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Bat For Lashes

Music

Coachella 2013: The Good, The Bad, The Bros

By Leah Taylor on

Our intrepid, heat-resistant reporters spanned both weekends of this year’s Coachella to bring you a look at the (no exaggeration) epic music festival from the comfort of your own laptop. While the bros and the… let’s say “overmedicated” crowds can sometimes be deterrents to enjoying the weekend, ultimately, you’re there for the music. And there is something for everyone. Here are our highlights, with special thanks to Doug Levy, Liat Kriegel, and Dan Busta. … Read More

Music

Watch Bat for Lashes’ Exclusive Performance at Flavorpill HQ

By Judy Berman on

Yesterday evening, just as commuters were leaving work and shuffling into subway stations, Flavorpill HQ hosted one of its most exciting Flavorpill Sessions yet: Bat for Lashes. The British artist responsible for one of 2012′s most beloved and acclaimed albums, The Haunted Man, joined us — and a selection of lucky New Yorkers who signed up at the new and improved Flavorpill — for an intimate performance that fans around the world could tune in to via Livestream. … Read More

Music

What Pitchfork's Top 10 Songs of 2012 Say About Us

By Tom Hawking on

Seventeen years after Ryan Schreiber first started banging out reviews in his Minneapolis bedroom, Pitchfork’s end-of-year lists are probably the most anticipated in the music industry — both because for all its failings the site remains the Internet’s most popular and thus most influential hive of music criticism, and because it holds its lists until pretty much everyone else has published theirs. Over the last couple of years, we’ve amused ourselves by pondering what the songs in the ’Fork’s Top 10 say about its readership (which, of course, includes us) — and so, with the publication yesterday of this year’s winners, we’re giving the exercise another go-around. … Read More

Music

The Year in Controversial Album Covers [NSFW]

By Tom Hawking on

It’s not a year in music without at least one good bout of hand-wringing over someone’s controversial album cover, and 2012 has been no exception. The album cover is something of a dying art form these days, although the return of vinyl in recent years has revived it somewhat — but still, in an age when we get more and more of our art in a digital form, it gets harder and harder to attract people’s attention. If nothing else, the covers in this feature most certainly do the attracting-people’s-attention bit just fine — whether they’re actually any good or not is a judgement we’ll leave up to you. (Warning — one of the images that awaits you below is pretty spectacularly NSFW, and if you’ve been following the ongoing shitfight between Death Grips and their former label Epic, you can probably guess what it is.) … Read More

Music

The Flavorpill Guide to DIY Pop Culture Halloween Costumes: Music

By Tom Hawking on

Halloween: it’s always more complicated than you want it to be. Even if you’ve got your plans set, it’s a struggle to find the perfect costume — without resorting to the same crappy, overpriced, pre-packaged getups everyone else will be wearing. Thankfully, just as we have done for the past two Octobers, Flavorpill is helping you out with a series of easy DIY costume guides tackling various pop-culture realms. Don’t worry — there’s no sewing involved. Thus far we’ve looked at costumes inspired by TV, film and books, and this week we’re moving onto the world of music. If you’ve ever wanted to indulge your (perhaps vaguely spooky) inner rock star type, then look no further — from Grimes to “Gangnam Style,” we’ve got you covered. … Read More

Music

Hear Bat for Lashes' Beautiful Cover of Rihanna's "We Found Love"

By Judy Berman on

For a song whose giant beat gets so much more attention than its minimalist lyrics, Rihanna’s “We Found Love” has a weird emotional resonance. That chorus, “We found love in a hopeless place,” could have been cut from an uncharacteristically positive Joy Division song. So it’s been especially interesting to watch different artists reinterpret the… Read More

News

The Morning’s Top 5 Pop Culture Stories

By Caroline Stanley on

1. “One of the things I’ve learned as president is you represent the entire country. My expectation is if you want to be president you have to work for everybody and not just work for some.” – In case you missed it, President Obama was on Letterman last night, and took the opportunity to address… Read More

Music

10 MP3s You Need to Download for Free This Week: Death Grips, Bat for Lashes

By Tom Hawking on

It’s Friday, which means another installment of our regular roundup of downloadable MP3 goodness from around the web. This week there’s a new Death Grips track as the finale of Adult Swim’s Singles Program, plus instrumental angst from Xiu Xiu, Liars remixing The Twilight Sad, Flaming Lips covering King Crimson, new tracks from The Soft Moon and Bat for Lashes, and a whopping great free Ghostly Records sampler. And more! Since all this action costs precisely nothing, what are you waiting for? All the download links await after the jump. … Read More

News

The Morning’s Top 5 Pop Culture Stories

By Caroline Stanley on

1. Sally Ride, who in 1983 became the first American woman in space on the Challenger shuttle, died yesterday at the age of 61 following a 17-month battle with pancreatic cancer. [via NPR]

2. Exciting news for science fiction fans: J.J. Abrams and Edgar Wright are teaming up on a new film called… Read More

Music

Watch Bat for Lashes Debut New Songs Live in the UK

By Judy Berman on

It’s been over three years since the release of Bat for Lashes’ second album, Two Suns, so we expect fans are getting pretty anxious to hear new material. Although we’ll have to wait until October 15th for the follow up, The Haunted Man, Natasha Khan has already begun performing again, and last night in Cambridge she treated her audience to three new tracks. “A Wall” and “Marilyn” are classic Bat for Lashes stuff — dark, urgent pop with gothy, swirling synths. But so far we’re craziest about “Laura,” a slow and spare ballad that takes Khan’s voice from a whisper to full-on belting. See that performance below, and visit Stereogum to see fan-made videos (with surprisingly decent audio quality) of the other two songs. … Read More