Pages tagged “mercury rev”

[Above: His Holiness Kevin Shields of My Bloody Valentine]

A new flyer went up around Kutsher's late on the second day of All Tomorrow's Parties' New York debut. Earplugs would be available, for free and in large quantities, for everyone. Smart people (like me) had already brought their own: the unofficial reports from My Bloody Valentine's London shows was that they were reaching 132 decibels during their set, which is just slightly softer than a jet taking off.

After a few years of relative inactivity (a best-of collection here, a soundtrack there), New York space-rockers Mercury Rev recently announced that the band will deliver not one, but two full-length albums this Sept. 30, via Yep Roc. The best part of this news? The second album is free!

[Above: Lee Ronaldo and James Joyce]

We keep our ears pretty low to the ground where literate music is concerned, so news of producer James Nichols' project using James Joyce's poetry sent our wee minds a-reeling. The author of Ulysses, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and Finnegan's Wake has inspired popular music for years—Jefferson Airplane, Lou Reed and Van Morrison are only three of the most famous Joyce-referencers—but rarely has he received such extensive treatment this side of the high art/low art seesaw.