August 20, 2011
Shorties (Emmy The Great, The New Joseph Heller Biography, and more)
At the Paris Review, author Peter Terzian interviews musician Emmy the Great.
The Wall Street Journal reviews Just One Catch: A Biography of Joseph Heller by Tracy Daugherty.
TheraBreath shares great moments in literary bad breath history.
Rock Scenester contains the complete online archive of Rock Scene magazine (published from 1973 to 1982).
The Toronto Globe lists 10 "surefire hit" fall books.
The Washington Post shares a primer for contemporary classical music.
Poynter shares an introduction to comics journalism, in the form of comics journalism.
Salon explores how writers use music playlists to better connect with their characters and readers.
Australia's National Times also features a piece on book soundtracks.
At The Browser, Harold Bloom recommends five books on literary criticism.
Cover Me shares a cover song for every track from Nine Inch Nails' The Downward Spiral album.
The Big Think asks the question, "Is Mad Men the greatest novel of our time?"
On sale for $3.99 at Amazon MP3: Green Day's Insomniac album.
At the Huffington Post, author Lev Grossman lists his favorite cocktails in literature.
The San Francisco Chronicle reviews Grossman's new book, The Magician King.
Amazon MP3
Follow me on Twitter, Google+, and Stumbleupon for links (updated throughout the day) that don't make the daily "Shorties" columns.
also at Largehearted Boy:
previous Shorties posts (news and links from the worlds of music, books, and pop culture)
Atomic Books Comics Preview (the week's best new comics & graphic novels)
daily mp3 downloads
Largehearted Word (the week's best new books)
Try It Before You Buy It (mp3s and full album streams from this week's CD releases)
weekly music & DVD release lists
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August 20, 2011
Daily Downloads (Drive-By Truckers, Ween, and more)
Every day, Daily Downloads offers 10 free and legal mp3 downloads, plus free and legal live sets from around the internet.
Today's free and legal mp3 downloads:
Bloodkin: 2011-08-07, Athens [mp3,ogg,flac]
Bloodkin: "American Country Ghost" [mp3]
search for more Bloodkin posts at Largehearted Boy
Cracker: 2011-08-13, Denver [mp3,ogg,flac]
Cracker: "Good Guys and Bad Guys" [mp3]
search for more Cracker posts at Largehearted Boy
Drive-By Truckers: 2011-08-13, Athens [mp3,ogg,flac]
Drive-By Truckers: "Love Like This" [mp3]
search for more Drive-By Truckers posts at Largehearted Boy
Grace Potter: 2011-08-14, Burlington [mp3,ogg,flac]
Grace Potter: "Free Falling (Tom Petty cover)" [mp3]
search for more Grace Potter posts at Largehearted Boy
Guster: 2011-08-08, New York [mp3,ogg,flac]
Guster: "Young Folks (Peter Bjorn and John cover)" [mp3]
search for more Guster posts at Largehearted Boy
Local H: 2011-07-08, Chicago [mp3,ogg,flac]
Local H: "Creature Comforted" [mp3]
search for more Local H posts at Largehearted Boy
Portugal. The Man: 2011-07-15, Portland [mp3,ogg,flac]
Portugal. The Man: "I'd Rather Go Blind (Etta James cover)" [mp3]
search for more Portugal. The Man posts at Largehearted Boy
Sarah Jarosz: 2010-06-17, Telluride [mp3,ogg,flac]
Sarah Jarosz: "Edge of a Dream" [mp3]
search for more Sarah Jarosz posts at Largehearted Boy
Smashing Pumpkins: 2000-04-25, New York [mp3,ogg,flac]
Smashing Pumpkins: "Zero" [mp3]
search for more Smashing Pumpkins posts at Largehearted Boy
Ween: 2003-07-25, Pittsburgh [mp3,ogg,flac]
Ween: "Take Me Away" [mp3]
search for more Ween posts at Largehearted Boy
Free and legal mp3s of live performances at other websites:
Fresh Millions: Daytrotter session [mp3]
search for more Fresh Millions posts at Largehearted Boy
also at Largehearted Boy:
other daily free and legal mp3 downloads
Try It Before You Buy It (mp3s and album streams from weekly CD releases)
weekly CD and DVD release lists
Posted by david | Permalink | Comments (View)
August 19, 2011
Book Notes - Lev Grossman ("The Magician King")
In the Book Notes series, authors create and discuss a music playlist that relates in some way to their recently published book.
The Magician King is the rare sequel I enjoyed as much as its predecessor, which says a lot, because I loved The Magicians.
I called The Magicians a "modern day fantasy coming of age classic," and feel the same way about The Magician King. Grossman continues to expertly deconstruct and reimagine fantasy literature, and has me already anticipating the third book in the series.
The Chicago Sun-Times wrote of the book:
"Grossman’s heroes are complicated and tremendously appealing. By writing such strong characters so well, The Magician King squares up to a few questions at the very root of our modern condition: Who are we? How much is enough? Are we our choices or our outcomes? And, if I finally get all that I have dreamed of, then will I be happy?"
Stream a Spotify playlist of these tunes. If you don't have Spotify yet, request an invitation.
In his own words, here is Lev Grossman's Book Notes music playlist for his debut novel, The Magician King:
Originally the point of this playlist was to make me look cool by telling you about all the cool music I listened to while I wrote The Magician King. Unfortunately that will not be possible because now that I look at it the music I listened to while I wrote The Magician King was totally uncool. I mean it was really kind of odd. My next impulse – obviously – was to lie about what I'd listened to, but honestly at this point I don't even know what a cool lie would be. So I've fallen back on the truth, and God help us all.
1. "Oh No You Didn't," or, The Mercenaries 2 Song, by the Wojahn Brothers
Oh yes I did! I did write my novel to an advertising jingle for a video game! Look, you take your pleasures where you find them. A novelist can't afford to lie to himself, let alone his readers, about what gets him hot, so let's just get it out there: I fucking love the theme song to Mercenaries 2, so much so that I bought the full version of it off of iTunes, and it's entirely listenable-to despite that painfully weak white-boy rap bridge that comes in toward the end. Whatever its crude, capitalistic origins, it is an admirable display of pure cold-forged anger and bitterness. Obviously this says nothing about my personality or the general tone of my emotional life.
2. Mitch Benn, "Dr. Who Girl"
When I was a kid, every night for what seems like -- and may have been -- years, I went down to my father's book-lined study after dinner and watched a half hour of Tom Baker-era Dr. Who. I think Mitch Benn must have done something similar. This is a paean to the rotating cast of ridiculously hot nerd-girls who served as the good doctor's assistants over the years. It's no less moving for the way it picks up on the show's faint whiff of condescension and even sadism -- "I'll do all the thinking/You'll look good in shorts and scream." It's best listened to while watching one of several montages from the show that have been put up on YouTube. (This item is dedicated to the late great Elisabeth Sladen, a.k.a. Sarah Jane Smith, 1946-2011, whom I was in love with when I was 10.)
3. "Love My Way," by the Psychedelic Furs
I sort of want to be the Psychedelic Furs. Not any particular Fur, you understand: I want to be all of them at once. How do you make it big in 1982, when this song came out, the height of New Wave ridiculousness, and still be that cool? Dude is in the back there playing xylophone for the whole song, like he's in the 6th grade talent show, and he's cold as ice about it, like he's fucking James Bond back there playing the xylophone. This is about as perfect a pop song as you'll find anywhere, even though I have no idea what it's about. I imagine it as the kind of song a Thought Policeman in Orwell's 1984 might sing to his girlfriend – cruel and sad but also somehow heartfelt.
4. Bolero, by Maurice Ravel
This is basically the worst idea for a piece of music ever: one single theme repeated over and over again by different orchestral instruments over a rattling snare drum and some random pizzing from the strings. But weirdly -- I don't even understand why – the Bolero theme has the property that it gets more interesting the more times you hear it rather than less so. It's one of those melodies that's so obviously perfect you can't understand how one human being could have come up with it -- it's sounds like the product of a 1000-year-old folk tradition (I imagine Ravel doing what Paul McCartney did after he wrote "Yesterday" – he went around asking everybody if they'd heard the melody before, because he could swear he'd stolen it from somewhere). It's great to write to because it doesn't have any words, which are always distracting, and it whips you up into an intensely excited state in which you feel like a genius even when you aren't one.
5. "Up the Wolves," the Mountain Goats
Allow me to lay some heavy shit on you: this song is sung (I'm pretty sure) from the point of view Romulus and Remus, mythic twin founders of Rome, who were raised by a she-wolf (after they were abandoned by their real mom because of their evil uncle and blah blah blah … ). It starts out gorgeous and hopeful – rarely has John Darnielle's high, reedy voice sounded as full and musical as it does on this track. But as the chorus repeats – "Our mother has been absent/Ever since we founded Rome/But there's gonna be a party when the wolf comes home" – you realize that all the brothers want is for their mom to come and look at what they've done and tell them how great it is. But she never will, because she's a wolf and she's off chasing rabbits or whatever.
6. "You Don't Have to Be a Prostitute," by Flight of the Conchords
Yeah, I know, I know, it's a novelty song. Obviously, it's a parody of that Police song about the chick who doesn't have to be a prostitute anymore, what's her name, Roxanne. And yet I find it weirdly moving, so much so that I put it in heavy rotation while I wrote The Magician King. Because it's actually a great song. When Brett calls to Jemaine, sonorously, "Do you have any other skills? Like typing?" I swear the longing in his voice is almost palpable. And that steel drum solo at the end, gamely mimed in the video by Eugene Mirman (who went to my high school!), that shit is plangent.
7. "A Lot Like Me," by Schaffer the Darklord
I am a heavy user of nerdcore hip-hop, which is rap by nerds about nerdy things like computer games and Star Wars and Dungeons & Dragons and whatever else. Schaffer the Darklord (or just STD) is an underrated practitioner of the art: I don't hear as much about him as I do about MC Frontalot and mc chris and MC Lars, great artists whose equal he definitely is. "A Lot Like Me" is a definitive STD track: profane, hyperverbal, densely referential lyrics spat out bitterly, like that first mouthful of siphoned gasoline, over a heavy head-nodding beat: "I got no time to be a rhyme-writin' tightwad/After I already blew your mind thrice on your iPod…" Thrice, mind you. If you've read this far, then STD is right: you are a lot like him.
8. "Do You Swear to Tell the Truth, the Whole Truth, and Nothing But The Truth So Help Your Black Ass," by Amanda Palmer
Amanda Palmer used to be (and for all I know still might be) in a band called the Dresden Dolls, who do a song called "My Alcoholic Friends," which the first time I heard it (it was outside Minneapolis, Minn., on a book tour) I had to pull over to the side of the road to give it all my attention. (This has only happened to me once before; the other song was "Here's Where the Story Ends" by the Sundays.) My taste in music runs to anthems, and this is one: just Palmer's pretty, plain-Jane voice (which can belt when it wants to, don't be fooled) over piano, acoustic guitar and trombone, slinging lyrics of head-snapping frankness ("when I was 17/I was a blowjob queen"). Whenever you find yourself feeling unnecessarily unhappy, sing along with Amanda: "I've already spent too much time/Doing things I didn't want to." You can stop. She says it's OK. In conclusion: Amanda Palmer, like Eugene Mirman, also went to my high school.
9. "Help I'm Alive," by Metric
The scene is Comic-Con, 2010, the first screening of Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. Great movie. I left right after the screening not realizing that Metric, who did a song for the movie, and who were about to become my new favorite band, were waiting behind the curtain and did an actual live set right there in the theater. Instead I went to a crap party. Then later I downloaded their album Fantasies and listened to it nonstop for the rest of the year; if you sort my iTunes library by ‘most played,' five of the top 10 songs are currently Metric songs. "Help I'm Alive" is the one that hooked me: an anthemic number that runs off the terawatts of power generated by Emily Haines' clear, liquid, girlish vocals. When she sings "they're gonna eat me alllive," she enjoys that long round "l" so much, you wonder if -- maybe a little bit -- she really wants them to eat her alive…
10. "I Wanna Be a Magician," by Parry Gripp
OK, this is a bit a of a cheat, but bear with me. I didn't listen to this song while I wrote The Magician King, but this song exists because I wrote The Magician King. If you happened to read the last playlist I wrote for this blog, you'll know what a hardcore fan I am of Parry Gripp, frontman of Nerf Herder, the definitive nerdcore power-pop band of all time. Well, when the new book was almost done I e-mailed it to Parry and asked him if he'd consider writing a theme song for it. Amazingly, he agreed, and a couple of months later this came flooding out of my speakers: one minute fifty seconds of pure musical felix felicis. It opens with a classic Hogwarts-style solo celesta, then builds to crashing guitar chords, with Gripp's elastic tenor bounding along over them. You can't know what it means to me to hear this guy, whose work has given me literally hundreds of hours of pleasure and solace, singing about the Chatwins and the Questing Beast. Listen to how he lets his voice break in the last verse: "You can keep/New York City/'Cause there's nothing here for me." I hear you man. See you in Fillory.
Lev Grossman and The Magician King links:
the author's website
the author's blog
the book's website
the author's Wikipedia entry
A.V. Club review
Barnes and Noble Review review
Boing Boing review
Boston Globe review
Chicago Sun-Times review
Full Stop review
The Hipster Book Club review
Kirkus Reviews review
Marie Claire review
Miami Herald review
NPR review
The Ranting Dragon review
Seattle Times review
SF Signal review
Vol. 1 Brooklyn review
Washington Post review
West End Word review
The Brooklyn Paper profile of the author
CNN interview with the author
Daily Beast profile of the author
Largehearted Boy Book Notes essay by the author for The Magicians
Riverfront Times interview with the author
Speakeasy profile of the author
also at Largehearted Boy:
other Book Notes playlists (authors create music playlists for their book)
52 Books, 52 Weeks (weekly book reviews)
Antiheroines (interviews with up and coming female comics artists)
Atomic Books Comics Preview (weekly comics highlights)
Daily Downloads (free and legal daily mp3 downloads)
guest book reviews
Largehearted Word (weekly new book highlights)
musician/author interviews
Note Books (musicians discuss literature)
Shorties (daily music, literature, and pop culture links)
Soundtracked (composers and directors discuss their film's soundtracks)
Try It Before You Buy It (mp3s and full album streams from the week's CD releases)
weekly music & DVD release lists
Posted by david | Permalink | Comments (View)
Book Notes - Kevin Wilson ("The Family Fang")
In the Book Notes series, authors create and discuss a music playlist that relates in some way to their recently published book.
Kevin Wilson's debut novel is unique, compelling, and bizarre. The Fangs might be the year's quirkiest literary family, and Wilson's writing skills are all on show as he moves the story from their odd lives to darker spaces.
The Chicago Tribune wrote of the book:
"What could devolve into little more than slapstick becomes, in Wilson's skilled hands and, let's face it, somewhat strange imagination, a rich and textured read. He brings us to the brink of absurdity, then turns on a dime and delivers a deeper, darker novel."
Stream a Spotify playlist of these tunes. If you don't have Spotify yet, request an invitation.
In his own words, here is Kevin Wilson's Book Notes music playlist for his debut novel, The Family Fang:
In my novel, The Family Fang, the elder Fangs are performance artists who seek to create chaos and unleash it upon unsuspecting people; they use their two children, Annie and Buster, as props in their performances. They believe that nearly every other form of art is worthless and dead. They hate all forms of art other than their own, with one exception: weird music. They love, love, love punk and no wave and esoteric, noisy music. They find it conducive to creating chaos. There are a few songs mentioned in the novel and then there were songs that I listened to in writing the book to help me get a little closer to the Fang family. Here they are:
"Contort Yourself" by James Chance and the Contortions
This is a song that the entire Fang family listens to before going out to cause mayhem. I first found this song from an album I believe that I bought at The Great Escape in Nashville, TN, when I was a teenager. I was listening almost exclusively to Tevin Campbell albums and pop songs on the radio in junior high, and this album kind of wrecked me. It was the first song I thought of when I started imagining the Fang family.
"31 VII 69 10:26 – 10:49 PM" by La Monte Young
This is a song that the elder Fangs listen to at one point in the novel while Buster hides in his room and tries to convince his sister to come visit him. I found this song on the internet when I was in grad school and it seemed like something used to communicate with aliens. It was so beautiful and bizarre.
"Six Pack" by Black Flag
I saw the writer Amy Fusselman perform this song as a lullaby when she read in Cambridge, MA in 2000 or 2001. It was wonderful and transformed the urgency of the song into something hypnotic and sleep inducing. I imagined this would be the kind of lullaby the Fangs would sing to their children.
"Ain't Got No Sense" by Teenage Head
This got cut from the novel, but there was a scene when Annie and Buster, now grownups, listen to this song and jump around the living room. I first heard Screeching Weasel's version of this song when I was in high school and then managed to find a copy of the Teenage Head song through a mail order catalog for more money than I really should have been spending as a teenager.
"The Third Man Theme" by Anton Karas
Annie and Buster watch this movie and then Annie later whistles this song. The Third Man is one of my favorite movies of all time and the strange music made by Anton Karas and his zither was unlike anything I'd ever heard, especially for a movie score.
And these are the songs I listened to most frequently when writing the book:
"Bicycle, Bicycle, You Are My Bicycle" by Be Your Own Pet
This is one of my favorite songs of all time and I listened to it nonstop when I was writing the book. It seemed like a modern version of what the Fang family would have listened to in their early years. Jamin Orrall, who was the lead singer for Be Your Own Pet, would be the daughter the Fangs wished they'd had.
"Rites of Death" by Antestor
For writing, sometimes I want something hypnotic so that it fades into the background and other times I want something jangly and strange to make the writing weird, and then sometimes I just want to listen to black metal and let the propulsive nature of the music push me through the pages. I kind of wish I'd made the entire Fang family fans of black metal.
"Relief" by Sam Amidon
I heard Sam Amidon perform this song live at Joe's Pub in New York City and I thought the way he interpreted this R Kelly song was incredibly joyful and beautiful and perfect. During the revision process of the novel, I listened to this song, on a loop, for hours and hours at a time. I felt like I was in a trance.
"Hayride" by The Saturday Morning Cartoon Show
My parents owned this 7" and it was one of the first songs that I truly loved. It is still my favorite song. I found an mp3 version at some point and I listen to it a lot when my writing isn't going so well. It's such a bizarre song. It opens with a kazoo-like cacophony and then, despite the fact that the band's name is The Saturday Morning Cartoon Show, is about nothing but the lead singer trying to coax someone to go on a hayride with him and have sex…during the hayride. As if this will help the listener make up their mind, he says that "my momma said you would love it," referring to the hayride, I am hoping. It's a basic bubblegum pop song, but the weirdness of it, wrapped in the unthreatening music, is just amazing.
Kevin Wilson and The Family Fang links:
the author's website
the author's blog
Booking Mama review
Bookish review
Chicago Tribune review
Cleveland Plain Dealer review
Dallas Morning News review
Entertainment Weekly review
Fresh Air review
Kirkus Reviews review
New York Times review
Publishers Weekly review
Wall Street Journal review
Washington Post review
Author Talk interview with the author
Book Talk interview with the author
New York Times profile of the author
Nooga.com profile of the author
Pittsburgh Tribune-review profile of the author
The Shelf Life profile of the author
Speakeasy interview with the author
Talking with Tim interview with the author
Wild River Review interview with the author
also at Largehearted Boy:
other Book Notes playlists (authors create music playlists for their book)
52 Books, 52 Weeks (weekly book reviews)
Antiheroines (interviews with up and coming female comics artists)
Atomic Books Comics Preview (weekly comics highlights)
Daily Downloads (free and legal daily mp3 downloads)
guest book reviews
Largehearted Word (weekly new book highlights)
musician/author interviews
Note Books (musicians discuss literature)
Shorties (daily music, literature, and pop culture links)
Soundtracked (composers and directors discuss their film's soundtracks)
Try It Before You Buy It (mp3s and full album streams from the week's CD releases)
weekly music & DVD release lists
Posted by david | Permalink | Comments (View)
Shorties (Death Cab for Cutie, Bill Plympton, and more)
West Coast Sound offers a bluffer's guide to the discography of Death Cab for Cutie.
Salon interviews cartoonist Bill Plympton.
Flavorwire recommends 10 specialist blogs music nerds need to bookmark.
io9 lists 10 science fiction books that changed history.
The Independent examines the growing relationship between musicians and corporate funding.
NPR recommends five "heady, not heavy" playful summer books.
The Record examines how major labels marketed electronica to American audiences.
NHPR interviews Vanessa Veselka about her debut novel, Zazen.
At NPR Music, Other Lives plays a Tiny Desk Concert.
At The Rumpus, Roxane Gay eloquently reviews The Help (both the book and film).
The Atlantic lists 24 songs that prematurely expanded our vocabularies.
Granta interviews author Hari Kunzru.
Cover Me shares five good cover versions of The Band's "The Weight."
The authors of Hipster Puppies are giving away a limited edition compilation cassette with their book at select outlets.
iTunes features 22 "indie spotlight songs" on sale for 69 cents each.
At Kickstarter, help fund Souls of Toys, a photography book spotlighting 80s toys by Jeremy Schultz.
Amazon MP3
Follow me on Twitter, Google+, and Stumbleupon for links (updated throughout the day) that don't make the daily "Shorties" columns.
also at Largehearted Boy:
previous Shorties posts (news and links from the worlds of music, books, and pop culture)
Atomic Books Comics Preview (the week's best new comics & graphic novels)
daily mp3 downloads
Largehearted Word (the week's best new books)
Try It Before You Buy It (mp3s and full album streams from this week's CD releases)
weekly music & DVD release lists
Posted by david | Permalink | Comments (View)
Daily Downloads (Kathryn Calder, Cass McCombs, and more)
Every day, Daily Downloads offers 10 free and legal mp3 downloads, plus free and legal live sets from around the internet.
Today's free and legal mp3 downloads:
Banded Stilts: "Forest, Oh Forest Protect Me" [mp3] from By the Back Stair
search for more Banded Stilts posts at Largehearted Boy
Cass McCombs: "The Same Thing" [mp3] (registration required) from Humor Risk (out November 8th)
search for more Cass McCombs posts at Largehearted Boy
The Cave Singers: "Black Leaf" [mp3] from No Witch
search for more Cave Singers posts at Largehearted Boy
Chris Letcher: "Phone Booth" [mp3] from Spectroscope (out September 20th)
search for more Chris Letcher posts at Largehearted Boy
Guadalupe Plata: free and legal (name your price) Guadalupe Plata album [mp3]
Guadalupe Plata: "Pollo Podrio" [mp3]
search for more Guadalupe Plata posts at Largehearted Boy
Kathryn Calder: "Who Are You?" [mp3] from Bright and Vivid (out September 13th)
search for more Kathryn Calder posts at Largehearted Boy
Mwahaha: "Rainbow Diamond" [mp3] from Mwahaha (out December 6th)
search for more Mwahaha posts at Largehearted Boy
Radical Face: free and legal The Bastards: Volume One EP [mp3] (registration required)
search for more Radical Face posts at Largehearted Boy
T.W. Walsh: "Make It Rhyme" [mp3] from Songs of Pain and Leisure (out October 11th)
search for more T.W. Walsh posts at Largehearted Boy
Talkdemonic: "Revival" [mp3] from Ruins (out October 4th)
search for more Talkdemonic posts at Largehearted Boy
Free and legal mp3s of live performances at other websites:
Disappears: Daytrotter session [mp3]
search for more Disappears posts at Largehearted Boy
Grouplove: Daytrotter session [mp3]
search for more Grouplove posts at Largehearted Boy
The Wilderness of Manitoba: HearYa session [mp3]
search for more Wilderness of Manitoba posts at Largehearted Boy
also at Largehearted Boy:
other daily free and legal mp3 downloads
Try It Before You Buy It (mp3s and album streams from weekly CD releases)
weekly CD and DVD release lists
Posted by david | Permalink | Comments (View)
August 18, 2011
Book Notes - Ernest Cline ("Ready Player One")
In the Book Notes series, authors create and discuss a music playlist that relates in some way to their recently published book.
Ernest Cline's debut novel Ready Player One is possibly the most fun book I have read all year. Cline skillfully weaves a plethora of 1980s pop culture references into this fast-paced and wonderfully geeky dystopian coming of age story set thirty years in the future.
Entertainment Weekly wrote of the book:
"If the many pop references don't mean anything to you, then Ready Player One probably won't either. But give Cline credit for crafting a fresh and imaginative world from our old toy box, and finding significance in there among the collectibles. To use a reference Parzival might appreciate: Cline strikes the nerves of nerd culture as expertly as Andy played that skeleton organ in The Goonies."
Stream a Spotify playlist of these tunes. If you don't have Spotify yet, request an invitation.
In his own words, here is Ernest Cline's Book Notes music playlist for his debut novel, Ready Player One:
"Dead Man's Party" – Oingo Boingo
Ready Player One is packed with references to music and musicians, and several songs play a key role in the story. The first of these is Dead Man's Party, the song billionaire game designer James Halliday uses as the soundtrack to a video message that will serve as his last will and testament.
Halliday would have chosen this song for several reasons. He harbored a lifelong obsession with the 1980s, the decade during which he'd been a teenager, and Oingo Boingo was one of the great bands of the 1980s. "Dead Man's Party" was one of the group's biggest hits, and the band also performed the song in the classic 80s film Back to School, a movie Halliday probably watched countless times. And the song's title and ominous lyrics set the perfect mood for someone recording a video meant to be watched after his death, with lines like "All dressed up with nowhere to go, walking with a dead man over my shoulder" and "Waiting for an invitation to arrive, goin' to a party where no one's still alive."
If I'd had an unlimited budget for Ready Player One's book trailer, "Dead Man's Party" would have been my first choice for the soundtrack. Fingers crossed we can get it on the movie soundtrack.
"Verb" – Schoolhouse Rock
The hero of my story, Wade Watts, gets the lyrics to this song stuck in his head while he's sitting in his Latin class, listening to his teach conjugate Latin verbs.
Wade knows these lyrics because he's spent the past five years studying all of James Halliday's favorite books, movies, video games, and music, in the hopes that this knowledge will help him unlock the puzzles Halliday left behind. Knowing the right song lyric at the right time could change his life.
If it weren't for Schoolhouse Rock, many members of my generation (including yours truly) might not have retained any of the fundamental history, grammar, science, and math knowledge we acquired in grade school. All of those boring classroom lessons have long since faded from memory, but every line of every Schoolhouse Rock lyric is still fresh in my memory and ready for instant recall. Why aren't they still airing them?
"Invincible" - Pat Benatar
Ready Player One takes place partly in a virtual world, and Art3mis, the book's main female character, has named her virtual stronghold Benatar, after her favorite 80s female vocalist. Like Joan Jett, Pat Benatar was one of my hallowed 80's Rock Goddesses. She wrote kick-ass girl anthems that empowered a whole generation of girls who'd been raised on My Little Pony and showed them that a woman could rock out just as hard as anyone else.
Ladyhawke film score – The Alan Parsons Project
In the opening chapters of the book, my hero Wade has a heated argument with his best friend about the merits of the 1985 film Ladyhawke. Wade is a fan, but his friend thinks the flick is crap, and he cites this synthesizer-laden soundtrack as one of the main reasons.
For the record, I love Ladyhawke, and I also love the way the bizarre prog-rock score firmly cements it as an 80s film. Apparently, Richard Donner was listening to the Alan Parsons Project while scouting locations for the movie, and decided that it was the perfect music for his fantasy epic. (If I were him, I think I would have hired Basil Poledouris instead.)
"James Brown is Dead" – LA Style
I used to have this bootleg video tape called Martial Arts Mayhem. It was nothing but two hours of Jackie Chan fight scenes set to techno music, and it was beyond awesome. One of the most amazing fights on the tape was between Jackie and the great Benny Urquidez, and it was set to this song. It was the best fight scene music I'd ever heard – right up there with "Eye of the Tiger."
Ever since first seeing that tape, I've wanted to use that song as the soundtrack to a fight scene in a movie. Instead, I ended up using it as the 'soundtrack' for a fight scene in my book (the fight takes place within a dance club, and I describe the song playing in the background as the action takes place). I recommend playing the song when you read that scene.
"Don't Let's Start" - They Might Be Giants
Like every respectable 80s geek, I was a devoted They Might Be Giants fan, and ran up many employers' phone bills by calling the band's Dial-A-Song service from work. For a group with such an upbeat sound, TMBG has some extremely haunting lyrics, and Wade uses one of my favorite lines from their songs as his log-in password: "No one in the world ever gets what they want and that is beautiful."
"Subdivisions" - Rush
Back in the 80's, Rush was the quintessential band for outcast geeks like me, and their song Subdivisions was one of the anthems of my youth. It's all about being an isolated kid in the suburbs. Check out these lyrics:
Any escape might help to smooth
the unattractive truth
But the suburbs have no charms to soothe
the restless dreams of youth
Just when I thought I couldn't love this song any more, I saw the video on MTV, which featured a kid who looked just like I did back then, wandering the halls of his high school and escaping into a game of Tempest at his local arcade.
That music video is mentioned in my book because it might contain one of the crucial clues Wade needs to complete his quest. Or maybe the only reason it's mentioned is because it's an awesome song. You'll have to read the book to find out.
Ernest Cline and Ready Player One links:
the author's website
the author's Wikipedia entry
the book's website
excerpt from the book
video trailer for the book
Book Checked review
Boston Globe review
Entertainment Weekly review
Geek.com review
Geekdad review
io9 review
Jefferson Stolarship review
Kirkus Reviews review
Literary Musings review
Medieval Bookworm review
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel review
My Bookish Ways review
New York Times review
Publishers Weekly review
Reading on a Rainy Day review
Austin Chronicle profile of the author
Boing Boing interview with the author
Geekdad interview with the author
Goodreads guest post by the author
Huffington Post interview with the author
Number One Novels interview with the author
Whatever guest post by the author
also at Largehearted Boy:
other Book Notes playlists (authors create music playlists for their book)
52 Books, 52 Weeks (weekly book reviews)
Antiheroines (interviews with up and coming female comics artists)
Atomic Books Comics Preview (weekly comics highlights)
Daily Downloads (free and legal daily mp3 downloads)
guest book reviews
Largehearted Word (weekly new book highlights)
musician/author interviews
Note Books (musicians discuss literature)
Shorties (daily music, literature, and pop culture links)
Soundtracked (composers and directors discuss their film's soundtracks)
Try It Before You Buy It (mp3s and full album streams from the week's CD releases)
weekly music & DVD release lists
Posted by david | Permalink | Comments (View)
Book Notes - Richard C. Morais ("The Hundred-Foot Journey")
In the Book Notes series, authors create and discuss a music playlist that relates in some way to their recently published book.
Richard C. Morais' debut novel The Hundred-Foot Journey is a captivating tale of family, food, and culture clash. Filled with vivid characters and culinary references, this book will appeal to both foodies and literary fiction lovers.
Booklist wrote of the book:
"The novel floats along a bounty of vivid food imagery, a twisty-turny river of dishes Indian, French, and everything in between. With an obvious insider's knowledge of the restaurant milieu, well-published journalist Morais delivers a world where Michelin stars determine not only the popular appeal of a restaurant but also the happiness and self-worth of its executive chef. This novel, of mythic proportions yet told with truly heartfelt realism, is a stunning tribute to the devotion of family and food, in that order."
Stream a Spotify playlist of these tunes. If you don't have Spotify yet, request an invitation.
In his own words, here is Richard C. Morais' Book Notes music playlist for his debut novel, The Hundred-Foot Journey:
My novel, The Hundred-Foot Journey, is about a lowly but gifted Muslim-Indian chef who has the culinary equivalent of "perfect pitch." This talent propels Hassan Haji and his raucous family on a road trip that takes the reader to Mumbai, London, a French alpine village called Lumière, and finally, of course, Paris, where Hassan conquers the elite and insular world of French haute cuisine. The novel is ideal for armchair travelers who want to disappear in a world of delicious food, beautiful scenery, and eccentric characters.
Like a lot of novelists, I listen to music while I am writing. The music in the background subliminally contributes to the "mood" I am trying to create on paper and helps bring to the surface emotions that I want to resonate in the work. It's strange. I am utterly lacking in musical talent, but the moment a raspy-voiced cantaor starts wailing in a flamenco classic, I'm reduced to an emotional puddle on the floor. Not sure why. My long-suffering wife and daughter will tell you it's seriously embarrassing to be around.
So here are some music choices that do it for me and I strongly associate with writing The Hundred-Foot Journey.
"Case Of You" by Joni Mitchell
Anthony Bourdain claims my novel has "the lushest, most high-test food porn since Zola." Very flattering, of course, but I created the lush descriptions by imbuing the culinary ingredients in the pan with the human relationships and emotions around the stove. That's why I love Joni Mitchell's "Case Of You". She so perfectly captures the "hunger" for human contact – that ache to "drink a case of you" – that to me is at the heart of all great culinary writing. It's not just the food or drink – it's whom you share it with that makes for a truly memorable meal.
"Aaj Ek Harf", title track from the Merchant Ivory Productions film, In Custody
The late filmmaker, Ismail Merchant, was a superb cook and a friend. At the Bombay Brasserie in London one evening, after he showed me the beautiful film he made of Anita Desai's In Custody, I urged Ismail to find a literary property that would marry his love of food with his love of filmmaking. Unable to find exactly what I was looking for, I sat down to write The Hundred-Foot Journey, which was a problem, since I had never actually been to India. So I constantly listened to the "In Custody" soundtrack as I wrote the book, to get the "feel" and "rhythm" of India before I actually visited. That's also how I discovered the wonderful Hariharan, Kavita Krishnamurthy, and Zakir Hussain. I was so impressed by their musicality I gave them cameos in my little book.
"Sweet Dreams (are made of this)" by the Eurythmics
After a tragedy, the eccentric Haji family leaves Mumbai and moves to London. In one scene, displaced Hassan and his older brother cheer themselves up by visiting London's lively Camden markets; music by the Eurythmics and the Clash blares from the shops as they pass by. Those musical choices are loaded with personal meaning. We were stationed in London for 18 years, when I was Forbes magazine's European Bureau Chief, and our daughter was born there. I in particular associate Annie Lennox's haunting voice with that happy time in our life, when I started writing my novel, partly because our daughters became close friends.
"La Vie En Rose" by Madeleine Peyroux
After London, the Haji family moves to France, settling in a small village in the French Alps. Nothing captures earthy France quite like a weepy from Edith Piaf, but that canard has been cooked to death many times before. Happily, I recently discovered this fine version of "La Vie En Rose by the talented American jazz singer, Madeleine Peyroux. She can veer in a single beat from Edith Piaf to Bill Holliday.
"Inspiration" by the Gypsy Kings
The Gypsy Kings embody the cultural message of my book. The group's relatives were Spanish gypsies who fled Spain during the Civil War and settled in France. Gypsy music and flamenco is at heart the cry of the underdog, and whenever I hear a good Spanish guitar and the vocal suffering of an authentic cantaor, I am moved to write and write. The fiery talent and passion of the Gypsy Kings – outsiders in France, who still "made it" – to me personify in real life Hassan Haji's fictional culinary journey.
"I Just Don't Think I Will Ever Get Over You" by Colin Hay
Hay's opening line – "I drink good coffee every morning" – leads to this incredibly sad yearning for his great love – "even after all these years" – and it just blows me away. It makes me think of my own morning coffee alongside my wife of 28 years, and how much I will miss her the day we are forced to part ways in this life. The sentiment captured in this song is similar to Joni Mitchell's "Case Of You" – the libation the narrator is drinking is redolent with the memory of his love. It's Proust's madeleine cake put to music.
"The Pearl Fishers" duet sung by Jussi Björling and Robert Merrill
Madame Mallory is a principle character of my novel. She is an imperious French chef who wants to destroy Hassan – once she realizes his talent is superior to her own – until life itself forces her to have a change in heart. But it is Madame Mallory's unassuming right hand, Monsieur Leblanc, who is the real hero – he is a very kind and devoted friend, and in many ways Madame Mallory's conscience. No song captures friendship better than Georges Bizet's moving duet, as sung by Björling and Merrill.
"Let It Be Me" by Ray LaMontagne
I'm a big fan of LaMontagne's smoky voice. The lyrics and tone of "Let It Be Me" perfectly capture what Hassan and all people trying to find their calling in life have to go through at times, when "nothing turns out right" and it's hard to "find your place." The answer in both his song and in my book is the same – human contact.
Of course, a good book and fine music help a lot, too.
Richard C. Morais and The Hundred-Foot Journey links:
the author's website
excerpt from the book
excerpt from the book
Barnes and Noble Review review
BookSexy review
Booktopia Blog review
The Captive Reader review
A Common Reader review
Devourer of Books review
Eye Weekly review
National Public Radio review
New York Times review
Philadelphia Inquirer review
Rundpinne review
Time Out Melbourne review
Booktopia Blog interview with the author
also at Largehearted Boy:
other Book Notes playlists (authors create music playlists for their book)
52 Books, 52 Weeks (weekly book reviews)
Antiheroines (interviews with up and coming female comics artists)
Atomic Books Comics Preview (weekly comics highlights)
Daily Downloads (free and legal daily mp3 downloads)
guest book reviews
Largehearted Word (weekly new book highlights)
musician/author interviews
Note Books (musicians discuss literature)
Shorties (daily music, literature, and pop culture links)
Soundtracked (composers and directors discuss their film's soundtracks)
Try It Before You Buy It (mp3s and full album streams from the week's CD releases)
weekly music & DVD release lists
Posted by david | Permalink | Comments (View)
Shorties (Google Music's MP3 Blog, Anticipated Fall Books, and more)
Magnifier is Google Music's blog, with a variety of free song downloads.
The Book Case lists the 25 most anticipated books for fall.
Bookworm interviews cartoonist Art Spiegelman.
Minnesota Public Radio interviews Lev Grossman about his new novel, The Magician King.
Arty Semite shares four poems by Girls in Troubles' Alicia Jo Rabins.
Impose reports that HBO has optioned Chad Harbach's novel The Art of Fielding for a television series.
Girl Talk's Gregg Gillis talks to the Georgia Straight.
Flavorwire recommends 10 great movies for book lovers.
The Guardian lists the top 10 literary soccer fictions.
On sale at Amazon MP3: Eleanor Friedberger's Last Summer album.
NPR reviews and excerpts from Julia Salamon's new book Wendy and the Lost Boys: The Uncommon Life of Wendy Wasserstein.
NPR recommends three "travel log" books for your summer staycation.
Amazon MP3
Follow me on Twitter, Google+, and Stumbleupon for links (updated throughout the day) that don't make the daily "Shorties" columns.
also at Largehearted Boy:
previous Shorties posts (news and links from the worlds of music, books, and pop culture)
Atomic Books Comics Preview (the week's best new comics & graphic novels)
daily mp3 downloads
Largehearted Word (the week's best new books)
Try It Before You Buy It (mp3s and full album streams from this week's CD releases)
weekly music & DVD release lists
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Daily Downloads (Marmoset, Woodsman, and more)
Every day, Daily Downloads offers 10 free and legal mp3 downloads, plus free and legal live sets from around the internet.
Joyful Noise Recordings is celebrating the 10th anniversary of Marmoset's Record In Red album by releasing a 4-LP box set of the band's four albums, complete with an instant download of the band's discography (in FLAC and MP# formats), a 40 page booklet, and four digital EPs of outtakes from each album.
Today's free and legal mp3 downloads:
Appetite: "Warn Me Right" [mp3] from Scattered Smothered Covered
search for more Appetite posts at Largehearted Boy
Canyon Hands: free and legal (name your price) Their Copy Hearts Beat at Their Chests EP [mp3] (inspired by Blake Butler's novel There Is No Year)
search for more Canyon Hands posts at Largehearted Boy
The Caseworker: "National Runner" [mp3] from Letters From The Coast (out September 22nd)
search for more Caseworker posts at Largehearted Boy
Marmoset: "Peace in the Valley" [mp3] from Limited Edition Marmoset LP Box Set (out September 13th)
Marmoset: "Winter" [mp3] from Limited Edition Marmoset LP Box Set (out September 13th)
Marmoset: "Missing Man" [mp3] from Limited Edition Marmoset LP Box Set (out September 13th)
Marmoset: "Peach Cobbler" [mp3] from Limited Edition Marmoset LP Box Set (out September 13th)
search for more Marmoset posts at Largehearted Boy
Prussia: free and legal (name your price) Poor English, Pt. 1 EP [mp3]
search for more Prussia posts at Largehearted Boy
Soley: "I'll Drown" [mp3] from We Sink (out September 2nd)
search for more Soley posts at Largehearted Boy
Woodsman: "In Circles" [mp3] from Mystic Places (out October 25th)
search for more Woodsman posts at Largehearted Boy
Free and legal mp3s of live performances at other websites:
The Copyrights: Switchboard session [mp3]
search for more Copyrights posts at Largehearted Boy
Love Inks: Daytrotter session [mp3]
search for more Love Inks posts at Largehearted Boy
The War on Drugs (Adam Granduciel solo): Key Studio session [mp3]
search for more War on Drugs posts at Largehearted Boy
also at Largehearted Boy:
other daily free and legal mp3 downloads
Try It Before You Buy It (mp3s and album streams from weekly CD releases)
weekly CD and DVD release lists
Posted by david | Permalink | Comments (View)
August 17, 2011
Atomic Books Comics Preview - August 17, 2011
In the weekly Atomic Books Comics Preview, Benn Ray highlights notable new comics and graphic novels.
Benn Ray is the owner of Atomic Books, an independent bookstore in Baltimore. The Mobtown Shank is his blog, and his comic Said What? is syndicated weekly in the Baltimore Sun's B-Paper.
Atomic Books was recently named one of Bizarre Magazine's 51 geekiest places on the planet, as well as one of Flavorwire's 10 greatest comic and graphic novel stores in America.
Big Top Popaganda #1: MC Secret Circus
by Ron English
If you've seen the documentary Supersize Me, you're familiar with Ron English's artwork. Ron is a street artist in the truest sense of the word - reclaiming billboards with parody ads for the public interest. As he got older and grew tired of being arrested, his work has become more gallery-oriented. Here he returns to his pop roots with a comic. And it's a perfect fit for Ron's style. I'm excited by the prospect of more of these.
Clutter #15
by Miranda O'Brien / Nick Carroll
The premier magazine of art toy design culture returns after a several year absence with an improved format. Each page is pure eye candy.
Fashion Cats
by Takako Iwasa
Blame VICE for this book of kitty porn, collecting Iwasa's photographs of impossibly adorable, dressed up cats. I just felt like I needed to show this to you.
Important Comics Are Bad
by Dina Kelberman
Atomic Books staffer Dina Kelberman has a second collection of her Baltimore Citypaper comic strips. While appearing simple, the thoughts and emotions they convey are shockingly complex - frequently funny and melancholy at the same time. She's part of the famed Baltimore Wham City Collective - so think of her work as the comic strip equivalent of Dan Deacon's music. Just kidding. Sort of.
Setting the Standard: Comics by Alex Toth 1952-1954
by Alex Toth / Greg Sadowski (editor)
Publisher Fantagraphics hits it out of the park with this gorgeous collection of his work from the 50s for Standard Comics. Toth was a comic books artist's artist who specialized in an often mimicked minimalist style.
Too Much Coffee Man Omnibus Volume 1
by Shannon Wheeler
I admit it, I miss the hell out of the freak of nature that is Shannon Wheeler's Too Much Coffee Man. Dark Horse collects, in an impressive oversized edition, the exploits of the the caffeine-fueled would-be hero. The perfect thing to read while sipping a soychoychaidoublemochalattebutt at your local independent coffee house.
Questions, concerns, comments or gripes – e-mail benn@atomicbooks.com. If there’s a comic I should know about, send it my way at Atomic, c/o Atomic Books 3620 Falls Rd., Baltimore, MD 21211.
Atomic Books & Benn Ray links:
Atomic Books website
Atomic Books on Twitter
Atomic Books on Facebook
Benn Ray's blog (The Mobtown Shank)
Benn Ray's comic, Said What?
also at Largehearted Boy:
other Atomic Books Comics Preview lists (weekly new comics & graphic novel highlights)
52 Books, 52 Weeks
Antiheroines (interviews with up and coming female comics artists)
Book Notes (authors create music playlists for their book)
guest book reviews
Largehearted Word (weekly new book highlights)
musician/author interviews
Note Books (musicians discuss literature)
Posted by david | Permalink | Comments (View)
Largehearted WORD Books of the Week - August 17, 2011
In the Largehearted Word series, the staff of Brooklyn's WORD bookstore highlights several new books released this week.
WORD is an independent neighborhood bookstore in Greenpoint, the northernmost neighborhood of Brooklyn, that celebrated its fourth anniversary this March. Our primary goal is to be whatever our community needs us to be, which currently means carrying a lot of paperback fiction (especially classics), cookbooks, board books, and absurdly cute cards and stationery. In addition, we're fiends for a good event, from the classic author reading and Q&A; to potlucks and a basketball league (and anything set in a bar). We're a small operation, just 1000 square feet and four people, but we read too much, so it all works out. If a weekly dose of WORD here isn't enough for you, follow us on Twitter: @wordbrooklyn.
WORD also hosts the monthly Largehearted Lit reading series, featuring authors who participated in this blog's Book Notes series and musical guests.
Literary Brooklyn
by Evan Hughes
Simone says: "I just learned Truman Capote, Hart Crane AND Arthur Miller had homes on the same Brooklyn street on which I was raised. This book is fun in equal parts for the history of Brooklyn and view of American culture via the literary landscape. Perfect for Brooklynophiles and Bibliophiles."
All Around the World
by Geraldine Cosneau
This book is genius. Big connect-the-dots animals encourage kids to draw, and fold out backdrops of that animal's habitat plus tons of reusable stickers encourage kids to tell stories and learn about environments. We are too old for this, and want to take it home anyway.
Melville House's new HybridBook project is live! Five classic books, five great authors, one title -- and one new perk. Each book gives you access to a digital version with related add-ons like maps, photographs, and illustrations. This is one of the first print/digital packages out there, and we're pretty excited to see how it works out!
WORD Brooklyn links:
WORD website
WORD blog
WORD on Twitter
WORD's Facebook page
WORD's Flickr photos
also at Largehearted Boy:
other Largehearted Word Books of the Week (weekly new book highlights)
List of online "best of 2010" book lists
52 Books, 52 Weeks (my yearly reading project)
Antiheroines (interviews with up and coming female comics artists)
Atomic Books Comics Preview (weekly comics & graphic novel highlights)
Book Notes (authors create music playlists for their book)
guest book reviews
musician/author interviews
Note Books (musicians discuss literature)
Posted by david | Permalink | Comments (View)
