1. After facing the ire of many professional musicians, Amanda Palmer has announced that she’ll now pay the volunteer string, brass, and saxophone players who have been joining her on stage with money — not just “beer, hugs, merch, free tickets, and love.” [via ArtsBeat]
2. Best Coast is opening for Green Day… Read More
This week’s most notable release has been Fragrant World, the curiously titled new album from Yeasayer, which came across our desk a couple of weeks back and has been on occasional rotation at Flavorpill central since. Our impressions of the record are that it sounds basically like its predecessor, 2010′s Odd Blood, and thus nothing like the band’s debut, 2007′s All Hour Cymbals. Given the acclaim that their debut received, it’s curious and rather disappointing that Yeasayer have moved away from its wide-eyed eclecticism toward a more conventional sound. Still, they’re hardly the first band to change the sound that brought them to the public’s attention — we’ve put together a selection for your reading delectation after the jump. … Read More
A couple of weeks back, our esteemed literary editor Emily Temple surveyed the books that might make you beat a hasty retreat if you saw them on a potential date’s bookshelf, or in their handbag. The post got plenty of heated comments, and it also got us thinking about the other place you might look to snoop on a date’s cultural credentials: their record collection (or, failing that, their iPod.) And so, as we did for books, we asked around Flavorpill central to find out which artists might, if discovered on a potential date’s playlist, put an end to that date pretty damn quickly. We received plenty of responses, and the entirely personal, subjective, and often hotly debated results await after the jump. … Read More
1. According to Andrew Garfield, one of the major downsides of playing Spider-Man is having to pee while wearing the Spider-Man suit. Makes total sense to us. [via In Other News]
2. “Well, after 45 hours, my tour has sold 100K tickets, box office gross of 4.5 mil $ (not all mine). I… Read More
If winter is the time of year when single people scowl, forsake love, and slink off to that alone-time retreat they’ve created for themselves under the Manhattan Bridge out of watermelon rinds and Chinese food take-out cartons, then summer is when they thaw and renew their search for romance. They might make bold overtures to someone they’ve admired for quite while. They might even fall back in love with the idea of being in love. Recently, I found myself somewhere in the middle, entertaining a Lazy Susan of dates, each more hilariously terrible than the last. One way I’ve been coping with dashed expectations is by wistfully working through love songs released this year.
More than almost any other pop subject, love songs can get away without having to be original or innovative. Every type of love song that ever will be has already been written, making my search for the definitive love song of the year especially tricky. But there was something about “30 Minute Love Affair” by Paloma Faith that resonated with me. Maybe at some point in time, I might email one of those bad dates — the one who keeps texting me after he blew me off — the video below, with the subject line, “Baby, we’re done.” … Read More
Welcome to another edition of our regular Monday stream-a-thon, wherein we hunt down the best and/or most notable records streaming for free over the Internet. This week, there’s the new Beach House streaming in full, so if like us you’ve avoided the leaked version, then the wait to hear it is finally over. Yay! There’s also a new record from Best Coast, Danny Elfman’s Dark Shadows soundtrack, the return of Garbage, and, perhaps most intriguingly of all, an album of Rod McKuen covers by Dean Ween. Click through and listen to your heart’s content! … Read More
It’s Friday, and we’re back with another installment of our regular roundup of downloadable MP3 goodness, both from around the web and from our own servers. This week there’s a new track from our favorite synthpop academic, John Maus, along with chartbusters from Azealia Banks and Nicki Minaj, dark weirdness from Zambri and Lorn, a smattering of old-school punk, and a challenging, oblique lyrical masterpiece from Best Coast. In other words, there’s plenty of interesting sounds awaiting you after the jump, and since they won’t cost a penny or land you an RIAA lawsuit, as your attorneys we advise you to start downloading immediately. … Read More
Today at Flavorpill, we found out that watching sad movies can actually make you feel better. We loved this short video about a real-life toy maker with a raunchy sense of humor. We thought this crematorium in Lithuania had major attitude. We found out Damien Hirst is a big… Read More
Best Coast’s endless journey of monetization chugs on with Bethany Cosentino’s announcement, via Twitter, that she’s launching a clothing line for Urban Outfitters. The collection will debut in May, and while no other details have been revealed yet, the shot at left appears to be a preview.
Sadly, this may not… Read More
With its new Orient Apple flavor, Absolut combines crisp apple sweetness with ginger spice. It’s a fusion we’re so enamored with that we created a soundtrack for it. Our Perfect Fusion compilation features an equally inspired blend of artists and sounds — and the whole thing is yours for free.
It includes UK folk-pop darling Emmy the Great, Aussie psych upstarts Cloud Control, and our latest tropical crushes, ChuCha Santamaria y Usted, plus mainstays like TV on the Radio, Bon Iver, and UNKLE. Check out the mixtape now and treat yourself to a taste of Orient Apple. Click through for the full track list and your free download. … Read More
Staff Picks: Flavorwire's Favorite Cultural Things This Week
A Virtual Tour of the Now-Closed Liberace Museum in Las Vegas
Great Musicians on the Concerts That Inspired Them to Make Music
Surprising Early, Alternate Versions of Iconic Movie Posters
The 20 Most Beautiful Libraries on Film and TV
The 50 Albums Everyone Needs to Own, 1963-2013
Incredible Reading Rooms Around the World
