Feb. 16 items of interest
Posted By Ben W. on February 15, 2009
Monday is for items of interest. It’s Monday. So here are your items of interest.
SFA OK
Given all the success Gruff Rhys had last year with Neon Neon, it’s good to see he hasn’t forgotten about his top priority — fronting the best band in the world.
HELLO CLEVELAND!
Currently residing in the “Where Are They Now?” file no more. The band that brought us such classics as “Big Bottom,” “Stonehenge” and “Sex Farm” is back. That’s right, folks. Spinal Tap! And going to the studio?
SUPER NINTENDO, SEGA GENESIS; WHEN I WAS DEAD BROKE, MAN, I COULDN’T PICTURE THIS
Christopher Wallace’s life was like a movie. So it wasn’t surprising when someone decided to make a movie like his life. Even less surprising, the movie wasn’t very good.
OF MONTREAL
What happens when a feller from The Unicorns starts a band with a feller from Arcade Fire? You guessed it — the music sounds like a combination of The Unicorns and the Aracde Fire!
WHERE’S MY ALBUM ABOUT OHIO HISTORY, DAMMIT
Here’s a cutesy feature about what Sufjan Stevens did during the Christmas season. If you’d like the short answer, I can tell you he spent it NOT working on another of his “state” albums. I thought he was going to do all 50. Now I’m having grave doubts he will even finish the 13 colonies.
WOO HOO
CLAYTON PURDOM IS MY HERO
I don’t actually know the guy, but I can say, with a strong degree of certainty, that Clayton Purdom is the best writer on the Web when it comes to an academic approach to hip hop music. It’s a different style than your typical surface music journalism. He gets in-depth (and often long-winded), using a ridiculous array of references and metaphors. He’s usually funny, and always spot-on. I’d like to think I know a whole lot about hip hop, but his essays never fail to make me look at the subject at hand in a brand new light.
This week he tackles what figure to be two of the most disappointing releases of the spring (and my lifetime): new stuff from Lil Wayne and Raekwon.
GETTING JICK-Y WIT IT
Man, I hate Pitchfork. But it is always great to get a litte Pavement insight.
JOHNNY, YOU’RE OK, BUT…
The Cribs have the guy who produced The Queen Is Dead playing guitar in their band. But they’re going another direction for their fourth album.
FRENCH ELECTRO CONQUERS COKE, MOVES ON TO COCA-COLA
Justice has parlayed nine original songs and six remixes into a multi-million dollar career and now this. I especially enjoyed the accidental-Google- mishap mentioned at the bottom of the story.
TWO DECADES OLD AND STILL NOTE-PERFECT
I’ve already bought The Stone Roses self-titled debut three times. And it appears a fourth purchase may be in the offing.
JUST DO IT
Cleveland’s own Kid Cudi was arrested last weekend. Guns? Weed? Booze? Choking Rihanna? Nope, none of the above. He was guilty of wearing Nikes. No joke.
GET GUILTY
It’s never a good sign when the interview you give about how you made an album is more interesting than the actual album. Such is the case here, though, with A.C. Newman.
and last but not least:
LIB SERVICE
Hopes for a Libertines reunion actually seemed fairly legitimate last month. Pete Doherty’s solo debut single is pretty awful. And Carl Barat’s Dirty Pretty Things split up. I mean, what else are they going to do, right? You were the best English band of the decade. You’re borderline irrelevant now. Desperation sets in. Get back together. Get paid. Make us happy. It’s not difficult. Except, apparently, it is.
Related posts:
links!
This was great! What a roundup.