Fans of ’90s indie pop will know Manda Rin as the frontwoman of Glaswegian trio Bis, who broke up in 2003. These days, after weathering a difficult MS diagnosis, Rin has embarked upon a solo career and also makes art. In addition to creating graphics for an iPhone game called All Fridges Are Psychotic, she showed some new work over the weekend at Glasgow Popfest 2011. Titled Cover Versions and Other Hits, the exhibition collects Rin’s remakes of classic album covers, in the signature manga-inspired style that was ubiquitous in Bis’s album art. Check out some of our favorites, from Nirvana to X-Ray Spex to Sleater-Kinney, after the jump. Then visit Rin’s website to see more. Read More »
Today at Flavorpill, we tried to imagine a world where Ringo Starr didn’t end up as one of the Beatles. We thought that Jillian Tamaki’s “Have a Sexy Halloween” illustrations for The Hairpin were laugh out loud funny. We watched Rihanna puke out a bunch of ribbons in her new music video. We were excited by the news that a six-minute prologue to Dark Knight Rises will play before Mission: Impossible Ghost Protocol in IMAX — but we’re not excited to pay for that ticket. We found it a little funny that Salman Rushdie likes Entourage, but thinks that Game of Thrones is “very addictive garbage.” We wondered if Chris Martin is a secretly a furry. We wished the legendary Divine a very happy birthday. We watched Devo hawk Honda scooters in this fantastic 1984 commercial. We were happy to see Peggy Olson looking so happy in this photo from the upcoming season of Mad Men. We wanted to buy a copy of this teeny tiny newspaper. We couldn’t wait to see French Stewart play “the best French Stewart celebrity impersonator of all time” on Community. And finally, we were intrigued to hear that according to a new study, people with more Facebook friends have denser grey matter in the regions of the brain linked to social skills than those who don’t. Crazy, right?
To commemorate the space shuttle Atlantis’s return from its final mission, Boing Boing posted the music video for David Bowie’s “Space Oddity.” It’s a great and weird clip, featuring Bowie as a retro-futurist, silver-clad astronaut gyrating through space. And he’s also ground control, which you can tell because he’s wearing a red baseball cap that says “GC.” Then there are some girls with big hair, who don’t appear to be astronauts. Anyway, it got us thinking about how much we love stumbling upon music videos from the days before MTV, when the medium was new and unpolished. Ten of our favorites, including everyone from the Beatles and the Stones to ’60s French pop and Devo, are after the jump.
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Rolling Stone, bless them, republished their list of “The 100 Greatest Albums of the 1980s” on their website this week. The feature – originally published in 1989 – makes for strange and occasionally bewildering reading. For a start, it’s topped by The Clash’s London Calling, which is undeniably a masterwork but also was undeniably released in 1979 (and no, we’re not buying the January 1980 US release date as an excuse here). Now, we know better than anyone that lists are always subjective, and whatever you include people are going to complain (hey, it’s actually nice to be complaining about someone else’s lists for once). And admittedly, we’re evaluating this list with the benefit of 20 years of hindsight. But even so, there are some glaring omissions from RS’s selection – here are 10 records that really should have featured somewhere near the top, but didn’t feature at all.
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Exciting news for Peanuts fans: After more than five years, the first new special following the death of producer/director/animator Bill Melendez (who also provided the voices for Snoopy and Woodstock) will be released on DVD next Tuesday. Happiness Is a Warm Blanket, Charlie Brown, based on comic strips written by Charles Schulz in the ’60s, was helmed by the well-pedigreed animation team of Andy Beall (The Incredibles, WALL-E, Up) and Frank Molieri (The Simpsons Movie, SpongeBob SquarePants Movie), and Devo’s Mark Mothersbaugh composed the score. Click through to check out the trailer now.
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For an art form that so mythologizes rebellion, rock ‘n roll has developed its fair share of orthodoxy over the years. If you go with the canon, Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band is the best album ever, while cover versions started and ended with Jimi Hendrix’s take on “All Along The Watchtower.” Happily, Flavorpill doesn’t really buy into any of that. With a (god-awful) cover of Biffy Clyro’s “Many of Horror” taking the coveted Christmas No. 1 slot across the Atlantic, it seems an auspicious time to look back at some unsung excellent cover versions. Listen to them all after the jump — and for convenience, we’ve also embedded a Grooveshark playlist of the whole lot at the end.
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Today at Flavorpill, we applauded The Millions’ list of 20 more writers under 40, a productive response to The New Yorker’s 2010 “20 Under 40″ Fiction Issue. We were excited to see the first episode of Devo’s hilarious YouTube reality series. We wanted to take a turn on Berlin’s fast lane slide. We thought it was funny that William Shatner is planning to direct a new documentary about William Shatner. We wondered if the color wheel of bacon is actually safe to eat. We found a pin-up calendar that is quite possibly safe for work. We watched as a robotic swallowtail butterfly took flight. We wished that we owned a piece of Japanese artist Haroshi’s broken skateboard art. We saw people turn themselves into human tape decks. And finally, we listened to the Situation rap. And then immediately regretted it.
Today at Flavorpill, we watched food fight itself and cats listen to Devo. We met the girls of eBay. We weren’t sure why anyone would want to put their face on a condom wrapper. We had a super rare Bigfoot sighting. We found Marlene Dietrech’s personalized letterhead absolutely stunning. We kind of wished that minotaurs were the new vampires. We listened to Lissie cover Kid Cudi’s “Pursuit of Happiness.” We found out how Lost executive producer Damon Lindelof would clean up the BP oil spill. We judged James Murphy by his iTunes playlist. We were scared by all 10 different versions of evil Pac-Man. We wondered what kind of depraved thieves would steal a 5-foot-4 ballerina’s slippers. And finally, we decided that tentacled characters are the best characters. Especially Dr. Zoidberg.
1. Did you miss last night’s MTV Movie Awards? Spoiler: Teenagers think Twilight was the best movie made last year. But as for what you really care about, you can still check out a preview of Jersey Shore‘s new season online. [via MTV]
2. Nerds, rejoice: Apple‘s Worldwide Developers Conference takes place today at 10 am PT/1 pm ET. And you know what that means — most likely an official iPhone announcement. [via Wired]
3. Simon Cowell is looking to take his Got Talent franchise global, with winners from all 36 (count ‘em!) countries who air the series competing for world domination. [via Deadline]
4. Sir Elton John performed at Rush Limbaugh‘s wedding Saturday. Let’s hope he donated his $1 million fee to America’s fight for same-sex marriage, eh? Also, where can we find video of Ann Coulter rocking out to “Tiny Dancer”? [via Movieline]
5. Devo is slated to guest star on an episode of Futurama. They’ll be campaigning for mutant rights. Natch. [via Clash Music]
Bonus link: Eminem‘s new video for “Not Afraid.” This time, we get dark and suicidal (again), instead of playful and misogynist (again).
June is here, and everyone has commenced arguing about what’s going to be the jam of the summer. We wouldn’t kick a good beach-party anthem out of bed, but, call us old-fashioned — we haven’t given up on albums yet, either. The next three months boast a dizzying array of promising records, from indies like Ariel Pink and Lower Dens to legends like Laurie Anderson and Devo to rap stars like Big Boi and Drake. Check out our top 25 picks after the jump.
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