By Jason Diamond Michael Hearst has one of the most impressive resumes of just about anybody I can think of. His band One Ring Zero had Denis Johnson, Jonathan Ames, Michael Chabon, Myla Goldberg, and others contribute lyrics to the album, As Smart as We Are. He’s involved in the Cassette From my Ex project, a multi-instrumentalist that has toured with The Magnetic Fields, a writer that has contributed to McSweeney’s, and from what I gather, a pretty nice guy. […]
Conversation: David Gutowski (Largehearted Boy) and Jami Attenberg Discuss Largehearted Lit.
By Jason Diamond So here’s the thing, I had never met either David Gutowski or Jami Attenberg in person. I’ve read Gutowski’s Largehearted Boy for quite some time, and thanks to it, became fond of Ms. Attenberg’s writing. When I e-mailed David a proposal to ask a few questions about the inaugural Largehearted Lit, (taking place this Sunday at the Brooklyn Knitting Factory with Lev Grossman and Libba Bray), he suggested we bring Jami into the conversation since she is […]
Conversation: Frank Portman
By Jason Diamond Dr. Frank wrote the love songs of my youth. As I spent countless hours making mixtapes for girls I liked, it was always a point to put a song by his band, Mr. T Experience on there somewhere. I guess in a twist on the Minutemen song “History Lesson, Pt. 2”, punk rock changed my life, but it was guys like Dr. Frank and many of his contemporaries who did it by writing smart, sensitive, and often […]
Conversation: Susan Hwang of Bushwick Book Club
By Jason Diamond Take a book, get a few songwriters to read it, then ask them to write a song based on the book. That sounds like a pretty simple equation. So why has nobody thought of it until Susan Hwang? Her creation, the Bushwick Book Club, might be one of the best ideas to pop out of Brooklyn in quite some time, and this week Hwang and friends will take on their biggest challenge yet: The Bible. Hwang recently […]
Conversation: OVERFLOW Magazine
There is a Twitter account called Themediaisdying, which has 20,000 followers, most of whom believe – I think it’s safe to assume – that media is in fact going the way of the dodo, dinosaur, and DeLorean. While nothing to sneeze at, I couldn’t help thinking that the twenty grand they’ve collected in followers is probably a drop in the bucket compared to the number of people who still get their news from more “traditional” media outlets. That 20K, however, […]
Conversation: Kevin Sampsell
After hitting up practically every big city in America (and the rest of the world for that matter), it only made sense for the Akashic Noir series to make it’s way out to the Pacific Northwest, and give Portland, Or. an opportunity to examine the seedy side of the “City of Roses”. It would seem for a project like this, there was only one man for the job of editor, Kevin Sampsell. So you finished editing Portland Noir, and now […]
Conversation: Dan Zimmerman
Dan Zimmerman first picked up the guitar in 1957, and since then he hasn’t stopped singing. Time spent has paid off quite well as his most recent album Cosmic Patriot ( Sounds Familyre Records) is one of the most wonderful surprises you will hear all year (think along the lines of Silver Jews, Leonard Cohen, and Lee Hazlewood). Dan was kind enough to answer a few questions (thru e-mail) on his favorite books, low-voiced singers, and iconic magazines for teenage […]
Conversation: Chris Leo
Chris Leo, of the Leo clan, writer of books (his book of shorts, Feathers Like Leather is going into its second pressing), member of bands (The Van Pelt recently reformed for some shows, also formerly of The Lapse, and Native Nod), and sometimes expat discussed a few of these topics with us a week before he takes the stage as our featured reader at our Vol. 1 Brooklyn Story Series. You got the band back together, and your book is […]