Month: August 2009

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FREE MP3s GUEST EDITOR

Mark Mallman’s “The Incredible Urban Myth Of The Invincible Criminal” Part 2

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Mark Mallman is a musician of great endurance (he’s performed 52-hour marathon shows consisting of a single song) and great eccentricity (he sometimes appears as his lupine alter ego, Mallwolf). Now, as a companion piece to his most recent album Invincible Criminal (out on Badman and featuring guest vocals from the Hold Steady’s Craig Finn), Mallman has emerged as a great storyteller with a graphic novel due early next year. Featuring Marvel comics-style artwork by Stephen Somers, The Incredible Urban Myth Of The Invincible Criminal is being presented on magnetmagazine.com as an audio book with daily installments throughout the week. Read part one.

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“The Incredible Urban Myth Of The Invincible Criminal Part 2” (download):
https://magnetmagazine.com/audio/TheIncredibleUrbanMythOfTheInvincibleCriminalPart2.mp3

As I lay in the darkness, the city had somehow burned itself to death. Outside, the streets were a smoking expanse of black cooled lava. Ashes blew across lawnscapes. The boulevard gave way to thunderstorms of gray, dust-deviled cremations. Grotesque skyscrapers melted as Vesuvius sputtered and growled. I looked out the window into the swaying, burning metropolis. A biplane was choking its way through black fog. It was a skywriter, and behind it puffed the word “doom.” How would I ever tour America with the my band amidst that omnipresent doom? The answer was soon to be staring into my face.

Bitterness. Nastiness. Drunkenness.

Continue reading “Mark Mallman’s “The Incredible Urban Myth Of The Invincible Criminal” Part 2″
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VIDEOS

Film At 11: Imelda May

Billed as “Dublin’s answer to Amy Winehouse” by the Daily Mail, Imelda May certainly shares Winehouse’s flair for unique hairstyles and jazzy swing, but she boasts a voice with a little less whine and a lot more edge. MAGNET is proud to present the U.S. premiere of the video for “Johnny Got A Boom-Boom” from her debut album, Love Tattoo (Verve Forecast).

http://www.vimeo.com/6200255

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TIVO PARTY TONIGHT

TiVo Party Tonight: Kings Of Leon, Aimee Mann, Keane

tivokol5012Ever wonder what will happen during the last five minutes of late-night TV talk shows? Here are tonight’s notable performers:

The Tonight Show With Conan O’Brien (NBC): Kings Of Leon
Oh, how quickly indie-darlingism fades. It feels like it was just a couple months ago that Kings Of Leon had more praises than church on Christmas morning. They’ve just released a video for newest single, “Notion,” off Only By The Night (RCA).

Late Night With Jimmy Fallon (NBC): Aimee Mann
Rerun from July 15. Watch Mann play “Freeway” from her latest album @#{e5d2c082e45b5ce38ac2ea5f0bdedb3901cc97dfa4ea5e625fd79a7c2dc9f191}&*! Smilers.

Last Call With Carson Daly (NBC): Keane
Rerun from May 19. Watch Keane play “Perfect Symmetry,” the title track from its latest album.

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FREE MP3s TOUR DIARY

Rock Plaza Central Tour Diary, Part 1

rock-central-day-1Rock Plaza Central‘s 2007 album Are We Not Horses was an elaborately plotted and immaculately conceived album that brought the Toronto band’s Northern-gothic folk/rock accolades from both critics (MAGNET named it one of the year’s 10 hidden treasures) and academics (frontman Chris Eaton’s 2004 book The Inactivist was taught alongside Horses in a graduate English course at the University of South Alabama). Last month, RPC hit the road to support the release of this year’s … At The Moment Of Our Most Needing, and bassist Scott Maynard filed a tour diary for magnetmagazine.com. If you missed Rock Plaza Central this summer, catch the group on its U.S. tour with the Weakerthans in September.

“(Don’t You Believe The Words Of) Handsome Men” (download):

Vancouver, B.C., July 17
We got up fairly early (in rock ‘n’ roll terms) this morning in order to get a headstart on crossing the notorious border back into Canada between Bellingham, Wash., and Vancouver, B.C. We needed to be in Vancouver by 1 p.m. so that Chris could do an interview. As it turned out, we were through the border in 10 minutes and arrived in Vancouver with an hour to spare—so sushi. It is widely rumoured that the best sushi in Canada is in Vancouver.

This leg of the tour began in Milwaukee on Independence Day, and we’ve zig-zagged our way across the continent, playing almost every night, to get here to the Vancouver Folk Festival. We all look forward to three days of great hospitality, no driving and perhaps, most importantly, our own rooms. Yes, personal space is a rare commodity on the road. Gone are the days of sneaking five people and all the gear into one cheap motel room. These days we typically enjoy the heady luxury of two rooms, which means each of us gets our own bed, except for violinist Fiona Stewart, who we make sleep on the floor.

As a group, we are beginning to feel the strain of the last two weeks, so our little suite here on campus at UBC—complete with kitchen (did I mention the individual rooms?!)—seems like an oasis.

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FREE MP3s

MP3 At 3PM: Har Mar Superstar

hmsshair4052On first glance, Har Mar Superstar might look like more of a joke than a pop star. With a, shall we say, robust physique and a passing resemblance to porn star Ron Jeremy, Har Mar (a.k.a. Sean Tillmann) is bringing sexy back in a defiantly unique way. But give the man credit; he knows his way around a hook. Sure “Tall Boy,” a glossy disco confection from the upcoming Dark Touches (out October 13), might sound like a Britney Spears number. (Tillmann originally penned the track for Spears, who declined to record it.) But with its playful lyrics and a beat that’s more infectious than swine flu, “Tall Boy” gets down to some serious pop business.

“Tall Boy” (download):
https://magnetmagazine.com/audio/TallBoy.mp3