Monthly Archives: September 2013

Portlandia’s Carrie Brownstein Loves Yoshitomo Nara’s Art

nara2

Portlandia star Carrie Brownstein, formerly one third of the riot grrrl band Sleater-Kinney, digs the art of Yoshitomo Nara so much she once wrote a short story, “Light My Fire,” inspired by one of the Japanese artist’s sculptures, according to the Huffington Post‘s “The Blog.”

“I went to this giant show that was an introduction to contemporary Japanese art called ‘Superflat’ [in 2001] and I was drawn to Nara’s work,” Brownstein told The Blog. “I loved the almost haunting but also very exhilarating juxtaposition between the child-like quality of his work and an almost punk rock fierceness — with a wisdom beyond their years, and the threat of mischief that’s just bordering on malevolence.

“His work spoke to me in a way where I thought about how adults underestimate kids all the time,” she continued. “When you are a child, you feel underestimated. And as an adult, you underestimate the power and the acuity or the abilities of children in certain ways, especially for them to have a dark side, a mischievous side. I wrote a little bit about that with ‘Light My Fire.'”

For more of the interview, head to The Blog.

Grateful Dead Lyricist Robert Hunter To Hit The Road

hunter_robert

Robert Hunter, the lyricist who wrote the lyrics for many of the Grateful Dead’s best songs will be touring for the first time in years (starting later this week in New York), according to Rolling Stone.

Hunter collaborated with Jerry Garcia beginning in the ’60s and the two of them wrote such Dead classics as “Dark Star,” St. Stephen” and “Box of Rain.”

Hunter says he’s touring to pay off hospital bills.

“When I was in my sixties, it seemed like a good time to retire, and I didn’t have a financial reason,” Hunter told David Browne. “But I’ve got medical bills to pay, so I’m a working man again. Last year I managed to have a nice hospitalization that should have been fatal. I had a spinal abscess. It was a honey. They had me on morphine for about a month. I had never had the distinction of being involved with that [drug] before. It was the strangest world. I couldn’t tell delusions from reality. I was calling my mom in the middle of the night saying they were going to execute me.”

To read an interview with Hunter, head to Rolling Stone.

Video: Elliott Smith’s “Between The Bars” Covered By…Madonna?

Screen Shot 2013-09-25 at 10.52.18 AM

Apparently attempting to reinvent herself in the 21st Century, Madonna has launched something called “Art For Freedom.” And now she’s covered Elliott Smith’s “Between The Bars.” She kicked the whole thing off (whatever it is) with the release of a 17 minute film, “#SecretProjectRevolution” which you can watch here. Madonna wants everyone to participate.

On the “Art For Freedom” we’re all invited to: “EXPRESS YOUR PERSONAL MEANING OF FREEDOM AND REVOLUTION IN THE FORM OF VIDEO, MUSIC, POETRY, AND PHOTOGRAPHY. JOIN THE REVOLUTION BY SUBMITTING YOUR ART FOR FREEDOM BELOW, OR BY TAGGING YOUR POSTS #ARTFORFREEDOM.

Listen: Stream Unwound’s Early Years AKA “Kid Is Gone”

Unwound.

In the early ’90s Olympia, Washington’s Unwound made a glorious noise. Now the group’s earliest recordings — cassette-only demos, early 7”s, a KAOS radio broadcast, material tracked live in a local Olympia basement, and all of what became 1994’s Unwound — are available. Thirty-four tracks which preceded the group’s debut, 1993’s Fake Tree, have been released in a three-record box set that also includes a album-sized 24-page booklet and a download card . 

Listen to the entire album at Pitchfork.

Books: Beatles Expert Delivers Vol. 1 Of Epic Bio

beatles

Beatles authority Mark Lewisohn’s 800-plus page biography of the Fab Four will be published on October 29, 2013. The first volume of a three-volume set ends at 1962, the year the group scored their first UK hit with “Love Me Do.”

According to British music journalist David Hepworth, a self-described Beatles expert, “I can open this book on almost any page and find something I didn’t know, hae never had confirmed or have never realised the full significance of before.”

For more, read Hepworth’s blog post on the book, which is currently reading.

 

Obit: Beat Writer/ Muse Carolyn Cassady Dead at 90

cassady

Carolyn Cassady, who will forever be remembered as the model for Camille, the second wife of Dean Moriarty in Jack Kerouac’s Great American Novel “On The Road,” died on Friday near her home in Bracknell, England. In real life, Ms. Cassady was married  to (and later divorced from) Neal Cassady, who Kerouac based Moriarty on. She was briefly Kerouac’s lover, with the encouragement of her husband. Her daughter Cathy Sylvia confirmed that Ms. Cassady lapsed into a coma after an emergency appendectomy, according to the New York Times. Ms. Cassady wrote two books, “Heart Beat: My Life With Jack and Neal” (1976) and “Off the Road: My Years with Cassady, Kerouac and Ginsberg (1990).

For more, read obits in The Guardian and The New York Times.

Listen: Godspeed You! Black Emperor Win Canada’s Polaris Music Prize

godspeed

The Canadian experimental rock band, Godspeed You! Black Emperor have won this year’s Polaris Music Prize, for their album, Allelujah! Don’t Bend! Ascend! The award is given for the best album of the year as determined by an 11 member panel of Canadian journalists and broadcasters.

Stream the entire album and see what you think.