The Daily Swarm

I never met Michael Steinberg in person, but, by an unlikely coincidence of timing, I happened to be one of the people he worked with on two of his last pieces of writing. It was in my capacity as an editorial person for Nonesuch Records that I was asked by the label’s president, Bob Hurwitz, to write Mr. Steinberg about contributing liner notes for two classical recordings we were releasing soon: the pianist Richard Goode’s performance of the five Beethoven piano concertos, recorded with conductor Iván Fischer and the Budapest Festival Orchestra; and the violinist Gidon Kremer’s performance of the five Mozart violin concertos, recorded live at the Salzburg Festival with the Kremerata Baltica. In light of Mr. Steinberg’s lifelong service to the giants of the German classical tradition—Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, and Schubert, whose most haunting and otherworldly music was composed at the end of their lives—it seems fitting that his Mozart and Beethoven notes, both packaged in recordings released in just the past month, appear to be his last two works of published writing.

Ronen Givony is the founder of the Wordless Music series and a music director of Le Poisson Rouge.

Crunktastical:

Most NBA fans know that Ron Artest isn’t the brightest bulb in the tanning bed* so his soul stirring tribute song to Michael Jackson is just what one would expect for him to cook up in the studio. It still doesn’t stop the shit from being all types of wrong though.

Thanks to Joe Warminsky.

Regular readers of The Daily Swarm may remember last month’s pop-up ad for The Dead Weather. Internally we debated fiercely whether to accept it in the first place. On one hand we’ve experimented with different types of ads in the past, we are fans of Jack White, and as a still-unprofitable website, those ads do bring in more revenue than a normal banner ad. But we also found it intrusive, repetitive, and somewhat annoying. We ultimately decided to try it for a limited run, and then let our readers make the call. And you sure did! We’d really like to thank the 221 people who filled out our questionnaire and wrote our their thoughts. The vast majority of the comments were well-reasoned and insightful, and we want share the highlights below.

The Best Songs of 2009 (so far)
1. “My Girls” Animal Collective
2. “Two Weeks” Grizzly Bear
3. “Blood Bank” Bon Iver
4. “The Rake’s Song” The Decemberists
5. “Lisztomania” Phoenix
6. “Zero” Yeah Yeah Yeahs
7. “This Tornado Loves You” Neko Case
8. “Sleepyhead” Passion Pit
9. “Laughing With” Regina Spektor
10. “The Wanting Comes In Waves/Repaid” The Decemberists
11. “Train Song” Feist and Ben Gibbard
12. “Knotty Pine” David Byrne & Dirty Projectors
13. “Daniel” Bat For Lashes
14. “Summertime Clothes” Animal Collective
15. “One Wing” Wilco
16. “The Fear” Lily Allen
17. “Heads Will Roll” Yeah Yeah Yeahs
18. “Wilco (The Song)” Wilco
19. “Stillness Is The Move” Dirty Projectors
20. “Help, I’m Alive” Metric
21. “Anonanimal” Andrew Bird
22. “On No” Andrew Bird
23. “No You Girls” Franz Ferdinand
24. “I And Love And You” The Avett Brothers
25. “French Navy” Camera Obscura
26. “Magpie To The Morning” Neko Case
27. “Woods” Bon Iver
28. “Black Hearted Love” PJ Harvey and John Parish
29. “While You Wait For The Others” Grizzly Bear
30. “Panic Switch” Silversun Pickups

Best Albums of 2009 (so far)
1. Merriweather Post Pavilion by Animal Collective
2. The Hazards of Love by The Decemberists
3. Veckatimest by Grizzly Bear
4. Middle Cyclone by Neko Case
5. Wilco (The Album) by Wilco
6. Noble Beast by Andrew Bird
7. Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix by Phoenix
8. It’s Blitz! by Yeah Yeah Yeahs
9. Dark Was The Night by Various Artists
10. Bitte Orca by Dirty Projectors
11. Far by Regina Spektor
12. Actor by St. Vincent
13. Manners by Passion Pit
14. Hold Time by M. Ward
15. Reservoir by Fanfarlo
16. Fever Ray by Fever Ray
17. Fantasies by Metric
18. Two Suns by Bat for Lashes
19. My Maudlin Career by Camera Obscura
20. Dark Night of the Soul by Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse
21. The Crying Light by Antony & The Johnsons
22. The Eternal by Sonic Youth
23. The Ecstatic by Mos Def
24. Outer South by Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band
25. Swoon by Silversun Pickups
26. Together Through Life by Bob Dylan
27. No Line on the Horizon by U2
28. March of the Zapotec by Beirut
29. The Pains of Being Pure at Heart by The Pains of Being Pure at Heart
30. The Mountain by Heartless Bastards

How does this list compare with your own?