Pretty Hate Machine / Song Cycle

I've got two very nice items to share with you today:

The first is a fantastic review of Richard Henderson's volume on Van Dyke Parks' Song Cycle from Crawdaddy.

"Henderson’s impeccably researched volume tells the story of a young vagabond landing in Los Angeles and falling in with an elite circuit of musicians and intellectuals. Henderson traces Van Dyke Parks’ climb through Warner Brothers Records’ ranks, from a low-rung arranger to top-shelf solo artist with seemingly unlimited resources. ...Like The Rest Is Noise author Alex Ross’ ability to make dense topics accessible, Richard Henderson excels at embracing the technical innards of music in a universally fascinating manner."

The second is this fascinating in-depth interview with Daphne Carr from the KEXP blog about her volume on Nine Inch Nails' Pretty Hate Machine (and much more). It's very very good.