Web
What’s on at Flavorpill: Links That Made the Rounds in Our Office
5:34 pm Monday Feb 8, 2010 by Caroline Stanley

Today at Flavorpill, we appreciated the fact that Tiny Mix Tapes put some thought into their end of the decade list. We fell in love with these terrariums. We checked out Shepard Fairey’s collaboration with Smokey Robinson, hot on the heels with his upcoming print with civil rights activist Cornel West. We liked the idea behind Rhizome’s Seven on Seven project, which pairs 7 leading artists with 7 game-changing technologists. We realized that sometimes, Mr. Rogers was incredibly creepy. We wished we lived in Toronto so that we could check out the White Stripes’ ballet. We counted down every violent moment in the Super Bowl ads. And finally, we spent the rest of our day playing around on Kathleen Hanna’s new Bikini Kill blog. Should bring some interesting videos out of the woodwork…


Earplug
Unsound Festival Artists Predict the Future of Electronic Music
5:05 pm Monday Feb 8, 2010 by Bianca Merbaum

The Unsound Festival New York kicked off Thursday and will continue to dominate a variety of venues in Manhattan and Brooklyn through Valentine’s Day. This stateside version of the renowned Polish event seeks to move beyond the bounds of techno, drum ‘n bass, and house, to expose an electronic music world that’s more than computer-generated beats for dark, strobe-lit rooms.

The festival has brought together a global community of DJs, producers, promoters, composers, and music collectives to present an adventurous program of panels, film screenings, multimedia performances, and, of course, plenty of good parties. The lengthy list of artists scheduled to appear includes Carl Craig, Moritz von Oswald, nsi.,  Lillevan, and others, many of whom are making their US debuts.

In the spirit of Unsound’s devotion to talent and creativity, we asked eight of the festival’s most innovative artists the question: “What do you envision as the future of electronic music?” Check out their inspiring responses after the jump.

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Music
Unexpected Covers: Head Scratchers and Head Nodders
4:31 pm Monday Feb 8, 2010 by Aaron Gonsher

Indie rock is having a covers moment. First was Beck’s decision to cover full albums and release them one track at a time. The Flaming Lips covered Dark Side of the Moon. Then, streaming material from Peter Gabriel’s Scratch My Back, featuring covers of artists like Arcade Fire, Bon Iver, and Elbow. Flavorwire even got in on the act, giving you a mixtape featuring indie rock covers of indie rock songs.

With Vampire Weekend’s cover of Rancid’s “Ruby Soho,” it seems that we have reached a WTF cover saturation point: Koenig replacing Tim Armstrong’s punk growl with crooning over glistening beach guitar. Listening to the versions side-by-side is like the rug got pulled out from under the Rancid original and broke its legs.

After the jump, we give you the VW version plus some other unexpected covers that’ll make you scratch your head. They’re curious choices, unique and incongruous, but always interesting. Which ones are your favorites?

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Sponsor Buzz
Adventures in Australia: Yacht
3:28 pm Monday Feb 8, 2010 by Caroline Stanley

When we put out a call for artists who had been professionally inspired by their travels in Australia, our former guest bloggers Yacht were among the first to respond. It turns out that they became obsessed with photographing Utes (an Aussie version of a pickup truck) while touring through the country just last year. Check out some of their photos, and discover a few more of their country-specific obsessions, after the jump.

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Design
Video of the Day: Recycled Electronics Become Olympic Medals
2:57 pm Monday Feb 8, 2010 by Caroline Stanley

When we read that London’s Olympic Stadium would be made out of recycled knives and guns, we were intrigued. Not that they’ve got anything on Vancouver. Recycling will play a large part in this month’s XXI Winter Games; recycled metals from the circuit boards of old computers and cell phones have been melted down and cast into the Olympic medals. No two medals will be the same. How cool is that?

Watch an interview with the designers — Omer Arbel, an internationally acclaimed architect and industrial designer, and Corrine Hunt, a First Nations artist from the Raven Gwa’waina clan — after the jump.

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Film
Why Is Bill Murray So Good at Playing Dead?
2:38 pm Monday Feb 8, 2010 by Andrew Hwang

Over the weekend Bill Murray finally confirmed his involvement in the third installment of Ghostbusters — the film that helped to solidify his post-Caddyshack career back in 1984. He’ll be playing the ghost of Dr. Peter Venkman, per his request. Funny enough, this isn’t the first time that Murray has played dead (or some version of it) on screen. So when did the comedic actor become so morbid?

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Daily Dose
Daily Dose Pick: I Don’t Care About Your Band
2:03 pm Monday Feb 8, 2010 by Chelsea Bauch

In I Don’t Care About Your Band, Julie Klausner turns the clichéd dating-misadventure memoir into a hilariously self-deprecating romp through the pitfalls of modern romance.

The New York-based comedienne, writer, and standup performer presents a chronological overview of her failed dalliances, from early adolescent experimentation to getting bedbugs after an obligatory post-coital sleepover. But rather than whining and wallowing over these mishaps, Klausner revels in her experiences with a self-amused candidness that speaks to everyone — whether single, attached, or somewhere in between.

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Music
Bands That Are Annoying to Google
1:31 pm Monday Feb 8, 2010 by Aaron Gonsher

Unless you’re willing to name your band Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra, it is difficult to avoid the dilemma of being hard to Google. Imagine pouring all of your sweat and energy into a band name, only to see your MySpace and Wikipedia pages stranded in some soulless Google Siberia below a corporation website or porn. Final Fantasy apparently ran into this problem many times; Owen Pallet recently lost the stage name in order to avoid confusion with the popular video game series.

A few bits of advice: No animal names, especially birds. Geography is not cool. Sports equipment, household tools, food items, body parts, and abstract emotional concepts are also dangerous Google territory. Finally, steer clear of any name with a hint of sexual innuendo. You never know what might pop up when you search for Girls, XX, or Junior Boys.

Read our list of the most annoying and difficult bands to Google after the jump.

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Photography
Photo Essay: K-I-S-S-I-N-G in the Museum
12:31 pm Monday Feb 8, 2010 by Kelsey Keith

Even if you haven’t wandered up to 86th Street recently, chances are you’ve heard whispers of something unusual afoot. That something is courtesy of performance artist Tino Sehgal, whose ephemeral pieces rely on empty space and spectator involvement. One such piece in his current solo show at the Guggenheim, titled “The Kiss,” involves a couple embracing on the floor of the rotunda in a “changing, slow-motion, amorous” entanglement. We at Flavorpill love staging elaborate photo shoots in museums and decided to reinterpret Sehgal’s performance piece in five New York City art institutions: The Metropolitan Museum, New Museum, Rubin Museum, P.S.1, and the Brooklyn Museum. Could we choreograph the same magic?

Play voyeur and peep our exclusive slideshow after the jump.

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Design
Star Wars-Inspired Vintage Travel Posters
12:01 pm Monday Feb 8, 2010 by Caroline Stanley

Thanks to io9, we just discovered artist Justin van Genderen’s minimalist takes on planets and places of the original Star Wars Galaxy. While the vintage graphic design trend is nothing new, and in fact, Zazzle created a series of Star Wars WPA-inspired travel posters last spring, it’s also something that we never tire of (please see: 10 Best TV Shows of the Decade as Minimalist Art or Popular Websites as Vintage Books). Our inner Stars Wars geek wishes that van Genderen had included Coruscant and Naboo in his series, but he had over 450 fictional planets to choose from. We’ll forgive him this time.

View more of his travel posters after the jump.

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