Feeding the swallows The weather is too nice to blog today. Just some links:

• PopMatters Music Interview | The Forgotten NYC Band: An Interview with Interpol. They don't think that they sound like Joy Division.
• index magazine interview: Brian Eno. Focussing on sociology and philosophy with a short discussion of Norbert Elias, Richard Sennett and Richard Rorty whose introduction to his book Contingency, Irony, and Solidarity Eno condenses to: "In the end, what Rorty turns out to be saying is that philosophy is just another kind of writing. It doesn’t have any special grasp on the truth." Concerning the music only My Life in the Bush of Ghosts, Eno's collaboration with David Byrne from the early eighties is mentioned.
• Modern classics: Performance Today. Christopher O'Riley interprets Radiohead on piano: Knives out, Thinking about you, Like Spinning Plates. And Nick Drake: Place to Be. MeFi discussion with a link to Brad Mehldau's version of Paranoid Android at KCRW.
• ILM discussion on Murray Street, the soon to be released new album of everybody's darling indie band Sonic Youth.

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)

Links

• I found this by googling "music blog". It covers the music genres I love: Listen Up! collaborative music blog, music recommendations, mp3s, reviews, concerts : rock, pop, alternative, blues, jazz, folk, acoustic
• Kate Guay from Toronto has changed the name and URL of her music weblog: thrown askew: formerly quid pro quo
• For people interested in applied statistics: Journal of Articles in Support of the Null Hypothesis (via Monitor on Psychology), a new journal covering the issue of non-refuted null hypotheses. In statistical studies very often null hypotheses are tested. If the null hypothesis cannot be refuted there is no significant result. Usually these inconclusive tests are not published. But they are actually quite interesting as they give future researchers the information which paths have already been explored without results. P.S. There is a problem with the Bloglet e-mail subscription of my weblog. Apparently it does not distinguish between only posted and really published posts. So when you get an e-mail from Bloglet it can be that there is nothing new in my blog as I have only posted the entry but not yet published it. I will address this issue to Monsur Hossain who created Bloglet. He has been very helpful in the past.

Surfing

• You want to get rid of some of your old CDs and get some "new" ones for them? Try the Musical Swap Shop (via NYLPM)

• Three full concerts as mp3s: My Bloody Valentine [on komakino fanzine]

• 10 mp3 remixes of songs of the last REM album including artwork: R.E.M.ix (both via prolific)

• labs.google.com - Google Demos: "Google labs showcases a few of our favorite ideas that aren't quite ready for prime time." Current demos: Google Glossary. Find definitions for words, phrases and acronyms (quite useful, even including jokes) Google Sets. Automatically create sets of items from a few examples (e.g. type in two car brands and Google will tell you some more car brands, not really exciting, does not always work) Voice Search. Search on Google by voice with a simple telephone call (gadget for people who can't type) Keyboard Shortcuts. Navigate search results without using your mouse (for the geeks who still hate the mouse, can be useful when your mouse is dead)

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

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 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.

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

Catching up with the backblogs

• Toddlike's Worthless Music Review Blog on Brian Jonestown Massacre, Merzbow and more interesting music off the beaten track.
• gstring: for the discerning music nut. Music news from Melbourne. Don't look for Britney Spears and Boyzone here.
• Hipster Detritus: A Blog. ILM contributor Nate Patrin's music blog. Nate likes punk, new wave, indie and lots of other good music.
• Nanoblogg, Stefan's German music weblog on electronica and other indie music.
• ::indie tunes. i can't live without music. Jana, 20, studying Philosophy and German language and literature studies (Germanistik in German) in Erlangen near Nuremburg. German posts on Tocotronic, The Strokes etc.
• onfocus.com : Weblog BookWatch with the most linked to books in the weblog world on Amazon. A similar service is offered by Daypop: Amazon Wishlist Top 40.

Various stuff

• Making Insomnia Fun Again is another good indie music blog. It features a lot of mp3 links.
• I have to read the following discussion at kuro5hin to brush up my knowledge of music theory: introduction to basic music composition (via null device)
• The whole text of a book by Peter McWilliams on how to cure a malady which afflicts me from time to time: Heal Depression. My current treatment of this nuisance is to sleep less. 6 hours are enough I think. It makes me a little psyched and hyperactive but I prefer that to being paralysed in a depression.