largehearted boy: a music and literature blog

September 9, 2010

Book Notes - Rosecrans Baldwin ("You Lost Me There")

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

Rosecrans Baldwin's debut novel You Lost Me There is a witty, profound, and heartbreaking examination of memory, loss, and love, and easily one of my favorite books of the year.

At NPR, MIchael Schaub wrote of the book:

"The 33-year-old writer — a magazine editor and former EMT and rock-climbing teacher — is uncannily perceptive when it comes to the complicated and fraught issues of marriage, death and sexual desire, and his dialogue is naturalistic and unforced. Perhaps most impressive, though, is the author's artistic and emotional maturity — You Lost Me There is, finally, a wise book, the kind that eludes many authors twice Baldwin's age. Words, of course, really can be lifelines, especially in the aftermath of loss. It's not always easy to find beauty in pain, but that's what Baldwin has done, and the result is affecting, profound and true."

Rosecrans Baldwin is reading in New York City at McNally Jackson Books on September 15th, followed by an interview and discussion hosted by Maud Newton.

In his own words, here is Rosecrans Baldwin's Book Notes music playlist for his debut novel, You Lost Me There:

My book's narrator, a scientist named Victor Aaron, sleeps at night inside a music room, a study he's built solely for the purpose of listening to music. It's a fantasy of mine that I got to play out in the book, though Victor's and my tastes in music differ (he's not much of a rap fan).

Inspired by Alex Ross's stupendous online companion to his book, The Rest is Noise, I created a Tumblr for collecting online samples of some of the songs and composers that are mentioned in You Lost Me There. Here are footnotes for a few of them, which I guess makes this "Book Notes” a companion to the companion.

"Awaiting on You All,” George Harrison

There's a moment late in the story when Victor's world is crashing around him. He's out gardening while listening to Harrison on his iPod and this is the song I had in mind. Rowdy, emotional, ra-ra fun, but a bigger message underneath. Victor wouldn't be paying close attention to the lyrics. "You don't need a horoscope or a microscope / to see the mess that you're in.”

"If That a Sinner's Sighs,” John Dowland

The same friend in college who introduced me to The Verve introduced me to John Dowland. Dowland, a 16th-century composer and lutenist, isn't quite the Richard Ashcroft model of a musical honey trap, but his melancholy songs are lovely. Victor keeps a Dowland CD in his car to listen to when it matches his mood. It's an easily entered campground for the dismayed.

"Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes,” Paul Simon

In the book, Victor falls asleep listening to Paul Simon, remembering his dead wife, Sara, who used to decorate her high heels with costume jewelry. I've never gotten tired of Graceland. Sometime in the late ‘90s, I remember reading an interview with the painter Chuck Close who said Graceland was the closest thing to a perfect pop album that he could imagine. I'm down with that.

"Music for 18 Musicians,” Steve Reich

Victor is a classical music fan first, a specialist, though one who's given up the need to collect every recording of his favorite pieces. When his dreadlocked, techno-head goddaughter comes to live with him for the summer, he plays her Steve Reich, thinking it will appeal to her drum-circle leanings.

"And Then I Knew ‘Twas Wind," Tōru Takemitsu

Takemitsu doesn't actually appear in You Lost Me There, but this was the first song I included on the Tumblr. Takemitsu evokes the aerospace of the novel as I imagined it, an air of tension and sweetness that I wanted to create A friend in college once said that Haruki Murakami's novels sounded to her like "Song of India” by Telecaster master Danny Gatton, from the album Redneck Jazz Explosion. To my ear, she nailed it.

Rosecrans Baldwin and You Lost Me There links:

the author's Tumblr
the book's Tumblr
video trailer for the book
excerpt from the book

A.V. Club review
The Black Sheep Dances review
Booking Mama review
Chicago Tribune review
Entertainment Weekly review
Everyday I Write the Book review
It's Either Sadness or Euphoria... review
Louisville Courier-Journal review
The Nervous Breakdown author self-interview
New York Times review
NPR review
Paste review
Three Guys One Book review
Time Out Chicago review

BlackBook interview with the author
BookPage interview with the author
Chapel Hill News profile of the author
Durham Herald Sun profile of the author
Huffington Post guest posts by the author
Independent Weekly profile of the author
Jacket Copy guest post by the author
Paper Cuts essay by the author
Writers on Process interview with the author
WUNC 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

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September 9, 2010

Book Notes - Steven Gillis ("The Consequence of Skating")

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

Steven Gillis's fiction defies labels, but his latest novel The Consequence of Skating once again proves him a master storyteller. This is a book of big ideas lyrically told with great heart.

Jonathan Evison wrote of the book:

"Steven Gillis possesses that rarest of gifts, the voice that seems to flow effortlessly. This guy makes it look easy. Read the first three pages of The Consequence of Skating, and if you’re not hooked, go see a doctor."

In his own words, here is Steven Gillis's Book Notes music playlist for his novel, The Consequence of Skating:

The Consequence of Skating is my homage to the slippery slope. The majority of the book was written during the time my wife, Mary, was first diagnosed and then subsequently went through chemo, surgery and radiation for breast cancer. This was not a fun time for any of us - we have two school-aged kids as well - and the writing of my novel provided me with an anchor, gave me a place to hide and search for my sanity.

The novel revolves around Ludwig von Mises’ ideas of Human Action, the reason we make decisions, how we are always striving to improve our situation and cure a dissatisfaction. At the center of the narrative is Mickey Greene, an actor who has seen better days, has allowed a troubled affair and a sudden infatuation with drugs to undo him. Over the course of the novel, Mick winds his way through a course of actions which, if not designed to bring him redemption, offer him a reboot, a way to get his life back on track, even as the course he charts continues to unravel.

Although written in the first person, The Consequence of Skating is multi-layered with over two dozen characters weaving their way in and out of the plot. Rather than run you through the storyline in total, suffice to say there is sex and song, war and peace, heartache and dance, hope and despair, death and taxes, mountain climbing, computers and the internet, movies and plays, politics and politicking. Hell, there is a world in this book and Mick experiences all of it. For me, the most important theme in the novel is the application of integrity, the truth behind our actions that we can’t hide or lie about, especially to ourselves. Failure is fine, but cowardice and deception are ultimately unforgivable.

Upon finishing the novel, as the co-founder of Dzanc Books, I wanted to be sure I had written a worthy book, and contacted a handful of editors outside of Dzanc and received strong feedback and offers from their houses. Reassured, I chose to stay in house with Black Lawrence Press. (BLP had published my last novel, Temporary People, and acquired my story collection, The Principles of Landscape, which will be out next year; all of this prior to BLP becoming an imprint of Dzanc.) It’s never easy sending a book into the world, and the complications surrounding my life during the writing of The Consequence of Skating drew further doubts to my perspective. In this way, I was – and am – much like my character Mick. We are both blind leapers, both eager lovers, though not always generous or successful. We are both political in spirit if not deed. One of the major motifs in the novel involves Mick’s friend, Ted, who hopes to make sense of the world by presenting utilitarian courses of action to political hotbeds like Iran. Needless to say, Ted has his troubles, too.

Another central focus of the novel is the Ying and Yang of relationships – familial, sensual, friends and acquaintances – and how we respond to the needs of others and our own responsibilities toward them. Harold Pinter also appears as a major player in the novel; his writings and political activities. In the end, in writing The Consequence of Skating, I was looking to explore many of the things that make us tick as humans. I hope I pulled this off, though as Mick finds out in the end, not all the best laid plans wind up the way we first imagine.

To my relief, initial reaction to The Consequence of Skating has been strong. Then out of nowhere BAM I was hit in the gut by a really negative review from Publishers Weekly. This reviewer – anonymous as is PW's policy – hated the novel. I am a big boy and can take a bad review but this one went beyond the call, drawing into question the copy editing of the book – this though PW was as always sent a galley which is obviously an uncorrected proof – and referring to the novel as “thinly plotted,” again though the novel is without question a densely plotted book, more than any I have ever written. The reviewer also made a huge factual mistake in the review. And so it goes. Like Mick, I know shit happens and what can we do? Maybe the reviewer is right, maybe the novel sucks and I lost all perspective during the rough times in which she was written. If so, this is totally my fault. Still, the powers that be at PW - Cevin Bryerman and Louisa Ermelino - dismissed queries about the review, did not care that for the first time in the history of PW a reference to copy editing was made in a review of a galley, nor that there was a huge factual error in the review. (The published version of Skating, for the record, has been impeccably copy edited, and was before PW comments appeared regarding the galley.) That the reviewer might have a personal agenda toward me or Dzanc was dismissed by Cevin and Louisa and PW refused to release the name of the reviewer.

Who knows? Ultimately, who cares? If I were totally Mick, my response might be somewhat different. Fucking cowards, I might say. God damn careless and callous shits. Lets set their world on fire. But what’s the point? My wife is still recovering from cancer. Who knows what the future brings? I wrote a book. I put my heart into her. Who knows if she is any good? Maybe my head was up my arse the whole time. Safe that. Fuck it all. As The Consequence of Skating begins - “Here is what I know: The world is round not flat, though at every turn there are crack sharp edges.” That about says it. Ooobla dee, oobla da. Life goes on. What the hell? Onward.

Music List - As listened to and inspired by when writing The Consequence of Skating:

Anna Elizabeth - "Angels and Devils," "A Teenage Thing," "Silly Little Me," "What Happened to Real"

Forget the fact Anna is my daughter. She is a great singer/songwriter/guitarist and her songs blow me away. I listen to her play live and on CD all the time. She is truly an inspiration and the perfect match for the soundtrack to Skating.

Lou Reed, "Sweet Jane"

One of the all time great songs. "Anyone who has a heart..." Truly man. Song is in my novel and listened to many a time during the writing process.

Citizen Cope - Second and third albums

Unreal, urban soul. Rickie Lee Jones for 2010. Love him. Every song is the Beats put to contemporary music. If Skating ever becomes a film, here is the soundtrack.

John Mayer

Pop indulgence but the man can sing and play that guitar and his last album was vastly under appreciated.

The Decemberists

My wife loves them and I got totally turned on. Another group I listened to over and over while writing Skating.

The Sundays

Been a fan for 20 years. Mystical, the music works its way into my marrow.

Nickle Creek

Man I wish they never broke up. Their last album has some of the best musicianship and harmonizing. Love their stuff. I hope you meet someone your height/So you can see eye-to-eye/With someone as small as you. Damn! Here is what Mick wished he might have said.

Adele

This woman can sing the guts out of a cat. Love her phrasing, how she isn't afraid to be different. No one can touch her sound. Her voice is amazing. Can't wait for her next disc.

Steven Gillis and The Consequence of Skating links:

excerpt from the book

Hot Metal Bridge interview with the author
Largehearted Boy Book Notes essay by the author for Temporary People
The Rumpus posts by the author

also at Largehearted Boy:

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

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Shorties (Superchunk, The Future of E-Book Covers, and more)

NPR is streaming the new Superchunk album, Majesty Shredding.

Booktwo examines the future of book covers for e-books. (via)

Sam Lipsyte talks to The Millions about his novel, The Ask.

The National frontman Matt Berninger talks to the Georgia Straight about the band's success.

"We are realists," the baritone singer says. "We've been in a band that’s been trying to get to this point for years. And we know that when you have some attention, it can go away so fast. It's music. It's rock 'n' roll. Bands are hot and then, you know, people lose interest. So we know that we have to dive in and deliver and make our mark while we can."

CBC News interviews Anthony Bourdain.

The Duluth News-Tribune interviews singer-songwriter Mark Olson.

For Folk's Sake interviews Sea of Bees' Julie Baenziger.

The Canadian Press lists the five most explosive music documentaries.

Midnight Sun shares videos of the top five cover songs performed by Vampire Weekend.

Now Toronto profiles The Do.

The Do’s music is every bit as stylish. Substantial, too. A Mouthful’s wistful lyrics are coloured by a spectrum of instruments, styles and eras: the strings of 60s pop, thumping drums that sound transplanted from 90s indie rock, Cuban jazz claves. Then there are Merilahti’s idiosyncratic vocals, which belong to the pleasantly awkward vocal tradition of Bjork, Joanna Newsom and Kate Bush.

KCRW's Bookworm interviews Vendela Vida today about her novel, The Lovers.

Jenny Lewis and Johnathan Rice talk to the Omaha World-Herald about their new album, Jenny and Johnny's I'm Having Fun Now.

Shmoop lists eight of the most frustrating relationships in literature.

NME lists the most vicious put-downs in music.

Monkey See reviews Howard Cruse's classic graphic novel, Stuck Rubber Baby.

Read Cruise's Largehearted Boy Book Notes essay for the book.

At NPR, Michael Schaub reviews one of the year's finest novels, Paul Murray's Skippy Dies. An excerpt from the book is also shared.

The Guardian is streaming the new Vaselines album, Sex with an X (out September 14th).

Win a copy of Dante's Divine Comedy: A Graphic Adaptation in this week's Largehearted Boy contest.

Follow me on Twitter and Stumbleupon for links (updated throughout the day) that don't make the daily "Shorties" columns.

also at Largehearted Boy:

previous Shorties posts (daily links from the worlds of music, literature, and pop culture)

Atomic Books Comics Preview (highlights of the week's comics & graphic novel releases)
daily mp3 downloads
Largehearted Word (highlights of the week's book releases)
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 (CocoRosie, Lloyd Cole, 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:

Bronze: free and legal Bronze EP [mp3]
other Bronze posts at Largehearted Boy

Callers: "You Are an Arc" [mp3] from Life of Love
other Callers posts at Largehearted Boy

CocoRosie: "R.I.P. Burn Face" [mp3] from Grey Oceans
other CocoRosie posts at Largehearted Boy

Dada Trash Collage: "Two Eyes" [mp3] from Cool Waves, Bad Days
other Dada Trash Collage posts at Largehearted Boy

Gary Wilson: "Electric Endicott" [mp3] from Electric Endicott (out November 9th)
other Gary Wilson posts at Largehearted Boy

Jesse Payne: "Manhattan Project" [mp3] from Nesting (out November 9th)
other Jesse Payne posts at Largehearted Boy

Lloyd Cole: "Double Happiness" [mp3] from Broken Record (out September 28th)
other Lloyd Cole posts at Largehearted Boy

Low: "Silver Rider" [mp3] from The Great Destroyer
other Low posts at Largehearted Boy

Marnie Stern: "For Ash" [mp3] from Marnie Stern (out October 5th)
other Marnie Stern posts at Largehearted Boy

Wow & Flutter: "Scars" [mp3] from Equilibrio! (out October 19th)
other Wow & Flutter posts at Largehearted Boy

Free and legal mp3s of live performances at other websites:

Franz Nicolay: Backyard Brunch Session [mp3]
other Franz Nicolay posts at Largehearted Boy

Justin Townes Earle: Daytrotter session [mp3]
other Justin Townes Earle posts at Largehearted Boy

also at Largehearted Boy:

other daily free and legal mp3 downloads

2010 Bonnaroo downloads
music festival downloads
Try It Before You Buy It (mp3s and album streams from weekly CD releases)
weekly CD and DVD release lists

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September 8, 2010

Book Notes - Annabel Lyon ("The Golden Mean")

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

Annabel Lyon's gift for storytelling has already earned her comparisons to Alice Munro, and her novel The Golden Mean envelops the reader in the Macedonia of Aristotle and his student, Alexander the Great. Most surprisingly, Lyon's exploration of both the life and mind of Aristotle is the most comprehensive and human a study of the philosopher I have read.

Quill & Quire wrote of the book:

"Lyon's singular gifts for description, character development, and plotting are on full display here, informing her unique and creative story. The novel is deep and rich in thought and accomplishment, yet it reads with the calming ease and influence of a cool summer breeze."

In her own words, here is Annabel Lyon's Book Notes music playlist for her novel, The Golden Mean:

The Golden Mean chronicles the seven-year relationship between the ancient philosopher Aristotle and his most famous student, the teenage Alexander before he was Great. So that makes me a philosophy geek, an ancient history geek, a historical fiction geek…. Sigh. You'd think the music I listened to during the seven and a half years it took to write the novel would be all lyres and lutes, but I was born in 1971—Generation X, the MTV generation—and the musical tastes I've carried into adulthood run less to pan pipes than to grunge and punk, with a broad streak of Baroque. (I wasted my adolescence studying classical piano, dreaming of a concert career the way a 5'4" teenager might dream of the NBA—sweetly, stupidly). In fact, though, my taste in music—angry, dirty, complex, sad music—probably influenced my characters more than I realized at the time of writing. I came to understand my two main characters through their frailties: Aristotle as bi-polar, Alexander as suffering from post-traumatic stress as a result of being trained as a child soldier. They lived in a world constantly at war, a world of slavery and illiteracy and suffering, where every other woman died in childbirth and mental illness was utterly frightening and mysterious. The music I returned to again and again while writing the novel (with one or two blessed exceptions) tended to reflect back the harshness and fear and loneliness I was writing about. Bleak beauty; vibrant darkness. And a bit of Beach Boys.

Melismos

This Australian group of Mina Kanaridis and Philip South, led by composer and scholar Michael Atherton, performs recreations of ancient Greek music on original instruments. Lutes and lyres and pan-pipes, oh my! In fact, what attracts me to Melismos performances are the profoundly unsettling sounds they produce: the almost Celtic wailing of the singer, the haunting effects on the frame drum, the relentlessly driving rhythms, and the hypnotic quality of the double aulos. You get a glimpse into the music that inspired and fuelled Dionysian revels, the raves of the ancient world.

Arcade Fire, "Intervention"

Can I begin by saying I have no idea what the hell this song is about? But The Arcade Fire make such a great, glorious noise that it doesn't really matter. (I picked "Intervention" more or less randomly; any of their songs would have done). I'm bad at making out the lyrics at the best of times, so the half-phrases I can glean from Funeral and Neon Bible take on profound resonance: "I guess we'll just have to adjust" or "Singing hallelujah with the fear in your heart" become as oddly meaningful as the fragments in Anne Carson's stunning translation of Sappho, If Not, Winter. You listen to them and get love, lust, despair, childhood, and loss over an immense musical architecture.

Wilco, "Radio Cure"

"Cheer up, honey, I hope you can / There is something wrong with me / My mind is full of silvery stars." I played this so many times, at home and in the car, wrestling with the feelings of depression and despair that have surfaced periodically throughout my life, that my 18-month-old would start asking for the "cheer-up song." Isn't that cute? Except that I wasn't feeling cute. I was feeling like I would never enjoy anything, or write a decent sentence, or get a good night's sleep ever again. At a certain point I realized that everyone in my novel—Aristotle, Aristotle's wife, their new house slave, Aristotle's friends the theatre director and the general, Alexander, Alexander's mother, everyone, everyone—was depressed. Who in god's name would want to read that? And then my husband and I would have endless arguments about whether Jeff Tweedy was singing "Distance has a way" or "Distance has no way / of making love understandable". We finally agreed for the sake of our marriage that he was singing it differently each time. What brought me back again and again to the song were the glimpses of beauty from the pits. I understood a depressed person having a mind filled with silvery stars; that sounded like the Aristotle I was struggling to capture on the page, that simultaneous beauty and wonder and despair, the gorgeous fragility of the human mind.

The Clash, "Should I Stay Or Should I Go?"

After a fierce argument (I can't remember, but possibly about Jeff Tweedy), my husband surreptitiously loaded this as my cell phone's ring-tone. Funny, funny man. You've got time to play with my phone, how about you go put on a load of laundry? But "Should I Stay Or Should I Go?" is my contender for greatest pop song of all time, so I left it where it was. It became the soundtrack of my one workday a week, when my husband on his day off took the toddler and the baby so I could escape to write for a few precious hours at the public library or local coffee-shop. I'd hear that guitar riff, and then Joe Strummer would make that James Brown yelp that starts the song. I'd press the button to hear my husband asking how it was going, and would I be home soon? The weird thing was that the ring-tone didn't kill the song for me; I got the same thrill of pleasure every time I heard that first riff, even when I was up to my knees in Macedonian mud and really, really didn't want to wash it off quite yet.

Beach Boys, "Surfer Girl"

My five-year-old's favourite Beach Boys song; their Greatest Hits CD lives in our car stereo and only occasionally comes out so she can listen to the Ramones' "Blitzkrieg Bop" instead. What have the Beach Boys got to do with The Golden Mean? Not much, except that it was undeniably a part of my mental soundtrack while I was working on the book. "I have watched you on the shore / Standing by the ocean's roar / Do you love me?" Aristotle is known from his biological writings to have been a marine biologist and an avid swimmer, collecting fish and shellfish specimens and describing the actions of animals under the water. I included quite a few scenes of him on the shore, standing by the ocean's roar, brooding about this and that. Aristotle and Brian Wilson, together at last!

Yo-Yo Ma, Bach's Solo Cello Suites

Oh, horrid cliché! The fact that everyone loves the Bach cello suites makes me want to hate them, but I can't. I love them too, and if I don't check in with them every so often I get twitchy. You've got your C major for when you're feeling chipper, your D minor for when you can't open the curtains or leave the apartment. They're the perfect musical incarnation of the solitary thinker in all his or her moods, and a reminder of everything human achievement—whether in music or literature or science or philosophy—can be.

Annabel Lyon and The Golden Mean links:

the author's blog
the author's Wikipedia entry

All Things Considered review
Bookpleasures.com review
Financial Times review
Free Range Reading review
Globe and Mail review
Guardian review
A Journey Through Literature review
KevinfromCanada review
Librarians Do It Between the Covers review
The Mookse and the Gripes review
National Post review
A Novelist's Mind review
Read, Play, Blog review
Shelf Awareness review
Vancouver Sun review
Yorkshire Evening Post review

CBC interview with the author
Georgia Straight profile of the author
Quill & Quire review
Rob McLennan's Blog interview with the author
The Tyee profile of the author
The Walrus interview with the author

also at Largehearted Boy:

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

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Atomic Books Comics Preview - September 8, 2010

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.

Anthology Project Volume 1
by various

If you like gorgeous and eclectic comic anthologies with captivating stories, you'll want to see Anthology Project. It's definitely for fans of things like the Flight series.

Cuba: My Revolution
by Inverna Lockpez / Dean Haspiel

Havana-born writer Inverna Lockpez taps into her own experiences to create this story about an artist and revolutionary who is caught between ideology and idealism and pays a heavy price in Castro's Cuba. Beautifully illustrated by Dean Haspiel.

Dr. Horrible
by Zack Whedon / Eric Canete / Farel Dalrymple / Joelle Jones / Jim Rugg / Dan Jackson

If you couldn't get enough of Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, this graphic novel compiles some of the early adventures of Captain Hammer and Dr. Horrible and answers questions that may still be lingering for fans of the show.

Drinking At The Movies
by Julia Wertz

Fart Party organizer Julia Wertz constructs her first, official, full-length memoir that is every bit as funny and charming as her Fart Party strips. For Fart Party members, it reads as a behind-the-scenes that fills in a lot of dots - and for the uninitiated - well, I envy you for having the chance to read Wertz for the first time!

Rigor Mortis #3
by various

I may be going outside the comics genre a little bit, but I really need to point out this excellent zombie-zine done by some ghoulish friends of mine. Gorgeous illustrations and an in-depth look at the world of the undead - it's a great resource to turn you on to more monstrous treats!

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 blog
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)

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Shorties (The xx, Jonathan Franzen's Freedom: The Movie (Rights), and more)

The xx have won the 2010 Mercury Music Prize.

New York Magazine lists the literary fiction titles where producer Scott Rudin owns the film rights, including Jonathan Franzen's Freedom, Michael Chabon's The Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, and several others.

The Arizona Republic examines how local independent record stores are using social media to connect with their customers.

The Huffington Post reviews Tao Lin's new novel, Richard Yates, and interviews the author.

Gibson lists ten giants of southern rock guitar.

The Irish Times bemoans the omission of Paul Murray's novel Skippy Dies from the Man Booker prize finalist list.

PopMatters interviews Thermals drummer Westin Glass about the band's new album, Personal Life.

Autostraddle previews fall's interesting new books.

Flavorwire lists famous rappers and their 20th century literary counterparts.

No Depression looks back on Erin McKeown's debut album, Distillation, ten years after its initial release.

The Globe and Mail interviews Emma Donoghue about her novel Room, a finalist for the Man Booker prize

Letters of Note posts two letters written by a young Morrissey.

The Guardian interviews Morrissey.

The Guardian reports that scientists have identified the best dance moves for men.

Spin lists the best concerts of the summer.

Author William Gibson talks to Speakeasy about the future of publishing.

The A.V. Club interviews Zooey Deschanel.

BBC 4 interviews author John LeCarre about his new book.

At NPR Music, the Nels Cline Singers play a tiny desk concert.

The Guardian lists the top 10 horror books.

Dinner Party Download interviews Clientele frontman Alasdair MacLean.

Hilary Mantel talks to the Telegraph about winning the 2009 Man Booker prize.

Win a copy of Dante's Divine Comedy: A Graphic Adaptation in this week's Largehearted Boy contest.

Follow me on Twitter and Stumbleupon for links (updated throughout the day) that don't make the daily "Shorties" columns.

also at Largehearted Boy:

previous Shorties posts (daily links from the worlds of music, literature, and pop culture)

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Daily Downloads (Belle and Sebastian, The Tallest Man on Earth, 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:

Airplane Noise: free and legal Getting Down EP [mp3]
Airplane Noise: "Go Ahead" [mp3]
other Airplane Noise posts at Largehearted Boy

Belle and Sebastian: "Write About Love" (registration required) [mp3] from Belle and Sebastian Write About Love (out October 12th)
other Belle and Sebastian posts at Largehearted Boy

Cashes Rivers: "As I Drift" [mp3] from Cashes Rivers
other Cashes Rivers posts at Largehearted Boy

Fishermans: free and legal Collective Vertigo EP [mp3]
other Fishermans posts at Largehearted Boy

Low Sea: "Falling" [mp3] from The Light
Low Sea: "Never Yours" [mp3] from The Light
other Low Sea posts at Largehearted Boy

Menomena: "Taos" [mp3] from Mines
other Menomena posts at Largehearted Boy

Ned Oldham: "The One Light" [mp3] from Let's Go Out Tonight EP
other Ned Oldham posts at Largehearted Boy

Owen Pallett: "A Man With No Ankles" (zipped) [mp3] from A Swedish Love Story EP (out September 28th)
other Owen Pallett posts at Largehearted Boy

The Tallest Man on Earth: "Like the Wheel" [mp3] from Sometimes The Blues Is Just A Passing Bird (out on iTunes now, elsewhere on November 9th)
other Tallest Man on Earth posts at Largehearted Boy

Free and legal mp3s of live performances at other websites:

Built to Spill: 2010-08-04, Wellfleet [mp3]
other Built to Spill posts at Largehearted Boy

The Glands: 2010-09-06, Athens [mp3]
other Glands posts at Largehearted Boy

The Maine: Daytrotter session [mp3]
other Maine posts at Largehearted Boy

also at Largehearted Boy:

other daily free and legal mp3 downloads

2010 Bonnaroo downloads
music festival downloads
Try It Before You Buy It (mp3s and album streams from weekly CD releases)
weekly CD and DVD release lists

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September 7, 2010

Try It Before You Buy It - September 7, 2010 Music Releases

Try It Before You Buy It features free and legal mp3 downloads and full album streams from the week's music releases:

The Acorn: No Ghost
full album stream

Antony and the Johnsons: Thank You for Your Love
Antony and the Johnsons: "Thank You for Your Love" [mp3]

Bachman & Turner: Bachman & Turner
full album stream

Continue reading "Try It Before You Buy It - September 7, 2010 Music Releases"

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Book Notes - Tao Lin ("Richard Yates")

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

Tao Lin's new novel Richard Yates is an offbeat love story featuring Haley Joel Osment and Dakota Fanning. With prose filled with Gmail chats and text messages, Lin is an expert in showing his story instead of just telling it, and Richard Yates is another captivating book from this talented and inventive young author.

Thanks to Tao Lin for contributing his sixth essay in the Book Notes series.

Time Out New York wrote of the book:

"Lin's prose is sometimes described as sparse, but that word doesn't quite do his work justice. His lean and often maniacal sentences propel the work forward with a slanted momentum. What first seems like a stock tale of romance gone sour evolves into a parable about the fickleness of human desire and the futility of detachment when it comes to love."

In his own words, here is Tao Lin's Book Notes music playlist for his novel, Richard Yates:

Richard Yates references Björk, Get Up Kids, Hot Water Music, Kill Your Idols, Radiohead, Rancid, The Weakerthans. An earlier draft referenced Morning Glory. Richard Yates has an index that says on which page each band/musician is referenced. The main characters in Richard Yates are Haley Joel Osment and Dakota Fanning. Richard Yates mentions three songs specifically.

1. "Tripped" by Neva Dinova (page 20, 123)

Haley Joel Osment's favorite song for most of Richard Yates (~April 2006 – Thanksgiving 2006) is maybe "Tripped." He and Dakota Fanning listen to it together the first time they are in her room. Later Dakota Fanning records a "cover" of it for Haley Joel Osment using a tape recorder. Haley Joel Osment usually listens to "Tripped" with "Poison" and "Get Back" and "Spring Cleaning," all by Neva Dinova ("Spring Cleaning" is written by Conor Oberst but sung by Neva Dinova's singer), sometimes on a playlist with only those four songs (referenced in Richard Yates as his "four favorite songs").

2. "Sweet Avenue" by Jets to Brazil (page 60)

Haley Joel Osment listens to "Sweet Avenue" via earphones/iPod while walking on the side of a street and then a field between a grocery store and a parking lot of school buses in rural New Jersey ~3:30AM after Dakota Fanning has walked away from him in a somewhat confusing, outwardly calm, nearly idle manner. "Sweet Avenue" is about not feeling bad about life anymore because of having met someone, I think. Haley Joel Osment chooses to listen to it at this moment because, I think, he feels that its calmly emotional, non-annoying, passively life-affirming characteristics will help him think about things in a grateful, unrushed, vaguely enjoyable manner. Its lyrics include "thank you for making me see there's a life in me" and "cross-town train to you / now all these tastes improve / through the view that comes with you." The "cross-town train to you" line has relevance to Haley Joel Osment because he and Dakota Fanning visit each other via ~2-hour train rides. Haley Joel Osment's situation while listening to "Sweet Avenue" seems to be almost the opposite of the situation described in "Sweet Avenue," in that a relationship is possibly ending, causing Haley Joel Osment, I think, to think about his situation with more appreciation for having "at least" experienced with Dakota Fanning a period where their life changed, in a desirable manner, he thinks, due to having met each other. Haley Joel Osment usually puts "Sweet Avenue" on playlists directly before or after "Sea Anemone" (also by Jets to Brazil), which is also calmly emotional and non-annoying, to Haley Joel Osment, but seems to be "set" in a time when a relationship has ended and has lyrics about idly thinking about hanging oneself, I think, on a shower rod ("now I'm making out the shapes / like the shower rod—can it take my weight?").

3. "Jackass" by The Vandals (page 110)

Haley Joel Osment listens to "Jackass" on repeat while sitting on a metal, bench-like thing in sunlight eating a salad outside NYU's business school July 2006. He likes "Jackass," in part, because it seems to have vulnerable, emotional, maybe-autobiographical lyrics about a relationship where, at one point, someone is "on tour" while someone is "alone, wondering just what you did with your phone." The chorus—

"Keep playing. I'll stay in."
I can't see myself saying
"Keep playing. I'll stay in. I'll be OK."

—seems to convey that the singer (possibly singing from the perspective of someone else, in sympathy or "understanding," directing the lyrics toward himself, as he is in a band that has "toured" often, which causes the song to seem "even more" emotional to Haley Joel Osment) is contemplating whether or not to remain in the relationship and currently feeling like not remaining, if its characteristics don't change, which has relevance to Haley Joel Osment and Dakota Fanning's situation throughout most of Richard Yates. At the end of the song the singer sings "I guess I'm just a big jackass / I guess I'm just a big jackass" in a loud, melodic, rhythmic voice. The last line is "I'm a big jackass" and is sung in a quieter and "looser," somewhat "mournful," weakly/non-sarcastically/"a little humorously" authoritative voice, I think, based on my re-listening of it via YouTube for this essay.

Tao Lin and Richard Yates links:

the author's blog
the author's Tumblr
the book's website
the author's Wikipedia entry
excerpt from the book

The Blue Bookcase review
Chamber Four review
david-fishkind.com review
HTMLGIANT review
I Run From Bears review
JMWW Blog review
Known Unknowns review
The Nervous Breakdown review
The Open End review
The Rumpus review
Thought Catalog review
Time Out New York review
The Well-Read Wife review

Associated Press profile of the author
Codex interview with the author
The Cult interview with the author
Interview interview with the author
Largehearted Boy Book Notes essay for Bed by the author
Largehearted Boy Book Notes essay for Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy by the author
Largehearted Boy Book Notes essay for Eeeee Eee Eeee by the author
Largehearted Boy Book Notes essay for Shoplifting from American Apparel by the author
Largehearted Boy Book Notes essay for you are a little bit happier than i am by the author
Nylon profile of the author
New York Observer profile of the author
The Rumpus interview with the author
Salon profile of the author
Thirsty Days NY interview with the author

also at Largehearted Boy:

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

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Shorties (Weezer, The Man Booker Prize Shortlist, and more)

Weezer is streaming their new album, Hurley, on MySpace.

The shortlist for the 2010 Man Booker Prize has been announced, and contains the following novels:

Peter Carey's Parrot and Olivier in America
Emma Donoghue's Room
Damon Galgut's In a Strange Room
Howard Jacobson's The Finkler Question
Andrea Levy's The Long Song
Tom McCarthy's C

Dazed Digital shares an exclusive mixtape by Fever Ray.

Teenage Fanclub's Norman Blake talks to PopMatters about the band's twenty year history.

The Herald reviews Alice Echols' book, Disco and the Remaking of American Culture.

Skiddle profiles singer-songwriter Caitlin Rose.

The September issue of Bookslut is online, and contains interviews with authors Rachel Shukert and Lee Rourke.

The Arizona Republic interviews Rick Moody about his new novel, Four Fingers of Death.

Five Chapters is serializing a new story by Jessica Francis Kane.

At The Morning News, Kane shares an essay about gardening.

Cinematical lists the best songs inspired by movies.

At All Things Considered, author Gary Shteyngart shares his love for the science fiction novel Zardoz.

What's Zardoz about? I have no idea. By any measure of logic, it makes absolutely no sense. But like every other piece of 1970s science fiction writing, it was set in a post-apocalyptic world, a future where my Hebrew school in Queens had thankfully been blown to smithereens. A world I could really fall in love with.

Win a copy of Dante's Divine Comedy: A Graphic Adaptation in this week's Largehearted Boy contest.

Follow me on Twitter and Stumbleupon for links (updated throughout the day) that don't make the daily "Shorties" columns.

also at Largehearted Boy:

previous Shorties posts (daily links from the worlds of music, literature, and pop culture)

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