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The 10 Albums You Need to Hear in April

By Tom Hawking on

Another month, another packed release schedule — and, as ever, we’ve picked out the ten best albums in the month ahead. On the whole, April is shaping up as a pretty excellent month for new records. Among other things, there’s the return of The Flaming Lips and Yeah Yeah Yeahs, beautiful new music from The Besnard Lakes and Iron & Wine, weird dance-floor-friendly horrorcore from Xander Harris, the continuing renaissance of James Williamson-era Iggy and the Stooges, and at least one album of the year contender. (Spoiler: The… Read More

Music

The 10 Best New Songs We Heard This Week: Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Phoenix

By Tom Hawking on

It’s Friday afternoon, which means that a band just finished playing in our office, and also that it’s time to recap all the best new songs we heard during the past week. In the past few days, we got more than a little obsessed with the new Majical Cloudz song — and as well as that, there’s another most excellent Phoenix remix, Iron and Wine getting all 19th century on us, surprisingly good new stuff from Primal Scream and Tricky, unsurprisingly good new stuff from Azar Swan and Kelpe, and plenty more. Get streaming and/or downloading, peoples! … Read More

Music

Extremely Silly Photos of Extremely Serious Musicians

By Tom Hawking on

If you’ve ever wanted to see Blixa Bargeld hanging out in the kitchen, Joy Division pretending to be Monty Python, or Leonard Cohen wearing denim cut offs, then click through and get… Read More

Music

25 Great Songwriters on the Art of Songwriting

By Tom Hawking on

Thomas Edison’s famous and oft-abused quote about genius being 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration is one of the great truisms of our time. But is it actually, y’know, true? How creativity actually works — in terms of the nuts and bolts of actually getting things down on the page/tape/canvas/etc. — is perhaps the most mysterious aspect of art, a process that’s both romanticized and often misunderstood. And in view of this, we thought it might be interesting to see what some of our favorite songwriters had to say about how they approach the process of writing. Click through to read opinions from Leonard Cohen, Nick Cave, Björk, Patti Smith and a whole heap more. We hope they provide some measure of inspiration, interest, or insight. … Read More

Music

10 Gorgeously Melancholy Albums to Soundtrack Your Summer

By Tom Hawking on

A couple of weeks back, we had a look at a selection of indie rock summer anthems, and earlier in the month our Pop for Skeptics maven Rohin Guha nominated a selection of more poptastic summer jams. But the thing is, summer doesn’t conjure up images of pool parties and general sun-drenched revelry for everyone — for some (and you can count us among their number, especially in the insufferable humidity of NYC), it’s a pretty melancholy time of the year. And yet, luxuriating in that melancholy can be somehow just as satisfying in its own way as splashing around at the beach — so here’s a selection of 10 albums to soundtrack doing just that. Suggestions are welcome, of course. … Read More

Music

Ranking Musicians by How Much They Look Like Jesus

By Tom Hawking on

Musicians have always loved the Jesus look, mainly because it obviates the need to cut your hair and shave — which, if you’re more interested in sex, drugs, and/or rock ‘n’ roll than practicalities, is just the ticket. But while plenty of musicians over the years have gone for the messianic style, only a few have pulled it off with panache, and this got us thinking — who’s the most convincing Jesus-alike in music? In celebration of Christ’s birthday, we’ve attempted to determine just that. We started out with field of ten contenders, and we’re ranking them from bottom to top in terms of their Jesus Quotient. Read on to find out who’s the messiah and who’s just a very naughty boy. (Disclaimer: this is all a bit of fun, so please don’t take it all too seriously/take offense/condemn us to eternal damnation.) … Read More

News

The Morning’s Top 5 Pop Culture Stories

By Caroline Stanley on

1. Yesterday AOL named Twitter co-founder Biz Stone a “social impact” strategic adviser for the company, as part of its broader integration with HuffPo. Stone, who is staying at Twitter, will work on “cause-based initiatives,” such as “creating a system to help people volunteer in their communities and a video series featuring companies committed to… Read More

Music

Today, Music Sold Out (OK, Not Really)

By Stelios Phili on

Courtesy of Germany’s Mahr’s Bräu brewery, acclaimed metal overlords Mastodon have a beer named after them. An unexpected storm of *press releases flooded Flavorpill shortly thereafter, announcing future band-product collaborations. They are as follows:

-Iron and Wine has inspired a limited edition series of “Cheese and Grapes.”

-Wavves is reportedly selling miniature surfboards made of pure, Grade-A dank.

-Vampire Weekend is growing organic garlic necklaces for their fans. “It just made sense,” says lead singer Ezra… Read More

Music

What We're Listening To at Flavorpill…

By Caroline Stanley on

Welcome to What We’re Listening To, a weekly roundup of the tracks that have been getting the repeat treatment in our office. After the jump, a dozen songs that FP staffers are loving right now, along with some light commentary on why we think they’re special (we hear a lot of music ’round here). Enjoy and feel free to leave your own recent obsessions in the comments. … Read More