Christ, put me down in the "no" camp. It's ok to be disrespectful of your material if you're funny, like, say, the Holy Modal Rounders, but there's no excuse for condescending to your material because you think you're too cool for it. I say, based on five 15-second song samples: lame.

Peter Guralnick talking about his new Sam Cooke bio yesterday on Fresh Air and today on Leonard Lopate. Some of the bits I caught were interesting, but I listen at work & miss a lot when it's busy, and it's been busy since July.

Misha, other New Yorkers, Bay Area Buffistas, & those in the DC area take note: also on Lopate today was the director Edward Hall, whose Propeller Theatre company will be doing The Winter's Tale at BAM this week, followed by Berkeley and then DC (I think that's what he said, could be the other way around -- check local listings) in the next couple weeks. They did A Midsummer Night's Dream at BAM last year & it was amazing. Great company. Don't miss them. Misha, I think Katherine got tickets for us (not sure which day). Let me know if you'd like to see it with us.

It's ok to be disrespectful of your material if you're funny, like, say, the Holy Modal Rounders

I like to think of it as a higher respect: the kind that says the material can take it, and I'm going to imbue it with the energy & spirit I get from it, not deaden it with reverence. The latter approach being pervasive among folkies & the reason I find it hard to say I like folk music even though personal icons like Richard Thompson, Peter Stampfel, & Zimmy have deep folk roots. I wish emusic would get some more Rounders & solo Stampfel.

Zimmy? Oy.

Corwood, based on the full-length tracks I've heard, and the coverage they get, I think they're serious about it. Whether or not they manage it is another matter.

Joe, I'm booked up with family stuff the second half of this week, but let me know. You in turn should go see Sweeney Todd, which we saw last week -- 10 performers, all of whom also serve as the show's musicians. Sounds awful, works brilliantly.

And, hey, who do we know who would be perfect to set up a panel for this conference, boys and girls?

CALL FOR PROPOSALS
“Ain’t That a Shame”: Loving Music in the Shadow of Doubt

The 2006 Experience Music Project Pop Conference Seattle, WA, April 27-30, 2006

What forces are at work when we like something we “shouldn't”? What role does shame, either shame succumbed to or shame resisted, play in the pleasure we as fans and interpreters take from the music we love? Is loving music passionately (collecting it, critiquing it, fashioning one’s identity around it) itself becoming a guilty pleasure, i.e. something increasingly rare and in need of explanation, something self-indulgent or questionable? To what extent do these issues reveal hierarchies of taste, transformed subjectivities, the effect of politics on culture, or other lines of contestation permeating popular music?

For this year’s Pop Conference, we invite papers, panels, or other presentations on these topics. Related questions include but are not limited to:

--In what terms do “guilty pleasures” operate beyond the U.S. experience? How do different genres define the inappropriate?

--Who are the performers, the issues and the hidden pleasures, that you have wanted to write about but never dared, or who you loved and then forsook?

--What happens when you center your focus on “minor” histories?

--How do the desires for novelty and permanence, diaspora and roots, or for that matter extremity and conformity, play out against each other in music?

--Can we think in less whiggish and salutary ways about pop and progress, or how music functions in dark times?

--Does doubt affect the creation of musical works, and not only reception? What guilty pleasure do performers feel about their own social impact?

--How does technology and futurist rhetoric affect distinctions in pop fashion between the sublime and the ridiculous?

--What are the connections between pop shame and “passing”: sexual, racing, class, nationality?

The EMP Pop Conference first convened in Spring 2002 and is now entering its fifth year. The goal has always been to bring academics, writers, artists, fans, and other participants into an all-too-rare common discussion. Most presentations are of the 20 minute panel talk variety, but unorthodox suggestions are our favorite kind and we can support a wide range of technological experimentation. Previous year’s conferences have resulted in the anthology This is Pop (Harvard, 2004), the current special issue of Popular Music (“Magic Moments”), and a second anthology that is under preparation. This year’s program committee includes Drew Daniel (Matmos), writer Jessica Hopper, Jason King (New York University), Michaelangelo Matos (Seattle Weekly), Ann Powers (Blender), David Sanjek (BMI), Philip Schuyler (University of Washington), and Karen Tongson (University of Southern California).

Proposals should be no more than 250 words, should be accompanied by a brief bio and full contact information, and are due January 16, 2006. Proposals are judged by liveliness of prose as much as pertinence of topic. Email them, as well as any questions about the conference, the theme, your topic, or the application process, to organizer Eric Weisbard at EricW@emplive.org. For more information on previous conferences, including a full range of participants and abstracts, go to: [link]

Am I the only one who just barely found out that BB King put out a nw album for his 80th birthday?

You in turn should go see Sweeney Todd, which we saw last week

Thanks for reminding me. The Theatermania discount is about to expire.

Before I go black, I want to offer up the 142 singles in John Peel's record box.

tina, do you have the new Silver Jews? I picked it up today.

Nope. Today during my lunch break I am getting that and the new Sun Kil Moon. (Also, as I have stated before, Tallahassee is my favorite MG - glad you like it, Hec.)

Am moved. Am bruised. According to the co-worker I sold my tickets to I missed the "best rock concert ever" on Friday (the Hold Steady). Am sad.

Michele, the Mountain Goats report was fun to read. Halloween with Darnielle would be the best.

I couldn't wait for lunch and am now on my second listen of the new Sun Kil Moon album. It's Modest Mouse covers and much like Kozelek's AC/DC, Cars, Kiss, etc. covers - you probably wouldn't realize these were MM songs unless you were familiar with their lyrics because he has completely transformed them. (Though "Dramamine" - MM's most well known song prior to Good News - has some signature Mouse-esque acoustic guitar moments, and "Convenient Parking" has the same basic song structure as the original.)

If you aren't a fan of Modest Mouse but love Kozelek - you'll most likely enjoy this as much as What's Next to the Moon. Though so far only the last track, "Ocean Breathes Salty," stands up to my favorites from that album: "Up to My Neck in You" and "If You Want Blood." But I am only on the second listen.

I wonder if this is how it must feel for hardcore AC/DC fans to come across WNTtM. To some degree it's just cool to hear songs you know so well sound so different. However, I find myself just wanting to hear the original - especially with a song like "Jesus Christ Was an Only Child" where the original version is completely unique and Kozelek's version sounds like... well, like everything else he does.

Overall this is a good album, but more than anything it makes me want to listen to Modest Mouse and for Kozelek to put out another album of his own stuff.

_________

Now, a truly noteworthy album I cannot stop listening to is M. Ward Transistor Radio. It is for sure going high up on the best releases of the year list. Almost every song is "wow" great.

What with opinions being cheaper to purchase than albums...

Is Brendan Benson any good?