Happy news recently came in regarding the blog you are now reading: County Grind has been named a finalist in the Best Music Blog category at the 2011 AltWeekly Awards.
This is especially exciting because it's our first year of eligibility for really any sort of honor since splitting off from Miami New Times'
Crossfade last year. Many thanks to our gifted writers and
photographers who have helped keep the blog vibrant and fiercely local.
"California, look what you've done to me," Billy Corgan sings on "Owata," a new song from the forthcoming Teargarden by Kaleidyscope. If you're curious about what the title means, get to the first chorus of this upbeat acoustic guitar and synthesizer number.
As for what the Golden State has done to Corgan, look to our sister blog, LA Weekly's West Coast Sound. They have an exclusive lock on this song, one of 44(!) from the Teargarden collection, for the next 24 hours.
Marilyn Manson will dictate his life story to this woman.
The first authorized biography of Marilyn Manson is coming! Local fans of the Spooky Kids -- as well as local members of the Spooky Kids -- are in for some tasty nuggets as ex-LA Weekly's Erin Broadley has been hired to document all things Brian Warner officially. Of course, there are legions of cranky Manson fans who will be devastated that they weren't chosen.
According to Gustavo Turner's blow-by-blow of this development, this arrangement grew out of frenemy-ship between the rocker and the writer because of the Manson-related dirty deeds revealed in her story about Buddyhead's Travis Keller. Things eventually calmed down. More >>
For sentimental and professional reasons, the Village Voice's annual Pazz & Jop poll of rock critics (who may or may not be able to name every member of New Edition from memory) is a personal favorite. Anyone who is surprised that Kanye West was a dominant force in said poll is probably equally surprised that Ke$ha is not -- albeit she has her day within a "Hipness" metric that counts ballots only from folks who voted for singles. Now you know why I really love P&J: The endless statistics make this the fantasy football of music lists.
Our sister paper Seattle Weekly has a fascinating exploration of powerhouse indie label Sub Popas it considers what is often misleadingly called "pulling a Radiohead" and giving away all of its music for free (if you pony up for a Superfuzz Bigmuff T or a God's Balls beer koozie). Kurt Cobain would probably approve, and so would experiential-based music entrepreneur/Devo drummer Josh Freese.
In a nutshell, this has already been going on for a while -- vinyl copies of albums sold by numerous indies have included download codes. Artists including HEALTH and OK Go have already started experimenting with the "T-shirt gateway to music," but no one took it quite as far as Mos Def's The Ecstatic last year, which was actually released as a shirt. Plus, there are plenty of people who would probably wear this shirt who never need to hear another Fleet Foxes song.
Our lovely sister paper Minneapolis' City Pages presents a charming video snapshot of this past weekend's Pitchfork Festival, which was held in Chicago's Union Park. Interspersed between interviews with Pitchfork head honcho Ryan Schreiber, comedian Michael Showalter, Neon Indian, Best Coast, South Florida bros Thomas Fekete and Brian Black from Surfer Blood (and Weird Wives) look genuinely wide-eyed and slack-jawed to be there and express further excitement to see Pavement... and Big Boi. And the screed about our jealous rage was deleted.
Showing that the coverage wasn't entirely slanted toward indie rock, the Daddy Fat Sacks half of Outkast himself also makes an appearance in the clip, but the crowning moment has got to be Wu-Tang Clan staple and the genius behind several successful solo albums: Raekwon. After extolling the virtues of the fest ("sprinkle a little bit of that hardcore with that rock 'n' roll"), a guy who often raps about naked women cooking drugs enjoys one of the obvious spoils of summer, a bomb pop.
I Will Be reluctant to answer questions about my past
Every week, we gather some interesting stuff from our sister Village
Voice Media publications' music sections. Just for kicks. Here's last
week's entry.
Donald Glover's flow is serious, so stop laughing at his jokes
Every week, we gather some interesting stuff from our sister Village Voice Media publications' music sections. Just for kicks. Here's last week's entry.
"Being able to step off that hamster wheel where you can't
really see
what's up around the bend but only what's coming at you fast, it helped
me get a little bit of perspective about the whole thing, the whole
thing meaning the last 20 years of my life," Leo says. "I think, in a
weird way, it opened up the songwriting for a little bit more of just me
using my voice and not maybe feeling like I had to say something."
The big white "X" on black that comprises their album cover
(title: xx)
is the sort of cult branding that evokes a mass of NIN T-shirts, and
their goth-friendly haircuts would be happy to comply if only the group
didn't pledge allegiance to Aaliyah and Ma$e
first.
No one told Devendra Banhart he needs help with his album covers, though
Every week, we gather some interesting stuff from our sister Village Voice Media publications' music sections. Just for kicks. Here's last week's entry.
Devendra Banhart, in Seattle Weekly: "I had one label tell me they would love to sign me...on one condition,"
he says. "That I allow them to hire a team of songwriters to help me
finish my songs." And a Q&A with Jimi Hendrix's half-bro.
Every week, we gather some interesting stuff from our sister Village Voice Media publications' music sections. Just for kicks. Here's last week's entry.
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