Link Banana

I already gushed about Neutral Milk Hotel’s In The Aeroplane Over the Sea once this month, so I’ll just say that Taylor Clark “profile” of the enigmatic Jeff Magnum is good and interesting and worth a read:

Mangum’s continued silence has angered some fans, who accuse him of being selfish or “indifferent to his talent,” as if musical ability comes with some sort of obligation to society. At least once a year, someone writes a hoax message from Mangum and posts it online—generally throwing in some fanciful verbal junk to bilk fans into believing it’s the genius himself wielding the keyboard. Some have announced forthcoming records or tours, while others have revealed the long-hidden sources of Mangum’s misanthropy; they’ve all been debunked. All we really know for sure is this: According to his record label, Mangum now lives in New York City. He recently married filmmaker Astra Taylor. Friends say he still creates art and that he seems “very happy.” If he has plans to record more music, he hasn’t told anyone.

Apparently this album, which I randomly stole “borrowed” from a friend a few years ago and instantly loved is ten years old. Appently it has a nearly totemic status in the indie-sphere. Who knew? That’s a rhetorical question, as the obvious answer is not me. I also didn’t know this bit (emphasis mine) — though now that I do, I see it clearly:

One of the reasons that Aeroplane has aged so well is that it deals with heavy stuff in this really personal way. It’s almost never precious, and when it is, it has the balls to be. The record works partly because Mangum addresses Anne Frank obliquely throughout (another “lesson” of the album is that the best concept record is the one you can listen to without even being aware it’s a concept album).

(via brijit)

New York has a fun little story about Gordon Thomas, the 91-year-old musician who is finally getting the recognition he’s always wanted but never got.

You can hear some of his music at his website, and I have to say I rather like his song Peace, Peace (link to mp3). It’s both hilarious and hopeful.

Paul Watson offers a pathos-laden look into a music school in Burma. It’s interesting, even if not revelatory.

You can feel it walking up the front path, in the breeze of notes from four upright pianos, a baby grand, guitars and traditional instruments that drifts from the rehearsal rooms, where jazz legends such as Billie Holiday, Thelonious Monk, Duke Ellington and Dizzy Gillespie look down from photocopied portraits taped to the walls.

When the school opened, neighbors told the students they wouldn’t last long. They were still going strong last year, and a few foreign visitors began dropping by, so intelligence agents started showing up. They reminded the students that Myanmar’s security laws hold them responsible for anything their foreign guests do, and if the outsiders strayed into politics, the locals would go to jail.

(via brijit)

In a move best described as “pretty cool,” Last.fm has a new feature:

As of today, you can play full-length tracks and entire albums for free on the Last.fm website.

(via Gizmodo)

Adrienne Day takes an interesting, though not exceptionally deep, look inside the front lines of the battle between record labels and illegal downloaders: leaks of advance copies of albums. To the executives, it’s futile to stop an album from being stolen once released, and their focus has become stopping it from being downloaded before it can be bought in stores.