Totally Wired

With Dave Morris

PART OF THE SOLUTION

With all the digital ink (uh, pixels?) being spilled over the Trouble With Bloggers These Days, ex-Sleater-Kinney vocalist Carrie Brownstein (pictured) is debuting Monitor Mix, a new blog for NPR whose first post cleverly turns the problem of blog-band-fatigue on its head. “There are already plenty of great blogs and online resources that tell us what the best new music is,” she explains. “Though I might occasionally review a piece of music, I would rather explore the contexts and the ways in which we enjoy or maybe even despise it.”

As an example, Brownstein wonders after the listening habits of a young man spotted on the street sporting a live cat, possibly as a fashion statement. Wait, music writing that doesn't merely function as a consumer guide? What is she trying to do, put us all out of work? (www.npr.org/blogs/monitormix)

IMPOSSIBLE GUITAR

Those of us who have never caught Wilco fever now really have no excuse. Too arty? Too country? Too slavishly adored? Not true anymore on all three counts (the last thanks to the chilly fan reception of Sky Blue Sky), and, besides, who can resist Nels Cline? The avant-guitarist proves himself even more arresting playing “Impossible Germany” on video than on record, shaking and throttling his whammy bar like a speed-metal shredder having an epileptic fit. There's something for everybody here regardless of your feelings about Jeff Tweedy. (www.wilcoworld.net/acl/)

GATHERING MOSS

Rolling Stone has put its 40th anniversary issue up on the web for free. Not having opened the mag in at least two years, it was refreshing to know that despite having embraced digital technology with a well-designed proprietary interface, their actual editorial copy is as dully unreadable as ever. Call us when they have an issue with no Bono-related content. Actually, no, it's 2007 – text us. (http://tinyurl.com/ywltca)

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