[contextly_auto_sidebar id="Se057gZ16VIuVDe1Pyi79u2wvvTjBc6g"] ON the night of my book's publication -- January 13 -- I will be part of the ALOUD series in downtown Los Angeles. This is one of the best literary series I know -- I've interviewed authors for it and watched from the audience -- so it's a real honor to launch my book there. With me will be the Silver Lake architect Barbara … [Read more...]
Don’t Forget Indies First and Small Business Saturday
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="7mL6F2lbAkJJdYtci9RNPwVHLSs7mqPA"] TODAY, of course, is the start of holiday-shopping season -- which sounds like a euphemism for something -- so I want to remind me readers how important it is to frequent independent, brick-and-mortar shops when you go looking for books and music especially. This year sees both the Indies First campaign -- which urges support of … [Read more...]
Rock Bands and the Road
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="UGGL08WFaVocMMEMVIGcVFFUfCALT1t1"] IF you've followed the debate about the post-label, post-album music world, you've heard the cries of the optimists: Just get in the tourbus! Even digital utopians will concede that revenues from recordings are way down, but they assure us that bands can make up the different by playing shows. It is part of a larger neoliberal … [Read more...]
Ani DiFranco and New Orleans Jazz
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="eOM6zDzXxMJEZEKZ9nBWihWGmDmFugP3"] THE feminist singer-songwriter has been living in the Crescent City for about a decade now, and she works with a group that enlists kids into old-school jazz bands. DiFranco is the latest in my Trust Me On This series I'm handling for Salon. Di Franco told me about her first visit to New Orleans, where she saw the Rebirth Jazz … [Read more...]
Aimee Mann: Roots of a Songwriter
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="5wVQPpeXfr5y5GvZGvwRO9ZOy20krZOV"] DESPITE our relentlessly gloomy attitude about the world of music and the arts, we CultureCrashers are major fans of Aimee Mann. We spoke to the LA-based singer-songwriter about artists who taught her something about songcraft -- Dylan, Elton John, Gilbert O'Sullivan, about her first steps into writing, and the importance of song … [Read more...]
Real Estate (the Band) on Tour
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="wRRw3JLQoSxprdFO5k1TrAn3nktFHxu3"] LAST night I had the pleasure of seeing of my favorite current indie-rock groups play at the Belasco Theater in downtown Los Angeles. They remind me of several bands of past and present -- The Velvet Underground, the Feelies, Luna, the Clientele -- and have these gently transporting guitar harmonies. It will be hard to hear on a … [Read more...]
The Sardonic Muse of Lloyd Cole
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="x7fHoswu5DffP7bQJStvjipFAfVMBxGb"] I HAD the pleasure recently to speak to one of my longtime heroes, the British-born, Massachusetts-dwelling singer-songwriter Lloyd Cole, about Dylan, Why he loves country music, aging as a rock musician, and other topics. The conversation is here. Here's my first question for Lloyd: Let’s start with the new record and then … [Read more...]
“Warhol Films” and Eleanor Friedberger
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="4kKdYZoxCdDYt0tlY8PDmS0mVgEBCQX8"] The Brooklyn Academy of Music will soon host an odd hybrid performance recently put on at UCLA's Royce Hall, Exposed: Songs for Unseen Warhol Films. Curated by my friend Dean Wareham, the show, which included legendary guitarist Tom Verlaine and Bradford Cox of Deerhunter and others, was mixed-to-brilliant, depending on who was … [Read more...]
Slowcore with Bell Gardens
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="9vD3GSedRH3Lhfh77m4o9JwPwkkIwNAN"] A FEW years ago I went to the LA club I still think of as Spaceland to see an indie rock band; I think it was Army Navy. The opening band seemed to have a lot of people, and they opened very slowwwly... but by the end of their set I'd been transported. They're somewhere between Radar Bros and Sigur Ros. That group -- LA's own … [Read more...]
Drummer Brian Blade
[contextly_auto_sidebar id="dpPxWyWkL9K8V1VG4SfF8hwPukC2yYjM"] THE other night I was invited to the Silver Lake home of producer Daniel Lanois, who (best known for his work with Dylan, U2 and Emmylou Harris) has a new record of his own coming. I went partly because of the involvement of Brian Blade, mostly known as a jazz drummer. Blade played with Wayne Shorter's group at Disney Hall … [Read more...]