1. While sources yesterday suggested that director Tony Scott, who died in an apparent suicide Sunday, had inoperable brain cancer, his family has denied those reports. [via LA Times]
2. You know that new Michael J. Fox sitcom that’s caused a bidding war among major netowkrs? Increasingly desperate NBC has won the series… Read More
They say music moves in 20-year cycles, and the surfeit of ’90s-influenced bands on the scene at the moment seems to suggest that maybe they’re right (whoever “they” are.) It also seems that there are plenty of original ’90s bands playing at the moment, both renascent (Garbage, Pulp) those who never went away (Pearl Jam, for instance), or those who have no right to actually exist either way and are yet somehow touring together. Anyway, with all this in mind — and, specifically, because the new Garbage album is out this week — we thought it was high time for another of our stereotyping posts. Obligatory disclaimer: this is all in fun, so don’t take offense — and also, as ever, our stereotype is in there with the rest. See if you can guess which one it is! … Read More
Welcome to another edition of our regular Monday stream-a-thon, wherein we hunt down the best and/or most notable records streaming for free over the Internet. This week, there’s the new Beach House streaming in full, so if like us you’ve avoided the leaked version, then the wait to hear it is finally over. Yay! There’s also a new record from Best Coast, Danny Elfman’s Dark Shadows soundtrack, the return of Garbage, and, perhaps most intriguingly of all, an album of Rod McKuen covers by Dean Ween. Click through and listen to your heart’s content! … Read More
This week saw the release of the new Santigold album, which has been four years in the making, although somehow it seems a lot longer. While we’re not entirely sold on Master of My Make-Believe, it did get us thinking about the fact that 2012 is shaping up as a good year for ticking off the list of long-awaited records that will (hopefully) be arriving at last. After the jump, we’ve pulled together a selection of 10 albums for which we’ve been waiting far too long — shit, some of them have been pending for longer than Chinese Democracy was! Did we miss anything? … Read More
That rock snobs see pop as bland and boring is one of the most mind-boggling mysteries of our time. Sure, the stereotype has some basis; historically, pop music has played it safe. It’s been the kind of entertainment that could babysit little kids while their parents watched Basic Instinct in the next room. Pop is known as the wholesome, family-friendly alternative to rock music, which has always enjoyed a tawdry reputation. Where pop exalted true love, rock exalted bed-hopping; where pop encouraged moderation, rock reveled in excess. It’s a holy binary that has existed since rock’s birth in the ’50s.
But in the past decade, it seems rock and pop have reversed roles. We could attribute the shift to the number of pop star aspirants, which has multiplied astronomically — thanks to reality TV, the death throes of the major labels, etc. A lot more people are competing for the attention of the same audience, and when traditional pop tropes failed to get attention, shock and awe have done the trick. … Read More
Guys who loved Shirley Manson in the ’90s and girls who wanted to be her, take note: Garbage is back. In May, the band will release its first studio album in over seven years, Not Your Kind of People. So, what do they sound like these days? Stereogum has posted “Blood for Poppies,” the first full song from the record to reach the Internet, and it sounds both familiar and new. Back in the days of “Push It,” Garbage were hailed for juxtaposing alternative rock with electronic beats, creating a fresh, exciting hybrid. But what jumps out at us in “Blood for Poppies” is that chainsaw guitar riff — in fact, the track reminds us a bit of Sleigh Bells, albeit with New Wave pacing and Manson’s less-sugary vocals. While this may not be the single that saves mainstream-radio rock, it’s got earworm potential, and Garbage certainly has our attention. Listen after the jump and let us know whether you’re happy to see the band make a comeback. … Read More
There’s something very compelling about androgyny, as we all know. But the theme resonates particularly, it seems, for those fashion-forward expressionists known as popular musicians. Architecture in Helsinki’s new video, featuring an ambiguous protagonist being groped by body-less limbs, got us thinking about the trajectory of androgyny in music videos — we tend to associate the trope with the ’80s, but in truth, the look seems to cycle in and out of fashion and it never quite loses its grip on our imagination. Though, let’s not lie, 1983 was a really big year for androgyny. We’ve also noticed that something about androgyny works especially well for redheads. Click through for a brief and incomplete look at the evolution of androgyny in music videos, and let us know what we’ve missed! … Read More
In Stephen Alan Yorke’s case, another person’s junk is his art. Whenever Yorke walks back home, he regularly passes a tiny concrete ledge with a brick background, which probably used to be a window, but now seems to be a depository for garbage. Instead of picking up the trash and moving it to a garbage bin, he takes pictures of the discarded objects with his iPhone. Seeing the ledge as an ever-changing blank canvas for litterbugs — or what Yorke prefers to call “accidental artists” — Yorke has assumed the role of curator of this odd art gallery, and documents each exhibit on his website, Morgan Road Gallery.
View some of Yorke’s curated pieces and read the interview after the jump. … Read More
Vic Chesnutt died on Christmas Day. And if he had to go, so damn early, and so damn cruelly, and so damn needlessly, there may have been no better day for him to do so. Dying while much of the world was celebrating the birth of a prophet could not have been more poetic. And Vic Chesnutt was sheer poetry.… Read More
Staff Picks: Flavorwire's Favorite Cultural Things This Week
A Virtual Tour of the Now-Closed Liberace Museum in Las Vegas
Great Musicians on the Concerts That Inspired Them to Make Music
Surprising Early, Alternate Versions of Iconic Movie Posters
The 20 Most Beautiful Libraries on Film and TV
The 50 Albums Everyone Needs to Own, 1963-2013
Incredible Reading Rooms Around the World
