Glorious Noise July 2006

Twenty mp3s of early American Popular Music

Nipper's Greatest Hits: 1901-1920: Twenty mp3s of great Public Domain songs. Great stuff from Al Jolsen, Caruso, Sousa's Band, George M. Cohan, et al. Via bb....

A Buyers Guide to Gram Parsons

With the release of a new Gram Parsons documentary on DVD and his Complete Reprise Sessions remastered and repackaged, Glorious Noise takes a look back over the recorded output of one of America's most influential songwriters.

Bob Lefsetz on YouTube, Napster

The YouTube Deal by industry legend Bob Lefsetz: "Despite all the chest-thumping by Edgar Bronfman, Jr. and Eric Nicoli, the failure to license Napster was single-handedly the worst decision ever made in the history of the music business. And it...

Tapes 'N Tapes - Insistor

Has anybody else noticed that "Insistor" by current indie darlings Tapes 'N Tapes sounds a lot like Quasar Wut-Wut? Check out "Enola Gay" in particular. Even their video looks like a Quasar video. Or is it just me?...

BellRays - Third Time's The Charm

"Third Time's The Charm" by the BellRays from Have a Little Faith. Great soul music. The first time I ever heard Lisa Kekaula's voice was in Paris when she was singing with the surviving members of the MC5, and she...

Syd Barrett, dead at 60

Syd Barrett dies aged 60. Sad news indeed. Shine on! Check out Rolling Stone's 1971 interview with Syd....

What Became of the Likely Lads?

Like so many great British bands, the allure of the Libertines was found in the complex relationship of its frontmen, Carl Barat and Pete Doherty. So what happens when they go their separate ways?

Weezer Breaks Up Again

Rivers Cuomo Says Weezer Is 'Done' For Now: "I don't know what'll happen with these songs — if anything — I just sort of write them and I can't stop. I certainly don't see them becoming Weezer songs, and I...

All Music Guide's Case Against Sufjan Stevens

A Case Against Sufjan Stevens: "His pretension — his convoluted song titles, his cloying song about Saul Bellow, his adolescent fascination with John Wayne Gacy, Jr. — all comes across like a precocious high school student in his senior year,...

McSweeney's Pop-Song Correspondences: Notes on "Sweet Child O' Mine" from Axl's Editor

Notes on "Sweet Child O' Mine," as Delivered to Axl Rose by His Editor: "Reminds me of childhood memories—Redundant. You either have a memory or you're reminded of something. You're not reminded of a memory. Heavy-metal fans won't stand for...

White Whale - WWI

Justin Timberlake and Timbaland: In Love?

He's a Pretty Face, and Proud of It: "'Look at those hips,' Timbaland raps... After each phrase, Mr. Timberlake croons back his flirty (and somewhat cryptic) response: 'Go 'head, be gone with it.' With that, the 'dirty babe' first introduced...

Glorious Noise Video with Chris Mills

In this exclusive GLONO video feature, we caught orchestral popster Chris Mills at the Hideout in Chicago. There are two songs on the clip, including an as yet unreleased beauty.

Outkast - Mighty O

Stream "Mighty O" by the Outkast: Real, Win. The first single from Idlewild features Andre 3000 and Big Boi rhyming together on the same track for the first time, apparently, since 2000. What do you think? Also: Idlewild Blues....

New Golden Smog MP3s

The New York Times is giving away five Golden Smog MP3s from the new album, Another Fine Day: "You Make It Easy," "Another Fine Day," "5-22-02," "Long Time Ago," and "Corvette." Nice!...

Spoon - Mountain To Sound, Idiot Driver

New, old Spoon! "Mountain To Sound" and "Idiot Driver" from Soft Effects and Telephono, respectively. Two EPs from the mid-90s, remastered and reissued by Merge, out July 25, 2006....

Yahoo selling DRM-free MP3s

Yahoo is selling personalized, DRM-free MP3s of Jessica Simpson's new song: "We hope you see the importance of this [...] even if you don’t love JS and think that $1.99 is too much to spend on an MP3." Pretty cool....

GLONO Video With The Blacks

Legendary Chicago band The Blacks blew open the No Depression scene with gender bending stage shows and genre twisting music. Here, we present a feature article and mini-documentary on the newly reunited band who traveled dark roads and ultimately got lost.

Lambchop - Crackers

"Crackers" by Lambchop from Damaged, due August 22, 2006 on Merge....

Letter from Steely Dan to Luke (and Owen) Wilson

Hey Luke Wilson - A letter from Steely Dan wherein they accuse Owen's new movie of ripping off their "Cousin Dupree" (lyrics). "Your bro may be creating an extremely retrograde reality matrix for himself with his whole sellout moveistar game...

Yo La Tengo - Pass the Hatchet, I Think I'm Goodkind

"Pass the Hatchet, I Think I'm Goodkind" by Yo La Tengo from I am Not Afraid of You, and I Will Beat Your Ass, out September 12, 2006 on Matador. It's eleven minutes of noisy guitar rock!...

Random Rules: Rob Corrdry's iPod on Shuffle

Daily Show correspondent Rob Corrdry Rob Corrdry puts his iPod on shuffle and exposes his inner indie rocker: "I hate that Weezer hates Pinkerton. That's my favorite Weezer disc, and I hate that they won't play it live. It just...

The Dean crams for his rock exams

A Month on the Town - 65-year-old critic Robert Christgau spent every night in June at a show: "The main reason I conceived this project, which many considered nuts, was that I wasn't liking enough new guitar bands. So my...

Journey vs. Irony, Nostalgia

In the flesh - Even without with Steve Perry, Johnny Loftus finds something inspirational in a recent Journey show: "It wasn't nostalgia or worse, irony, that brought a sold-out crowd to its feet for the ballad 'Open Arms.' ... It...

Scritti Politti - White Bread Black Beer

CD Baby Explains their Stance on Censorship

White power group Skrewdriver got onto iTunes via CD Baby. Derek Sivers justifies his company's firm anti-censorship policy: "For every dollar we make selling some obviously racist/nazi/whatever album, we contribute TWO dollars to anti-racist organizations like UNCF and others." Interesting...

Babyshambles - The Man Who Came to Stay

"The Man Who Came to Stay" by Babyshambles, the b-side to the Killamangiro single. This and eight other b-sides will be available on iTunes as part of a deluxe version of Down in Albion on August 1. Previously: What Became...

Neil Young talks about his Archives (and other stuff)

Neil Young talks to the Stone about his Archives: "You can get to a certain period in time and you see, 'Oh, four of these songs were in Homegrown, and that was released a year and a half later,' and...

Lester Bangs in Rolling Stone (dot com)

Reviving a tradition that we started back in the very early days of Glorious Noise after we got a hold of a collection of old Rolling Stones, here are a bunch of classic record reviews by Lester Bangs.

Free e-Book about the Beatles' Revolver

Abracadabra: The Beatles: Revolver - A free, 103-page e-book telling the story of the Beatles 1966 album. Whenever I get a new Beatles book, I always skip straight to the Revolver section, so I'm looking forward to checking this out....