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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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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French website Grandcrew.com provides a growing archive of exclusive, professionally filmed concert videos, with artists ranging from Roots Manuva to the XX.

All of the site’s videos are available to stream instantly for free, with the option to skip from track to track making the interface even more user-friendly. Covering nearly every genre of modern music, Grandcrew offers a wide variety of the best performances to hit France, with plans to expand to cover all of Europe in the near future.

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The New York Observer: always good for the juicy, perhaps tongue-in-cheek profile story. This week’s man-on-the-scene involves producer and Roc-a-Fella co-founder Damon Dash, who has fallen of late from his gilded throne. The rap impresario’s newest production is a Tribeca warehouse dubbed DD172, usually a “sprawling art gallery; at other times, it’s a photo studio, or an indie band’s rehearsal space.” Friend and visitor Mos Def compares the space to the Algonquin round table, early Hitsville, and Andy Warhol’s Factory, a reference not overlooked by writer David Levine. After the jump, we break down the personalities and take a look back at the many faces of Damon Dash.

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As The Millions noted in its 2010 book preview, the theme for the upcoming year (and beyond) seems to be posthumous publication: Roberto Bolaño, Ralph Ellison, Stieg Larsson, and David Foster Wallace — the dead gang’s all here! (OK, so technically DFW’s The Pale King isn’t meant to come out until 2011, but we couldn’t leave him out.) That said, there’s plenty of good stuff to look forward to from the living as well. After the jump, we reveal the books that we’re most excited about reading in the coming months — and tell you about a few that we’ve already devoured.

Be sure to leave your own suggestions in the comments.

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Inspired by Lauren Leto’s “Stereotyping People By Their Favorite Author,” we realized the incredible potential for a mercilessly judgmental list of indie band stereotypes. It is a common fact that Cormac McCarthy readers are men who don’t eat cream cheese, but what about those who listen to The XX on repeat and The Flaming Lips on hallucinogens? They need labels, too. After the jump, in collaboration with contributor Jeff Luppino-Esposito, we lay down the reckless assumptions.

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Last week, when video emerged of a chest-bearing Thom Yorke dancing next to his new bandmate Flea, it seemed like things were a bit backwards. Had Yorke lost a bet? Had we? But the collaboration appeared to be a success, perhaps because it took both Yorke and Flea out of their element. After all, when was the last time Flea wore a shirt?

From Patrick Wolf and Tilda Swinton to Lil’ Wayne and Weezer, 2009 has been the year of surprising collaborations. Though previous years yielded some amazing partnerships (Johnny Marr and Modest Mouse, Mike Watt with Kelly Clarkson), the past ten months have seen collabs that initially seemed improbable, or, technically impossible (see: Black Keys and Ol’ Dirty Bastard). Check out our favorites from this year below, and a couple of predictions for the rest of 2009.

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Today at Flavorpill, we were creeped out by the fact that Facebook knows when we’re all happy. We tried on Napoleon’s hat. We dreamed of a museum where patrons were allowed to touch paintings. We found out what we’ll need for our next yacht rock party. We examined Mad Men’s portrayal of the hospitality world of the early 1960s. We learned the wrong way to try and get extra credit. We couldn’t believe that Ghostface Killah loves Vampire Weekend. And finally we discovered the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles/Reservoir Dogs mash-up video that we’ve been dreaming about since the early ’90s. Only we didn’t realize it until now.  Watch it after the jump. Read More »

The art of remix can be lost on the Internet. The moment a pop-perfect album, like Phoenix’s Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix drops, seemingly everyone takes to their computers (and not just to download the leak). Blogs begin to look like battlefields, remix after remix after remix: because really, who wouldn’t like a nice disco take on “1901”? Read More »

Jeff Koons is heading to the New Museum, but it’s not what you might think. Trying his hand as curator, Koons has agreed to organize an exhibition of his friend, Greek industrialist Dakis Joannou’s contemporary art collection. The exhibition will run as a part of a series of shows called “The Imaginary Museum,” Joannou’s being the first of several private contemporary art collections displayed publicly in the entire museum. Read More »