Excuses I really wanted to write something on Patti Smith's On Land tonight but it is too late now and I have to postpone to tomorrow. In the meantime some other link worthy net programmes:

• Jess Harvell has never been a fan of the Modern Lovers but he has seen the main man behind live and was converted on the spot. ILM discussion: Jonathan Richman: is this guy a class fucking act or what?
• Dr. C asks at ILM about That Melodic Thing in Scottish Pop: "There's often a reluctance to telegraph a big chorus, a sort of shy restraint which can often mean that a gorgeous melody takes time to uncover and fix in your memory."
• Marcello Carlin with a long piece on Gillian Welch's album Time (The Revelator) at ILM. I guess I have to relisten to this. The first time it sounded too plain, too barren, too basic for my ears. Her voice reminds me of Michelle Shocked a little which is a very good reference for me.
• Monkey Puzzle, an excellent indie music blog from Melbourne I mentioned before (thanks for the backlink cos) on one of my favourite Lloyd Cole records Easy Pieces. One of those perfect pop albums I listened to a lot back in the summer of 1993.
• P.S. Califone: They sound like a more focussed and less emotionally intense Sparklehorse. The singer's voices are quite similar especially when distorted. Somehow I cannot believe that Califone come from Chicago. Their music has got this laid-back desert feel a little bit like Giant Sand. I would have situated them either in South California, Arizona or New Mexico. Further reading: 10 questions for Tim Rutili from Glorious Noise.
• Dandelion Wings (pseudonym) of Living Code on Sombrero Fallout by Richard Brautigan. A good short introduction into Brautigan's twisted but realistic mind. Summary: "A whole town gets involved in a massacre (with humorous elements to it) without really knowing why they are fighting. I would say this is fiction if reality was not so much like it. Now I am not sure."
• The nicest webcam views in a world map.
• Active discussion (189 comments this morning) at kuro5hin: Burning a book before it's printed. The book in question is on the "right" of children to have a sex life. Here political correctness shows its ugly face: totalitarian censorship. What frightens me even more is that almost all commentators want the book banished. I think this subject should be discussed and the more it becomes a taboo theme the more child abuse we will have. Positive thinking in the last contribution: "Nice to know that efforts by religious and governmental groups to squelch this before it could be published just brought more attention to it"

Linkage

• Discussion at lost for life: Why Chan Marshall sucks live. One reason seems to be that she takes acid before her shows. I saw Cat Power twice. The first time it was the Moon Pix tour and it was a phantastic trip. Dirty Three's guitarist Mick Turner accompanied her and had a very stabilising effect on her perfomance. When she sang she was completely gone but Turner's slow guitar playing absorbed her. The second time she was on her own with her guitar and piano and it was the Cover Songs tour. We saw her in a very small venue about the size of our living-room and it was painful. She didn't hit the right tones and almost ran off in the middle of the set.

• Another one of those damned quizzes. It has got to do with music and is short (five questions only) though:
  The Band Quiz By Rahel