Archive for category Music
David N. Meyer on Gram Parsons Biography
Posted by admin in Music, Uncategorized, biography, nonfiction on August 25, 2010
The Ballad of Gram Parsons and His Cosmic American Music
Over the past few years, my increasing interest in Americana music has prompted me to explore its roots. This exploration recently led me to David N. Meyer‘s book, Twenty Thousands Road: The Ballad of Gram Parsons and His Cosmic American Music. As a Georgia native, it surprised me to learn that Parsons spent his earliest years in Waycross, Georgia. But that’s far from the only thing I learned in this engaging book. Meyer was kind enough to discuss the book and his research process in this recent email interview.
Tim O’Shea: In writing about Parsons’ life, considering that his musical career was essentially 10 years, were you surprised you were able to devote 300 pages to that aspect of his life or could you have written more if you had had the time and space (in publishing terms)?
David N. Meyer: I had to be conscious of holding back from writing too much. I found pretty much every detail fascinating, and given how compressed GP’s career was, illuminating as well. And it’s tempting to include every nugget; ask any biographer. So, no, I was not surprised.
O’Shea: Most biographies don’t sport encyclopedias. What motivated you to do one?
Meyer: I imagined a 15-year-old finding this book 15 years from now, and not having any idea who a number of the mentioned musicians, family members and cultural figures were. While ample web resources exist, I wanted to provide context. It’s that completist thing, too. I wanted readers to be able to instantly read and contextualize anyone mentioned in the book. It was also a lot of fun to write.
On Vinyl: Jack White and Conan O’Brien!?!
Posted by admin in Music, late night TV on August 24, 2010
Pop & Hiss, the LA Times music blog, has the details regarding a release involving musician Jack White and TV host Conan O’Brien:
“‘And They Call Me Mad?’ — that title is amazing for various reasons — is a 7-inch single with O’Brien’s improvised, spoken-word retelling of Frankenstein on one side and an interview with O’Brien by White on the other.”
Interviews I Wish I Had Done: Sam Phillips
Dw. Dunphy at Popdose has scored an interview with one of my favorite singer/songwriters Sam Phillips. Phillips is just too damn modest, but I think she would disagree. Consider this quote from the interview:
“I am happy when I like a melody enough to repeat it. It is a thrill when other musicians play things you want to hear over and over again. I have never been good at professional songwriting. I aim at the target and always end up hitting something else.”
Phillips’ melodies roll around in my head all the time, even years after hearing them. That’s how great of a songwriter she is.
Hal Duncan on His Fiction, Other Creative Pursuits
Posted by admin in Film, Literature, Music, branding, philosophy, poetry, theater on August 18, 2010
Hal Duncan
I always appreciate when a friend of the blog broadens my area of knowledge by suggesting an interview subject. This week, thanks to a suggestion from Allison Baker (of MonkeyBrain Books), I present my interview with self-described strange fiction writer Hal Duncan. Here’s a snippet of Duncan‘s bio: “A member of the Glasgow SF Writers Circle, his first novel, VELLUM, won the Spectrum Award and was nominated for the Crawford, the BFS Award and the World Fantasy Award. As well as the sequel, INK, he has published a poetry collection, SONNETS FOR ORPHEUS, a stand-alone novella, ESCAPE FROM HELL!, and various short stories in magazines such as Fantasy, Strange Horizons and Interzone, and anthologies such as NOVA SCOTIA, LOGORRHEA, and PAPER CITIES.” In addition to discussing his theories on fiction as well as his work in general, he and I also discussed a musical recently produced that was written by him–and the experience of writing a screenplay. I always thank folks when they give me the honor of their valuable time, but I have to give Duncan an extra big thanks for the level of detail and consideration he gave to his answers.
Tim O’Shea: Your first novel, Vellum, was translated into several different languages. How much were you involved in that process? Can you think of any country where you were pleasantly surprised to find readers took strongly to the book?
Hal Duncan: With some of the translations I’ve had no involvement at all; with others there’s been a lot of back-and-forth. They’re not the easiest books in the world to translate by a long shot, I know; there’s all manner of poetic techniques, dialect, wordplay, even a mixture of mythical, historical, and alternate-history settings that means passing references could be authentic history or utterly spurious. I regard my translators with a mixture of shame at what I put them through and wonder at the fact they’re tackling it. So if there’s anything I can do to help, I’ll do it. It’s fascinating to see the process anyway.
Robert Plant: “Kick the Door Open…or Edge it Open With My Hips”
Thanks to PASTE magazine, I became aware that Rounder Records has posted a “making of the album” discussion with Robert Plant, regarding his Band of Joy project (set for release in mid-September).
Plant’s a witty as hell fellow, but my favorite line happens around the first minute, when he discusses covering other people’s music and instilling the pieces with his personality. Plant said: “I wanted to bring my personality with other people’s songs…and kick the door open… a little bit … or edge it open with my hips. I sing the way I sing–attack those songs…I can only do it Plant-like.” Also be sure to look out around the seven-minute mark for Plant’s take on Townes Van Zandt (while discussing Band of Joy’s cover of Harm’s Swift Way).
Heard on the Radio: Alpha Rev’s New Morning
It’s rare that I hear a new song on the radio that catches my attention. The nature of mainstream radio these days is that it seems everything sounds similar. But when I heard Alpha Rev‘s New Morning on Dave FM the other day, it definitely gave me reason to pause. And then scramble to the station’s website to find out who did the song.
The band clearly knows they have a good song here, as it’s what greets visitors when they first arrive at the band’s website. Fortunately the band also allows folks to embed the video on their own site as well, so here we go.
Edie Carey on Bring The Sea
Edie Carey
I have wanted to interview urban folk/pop singer/songwriter Edie Carey since seeing her in concert at Cayamo this past February. She’s got a new album set for release by late October 2010, called Bring The Sea. In preparation for its release (and thanks to Carey for her time [as well as Concerts in Your Home founder Fran Snyder for putting me in contact with Carey]) we discussed her music in this brief email interview.
Tim O’Shea: When a singer/songwriter goes to a country like Tanzania for two weeks on vacation as you recently did, do you typically get inspired to write a song or two. Or when you take a vacation do you decide to give your songwriting part of your brain a break as well?
Edie Carey: I definitely relished the opportunity to get on a plane without my guitar in tow for once. I love my job, but it can make me a bit single-minded sometimes. It’s good to remember the things that I loved to do before I ever started doing this….camping, exploring other countries, learning about history, architecture, science….It was a great mental break after finishing the new album.
Coverville’s Who Did It Better Edition of the Week
Back in the early days of this blog, I interviewed Brian Ibbott, the host of Coverville (a podcast “produced three times a week, that focuses on cover songs – a new rendition of a previously recorded song”).
As of late, one of the show’s new features is Who Did It Better?, a comparison/poll of who does the better cover version of a certain song. This week’s entry is The Beatles’ Across the Universe–reinterpreted by Fiona Apple and Jim Sturgess. Go here to listen and/or weigh in with your opinion.
New to Me: The Quietus
Posted by admin in Film, Music, pop culture on July 27, 2010
The Quietus
Even though it has been around since 2008, I only just recently learned about the British music/pop culture site, The Quietus. Here’s how it describes itself:
“At the start of 2008 we were of the opinion that there was a massive gap in the market for an online music publication not in thrall to snarky one-upmanship, hype, or an overload of fast-click, low-quality content. We also thought there was a gap in the market for a magazine that treated music of all genres from the last 30 years with the same reverence that titles such as MOJO and Word treat the rock & roll hall of fame.We chose a completely spurious Year Zero of 1974 because that’s when Kraftwerk released ‘Autobahn’ as a single. It seemed to us the birth of modern music. Modern sounding, that is.
Since then we’ve aimed to bring you the best of everything. We’re here to give music ranging from dubstep, death metal and post punk to hip hop, pop and spacerock the coverage it deserves. We’d like to inject some much-needed humour, intelligence and passion back into journalism, so we run in-depth features, reviews and opinion pieces from the best new writers and established greats. We also cover film, books, TV and comics, old and new, concentrating on quality over hype.”
Any site that focuses on quality over hype is a critical resource I should pay attention to on a more frequent basis. I would love to write more about The Quietus, but for right now I just want to check out the April2010 interview the site did with Adam Ant.
Jennifer Haase on No More Invitations
Jennifer Haase
My musical realm of knowledge continually grows thanks to social networking. Singer/songwriter Jennifer Haase is the latest example, having been introduced to her music via her Twitter account. This September will mark the release of Haase’s latest album, No More Invitations. It was interesting to talk to an artist like Haase, given that she recently walked away from Corporate America to commit fully to her musical career. We discuss that transition, as well as the fundraising effort for her upcoming release and her overall approach to her music.
Tim O’Shea: How long has your upcoming album been in the works?
Jennifer Haase: It was spring 2006 when my record producer Mike Leslie and I shook hands with a plan to start this record together. If we’d known then what we know now, ha! It’s been 4 amazing, enlightening, tumultuous music-making years with him and my recording engineer Robert L. Smith. I told Mike recently that I feel like this project has weaved itself into the fabric of our lives.
O’Shea: Which has been harder, raising the funds to make the album or recording the album itself?
Haase: Making the album has been much harder on me than the fundraiser. The Boys (Mike & Robert) can confirm that I’m sometimes prone to impatience and bouts of self-doubt. With perhaps a teensy hair-thin sliver of perfectionism when it comes to my singing voice. Barely detectable beneath my joyous song-recording rapture, of course. A-hem.
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