Interesting Bits & Reads
In order to do what I do, and quite simply because I’m a huge music geek, I spend a lot time reading bits on the old Internet as well as a fair amount of print. My print exposure has been slimmed with the discontinuance of print by some mags, but it only forces me to explore previous options not pursued. Here are few items that I found of interest over the past week or so:
- Pitchfork (I start with a giant, yes) just put up a story about Devo suing McDonalds over a Happy Meal toy. Why I find this of interest? One, I love Devo and two, I despise McDonalds. Devo Suing McDonalds Over Happy Meal Toy
- One of my favorite sites for music business news and information, Hypebot.com (A highly recommended read by anyone caring about the state of the industry) posted a piece about Facebook passing Myspace in worldwide traffic. Facebook Passes Myspace Worldwide
- On to the local blog scene, where you can find an interesting post on the Austin 360 blog Music Source, written by Michael Corcoran. Simply titled “Manager’s Spouse Pens Escovedo Cover Story” the post starts out fairly mild, then turns a bit sour on the subject with several good points being made throughout. It’s comes across as a bit of swipe at the local paper that ran the cover story.
- Now on to print. I picked up the latest issue of Paste magazine, mostly for the fact that My Morning Jacket is on the cover. Who isn’t interested in the ever growing popularity of the band who probably made the record that it is going to catapult them in the consciousness of the mainstream audience? I use the term “mainstream” loosely. Despite headlining festivals for the past few years, the band has remained fairly unknown to this “mainstream” audience until as of recent. As I make my way through the article/interview which takes place with the band while they were here in Austin for this year’s SXSW festival, I came across this: “The next evening, the band plays an official showcase at SXSW’s largest venue, the Austin Music Hall, a concrete hangar where good sound goes to die.” Ouch! You can flip through the digital version of the copy here: Paste July 08
- And for those who still pick up the print, I have grown quite fond of Death + Taxes over the last year. The magazine covers a lot of ground in the interest of music, film, books, and art in a way that is very artful itself. It reads well, it looks good, and is chocked full of interesting articles. The May/June issue contains an interview with Michael Stipe, articles on The Death Set, Austin’s own Sword, Times New Viking, Lightspeed Champion, Tilly and The Wall (who look absolutely fantastic in the photos), Zach Galafianakis, plus much, much more. I highly recommend this print.
