THE 2010 MUSIC ISSUE — THE BELIEVER

It's here! The Believer's MUSIC ISSUE!

Joe Hagan's epic look at Nina Simone's life and career, through her (previously unseen) diaries and letters...Saki Knafo (aka the Best Journalist in the World) on "Orientalist Party Music" (read it here)...the fascinating Adam Kempa on unusual vinyl groove-tactics (WOW)...Rick Moody on drum machines...Ken Tucker on Tammy Wynette's other anthem...Sad TV theme songs, Rush (!?), a chart by Ben Greenman, and MORE...

There's a CD with songs—aka your summer soundtrack! Janelle Monáe! Nina Simone! MORE! Actually here's the track listing:

1. “SELF!,” DEEP COTTON
2. “HYDRA FANCIES,” OF MONTREAL
3. “DEPRAVED VALET,” ROMAN GIANARTHUR (FEAT. KEVIN BARNES)
4. “COME BACK LIKE SPRING,” CODY CHESNUTT
5. “B.S. IN A TAMPON,” SAUL WILLIAMS
6. “COLD WAR (WONDAMIX),” JANELLE MONÁE
7. “IIETYS,” BLK JKS
8. “CHAOS,” SPREE WILSON
9. “REWIND,” SCAR
10. “VELVET ROPE BLUE,” ROB ROY
11. “HAVE YOU EVER MADE LOVE TO A WEIRDO?” HOLLYWEERD
12. “OFF THE GRID,” FEAR & FANCY
13. “TURN OFF THE TV,” GEORGE 2.0
14. “BORN FREE,” M.I.A.
15. “ONE,” HOT HEAVY & BAD (JOI)
16. “COLD BOY,” TENDABERRY
17. “CLOSER 9 ¹⁄₂,” MOTHER NOVELLA
18. “I NEVER CRY,” NINA SIMONE

WOAH!!

Plus interviews! Joshua Clover coming out of music-critic retirement to interview M.I.A...Robert Christgau and Carola Dibbell talking to Go-Betweens' Robert Forster...Erik Morse convenes a forum on Warp records...Plus: regular columnists Nick Hornby, Jack Pendarvis, and Greil Marcus...plus poems and MORE...

Ouroborush

Scott writes: "In light of that Rush ouroboros drumkit you posted the other day,
here's the ouroboros-ish cover of a Rush bootleg CD that I actually illustrated the cover for back in 1996, as part of a slightly shady association I had with a dude who ran a bootleg label. OK, it's not really an ouroboros, but it's kind of close! Maybe sort of part ouroboros, part caduceus?"

* * *

More Canadiana—an interview with Guy Maddin in the Boston Phoenix, about his latest film, My Winnipeg:

So it’s your basic Michael Moore movie.
It may be looked at that way. I wanted to make it like a film equivalent to a W.G. Sebald book, where he sets out on a stroll and ends up digressing and winds up in a really interesting place. It doesn’t matter whether Sebald really went on the stroll or not, he’s managed to cobble together a wonderful trip, and you realize the landscape that he covered with his feet doesn’t matter as much as the landscape of his heart.