Junot Díaz–”The Money” (New Yorker, June 13 & 20, 2011)

SOUNDTRACK: SLOAN-”Cars” (2011). When Sloan went to the A.V. Club to record their cover, they were disappointed by the selection.  Of course, that’s the game, so suck it up Sloan.  But they decided to do Gary Numan’s “Cars.” Now, I feel compelled  to say that Gary Numan’s ”Cars” may be my least favorite song of all [...]

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Five Dials Number 15: The November Issue (22 November 2010)

SOUNDTRACK: FOO FIGHTERS-Wasting Light (2011). The Foo Fighters are huge.  Duh.  But when I think of that, it amazes me that a) the Foo Fighters are the band from “the drummer from Nirvana” and that b) while Dave Grohl knows his way around a melody, he is a metal dude at heart, and some of [...]

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Jennifer Egan–”Archeology” (New Yorker, June 13 & 20, 2011)

SOUNDTRACK: JOSH CATERER-”Ask” (2011). Josh Caterer is the main guy behind The Smoking Popes, whose first album, Born to Quit, Morrissey has said was his favorite –and which is also not only no longer in print, it’s not available on Spotify! (the first album that I have looked for which was not available). Anyhow, this cover comes [...]

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Arthur Bradford–”The Orderly” (Nerve.com, May 1, 2006)

SOUNDTRACK: BUFFALO TOM: “Guilty Girls” (2011). Holy cow, Buffalo Tom!  I more or less forgot about these guys (who I really liked back in the 90s).  Some of their songs from that period are fantastic.  They never had any major success, but they had a series of great releases.  Evidently they reformed a few years [...]

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Tyra Banks–Modelland (2011) [prepub excerpt]

SOUNDTRACK: BRENDAN PERRY-Live at KEXP, July 26, 2011 (2011). Brendan Perry was the mastermind behind Dead Can Dance, one of the more influential bands on the 4AD label.  I really haven’t listened to them in ages (goth is so 1990s), but I was delighted to see that Robin Guthrie and Brendan Perry performed a live set at [...]

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Zadie Smith–3 book reviews (Harper’s, July 2011)

SOUNDTRACK: MY MORNING JACKET-Z (2005). I’ve enjoyed My Morning Jacket since I bought their live album Okonokos.  I’ve enjoyed all of their releases since, but I never listened to Z, the album that forms the basis of much of Okonokos. Finally, I saw it cheap and picked it up. And I was really surprised.  The [...]

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Paul Theroux–”Incident in the Oriente” (Harper’s, July 2011)

SOUNDTRACK: BOB MOULD-Sasquatch Festival, May 28, 2011 (2011). I loved Hüsker Dü.  I loved Sugar (a tad less).  I loved Mould’s Workbook.  And then I kind of loss interest in the guy.  He recently wrote an autobiography, which I would consider reading, but musically, I assumed he was done. So I wasn’t even that interested [...]

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Tessa Hadley–”Married Love” (New Yorker, October 8, 2007)

SOUNDTRACK: WAVVES-King of the Beach (2010). I feel like I shouldn’t like Wavves.  There’s os much to dislike about them (or him,  I should say, since it’s almost entirely the product of one guy). He’s bratty, fans seem to dislike him (do a search for Wavves live), and in the first live show that I [...]

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Five Dials Number 14 (4 November 2010)

SOUNDTRACK: THE HEAD AND THE HEART-Sasquatch Music Festival, May 28, 2011 (2011). This is the fourth live recording from The Head and the Heart that NPR offers.  Not bad for a band with only one album out.  This set finds the band even more confident and relaxed (despite their genuine excitement at playing the festival). [...]

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Julian Barnes–”Homage to Hemingway” (New Yorker, July 4, 2011)

SOUNDTRACK: S. CAREY-Live at Sasquatch Music Festival, May 29, 2011 (2011). I learned about S. Carey through NPR.  S. Carey is the drummer for Bon Iver and he set out on his own playing these cool, atmospheric songs.  What I like best about them is that they feature the vibes. The whole set has a cool, chilled [...]

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