Linkage Wednesday, re: Tom Waits, DCFC, The National, etc.

FOA Linkage Wednesday returns! Get excited, 'cause here we go....

First, I have have have to point you towards this NPR piece: Tom Waits Interviews Tom Waits

It begins with this utterly fantastic introduction (by Tom Waits about Tom Waits):
"I must admit, before meeting Tom, I had heard so many rumors and so much gossip that I was afraid. Frankly, his gambling debts, his animal magnetism, coupled with his disregard for the feelings of others... His elaborate gun collection, his mad shopping sprees, the face lifts, the ski trips, the drug busts and the hundreds of rooms in his home. The tax shelters, the public urination...I was nervous to meet the real man himself. Baggage and all. But I found him to be gentle, intelligent, open, bright, helpful, humorous, brave, audacious, loquacious, clean, and reverent. A Boy Scout, really (and a giant of a man). Join me now for a rare glimpse into the heart of Tom Waits. Remove your shoes and no smoking, please."


I also particularly enjoyed this question and answer:
"Q: What's hard for you?
A: Mostly I straddle reality and the imagination. My reality needs imagination like a bulb needs a socket. My imagination needs reality like a blind man needs a cane. Math is hard. Reading a map. Following orders. Carpentry. Electronics. Plumbing. Remembering things correctly. Straight lines. Sheet rock. Finding a safety pin. Patience with others. Ordering in Chinese. Stereo instructions in German."

Oh, and this one :
"Q: What is a gentleman?
A: A man who can play the accordion, but doesn't."
What's he mean by that?! I like the accordion...

There's also a lot of really self-indulgent discussion about record collections, his ears and squid. Recommended reading, for sure.

Next up, we've got this post from the very talented Nikki. She points us toward this Stereogum thing, in which Chris Walla from Death Cab for Cutie summarizes his feelings on Gossip Girl and one of his band's songs appearing on it the previous evening. Sheer brilliance.

Excerpt:
"I keep hearing about this Gossip Girl. There's this one picture of her with her and her hot friends, spread out like margarine all over a Lincoln Town Car. Are they going to dinner? What's on the stereo while they drive? Is it our band? What world could I possibly be living in?"

The post is part of yesterday's "all Death Cab all the time," feature at Stereogum. The regular bloggers relinquished control and let members of DCFC do all the content all day. Risky? Yeah. Hilarious? Also yeah. Other good ones to read are:
New Hold Steady - Sequestered In Memphis by Chris Walla
The Roger Walters Quandary Or, Will The Last One Leaving Battersea Please Turn Out The Lights? by Ben Gibbard

Having dealt with blogging and online news posting extensively myself, I think it's great the way their content's still tailored to the usual Stereogum formatting...


Caren at Paste has created indie e-cards. For serious. They're incredible.


Grumpy Pitchfork says this about The National's A Skin, A Night and The Virginia EP. Incidentally, I disagree wholeheartedly with almost every sentence in this review. Mr. Klein misses the point entirely. Anyone who finds A Skin, A Night underwhelming and unnecessary is un-fascinated with songwriting and most likely has no soul. But I don't have any feelings about it.

In contrast, here's how I feel about The National.

On Backlash: Ben Gibbard's April Fool's Day Joke

This is Ben Gibbard. He's the frontman for seminal soft-spoken indie rock group Death Cab For Cutie.

On April 1st, he did what so many of us do. He made a joke. Observe:


It's a little funny. It made me chuckle. What I find interesting, however, is how a few of the other members of my esteemed music journalism community reacted to this and Death Cab For Cutie's mere existence as a band. (I also cannot believe the debate in the comments section of the YouTube page!)

Here are some excerpts:

A fellow Atlanta music blog I read every day and enjoy, I Guess I'm Floating, had this to say:

"It's not lame because the music is lame or the idea is lame, it's lame because it's illogical and improbable for a guy like Ben Gibbard. He'd never branch out from convention the way this joke claims he would-- he proved that on Plans, an album that might as well have been dedicated to O.C. fans and the pasteboard 'indie' they're told to love in the liner notes."

Connor then says Gibbard's starting to look like Michael Moore. Ouch.
The comments section below this one's pretty priceless too, and practically a sociological study on the tiny self-victimizing subcultures attached to music fandom. The word "emo" is thrown around a bunch...debates as to the degree to which Death Cab fits into that category ensue (full disclosure: I engaged in just such a debate in this podcast, I think. If not, then it's this one.) I'm not saying it's unfounded. I just can't believe how swift and severe the reaction was. I think IGIF was surprised, too.

Some hate from Buzzgrinder:
"No, that’s not a fat Ryan Adams on the xylophone, it’s Ben Gibbard. The frontman of Death Cab for Cutie and The Postal Service has started a new group called Just Jazzin. The band is apparently just a joke, yet somehow not as funny as the last Death Cab album. Aw snap! You’ve been served, Ben Gibbard."

Here's another from Tiny Mix Tapes:
While reporting the band's upcoming tour dates, writer Nobodaddy calls them "doily rockers" and concludes his little rant on how only your younger cousins can like them with the ejaculation, "Right. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to devote the rest of my morning to formating this now-sizable list of tourdates for this shell of a band. Have a super day, everyone!" Geez. Bitter much?

Forgive me if I fail to see how a band like Death Cab deserves so much bile. They obviously have a sense of humor about themselves, a point so many performers never reach. They're not teenagers anymore and perhaps their aesthetic and chosen subject matter has turned a corner around which a lot of us can't follow. Fine. Don't listen to it anymore. I wonder whether anyone would be wasting so much energy on this if they hadn't signed to a major label and happened to be featured on a teen television drama. I don't think a band would ever consciously make the choice to place themselves in the path of so much ridicule, as IGIF and TMT seem to assume. But then, I don't know. I'm not them. I mean, Chris Walla was perfectly nice...

I'm not necessarily defending them. I grew out of my Death Cab phase a couple of years ago (as most people seem to postulate inevitably happens when one reaches a certain age), but I'm approaching this particular situation with a sense of detachment and bemusement. Why is this such a big deal to people?

Please utilize comments section. I want an answer to this.