The Lone Bellow brings country to Brooklyn. Photo: Tracy Zamot
We’ve had three great music stories in the past week on BB, all with Spotify playlists, so rather than choosing one to send you, we’ve made an email mash-up for your reading and listening pleasure.
A Brooklyn Country Band Poised for Stardom
Brooklyn country band The Lone Bellow has stirred up a lot of media attention, from the likes of The New York Times, NPR and Paste Magazine, as of late. After listening to their eponymous first record–which came out on Tuesday–BB’s music writer David Chiu says, “From top to bottom, The Lone Bellow is a stellar album with terrific performances and songs that have tremendous appeal beyond the country music genre. It’s a frontrunner to be one of 2013′s best releases, and the month isn’t even over yet.” Read David’s interview with the band and listen to the album.
Conversations with Dead Rock Stars
Ian Svenonius, of Nation Of Ulysses and The Make-Up, has written a how-to guide called Supernatural Strategies For Making a Rock ‘n’ Roll Group, published by Gowanus-based Akashic Books. Jay Honstetter spoke to Svenonius about the book, in which Jimi Hendrix, Mary Wells, Brian Jones and Jim Morrison chime in from the ether on the importance of band photos, names and even a band’s “Zodiacal configuration.” Find out just how Svenonius pulled off a book based on conversations with dead rock stars, listen to a playlist of his music, and get the scoop on his reading at WORD next week.
Music for Making Love to Your Muse
“Elvis Costello once said, ‘Writing about music is like dancing about architecture.’ In other words, it’s futile to even try and capture the essence of a song via prose. It’s the same reason why writing song lyrics can often be a lot easier than writing prose,” says columnist Jon Reiss in his latest post. Reiss, who is telling a story about a song at The Soundtracks Series tonight, reflects on writing about music and on music’s effect on writing on our blog. Check out his thoughts on composition appropriate soundtracks and the playlist he made of his favorite underappreciated albums from 2012.
