Copyright 2008 The New York Sun Wed, 18 Jun 2008 16:40:46 -0400 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Martin Edlund :: Stories from The New York Sun http://www.nysun.com/authors/Martin+Edlund istoll@nysun.com (Ira Stoll) webmaster@nysun.com en-us MARTIN EDLUND http://www.nysun.com/arts/pops-pixie-dusts-off-her-wings/43059/ Tue, 7 Nov 2006 00:00:00 EST The first time I saw Joanna Newsom, in 2004, she was standing at the edge of the Bowery Ballroom stage wearing a peasant dress, a flapper headdress, and a leather band around her arm with a feather hanging from it. She was adorable — like a child who'd picked her own mismatched outfit from a costume trunk. She was equally terrifying. When she opened her mouth, out came a bluesy caterwaul that sounded like a mute-choked horn. Nervous laughter at the sight of her quickly gave way to mesmerized... MARTIN EDLUND http://www.nysun.com/arts/check-out-tomorrows-stars-but-do-it-quietly/42556/ Tue, 31 Oct 2006 00:00:00 EST Lodged quietly between the dozen or so name-brand indie acts and the hundreds that will never see the business end of a New York City stage again is an easily overlooked group of cusp bands. They are whispered about over record store counters and quietly praised on the most discriminating blogs, but otherwise unknown — until a month or two from now, anyway. Here are a few bands that fit the category, more or less. Check them out, but don't talk them up: At CMJ, loose lips fill clubs — maybe... MARTIN EDLUND http://www.nysun.com/arts/many-enter-the-marathon-but-few-will-ever-finish/42520/ Mon, 30 Oct 2006 00:00:00 EST Few experiences are as humbling for a music critic as reading through the lineup of the annual CMJ Music Marathon, now in its 26th year, which runs tomorrow through Saturday. Just when you think you've turned over every rock, listened to every record, and read through every indie-rock blog, here comes CMJ again to remind you of the astonishing scope of your own ignorance. Where do they find these bands? In our defense, this year's marathon is set to be the biggest CMJ ever, up 10% over last... MARTIN EDLUND http://www.nysun.com/arts/dylan-skulks-from-record-to-screen-to-stage/42391/ Fri, 27 Oct 2006 00:00:00 EST Hearing Bob Dylan's words come out of another's mouth isn't what makes "The Times They Are A-Changin', " Twyla Tharp's new production based on Mr. Dylan's work, so strange. Singers such as Joan Baez, the Byrds, and Peter, Paul & Mary were performing Mr. Dylan's songs long before anyone outside the tight-knit Greenwich Village folk scene ever heard of him. And long after. What makes the play stand apart is its sheer ridiculousness. Unlike the Billy Joel songs featured in Ms. Tharp's last... MARTIN EDLUND http://www.nysun.com/arts/killer-lady-hops-the-pond/42087/ Mon, 23 Oct 2006 00:00:00 EST In the video for "Love Me or Hate Me," the first single from Lady Sovereign's American debut album "Public Warning," Tetris blocks come together to form her pint-sized picture again and again. It's a good metaphor for the 5-foot-1-inch British rapper and purveyor of grime, the British rap offshoot she represents: The pieces may finally be falling into place. "Public Warning"will be released on October 31 by Def Jam, with the full-throated endorsement of its celebrity brass. (Lady Sovereign... MARTIN EDLUND http://www.nysun.com/arts/hammond-confronts-the-harrison-problem/41561/ Mon, 16 Oct 2006 00:00:00 EST To call Albert Hammond Jr. the George Harrison of the Strokes is to wrap an accurate observation in way too much flattery. The talented guitarist is an underappreciated member of his band; that band is no Beatles. In speaking to the press about his first solo album, "Yours To Keep" (Rough Trade), which is due out October 24, Mr. Hammond has taken pains to emphasize that he isn't quitting the Strokes. Not that anyone would blame him — or notice — if he did. The fall of the photo-ready fivesome... MARTIN EDLUND http://www.nysun.com/new-york/party-promoter-decides-to-switch-to-promoting/40838/ Wed, 4 Oct 2006 00:00:00 EST After one too many nights in the nightlife business, Scott Harrison decided he needed to escape. These days, the nightclub and party promoter, who threw lavish after-parties for bands attending the MTV Video Music Awards and staged velvet-rope events for clients like Elle and Cosmopolitan magazines, is selling $20 water. His bottles have turned up recently at Fashion Week, and 20-something women in matching black T-shirts can be found selling them in Manhattan's parks. "What's in this stuff... MARTIN EDLUND http://www.nysun.com/arts/and-keep-an-eye-out/40720/ Mon, 2 Oct 2006 00:00:00 EST Beck, "The Information" Interscope With his enduring interest in retro sounds, it can be hard to tell whether Beck is moving forward or backward, revisiting old territory or breaking new ground. On "The Information," the answer is probably both. Call it "avantretro." The first song, "Elevator Music," reworks his own loser-blues sound circa "Mellow Gold," mixing it with old-school video game effects that are very much in fashion today. It's impossible to date. "New Round" opens with banjo strums... MARTIN EDLUND http://www.nysun.com/arts/killing-for-respect-pop/40733/ Mon, 2 Oct 2006 00:00:00 EST "Sam's Town," the follow-up to the Killers' much-fussed-about 2004 debut "Hot Fuss," opens with a drum roll. With all the build-up that has preceded its arrival, this is appropriate. Instead of managing expectations, singer Brandon Flowers fed them, telling MTV the new album would be "one of the best albums in 20 years." That it falls short of this improbable claim isn't surprising; what is surprising is that the results aren't laughable. When the Killers were first signed to major label Island... MARTIN EDLUND http://www.nysun.com/arts/evan-dandos-paradox/40267/ Mon, 25 Sep 2006 00:00:00 EST Theseus's paradox poses the following question: If you replace an entire ship, plank by plank, is it still the same ship in the end? What about a band? For the first Lemonheads album in 10 years — titled simply "The Lemonheads" so nobody misses the significance — Evan Dando hasn't resuscitated the old material or reconvened any of the dozen-or-so musicians who've played in the group over the years. No, he's playing all new songs with an all new lineup (now with former Descendents Bill Stevenson... MARTIN EDLUND http://www.nysun.com/arts/sophomores-and-seniors/40038/ Wed, 20 Sep 2006 00:00:00 EST Fall can often feel like a bit of a comedown after the glitzy package tours and megawatt marketing campaigns of summer albums. It can also feel like a relief, a time for cooler music and cooler heads to prevail.So it is this year. Here's a list of the records and concerts this critic is looking forward to. RELEASES THE LEMONHEADS, "The Lemonheads"(Vagrant), September 26 It's been 10 years since the last Lemonheads album, and 14 since their jangly alt-rock masterpiece "It's a Shame About Ray."... MARTIN EDLUND http://www.nysun.com/arts/will-oldhams-art-of-omission/39831/ Mon, 18 Sep 2006 00:00:00 EST Will Oldham's singing has a hushed quality, as if he's always imparting a secret. Often, he is: His music is full of poetic wisdom and hardwon, simple truths. Yet the trick of his beguiling art is that he always holds back; his half-heard confidences leave out as much as they disclose. Nowhere is this more evident than on "The Letting Go," his new album under the Bonnie "Prince" Billy moniker. Given the title, one expects to hear some reflection on the recent passing of Mr. Oldham's father, but... MARTIN EDLUND http://www.nysun.com/arts/electro-players-take-the-fjord/39460/ Tue, 12 Sep 2006 00:00:00 EST Stavanger, Norway, is an ideal setting for the cutting-edge electronic music of the annual Nu Music Festival, which ran from last Wednesday to Saturday, because it's such an unexpected one. The sleepy city of 110,000 is surrounded by pristine natural beauty. I spent two days hiking the fjords, peeking into eel boxes, and eating red currants right off the bushes before the festival began. Stavanger is already building toward 2008, when it will be recognized as the European Capital of Culture (a... MARTIN EDLUND http://www.nysun.com/arts/one-for-the-ages-2006-09-05/39050/ Tue, 5 Sep 2006 00:00:00 EST When Justin Timberlake trotted out hip-hop talent (Clipse, Timbaland, Pharrell, Bubba Sparxxx) on "Justified," he was nakedly using them for credibility. He had yet to prove himself as a solo artist and to live down the Britney-boy-toy and boy-band associations. The Michael Jackson-imitating 2002 album earned him not only the title "the new king of pop" (bestowed by a 2003 Rolling Stone cover) but also loads of street cred: When Mr. Timberlake won the 2003 VMA for Best Male Video, Eminem and 50... MARTIN EDLUND http://www.nysun.com/arts/cool-kids-unite-for-young-readers/38571/ Fri, 25 Aug 2006 00:00:00 EST "A benefit for child literacy hits home for me," Daily Show host Jon Stewart told the sold out audience at "Revenge of the Book Eaters," a benefit for 826NYC at the Beacon Theater Wednesday night, "because every night, before I put my son to bed, we sit down [pause] and we watch a benefit together." The event brought together literary lights in the McSweeney's orbit and nerd-chic indie rockers Sufjan Stevens, David Byrne, and John Roderick to benefit 826's child literacy centers. The night was... MARTIN EDLUND http://www.nysun.com/arts/tangled-up-in-blues/38346/ Tue, 22 Aug 2006 00:00:00 EST Besides a reference to Alicia Keys, there's nothing modern about Bob Dylan's "Modern Times" (Sony). On his first new album in five years, which will be released next week, the artist who once gave voice to the changing times has stepped out of the flow of time altogether. The blues are his means of escaping the present. He borrows willy nilly from them — a line here, a scene there. "I'm going where the Southern crosses the Yellow Dawg / to escape these demagogues," he sings on "Nettie Moore,"... MARTIN EDLUND http://www.nysun.com/arts/saving-himself-from-a-sunny-day/37844/ Mon, 14 Aug 2006 00:00:00 EST For a brief moment in 1994, Sunny Day Real Estate was viewed as a possible successor to Nirvana. They hailed from the same city (Seattle), recorded for the same label (Sub Pop), and had built the same passionate underground fan base. But just as speculation was mounting, lead singer Jeremy Enigk became a born-again Christian and the band abruptly broke up. By the time they re-formed in 1998, the moment had passed, leaving fans to speculate about what might have been. The truth is, Sunny Day was... MARTIN EDLUND http://www.nysun.com/arts/mining-the-past-for-a-rural-icon/37439/ Mon, 7 Aug 2006 00:00:00 EST "The dear old songs, the good old songs, have stood by me for so long," sang the fiery 74-year-old Hazel Dickens in a distinctive West Virginia twang Saturday night. It was the first of four shows over the weekend pairing Ms. Dickens with the Oldham brothers — led by indie icon Will Oldham, aka Bonnie "Prince" Billy — at Joe's Pub in celebration of "the good old songs." Ms. Dickens is a beloved but too-little-known singer and songwriter, one of the last to have a direct connection to American... MARTIN EDLUND http://www.nysun.com/arts/saga-of-subverting-the-subversive/37349/ Fri, 4 Aug 2006 00:00:00 EST If you court obscurity long enough, it becomes a kind of fame. This is the lesson of Mayo Thompson, who made a rare appearance with his band, the Red Krayola, Wednesday night at the Knitting Factory. The Red Krayola began in the psychedelic glut of the late 1960s and were outliers even then. Whereas the mood and moment drove many respectable groups to grow out their mop tops and shrug off traditional song structures, it was just barely weird enough to accommodate the strangeness of the Red... MARTIN EDLUND http://www.nysun.com/arts/rocking-out-on-the-big-screen/37151/ Wed, 2 Aug 2006 00:00:00 EST With the rare exception of a "Don't Look Back," "Gimme Shelter," or "Message to Love," rock documentaries are minor works. They are inevitably the work of fans — who else would think to give these subjects such serious, thoroughgoing treatment — and, as a result, appeal exclusively to fellow fans. They offer all the excitement of liner notes brought to life — which is either a good or bad thing depe nding upon how you feel about the band in question. "Play It Loud: Rockdocs 2006," a nine-day... MARTIN EDLUND http://www.nysun.com/arts/all-dolled-up-with-nowhere-to-go/36663/ Tue, 25 Jul 2006 00:00:00 EST The New York Dolls, even more than the other overlooked legends who have reunited to enjoy overdue prestige (the Pixies, Mission of Burma, Dinosaur Jr.), are a band that missed its own moment. "Too Much Too Soon," the title for its 1973 (and until now seemingly final) album about sums it up: The Dolls were too far ahead of their time to capitalize on their own innovations.(Punk and hair metal are but two of the genres that couldn't have existed without them.) But then it's never too late: Today... MARTIN EDLUND http://www.nysun.com/arts/better-seen-than-heard/36121/ Mon, 17 Jul 2006 00:00:00 EST Siren Music Festival - the Village Voice's grueling day-long concert at Coney Island, now in its sixth year - is aptly named. Crowds are lured in by the siren song of a schedule crowded with indie up-and-comers, only to have their expectations dashed on the rocks of middling acts and terrible acoustics. Even the most intrepid rock journalist wearies of running the gauntlet of carnival barkers and sticky-fingered, sugar-high kids that separate the two Coney Island stages. This year's event was... MARTIN EDLUND http://www.nysun.com/arts/solo-venture-into-private-refuge/35695/ Mon, 10 Jul 2006 00:00:00 EST "Meeting People Is Easy," the 1999 documentary film that captured Radiohead at the grouchy height of their fame after the release of "OK Computer," had exactly one scene in which the band's lead singer, Thom Yorke, looked happy. Okay, one scene in which he didn't look unhappy: Yorke seems incapable of joy. It wasn't when he was on stage performing, and it certainly wasn't when he was sulking in expensive hotel rooms or frowning at boneheaded questions from the press. It was while he was alone... MARTIN EDLUND http://www.nysun.com/arts/weekend-of-pop-cultural-miscegenations/35347/ Fri, 30 Jun 2006 00:00:00 EST For all the Misfits patches and anarchy talk, punk rock is really about community and belonging. This, anyway, is the assumption of the documentary "Afro-Punk." After a celebrated run on the festival circuit, the 2003 film about blacks in the white world of punk rock is now being touted as "the film that sparked the movement." What that movement amounts to - beyond a few internet bulletin boards and a My-Space page - is unclear. The film has irrefutably sparked, for the second year in a row, a... MARTIN EDLUND http://www.nysun.com/arts/band-that-lives-up-to-its-hype/34639/ Mon, 19 Jun 2006 00:00:00 EST Ben Bridwell - the heroin-thin, heavily tattooed, and hirsute lead singer of Band of Horses - began Friday's show at the Bowery Ballroom (the first of three in town over the weekend) sitting with a lap-steel slide guitar. His excitement didn't allow him to stay seated for long, however. By the end of the first song - the measured-then-climactic "Monsters" - he was on his feet, body bent over at nearly 90 degrees, flaying the instrument in frantic, full-body sweeps. Such unrestrained enthusiasm... MARTIN EDLUND http://www.nysun.com/arts/long-road-to-convention/34232/ Mon, 12 Jun 2006 00:00:00 EST Though I've always considered myself a Sonic Youth fan, maybe admirer is more accurate. I respect them as noise rock pioneers and indie-rock elder statesmen, but, truth be told, I find most of the music headache-inducing. I like the band best at its tamest and most tuneful. I still listen to "Daydream Nation," Sonic Youth's classic 1988 album, and portions of "Goo," its major-label debut, but I totally ignore the experimental stuff they put out on their own. My favorite songs are the crumbs... MARTIN EDLUND http://www.nysun.com/arts/not-all-they-were-blogged-up-to-be/33913/ Tue, 6 Jun 2006 00:00:00 EST Minneapolis's Tapes 'n Tapes, which played its first of two sold-out shows at Bowery Ballroom Sunday night (the other is tonight), is the latest band to benefit from the new star-making apparatus of the Internet. The group's meteoric rise follows a now familiar pattern. The influential music blog Music for Robots started the ball rolling last November with a gushing review that tagged TNT (self-mockingly) as "the current most amazing band in the world." As if to set up the next domino, the... MARTIN EDLUND http://www.nysun.com/summer-guide/songs-of-the-season/33271/ Wed, 24 May 2006 00:00:00 EST Ozzfest and Warped Tour notwithstanding, the era of the omnibus summer tour is over. (R.I.P. Zooma and the Anger Management Tour). In its place have bloomed a dozen site-specific, single weekend mega-festivals modeled on the success of long-running events like South By Southwest and Coachella. There's Seattle's Sasquatch Music Festival, Bonnaroo in Tennessee, Canada's North By Northeast, Pitchfork Music Festival in Chicago, and recent additions like Cincinnati's Midpoint Music Festival. Even... MARTIN EDLUND http://www.nysun.com/arts/freewheelin-dj/32687/ Mon, 15 May 2006 00:00:00 EST When I first waded into Greil Marcus's book "The Old, Weird America," a rambling meditation on Bob Dylan's Basement Tapes and the entire inheritance of American music, I was skeptical, then frustrated, then just plain bored. For Marcus, every lyric and note that sprang from Dylan seemed to echo through the catacombs of American culture - from Harry Smith to Elvis, Memphis, Hank Williams, Lincoln, Melville, Andrew Jackson, black face minstrelsy, and the blues. I was dazzled (and dizzied) by the... MARTIN EDLUND http://www.nysun.com/arts/finding-a-space-between-fact-legend/32457/ Wed, 10 May 2006 00:00:00 EST The 20th season of American Masters on PBS kicks off with the premiere of two new films: "John Ford/John Wayne: The Filmmaker and The Legend" (tonight at 9 p.m.) and "The World of Nat King Cole" (May 17 at 9 p.m). The celebrated documentary series has always strived to situate its subjects within the broader American experience, to make them somehow emblematic of their culture and times. In this respect, John Ford and John Wayne are ideal subjects.Their work and lives played out against the... MARTIN EDLUND http://www.nysun.com/arts/progressive-sound-with-retro-spirit/32292/ Mon, 8 May 2006 00:00:00 EST DJ Danger Mouse (ne Brian Burton) is the latest in a string of producers - Dr. Dre, Timbaland, the Neptunes, Kanye West, Mr. Collipark, and so on - to establish himself as a brand. But though he fits a pattern, he also breaks the mold. Danger Mouse is the first super producer to come out of the music underground (though a case could be made for Kanye West). And certainly the first whose heart still remains there. Danger Mouse didn't make his name with a string of radio hits for established... MARTIN EDLUND http://www.nysun.com/arts/road-to-redemption/31936/ Tue, 2 May 2006 00:00:00 EST My name is Martin Edlund, and I am a Pearl Jam fan. This isn't an easy thing to admit, especially for a music critic. But try as I might, there's no escaping it. Eddie Vedder was my grunge gateway drug, my junior high anti-hero. I owned a pair of concert-only steel-toed boots (not those yuppie Doc Martens, mind you) just like his, and wore vintage lumberjack shirts with the sleeves ripped off. My leather biker wallet was attached to my belt with a chain so I wouldn't lose it while crowd surfing... MARTIN EDLUND http://www.nysun.com/arts/tribute-without-a-legacy/31435/ Mon, 24 Apr 2006 00:00:00 EST It's hard to imagine someone more fit to celebrate the work of Pete Seeger than Bruce Springsteen. His own music, especially acoustic albums like "Nebraska" and political ones like "The Ghost of Tom Joad," makes him a clear part of the lineage that runs from Woody Guthrie through Seeger and Bob Dylan. Sadly, it is easy to imagine a more fitting Seeger tribute than Springsteen's new album, "We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions" (Columbia). The album's 13 songs - all of them associated in one... MARTIN EDLUND http://www.nysun.com/arts/new-currents/31066/ Mon, 17 Apr 2006 00:00:00 EST This week, two of New York City's most intriguing (and sometimes exasperating) bands, TV on the Radio and the Fiery Furnaces, will play local shows to debut new material. TV on the Radio exploded out of the New York underground in 2004 with "Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes," an album that situated soul, R&B, and doo wop elements within a haze of shoe-gazer-rock guitars and paper-thin drum machine beats. Having recently signed with Interscope, the group is preparing its follow-up, "Return... MARTIN EDLUND http://www.nysun.com/arts/could-have-been-a-contender/30679/ Mon, 10 Apr 2006 00:00:00 EST Fourteen years into its career, Built To Spill finds itself in a curious spot: In an era in which indie artists sell like major label acts, it's a major label act still selling like an indie. This isn't altogether surprising, knowing a bit about the band's history. Doug Martsch formed Built To Spill in 1992, right at the height of Nirvana hysteria. A Boise, Idaho, native, Martsch was already an established figure in the Pacific Northwest underground scene as a member of such revered local acts... MARTIN EDLUND http://www.nysun.com/arts/jack-fades-back/30301/ Tue, 4 Apr 2006 00:00:00 EST The Raconteurs are commonly described as a super group. And it's true that all four members are established musicians in their own right. The rhythm section - Jack Lawrence and Patrick Keeler - are two-fifths of the Cincinnati garage-R&B-folk-rock band the Greenhornes, and Brendan Benson is much admired by the indie-rock crowd for his sugary power pop anthems. But Jack White is the only true superstar among them, and he's the reason the project is getting the attention it is. A more apt... MARTIN EDLUND http://www.nysun.com/arts/meet-the-all-time-best-artist-ever-right/30164/ Fri, 31 Mar 2006 00:00:00 EST Daniel Johnston is a talented, troubled, funny, frightening, exasperating, fascinating musician and artist. He emerged out of the 1980s underground music scene of Austin, Texas, as a kind of mascot and curiosity, and was championed by such underground luminaries as Kurt Cobain, the Butthole Surfers, and Sonic Youth. He is manic-depressive, which gives his art and life a great, child-like exuberance, but also a genuinely scary side. This cult of Daniel Johnston - a justifiably respectful... MARTIN EDLUND http://www.nysun.com/arts/psychedelic-creativity/29829/ Mon, 27 Mar 2006 00:00:00 EST "At War With the Mystics" is the first outwardly political album from the Flaming Lips. But instead of curbing the band's psychedelic creativity, it has simply redirected it. The album's concept is premised on a fantastical creation myth. Hoping to enlighten the Bush administration, a band of paranoid hippies have replaced the deodorizers in the White House urinals with pucks of LSD and ecstasy so that the drugs will splash up onto anyone who pees on them. But the plan backfires: Instead of... MARTIN EDLUND http://www.nysun.com/arts/poet-in-the-beerlight/29373/ Mon, 20 Mar 2006 00:00:00 EST Dressed in an ill-fitting thrift store suit, scuffed boots, and full beard, his thinning hair swept over to one side, D.C. Berman looked like some slacker anti-hero from a Wes Anderson movie as he took the Webster Hall stage Friday night. It was the first of two sold-out shows, and by his own count only the sixth concert he's ever given. Berman has been releasing albums as the Silver Jews since the mid-1990s but has declined to tour until now. By all appearances, he's warming slowly to his new... MARTIN EDLUND http://www.nysun.com/arts/stephin-merritts-woozy-affair-with-words/29039/ Tue, 14 Mar 2006 00:00:00 EST "Showtunes" (Nonesuch), the new collection of songs by Magnetic Fields frontman Stephin Merritt, is the long-awaited answer to a question: What would Merritt do if he applied his formidable songwriting talents to the stage? The answer is not as profound as the asking would suggest - if still better than anything else contemporary musical theater has to offer. For Merritt, doing theater has always seemed more a matter of when than if. His Magnetic Fields albums can scarcely be reviewed without... MARTIN EDLUND http://www.nysun.com/arts/getting-back-to-the-source/28583/ Mon, 6 Mar 2006 00:00:00 EST Pusha T, the more outspoken half of the Virginia Beach rap duo Clipse, has had little occasion to smile recently. In fact, he's become sort of famous for the stoic scowl he has worn since his group's sophomore album got into major-label limbo. But stepping onto the stage for Friday night's sold-out show at the Knitting Factory - a rare appearance these days - he couldn't help breaking into a broad grin. A show like this weekend's is good for an embattled artist's self-confidence. It was put on... MARTIN EDLUND http://www.nysun.com/arts/first-glimpse-of-the-spring-sun/28204/ Mon, 27 Feb 2006 00:00:00 EST "Yeah, we missed you too," said Karen O. of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, basking in the stage lights and adulation of the Bowery Ballroom on Friday night. It was the second of three "warmup shows" the band played at smaller (for it) clubs in New York City over the weekend to prepare itself for the March 28 release and associated tour of its new album, "Show Your Bones" (Interscope). After a year-and-a-half long absence from New York's stages, Karen O.'s brilliant energy and reflective designer costume... MARTIN EDLUND http://www.nysun.com/arts/much-to-say-but-nothing-directly/27874/ Tue, 21 Feb 2006 00:00:00 EST "Destroyer's Rubies" (Merge), the seventh album from Vancouver's Destroyer, falls somewhere between a poetry reading and a rock opera and is evocative of both. The first (and title track) opens with a moment of discordant narration: "Dueling cyclones jacknifed / they got eyes for your wife / and the blood that lives in her heart," Daniel Bejar sings. Words spill out in impassioned rushes over the next nine and a half minutes; music thins to an acoustic strum, then ascends in voluptuous swells... MARTIN EDLUND http://www.nysun.com/arts/offering-for-the-master/27459/ Mon, 13 Feb 2006 00:00:00 EST John Fahey's first musical acts suggest an aggressive contrarian streak. In 1958, he recorded a 78 for Joe Bussard's Fonotone label and released it under the name Blind Thomas, offering no hint that it wasn't a pre-war recording. His first full album took the joke further: One side was credited to himself, the other to a fictional blues man called Blind Joe Death, whom he supposedly discovered in the South. Fahey sent copies to noted blues scholars and slipped them into thrift-store bins in... MARTIN EDLUND http://www.nysun.com/arts/welcome-departure/27057/ Mon, 6 Feb 2006 00:00:00 EST "Comfort of Strangers," the title to the new album by vaguely alternative British singer Beth Orton, isn't exactly right. "Comfort to Strangers" would be better: While the album may satisfy some longtime fans, it will sound even better to those who've never cared much for her past work. (I count myself in the latter group.) Orton emerged in the mid- to late 1990s, a time of flux and false starts in pop music; alt-rock had run its course, and hip-hop hadn't emerged fully to take its place. She... MARTIN EDLUND http://www.nysun.com/arts/sounds-from-a-close-knit-scene/26657/ Mon, 30 Jan 2006 00:00:00 EST Seeing that they were running ahead of schedule at Friday night's show at Webster Hall (the second of three sold-out shows), Broken Social Scene frontman Kevin Drew decided to introduce the band. "That will eat up some time," he quipped. He was right; 15 members - nine touring and six guesting - and almost 15 minutes later, they resumed playing. Despite the name, Broken Social Scene actually testifies to the opposite: the tightly knit and interconnected nature of the Canadian (in this case... MARTIN EDLUND http://www.nysun.com/arts/ignoring-the-1000-pound-mediocrity-in-the-room/26345/ Tue, 24 Jan 2006 00:00:00 EST Rock journalism has never been the equal of the music, and rarely its competent scribe. "Writing about music is like dancing about architecture," said Frank Zappa (or Elvis Costello, depending on who you ask). QWERTY can't contain the music. To even keep it in sight, metaphors stretch, comparisons strain, and words pile up, as if to do it justice by sheer ecstatic accumulation. In America, we've given up trying. Here, rock journalism has grown cautious, chastened by false promise. Consider the... MARTIN EDLUND http://www.nysun.com/arts/latest-is-her-greatest/26201/ Fri, 20 Jan 2006 00:00:00 EST "Someday they're gonna write a blues song just for fighters," said the heavyweight champion Sonny Liston, who would meet his own bad end. "It'll be for slow guitar, soft trumpet, and a bell." Cat Power's Chan Marshall opens her new album, "The Greatest" (Matador), with just such a song. A version of it anyway, this one for brushed electric guitar, "Moon River" strings, and piano. The title track tells the story of a fighter once possessed of high hopes and physical power: "Once I wanted to be... MARTIN EDLUND http://www.nysun.com/arts/springsteens-state-of-mind/25800/ Fri, 13 Jan 2006 00:00:00 EST Bruce Springsteen has described himself as "a child of Woody [Guthrie] and Elvis." The spirit of Elvis is easy enough to see. It's all over the recent 30th anniversary edition of "Born To Run": in his kinetic live performance, his reckless ambition for what rock 'n' roll can be and mean. The spirit of Woody is quieter, and emerged a few years later on the Springsteen classic "Nebraska." On Saturday night, the nearly monthlong New York Guitar Festival will kick off with a free concert... MARTIN EDLUND http://www.nysun.com/arts/strung-out/25802/ Fri, 13 Jan 2006 00:00:00 EST The New York Guitar Festival was founded in 1999 with the quixotic goal of broadening "the public's appreciation of the guitar," as if the ascendance of hip-hop had made it an endangered species. Come to think of it, there may be something to that. Now in its sixth season, the festival will feature 60 guitarists in 20 shows across seven venues between January 14 and February 8. Here are the highlights: Blues Fallin' Down Like Rain: The Music of Mississippi John Hurt John Hurt was one of the big...