This Is The Last…

Here’s a few good reasons to stay up late this week.

Mon:
Late Late Show: Jenny Lewis

Wed:
Conan O’Brien: Belle & Sebastian

(Link via Torr)

Thanks to SoT for reminding me that tomorrow is IHOP’s National Pancake day. Tomorrow, from 7am-2pm you can get a free stack of pancakes. So stick that in your back pocket.

I just finished reading A Family Daughter a wonderfully written novel by the sister of the Decemberists’ front man Colin Meloy. Everyone knows that Colin was a literature major in college and he wrote a 33 1/3 book about the Replacements, so its no surprise that his sister would be an interesting writer. So last week while Jason and I were at Barnes and Noble I picked up and started reading it. I finished in 2 days! From the moment I picked up this book, I was engrossed by the characters.

The book is a story about three generations of a family. The story is mainly about Abby, the granddaughter of the Santerre family. At the beginning of the story Abby is a little girl, stuck in the her grandparents’ house with chicken pox and boredom. Her parents are going through a divorce, and her mother is trying to find herself. Her cool uncle Jamie drives down from college, to be with Abby and cheer her up. The book flashes forward and Abby is 21. She has a a major tragedy happen in her life and she is torn apart by grief.

Each chapter is told from a different family member’s perspective. The story has death, sex, an affair, a foreign rich girl, an adopted son, an ex-russian prostitute, and a reunion of old highschool sweethearts. The book is a bit steamy, and there was one scene that I was like… what the hell? Aside from that, this was a very well-written book. I definitely want to pick up another of Meloy’s books.

After reading the book I found out that A Family Daughter is actually a sequel to Meloy’s earlier book Liars and Saints. So if you were interested in her writing, you might want to pick that one up first.

I came across a pretty good, old interview with Colin Meloy in Believer Magazine. Its really interesting, even if it is from June of 2004. There’s some really interesting bits about how his relationship with his sister affected his writing. You can read it here.

I came across this on Filter yesterday…

The gentle crooning singer-songwriter Jolie Holland announced the May 9, 2006 release of Springtime Can Kill You, her third release for Anti-/Epitaph Records. Following in the steps of her lauded 2003 basement-tapes Catalpa and 2004’s studio-debut Escondida, the new album takes Holland’s sepia-toned, song noir to a new level of transcendence.

There will also be two pre-tour warm up shows at Largo in Los Angeles on April 5th and 26th. From there, she plans to tour North America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand through 2006 and continue her genre-hopping guest appearances.

You can read the full writeup here.

I can’t wait to hear these new songs.

I just found out that José González is coming back to Iceland! He’s gonna be playing at Nasa in Reykjavík 13.march. This is great news for all those people that didn’t get to see José González at the Iceland Airwaves festival including moi.

From NME…

Radiohead are working on a song in the studio that they’ve not been able to get right for almost ten years.

The track, ‘Nude’ was played on the tour to promote ‘OK Computer’, but never properly recorded.

Bootleg versions of the track have circulated amongst fans over the internet, but a full studio version has never surfaced.

Now singer Thom Yorke has now confirmed it’s set for inclusion on their new album, which is due this year.

Here’s a link to the new video for the Streets‘ song “When you Wasn’t Famous”.

(Link via Modern Age)

I read this on Pitchfork…

All your quasi-indie heroes (Cat Power, Franz Ferdinand, Portishead, Jarvis Cocker, Feist, Placebo, The Kills), alongside requisite veterans (Michael Stipe, Marianne Faithfull), original Gainsbourgian chanteuses (Jane Birkin, Françoise Hardy), and Jack White’s boo (Karen Elson) have teamed up to pay tribute to the perpetually unshaven songsmith on the forthcoming covers comp Monsieur Gainsbourg Revisited, due out next month.

01 Franz Ferdinand and Jane Birkin: “A Song for Sorry Angel”
02 Cat Power and Karen Elson: “I Love You (Me Either)”
03 Jarvis Cocker and Kid Loco: “I Just Came to Tell You That I’m Going”
04 Portishead: “Requiem for Anna”
05 Faultline, Brian Molko, and Françoise Hardy: “Requiem For A Jerk”
06 Michael Stipe: “L’Hôtel”
07 Tricky: “Au Revoir Emmanuelle”
08 Marianne Faithfull and Sly and Robbie: “Lola R. For Ever”
09 Gonzales, Feist, and Dani: “Boomerang 2005″
10 Marc Almond and Trash Palace: “Boy Toy”
11 Placebo: “The Ballad of Melody Nelson”
12 The Rakes: “Just a Man With a Job”
13 The Kills: “I Call It Art”
14 Carla Bruni: “Those Little Things”

This album comes out February 27th.

Bill Bryson decided to walk the Appalachian Trail in 1998. That’s a walk over 2,100 miles from Georgia to Maine. Through forests and over countless mountains. Before reading A Walk In The Woods I knew very little about the AT. But I love camping and spending time outdoors and wish I had more time for it. I’ve done a bit of walking on the west coast in California and Oregon, and a bit in New Zealand, but nothing as extensive as the experience Bryson and others have embarked on the AT.

A small percentage of people who attempt the AT even get a quarter of the way through. And only a fraction of those actually make it to Mount Katahdin in Maine. The trek takes around 8 months for most who complete the journey. Like all Bryson novels, it’s full of interesting facts and stories of those who’ve attempted the trail before him, horror stories of being stranded in the extreme weather, and bears. I really like the book, and although I don’t think I’ll be attempting a through walk of the entire AT anytime soon, there were parts of the trail that I think I’d really enjoy. So much of the trail is extremely undeveloped and scarcely traveled. In some areas Bryson went entire days without seeing another hiker on the trail. Which is amazing since the north eastern United States is one of the most densely populated areas of the world.

Bryson also spent a chapter talking about how modern technology has infiltrated the AT. “The nuisance of satellite navigation devices, cell phone, and other such appliances in the wildernesses”, as he put it “have brought a measure of civilization that simply doesn’t belong in the woods.” A hiker once called up a National Guard Unit in Maine asking for a helicopter to pick him up and take him back to his car because he was tired. Another hiker called and requested a helicopter because he was a day behind schedule and was afraid he would miss an important business meeting. People are bringing laptop computers and navigation devices that give you their exact longitude and latitude to a hundredth of a degree but these same people don’t carry a map! I agree with Bryson that the point to getting out and enjoying the outdoors is that you could detach yourself from such modern constraints and walk the woods, untouched. Bryson wrote this book in 1998. I’m sure by now people are posting daily on their blog from the Appalachian Trail.

I heard this on NPR last week…

You’re likely to make a better decision if you don’t overanalyze it, according to new research. A study published in Science magazine finds that people make better decisions if they stop thinking about the pros and cons and let the unconscious mind do some of the work.