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Music

The 50 Albums Everyone Needs to Own, 1963-2013

By Tom Hawking on

No one buys albums anymore, goes the music industry truism. And yet, for all that the format’s commercial viability may or may not be on the wane, sitting and listening to a great album from start to finish is one of the greatest pleasures that music can bring. Flavorwire recently got to thinking about how one might build a record collection if you really only did buy one record a year. So here’s the result of our thought exercise: 50 albums you really should own, one a year from 1963 until the present… Read More

Music

What Your Favorite Record as a Kid Says About You Now

By Emily Temple on

Does music make the man? Or does it maybe just influence him a little? Yesterday, the folks over at A.V. Club recommended a few albums meant to positively (whatever that means) influence kids’ future music tastes, and we got to thinking about our favorite records as children and young teenagers and the impact they might have had on our current personalities — for good or ill. After the jump, we’ve collected a few of our (wildly subjective, tongue-in-cheek) conclusions. So read on to find out what your favorite record as a youngster says about you now, and let us know if we’ve got your number — or if we’re way off base — in the comments. … Read More

Art

Idiosyncratic Illustrations of Memorable Musical Collaborations

By Tom Hawking on

We’ve written a bit about unexpectedly awesome musical collaborations here on Flavorwire over the years, and as such, we were rather taken by these illustrations of some such collaborations. They’re by artistic duo Pol and Sakiroo Choi, and we spotted them via Thaeger, whose write-up of the pieces may or may not be interesting reading, depending on how good your German is. Anyway, click through and check out some of our favorites — there’s Run-DMC and Aerosmith, Kanye West and Daft Punk, and various others (but not, sadly, David Bowie and Mick Jagger, although maybe some things are better left un-illustrated. … Read More

Art

Bob Dylan’s Art Gallery Will Only Let You See Two of His New Artworks Because They’re Not Very Good

By Marina Galperina on

One does not simply walk into the Gagosian Gallery on Madison Avenue. Inside a luxury multi-office building, you must ask the reception guard which one is the appropriate elevator to the top. The atmosphere is ever grandiose, unlike the Gagosian’s walk-in friendly location in Chelsea. The Bob Dylan “Revisionist Art” room is down the gallery staircase, through a sterile office hallway, and behind a glass door. It is strange. … Read More

Pop Culture

Famous Musicians’ Fascinating Self-Portraits

By Tom Hawking on

We were interested to see that a series of self-portraits by David Bowie had sold at auction for £6,500 earlier this week. The self-portraits in question date from the 1990s, a decade during which Bowie’s painting efforts were apparently particularly prolific, but he studied art in high school and has always moonlighted as a painter. He’s not the only one, of course — many musicians also pursue other artistic avenues, from Nick Zinner with his photography to Captain Beefheart and his weird, abstract paintings. We thought it’d be interesting to look at other musical self-portraits, so we’ve pulled together a gallery of such paintings after the jump. They’re rather fascinating insights into how some of our musicians see themselves — so if you’ve ever wanted to see Paul Simonon as a skeleton, or Nick Cave’s, um, equipment, then click on through. … Read More

News

The Morning’s Top 5 Pop Culture Stories

By Caroline Stanley on

1. “I believe we can keep the promise of our founders, the idea that if you’re willing to work hard, it doesn’t matter who you are or where you come from or what you look like or where you love. It doesn’t matter whether you’re black or white or Hispanic or Asian or Native American… Read More

Tech

Watch Old Computer Equipment Play Dylan’s “The Times They Are A-Changin’”

By Caroline Stanley on

Bob Dylan is one of the most frequently covered artists we can think of, and yet we can’t recall ever seeing one of his songs re-imagined quite like this. Using a pile of old photocopiers, modems, scanners, fax machines, and hard drives, director Chris Cairns has created a computer orchestra that can play a surprisingly rousing version of “The Times They Are A-Changin’,” thanks a little programming magic by Isthisgood?. Click through to behold the resulting video, Scrapheap Symphony, and let us know in the comments what you think Bobby D would make of it. … Read More

Music

Watch an Amusing Montage of Music’s Most Memorable Misheard Lyrics

By Tom Hawking on

If like us you’re finding the whole deciding-the-future-of-the-world aspect of today more than a little stressful, you may be in need of a wee bit of comic relief. If so, look no further than this montage of pretty much every memorable mondegreen in the history of music, which we spotted at Laughing Squid earlier this morning. the video finds a group called cdza creating an aural history of memorable misheard lyrics, from Carl Orff right through to Pink, via Elton John, Bob Dylan and various others. You can click through and watch the video after the jump — now, excuse us while we kiss this guy. … Read More

Photography

David Gahr’s Dramatic Black-and-White Photos of ’60s and ’70s Musicians

By Tom Hawking on

A few weeks back, we shared some great photos of musicians from the 1960s and ’70s. If you enjoyed those, you’ll also appreciate these shots of some of the era’s luminaries by the late New York photographer David Gahr. Gahr’s work appeared in Time and Rolling Stone, among others, and his career spanned five decades, from his earliest work in the late ’50s until his death in 2008. His photos are the subject of a new exhibition at Morrison Hotel in Soho from October 26 through November 11 (you can check the gallery website for opening hours if you’re in the city). Either way, check out some of the photos from the exhibition after the jump, along with archival commentary from the photographer himself. … Read More

Celebrity

7 Unexpected Celebrity Cameos in Real Life

By Matthew Bower on

Bill Murray has attained something of a mythic status over the past few years for his habit of making unexpected cameos in real life. A number of stories about the late-blooming hipster party crasher have made the rounds, with varying degrees of believability. This week, Murray bolstered his reputation for showing up in random places by joining in on a Brooklyn kickball game. But the former Ghostbuster is not the only celebrity with a legendary ability to make unusual appearances. We’ve rounded up some of our favorite real-life cameos by celebrities that keep us wondering where they’ll turn up next. … Read More