Collecting four decades of work, James Hamilton’s You Should Have Heard Just What I Seen combines the dedication of a photojournalist with the passion of a true music fan and the eye of a fine-art photographer.
The new book, edited by longtime friend and frequent subject Thurston Moore, chronicles Hamilton’s 40 years immersed in the downtown NYC music and art scene. Lovingly culled from the artist’s vast private archive, the volume also features never-before published candid photographs of icons from Joni Mitchell to the Ramones.
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Yesterday, the folk world was rocked by Joni Mitchell. Apparently she has a giant grudge against Bob Dylan and, as Matt Diehl found out when interviewing Mitchell for the LA Times, she does not like being compared to him. Indeed, when Diehl intimated that the two were similar because they both “changed” their names (from Roberta Joan Anderson to Joni Mitchell and Robert Zimmerman to Bob Dylan) to create a persona, Joni uttered these venom-laced words: “Bob is not authentic at all. He’s a plagiarist, and his name and voice are fake. Everything about Bob is a deception. We are like night and day, he and I.”
A plagiarist? Them’s fighting words. And although the accusation itself is startling, we found ourselves asking a different question: How long has she felt this way? We decided to do some digging to find out exactly what is going on here.
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Today at Flavorpill, we marveled at the irony of the head of the Galactic Empire ringing the opening bell at the Stock Exchange. We loved the recycling initiative at Worn Again, but decided that recycled vintage leather might be more our style. We continued to follow the hardest working man in hip hop. We contemplated the obvious marketing strategy behind Blind Side fever at ABC. We debated F2K’s pick for worst song of the decade. (Do you think Joni is upset by the choice?) We wondered what endangered tiger meat tastes like, and whether it was worth it. We marveled at the incredibly filthy Hit Girl/Kick Ass trailer, and wondered if maybe they went a little too far. We vacillated between the actresses up to play the Green Lantern’s love interest before deciding on Eva Green. We were frightened by this video game-loving kid from Boston. And finally, we got an eyeful of Lady Gaga’s shoot for Vogue Japan. Huzzah.
Canadian synth-pop sensation Lights is the anti-Britney. A composer and lyricist since the age of 11, she creates an expert mix of catchy hooks and earnest, introspective lyrics that’s poised to crack the Top 40. The Listening, her debut album, was released this week, and she kicked off a small club tour to promote the record that will take her through a large part of the US and Canada for the rest of this month.
We caught up with Lights and found out why she’s certain to become the object of lust for legions of nerdy guys everywhere (she’s a huge comic-book fan) and how she’s able to translate her electronic, synthesized sound for a live show. Read our complete interview after the jump. Read More »
Now that we’ve revealed all 50 of our essential women-in-music album selections, we thought we’d do a brief recap of all of our picks, ranked in order of influence. Our list was diverse so it was a tough job, but we think we nailed it. We also picked five up-and-comers we think could wind up on a list like this ten years from now. Once you’ve finished reading our rankings, it’ll be time to tell us what you think. Did we get it right? Which albums did we leave off the list entirely? Who should’ve been ranked higher/lower? Let us know. Read More »
Welcome to part two of our round up of the 50 greatest albums by popular female artists. This week’s list spans a half century, from the swinging jazz of the 1950s to the birth of socially-conscious hip hop in the late noughts. To recap our criteria: we limited ourselves to only one album per artist and featured bands had to be fronted solely by a female performer. Mostly importantly, we wanted to feature works that have become a seminal influence on the music industry as a whole.
So without further ado, selections 11 through 20 (in no particular order) – and don’t forget to check back next Friday for Part 3. Read More »
Marc Hundley, Image courtesy Bellwether Gallery, New York
New York based Canadian artist Marc Hundley makes delicately hand stenciled posters, flyers, and t-shirts. He began making the simple pieces as gifts for friends, but they soon gained a cult-like following in the downtown arts community and were picked up by galleries such as the Lower East Side’s former Rivington Arms and Los Angeles’ Cherry and Martin gallery. The works, wrought in ink, acrylic, or enamel on paper or cloth, play on romantic and nostalgic ideas of love, music, and literature. Hundley pulls particularly evocative lines from Rainer Maria Rilke, Joni Mitchell, and Morrissey and weaves them into his own lumbering reality, often marking the pieces with the date and location of their creation. Read More »
