How Vinyl Records Are Made

Thanks to our friends at URP, an inside look at how vinyl records are pressed. 

click here to check it out

Music Is Devo

Todd Martens lays out a nice post on A brief history of the album's recent decline in value at the LA Times blog. Todd was the indies reporter at Billboard for a long while and is now a producer for the LAT. He briefly interviewed me for a Billboard story on the Best Buy ruckus back in 2006. Thankfully, we haven't seen a repeat of that scenario, though the thought of Best Buy and Fred Meyer (Kroger/Fry's) selling vinyl does produce an involuntary gag reflex. Can we just have one little crumb to ourselves, do you think?

Trent in NYT

It has been a weird ride to watch Trent and Nine Inch Nails go from Wax Trax! reject, to TVT's biggest seller, and from major label star connecting with teen angst in his early 40s to label-less, digital entrepreneur. I haven't always loved his music, but I admire the hell out of him for how he's handled himself and how open he is with both his art and business. Unlike many others, he doesn't pretend to know what can't be known and he's still trying to figure it all out like the rest of us. I can only say, Go Trent!

Here's the article.

Schoolhouse Rock

Antietam played The Brooklyn Public Library on Saturday—a show that was as supposed to be outside on the steps in glorious spring sunshine, but it rained. :-(

In their latest bid for the title Most Conceptual Band (Non-Prog) Category, they had an easel with a sheet for each song using the Dewey Decimal System. Tara is a rare books librarian, so it was a natural. I guess it was a hit, with members of the audience even going up to turn the page whenever the band forgot during the course of their 90 minute set.

Photos courtesy of Liz Clayton.

Leftover Pizza Salad

My favorite recipe from Julia's time at Joel's restaurant:

1. Chop leftover pizza into bite-size squares.
2. Assemble tossed salad.
3. Add pizza squares.
4. Add dressing.
5. Cue up movie and vaporizer.
6. Enjoy.

When Julia was leaving Joel's to open Lounge Ax, Joel's owner, Jody, famously told Julia that Lounge Ax would be closed within six months tops. While at a friend's birthday party ten years later—also at Joel's for some reason, he yelled at us for buying and drinking all of the restaurant's supply of a few different liquors. ("But if you drink it all, then we won't have any!") As an added bonus, Lounge Ax was still going strong. Nice man. Smart man. Reckon he was smart enough to hire Julia to manage his restaurant, and invented LPS, so at least he has a small positive legacy.

I can't be very Marxist about it, I'm sorry.

Great, lengthy interview with Jon Langford of The Mekons and Waco Brothers on the intersection of punk and country, moving to Chicago, songwriting, and the Chicago scene.

I've got kids of my own, so I'm too busy doing that most of the time to be mollycoddling musicians.