Go see ONCE more than once!
I finally saw Once last night (starring Glen Hansard of the Frames and Marketa Irglova), and holycrap, what a gorgeous, musical love story it is. It’s still in some theaters, so run out and see it if you haven’t already. And if you’ve already seen it, run out and see it again. In the meantime, here are way too many links related to the film: Once website Once MySpace The Swell Season MySpace The Frames MySpace The Frames website Once Soundtrack MySpace ... read more
Bruce Springsteen Finds the Old Magic
I want a thousand guitars I want pounding drums I want a million different voices Speaking in tongues -- Bruce Springsteen, “Radio Nowhere” Me too. I’ve heard all the arguments: Bruce Springsteen, at 58 years old (with heavy emphasis on “old”), should not be making rock ‘n roll records. There’s something unseemly about it, like Laura Bush wearing a bikini. And he’s made a derivative rock ‘n roll record at that, one that plunders dubious musical treasures such as Tommy Tutone’s “867-5309 (Jenny),” as well as his own back catalogue. You know what? I don’t care. It’s still Magic. That... read more
Dust, sweat & Lips: Paste at The Echo Project
Photos by Rachael Maddux Over the weekend, Paste trucked down to Fairburn, Ga., for the first-ever Echo Project, a new Atlanta-area music festival with an environmentally friendly slant. Between handing out magazines and Frisbees to the masses and collecting content for some upcoming podcasts, we stuffed our faces with falafel plates and gigantic quesadillas, avoided the ever-awkward October sunburn, and inhaled approximately forty five metric tons of red clay dust. Oh yeah-- we caught a few awesome live performances, too. Associate Editor Steve and some members of our intern army (not to be confused with the fragile army, who graced... read more
Levon Helm—Dirt Farmer
Levon Helm, iconic drummer and singer in The Band, is back with a miracle of an album. I don’t think that’s an exaggeration, and Helm would surely agree, as his liner notes attest. Helm almost lost his life to throat cancer a few years back. He most assuredly lost his voice. So the fact that he is singing at all is significant. The fact that he is singing this well is almost mind-boggling. The man is 67 years old, has been to hell and back, and he sounds as great as he did on “The Night They Drove Old Dixie... read more
Band of Awesome
Band of Horses played an INCREDIBLE (and free!) show at Park Tavern here in Atlanta last night with Estates and Tyler Ramsey. Cease to Begin was already in my top three this year, and the gorgeous and fun live show reminded me how much I truly love this band. Check out this awesome photo of Ben Bridwell by Kyle Hale, don’t miss the band on Letterman this Thursday, and if you haven’’t already...buy the record! -Kate ... read more
To Encore or Not To Encore…
Ryan Adams & the Cardinals played their hearts out at the gorgeously decorated Fox theatre in Atlanta for just shy of two hours tonight, if you count off for the 15-minute intermission. The song selection was incredibly balanced, with the band whipping out interesting and varied arrangements of tunes from seven of the nine official Adams releases (Rock N Roll and 29 being the only two not represented): earlier tunes like “Bartering Lines,” a thunderous “Shakedown on 9th Street,” “The Rescue Blues,” and an electric full-band rendition of “Dear Chicago” mixed with extended versions of Cold Roses and Jacksonville City... read more
Josh Ritter - 10/9/07 - 5 Days on 95
I’m sitting in a hotel room in Annapolis, Maryland and catching my breath. I’ve got Dawn Landes’ record Fireproof on, and I’m sitting on the bed with various cameras, iPods and mics around me. It looks like I’ve come back from a circuit safari. The first five days have been fairly strenuous and very exciting. It’s Zack, Sam, Austin, Liam and I, accompanied by tour manager Tim and our guitar/merch man, Brian. Don Spitler is our bus driver, and the bus, as yet unnamed, brings the total traveling party to nine. Also along for the trip is “Bone Shaker,”... read more
Josh Ritter - 10/9/07 - Backstage Graffiti Vol. I - Pearl Street
A Scrawled Note on Graffiti I’m sitting backstage at Pearl Street in Northampton, Massachusetts and thinking that along with my normal entries I’d like to send in some of my favorite pieces of backstage graffiti from the places we visit on this tour. Pearl Street, which no one could accuse of being anything other than a rock room, has a great collection and while not the Sistine Chapel of backstage graffiti, it probably comes close to an Uffizi. Now, we live in a multimedia, terabyte, full throttle digital world, where the real and the concrete don’t always mean the same... read more
Ray Raposa does not have Lyme Disease
The following headline on a CMJ news item struck me as terrible but not too odd, given all the pulmonary embolisms and subsequent life-saving surgeries and mystery illnesses forcing the cancellation of European tours of late: “Castanets Bitten By Deer Tick” “Wow!” I thought. “Strained vocal cords? Extreme exhaustion? Rehab? Pshh! It’s about time some musician was felled by a teeny tiny disease-carrying bug! In fact, I can’t believe it hasn’t happened before!"* Naturally, I expected the following news bit to detail Ray Raposa’s contraction of Lyme disease or something of the sort. Fortunately the reference wasn’t actually one to... read more
Thoughts on Radiohead’s In Rainbows
By Austin L. Ray I told myself I wouldn’t do it. Why stay up until the wee hours of the morning just to listen to a new album from a rock band? Until now, I’ve always been content to simply wait until the day of a much-anticipated-by-me release, walk into my favorite record store, and pick it up. Why should this be any different? “I’ll just download it when I wake up in the morning,” I told myself. But last night, I was slowly converted. After making a cursory round of some of my favorite music stomping grounds around the... read more
Auralia’s Colors (or slumming it in genre fiction)
When you’re the editor of a magazine, there’s always an awkward moment when a friend or acquaintance gives you a CD to listen to. You really want to like it. But sometimes… it’s just really hard to find something nice to say. So, it was with some trepidation that I received the debut fantasy novel from a former Paste writer, Jeffrey Overstreet. First off, aside from the Harry Potter book or seven and the quadrennial re-reading of The Lord of the Rings trilogy, I can count on one hand the number of fantasy books I’ve read since, at age 13,... read more
Josh Rouse - 9/22/07 - Bellingham, WA
Again, somehow we bypassed Seattle completely and have landed in the “college” town of Bellingham, Wash. It’s about 60 miles from the Canadian border. The only problem with playing here was that it seemed classes hadn’t even started yet! The club, Nightlife, was really nice. I think as a band, we’ve been getting swankier every night and this was a place where we could “dig in” a bit. Well, “dig in” we did for 75 disco dancing fans!!! So far it’s been an uphill battle as far as attendance is concerned but things tell me from Vancouver on we will... read more
Arcade Fire and LCD Soundsystem - Louisville, KY - Waterfront Park - 10/3/07
Above: Arcade Fire Photos taken at Waterfront Park by Mark Austin Above: LCD Soundsystem Related links: Arcade Fire, LCD Soundsystem add gigs, split 7” LCD Soundsystem - Quick Hit from ACL Inside the church of Arcade Fire ... read more
Tom Waits gets to the Heart of Saturday Night
I was up late at the office listening to this masterpiece the other night, and I think it has officially passed Miles Davis’ Kind of Blue as my favorite album of all time. It’s the perfect record for me—sad, funny, witty, weird and nostalgic. It makes me long for early-twentysomething latenights in some too-perfectly-imperfect-for-real-life diner I’ve always been subconsciously looking for—one where the coffee and the conversation is just a little better than usual, and where the waitress has a tired beauty in her eyes and the pie tastes like your grandmomma cooked it up from scratch. I’ve never actually... read more
Josh Rouse - 9/20-9/21/07 - Boise, Oregon, almost Seattle
Sept. 20 - Day off in Boise, Idaho. We drove through beautiful Oregon. Watched a documentary on song poems called Off the Carts. I highly recommend it. Attempted to eat at an Outback Steakhouse, but there was a 45 minute wait. Woke up in Bothell, Washington right next to an Outback Steakhouse. It’s like it’s playing with us. Sept. 21- For some reason, I thought this was Seattle. We were actually 40 min. north playing in a brand new performing arts theater next to a high school. This was their first concert of the season and the staff was nice... read more
José González - Philadelphia - World Cafe Live - 10/1/07
Photos taken at World Cafe Live by Doug Seymour Related links: José González - In Our Nature José González talks touring, In Our Nature JoséGonzález.com ... read more
Josh Rouse - 9/19/07 - Salt Lake City
Salt Lake City has its own set of rules. Beautiful day and the shower in the bus works! We were informed that due to noise restrictions we couldn’t soundcheck until 8 p.m. This wasn’t good. It was suggested by the guy handling tonight’s show that if we weren’t happy with the late start, we could go open for Guster who was playing a mile away. Joe Pisapia (CMCH mixer and player, and Marc’s brother) plays with Guster. We said we’d be up for it but finally it came down to the promoter raising a stink about not selling booze. So... read more
My Sunday with The War (or, How I Stopped Worrying and Learned to Change the Channel)
TV Programs I Recommend Watching In Marathon Form: Degrassi: The Next Generation 100 Greatest Albums of Rock & Roll America’s Next Top Model TV Program I Recommend Not Watching In Marathon Form: The War * * You might think that it is a good idea. You might think, like I did, “Wow, it’s Sunday! I have nothing to do! And I have no cable! And I have been meaning to watch this, because I liked Baseball when I watched it with my dad in 1994 when he obsessively taped it all to VHS! And I enjoy well-done historical documentaries that... read more
Josh Ritter - 10/1/07 - An Introduction
Hey Everyone! It’s 10 p.m., we’re ensconced in a hotel in Medford, Massachusetts and we’ve just gotten back from kicking these songs around a final time before we head out on the road tomorrow, and the Rittorical conquests begin. I’ve got Alfred Deller on and he’s singing a beautiful song called “Peg-a-Ramsay.” The guy’s voice could break your heart. Right now it’s about as quiet as it’s going to be for the next five weeks and I am fast falling asleep. I first toured around the country in 2003 when my album, Hello Starling, was released. My band and I... read more
Sweet Talk in Newport
... read more
The 50 Best Movies on Netflix Instant
The 25 Best Movies of 2012 (So…
The 50 Best Movies of 2011
The 30 Best TV Shows on Netflix…
The 50 Best Movies of the Decade…
