Blog: NPR Music: Monitor Mix

In the last few years, some of my favorite music documentaries have been about artists with whom I was barely familiar, if at all. Though I like the New York Dolls, I had never known too much about Arthur Kane until I saw the fascinating film, New York Doll . And Canadian metal-gods Anvil weren't on my radar (or anyone's, really) until the amazing Anvil: Story of Anvil was released in 2008. Granted, I also loved The Devil and Daniel Johnston [...]

Why can't American awards shows be more like this? Below is a video of Fever Ray's Karin Dreijer Andersson giving her acceptance speech at the P3 Guld award show in Sweden. People are sitting in squares, the set design looks the face of a Swatch, most people are wearing red, and instead of a woman in a dress acting as a veritable stage prop, there are man-twins in matching suits. Scandinavia continues to rule in all sorts of ways. And then there's Fever Ray's speech itself. Literally, it's beyond [...]

After a 10-year hiatus, Lilith Fair is back. The original festival -- started in 1997 by Sarah McLachlan and friends -- consisted solely of female solo artists or female-led bands. During its three-year existence, Lilith Fair was a top grossing tour featuring such acts as Fiona Apple, Missy Elliott, Sinead O'Conner and Emmy Lou Harris. The festival ended in 1999. The line-up for the 2010 incarnation of Lilith Fair was recently announced. Acts include Cat Power, Beth Orton, the Gossip, Heart, Erykah Badu, Indigo Girls, Janelle Monae, Ke$ha, La Roux, Lights, [...]

Even if you don't like football, this alone might make you root for the Vikings! Prince has written the song "Purple and Gold" for the Vikings-Saints game. From Fox9.com: Prince has released a new song about the Minnesota Vikings, inspired by a big win over the Dallas Cowboys and days ahead of the NFC Championship game in New Orleans. "I saw the future," said Prince. Prince was in attendance for the Vikings 34-3 win. He said he went [...]

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TICKETS FOR THIS EVENT GO ON SALE AT NOON TODAY!! (Friday, January 12th @ 12 p.m. ET) If you haven't already donated money to Haiti, or you still have more to give, here is another fantastic opportunity to do so! From Brooklyn Vegan: A Night of Comedy and Music to Benefit Haiti Presented By Bowery Presents and BrooklynVegan With short sets by: Zach Galifianakis, Britt Daniel [...]

I've been hearing about the Runaways biopic for a while. It stars Kristen Stewart (of Twilight fame) as Joan Jett and Dakota Fanning as Cherie Currie. Below is the trailer, followed by a scene from the film. Based on these clips, I can't tell if the movie is going to be mildly excruciating or totally exciting. I'm rooting for the latter, only because I really do love this band. And here are the original Runaways: [...]

Those of us who spent our formative years, our college years, or both, in music communities and among music aficionados tend to make certain assumptions about other people. The assumption goes like this: if you dress a certain way, or are hanging around with any sort of artistic milieu, then you must know a lot about music. Actually, many of us -- myself included -- got so used to hanging out with music nerds, and being music geeks ourselves, that we feel like everyone must love music with the same fervor as us, and possess encyclopedic knowledge of it to [...]

Yesterday evening, while driving home from Washington DC with my dog, Tobey, my car broke down. I had just crossed into New Jersey from Delaware and I stopped at the John Fenwick service area off the turnpike. When I returned to my car -- a late '90s Volvo Wagon -- it would not start. The engine turned over but the gas pedal wouldn't catch; I feared it was more than an issue with the battery. While families piled in and out of mini-vans and SUVS in the parking spots next to me, I pretended that everything was okay. I made [...]

As part of an ongoing theme wherein I miss Portland, here is some news from that great Oregon city: Portland's Willamette Week has an irregular feature wherein it sends local musicians -- many of whom are Portland Trailblazers fans -- into the press box in order to live-blog the basketball games. Quasi's Sam Coomes, a longtime Blazers fan, was lucky enough to be WWeek's most recent guest-writer in the series. Coomes witnessed and wrote about the Blazers pummeling the Milwaukee Bucks on January 13th . Highlights from his blog include: [...]

• Quasi - Repulsion

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It's trite and a little obvious to say that there's a feeling of sadness in the air. Between the recent and untimely deaths of musicians -- particularly the sense that there have been a disproportionate amount of losses in the music community -- and the news headlines, getting through any given day can feel like a burden. There is a saying that grief is an interlude between two moments of joy, but sometimes it feels the opposite, as if joy is actually the interval between two sufferings. As I'm sure is the case with many [...]

As most of you know by now, Jay Reatard has died at the age of 29. It's a sad day for music because we lost a guy who made the kind of songs most of us--in our heart of hearts--really love. We love it because before we got all worldly and esoteric in our tastes, all we wanted was for our music rumble and roar, to give us that teenage feeling, forever. Jay Reatard made great rock music, garage-y, fuzzed-out and pounding. Songs, like "My Shadow" were staples on [...]

Last year, I hired a Portland psychic to help make sense of the future of music. If you want to see how many of her predictions came true, you can watch the video here. This year, I'm in New York City. And, even though there's a soothsayer on every street corner, I have yet to build up the nerve to invite him or her into my apartment so that I might inquire about The Magnetic Fields. Instead, I've decided to use my own non-psychic but highly intuitive abilities in order [...]

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Sometimes I am glad to live in the good ol' U.S. of A. Why? Because the odds are slightly better that in America the Kings of Leon would NOT end up with their own clothing line . England, on the other hand, doles out clothing lines to rock stars with only a slightly greater frequently than they dole out knighthoods to rock stars. There is plenty to exalt and admire about the ways in which England embraces music: they turn theretofore underground bands into magazine cover darlings and chart toppers, in a frenzied and blitzed-out way [...]

One of the most confounding names in music has always been Patty Smyth. Even now, a few of you are probably thinking I just misspelled the the name of the singer responsible for the albums Horses and Wave . Well, I didn't. Smyth was the singer of a band called Scandal. Recently, I stumbled upon the video for Scandal's 1984 hit song "The Warrior" and realized that it's basically a lo-fi, low-budget precursor to the movie Avatar . See for yourself. [...]

Willie Mitchell, architect of the legendary Memphis soul sound, has died at the age of 81. Mitchell worked most notably with Al Green and Ann Peebles, but also with lesser-known but amazing singers like O.V. Wright. From Variety : As musical director for Hi, the independent label founded by Memphis record retailer Joe Cuoghi and musician Ray Harris, Mitchell fashioned a run of gritty '70s soul smashes -- some of which crossed over to the pop side -- characterized by gliding, stabbing horn charts and propulsive drum work by Al Jackson Jr. and [...]

**Updated on 1.5.10 with new info about the winning artist** The winner of the Build A Body Out Of Bands illustration contest is... Zia Luehrman! Congratulations, Zia Luehrman! A bit about the artist: "A score and three years ago, Zia Luehrman sprouted from a hayseed in the state of Misery. During her seedling years she cultivated an interest in scribbling, which eventually matured into a BFA in fibers. Currently, she has shifted her emphasis to fanciful illustrations (and the occasional graphic design). In several [...]

Yummy Fur have reunited for a handful of shows! Yummy Fur was a Glasgow, Scotland based band who formed in the mid-90's. They were the brainchild of singer/songwriter John McKeown. If the band sounded like anyone, it was fellow Glaswegians, Lung Leg . YF had treble-y and angular guitar lines (more spaghetti western than post-punk), unabashed accents, pulp and pop references, pervert-leanings, and most definitely dance hooks. Check out their MySpace page for tour dates and don't miss the [...]