Peter’s Blog

Did you know that DJ Spooky was at the Venice Biennale? Turns out he was there and made an awesome mix of African music called Ghost World: A Story in Sound .

One of the best things about writing for the Maroon was diving into the box of sampler CDs we got sent and occasionally discovering something really cool. Dub, Edits and Whiskey-Coke by Chab was one of my top finds and the songs always make me smile when they come through my playlist. Highly recommended.

Gunther has a US Tour and he’s in San Francisco September 22!

Martin Solveig’s Everybody single is a great disk and worth much more than the quarter I paid for it!

The BBC is now apologising after three people complained when Iggy Pop, “while impersonating a imaginary English person reacting [to?] his attire”, used the words ‘paki shop’. Good thing they didn’t play “You Better Run”: “On the way home I said, ‘Baby! You might still get raped.’ She said, ‘Oh, Mr. Pop!’”

Bob Dylan is actually responsible for every pop song over the last four decades. Hilarious.

Mike Reeb, who was kind enough to play in both of my Alive Tonight shows, has put up a bunch of great live recordings. “It’s Been a Real Hard Year” is incredible: I was struck so much by it that I listened to it on repeat for an hour.

You’ve really got to check out Mermaid Avenue. I mean, Billy Bragg and Wilco doing covers of Woodie Guthrie–what more could you want? All the tons are a ton of fun and seem like ragged, up-beat drinking songs (I’m a big fan of “Walt Witman’s Niece”).

I just listened to an interesting Fresh Air interview with Andre 3000 and one thing they talk about is the happiness of “Hey Yeah”. Thorir, a guy I heard at Iceland Airwaves, has a very different, depressed version of the song which is really fantastic.

If you don’t cry when listening to Otis Reading’s “Change is Gonna Come”, you don’t have a soul. It is such a beautiful and devastating song.