[contextly_auto_sidebar] LIKE a lot of listeners, I've long considered Joe Henry to be a smart and vaguely literary songwriter -- smart, more-or-less sensitive, good with words. But I was pleasantly surprised when Joe came out of the closet about his love of poetry, and since it coincided with the release of the powerful, understated record Thrum, I made sure to corner him for an interview in … [Read more...]
Remembering Ursula K. Le Guin
[contextly_auto_sidebar] THERE may be no contemporary writer who's shaped me, and many of the authors of my generation, more than Ursula Le Guin, who died Monday. Even though she was nearing 90, Le Guin is the kind of person who seemed like she would live forever: When I flew up to meet her in Portland a decade ago, she seemed so physically solid and intellectually sharp, she came across like … [Read more...]
Spotify, David Lowery, and the Future of Artists’ Rights
[contextly_auto_sidebar] THE conquest of the music industry by a small number of technology companies has continued on schedule, but there has been some resistance by musicians and their advocates. One of the most stalwart has been Camper van Beethoven leader David Lowery, who led a lawsuit against Spotify for royalties. Much of the push-back from Lowery and fellow travelers like Blake … [Read more...]
Documenting the Athens Music Scene
[contextly_auto_sidebar] ONE of the first things I saw when I moved to Athens, GA, two years ago was a gallery -- okay it was the landing of a rock club, the Georgia Theatre -- devoted to large, beautifully produced photographs by a guy named Jason Thrasher. Plenty of Athens musical heroes -- R.E.M.'s Michael Stipe, for example, and members of the Elephant 6 bands -- were here, as well as … [Read more...]
The Literary Roots of Lou Reed
[contextly_auto_sidebar] Back in the spring, when I pitched the Los Angeles Review of Books on a regular column on musicians and their literary interests, my editor immediately came up with the title All the Poets. The phrase, of course, comes from the Velvet Underground song "Sweet Jane." So it seems somehow symmetrical that the latest installment of this feature is a conversation about Lou … [Read more...]
The Legacy of ’90s Indie Rock
[contextly_auto_sidebar] IF you live long enough and write for a living, there's a pretty good chance you will end up "curating" -- to use the current term - your own youth. That's what happened to me when I tried recently to make sense of where "alternative" or indie rock was 20 years ago today. I see it as a cultural high point, and its making -- as well as unmaking -- remain fascinating … [Read more...]
Classical Music and The Echo Society
[contextly_auto_sidebar] SOMETIMES -- certainly not always -- it makes sense to take a chance and see something you have very little sense of. Because I had the night free and knew/ liked some of the people involved, I went Sunday night to the final concert of a weekend-long chamber-music festival (or something) in Los Angeles's Silverlake Hills. I figured there'd be a cocktail party for a few … [Read more...]
Billy Bragg and the Rebel Power of Skiffle
[contextly_auto_sidebar] Back in the mid-'80s, I was in a Calculus class when a friend I knew mostly from our shared love of punk rock handed me a hand-labelled cassette of a musician I'd never heard. When I got home, I played this selection of songs by Billy Bragg -- A New England, Greetings to the New Brunette, It Says Here -- which reminded me of the Clash in their political force and Dylan … [Read more...]
Patti Smith in All the Poets
[contextly_auto_sidebar] FOR the last few months I've been doing a series on musicians and their interest in literature and writers for the Los Angeles Review of Books. So far, all of these have been strong interviews with artists I love about figures I share an ardor for. In some cases, the conversations have taken me down intellectual alleyways I did not expect to go, which is even better. … [Read more...]
Bryan Ferry, Art, and Roxy Music
[contextly_auto_sidebar] EVEN a decade after their heyday, when I first heard them in the mid-'80s, there was nothing like Roxy Music. The sleek, almost alien sound, with its world-weary vocals, European touches, and deep, if bruised, romanticism, was among the most bracing things a suburban teenager could put on his turntable. It struck me then, and still does, as some of the first and most … [Read more...]