Music

The new video for “Calamity Song” by The Decemberists reenacts a scene from David Foster Wallace‘s masterpiece, Infinite Jest. We’ve embedded the video above–what do you think?

In the video, a group of teenagers play Wallace’s imaginary Eschaton game, a combination of tennis match and computer simulation for nuclear war. Follow this link if you want to play the game in real life. Singer and novelist Colin Meloy told NPR he had just finished reading Infinite Jest and wanted the video to be a tribute to the late novelist.

Check it out: “I had this funny idea that a good video for the song would be a re-creation of the Enfield Tennis Academy’s round of Eschaton — basically, a global thermonuclear crisis re-created on a tennis court — that’s played about a third of the way into the book. Thankfully, after having a good many people balk at the idea, I found a kindred spirit in Michael Schur, a man with an even greater enthusiasm for Wallace’s work than my own. With much adoration and respect to this seminal, genius book, this is what we’ve come up with. I can only hope DFW would be proud.”

Over at Largehearted Boy, novelist Lev Grossman revealed the music he listened to while writing his new novel, The Magician King. Listen to some of the songs at this free Spotify playlist.

In the essay, Grossman described one of our favorite pieces of writing music, “Bolero,” by Maurice Ravel: “It’s one of those melodies that’s so obviously perfect you can’t understand how one human being could have come up with it — it’s sounds like the product of a 1000-year-old folk tradition (I imagine Ravel doing what Paul McCartney did after he wrote “Yesterday” – he went around asking everybody if they’d heard the melody before, because he could swear he’d stolen it from somewhere). It’s great to write to because it doesn’t have any words, which are always distracting, and it whips you up into an intensely excited state in which you feel like a genius even when you aren’t one.”

Follow this link to get a Spotify invite for the free service. Once you have an account, check out our Thomas Pynchon Spotify playlist, our Ann Patchett Spotify playlist and the new Lev Grossman Spotify playlist.

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In her memoir, Just Kids, rock star Patti Smith tells stories about enough songs and musicians to fill an entire record collection.

Spotify user Beth Miller has created a mind-boggling 10-hour long Spotify playlist linking to the music mentioned in Smith’s National Book Award-winning memoir. It’s the perfect way to read the book and prepare for the upcoming film adaptation.

Follow this link to get a Spotify invite for the free service. Once you have an account, check out our Thomas Pynchon Spotify playlist, our Ann Patchett Spotify playlist and the new Patti Smith Spotify playlist. If you create a Spotify playlist with music from a specific author, be sure to share it with us.

As the stock market crashed today, we decided to counter the gloomy news with a Spotify playlist handpicked by novelist Thomas Pynchon. Chill out all day with this list collecting 31 groovy songs from Pynchon’s Inherenet Vice.

Here’s more about the list, via his Amazon page: “Larry ‘Doc’ Sportello is a private eye who sees the world through a sticky dope haze, animated by the music of an era whose hallmarks were peace, love, and revolution. As Doc’s strange case grows stranger, his 60s soundtrack–ranging from surf pop and psychedelic rock to eerie instrumentals–picks up pace. Have a listen to some of the songs you’ll hear in Inherent Vice—the playlist that follows is designed exclusively for Amazon.com, courtesy of Thomas Pynchon.”

Follow this link to get a Spotify invite for the free service. Once you have an account, check out our Thomas Pynchon Spotify playlist, our Ann Patchett Spotify playlist and our Henry Miller Spotify playlist. If you have more ideas for a particular playlist, you can always add your suggestions in the comments section–we will update our mix.

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In 2001, novelist Ann Patchett published Bel Canto, a gorgeous and suspenseful introduction to the world of opera music. If you have a Spotify account, enjoy this playlist collecting 30 songs mentioned in the novel–two hours of writing music.

Here’s an excerpt from Bel Canto, describing the first song on the playlist: “[He] chose Rusalka as a measure of his respect for [the singer]. It was the centerpiece of her repertoire and would require no extra preparation on her behalf, a piece that surely would have been included in the program had he not requested it … He simply wanted to hear her sing Rusalka while standing close to her in a room. If a human soul should dream of me, may he still remember me on awaking! His translator had written it out for him from the Czech years ago.”

Follow this link to get a Spotify invite for the free service. Once you have an account, check out our Ann Patchett Spotify Playlist and our Henry Miller Spotify Playlist. If you have more ideas for a particular playlist, you can always add your suggestions in the comments section–we will update our mix.

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At a Los Angeles appearance (video embedded above), comic book writer Grant Morrison sang a song that he learned from the spirit of John Lennon.

Comics Alliance explains: “Morrison performed this song during a recent event at Meltdown Comics in Los Angeles, thanks to the urging of My Chemical Romance frontman (and Umbrella Academy writer) Gerard Way. As Way explained, Morrison was given this song by the spirit of John Lennon, which Morrison communed with in a magic ritual while writing The Invisibles. I think it says a lot about the wonderfully enigmatic Grant Morrison that the only reason this surprised me at all was that I didn’t know he played guitar.”

What do you think? No matter where the song came from, it sounds like a Lennon song. Read all the lyrics at this link. (Via Alex Segura)

Nobody has ever written about classical music like Henry Miller. If you have a Spotify account, enjoy this two-hour mix we made with inspiring writing music from Miller’s most famous books: Tropic of Cancer, Plexus, Nexus and Black Spring.

Here is Miller writing about Beethoven’s “String Quartet No. 15″ in Black Spring: “I hear again now the music of the A Minor Quartet, the agonized flurries of the strings. There’s a madman inside me and he’s hacking away, hacking and hacking until he strikes the final discord. Pure annihilation, as distinguished from lesser, muddier annihilations. Nothing to be mopped up afterwards. A wheel of light rolling up to the precipice–and over into the bottomless pit. I, Beethoven, I created it! I, Beethoven, I destroy it!”

Follow this link to get a Spotify invite for the free service. Once you have an account, check out our Henry Miller Spotify Playlist and our Haruki Murakami Spotify Playlist. We love making music mixes, so we will create more playlists for writers. If you have more ideas for a particular playlist, you can always add your suggestions in the comments section–we will update our mix.

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Linda Ronstadt has landed a book deal with Simon & Schuster for her memoir, Heart Like a Wheel. In the video embedded above, Ronstadt sings the title song from her memoir.

Ronstadt will write the book herself, exploring a career that “bridged the worlds of rock, folk, country, jazz, Latin, and opera.” Steve Wasserman at Kneerim & Williams Agency represented the singer. Publication has been tentatively set for 2013.

Publisher Jonathan Karp had this statement: “Few singers have been as wide-ranging or as distinctive in their artistry … Linda Ronstadt has a singular voice, and that is true on the page as well.”

In Largehearted Boy’s amazing Book Notes feature, authors explain how certain songs inspired them. We were touched by novelist Kate Christensen‘s contribution to the series, and we created a Spotify playlist so you can listen to the songs in order while reading her essay.

Here’s more from Christensen’s essay: “Nostalgia is a powerful drug. Under its influence, ordinary songs take on dimensions and powers, like emotional superheroes. The following is a list of songs that will forever and irrevocably remind me of particular times, experiences — people I’ve loved (truly, madly, deeply) and, inevitably, lost.”

Follow this link to get a Spotify invite for the free service. Once you have an account, check out our Kate Christensen Spotify Playlist and our Haruki Murakami Spotify Playlist. We love making music mixes, so we will create more playlists for writers. If you have more ideas for a particular playlist, you can always add your suggestions in the comments section–we will update our mix. (Link via Ed Champion. Photo via Ronnie Farley)

The streaming music service Spotify has landed in the United States, allowing readers to create and share playlists drawn from millions of songs online. Follow this link to get a Spotify invite for the free service.

Once you have an account, explore our Haruki Murakami Spotify Playlist. We love making music mixes, so we will create more playlists for writers. If you have more ideas for a particular playlist, you can always add your suggestions in the comments section–we will update our mix.

Our new playlist for the Japanese novelist included songs mentioned in Murakami’s novels South of the Border, West of the Sun, Norwegian Wood and the upcoming 1Q84. The Millions blog has the first paragraph from 1Q84, revealing Murakami’s affection for the Czech composer, Leoš Janáček. Our playlist contains the composer’s complete Sinfonietta.

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