and something for Resonance. I don’t have much coming up, because I’ve been doing more at CMJ, and trying to catch up with stuff on the Pitchfork and Paper Thing Walls side.
I’m working on a singles review of the Women Take Back The Noise comp. Playing around with the packaging over the last two nights, Mark and I discovered that Tobey hates noise. He doesn’t seem to mind the playing, but the making. Proof. Check the glockenspiel moneyshot at the end. I found it in the trash a few month ago, and I can play the opening eight notes of “Chicago” by Sufjan Stevens and “Be Gentle With Me” by Boy Least Likely To.
Also, I’ve been reading a lot of this blog over the last two days. It belongs to Sean Nelson, whom I talked to for a story last week, and whom I possibly offended by calling the interview ‘funny and sad’. Anyway. His blog is ostensibly about music but is a lot more personal than most music writers’ blogs (and yes, it’s funny and sad too). I should know better than to keep favorite interviews locked away in (senti)mental files, but whatever. This one can sit next to the Unicorns, Man Man, Danielson, and Feist.
links for 20 September 2006
Pitchfork: Benni Hemm Hemm: “I Can Love You In A Wheelchair Baby” [Track Review] Word. An interview with Emily Haines | part 1 (no blindfold) Brooklyn Vegan interviews Emily Haines. I talked to her a few weeks for Paste, one of the harder interviews I’ve done. It could have been
links for 19 September 2006
YouTube – Man Man Playing “Push The Eagle’s Stomach” Second YouTube video, of “Push The Eagle’s Stomach.” Features Chris Powell’s beat-leaps.
I saw Man Man At The Spiegeltent
Tenth Man Man show in about a year. They keep getting better. Really. The show was supposed to start around midnight, but actually started sometime after, because the Spiegeltent had hosted one of their burlesque shows just before. Cover was $15, and there was no opening bands, but the line
Inside people were packed, I saw My Brightest Diamond there with about 50 other people; Saturday night there must have been 200 inside the circular tent. It’s a running joke with me, how many times can I possibly see Man Man before I’m bored. But each set is different; each song gets tighter and looser at the same time. Plus, noticing these things take time, and about ten shows.
Man Man played more new songs than I’ve heard at previous shows. And though I couldn’t name any of them, they sounded a little different from the songs off Six Demon Bag they seemed less grounded in Honus’ Rhodes and more in squiggly electronic flourishes.
Man Man ended the show with “Ice Dogs,” as usual. Not as usual, the audience kept singing the song’s fade-into-forever ending, clapping and repeating, “This heart won’t die / and this ship won’t die” until they began speeding it up as per some anonymous directive from the center of the crowd. Man Man came back out to play “Van Helsing Boombox,” my favorite Man Man song, but Honus’ least favorite.
NPR: Fiery Furnaces in Concert with Man Man