largehearted boy: a music and literature blog

November 20, 2009

Book Notes - Blake Butler ("Scorch Atlas")

In the Book Notes series, authors create and discuss a music playlist that relates in some way to their recently published book.

Blake Butler is the rare young writer who consistently and effectively challenges his readers. Scorch Atlas is a haunting collection of interconnected stories and vignettes, a dystopian work of genius.

The book itself is a work of art. The internal pages are individually distressed, and the page edges and cover appear burnt and scarred, and the design complements the book's theme perfectly.

Matt Bell wrote of the book:

"Scorch Atlas contains fourteen interlocking stories, each one rendering some family relationship apocalyptic and imperiled. What at first may seem merely bizarre--especially given the shifting forms that provide much of the textual delight of the book--eventually becomes terrifyingly familiar. Butler excels at forcing the familiar through the a sieve of strange until it is stripped clean of its everyday banality, until it is once again made so fresh you can smell the decay it contains, until you can taste the despair that threatens to destroy not just his characters but also the dangerous worlds they inhabit."

In his own words, here is Blake Butler's Book Notes music playlist for his novel, Scorch Atlas:

Scorch Atlas is a novel consisting of 14 kinds of rain, rain that fall on homes where families live and try to survive, including gravel, glitter, blood, meat, light. The original soundtrack for this book was the sound of every piece of fruit remaining on the earth crushed at once between two cars that two different people used to love so much they could not drive them. This is the second soundtrack to this book.

1. "Summons" by Mount Eerie

I had never heard this song when I wrote Scorch Atlas. It begins with guitar swells and small singing. It is a quiet start. It instructs something to, "Scream through my house." When I was little I would walk around the front yard and sing in the way it feels like Phil Elverum makes. Though he sounds better. Songs this quiet make me feel like I am about to die.

2. "Subject" by Prurient

Prurient is far beyond the feeling of impending dying. It is far beyond the realm of death. He makes a terror comes out of machines like nothing. This kind of sound is what it feels like often to be awake when you feel you should not be awake. The voice comes out of some massive sound recorder. If there were a narrator for Scorch Atlas, I would ask it to be the voice inside this song, and I would be afraid. BONUS: My friend Sam Pink said Scorch Atlas "is like little-kid+lsd+prurient on full blast+repeated punches to the face+an old man laughing and taking steroids and coloring his penis black with a magic marker=gottdang kid."

3. "Die And Get The F**k Out Of The Way" by Agoraphoric Nosebleed

When I was writing this book I often felt like the sentences were telling me to do exactly that.

4. "Village Oblivia" by Wolf Eyes

I had hoped this book would be all texture. Anywhere emotion comes in is an accident, which is fine. Emotions comes from rocks and money also. This song reminds me of when the father is laying on the bed in one of the stories in the book looking at the glass window he has ripped out in the ceiling over his marital bed, while through the floor below him the mother is wallowing in soot. More stars should detonate in books without the description of stars detonating. Anywhere this feeling comes in is beyond my control, which is the only way.

5. "Drum Gets A Glimpse" by Liars

There aren't really any liars in this book. All of the characters say exactly what they mean. I imagine for me this is one of the book's strengths, and helps it to work in a way that might feed. If the book feels brutal, which people seem to think it has, I think it is not brutal enough. This is a children's book. Drum Gets A Glimpse is a children's song. All the best things were made by children, if inside adults. I am not an adult. I sing this song in my car and feel nice. It says, "Why can't we just try start again?" More swells, though this time they are cymbals. "There's so much light we couldn't see."

6. "Respect" by Flying Saucer Attack

This song reminds me of waking up on a beach covered in whale meat. Not rotting yet, but about to, so that you can see the pockets on the flesh where the bugs are going to land but there are no bugs yet. The only questions that get asked in this book if I can remember right are asked by birds. Oh, there is a question asked by a girl to a bear. Actually there are many questions, but I think the questions are the answers. I like when the guitars come in over the noise rolls in this song. I like to think of Scorch Atlas as intricately layered sheets of noise and sometimes someone singing words you can't quite make out.

7. "Seed Me" by Retconned

A lot of questions like to ask about where is the light inside the dark of this book. Perhaps it feels the dark is so deep the light is not there. Instead all I see is the light, because it works in contrast to the black so that any thread is mega-magnified. This Retconned song sounds like a machine having a painful orgasm, like it hasn't had one in years. It has a good underlying rhythm, like all good things. This soundtrack is about to get more brutal. I like quiet parts the best when you are afraid of them because you are waiting for it to get brutal, and then the song never does.

8. "Hypostasis" of the Archons by Secret Chiefs 3

When I can smell myself because I have been writing so hard, I like to delete everything I've written up to that point and start again right there in the middle of the stink. This song reminds me of another of my favorite parts in my own book, being forced during this writing to think about the book, when the father is naked covered in mud coming back from looking for the son he drowned in dark liquid, and anticipates the dogs that have been throwing themselves against the house for weeks coming back right then while he is outside, and wondering if he would go inside or if he would let him eat them. Then he wonders what his son would have tasted like. And what would his wife. I think these thoughts about my relatives and friends when I am feeling young.

9. "Song for Dead Time" by Swans

I like to think of Michael Gira as one of the characters in Scorch Atlas but I'm not going to say which one. I think I thought about Swans a lot during the whole time I was writing these sentences. I listen to "Blood Promise" at least 50 times a year. It is the perfect song. I like the title ‘Song for Dead Time.' If I were in a black metal band I would have named the book that.

10. "Mezzo Forte" by Burning Star Core

This song is a bunch of weird breathing layered all on top of one another, again in a fantastic rhythm. I like to drive my red car with this song as loud as will go and not seem like it's going to rip my hair out. I have subwoofers. If I could give any piece of advice to a writer asking for advice, I'd say buy some subwoofers and put them in your car. This song also reminds me of my dad.

11. "Foe Life" by DJ Screw

DJ Screw (RIP) writes novels made of sound by taking rap tracks and f**king them in the ass. What more could you ask for. If there were a radio station alive somewhere in the ruinland of the architecture of Scorch Atlas, DJ Screw would be the magic playing the only remaining music in that earth air. DJ Screw smoking fat blunts and eating chocolate cherries while the white kids in Television Milk gag and bag their mother and make her guess what they are sticking in her flesh. Night transmissions. Money logic. Ass rip. Scorch Atlas.

12. "Hands That Mold" by Dystopia

People say you should forget your parents while you are writing. Every sentence I write I am thinking only and ever about my mother. This was the favorite band of my friend Jeffrey Patterson, who was shot in the face in downtown Atlanta when we were kids in a hardcore band. He cared so much about the music one time gave himself a concussion during band practice. The dedication to this book is in his memory.

13. "We Never Sleep" by Boredoms

All the houses buried. Eating chocolate. Why would you ever want to sleep. More music should be just someone throwing around a microphone while they roll in the floor eating things and trying to destroy the house. I wish the Boredoms would write a novel. It would sound like paper dogs being torn up and a moon made of gross.

14. "Vacuum" by Fennesz

Stop saying you are tired and just look into the box. Climb ladders more often if you can find them. There are at least 4 ladders underneath my parents' house, which is where I wrote most of this book. I drive there when my own house is small noisy, which is every day. My white noise machine is my favorite thing I own.

15. Side A of the Fresh Air 7" by Emeralds

I've looked all over for the name for this song and can not find it so let's end with this gleaming unnamed song.

Blake Butler and Scorch Atlas links:

the author's blog
the book's video trailer
excerpt from the book

Boston Phoenix review
BSCreview review
Dennis Cooper review
Dispatches from Utopia review
Matt Bell review
Outside Writers Collective review
Pank review
Tarpaulin Sky review
Three Guys One Book review

Eclectica interview with the author
The Faster Times interview with the author
Flavorpill profile of the author
Keyhole interview with the author
Largehearted Boy Book Notes music playlist by the author for his novel, EVER
Writers' Bloc interview with the author

also at Largehearted Boy:

other Book Notes submissions (authors create playlists for their book)

online "best of 2009" book lists
Note Books (musicians discuss literature)
guest book reviews
musician/author interviews
52 Books, 52 Weeks

tags: books music literature fiction

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November 20, 2009

Book Notes - Ben Shaberman ("The Vegan Monologues")

In the Book Notes series, authors create and discuss a music playlist that relates in some way to their recently published book.

Ben Shaberman's essay collection The Vegan Monologues is more than a book about not eating animals. Shaberman touches on political, social, and environmental issues while recounting his own experiences, always in his humorous yet poignant voice.

In his own words, here is Ben Shaberman's Book Notes music playlist for his essay collection, The Vegan Monologues:

The Ad Hoc Soundtrack for The Vegan Monologues

In my book of essays, The Vegan Monologues, there's a hodge-podge of musical citations, most of which I use in humorous or ironic contexts. The variety even surprised me after I went back to identify all the references. The inclusion of them had never been intentional; it just happened.

Musical allusions are a powerful device for evoking all sorts of memories, images, and emotions. Of course, the music needs to be relatively well known or it's an empty moment for most readers.

Here are several of the songs and artists that appear in the book:

"The Fall of Troy" by Tom Waits

The following line from "The Fall of Troy" is the epigraph (opening quotation) for the book: "It's the same for men as with horses and dogs. Nothing wants to die." It was the most succinct statement I could identify about why I am vegan. And Waits' rugged voice has a way of reaching into your gut and not letting go. (Interestingly, the song appears on the Dead Man Walking soundtrack.)

"We've Only Just Begun" by The Carpenters

This song is mentioned in an essay where I lament the loss of a bumper from my old Volvo, but later feel a sense of redemption for driving an old beater rather than a resource-devouring SUV. Whether or not you like The Carpenters — they're music is the epitome of easy listening — the brother and sister team were ubiquitous during the 1970s. For me, the reference is nostalgic more than anything. I was about 9 or 10 when it was hit. At the time, I wore shirts with Nehru collars and my family drove around an Impala convertible covered in flower-power stickers. Looking back, it was all pretty creepy, yet it was the happiest I had ever seen my family. While Karen Carpenter was best known for her voice, she was an accomplished drummer, as well. She was also the "she" in "She's out of my Life," a song written for Michael Jackson. Karen died in 1983 due to complications from anorexia.

"Zip-a-dee-do-dah" from Song of the South (Disney film, 1946)

Little did I know when I used this nonsensical phrase how loaded it was. It appears in an essay about eating nothing but Chinese food for 30 days, and it describes the highly active state of my gastrointestinal system from being on so much fiber. I never knew much about the song or the film it appeared in, but I later learned that it was sung by the character Uncle Remus, an African American who is having a grand old time working on a plantation. Who knew that a good soundtrack could make slavery so much fun?

"Scarborough Fair" by Simon & Garfunkel

My girlfriend and I went to see Dan Rather give a talk at the historic Willard Hotel in Washington, D.C., and a harpist in the lobby was playing this tune. I guess you could call it live Muzak or Muzak for rich folks. While the essay is more about Rather, I also take a moment to describe the old-money opulence of the lobby. Rather's talk was impressive; he had a remarkable grasp of American history over the last 45+ years and a keen eye toward the future.

"Sound of Silence" by Simon & Garfunkel

By the way, I am a big fan of Simon & Garfunkel, especially the Simon half. He's poetic, rhythmic, emotive, and forthright. This particular song evokes a feeling of reckoning in me, and I use it to humorously refer to the experience of picking at a garden salad while large-framed people around me are stuffing themselves silly with barbecue. Simon actually wrote the song right after JFK was assassinated. "Hello darkness my old friend…"

"Knockin' on Heaven's Door" by Bob Dylan

Here's another song that evokes a feeling of reckoning. It's the song that I hummed as I used an ancient push-mower to cut my girlfriend's lawn, which I refer to as a "half-acre, knee-high garden of sadism." But times change; the girlfriend thankfully hired a neighbor to maintain the lawn and Bob Dylan now has a Christmas album.

"Dust in the Wind" by Kansas

Kansas was a welcome addition to the progressive rock movement of the 1970s. Their music included symphonic orchestration and complex arrangements, and their song writing was more sophisticated than that of most straight-ahead rock bands of that era. But the group fell victim to classic rock radio, whose limited play-lists have driven many great songs and bands into the ground. I used to read to a group of seniors at an assisted-living facility in Iowa, and "Dust in the Wind" served as a fitting soundtrack for my reading of an article about how our galaxy is hurdling toward another galaxy. Worry not; the galactic collision is still billions of years away.

Pink Floyd

Most people imagine that Pink Floyd fans of the 1970s sat around in black-lighted rooms, pulling on bongs as they listened to classic albums such as Dark Side of the Moon and Wish You Were Here. Well, that's exactly what I did. Nothing was quite as fun as getting stoned and taking in Floyd's large, atmospheric sound. Unlike many of my smoking buddies, I also got absorbed by the dark, socially reflective lyrics of Roger Waters, who I credit with inspiring me to put pen to paper. He is a masterful lyricist, a fact that gets overshadowed by the band's musical innovations.

Here's a favorite passage from the song "Time" — the crescendo of Dark Side — which was perhaps best known for David Gilmour's soaring guitar solo: "And you run and you run to catch up with the sun but it's sinking, racing around to come up behind you again. The sun is the same in a relative way but you're older, shorter of breath and one day closer to death."

Four essays in my book include references to Pink Floyd, including an homage to my first live concert experience, "Pink Floyd 1977," which I report "was like losing my virginity to a super model."

My Favorite Groups and Artists — Genesis (before 1978), Tangerine Dream, Led Zeppelin, Renaissance, Steely Dan, Hem, Bill Evans, The Avett Brothers, Josh Ritter, Carole King, and anything spacey and electronic, including most artists appearing on the public radio show Music from the Hearts of Space.

Ben Shaberman and The Vegan Monologues links:

the author's website

Largehearted Boy review
Vegetarians in Paradise review
VegFamily review

also at Largehearted Boy:

other Book Notes submissions (authors create playlists for their book)

online "best of 2009" book lists
Note Books (musicians discuss literature)
guest book reviews
musician/author interviews
52 Books, 52 Weeks

tags: books music essays non-fiction vegan vegetarian

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November 20th Updates to the Best of the Decade (2000-2009) Online Music Lists

Today's additions to the list of the online best of the decade (2000-2009) music lists:

50 Songs, 10 Years (songs)
atysbooks (top albums)
Blowin' in the Wind (best albums)
Brian Currin (favourite songs)
Freedom from the Blog (albums)
limjorino (top albums)
Monitor Mix (genre dictionary)
Monitor Mix (musical mistakes)
Monitor Mix (songs, movements or artists that sums up the decade)
nc_seventeen (favorite albums)
The Prometheus Syndrome (top albums)
Reverb (worst song about Seattle)
Song of the Day (favorite artists)
Wolfie Wolfgang (favourite albums)

also at Largehearted Boy:

daily updates to the list

list of the online best of the decade (2000-2009) music lists

Online "Best Of 2009" Music Lists
Online "Best Of 2008" Music Lists
Online "Best Of 2007" Music Lists
Online "Best Of 2006" Music Lists
Online "Best Books of 2009" Lists
Online "Best Books of 2008" Lists
other lists at Largehearted Boy
Daily Downloads (free & legal mp3 downloads)
Book Notes (authors create playlists for their book)
Note Books (musicians discuss literature)
musician/author interviews

tags: music cd list lists indie 2000s albums

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November 20th Updates to the Online Best of 2009 Music Lists

Today's additions to the list of the online best of 2009 music lists:

4 Girls, 4 Lives, 4 Ever (top albums)
Andy Barlow Blog (top albums)
The BAcksliders (music)
Fierce & Nerdy (best & worst albums)
The Fishpork (favorite albums)
Flavorwire (top vinyl album covers)
Gunsling Birds (favorite albums)
The Heights (top albums)
Indie Rock Reviews - Barry Moore (best albums)
Indie Rock Reviews - Natalie Salvo (best Australian albums)
Listen Up! (music)
Nick Hipa (As I Lay Dying) (top albums)
Press Play (best albums)
Rhymin and Stealin (Canadian hip-hop)
Rough Trade (top albums)
Sean Horton (top albums)
Something Awful (top albums)
Stadiums and Shrines (best songs)
Stuff and Such (best & worst albums)
The Telegraph (top classical crossover albums)
Tom Searle (top albums)
Uncut (best songs)

also at Largehearted Boy:

other daily updates to the list

Online Best of 2009 Music Lists
Online Best of the Decade (2000-2009) Music Lists
Online Best of 2009 Book Lists

2008 Online "Best Of" Music Lists
2007 Online "Best Of" Music Lists
2006 Online "Best Of" Music Lists
Online "Best Books of 2008" Lists
other lists at Largehearted Boy
Daily Downloads (free & legal mp3 downloads)
Book Notes (authors create playlists for their book)
Note Books (musicians discuss literature)
musician/author interviews

tags: music cd list lists indie 2000s albums

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Shorties (Best Debut Novels of the Decade, David Rawlings, and more)

Paste lists the best debut novels of the decade.

Paste interviews David Rawlings about his debut solo album, A Friend of a Friend.

Paste: You cover some songs on this record—including a medley of “Method Acting” by Bright Eyes and “Cortez the Killer” by Neil Young. How did that come to be?

Rawlings: A couple years ago, at the end of ’07, Conor [Oberst] called me and asked me if I would come play guitar with Bright Eyes because Mike Mogis was producing a record and it was running on, and they had dates booked and Mike couldn’t do it. I was very excited to go play electric guitar for two or three weeks on his tour. He was playing stuff from all his records, and a couple things form Fevers and Mirrors, including “Method Acting.” I loved the song, and we played it every night. I guess it sunk in, because about six months after that tour. I was sitting playing guitar and I started singing that song. which I didn’t know I had learned. Then I thought about covering it, and I monkeyed with the lyrics a little because I felt like it was important that it stay as autobiographical and as personal seeming as it does when Conor does it—I love that there’s no skin between the singer and the audience.

The Escapist lists the literary inspirations of the game Dungeons & Dragons.

The Boston Globe profiles singer-songwriter Devendra Banhart.

The Guardian explores the current trend of rock stars writing movie scores.

Yeah Yeah Yeahs' Karen O composed the music for Spike Jonze's forthcoming adaptation of Where the Wild Things Are, Nick Cave and Warren Ellis have composed the score for the film adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's novel The Road, while Badly Drawn Boy (Damon Gough) has written the soundtrack to Caroline Aherne's new full-length feature The Fattest Man in Britain, which airs on ITV over Christmas. Even Jarvis Cocker made a humble offering to Wes Anderson's Fantastic Mr Fox.

The Guardian lists websites to stream and/or download live music sessions.

Monolith Festival director Josh Baker talks to the Denver Westword about the Colorado music festival's dire financial position.

The London Evening Standard examines the greening of the music industry.

The Boston Herald recommends '80s underground rock bands.

The Tallahassee Democrat profiles singer-songwriter Neko Case.

The Irish Independent interviews singer-songwriter Mick Flannery about his experiences living in Brooklyn.

On sale at Amazon MP3: John Lennon's 10-track Imagine album for $2.99.

The Irish Times profiles Colum McCann, who just won the National Book Award for his novel, Let the Great World Spin.

io9 interviews author Michael Chabon about literary genres.

Justin Taylor needs pictures of your literary tattoos for his book.

Foss Forward lists under-appreciated bands.

io9 lists the greatest swashbuckling heroes form 100+ years of science fiction books.

John Darnielle talks to the Nashville Scene about the new Mountain Goats album, The Life of the World to Come.

Darnielle has used Bible verses to title songs before, and the idea intrigued him. "There's just something portentous about having a title that refers to this big book that is central to so much culture and so much literature, and has spawned so many big ideas," he says. "To refer to Bible text opens a bunch of internal doors."

The best book blogs for history buffs.

The Louisville Courier-Journal lists its favorite albums produced by Steve Albini, and also interviews him.

DailyFinance examines why superhero comics are recession-proof.

The Guardian books blog lists some of its favorite science fiction story titles.

The Graphic Novel Reporter interviews Fables creator Bill Willingham.

Cory Chisel visits The Current studios for an interview and live performance.

Monitor Mix lists four musical mistakes of this decade.

Follow me on Twitter for links that don't make the daily "Shorties" columns.

also at Largehearted Boy:

online "best of 2009" book lists
online "best of 2009" music lists
best of the decade (2000-2009) online music lists

daily mp3 downloads
Try It Before You Buy It (mp3s and full album streams from this week's CD releases)
weekly music & DVD release lists

tags: music books popculture indie

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Daily Downloads (Efterklang, Nouvelle Vague, and more)

Today's free and legal mp3 downloads:

Boy Genius: "Ramona Saves the Day" [mp3] from Staggering (out January 26th)
other Boy Genius posts at Largehearted Boy

Chip Taylor: "No Dice" [mp3] from Yonkers, NY
other Chip Taylor posts at Largehearted Boy

Downtown Harvest: "Anita Leave" [mp3] from Discovering Dinosaurs (out February 14th)
other Downtown Harvest posts at Largehearted Boy

Efterklang: "Modern Drift" [mp3] from Magic Chairs (out February 23rd)
other Efterklang posts at Largehearted Boy

Georgia Anne Muldrow: "Run Away" [mp3] from Early
other Georgia Anne Muldrow posts at Largehearted Boy

A History Of: "Action in the North Atlantic" [mp3] from Action in the North Atlantic (out December 1st)
A History Of: "Dagger Woods" [mp3] from Action in the North Atlantic (out December 1st)
other A History Of posts at Largehearted Boy

Kate and After: "Snow Angel" [mp3]
other Kate and After posts at Largehearted Boy

Nouvelle Vague: "Ca Plane Pour Moi" [mp3] from 3
other Nouvelle Vague posts at Largehearted Boy

Sia: "You've Changed" [mp3] from We Are Born (out in spring 2010)
other Sia posts at Largehearted Boy

Free and legal mp3s of live performances at other websites:

Cory Chisel: Daytrotter session [mp3]
other Cory Chisel posts at Largehearted Boy

Imogen Heap: 2009-11-09, Los Angeles [mp3]
other Imogen Heap posts at Largehearted Boy

Mason Proper: Luxury Wafers session [mp3]
other Mason Proper posts at Largehearted Boy

Mission of Burma: WOXY Lounge Act [mp3]
other Mission of Burma posts at Largehearted Boy

Thao with The Get Down Stay Down: The Bay Bridged session [mp3]
other Thao posts at Largehearted Boy

also at Largehearted Boy:

previous free and legal mp3 daily downloads
2009 Bonnaroo downloads
other music festival downloads

online "best of 2009" book lists
online "best of 2009" music lists
best of the decade (2000-2009) online music lists

Try It Before You Buy It (mp3s and album streams from weekly CD releases)
weekly CD release lists

tags: music download indie mp3

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November 19, 2009

Book Notes - Lydia Millet ("Love in Infant Monkeys")

In the Book Notes series, authors create and discuss a music playlist that relates in some way to their recently published book.

Lydia Millet is one of my favorite writers, and her first collection of short fiction, Love in Infant Monkeys marries celebrities with animals to great effect. These keenly written interactions of human and animal move these tales forward and offer rare insights into the human psyche as well as our celebrity-obsessed culture.

The Los Angeles Times wrote of the book:

"Lydia Millet's first collection of short fiction, "Love in Infant Monkeys" (Soft Skull: 178 pp., $13.95 paper), is a superb book. Featuring 10 stories -- all of which revolve in some sense around the interaction of animals and famous people -- it asks all sorts of uncomfortable questions: about ourselves, about the world around us, about the very essence of being, of belonging, of what it means to exist.

In her own words, here is Lydia Millet's Book Notes music playlist for her short story collection, Love in Infant Monkeys:

Love in Infant Monkeys is a book of short stories about famous people and their relationships with particular animals. All the stories are based on nuggets of nonfiction and then spun out from there—from biography or soundbite into fleshy cultural shapes.

"Sexing the Pheasant," the first story, is about Madonna, when she shot a pheasant on her English estate and then decided to give up hunting. It's an internal monologue as she watched the bird die, her thoughts on her marriage and religion and the thorny issue of whether she would still be able to wear tailored hunting clothes if she wasn't actually hunting anymore. I'd pick "Pablo Picasso," maybe the John Cale version.

Pablo Picasso never got called an asshole.

The second story, one of my two favorites in the collection, is "Girl and Giraffe," about George Adamson, of Born Free fame, and two of the lions he raised, a brother and sister. One of them, the brother, stays half-tame and lives with Adamson and eventually becomes a brutal killer and has to be shot dead, though Adamson loves him deeply. The other, a female simply named Girl, readjusts to the wild and disappears into it and is never seen again. The setting is postcolonial Africa. I would set this to the timeless Mekons song "Waltz."

A pair of giant's hands/Sink into the sand/And tear out the family silver/To pay off the stooges we hired…You will never come home, now/You will never come home.

"Sir Henry" is about David Hasselhoff's dogwalker and his dogs. If the story was about the Hoff, primarily, you'd have to go with something iconic eighties and plasticky, maybe The Cars, "Drive" or "Let's Go" or similar. But the story is more about dogs, and the love of dogs, and the loneliness of people and perhaps of dogs too. Also it features a dying violinist who's a dog owner. So I'd pick Tchaikovsky's sad and beautiful Violin Concerto in D.

"Thomas Edison and Vasil Golakov" is about Edison's obsession with a film of Topsy the circus elephant being publicly electrocuted, and an alleged relationship between Edison and his drug-addled valet. The song for this has to be the Bryan Ferry cover of "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes."

They say someday you'll find/All who love are blind /When your heart's on fire/You must realize/Smoke gets in your eyes.

"Tesla and Wife," about a couple of maids and Nicola Tesla and his romantic love for a pigeon. I think "Che farò senza Eurydice," from the Gluck opera, where Orpheus searches for his lost love in the underworld and finally finds her and loses her again.

What will I do without her? What will I do without my love?

The title story "Love in Infant Monkeys," about infamous experimental psychologist Harry Harlow and the baby monkeys he took away from their mothers and isolated in cages with only monkey mothers made of wire to keep them company, would read well to Gillian Welch's "Orphan Girl."

I am an orphan on God's highway/But I'll share my troubles if you go my way/I have no mother no father/No sister no brother/I am an orphan girl.

"Chomsky, Rodents" is a fictionalized anecdote about a real-life episode when my husband ran into Noam Chomsky in a town dump on Cape Cod and Chomsky was trying to give away a gerbil cage. It's a lot about mothers too, women and men and parenting, so though I'm not much of a Sinead O' Connor fan in general I think I'd recommend "Emma's Song" to go with it.

The first time I saw you/I loved you/I loved you/Your face blue/Your eyes too/Your mouth too/Your mouth too.

"Jimmy Carter's Rabbit" chronicles a fictional visit by Jimmy Carter to the office of a psychotherapist after he leaves office, in the wake of the killer swamp rabbit episode that arguably helped emasculate the President in the public eye. I'd set it to something earnest, folksy and a little nostalgic — maybe "Our Town," by Iris DeMent.

Go on now and say goodbye to our town, to our town/Can't you see the sun's settin' down on our town, on our town/Goodnight.

"The Lady and the Dragon," about Sharon Stone's ex-husband being bitten on the toe by a Komodo dragon—and what happened to the giant lizard afterward—I'd put with Cat Power's "The Greatest."

Once I wanted to be the greatest/No wind or waterfall could stall me/And then came the rush of the flood/The stars at night turned deep to dust.

The last, brief story in the collection, "Walking Bird," is the only one without a celebrity. A small family goes to the zoo, and suddenly at the end of the day the mother notices that all the animals have disappeared. For this I'd go back to the Mekons, as I always do in the end—say, "One X One."

All the eyes are closing/one by one/one by one.

Lydia Millet and Love in Infant Monkeys links:

the author's website
the author's Wikipedia entry
animated video of a line from the book
excerpt from the book

Austin Chronicle review
Black Gate review
BOMBLog review
Bookforum.com review
Bookmarks Magazine review
Eye Weekly review
Frisbee: A Book Journal review
Globe and Mail review
The Internet Review of Books review
Los Angeles Times review
New York Times review
Publishers Weekly review
Quill & Quire review
The Second Pass review
The Rumpus review
Venus Zine review

Identity Theory interview with the author
Joyland interview with the author
The Rumpus interview with the author

also at Largehearted Boy:

other Book Notes submissions (authors create playlists for their book)

online "best of 2009" book lists
Note Books (musicians discuss literature)
guest book reviews
musician/author interviews
52 Books, 52 Weeks

tags: books music literature fiction

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November 19th Updates to the Best of the Decade (2000-2009) Online Music Lists

Today's additions to the list of the online best of the decade (2000-2009) music lists:

The A.V. Club (best albums)
The A.V. Club (best metal albums)
Bandwagon (songs)
Credit to the Girl Next Door (most influential albums)
The Drink Up, Honey (best albums)
eMusic (best albums)
The Media Crunch (best albums)
Musings of Mark (albums)
N. Frank Daniels' Cruel World (best albums)

also at Largehearted Boy:

other daily updates to the list

list of the online best of the decade (2000-2009) music lists

tags: music cd list lists indie 2000s albums

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Shorties (Sufjan Stevens, The National Book Awards, and more)

Stereo Subversion lovingly profiles singer-songwriter Sufjan Stevens and his music.

The New York Times ArtsBeat blog looks to the history of the National Book Awards and its selections.

Jacket Copy wraps up last night's National Book Awards ceremony and winners.

Myspace has added music charts.

SEE interviews Charles F of Winter Gloves.

“I don’t think we have this Montreal sound at all,” Charles says. “For me, the Montreal sound a couple of years ago was Arcade Fire, Wolf Parade, and a bunch of bands influenced by British music and being dark with a lot of reverb. In Montreal a lot of people like dirty music and I don’t feel like Winter Gloves is a part of that. There are more bands playing with keyboards and vintage loops, so I feel like we belong to the Montreal scene more than the Montreal sound."

Melissa Auf der Maur shares her iPod top 10 with the Montreal Gazette.

The Globe and Mail profiles the rise of The Rural Alberta Advantage into the public eye.

But the intimate and lively music of love and loss, memories of yesterday and imaginations of tomorrow, sparked devotion one person at a time online. Starting with a glowing review on Halifax blog Herohill through to exposure a year ago at music retailer eMusic.com, the band's slow and steady stroll to attention arrived in Austin, Tex., in March at South by Southwest. A deal with a stalwart American indie label, Saddle Creek of Omaha, Neb., followed.

The Reno News Review profiles singer-songwriter Marry Mannor.

Guerrero mentions “Ms. Sanders” as a personal favorite on Come Home. The title of the song, in a move sure to inspire some nerd crushes, is an obscure Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy reference. But the song is a sort of delirious, allegorical rumination on loss, with Guerrero’s high, yearning voice lilting, “My hands, my hands, my hands, they don’t dig like they used to …”

io9 lists 20 eagerly anticipated 2010 science fiction novels.

Monitor Mix waxes nostalgic for the music blogs of the '00s and shares screenshots of several in their earlier incarnations (including Largehearted Boy).

Gilbert Hernandez talks to Comic Book Resources about his new graphic novel, The Troublemakers.

Cage the Elephant's 11-track self-titled album is on sale at Amazon MP3 for $2.99.

Singer-songwriter Brendan Benson visits The Current studio for an interview and live performance.

Follow me on Twitter for links that don't make the daily "Shorties" columns.

also at Largehearted Boy:

online "best of 2009" book lists
online "best of 2009" music lists
best of the decade (2000-2009) online music lists

daily mp3 downloads
Try It Before You Buy It (mp3s and full album streams from this week's CD releases)
weekly music & DVD release lists

tags: music books popculture indie

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Daily Downloads (Bonnie "Prince" Billy, Cymbals Eat Guitars, and more)

Today's free and legal mp3 downloads:

All Smiles: free and legal The Comparison Blouse EP (click "free demos") [mp3]
other All Smiles posts at Largehearted Boy

Bonnie "Prince" Billy: "Death to Everyone" [mp3] from Funtown Comedown (out December 15th)
other Bonnie "Prince" Billy posts at Largehearted Boy

Charlie Alex March: "Carot No. 9" [mp3] from Home/Hidden (out February 16th)
other Charlie Alex March posts at Largehearted Boy

Man & Dog: several demo tracks [mp3]
other Man & Dog posts at Largehearted Boy

The Minor Leagues: "Good Boys" [mp3] from This Story Is Old, I Know, But It Goes On
The Minor Leagues: "The Love That Never Was" [mp3] from This Story Is Old, I Know, But It Goes On
other Minor Leagues posts at Largehearted Boy

Oh, Starling: free and legal Joy Christmas EP [mp3]*
other Oh, Starling posts at Largehearted Boy

Pixie Carnation: "When the Lights Go Out" [mp3] from Fresh Poems
other Pixie Carnation posts at Largehearted Boy

Plasticines: "I Could Rob You" [mp3] from About Love
other Plasticines posts at Largehearted Boy

Wild Yaks: "River May Come" [mp3] from 10 Ships
other Wild Yaks posts at Largehearted Boy

*registration required

Free and legal mp3s of live performances at other websites:

Bo Bedingfield: 2009-11-11, Athens [mp3]
other Bo Bedingfield posts at Largehearted Boy

Cymbals Eat Guitars: Daytrotter session [mp3]
other Cymbals Eat Guitars posts at Largehearted Boy

The Jesus Lizard: 2009-11-16, New York [mp3]
other Jesus Lizard posts at Largehearted Boy

Magic Wands: Daytrotter session [mp3]
other Magic Wands posts at Largehearted Boy

Royal Bangs: WOXY Lounge Act session [mp3]
other Royal Bangs posts at Largehearted Boy

also at Largehearted Boy:

previous free and legal mp3 daily downloads
2009 Bonnaroo downloads
other music festival downloads

online "best of 2009" book lists
online "best of 2009" music lists
best of the decade (2000-2009) online music lists

Try It Before You Buy It (mp3s and album streams from weekly CD releases)
weekly CD release lists

tags: music download indie mp3

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November 18, 2009

Antiheroines: Lisa Hanawalt

The Antiheroines series features author Jami Attenberg interviewing up-and-coming female comics artists.

In May I saw Lisa Hanawalt, author of I Want You (Buenaventura Press) and the Ignatz award-winning mini-comic Stay Away From Other People, do a slide show presentation as part of a group show at Hi Christina, a wee venue in Williamsburg.

During Lisa's extremely dry but charming performance, she did this short bit about her week. She talked about how she had gone thrift shopping and bought a pair of overall shorts for a dollar, and the tag on them read "Teen Bibs." That made me laugh pretty hard and when I looked up she was actually wearing the overall shorts. I appreciated that very much. I hadn't been paying attention when she was introduced, so I never knew her name, but I thought to myself: You should interview that girl. She's got something special going on.

But then I didn't. I had a lot on my mind that month. It's hard to follow up on every idea. You try it.

Then, a few weeks ago, I was at the bookstore on Bedford Ave, the one with all the art books. On the way out I picked up the beautiful little book of illustrations Vice did for "Where the Wild Things Are."(I am loath to promote that movie but I enjoyed looking at the book, and it is always good for creative people to be getting paid.) And Lisa had a piece in there. A little missile fired off in my head. Oh there you are, I thought. But I wasn't sure if it wasn't the same woman or not.

So I looked on the Hi Christina website for the event, and her name wasn't on it. I looked at the Facebook invite, and her name was not on that either. I emailed the guy who curated the show and asked him to tell me the names of all the people who read. Again, the list did not include her name. "Was there not another cartoonist? Am I hallucinating?" I emailed him back. "Oh yes," he said. "Lisa Hanawalt, our Los Angeles transplant and Williamsburg truck-driving, dog-loving, cartoon-making woman. She good."

Yes. She good.

I want to do this interview in the correct order, because I believe you are a very orderly thinker. I suspect this because you make a lot of lists in your work. So the first thing I want to know is how you got into making comics, and if you see yourself doing this for the long haul.

I used to think I was on a path towards becoming a fine artist, showing my drawings exclusively in galleries, but that world seemed less feasible after I graduated from art school and got more interested in illustration.

Around that time, one of my best friends from high school asked me to collaborate on an autobiographical comic about his life, and for the next two years I worked with him on Tip Me Over, Pour Me Out. I'd always loved comics, but for the first time I was drawing them in an orderly way and getting a strong sense of what I liked and didn't like. After getting more confident in that arena, I self-published a couple of minis, and then serendipitously met Alvin Buenaventura.

I was at my first comic convention, a little show called "Super*market" (organized by an acquaintance from UCLA, Jessica Gao) in the back room of Meltdown Comics. I was sitting there nervously with printed copies of Tip Me Over, Pour Me Out, my first mini-comic, It's Sexy When People Know Your Name,and I'd taped some artwork up on the wall behind me.

Alvin came by and we talked a little about my drawings, but I had no clue who he was - until I realized he published Kramers Ergot, and I had a delayed reaction of freaking out. I figured he was just being nice and wouldn't remember who I was the next day, but he kept in touch. He asked me to contribute to the Arthur comics page, invited me to Comic-Con and encouraged me to make my next mini, Stay Away from Other People.

Right now I'm lucky enough to be doing comics, illustration and fine art, and I'd love to keep doing all three for the long haul – as long as there's enough balance and I don't feel stretched thin, of course.

Do you feel like you get different things out of doing comics versus doing fine art? Like there's an obvious catharsis for me when I'm writing essays about my life, but everything feels safe and easier in my little fantasy world when I write fiction.

Drawing comics is a lot harder because I have to think about issues like narrative and character development, and make sure everything is clear to the reader. And I have to draw things like grocery store shelves and rows of airplane seats. When I'm making fine art, I can draw whatever I want and it feels so mindless and cozy by comparison. But the feeling of having a finished comic is much more rewarding, I think, due to the challenge and time invested.

And, I think, you have the opportunity to reach a wider audience with a comic, which is pretty exciting. There's also more to interact with, in a way, because your voice is so present, and I think that can be rewarding for an author. You're probably going to get a lot more fan mail for a comic.

Oh, that's an excellent point about the wider audience - you aren't as likely to get fan mail for having nice paintings up in a gallery, comics are so much more accessible. And I love fan mail.

I think I like your list comics ("Mistakes we made at the grocery store" "Things I should probably hide before a date comes over for the first time") so much because they feels so personal. Also because I am the kind of person who makes lists of things to do for my day and then adds really easy things on to the list that I know I can do really quickly, just so I will have more to cross off at the end of the day and feel a bigger sense of accomplishment. What attracts you to making lists?

I make shitloads of lists, including everything I can think of: small tasks like writing emails, then medium errands like buying groceries, then larger responsibilities like sorting out my health insurance, and I usually end the list with some major lifestyle choices written in all-caps like: "DO YOGA 3X A WEEK!" and "ABD!! "(Always Be Drawing.)

It seems crazy but it's actually a way of easing anxiety. If I put it down on paper, I don't have to lie awake worrying about it.

Maybe that's why the lists in my comics come across as personal, even if they aren't directly autobiographical; I think the compulsion to make them comes from wanting to poke fun at my own anxiety.

I would be remiss if I didn't ask you about all of your animals in clothes which appear in your comics. Do you think of them as animals or humans or something in between?

I think they developed as a way of doing loosely autobiographical stories, or ones where drawing myself feels too personal. So they are often representative of aspects of my personality or people that I know. The argument She-moose has with Account-cat about whether to play a game or see a movie is taken straight out of an email exchange. And sometimes, like in "Lunch Break," they're just used to illustrate a daydream. I like how the animals can be eased in and out of reality; the mundane stuff in their world makes just as much sense as the hallucinatory.

I just read your comic again, and saw a part where you said your mom sent you a slideshow of eagles fishing. Are you into nature?

I'm so into nature! But more in a "look at this weird bug under a microscope and then read a book about it" way than an outdoorsy adventuresome way. My parents are both biologists, so they taught me how to get excited about horrifying things like videos of cancer cells multiplying.

We have now arrived at the Largehearted Boy Mini-Music Questionnaire portion of the interview. Do not be afraid.

What was your first rock show?

I went with my parents to see Paul Simon, and I was really pissed when he performed "The Boxer" and sang "leh leh leh" instead of "lai lai lai" during the chorus. Doesn't he know how his own song goes? I'm still pissed.

What was the best performance you've ever seen?

Cirque de Soleil. Every time. Especially now that they have speakers inside every headrest in the theater.

What albums do you listen to while you work?

Quirky electronica like Hot Chip and Metronomy gets the most air time, but I will listen to anything from rap to neo-soul to country to classical, as long as it isn't too mellow.

What music did you listen to when you were growing up?

Weird Al Yankovic, Paul Simon's Graceland, soundtracks to musicals. The first band I lost my mind over was the Beatles, after my brother made me listen to the White Album the entire way through on our record player.

Did you ever date anyone in a band?

Yeah! When men play instruments, it casts an embarrassingly potent love spell on me. My boyfriend plays the ukulele and it drives me crazy!

Lisa Hanawalt links:

Lisa Hanawalt's website
Lisa Hanawalt's Flickr photostream

also at Largehearted Boy:

other Antiheroines interviews
musician/author interviews
Book Notes (authors create playlists for their book)
Note Books (musicians discuss literature)
guest book reviews
52 Books, 52 Weeks

tags: books music literature comics

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