9/24/2009

Edwidge Danticat Interview

Edwidge Danticat

Interview by Alexander Laurence




Edwidge Danticat (author of Eyes, Breathe, Memory, Krik Krak, and The Farming of Bones) lived in Brooklyn, New York. I interviewed her in 1996 on the lawn in Bryant Park. This interview has never been seen or published.

******

AL: Maybe we should talk about Haiti. Are you still in contact with people there?
Edwidge: I still have a lot of family there. I still keep in touch with friends and family there. I keep in contact with Haiti. Last December there was an election. At the end of February there was an inauguration of a new president, Rene Prevtal. It was the first time in Haitian history that a president had been elected democratically, where one president turned power over to another. It was a big deal. So the new president is trying to move things forward. Rene Prevtal's biggest obstacle is that the country is bankrupt because of all the stuff that happened before, since 1986. Our problem is that we are very dependent on outside aid. The monetary fund want the president to privatize.
AL: The relationship between Haiti and the United States has been good?
Edwidge: It's been okay. But there are always those moments when it turns a little bit. The last thing that Clinton did was establish relations with Cuba. That didn't go over so well with Haiti.
AL: What sort of politics are there in Haiti?
Edwidge: They have had elections since the dictatorship ended in 1986. The military has stepped in a few times. My Uncle who lives there is a minister.
AL: How did you get involved in writing?
Edwidge: I think it started from reading so much. My Uncle worked in a school and he gave me books. I started reading when I was very young. From reading I developed a love for writing. It is wasn't because there was a writer in my family.
AL: Does you family think that it's odd that you wanted to be a writer?
Edwidge: There's some much involved with immigration. So much is sacrificed in my parents coming here. They leave their lives behind. They expect you to do something stable and grounded. My parents wanted me to be a doctor. They got over it. But I was also the oldest. I was supposed to set a path for the others. I have three younger brothers. My brother Andre is a teacher. Another one is a musician. None of them want to be writers.
AL: Wouldn't you like to write things in French or Creole?
Edwidge: I don't think it's odd. I came here when I was twelve. I adapted. I spoke Creole at home and French at school. I liked to write in English. When I first started writing, I wasn't thinking about publishing it. I was working and writing. It just happened. It wasn't very calculated. Writing in any language is difficult. Only about twenty percent of people in Haiti speak French everyday of their life. I've written some stuff in Creole for the radio because radio is a strong medium in Haiti. I go back there whenever I can.
AL: Is there a publishing or writing scene in Haiti?
Edwidge: There's a lot of writers. The obstacle there is that you have to pay for it yourself. So if you are poor you can't really published. There are musicians and performers.
AL: The Haitian immigration has been going on for how long?
Edwidge: There were a lot first in Savannah, Georgia. Then in the 1920s and 1930s, there were a lot of immigrants concentrated in Harlem. Not just from Haiti but all over the Caribbean. Then the biggest immigration from Haiti was in the 1960s when Papa Doc was in power. He drove a bunch of people out when he was dictator. Especially people who were professional. Some went to Africa, some came to France, but most came to the United States.
AL: Was the Castro revolution in 1957 affect anything there?
Edwidge: Papa Doc was already in power at that time. When Castro came in, it gave Papa Doc a scare. That might have given people an idea for revolution. Instead people started leaving in droves up until the 1980s. Poorer people left in the 1970s, when my parents left, then you had boat people in the 1980s. Then you had the military, and economical and political pressures. My dad left in 1971 and my mother in 1975.
AL: How did they leave?
Edwidge: My father came out the normal way with a visa and stuff. He sent for my mother. My brother and I couldn't come till eight years later. I was talking to my brother about this last night. He was remembering things. I was poor but I didn't remember being poor. I just remember kid stuff and going to the countryside in the summer when it was really beautiful. We used to have kite wars. When it rained you would go outside.
AL: When did you start writing the books?
Edwidge: I came here in 1981. I went to high school in Crown Heights. I worked for a newspaper that was sent out to New York City public high schools. I wrote an essay about my experiences coming here. After that I started writing stories. I was writing all the time since I was sixteen. When I went to college I started taking some writing classes. I started showing it to people at Barnard. I had about seventy pages of it then. I put it away for a year. Then I finished it at graduate school.
AL: Were there any writers that you were influenced by?
Edwidge: You always look up to writers but you don't think that you can do the same thing. Writers are always like tired old baggage. I remember reading Jacques Roumain early on. He was the first person to write about the peasant life. It was the first time I had seen Haitian imagery. He had written the book in the 1930s. Most of the Haitian writers modeled themselves on French Writers. Victor Hugo was big back then. We were stuck in a Romantic style for a while. I think that Roumain was one of the first writers to look what was going on in Africa and his own environment, rather than relying on abstract models of the Symbolists. There was a whole moment happening at the same time of the Harlem Renaissance. That was the first time I read about people I knew. That made a strong impression on me.
AL: Granta picked you as one the best writers under forty. How do you feel about that?
Edwidge: It's always nice to be chosen. I didn't campaign for it. I'm not sure how it happened. It's fair to protest. For the people who were chosen: we had nothing to do with it. For me the most important thing is the writing and the process and the enjoyment. I know that the Granta thing was controversial. This passes and people forget it. You go on by yourself and write.
AL: What are some of your other influences?
Edwidge: I like to walk and think things out. That is really inspiring. Also the movies. You really think about the economy about storytelling. Nothing is wasted. Even in the worst movie everything has a purpose. I prefer silence when writing. That was hard to come by when growing up with three boys. You can tune out.


9/22/2009

Har Mar Superstar "Never My Love"

'Whip It,' the upcoming roller derby comedy directed by Drew Barrymore boasts an impressive soundtrack of indie rock icons. One of the highlights is the all too perfect, why-didn't-we-think-of-it pairing of Har Mar Superstar and Adam Green on the cover song 'Never My Love.' The idiosyncratic singer-songwriters achieve a laid-back '60s vibe on the tune, a fitting match for the film's retro-cool aesthetic. Have a listen to the exclusive song premiere below.

Listen to 'Never My Love'
http://www.spinner.com/2009/09/22/har-mar-superstar-feat-adam-green-never-my-love-song-prem/

9/18/2009

Devendra Banhart PERHAPS IN CLOUDED SHROUDS

Devendra Pictures, Images and Photos

PERHAPS IN CLOUDED SHROUDS
Devendra Banhart and Dana Kline

By Alexander Laurence

Devendra Banhart stormed on the music scene in 2002 with his very first album. He started a folk revolution with his very original and idiosyncratic four albums in four years, and many his tours worldwide. He even showed up in a Beck video. The twenty-five year old Banhart seemed to be everywhere for a moment. Years ago he was even willing to give attention to the then burgeoning group Vetiver. I watched him enjoy the music of Vetiver during a sound check. He was like the biggest music fan ever. There was a real joy and innocence to Banhart’s whole fresh perspective. Banhart had a real knack for seeing art where no one was looking.

Devendra Banhart has been frequently mistyped as some leader of a “freak folk” movement, especially in the UK. He is aware of several music traditions and he listens to modern music too. He has always been a huge fan of Caetano Veloso. Recently he played a show with Bert Jansch. In interviews, Banhart seems displeased when the journalists have pegged him as some retro act. He is not a retro act at all. It’s very modern music with influences and new ideas. With his early songs like “Roots…” it was obvious that he was trying to re-animate the world, and all animals, and all things in it.

All along Banhart seemed to have worked out of some artistic sketchbook. Some ideas would become songs and some painting and drawings. Years ago he used to perform in art galleries. His work has been on most of his albums. Many of the drawings are ink on paper, and act as another layer in his total vision. The images themselves are dreamlike, displaced, worldly, and interrupted by a subtle darkness. Recently he got together with poet and childhood friend, Dana Kline, and published a book called “Perhaps In Clouded Shrouds.” They had a party in New York where the band Golden Animals played. Devendra has recently moved to Venice, California, to work on his new album and other projects.

I spoke to Dana Kline recently about how this book came about. Dana Kline explained the beginnings: “Devendra and I have known each other ten years. I moved to New York City and he would stay with me whenever he was in town. I would play with him. We talked about collaborating. We weren’t sure what it was going to be. I met this person, Morgan, who owned this store called Number Six. It is a vintage shop in Soho. She said she wanted to have this art show every six months. She was involved in a small publishing adventure with her boyfriend. She asked me if I wanted to be involved. I remembered this collaboration idea I had. Devendra sent me this set of drawings and I responded to each one with a poem. It took about six months to come together.”

Some art books are real collaborations and some are brilliant ideas that seem to mirror the two artists separate worlds. Dana Kline explains how this book is a true collaboration: “I wanted to created a dialogue between the words and images. I would look at each image, drink a bottle of wine, and write something based on the characters, from their perspectives. Or I would look at certain words and sculpt them into a poem. Much of the time I was thinking of our friendship. It was about the fact that we were living on different coasts. I remembered some of the hardcore punk shows that we went to when we were fourteen.”

The drawings are wonderful, and poetry by Kline has great moments too. I loved lines like “Sweet infiltrated fork toes of unabridged glee!” I mentioned that some, who just know Devendra through his music, would be surprised to know that he also has this artist’s background. Kline says: “People who are creative have an aptitude for displaying that. Devendra is a dreamer. That comes out in the way he carried himself and the way he speaks. His vision is very specific. People can focus on certain ways to visualize the world. He has been drawing and playing guitar since I met him. That was when we were in grade school. He has always been working on many different projects.”

Really Devendra is the most modern artist. Devendra is connected to everything in the natural world. He is just being himself. Devendra is like sunshine.

Pains of Being Pure At Heart @ Troubadour 9/19









Gallery is here. All photos taken by Angel Ceballos.



They are playing Saturday night at the Troubadour!

9/13/2009

RIP Jim Carroll


September 13, 2009, 6:17 pm

Jim Carroll, Poet and Punk Rocker, Is Dead

Jim Carroll, the poet and punk rocker in the outlaw tradition of Rimbaud and Burroughs who chronicled his wild youth in “The Basketball Diaries,” died Friday at his home in Manhattan. He was 60.

The cause was a heart attack, said Rosemary Carroll, his former wife.

As a teenage basketball star in the 1960s at Trinity, an elite private school on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, Mr. Carroll led a chaotic life that combined sports, drugs and poetry. This highly unusual combination lent a lurid appeal to “The Basketball Diaries,” the journal he kept during high school and published in 1978, by which time his poetry had already won him a cult reputation as the new Bob Dylan.

The full obituary by William Grimes can be found here.

9/10/2009

Fever Ray

FEVER RAY
NEW SINGLE “SEVEN" OUT SEPTEMBER 29, 2009
Remixes from CSS, Martyn, Nic Chacona, Marcel Dettmann and Seth Troxler

UPCOMING NORTH AMERICAN TOUR DATES
Sept 28 / NYC, NY/ Webster Hall
Sept 29
/ NYC, NY/ Webster Hall
Oct 1
/ Montreal / Metropolis
Oct 3
/ Chicago / Metro
Oct 5
/ San Francisco / Grand Ballroom
Oct 6
/ Pomona, CA / The Glass House
Oct 7
/ Los Angeles / Henry Fonda Theater

Fever Ray, aka Karin Dreijer Andersson of The Knife, will release her new single "Seven" September 29, 2009. This digital-only single is the fourth single from Fever Ray's critically acclaimed self-titled album. The single features remixes CSS, Martyn, Nic Chacona, Marcel Dettmann and Seth Troxler. The video is directed by Johan Renck, Watch it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LN3oOo7bpks

Fever Ray will bring her live show to North America this Fall. The tour begins with two performances at NYC's Webster Hall, a fitting venue for the launch of Andersson's return to the North American stage. In 2007 Andersson and brother Olof Dreijer – performing together as The Knife – debuted live to US audiences with two sold-out shows at the acclaimed venue. This time, now supported by a four-piece band, Andersson's Fever Ray persona will be the main attraction.

Andreas Nilsson - who designed The Knife's live show - is the visual mastermind behind Fever Ray's live show. To see Fever Ray perform live is to enter a darkly compelling world of exquisite mystery. "Andersson may keep her face hidden, but the ascetic intensity of her performance is such that her soul is bared… [She] pulls you inexorably into the darkness of her world," said The UK's Guardian in their review of Fever Ray's debut UK performance at London's Royal Festival Hall in April 2009. "Andersson holds her audience utterly spellbound…She may hate the limelight but she has presence to burn" said the UK's Drowned In Sound in their review of that same show.

Fever Ray is the title of both project and album, an evocation of the music’s sound, intense and anxious, yet luminous. It’s the culmination of work that began in 2007 when Karin and Olof, the brother-sister duo who are The Knife, decided to take time out following a handful of incredible live shows. Their first two albums did well in their Swedish homeland; their third, "Silent Shout," went to Number One, won six Swedish Grammys, underlined their reputation as an act capable of the truly extraordinary and was pronounced the Best Record Of 2006 by Pitchfork.

Released in 2009 Fever Ray's self-titled debut has already collected extraordinary praise, with an 8.1 review ranking and best new music distinction from Pitchfork. Nylon calls the album "dark, surreal and majestic" and Filter calls it "sublime and magically creepy" with an 87% review ranking.

In addition to Andersson's Fever Ray project, she continues to collaborate with brother Olof as The Knife. The Knife is currently writing an opera based on the life of Charles Darwin. Called "Tomorrow In A Year" the opera will premier in Copenhagen in late 2009.

SEVEN TRACKLIST:
Edit
CSS Remix
Martyn Remix
Nic Chacona remix
Marcel Dettmann's voice in my head
Seth Troxler remix
Crookers Remix

Watch the video here: LINK

www.feverray.com
www.mute.com


9/05/2009

Dot Allison ROOM 7 1/2






Room 7 ½ - Out This Monday
Room 7 ½ is an unusual and arresting collection of heartfelt pleas demanding true love amongst an atmospheric-noir backdrop of some beauty. The album is produced by PJ Harvey producer Rob Ellis and Dot herself.
The album features Bad Seeds members Mick Harvey, James Johnston and the wonderful Mr Terry Edwards. The 11 songs are all delivered in Dot’s velveteen lose-yourself-in-them unique vocals, occasionally punctuated by the eternally youthful yells of Peter Doherty or sexy growl of Paul Weller.
Room 7 ½ is available to stream for a limited time on nme.com, click here

Tracklist
CRY
PAVED WITH A LITTLE PAIN
I WANNA BREAK YOUR HEART feat. PETER DOHERTY
BUZZING ROUND THE HONEY POTS
ROOM SEVEN AND A HALF
FALL TO ME
LOVE’S GOT ME CRAZY feat. PAUL WELLER
MONTAGUE TERRACE (IN BLUE)
JOHNNY VILLAN
WHILE SHE SLEEPS
PORTRAIT OF THE SUN
Released
7th September

Label
Arthoused

Pre Order Links
Play
Room 7 ½ Pre Order

The album is available now to preorder from Play.com, click here




Rough Trade Instore & Live Dates
On the 7th September, Dot will be celebrating the release of Room 7½ with a special evening instore performance at Rough Trade East. Dot will be performing about 7p.m. Get there early to ensure you don't miss out.

Sep 7thRough Trade In-store & Signing, London
Sep 10thTime For Heroes, Queen of Hoxton, London
Sep 18thThe Rainbow, Birmingham
Sep 19thRoundhouse, London (supporting Peter Doherty)
Sep 20thThe Assembly Rooms, Leamington Spa (supporting Peter Doherty)
Sep 21stThe Apollo, Manchester (supporting Peter Doherty)
Sep 23rdBarrowland Ballroom, Glasgow (supporting Peter Doherty)
Oct 14thCargo, London
Nov 28thHomecoming Live, Glasgow SECC

Triangle Soundtrack

Dot recently collaborated with Christian Henson for the new horror movie directed by Chris Smiths which is called “Triangle” where her voice is a large part of the original score.
Click here to check out the trailer

9/01/2009

Warpaint is joining the second part of the tour with School of Seven Bells and Magic Wands.



Warpaint is joining the second part of the tour with School of Seven Bells and Magic Wands. The first show is in LA at the Troubadour, and goes all the way to Boston.

Oct 5 2009 8:00P
TROUBADOUR w/ School of Seven Bells Los Angeles, California
Oct 6 2009 7:30P
SLIM’S w/ School of Seven Bells San Francisco, California
Oct 8 2009 8:00P
DOUG FIR LOUNGE w/ School of Seven Bells Portland, Oregon
Oct 9 2009 8:00P
BILTMORE CABARET w/ School of Seven Bells Vancouver, British Columbia
Oct 10 2009 8:00P
NEUMOS w/ School of Seven Bells Seattle, Washington
Oct 13 2009 8:00P
7TH STREET ENTRY w/ School of Seven Bells Minneapolis, Minnesota
Oct 14 2009 8:30P
EMPTY BOTTLE w/ School of Seven Bells Chicago, Illinois
Oct 16 2009 8:00P
PEARL STREET NIGHTCLUB w/ School of Seven Bells Northampton, Massachusetts
Oct 17 2009 8:00P
PARADISE w/ School of Seven Bells Boston, Massachusetts

West Indian Girl + Miranda Lee Richards



(((+)))

White Denim Debuts "Second Dimension" Video w/ Under The Radar | LP out 12/6 via Bella Union

White Denim Under The Radar  Debuts New Single/Video “ Second Dimension ” Available across platforms  here 12  LP due out Dec. 6 via Bella U...