The first time we heard Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy’s title track to his 1999 masterpiece, I See a Darkness, nobody would have thought the song would have ended up getting the cover treatment by Johnny Cash a year later on American III: Solitary Man.
Everything Good About Life is Contained in This Dent May Video
Next week we’ve got a Band Booking with our new pal Dent May. In the meantime, here’s the new video for his song “Best Friend” that has t-shirts with cat faces on them, flowers, good glasses, and more.
Wide Awake on Memories: A Look at Jonathan Lethem’s 33 1/3
Talking Heads’ Fear of Music by Jonathan Lethem Continuum; 160 p. I am so glad I wasn’t born when Jonathan Lethem was born. Now that he is middle-aged and recounting his love of Fear of Music, the third full-length album by the Talking Heads, he has many albatrosses to contend with (nervously, mockingly). His friend, for instance, insists Jerry Harrison’s involvement before the recording of 77 signaled the end of “pure” Talking Heads. He sounds like a barrel of laughs. […]
Melody’s Echo Chamber Recorded in a French Beach House
Everything about the Melody’s Echo Chamber bio is good: A beach house in France, comparisons to Robert Wyatt and Spiritualized, and kaleidoscopic fusions are almost always great things.
We Like Our Hardcore Reunions Documented On Film, Thank You Very Much.
There’s a lot of love for the work of Wes Eisold around these parts — whether it’s the music that he makes in Cold Cave or the books that he releases via Heartworm Press. Before that, Eisold was the vocalist for Give Up the Ghost (aka American Nightmare), who did a couple of reunion shows a few months ago. A documentary has been made, the trailer for which can be seen above. See you in the pit! (Or something.) Follow […]
Conversation: Justin Vivian Bond on Kate Bush, Joan Didion, and “Silver Wells”
Justin Vivian Bond is a transgender writer, singer, painter, and activist constantly adding projects to an already lengthy list of accomplishments. Having played Carnegie Hall and Broadway as Kiki DuRane, the more vocal half of beloved punk-lounge act Kiki and Herb, Mx. Bond made the transition to solo work under v’s own name with the 2011 album Dendrophile. V’s next album is called Silver Wells, after the fictional hometown of Joan Didion’s protagonist in Play It As It Lays, and […]
Who Doesn’t Like a Taschen Book Full of Jazz Record Covers?
Is there such thing as an ugly book put out by Taschen? I’m guessing the answer is a big nope, and that logic probably extends to their upcoming two book collection of jazz record covers dating back from the 1940s and onward. Follow Vol. 1 Brooklyn on Twitter, Facebook, Google + and our Tumblr.
Band Booking: Andrew Jackson Jihad
As Andrew Jackson Jihad, Sean Bonnette (with partner Ben Gallaty) exists in a unique realm of decidedly punk rock musicianhood. With each consecutive album, the band manages to gain slightly more attention from the larger independent music listening world. AJJ is known for their bare bones, agressive folk sound that utilizes acoustic guitar and upright bass, but also with each conescutive release, they’ve began incorporating horns, more strings and even on the last record, Knife Man, kazoos. Most immediately striking about […]