In preparation for the beginning of daylight savings time, a shortened list of #longreads…

Not too many articles to catch up on this week, but this interview from The Talks with Black Francis of the Pixies was interesting, as he discusses the evolution of underground culture, his emotions and moods during the songwriting process, and his new painting hobby.

By now everyone is familiar with mp3s, but not all understand the process of compression that creates these sound files.  Vox provides an overview of the compression process and cites the more detailed work of Ryan MaGuire.

The AV Club provides an extensive look at Prince’s 1980 album Dirty Mind, a record that often gets lost in the shuffle when discussing his extensive discography.

And finally Pitchfork offers up the experience of first-time Sleater-Kinney concert-goers as well as a plea to listen to more music without consideration of its context, arguing that it is easier to enjoy songs without knowledge of all that excess baggage.