Grimes

The Morning’s Top 5 Pop Culture Stories

1. Last night Stephen Colbert gleefully kicked off his week-long celebration of The Hobbit by interviewing Gandalf himself. Watch Sir Ian McKellen get trounced in a vicious game Tolkien trivia, and later admit that “Gandalf is more powerful than Magneto,” in

Flavorwire’s 2012 Halloween Mixtape

Face it: music for your Halloween party can be tough. It’s really cheap and easy to go, say, strictly ’80s, or strictly metal, or strictly horror film soundtracks, but that’s not how we do things around here. As such, your author has created a Halloween party mix of some dark, moody and thematically appropriate new tunes for your Samhain enjoyment, because, really, how many times can you listen to “The Monster Mash”? Feel free to use this as a soundtrack to your Halloween seance/rave/get-together, or just to creep out the neighbors. … Read More

The Flavorpill Guide to DIY Pop Culture Halloween Costumes: Music

Halloween: it’s always more complicated than you want it to be. Even if you’ve got your plans set, it’s a struggle to find the perfect costume — without resorting to the same crappy, overpriced, pre-packaged getups everyone else will be wearing. Thankfully, just as we have done for the past two Octobers, Flavorpill is helping you out with a series of easy DIY costume guides tackling various pop-culture realms. Don’t worry — there’s no sewing involved. Thus far we’ve looked at costumes inspired by TVfilm and books, and this week we’re moving onto the world of music. If you’ve ever wanted to indulge your (perhaps vaguely spooky) inner rock star type, then look no further — from Grimes to “Gangnam Style,” we’ve got you covered. … Read More

20 Brilliant Musicians on Why They Make Music

Here at Flavorwire, we’re constantly fascinated by the creative process and what drives people to be artists. In the past, we’ve looked into musicians discussing their songwriting process, and we’re similarly interested in what drives people to start creating in the first place. We’ve delved around and come up with a selection of quotes from our favorite musicians about how they got started on music, why it is they do what they do, and/or what they’re hoping to achieve with the creation of their art. The results are both revealing and fascinating.… Read More

A Selection of Great Duets We’d Love to See

As we’ve written here in the past, the duet is an inexact science — some of the collaborations that you’d think should have been roaring successes proved to be disastrous, and vice versa. We’re still on the fence as to which group the new St. Vincent/David Byrne collaboration Love This Giant, which is out today, falls into — but either way, the fact that two of our favorite artists have made a whole record together got us thinking about other dream duets we’d love to see. We’ve started the discussion with a bunch of suggestions. Who would you like to see in the studio together? … Read More

10 Indie Musicians Who Would Make Great Pop Stars

Ariel Pink’s new album Mature Themes is out this week, and it’s as strange and idiosyncratic as ever, mixing killer pop songs and curious whimsy in roughly equal measures. Pink’s more pop-tastic moment have always led us to think that somewhere inside him was/is a huge international pop star just waiting to get out. (Whether Pink is inclined to let this inner pop star out is, of course, another matter entirely.) Anyway, either way, hearing Mature Themes got us thinking about other indie types who, in an ideal world, could/should be chart-destroying megastars. The lines are blurrier than ever these days, of course, and there have been plenty of genuine crossover acts drawn from the ranks of the indie world, if that term even means anything in 2012 — M83, Feist, even (whisper it quietly) Bon Iver. Who might be next? Read on. … Read More

Lollapalooza 2012: The Festival in Photos

Last summer, formerly roaming, currently Chicago-based festival Lollapalooza celebrated its 20th anniversary. This past weekend, Perry Farrell’s brainchild barreled into its third decade, once again taking over Grant Park (and most of the surrounding area) with three days of marquee headliners, upstart buzz bands, and plenty of sun, food, and eventually, the requisite mud. Saturday’s installment saw a bit of a hitch, as the entire site was evacuated when a massive thunderstorm descended on the city; fortunately, the event resumed three hours later, with the mass exodus both out of and into the site handled remarkably well.

Nature’s wrath aside, it was another banner year for Lolla. Among the highlights were main stage sets from Florence + The Machine, Metric, Sigur Rós, and the Black Keys — the latter of whom received a personal introduction from Chicago Mayor (and former White House Chief of Staff) Rahm Emanuel. Jack White closed out the festival with a headlining performance featuring both his alternating all-male and all-female bands. And then there was our personal highlight, soul man of the hour, Frank Ocean, whose Saturday night set on the Google Play stage was both a revelation and the perfect reason to steer clear of that night’s main stage acts. Click through for our exclusive photo gallery from the entire weekend, both onsite and off, and if you were there too, share your own favorite moments in the comments. … Read More

Coachella Cruise Lineup Announced

Los Angeles concert promoter Goldenvoice, the folks behind Southern California’s Coachella, are apparently expanding the event from the desert to the ocean. The New York Times reports that attendees will have the opportunity to swig wine with LCD Soundsystem’s James Murphy and enjoy extra long sets aboard the S.S. Coachella come December. The… Read More

The Morning’s Top 5 Pop Culture Stories

1. Yesterday we learned that Steven Tyler is leaving American Idol “before she boils my rabbit,” and Jennifer Lopez and Randy Jackson may also be on the way out. Today’s update is that Mariah Carey is in talks to step into the judge’s seat. Welcome to the asylum, Mimi! [via Jezebel]… Read More

Famous Bands and the Indie Musicians Who Should Open for Them

You may or may not have seen that new show called Opening Act last night, wherein a team of “industry judges” – viz. Mary J Blige, Olivia Lee, and that unpleasant English guy from Popstars and So You Think You Can Dance – judge various hapless bands for the right to support huge stars like, um, LMFAO or Jason Mrazzzzzzzzzzz. Still, the show did get us thinking about how plenty of great bands have started their careers by playing some support slots that seem hilarious in retrospect, from Radiohead opening for Alanis Morrissette to Jimi Hendrix opening for the Monkees. And that, in turn, got us thinking about support slots we’d love to see some of our favorite bands play. In view of this, we thought we’d amuse ourselves by looking at some dream hypothetical line-ups, featuring some big-name (or biggish-name, at least) headline acts, past and present, along with the indie bands we’d love to have seen open for them. … Read More