I had a nice chat with my friend Drew last night, who, though he doesn't know it, is one of my musical gurus. A lot of the bands I love he he introduced me to. So he was mentioning all these new bands he's listening to, and today I can't remember any of them!

I’ve been listening to one of my alltime favorite albums (Big Pig's "Bonk") in the car lately, and mourning that they never released another album before they apparently broke up. For some reason, I was driven to google them today, and found out that they did put out a second album, but it was never imported to the States. Next month, when I finally have some extra change, I'm going to order it through Ozmusic, who has a copy of the out-of-print "You Lucky People" available for $26 (US)--$18 less than Amazon.uk.

It's the little things that make me happy!

Ya know that payola scandal that Spitzer just settled with Sony? Here's a link to the memos used as evidence in the case. Amazing stuff: [link]

Findings and terms of the settlement are here: [link]

Bob Mould interview/performance today on Soundcheck. Plus, a guy who wrote a book about Pet Sounds. Should be archived by 4 or 5 if you can't catch it live. WNYC is podcasting shows now, too, although I think they're only doing certain segments, not whole shows.

Werner Herzog is talking about his new documentary, Grizzly Man, on Fresh Air. Which isn't about music, but it's the one that Richard Thompson scored.

Corwood, here's an article on Gravity's Rainbow. Haven't read it yet so I can't vouch for it, but I figure you're willing to take the chance.

And an actual music-related item: Ron Rosenbaum on the link between Emmylou Harris, heartbreak songs, and black holes in B-flat.

Excellent, Joe! Thanks! I read a reference to Bookforum's article on Pynchon on Maud Newton's website (I think, but also I seem to think that it was in the context of discussing James Wood's criticism, so... I don't know).

Get a chance to listen to "Waltzing with the Dogs" yet, Corwood? I know you're busy, but I can't imagine you not digging it. Corwood Jr.'s (sorry, don't remember his board pseud) first words could be "Stop dropping acid!" Okay, probably not, but I bet you go around singing it after you hear it.

Heh. In keeping with today's Natter:

As most Pynchonians know, Corlies Smith—universally called Cork—was Pynchon's editor from the very start of the author's career. A tall, handsome, casually aristocratic publisher of the old school (tweed jackets, unfiltered Pall Malls), he was idolized by the younger set at Viking for his staggering achievements, his impeccable literary taste, and his dry and sometimes startlingly profane wit ("It does, however, have the best horse-fucking scene I've ever read," he deadpanned memorably about a novel at one sales conference).

Get a chance to listen to "Waltzing with the Dogs" yet, Corwood?

Not yet, but I have a good excuse: my home computer's soundcard is dead, and we can afford a new one yet. OK, that's actually fairly lame, now that I've written it out.

Joe, did we reference this in our literary scatological greatest hits?

Most unforgettably, there is the immortal scene in which Slothrop, hooked up to a sodium Amytal drip, hallucinates dropping his harmonica down the toilet of the Roseland Ballroom, a nightclub where Red, aka Malcolm X, sells gage while Charlie Parker is onstage laying down some very advanced changes on "Cherokee." Down the shitter Slothrop goes, into the murky, fecal depths of white America's racial imagination, in an inward journey that reads like a cutting session with Ralph Ellison, James Joyce, Sigmund Freud, and Leslie Fiedler. Astounding.