November 3, 2009
Try It Before You Buy It (November 3rd, 2009 Music Releases)
Try It Before You Buy It features free and legal mp3 downloads and full album streams from this week's music releases:
Alan Cohen Experience: Eat the Peace
“Ranger Stranger” [mp3]
Andy Caldwell: Obsession
full album stream
Athlete: The Getaway EP
full album stream
Continue reading "Try It Before You Buy It (November 3rd, 2009 Music Releases)"
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November 3, 2009
November 3rd Updates to the Best of the Decade (2000-2009) Online Music Lists
Today's additions to the list of the online best of the decade (2000-2009) music lists:
Filles Sourires - Frans_S (best French albums)
Filles Sourires - Jan-Willem (best French albums)
Filles Sourires - Maks (best French albums)
Filles Sourires - Mordi (best French albums)
F**k Yeah, Go Team! (best albums)
Gimme Tinnitus (best songs 2000-2004)
Music for Kids Who Can't Read Good (albums of the decade)
We Are the Music Makers (best albums)
also at Largehearted Boy:
2008 Online "Best Of" Music Lists
2007 Online "Best Of" Music Lists
2006 Online "Best Of" Music Lists
Online "Best Books of 2009" Lists
Online "Best Books of 2008" Lists
other lists at Largehearted Boy
Daily Downloads (free & legal mp3 downloads)
Book Notes (authors create playlists for their book)
Note Books (musicians discuss literature)
musician/author interviews
tags: music cd list lists indie 2000s albums
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Note Books - Lisa Berlin (Jookabox)
The Note Books series features musicians discussing their literary side. Previous contributors have included John Darnielle, John Vanderslice, and others.
Jookabox (formerly Grampall Jookabox) releases its third album, Dead Zone Boys today, a zombie-love rock opera.
In her own words, here is the Note Books entry from Jookabox's Lisa Berlin:
This same time last year I started reading about this magical place where this magical family had a magical farm. "I'm going to do this one day," I said the whole time I was reading, and the next spring I planted strawberries and lavender as a start and I think I'll save up some nerve and money for chickens. The book is called Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver and it's about what I think I'd like to do one day when money stops leaking out of my pockets and real land collects underneath my real house. Right?
It's the story of one year - on a large, hilly piece of land in Virginia where the author's family of four chore-lovers planted and raised the only food they'd eat for 365 days (with occasional locally produced supplements like flour and lamb - though they did raise their own poultry). Everything was organic and chemical free, a daily commitment of all four of them to weed and trim and water together. They took a lot of walks around it all, keeping tabs on its health by peeking under leaves and scooping up little handfuls of soil to smell, observing the bird-to-insect ratios and outsmarting the deer and rabbits. The work began well before the first meal of homegrown produce was served marking the beginning of the experiment. They had to plot out the plots and cook up some good composts, order their weird heirloom seeds from reputable internet stores and gather a lot of advice from books and neighbors. The first things to green up and arrive, though, were the asparagus. And if you make it to that part of the book, you will probably finish it. I don't think I'm dull or anything, but I did have a really good time reading about asparagus. She sells you right here on why homegrown food is better than grocery store food. It tastes better right when you pick it and is way less icky than the sticky, trucky, rubber-banded stuff with countries on its stickers that you know it'd cost an assload to mail a banana to. I'd heard eating local honey helps cure pollen allergies, but I hadn't put together that the French survive into glamorous old age smoking cigs and drinking wine and eating rich foods because they don't import everything they eat raw nor would they stuff their dainty desserts with freak corn and fake sugar. You're not really a snob when you've got dirt under your nails, and I'm not thinking about having perfect health until I'm 115, but I would love an occasion to swipe a grape from a vine in my 80's wearing tattered velvet and tell a toddler it's my eye.
My grandmother's place was on a large mountain in West Virginia and as kids we'd visit a lot. They had a small vegetable garden, and some vines, fruit trees, and berry bushes. And this stuff was sprinkled here and there around the edges of giant woods and the big, mossy boulders we'd play on. So we'd play and then we'd pick snacks and go back to playing. Sometimes a berry's sour, and sometimes it's sweet. We'd accidentally eat a bug now and then or get stung by a bee pollinating a flower (not quite yellow jackets drinking cokes). There were poisonous snakes and happy dogs and frogs called "Peep-a-Deeps." Up top of the property was a huge cow pasture where we'd find bleached cow bones and terrorize ghosts dressed up in ground pine. Everything was bigger than us, the smaller things outnumbered us. So when we ate (and it wasn't always freshly picked, sometimes it was from the nearest grocery store more than a few miles down the highway) we did feel somewhat cunning to have got it, and yet humble to feel it all still growing outside in the dark. One time I saw a pig being butchered, not walking into a "sterile" factory, but walking down a dirt path at Carriage Hill Farm in Ohio. They were having a little festival and had slaughtered a pig which was hanging in a tree curing or something, split right down the middle like a Frances Bacon painting in the shade. I stared and felt strange and grossed out, but a few hours later I poured a bowl of ham and bean soup (presumably a different pig) and decided I still enjoyed it. And that became a little goal of mine, a challenge I'd like to do, if I can raise an animal, watch its birth and one day kill it all by myself, and eat, well I suppose I'm without question truly omnivorous. These things are probably what made this book make sense to me, my deep-down longing for a closer connection to my food. The tit, not the bottle, so to speak.
I'm not surprised to see the book on people's shelves when I stay in their living rooms on tour. More and more I see seedlings in windowsills and beans crawling up lattices by their porches where there used to be cigarette butts. It's getting to be pretty chic to pull a ceramic bowl of odd-shaped tomatoes into the kitchen to snack on. It's not like Subway was the first to discover how great it feels to "Eat Fresh," but it seems like people are starting to get the sense that there's fresher than that. And any little pad of soil, even a pot next to a futon, can grow really fresh food. To eat. Just like that.
Jookabox links and free and legal mp3s:
Jookabox MySpace page
Jookabox page at Asthmatic Kitty
"Phantom Don't Go" [mp3] from Dead Zone Boys
"You Cried Me" [mp3] from http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B002PAD2N0/ref=nosim/largeheartedb-20
"The One Thing" [mp3] from Ropechain
"The Girl Ain't Preggers" [mp3] from Ropechain
also at Largehearted Boy:
Previous Note Books submissions (musicians discuss literature)
Book Notes (authors create playlists for their book)
guest book reviews
musician/author interviews
Soundtracked (directors discuss their film's soundtracks)
52 Books, 52 Weeks
tags: books music literature fiction indie
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Shorties (Largehearted Lit, Daniel Johnston, and more)
Vol. 1 Brooklyn interviews Jami Attenberg and myself about our new reading series, Largehearted Lit, which premieres this Sunday, November 8th, at the Knitting Factory in Brooklyn with Lev Grossman and Libba Bray.
Singer-songwriter Daniel Johnston talks to the Scotsman.
Clash Music interviews Dizzee Rascal.
The Associated Press reviews Michael Chabon's latest essay collection, Manhood for Amateurs.
PopMatters interviews John Darnielle of the Mountain Goats.
101 book blogs you need to read.
The A.V. Club has launched a monthly electronic music column by Michaelangelo Matos, called "Beat Connection."
On sale at Amazon MP3:
the 11-track Weezer: Raditude album for $3.99
The 8-track Julian Casablancas Phrazes for the Young album for $4.99
the 12-track NCIS: The Official TV Soundtrack - Vol. 2 album for $3.99
The A.V. Club interviews singer-songwriter Charlotte Gainsbourg.
Crave interviews Lala co-founder Bill Nguyen about the future of music and Google Music Search.
At NPR Music, Sondre Lerche plays a tiny desk concert.
The November issue of Bookslut is online.
NPR is soliciting reader (& listener) input in choosing the 50 greatest voices in recorded history.
Singer-songwriter David Bazan visits The Current studio for a live performance and an interview.
Follow me on Twitter for links that don't make the daily "Shorties" columns.
also at Largehearted Boy:
online "best of 2009" book lists
best of the decade (2000-2009) online music lists
daily mp3 downloads
Try It Before You Buy It (mp3s and full album streams from this week's CD releases)
weekly music & DVD release lists
tags: music books popculture indie
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Daily Downloads (White Rabbits, Clem Snide, and more)
Today's free and legal mp3 downloads:
Jump Clubb: "Los Angeles (Elliott Smith cover)" [mp3]
other Jump Clubb posts at Largehearted Boy
Laugh at Matt: free and legal Radio Soap Star album [mp3]
other Laugh at Matt posts at Largehearted Boy
The N.E.C.: "It's Right" [mp3] from IS. EP
other Yeasayer posts at Largehearted Boy
Quest for Fire: "Hawk That Hurts the Walking" [mp3] from Quest for Fire
other N.E.C. posts at Largehearted Boy
Tin Can Notes: free and legal Tin Can Notes EP [mp3]
Tin Can Notes: "California In the Ether" [mp3] from Tin Can Notes EP
other Tin Can Notes posts at Largehearted Boy
Twin Tigers: free and legal EP [mp3]*
other Twin Tigers posts at Largehearted Boy
Uncle Monsterface: free and legal Jokey Jingles covers EP [mp3]
other Uncle Monsterface posts at Largehearted Boy
Various Artists: free and legal Brushfire Records Fall 2009 Sampler album [mp3]
The Zookeepers: free and legal Elmer's Paste Land album (donations accepted) [mp3]
other Zookeepers posts at Largehearted Boy
*registration required
Free and legal mp3s of live performances at other websites:
Clem Snide: 2009-10-13, New York [mp3]
other Clem Snide posts at Largehearted Boy
Cymbals Eat Guitars: 2009-10-24, New York [mp3]
other Cymbals Eat Guitars posts at Largehearted Boy
Meat Puppets: 2009-10-24, Athens [mp3]
other Meat Puppets posts at Largehearted Boy
Shelley Short: Daytrotter session [mp3]
other Shelley Short posts at Largehearted Boy
White Rabbits: Daytrotter session [mp3]
other White Rabbits posts at Largehearted Boy
also at Largehearted Boy:
previous free and legal mp3 daily downloads
2009 Bonnaroo 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
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November 2, 2009
Online "Best of 2009" Book Lists
Just like last year, I will be aggregating every online "best of 2009" book lists I find in this post. As the lists appear online, I will add them to this master list. Please feel free to leave a comment or e-mail me with a blog, magazine, newspaper, or other online media list I have missed.
AAAS (science books for children and young adults)
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Book Examiner (best book club books)
Chicken Spaghetti (list of children's book lists)
Feminist Mama Galore (children's books)
Flashlight Worthy (best books)
National Book Award (young people's literature)
Publishers Weekly (best books)
Publishers Weekly (best children's books)
The Simple Dollar (books)
The Times Online (best paperbacks)
Young Adult Library Services Association (top teens books)
also at Largehearted Boy:
daily updates to this list
Online "Best Books of 2008" Lists
Online Best of the Decade (2000-2009) music lists
2008 Online Year-end Music Lists
2007 Online Year-end Music Lists
2006 Online Year-end Music Lists
other lists at Largehearted Boy
Book Notes (authors create playlists for their book)
Note Books (musicians discuss literature)
Anitiheroines (interviews with up and coming female comics artists)
guest book reviews
musician/author interviews
52 Books, 52 Weeks
tags: books literature list lists indie 2009 fiction nonfiction
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This Week's Interesting Music Releases (November 3rd, 2009)
Reissues are the stars release list this week, with remastered editions of Nirvana's Bleach, two Devo albums (Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo! and Freedom of Choice), and the Rolling Stones' Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out! The Rolling Stones In Concert all with bonus material and in stores tomorrow.
If your tastes run toward vinyl, Merge reissues Neutral Milk Hotel's two albums (In The Aeroplane Over The Sea and Neutral Milk Hotel: On Avery Island) tomorrow.
Among the week's new releases, Girls in Trouble's self-titled debut is easily my personal favorite, an indie folk gem.
Other albums I have heard and can recommend include Jookabox's Dead Zone Boys, Molina & Johnson's self-titled disc, Morrissey's b-sides compilation Swords, and The Swimmers' People Are Soft.
Robert Pollard releases Guided By Voices' Suitcase 3: Up We Go Now tomorrow, his third 100-song 4-CD box set of unreleased songs and snippets.
What new music can you recommend this week? What's on your shopping list?
This week's interesting CD releases:
A-Ha: Shadowside
Acid Mothers Temple: Are We Experimental? (2-LP vinyl)
The Almost: Monster Monster
Aqua Teen Hunger Force: Have Yourself A Meaty Little Christmas
Arriongton de Dionyso: Malaikat Dan Singa (vinyl)
The Band: Cahoots (vinyl reissue)
The Band: Stage Fright (vinyl reissue)
Bat for Lashes: Two Suns (CD & DVD with bonus tracks)
The Beach Boys: Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!) (vinyl reissue)
The Beach Boys: Today! (vinyl reissue)
Bear in Heaven: Beast Rest Forth Mouth (vinyl)
Bee Gees: Ultimate Bee Gees (2-CD) (2-CD & DVD)
Brian Setzer Orchestra: Songs From Lonely Avenue (5-LP vinyl box set)
Brilliant Colors: Introducing (vinyl)
Carla Bley: Carla's Christmas Carols
CFCF: Continent (vinyl)
Citay: Remixes (vinyl)
Cold Cave: Love Comes Close (reissue) (vinyl)
Curtis Harvey: Box of Stones
Devo: Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo! (remastered with bonus tracks) (yellow vinyl)
Devo: Q: Freedom of Choice (remastered with bonus tracks) (red vinyl)
The Dixie Bee-Liners: Susanville
DOA: Kings of Punk, Hockey & Beer
Efterklang and the Danish National Chamber Orchestra: Performing Parades
Etienne Jaumet: Night Music (vinyl)
Faust: Faust IV (vinyl)
Felix: You Are The One I Pick
Foo Fighters: Foo Fighters Greatest Hits (CD & DVD)
Girls in Trouble: Girls in Trouble
Green Day: American Idiot (2-LP vinyl)
Guided By Voices: Suitcase 3: Up We Go Now (4-CD box set)
Half-Handed Cloud: Cut Me Down & Count My Rings
Hank Williams: Revealed (dvd)
Jay-Z: Empire State of Mind
JJ Grey & Mofro: The Choice Cuts (vinyl)
John K. Samson: City Route 85
Jookabox: Dead Zone Boys (vinyl)
Joy Electric: Favorites at Play
Julian Casablancas: Phrazes For The Young (vinyl)
Kate Earl: Kate Earl
Kathy Griffin: Suckin It for the Holidays
King Khan & BBQ Show: Invisible Girl (vinyl)
Kings of Convenience: Declaration of Dependence (vinyl)
Laarks: An Exaltation of Laarks
Little Dragon: Machine Dreams (vinyl)
Lymbyc Systym: Shutter Release
Mariah Carey: Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel (2-LP & CD box set)
Mary Onettes: Islands
Max Richter: Memoryhouse (reissue)
Melt Banana: Melt Banana Lite Live Ver 0.0
Melvins: Nude with Boots (vinyl)
Mesh: Perfect Solution
Michael and the Mumbles: Michael and the Mumbles (vinyl)
Molina & Johnson: Molina & Johnson
Morrissey: Swords
Naam: Naam (vinyl)
Neutral Milk Hotel: In The Aeroplane Over The Sea (vinyl reissue)
Neutral Milk Hotel: On Avery Island (vinyl reissue)
Nirvana: Bleach (remastered with bonus tracks) (2-LP vinyl deluxe edition)
Nirvana: Live at Reading (CD & DVD)
Nirvana: Nevermind (vinyl reissue)
On Fillmore: Extended Vacation (vinyl)
Pastels/Tenniscoats: Two Sunsets (vinyl)
Pebbles & Bamm-Bamm: Pebbles & Bamm-Bamm Singing Songs Of Christmas (remastered)
Propagandhi: Potemkin City Limits (vinyl)
REO Speedwagon: Not So Silent Night
The Residents: Ten Little Piggies
The Residents: The Ughs!
RJD2: Dead Ringer (vinyl)
Rolling Stones: Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out! The Rolling Stones In Concert (remastered 3-CD & DVD box set) (3-LP 3-CD DVD deluxe box set)
Say Anything: Say Anything
Slayer: World Painted Blood (CD & DVD deluxe edition) (vinyl)
State Radio: Let It Go (vinyl)
Straight No Chaser: Christmas Cheers
Sunn o))): Monoliths and Dimensions (vinyl)
The Swimmers: People Are Soft
Syntaks: Jlajali
Systems Officer: Underslept
Taylor Hollingsworth: Life With a Slow Ear (vinyl)
Themselves: Crownsdown (vinyl)
U2: The Unforgettable Fire (remastered vinyl)
Various Artists: Fantastic Mr. Fox (soundtrack)
Various Artists: Glee: The Music, Volume 1 (soundtrack)
Various Artists: Light On the South Side (2-LP & book box set)
Various Artists: NCIS: The Official TV Soundtrack, Vol. 2 (soundtrack)
Various Artists: Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Live (dvd)
Various Artists: The Village - A Celebration of the Music of Greenwich Village
Vitalic: Flashmob
Warpaint: Exquisite Corpse (vinyl)
Weezer: Raditude (2-CD edition) (vinyl)
Yeasayer: Ambling Alp (vinyl)
also at Largehearted Boy:
previous CD & DVD release lists
Try It Before You Buy It (music from this week's CD releases)
tags: music cd list indie album releases
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This Week's Interesting DVD Releases (November 3rd, 2009)
Food, Inc. examines where our food comes from, and with commentary from Eric Schlosser (Fast Food Nation) and Michael Pollan (In Defense of Food), the story isn't pretty as corporate greed is shown to define a nation's diet.
Another documentary caught my eye, Unmistaken Child, which follows the search for a reincarnated Lama.
Star Wars The Clone Wars: The Complete Season One and Spin City: Season Three are the highlights of the week
The feature films in stores tomorrow include big budget adventure films like G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra and The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3, but I'll recommend Lemon Tree, a compelling Israeli drama instead.
Music fans can choose from a diverse group of concert films, including ABBA: In Japan, Bela Fleck: Throw Down Your Heart, and Nirvana: Live at Reading.
If there are any arts and crafts fans on your holiday gift lists, they might love Craft in America: Season Two or the documentary Handmade Nation (which features one of my favorite artists, Kate Bingaman-Burt of Obsessive Consumption).
Blu-ray releases out this week include Say Anything, Forrest Gump, and the holiday classic It's a Wonderful Life.
What new releases are you picking up or adding to your Netflix queue this week?
This week's interesting DVD releases:
ABBA: In Japan
Afro Samurai: Complete Murder Sessions (Director's Cut)
Aliens in the Attic
The Answer Man
Art 21: Season 5
Bela Fleck: Throw Down Your Heart
Bleach Uncut Box Set: Season 4, Part 1 - The Bount
The Botany of Desire
Buck Rogers (1939 version)
Charles Darwin and the Tree of Life
A Christmas Carol [Blu-ray]
Christmas in Wonderland
Christmas Town
Columbia Pictures Film Noir Classics, Vol. 1 (The Big Heat / 5 Against the House / The Lineup / Murder by Contract / The Sniper)
Craft in America: Season Two
Criminal Justice
Crutch - Director's Cut
Da Ali G Show: Da Compleet Seereez
The Dead
Doctor Who: The Black Guardian Trilogy (Mawdryn Undead / Terminus / Enlightenment) (Episodes 126-28)
Doctor Who - The War Games
Dragonaut: The Resonance, Complete Series Part 1
The Donna Reed Show: Season Three
Eddie Izzard: Live from Wembley
Edge of Darkness: The Complete BBC Series
Empire of the Sun
The English Surgeon
Food, Inc.
Forrest Gump [Blu-ray]
Fraggle Rock: The Complete Final Season
Fraggle Rock: Complete Series Collection
Fraggle Rock: A Merry Fraggle Holiday
G.I. Joe A Real American Hero: Season 1.2
G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra
The Genius of Charles Darwin
Handmade Nation
Hardwired
Howards End (The Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray]
Here's Lucy: Season Two
I Love You, Beth Cooper
It's a Wonderful Life [Blu-ray]
John Fogerty - Comin' Down the Road: The Concert at Royal Albert Hall
Law of Desire
Lemon Tree
Love Actually [Blu-ray]
Matador
The Men
Merry Sitcom! Christmas Classics from TV's Golden Age
Mickey's Magical Christmas
Mission: Impossible - Complete Series
Mission: Impossible - The Final TV Season
Moribito - Guardian Of The Spirit Volume 7
Motown: The DVD
The Narrows
National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (Ultimate Collector's Edition)
Night Watcher
Nirvana: Live at Reading
North by Northwest (50th Anniversary Edition)
Not Forgotten
The Rockford Files: Movie Collection, Vol. 1
Rocky: The Undisputed Collection [Blu-ray]
Ruby-Spears Superman
Sand Serpents
Say Anything [Blu-ray]
The Shield: Complete Series
Spin City: Season Three
Star Wars The Clone Wars: The Complete Season One
The Storm
The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3
TCM Greatest Classic Films Collection: Comedy (Arsenic and Old Lace / A Night at the Opera / The Long Long Trailer / Father of the Bride 1950)
TCM Greatest Classic Films Collection: Hitchcock Thrillers (Suspicion / Strangers on a Train / The Wrong Man / I Confess)
TCM Greatest Classic Films Collection: Holiday (Christmas in Connecticut 1945 / A Christmas Carol 1938 / The Shop Around the Corner / It Happened on 5th Avenue)
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Complete Season 7 Set
Terminator Salvation: The Machinima Series
The Tower of Druaga: Part One - The Aegis of Uruk
Transformers/Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen [Blu-ray]
Unmistaken Child
Walt Disney Treasures: Zorro - The Complete First Season
Walt Disney Treasures: Zorro - The Complete Second Season
Where God Left His Shoes
White Christmas (Anniversary Edition)
Will Ferrell: You're Welcome, America. A Final Night with George W. Bush
Wings of Desire (The Criterion Collection)
Witchblade: The Complete Series [Blu-ray]
Wolverine and the X-Men: Beginning of the End
Wolverine and the X-Men: Volumes 1-3
Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown
What can you recommend buying or adding to your Netflix queue from this week's DVD releases?
also at Largehearted Boy:
previous CD & DVD release lists
Soundtracked (directors and composers discuss their film's soundtrack)
tags: movies dvd list indie film
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November 2nd Updates to the Best of the Decade (2000-2009) Online Music Lists
Today's additions to the list of the online best of the decade (2000-2009) music lists:
Atlanta's A-List (best albums)
breakfast, lunch-n-dinner (top albums)
Club Fonograma (best regional Mexican songs)
Don't Fear the Mainstream (favorite songs)
The Donnybrook Writing Academy (top overrated albums)
Filles Sourires - Sky (best French albums)
Filles Sourires - Guuzbourg (best French albums)
Heiruspecs (favorite albums)
Lucy Michelle (favorite albums)
MondoSonoro (top Spanish & international albums)
Music By Day (top albums)
Music Fan's Mic (songs that define the decade)
Paste (top albums)
Pretty Much Amazing (best albums)
Q (top albums)
Town Full of Losers (best albums)
The View from Yoorp (top albums)
WakeUpAndSmelltheMusic.com (essential albums)
also at Largehearted Boy:
2008 Online "Best Of" Music Lists
2007 Online "Best Of" Music Lists
2006 Online "Best Of" Music Lists
Online "Best Books of 2009" Lists
Online "Best Books of 2008" Lists
other lists at Largehearted Boy
Daily Downloads (free & legal mp3 downloads)
Book Notes (authors create playlists for their book)
Note Books (musicians discuss literature)
musician/author interviews
tags: music cd list lists indie 2000s albums
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Shorties (John Irving, Hottest Bands in Canada, and more)
The Sacramento Bee interviews John Irving about his new novel, Last Night in Twisted River.
Did you have specific aims for the book, or are you just telling a story? Does your art have a purpose?
I think having a purpose is different than having a message. I don't really write message novels, aside from "The Cider House Rules" or "A Prayer for Owen Meany." ("Cider House" was about abortion, "Owen Meany" about Vietnam.) In the other 10 novels I'm more of a social writer than a political one.
i(heart)music has posted the 2009 results of its "hottest bands in Canada" bloggers poll.
Paste lists its top 50 albums of the decade (2000-2009).
Keep up with the list of aggregated "best of the decade" music lists, updated daily.
The Guardian examines the Hammond organ's place in rock and roll.
The 2010 IMPAC Award longlist has been released, and contains 156 books, including Largehearted Boy Book Notes contributors Rabih Alameddine, Tom Piazza, and Roxana Robinson.
Jonathan Safran Foer talks to NPR's All Things Considered about his controversial new book, Eating Animals. An excerpt form the book is also provided.
"More than anything, I want people to come away with the idea that meat matters," Foer says. "I am not asking other people to come to these conclusions. I am asking people to see something that they already know, which is that what we choose to eat when ordering at a restaurant, what we choose to buy at a supermarket, is frankly one of the most important decisions we'll make all day."
Amazon MP3 has a new batch of 50 albums for $5
The Antlers' Hospice
The Avett Brothers' Four Thieves Gone - The Robbinsville Sessions
Jay-Z's The Blueprint 3
Johnny Cash: The Best of the Sun Years
Rodrigo y Gabriela's 11:11
Anne Heller, author of Ayn Rand and the World She Made, talks to NPR's All Things Considered about the author's literary and political legacies.
This week Five Chapters is serializing a new short story by Emma Straub.
io9 reviews John Darnielle & John Vanderslice's tour EP, Moon Colony Bloodbath.
The Quietus excerpts from Stevie Chick's new book, Spray Paint the Walls: The "Black Flag" Story.
The New York Times notes the increased number of indie rock bands playing wedding receptions.
Weddings, of course, have been the secret sustainer of the music world since time immemorial. But for just as long, wedding bands have been a source of embarrassment for those forced to play in them. The Dexter Lake Club Band has neatly subverted this construction by the simple expediency of creating a band that actually rocks. In the process, they’ve become one of New York’s premier wedding bands for people who would never dream of hiring a wedding band.
State Magazine interviews singer-songwriter John Vanderslice.
Follow me on Twitter for links that don't make the daily "Shorties" columns.
also at Largehearted Boy:
best of the decade (2000-2009) online music lists
daily mp3 downloads
Try It Before You Buy It (mp3s and full album streams from this week's CD releases)
weekly music & DVD release lists
tags: music books popculture indie
Posted by david | Permalink | Comments (View)
Daily Downloads (Yeasayer, Drew Danburry, and more)
Today's free and legal mp3 downloads:
Anders Parker: "Calling Out to You" [mp3] from Skyscraper Crow
Anders Parker: "72nd St. Horses" [mp3] from Skyscraper Crow
other Anders Parker posts at Largehearted Boy
ARMS: "Tiger Tamer" [mp3] from Kids Aflame
ARMS: "Kids Aflame" [mp3] from Kids Aflame
ARMS: "Construction" [mp3] from Kids Aflame
other ARMS posts at Largehearted Boy
Brim Liski: "Fight" [mp3] from Brim Liski EP (out November 10th)
other Brim Liski posts at Largehearted Boy
Drew Danburry: free and legal Geraniums EP [mp3]
other Drew Danburry posts at Largehearted Boy
Jesse Mills: free and legal Les Battes de Julia EP
other Jesse Mills posts at Largehearted Boy
L'Avventura: free and legal Your Star Was Shining album [mp3]
other L'Avventura posts at Largehearted Boy
Yeasayer: "Ambling Alp" [mp3] from Ambling Alp (out November 3rd)
other Yeasayer posts at Largehearted Boy
Free and legal mp3s of live performances at other websites:
Great Northern: Luxury Wafers session [mp3]
other Great Northern posts at Largehearted Boy
Ribbons: Daytrotter session [mp3]
other Ribbons posts at Largehearted Boy
Surfer Blood: 2009-10-24, New York [mp3]
other Surfer Blood posts at Largehearted Boy
Unicycle Loves You: 2009-10-22, New York [mp3]
other Unicycle Loves You posts at Largehearted Boy
also at Largehearted Boy:
previous free and legal mp3 daily downloads
2009 Bonnaroo 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
Posted by david | Permalink | Comments (View)
November 1, 2009
33 Down, 19 To Go "The Art of Harvey Kurtzman: The Mad Genius of Comics " (52 Books, 52 Weeks)
When Paul Buhle (whose collaborations with Harvey Pekar are among my comics favorites) mentioned to me that Harvey Kurtzman was a personal hero, I knew I had to read Buhle's book The Art of Harvey Kurtzman: The Mad Genius of Comics.
A collaboration between Denis Kitchen and Buhle, The Art of Harvey Kurtzman: The Mad Genius of Comics lovingly curates the artwork of the Mad Magazine cartoonist, who in his brief tenure at the inception of the magazine helped define it. When I started the book, I was unfamiliar with Kurtzman's influence other than his time at Mad, but was surprised to discover his influence not only in the world of comics, but also politics as well as the entertainment industry (he helped foster the careers of Gloria Steinem, Terry Gilliam, R. Crumb, and others).
What makes the book work is the combination of the written biography alongside Kurtzman's comics (and even his illustrated correspondence), giving rare insight into a comics genius while also illuminating the man behind the artwork.
For one month, enter the coupon code "LHB001" at Atomic Books and receive 15% off this title.
My next book is Circus Parade, by Jim Tully.
also at Largehearted Boy:
52 Books, 52 Weeks (2009 Edition)
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)
Online "best of 2008" book lists
Book Notes (authors create playlists for their book)
Note Books (musicians discuss literature)
tag: books food photography
Posted by david | Permalink | Comments (View)
