Released as part of Continuum Books' 33 1/3 series on classic albums, the book mostly sidesteps the finished LP to make the process the hero. Eno's use of collaboration, chance, and cybernetics to force creativity makes for a fascinating story, enlivened by the sometimes bemused but always fond recollections of participants from the 70s and after. He swings microphones from the ceiling, he scraps whole days' work on the turn of a card, and in the book's most delicious story, he makes David Bowie's sessionmen take part in a musical role-playing session, handing out character cards. "You are the morale booster of a small rag-tag terrorist operation. You must keep spirits up at all costs."
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I've been addicted to these Marc Maron podcasts since my flight back from the Christmas break turned into a rather fun 20 hour road trip. This one with Henry Rollins is pretty great. If you're a fan, this one with Ira Glass is not to be missed. The conversation with Gallagher was kind of depressing, though.The KEXP blog interviews Scott Tennent about his 33 1/3 on Slint's Spiderland. I had forgotten that this was the 75th in the series... A nice round number and a damn fine book!
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I've been slowly working my way through this year-by-year essay series on the 90's alternative music from The Onion's AV Club.
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If you like infographics, A Very Small Array continues to work through the Billboard/Pitchfork top 100s of 2010. Pie graphs, bar charts, scatter plots...there's something for everyone here.
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Hua Hsu has a pretty cool consideration of the cassette tape as a format/medium/aesthetic in the latest issue of Artforum. (A tip of the cap to Ed Park for the link.)
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And one more defaced album covers link to add to the two I posted here a few weeks ago. This never seems to get old, does it?
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Next week I'll be at the College Arts Association (CAA) meeting in New York, hanging out in the exhibit hall Thursday-Saturday. Stop by booth #714 and say hello.
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