Watch Yoko Ono Duet With Antony and the Johnsons’ Antony Hegarty; Feel Melancholy [Pitchfork]
Jay Z Finally Discusses The Whole Little Mama Crashing The VMAs Thing…Contrary To Popular Belief, Jay Believes Fighting Mama Not The Solution (C’mon Jay, That’s What You ALWAYS Say) [Prefix]
Stream Little Joy’s Binki Shapiro Singing a Cute Little Lullaby, “Kids Song” – If Only Kids Listened To This Instead of Stuff Like This…Or, To Take Things One Step Further Into Pseudo-Reality, This. [Gorilla vs. Bear]
Stream Los Angeles Dub-Glitch Guy Flying Lotus’s New Song “Satelllliiiiitteeeeeee” – Wandering, Glitchy, and Lovely [Myspace]
Dan Deacon Announces Fall Tour; Promotes It With Ridiculous Cartoon-Character Naming Contest (Just Spotted The Michelin Man) [Pitchfork]
Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon Announces Hiatus For Bon Iver; Luckily, Unmap, The Recent LP From Vernon’s Side Project Volcano Choir Is Haunting, Sprawling, and Provides Vernon in the Meantime [Prefix]
Blur/Gorillaz Frontman Damon Albarn In Running For London Olympics’ Artistic Director (My Guess: Albarn Replaces All Athletes With Cartoon Characters, Who Perform As Avatars of Real Athletes, A La Those Food Races at Basketball Games) [NME]
Ryan Adams Has First Art Gallery Opening At New York’s Morrison Hotel; In Other News, Ryan Adams Doesn’t Seem A Very Talented Artistl; Should Probably Stick To Releasing 30 Albums a Year and Hanging With Elton John [Spin]
compiled by Max Sebela
Ryan Adams To Appear At New York Public Library To Discuss His New Book, HelloSunshine…With Weeds Star Mary Louise Parker; Journalists Confused As To What Weeds Has To Do With Ryan Adams [Brooklyn Vegan]
Stream Chicago’s Smith Westerns New Track “Imagine Pt. 3” (First Impression: It’s Awesome, Sunshiney, Poppy, Optimistic, Bombastic…Did I Say Awesome?) [Gorilla vs. Bear]
Watch New Grizzly Bear Video For Veckatimest Highlight “While You Wait For The Others” (Video Makes No Sense, But May Just Be A Tribute To Underappreciated Fencing); Better Yet, Don’t Waste Your Time And Just Listen To This [Pitchfork]
Weezer Releases Upcoming LP Ratitude’s Cover Art (I’ll Save You A Click: It’s A Picture of a Dog Jumping Really High…and It Says Ratitude. That’s All); Ratitude Released October 27 [Idolator]
Portland Dance-Poppers Starfucker Change Name From Starfucker; Awesome Band Names Get Less Awesome (And I Swear To God, If Anal Cunt Stops Being Anal Cunt, I’ll Scream) [The Tripwire]
French House Duo Daft Punk To Appear In Upcoming DJ Hero Videogame; First Screenshot Here…Which Yet Again Proves My Theory That Daft Punk Are Actually Highly Sophisticated Robots [Spin]
Frank Sinatra Estate Releases “Come Fly With Me” Limited Edition Wine; Meanwhile, Japanese Company Makes Bad Brains Flip Flops (I Favor the Latter As a Superior Tribute) [Prefix]
Seattle Math-Rockers Minus The Bear To Debut New Material At The Gramercy Theater On October 15; New Single “The Mirror” Released October 27 [Brooklyn Vegan]
compiled by Max Sebela
October 19, 2008
Record Review: 29
Hidden Gem:
Ryan Adams
29
2005 | Lost Highway
For better or for worse, or, perhaps more aptly put, for his better or for his worse, Ryan Adams suffers from a case of too much brilliance. For a significant part of his earlier career, including the period during which Love Is Hell, one of the best rock albums of this decade, was begrudgingly released piecemeal by Lost Highway, he was practically blamed rather than lauded for his prodigiousness. Some critics wagged their fingers like disappointed parents at his inveterate instinct to go-go-go, rather than to edit-edit-edit, wrongly labeling such dedication to writing music as art, rather than as product, a self-indulgence that ostensibly stifled his potential.
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