Linkage

• Rory from Records ad Nauseam' with a glowing review of Luna's latest: Romantica. Apparently they resume the sound of the glorious days of Bewitched.
• New Order's rather new single Here to Stay another return to form? (by acb from the null device)
• Great long article on the Paisley Underground in PopMatters: Tell Me When It's Over

Discovery British Sea Power is a rather new band from Brighton I had only heard from hearsay. There are two mp3 tracks on their site (via the Dutch connection prolific). The first one The Spirit of St. Louis is a dark, angry post-punk song sounding like a crossover of Gang of Four and Gallon Drunk. The Lonely is totally different, a tuneful, light and rather sunny ballad in the vein of what the Australian Apartments did about 8 years ago. Apparently their live shows are quite wild . A band to watch. I started a thread at ILM on them. Short Motion review of their three song EP Remember Me.

One of the best bands in the world PopMatters Concert Review of Giant Sand at the Knitting Factory April, 12th by Jody Beth Rosen from Freezing to Death... who just linked back to me. Thank you Jody. Quote:"He (Howe Gelb), as headliner, has a certain poise suggesting that even if you're not witnessing genius in action, you can at least see that an elemental layer of bullshit has been stripped away; now we're getting down to business."

I am so vain My comments on G. Marcus half-baked review of Wilco's masterpiece Yankee Hotel Foxtrot were noticed by Nate Patrin and Andreas Kellers, thank you so much:

• Hipster Detritus (May 11th): "Remember a few days ago at how I sneered at Greil Marcus for his review of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (almost spelled 'Foxtron'- sounds like Rupert Murdoch's world domination robot)? This guy sneers better."
• Wortmetz: "Und auch Hr. Fritz geizt nicht mit Links. Dazu eine Metarezension, die in einer bissigen Verschränkung der Review von Greil Marcus' im Salon mit seinen Kommentaren einmündet." (sorry for the German quote but I think this is not translatable)

By the way has anybody got an idea how to find out when another site links to you and especially to a post on your blog? I study my referrers via sitemeter and check the links to my site from blogdex and daypop who both crawl the weblogs daily or even more frequently but this is not sufficient exhaustive I feel. Concerning sitemeter I can miss a referrer (only the last 100 are stored) or a link may never be clicked on. Daypop only finds links to blogs which have been added (manually) to its index whereas blogdex somehow finds the weblogs itself though I did not yet understand how, but it is not complete neither. The Google backlinks are not so useful as they are always quite dated (monthly update?) and can not be ordered by date.

I throw 'em, you catch 'em (the links I mean)

• Another weblog concentraing on pop and indie music: Freezing to Death in the Nuclear Bunker
• ILM discussion I joined which went off towards general Americana/alt-country: Wilco, C or D? S D?
• Shakey: Neil Young's Biography. . . (MeFi). One question discussed here: Why are most fans of Neil Young men?
• Dave's Quick Search Taskbar Toolbar Deskbar: I still use the Google toolbar but this little thingy is a serious contender for the throne of toolbars. I like the idea to add (special) characters after the search terms to specify if a search engine, thesaurus, dictionary, telephone lookup etc. will be used. The syntax is easy and searches are fast.
• Die Internetadresse für die Internetsüchtigen: HSO e.V. Die erste Selbsthilfegruppe für Onlinesuchtgefährdete in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland. Eine Sucht ist eine Krankheit.

The Morning News - Ten Great Beatles Moments (details there)

1. ‘I Saw Her Standing There’ (1963)
2. The ‘middle-eight’ on ‘And I Love Her’ (1964)
3. George Harrison’s sitar accompaniment on ‘Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)’ (1965)
4. ‘A Day in the Life’ (1967)
5. ‘I Am the Walrus’ (1967)
6. Side two of the White Album (1968)
7. The guitar lick at the end of ‘Everybody’s Got Something to Hide Except for Me and My Monkey’ and the piano melody on ‘Sexy Sadie’ (1968)
8. George Harrison’s guitar solo on ‘Something’ (1969)
9. The Abbey Road medley (1969)
10. ‘You Know My Name (Look Up the Number)’ (1970)

Philosophy

• Philosophical health check. My tension quotient was a rather low 13% (average 27%). Only two contradictions: What is faith? You disagreed that: It is quite reasonable to believe in the existence of a thing without even the possibility of evidence for its existence But agreed that: Atheism is a faith just like any other, because it is not possible to prove the non-existence of God and What should be legal? You agreed that: The government should not permit the sale of treatments which have not been tested for efficacy and safety And also that: Alternative and complementary medicine is as valuable as mainstream medicine

Music pointers

• Plattentests, deutsches Musikforum
• interesting French music zine: NEW FORMS - Musiques électroniques alternatives (trip-hop, drum'n'bass, electronica...)
• Rough Guide to Music (found it when looking for a review on the new Edwyn Collins. What struck me was that the review seemed to be honest. It was negative.) Glorious Noise: Interview with Jay Bennent and The Jay Bennett track-by-track listing of instruments played on YHF. ILM discussions:
• Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (nice thoughts by Lou near the end)
• Yo La Tengo - The Sound of the Sound of Science (10MB mp3 available, album is distributed via their site, instrumental soundtrack to underwater documentaries)
• I Love Music/I Love Everything community front page with a search box and links to the weblogs of some contributors

Daily faves

• Discussion: Plastic: 500 Questions To Ask Before You Ask, 'Will You Marry Me?'
• Online book resource: Blackmask Online organised in a directory (via robotwisdom)
• Book list: Daily Telegraph's 100 novels of 1899 (ca. 50% online, via robotwisdom)
• Quiz: Which Pixies song are you? I am Monkey Gone to Heaven!
• Joke: How many lawyers does it take to change a light bulb? How many can you afford? via (Life As It Happens)

Rolling Stone: New Voices #52 The monthly compilation CD by the German Rolling Stone arrived today. 16 tracks. A selection: Archive: Numb (from You All Look the Same to Me) It starts with the drum machine. One guy singing "I put a hole through you. You put a hole through me", the other one repeating "Numb". A track like a "descent into the maelstrom", getting darker and darker. Bluesier and bluesier. Trip-hop meets shoegazing. Massive Attack meets My Bloody Valentine. A whirl swallowing the listener. I am a psychedelic addict. Breeders: Off You (from Title WK)) Almost ten years after the Last Splash. After several withdrawal treatments the Deal twins are back. From power indie pop to minimal slow-motion guitar pop. Kim Deal's voice more fragile than ever. The Breeders have aged well. A movingly sad comeback like under barbiturates. They have got all the time of the world. "I am the autumn and the scarlet. I am the make-up on your eyes". Chuck Prophet: That's How Much I Need Your Love (from No Other Love) Ex-Green On Red guitarist in a Western soundtrack. "If I was a Cadillac you'd be my driving wheel". Sliding into Thereminia. Fuzzy keyboards leading us into an American desert. We don't need water there. Edwyn Collins: Back to the Back Room (from Doctor Syntax) Another long time no see. Edwyn the Scottish indie pop crooner is back as well. It was worth the wait. "Operating in the vacuum". Exquisite as always.