SOPA Blackout Day is in full swing, with Wikipedia, Reddit, BoingBoing, and other Internet giants blacking out entirely and thousands of other sites — including Flavorpill — creatively demonstrating their solidarity. (We hope you agree that censor bars aren’t a great look for us.) There’s also been something of a backlash against the online outpouring of opposition to SOPA and its Senate counterpart PIPA, from the usual suspects in Washington as well as groups like the MPAA, who sent this nasty note about the protests.
But not everyone in the entertainment industry supports SOPA. Stop the Wall, a site that you can also use to make a quick and easy phone call to your senator about the legislation, has posted an open letter to Washington from a group of artists that includes Aziz Ansari, Trent Reznor, The Lonely Island, MGMT, Neil Gaiman, Amanda Palmer, Troma honcho Lloyd Kaufman, and many others. “As creative professionals, we experience copyright infringement on a very personal level,” they write, but they don’t support SOPA because they “have benefited immensely from a free and open Internet.” Read the full letter after the jump, and then, if you haven’t already, get on the phone with your representatives to add your voice to the anti-SOPA chorus.
September marks the 20th anniversary of Nirvana’s Nevermind, and the folks at Spin are celebrating with a fantastic — and fairly diverse — full-album cover project they’ve dubbed Newermind. The compilation does a great job pairing current bands with tracks. Titus Andronicus do a faithful take on “Breed,” managing to up its already manic energy, while EMA adds ghostly layers of distortion to noisy “secret” screamer “Endless Nameless.” More unexpected but no less effective are Charles Bradley’s soul cover of “Stay Away” and Midnight Juggernauts’ vaguely tropical, dance version of “Come As You Are.” Best of all, Spin convinced two of Kurt Cobain’s favorite bands, whose songs Nirvana covered, to return the favor: The Vaselines kill the shout-y parts of “Lithium,” rendering it starker and creepier in the process, while the Meat Puppets transform “Smells Like Teen Spirit” into a finger-picked document of quiet desperation. There is not a single bad track on the comp, and we say this despite our very low tolerance for Amanda Palmer. You can — and should! — download Newermind for free here.
Step on down, ladies and gentlemen, for this week’s mixtape. We’ve got songs that will thrill you, chill you, and otherwise make you happy that your eardrums exist. This week, we have another from Fucked Up, a sample of the Black Lips’ upcoming album, and some pretty excellent synth-pop courtesy of Washed Out. Crack this mp3 piñata: right click + “Save As” on links to download each track, or grab the whole mix at the end of the post.
Recently wed creative power couple Amanda Palmer and Neil Gaiman decided to give the world “a very Bowie Christmas gift” by recreating a scene from Jim Henson’s Labyrinth and posting the clip on YouTube. Amanda (with some badly drawn on Jennifer Connelly-style eyebrows) plays Sara, and Neil has a brief cameo as a mulletted David Bowie (with Christmas ornaments replacing Jareth’s crystal balls). Click through and let us know what you think of their dark twist on the original version.
In these times of Twitter, Facebook, and Tumblr, we tend to assume that everyone has abandoned LiveJournal — the community-oriented blogging platform that peaked about a decade ago, pre-dating even Friendster and MySpace by several years. Strangely, it was Facebook and The Social Network, which includes scenes of Mark Zuckerberg trashing an ex-girlfriend on his LJ, that got us thinking about the site again.
Acquired by blogging giant Six Apart in 2005, it was sold less than three years later to a Russian corporation, where the company now focuses its efforts. (Even the country’s president, Dmitry Medvedev, has his own LJ.) But that doesn’t mean it’s lost all U.S. relevance yet. In fact, some notable cultural figures continue to maintain their LJ presence. Check out who’s still there — a list that includes ’90s alternative stars, cult writers, and current emo sensations — after the jump.
Continuing to push boundaries, Dresden Dolls frontwoman Amanda Palmer tackles a musical sacred cow on her new EP, Amanda Palmer Performs the Popular Hits of Radiohead on her Magical Ukelele.
The seven-track offering finds the singer covering “Creep,” “High and Dry,” and other classic Radiohead songs with minimal instrumentation — often using only her ukelele and her voice. “Exit Music (For a Film)” is the sole exception, movingly performed live on piano with a string quartet.
As a companion to their third album, New Jersey indie rockers Steel Train got some female friends to provide covers of every song on the record — friends including Scarlett Johansson, Tegan and Sara, and Amanda Palmer.
Named after the band’s new independent label, Terrible Thrills, Vol. 1 is released today in conjunction with the group’s ambitious new self-titled record. Also among those providing a gender-flipped take on Steel Train‘s 12 tracks are Nellie McKay, Angel Deradoorian, and Arrested Development star Alia Shawkat.
French music site La Blogothèque’s self-produced Take Away Shows feature exclusive, unedited footage of top indie artists performing in public places.
Shooting bands on the street, in the subway, or in a restaurant, auteurs like Vincent Moon (also a co-founder of the site) capture the devil-may-care nature of impromptu performances by artists such as Phoenix, Fleet Foxes, Arcade Fire, St. Vincent, and even R.E.M.
