Bookmarks: Some other things to read on the web

Stylus revisits the first fifty Sarah Records releases:

Another Sunny Day returns with “I'm In Love With A Girl Who Doesn’t Know I Exist,” the track Sarah detractors would often cite as Exhibit A in their case against the label’s proclivity for sad bastard pop. (Conversely, Haynes said it was one of the most perfect releases in the entire Sarah catalogue.)

Sure, the single is pure schmaltz, evoking modern acts like Aberfeldy – gushy guitar lines, near whining vocals, and Williams revealed to be naive to a fault (“So many times this has happened before / But I never knew that love could make you feel so sore”) – but it’s got subtle, ironic flourishes, too, like that dance-like bass drum featured in the beat. And checking in at just 1:40, one gets the impression Williams got over his romantic mugging rather quickly.

David Hepworth's And Another Thing revisits his twenty year-old Best Albums top ten. Since only time can tell if we stand the test of time, do the choices still stack up?:

1. I Want To See The Bright Lights Tonight by Richard & Linda Thompson
Frankly I don't believe in these lists at all but this is still a masterpiece. I picked it for what it represents and I might well do the same again tomorrow.

Idolator watches and transcribes Anne Coulter reviewing Rage Against The Machine:

And, by the way, they are also very unfamiliar with D.C. gun laws if they think they can shoot the president, because no guns allowed.

QVC is the new musical tastemaker, reports the Wall Street Journal, watching Neil Sedaka pitch up and flog scary numbers of albums amongst the cubit zirconium:

During Mr. Sedaka's live performance April 19 at the channel's West Chester, Pa., headquarters, QVC sold nearly 19,000 copies of his new CD, according to his label, about 78% of his first-week sales. That figure helped vault "The Definitive Collection" -- which includes new material and well-known songs such as "Breaking Up Is Hard to Do" -- to No. 22 in the Billboard 200, according to data released Wednesday by Nielsen SoundScan.

During the show, the 68-year-old musician's wife watched from the green room as the sales mounted in real time. "She called it 'the slot machine,' " Mr. Sedaka remembers. "It was quite shocking to see how many people would buy off QVC."


Each of the four acts QVC has featured this year has either jumped onto the album chart or seen spikes in record sales after its appearance. In March, the country-rock group Alabama sold more than 21,000 copies of "Songs of Inspiration II" on QVC, the channel says -- or as much as 81% of the figure that landed the album at No. 33 on the chart. After a February performance to promote a special edition of their 2006 album "Let Love In," the Goo Goo Dolls returned to the chart with 15,000 copies sold that week, according to Billboard.

The DigiCreamTimes remembers how Simon Bates suffered for our entertainment:

Radio One disc jockey Simon Bates needed a medical check-up today when he returned to Britain at the end of his round-the-world charity race.

After suffering a severe stomach upset for the past eight weeks, he said he felt weakened and "slightly malariafied" after his travels, which raised £300,000 for Oxfam. Food poisoning, heat exhaustion and a septic foot added to his troubles during the 78-day journey. And on reaching Dover at dawn this morning he quipped: "One thing I have discovered on this trip is there are more cockroaches than people in the universe."