Blog: Peter S. Scholtes - Complicated Fun

David Byrne has a wonderful four-song EP for download benefiting Amnesty International highlighted by an amazing live version of My Life in the Bush of Ghosts' "Help Me Somebody," converting a song based on samples to a live vocal jam....

My favorite music right now is the new album by De La Soul, Are You In?: Nike+ Original Run--a new take on rap-rock-techno in 45 bracing minutes, with production by Detroit's Young RJ and Chicago duo Flosstradamus, with the latter...

Recently posted elsewhere:Q&A: Lady Sovereign (D.C. Decider), review: Mr. Lif, I Heard It Today (Las Vegas CityLife 4/23/09), preview: Mastodon (City Pages 4/29/09), preview: Sole and the Skyrider Band (City Pages 4/22/09), Apocalypse Now: Muja Messiah (The Liberator 11/08, posted 4/21/09),...

Whenever it opens, you must see Unconvention, the locally-made documentary about protests outside the Republican National Convention in St. Paul last year. (It screened Sunday as part of the Minneapolis St. Paul International Film Festival.) I covered the events...

In the late 1980s, my friend Rick Vorndran made me a tape of a record he bought while in England, the Shop Assistants' Will Anything Happen. The 1986 Chrysalis Records album by the relatively obscure Edinburgh, Scotland, band remains one...

(Poster for a missing 15-year-old girl from Juarez, Mexico, 2008, reproduced in Zanzana Knowledge and Expression) Buy a subscription to Harper's and read the new article by Charles Bowden, "The Sicario: A Juarez Hit Man Speaks." It's an interview with a former State Police commander in Juarez, Mexico. "They...

Matos hips me to the fact, pointed out to him by Eric Weisbard, that Google Book Search now has what appears to be a complete run of Billboard from 1942 on. Just what I want: More research materials! But no,...

Beenie Man had his first hit, "Too Fancy," as Beney Man in 1981, when he was about eight years old--younger than in that photo accompanying the recording on Youtube. That will make him a 28-year dancehall reggae deejay veteran in his late 30s when he performs on May 1 with Wayne Wonder at Epic (formerly the Quest) in Minneapolis.

It's been a year since my last roundup up non-blog writing, so here's the beautiful backlog.

Nathan Vollmar of the Rivulets writes to inform me that not only does the solo Morrissey need no compiling, contrary to my hasty preview, but he's been compiled to death--with more than 10 best-ofs listed on Allmusic alone.

• 2FM Ireland - Dave Fanning Show - Morrissey Interview (Part 1)
• 2FM Ireland - Dave Fanning Show - Morrissey Interview (Part Two)

5. Trama, Mr. T ziptape, out as a free download on April 14: Comedic highlight: "If I Was Emo," in which our hero croons, "I would get great reviews in the hip-hop local news/because I'm not seen as a threat, and my rhymes make you boo-hoo-hoo/If I was emo, I wouldn't have to wear gold/and my fake friends wouldn't call to get on the guest list the day of the show/I would have my own band and listen to Wu Tang Clan/I wouldn't be known in the hood because the hood don't understand." Take that, ...somebody!

Both Greg Ginn & the Taylor Texas Currogators and Jambang have recent albums on SST that are pretty damn cool, soundscapey but never aimless, and always beat-driven.

I love Trama's new ziptape (his term) Mr. T, hosted by comedian Boima Freeman and available for free download April 14. Only disappointment: No samples of the real Mr. T's 1984 rap record, Mr. T's Commandments.

Bob Gruen took some of the most iconic photos of John Lennon, the New York Dolls, and the Clash in America: That 's his image you remember of Lennon with the sleeveless "New York City" t-shirt, and Joe Strummer thumbing backwards at the Empire State Building.

George Pelecanos has written 15 crime novels set in Washington, D.C., none of which is a waste of your time. His latest, The Turnaround, comes out in paperback next month. His new book, The Way Home, appears in May. I've...

I want to be Shane McCutcheon from The L Word when I grow up. One of the great TV characters of our time doesn't need you, but she pays attention. The fact that she doesn't need, or appear to need...

My piece on K'Naan is live at City Pages. The Somali rapper plays the Varsity Wednesday in Minneapolis with a live band, an all-ages show starting at 7:00 p.m. (doors at 6:00) and over by 10. This means a large...

2001[not really Doomtree] Building Better Bombs, Bottle Rocket single, 100 black discs limited edition [no label][not really Doomtree] Building Better Bombs, I Will Burn mini CD [no label][not really Doomtree] Cenospecies, In Definition (Peak Records), 2001: "Hip Hop"Note: Here's...

Make your own God Loves Ugly cover at youresougly.com. The reissue of Atmosphere's God Loves Ugly came out yesterday. Here's Jon Dolan's vintage review at City Pages. He's at Blender now. When he and Laura Sinagra had a baby last...

"Not just an American dream. Also an Irish dream, a European dream, African dream, Israeli dream. And also [pause] a Palestinian dream."-- Bono at Inaugural Celebration concert on the Lincoln Memorial Sunday, during U2's performance of "Pride (In the...