In addition to reading from Our Noise last night, Laura Ballance and Mac McCaughan made some music. The two played “Throwing Things” from No Pocky for Kitty, and McCaughan played two solo covers: the first from Butterglory’s Matt Sugg’s debut album, “Where’s Your Patience Dear?” The second was from Lambchop’s How I Quit Smoking, “Theone,” which McCaughan doesn’t know how to pronounce. Check out the videos below.
Check out the below video of …And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead playing the first track off Source Tags and Codes last night at the Cat’s Cradle. For the interview we ran last week, click here.
In celebration of yesterday’s release of Our Noise: The Story of Merge Records, Merge’s/Superchunk‘s Laura Ballance stopped by the Regulator Bookshop to read from the book and play a few songs (those videos are forthcoming). McCaughan read from the Lambchop chapter and Ballance from Spoon’s. Check out the video below. The label owners will be reading tomorrow at Bull’s Head Bookshop on UNC’s campus at 3:30 and later that evening at 7:30 p.m. at Raleigh’s Quail Ridge Books (and at Malaprop’s in Asheville Oct. 2).
CNBC’s Chief Washington Correspondent John Harwood, a Duke alum, weighed in on ABC leaking President Barack Obama’s now infamous “jackass” comment about Kanye West at the VMAs over on Michael Calderone’s Blog on Politico. Harwood said he deemed the comment off the record.
“The custom in television, as I understand it, is that when you have an interview of this kind, the little chit-chat when you are getting ready to sit down to do the real interview is off the record,” Harwood said.
“It’s one of those things that’s like an understanding, as people have understandings with sources,” he continued. “And if you have a relationship of trust with someone, as I feel I do with the White House and the president, specifically, I felt like I should honor it.”
Post Script: I have to pass this along. Some people have noticed a certain Michael Jackson dancer had not quite mastered the “Smooth Criminal Lean” in time for the VMA’s. Check out the 3:34 mark on this video. You’ll know who it is. The King of Pop would not be pleased.
11:30 PM Personally, I think the Michael Jackson movie This Is It reeks of his family trying to cash in on his death. These were rehearsals after all, and for a performer who was such a perfectionist, he would probably hate for people to watch anything but the finished product. Til next year.
11:24 PM Jay-Z closes out the night with Alicia Keys and “Empire State of Mind.” Props to Young for performing the best song on The Blueprint 3 instead of his latest single like “DOA” or “Run this Town.” Jay-Z sounds a little husky, which for all I know could be another New Moon cross promotion. As Sam Schlinkert tweeted earlier today, “Empire State of Mind sounds like sex on my speakers.” This is in the discussion for greatest Jay-Z track, even with the weird Anna Wintour reference. And that’s how we’ll remember the 2009 VMA’s, a show that started with a bang, ended with a bang, and had a lot of crap in between. We also might remember it as the night that we finally buried racism.
11:14 PM Are you happy, Kanye? Beyonce, predictably and deservedly, wins Video of the Year. She brings out Taylor Swift, who kind of steals the spotlight. I think the nation just had another legendary race relations moment. And we didn’t even need Obama or beer!
11:11 PM How many times tonight do you think Kevin Lincoln has told the people sitting around him that he interviewed Wale? He should walk around with a yellow sign that reads “Warning: Names Falling.”
11:02 PM The nipple pastie lives! In a tasteful homage to Lil Kim, Pink performs with only a glittery heart covering her left breast. She is also on trapeze. Hey, Pink. Britney called. She wants her circus theme back.
