Musicians Who Write, and Writers Who Make Music

New music from Brittany Howard & Madi Diaz, interviews with Chelsea Wolfe & Sheila Heti, an excerpt from Megan Nolan's new novel, and more

This week I started the critica component of my MFA thesis, an essay on the similarities and differences of writing prose and music. I’ll be focusing on authors who are also musicians, interviewing them and digging into what they’ve written/said in the past about craft.

Authors who make music (and musicians who write) have been around forever. Nick Cave has written several books, Michelle Zauner’s memoir Crying in H Mart was a resounding critical and commercial success, and the Mountain Goats’ John Darnielle’s three novels have been amazing. On Largehearted Boy I’ve featured Shudder to Think’s Nate Larsen, Wesley Stace (AKA John Wesley Harding), Josh Ritter, Alina Simone, and others.

Who is someone else I should interview? Do you have a favorite musician who writes (or vice versa)?

A Playlist of the Week’s Best New Music (12 albums, 138 songs, 7 hours and 55 minutes)

This week’s new music releases include a new albums by the Alabama Shakes’ Brittany Howard, Madi Diaz, Chelsea Wolfe, Ducks Ltd., Itasca, David Nance & Mowed Sound, Pouty, Mk.Gee, Amiture, Helado Negro, Declan McKenna, and Pylon Reenactment Society.

Largehearted Likes:

1. How Chinatown's Yu & Me Books Rose from the Ashes
   My processing of this entire period of my life will take time. I am still processing the incredible love and support that we received from the more than 6,800 people who donated to the store. That dollar amount does not even include my friends and community that helped me save books on the day of the fire, move books from location to location, dropped off food for me and my team, or cooked for me when I was too tired to do so myself.

2. The new Saul Bellow Stamp

   

3. The open call for submissions for 33 1/3 books about albums is open
   

Largehearted Book & Music Links:

1. NYLON’s February Must-Read Books
   February’s best books include new titles by Sheila Heti, Tommy Orange, Brontez Purnell, Rafael Frumkin, Mariah Stovall, Scott Guild, and so much more!

2. Chelsea Wolfe shared a playlist and discussed her new album
   Your new album, She Reaches Out To She Reaches Out To She, comes out this week. What fictional character is most likely to connect with it?
   The Owens women from the Practical Magic books by Alice Hoffman come to mind. Having a family grimoire that’s passed down from generation to generation feels very “she reaches out to she reaches out to she.”

3. An excerpt from Megan Nolan’s novel Ordinary Human Failings

4. New music from Portishead’s Beth Gibbons

5. Emily Raboteau on the new environmental canon

6. How ‘Illinoise,’ a Non-Traditional Musical Inspired by the Sufjan Stevens Album, Takes a Few Cues From ‘A Chorus Line’

7. Vulture’s profile of Lucy Sante
   More so than for many writers, Sante’s is a syllabus self. To read her is to know she has done more interesting reading than you have. She told The Paris Review that a riff from Rimbaud’s A Season in Hell — “I loved maudlin pictures, the painted panels over doors, stage-sets, the backdrops of mountebanks, old inn signs, popular prints; antiquated literature, church Latin, erotic books innocent of all spelling, the novels of our grandfathers … inane refrains and artless rhythms” — “was virtually the template for my entire life!”

8. R.I.P., Mojo Nixon
   ”We asked for Mojo Nixon
   They said, ‘He don't work here’
   We said, "If you don't got Mojo Nixon

   Then your store could use some fixin'”
   “Punk Rock Girl,” Dead Milkmen

9. An excerpt from Bianca Bosker’s memoir Get the Picture

10. Grandaddy's Jason Lytle on Animals, Stepping Away from Touring, and the Toxicity of Social Media
    Any attempt to make a song that has any sort of meaning that's not typical subject matter is always a fun challenge.

11. Sheila Heti on her new book, Alphabetical Diaries
    What was the origin of this project?

    Some things just start. There were probably all these thoughts that happened subconsciously beforehand, but one day I found myself alphabetizing my diary, and it just seemed like the most obvious thing to do. I didn’t know where it would lead to or that I would end up working on it for 14 years. I just thought it was a way to pass the time for a while and it could be interesting. What would I find? How would it read? I think some kind of curiosity probably started it, which is like most of my writing projects.
    
    

Last Week’s LHB Feature Posts:

Bianca Bosker’s playlist for her memoir Get the Picture

Jahmal Mayfield’s playlist for his novel Smoke Kings

January Gill O’Neil’s playlist for her poetry collection Glitter Road