Feist’s new album Metals is out this week, and although it’s already getting a slew of good reviews, as we confessed earlier this week, we’ve never been massive fans of the Canadian singer/songwriter. We don’t think she’s terrible, but we do think there are plenty of other great female singer/songwriters out there who are deserving of your attention. In view of this, we’ve taken it upon ourselves to bring together a selection of our favorites — if you like Feist, we reckon you’ll enjoy the work of the artists after the jump. On a related note: what do they put in the water in Sweden?!
If it’s Monday, it must be time for our weekly wrap-up of five notable records streaming for free over the interwebs over the next seven days. The big news this week is undoubtedly the fact that Radiohead’s remix LP is streaming in full — if like everyone else you missed out on tickets to the band’s NYC shows, then you can console yourself with the surfeit of new(ish) material after the jump. There’s also Feist’s new album (if you can convince the stream to work), along with excellent records from Walls, Prince Rama, and Modeselektor. What are you waiting for?
We recently stumbled across an impressive trove of rock ‘n’ roll portraits by Ontario artist Laurie Masters over at Behance Network. Masters is apparently entirely self-taught and creates her portraits of celebrities from photographs – she was originally a musician, and as such it’s perhaps no surprise that her work focuses largely on musicians (PJ Harvey, M.I.A., the Arcade Fire), although her subject matter also encompasses a variety of other artists and actors. Endearingly, she also creates dolls of her subjects, some of which can be seen at her website (apparently Flight of the Conchords were particularly impressed by their stuffed likenesses). We’re not necessarily always fans of the whole painting-directly-from-photos idea, but Masters’ rock ‘n’ roll portraits are an interesting and ongoing project. We’ve collected some of our favorites after the jump.
Chilly Gonzales has been on an artistic rampage for well over a decade now. The Canadian-born, Paris-based artist once known as Jason Beck has collaborated with Peaches, Feist, and Jamie Lidell; released numerous albums of rap, pop, and instrumental piano music; wrote, starred in, and released his own feature film; and broken the world record for solo piano performance (after playing for over 27 hours straight).
His latest is The Unspeakable Chilly Gonzales, an album that blends rap with orchestral music, arranged by his film composer brother, Christophe Beck. We caught up with Chilly at home in Paris for an interactive video interview, in which he reveals his love of Jewish humor, explains the connection between hip-hop and South Park, and challenges John Mayer to a duel.
If you’ve ever wondered what your favorite literary characters might be listening to while they save the world/contemplate existence/get into trouble, or hallucinated a soundtrack to go along with your favorite novels, well, us too. But wonder no more! Here, we sneak a look at the hypothetical iPods of some of literature’s most interesting characters. What would be on the personal playlists of Holden Caulfield or Elizabeth Bennett, Huck Finn or Harry Potter, Tintin or Humbert Humbert? Something revealing, we bet. Or at least something danceable. Read on for a cozy reading soundtrack, character study, or yet another way to emulate your favorite literary hero. This week: Lewis Carroll’s strange and lovely Alice.
Last week we caught a sneak preview of Ivory Tower, an “existential sports comedy” about brothers Hershell (singer/songwriter Jason “Chilly Gonzales” Beck) and Thadeus (DJ/producer”Tiga” James Sontag) fighting over both the title of competitive chess champion and a woman named Marsha, played by Merrill Beth Nisker, a.k.a. Peaches. Hershell’s affinity for “jazz chess,” in which you play against yourself and there are no winners, directly contrasts with Thadeus’s flamboyant and razor-sharp competitive spirit.
As Inlets, multi-instrumentalist Sebastian Krueger blends the simple warmth of his banjo with the lush scope of orchestral pop.
His self-recorded debut LP, Inter Arbiter, comprises layered songs that benefit from repeat listens. Krueger’s experience as a hired gun for My Brightest Diamond and Feist also pays off by bringing him a slew of guest artists, including Dirty Projectors vocalist Angel Deradoorian and Beirut frontman Zach Condon, who contribute to the album’s melancholic harmonies.
When OK Go dropped their new video for “This Too Shall Pass,” the Internet became abuzz — and rightfully so, as the clip is near-genius. (Go behind-the-scenes courtesy of Fast Company.) The band spent three months building what is essentially a giant, musical game of Mouse Trap, with the help of friends from NASA and Jet Propulsion Labs.
This isn’t the first time the band has grabbed our attention with a music video, as the infamous treadmill choreography of “Here It Goes Again” is also, admittedly, kind of brilliant. Unfortunately, OK Go have never quite caught up to the level of their visual aesthetic on the musical end of things. Of course, they’re not the only act that has been outshined by its own videos. The following clips exemplify just what happens when an unexceptional song gets trumped by an exceptional visual counterpart.
We’ve all been through it. Whether you’re the dumper or the dumpee, breaking up sucks — especially this time of year. After your friends have all gone home and that bottle of bourbon is definitely empty, at least music is there to ease your aching heart. Since we have officially exited the aughts, we figured we’d save you the trouble and compile a list of the top ten break-up songs from the past decade. So, without further ado, a five stages of grief-inspired mix, just in time for Valentine’s Day. Please use in moderation.
, an album that blends rap with orchestral music, arranged by his film composer brother, 
