Linkage

• Joe Panzner from the Oligarchist Home Journal reviews the soon to be released new Sonic Youth album Murray Street (rating 8.5/10). Excerpt: "The most immediate difference between Murray Street and Sonic Youth’s post-1990 output is the newfound emphasis on clarity, focus, and outright melody. The guitars, which are every bit as likely now to jangle as they are to clang and buzz, are clean, crisp, and recorded bone-dry in trademark O’Rourke fashion."
• Maybe I should check out the new Flaming Lips Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots which is Elasticheart's fave album of 2002 up to now. He says: "The album is a step beyond what the band reached with "The Soft Bulletin" and blends the creativity and experimentation of that album with some of the catchiest songs I've heard this year." I preferred "The Soft Bulletin" to Mercury Rev's "Deserter's Songs" which came out at about the time and was in quite a similar style as it was somehow less predictable and more glamorously pop. I saw the Lips live at about the same time and it was one of the weirdest concerts ever with the singer hitting this enormous gong every minute or so and bizarre videoclips being projected on a screen.
• Practical stuff: Why Won't We Read the Manual? (MeFi discussion)