bits and, well, you know

a few sunday pieces for your leisurely reading & listening pleasure:

the new york times magazine has an interesting feature story on toddy haynes's forthcoming i'm not there entitled "this is not a bob dylan movie." as reported in the article, haynes's film will not be a traditional biopic (naturally), or really even about dylan at all it seems, but instead uses dylan - his music, his story, etc. - to explore artistic identity. you can find the trailer and a few dylan tracks here. and here's another off the list of a.g.'s most favoritest dylan songs:

bob dylan - spanish harlem incident

hardly strictly bluegrass 7 wrapped up this evening with emmylou harris, the grand dame of the folk festival circuit, on the main stage. hope all you locals had a chance to get out to the park for at least part of what turned out to be a brilliant weekend. tweedy, on friday night, was fantastic - even dusting off an old golden smog song, "pecan pie," much admired between these ears - as was gillian welch. no surprises there. one act i wasn't much familiar with, and with whom a.g. walked away impressed, was ricky skaggs & bruce hornsby with the kentucky thunder, who put on a spirited, uptempo performance. the song below, a bluegrass cover of rick james's "superfreak," wasn't my favorite of their set, but it will give you an idea of how they roll:

ricky scaggs & bruce hornby - superfreak
golden smog - pecan pie

and lastly, stereogum has put together a song-by-song cover of r.e.m.'s automatic for the people to help celebrate the album's 15 yr anniversary. the tribute is titled drive xv and includes covers by blitzen trapper, catfish hunter, rogue wave, meat puppets, the shout out louds & dr. dog. (sheesh, i might as well have listed out the whole thing.) this is the second in a series by stereogum (radiohead's ok computer was first); wonder who they'll tribute next...