Foot tapping and head bobbing are as much facets of some songs as lyrics and instrumentals. But some music goes to particularly explicit lengths to serenade dance, not only compelling listeners to get up and move, but also paying homage to the act of dancing in subject matter. Below the jump, we review some of 2011′s most memorable dance songs about dancing — full-on, unmasked celebrations of bouncing, shuffling, booty shaking, and generally letting loose on the dance floor. Read More »

Flavorpill favorites Das Racist made their TV debut last night on Conan — and what a debut it was. Those who happen to be familiar with the rappers’ “Michael Jackson” video may not be surprised to learn that they actually brought a (pretty damn convincing) King of Pop impersonator onstage to accompany their performance of the track. What’s possibly more shocking is that Das Racist slowed down their delivery of the song to an opiated, practically witch-house pace. We can only imagine what Conan viewers who have never heard of the band made of a stage full of weirdos in letterman sweaters and mad-scientist coveralls drawling out cough-syrup vocals and shouting out Jhumpa Lahiri while a guy who makes his living pretending to be Michael Jackson moonwalks across the stage. Enjoy the thoroughly punk-rock spectacle after the jump. Read More »

Today kicks off the 2011 CMJ Music Marathon – that annual five-day barrage of label showcases, panels, and college radio nerdery. So as the indie music world descends on New York City, we thought we’d help introduce them to what Gotham takes almost as seriously as its tunes: its food.

We’ve created an interactive map of 125 NYC food recommendations from 58 indie artists, scraping everything from bands’ Yelp profiles to sites like Food Is The New Rock. Want to know where to find Hurray For Earth’s favorite slice? Maybe try some Das Racist-approved soup dumplings? We’ve got you covered. After all… it’s hard to rock on an empty stomach.

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It was only a few weeks ago that we paid tribute Michael Jackson’s “Black or White” — a video that is alternately random, bloated, and brilliant but never, ever boring. Our rediscovery turns out to have been well-timed: Das Racist have just released a video for their song, “Michael Jackson,” and while it doesn’t feature a ten-year-old Macaulay Culkin in a backwards baseball cap and 20 pounds of gold chain, it certainly owes a debt to “Black or White.” It stars an especially creepy Jackson impersonator, finds the Das Racist boys green-screened into dances with African tribesmen and Hawaiian hula girls, and ends with a face-morphing sequence that doubles as a who’s who of indie rock and underground hip-hop (hey, it’s the dude from Yeasayer! And the guy from Vampire Weekend — no, the other one! And El-P!). Of course, because we’re talking about Das Racist here, we also get a Last Supper scene starring some famous dictators, a few moments of The Simpsons, an SNL homage, and a shout out to Panda Bear. If all this doesn’t sound like too much for a Friday morning, enjoy the video after the jump.

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Good news for music lovers: there’s a wealth of new releases in September, and a lot of them look pretty fine indeed — so much so that it was more difficult than usual to prune our regular monthly selection of the best upcoming releases back to just 10 selections. But we’re a discipline bunch here, so we’ve restrained our urges and pared down our wishlist — the result is what you’ll find after the jump, the 10 records that Flavorpill’s most looking forward to getting hold of this month. What’s on your shopping list?

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The Village Voice’s Sound of the City blog recently published an article with the provocative headline, “Michael Musto to LCD Soundsystem: ‘Suck it, James Murphy!’” Now, what in the world could have happened to provoke that? It seems LCD’s new track “Pow Pow” contains the fighting words, “Eat it Michael Musto; you’re no Bruce Vilanch!” And while the Voice’s Zach Baron had to explain who the band was to Musto, we think his retort to a somewhat nonsensical jab sounds about right.

The Musto-Murphy beef appears to be all in good fun, but it still reminds us of some great moments in more serious (not to mention more seriously entertaining) musician-journalist feuds. After the jump, peruse some of our favorite battles, from Lou Reed vs. Lester Bangs to Pitchfork vs… well, you’ll see.

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Editor’s note: When we read Sasha Frere-Jones‘ recent piece on the death of hip-hop, we didn’t have a witty comeback. What we did have was one name on the brain: Das Racist. A favorite here at Flavorpill HQ thanks to their single “Combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell,” the Brooklyn-based rap duo is one of the more exciting new acts on the scene. And as the New York Times recently said, “Das Racist’s lack of piety has become an aesthetic of its own, with songs that are as much commentary on hip-hop as rigorous practice of it.” OK. We’ll turn it over to them now.

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1. Two female comedians — Jenny Slate and Nasim Pedrad — are set to join the cast of Saturday Night Live. [via The Comic's Comic]
2. Rumor is Bono’s Spider-Man musical is back on track, with production to pick up sometime this week. [via Variety]
3. Paul W.S. Anderson (Resident Evil series and Alien vs. Predator) is bringing The Three Musketeers to the big screen in 3D. [via THR]
4. MGMT and Ratatat will guest on Kid Cudi’s upcoming cinema-themed LP Man on the Moon: The End of Day, due out September 15. [via Pitchfork]
5. CSI creator Anthony Zuiker is releasing the first “digi-novel” — a combination crime book/movie/website — next Tuesday. Maybe he should ask Das Racist to come up with a theme song. [via Reuters]

New York’s CMJ music marathon is an epic display of music journalism and indie street cred. From October 20-24, over a thousand under the radar bands will perform, hundreds will be blogged about, and a dozen will be become semi-obscure household names (see: Passion Pit) in the aftermath. The 22 initial showcase artist have been announced today, and so we have compiled a guide for your listening pleasure. Six word artist descriptions and song downloads — enjoy!

1. Broadcast
Pensive electro performed by benign fembot.
Sample Song: “America’s Boy” [Download Now] via The Decibel Tolls

2. School of Seven Bells
Easy listening indie pop cures insomnia.
Sample Song: “Conjour” [Download Now] via Stereogum

3. Zac Brown Band
Truckers enjoying cold bear and trucks.
Sample Song: “Toes” [Listen Now] via MySpace

View the rest after the jump. Read More »

Today at Flavorpill, we discovered our new favorite iPhone app. We made a mental note never to land on Shepard Fairey’s bad side. We lusted after this colorful calendar. We argued about this list of the worst blockbusters ever. We wished we hadn’t thrown away all of our old cassettes. We laughed out loud over Frank Bruni’s top 20 one liners. We knew this wouldn’t end well. We wondered how The Awl got Ryan Adams to write their theme song. And more importantly, who we can get to write ours (we’re looking at you Das Racist). We were stressed. We met the real family Evelyn Waugh based Bridehead’s Revisited on. And finally, we weren’t sure what to think about this Tiesto/Tegan & Sara collab from his upcoming studio album Kaleidoscope. Any thoughts?