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Flavorpill Guide to This Week’s Top 10 New York Events

By Mindy Bond on

For our (unconscionably high) rent money, the best thing about living in NYC is its endless supply of fun, odd, and inspired cultural events. But with so many options, it can be hard to know where to even begin planning your week. To help you make sense of it all, Flavorpill Deputy Editor Mindy Bond shares the very best of what’s on offer this week. It’s just a taste of what you can find on the new Flavorpill, so if you like what you see, be sure to sign up.  … Read More

Music

The 10 Best New Songs We Heard This Week: Deerhunter, Mykki Blanco

By Tom Hawking on

It’s Friday afternoon, which means that we’re off to see a celebrity psychic in a few hours (no, really), and also that we’re going back through all the new music we heard over the last few days to pick out our ten favorite tracks of the week. This week we warmed slowly to the new Deerhunter single, took substantially less time to love the new Mykki Blanco track, thoroughly enjoyed BEAK> covering Pink Floyd, got all woozy to Maria Minerva, discovered Manics-sampling pop from Istanbul, remembered why we liked Balam Acab, and more. All these tracks await you — get streaming and/or downloading, readers! … Read More

Music

Fascinating Photos of Famous Musicians in Their Studios

By Tom Hawking on

We’re constantly fascinated with the creative process here at Flavorwire, and one of the most important components of that process is the space in which it takes place. For musicians, at least as far as the recording process goes, this place is the studio, and as such we thought we’d take a look at the studios of some of our favorite musicians. The contrasts on display are intriguing, from the endearingly chaotic to the pristine and very expensive, from analog to digital, from minimalist to decked out in all sorts of crazy-looking… Read More

Music

The 10 Most Influential Contemporary Hip Hop Producers

By Tom Hawking on

We’ve had a week to digest Until the Quiet Comes, the new Flying Lotus album, and to be honest it still kinda makes our head hurt. FlyLo’s roots lie in hip hop, but this album encompasses everything from weird electronic experimentalism to free jazz, making it the latest installment in a constantly fascinating (if sometimes impenetrable) body of work. These are exciting times for hip hop production — in a weird sort of paradox, while the state of hip hop MCing is largely dismal, the production side of things is more innovative and creative than ever. With the help of resident production whiz and Flavorpill associate Lyle Horowitz, we’ve selected a few of the producers we think are really pushing the creative envelope at the moment — who are your suggestions? (And we’re trying to focus on lesser-known artists here, so please don’t ask us why we haven’t included Kanye West.) … Read More

Music

The 15 Albums You Need to Hear in October

By Tom Hawking on

After a bumper month in September, the good news is that there’s a heap more good albums due in October — especially tomorrow, which is shaping up as one of the busiest/best release dates of the year. Hurrah! As we do every month, we’ve devoted ourselves to poring over the release schedule and separating the proverbial wheat from the chaff and all such things. There’s also a roundup of everything else that’s out, encompassing the good, the bad, and the Barbra Streisand. What are you looking forward to hearing this month,… Read More

Music

10 MP3s You Need to Download for Free This Week: Swans, Dirty Projectors

By Tom Hawking on

It’s Friday, and we’re back with another installment of our regular roundup of downloadable MP3 goodness from around the web. This week, we get very excited about a taste of the new Swans album, even if it’s only a truncated edit of a truly epic-sounding track. There’s also a non-album Dirty Projectors track, Thurston Moore’s new band, new work from Crystal Castles and The Mountain Goats, suitably whacked-out hip hop from Flying Lotus and Raekwon, and a suite of Scott Walker remixes. 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

Music

10 Rappers to Convert the Indie Purist in Your Life

By Tom Hawking on

One of the more pleasing developments of the 21st century has been the decline of musical tribalism — people are far less likely to be evangelistic about their choice of genre these days, and most people’s record collections encompass a healthy range of sounds. Having said that, some divides remain — in particular, any conversation that touches on hip hop usually gives rise to at least one proclamation along the lines of, “Oh, I don’t listen to that garbage — it’s all bitches and blunts and guns, etc etc.” The release of SpaceGhostPurrp’s debut album this week (as you might have read, he’s signed to 4AD) got us thinking about other rappers who might bridge the hip hop/guitar divide. We’ve made some suggestions after the jump, so next time you run into an anti-hip hop type, don’t just huff and puff — direct them to us! We’re here to help. … Read More

Music

Are Morrissey’s Three New Songs Any Good?

By Tom Hawking on

For old Smiths fan like us, anything new from one Stephen Patrick Morrissey is always cause for interest, if not necessarily celebration – we’re resigned to the fact that nothing he makes now is going to rival the glory days of The Smiths, but nevertheless, his solo material is still worth hearing. As such, we were excited to hear that he performed three new songs on BBC Radio 2 today, and that these songs are now available online to stream for your listening pleasure. See what we made of them after the jump. (And also click through for new stuff from Brian Eno and Flying Lotus.) … Read More

Music

10 Great Reinterpretations of Radiohead Songs

By Tom Hawking on

Yesterday the good folks over at Stereogum posted their 20 favorite covers performed by Radiohead. It’s a fine compilation, and well worth downloading – among other things, it reveals that the ‘Head love Neil Young, as there are five different Young songs included, along with covers of songs by Can, Björk, Magazine, Portishead, and various others (including Glen Campbell’s “Rhinestone Cowboy,” curiously). Anyway, it got us thinking about the natural corollary to this – covers and reinterpretations of Radiohead songs performed by other people. Here are ten of our favorites from over the years (note: this list does not include Amanda Palmer and her ukulele). … Read More

Music

A Cross-Genre 4/20 Mixtape for the Ages

By Tom Hawking on

Yes, it’s 4/20, which means that stoners the world over are rejoicing over having a vaguely legitimate reason to get colossally baked this afternoon. There are plenty of songs out there about weed (we’re looking at you, Snoop), but they don’t necessarily make the best soundtrack for celebrating the herb -– so we’ve thoughtfully composed a psychedelic stoner mixtape that moves through a range of genres in the hope of providing a fine old soundtrack to some extracurricular pursuits this afternoon. (We’ve tried to go for selections that aren’t blindingly obvious –- with one exception -– so no Bob Marley, or Grateful Dead.) … Read More