1. Deadline is reporting that Dianne Wiest and Chris Cooper are negotiating to play the leads in HBO’s forthcoming Noah Baumbach-helmed adaptation of Jonathan Franzen’s award-winning novel, The Corrections. We approve heartily!
2. Dark Blood, the movie that River Phoenix was filming at the time of his death, might be getting released almost 20 years later, thanks reedits from the director and some possible voice-over work from River’s brother Joaquin Phoenix. [via Vulture]
3. The Jeff Mangum-curated winter installment of All Tomorrow’s Parties has been pushed back to March due to “a set of extremely unfortunate and unforeseen circumstances.” Refunds will be available for ticket holders who can’t make the new dates. [via NME]
4. Multiple Tony award-winning writer Robert Lopez, who collaborated with Trey Parker and Matt Stone on The Book of Mormon, will also be teaming up with them for upcoming episode of South Park that will air on October 26. We expect big things! [via ArtsBeat]
5. Criterion will finally release a digitally-restored version Godzilla Blu-ray/DVD this January; along with a load of special features, you’ll be getting both the 1954 Japanese original as well as the 1956 American remake of the film, which starred Raymond Burr. [via Slashfilm]
Held for the past three years in a remote, ramshackle Catskills summer resort called Kutsher’s, America’s own version of the British All Tomorrow’s Parties festival was a somewhat different affair in 2011. Although the musical line-up was just as incredible as ever — Portishead curated and headlined two of the three nights, and Jeff Mangum also performed twice (read more about that here) — the event found a new home in Asbury Park, the New Jersey beach town that’s most famous for launching Bruce Springsteen’s career.
We can’t say we didn’t miss the intimacy and seclusion of Kutsher’s, but the new location proved to be a fantastic alternative nonetheless. Along with three days of excellent and challenging music that catered to the crate-digger set, we bowled, strolled the boardwalk, sampled the offerings of a remarkable (and fully playable) pinball museum, walked on the beach, played mini golf, and warmed ourselves in front of a bonfire. Most importantly, we reconnected with a deep-seated love of music that’s constantly tested by the Internet’s exhausting and trivializing hype cycle. A gallery of highlights from the festival — including Portishead, Public Enemy, Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy, Cults, Deerhoof, Swans, Shepard Fairey, and many more — is after the jump.
It’s strange to see Jeff Mangum in the middle of the first day of a music festival like All Tomorrow’s Parties — the kind of three-day dream event where you love half the bands playing and like most of the rest. The idea that he’ll take the stage sometime between Chavez (who also almost never perform) and Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy, as just one in a weekend full of performances, is so bizarre that I spend most of the day in denial.
But then, as we filter into the theater, what’s about to happen starts to become real. For Mangum’s set, and only his, festival goers have been issued separate tickets with assigned seats. I assume this is so the superfans don’t skip every band playing earlier in the evening to camp out in front of the venue in hopes of getting a front-row spot.
When the news broke that Neil Young is writing an all-encompassing memoir, it got us thinking about what other musicians — and specifically which of our favorite current indie rockers — we’d like to see compose tell-all autobiographies. Mysterious band break-ups, high-profile couplings gone awry, reclusive behavior, extensive touring, and cult childhoods exposed would all make for awesome, page-turning reads for those of us who have always been curious about the private goings-on behind the music. So, in hopes of giving our favorite potential memoirists a gentle push, we’ve complied a list of ten artists whose lives who we’d love to learn more about.
One Flavorpill staffer hopped a bus to Boston last weekend to see Jeff Mangum at an early stop on his long-awaited comeback tour and came back with a glowing report. We were already excited to see him at All Tomorrow’s Parties in Asbury Park at the end of the month, but now we’re practically counting down the minutes. So, while a Neutral Milk Hotel song that we’ve never heard before would always be a welcome surprise, it’s especially welcome at a time when the band is so much on our mind. Ostensibly in anticipation of the forthcoming NMH box set, Mangum has posted a previously unreleased, post-In the Aeroplane Over the Sea track called “Little Birds (Unfinished Version 2)” on the band’s official wesbite. Although it’s billed as “unfinished,” the song feels fairly complete, if not polished, and also seems to mark something of a departure from Aeroplane – it’s both angrier and more upbeat than most of that album. Listen to “Little Birds” here (scroll down to the ribbon that says “Play previously unreleased track” on the righthand side of the page) and let us know what you think. [via Stereogum]
In a quite unexpected turn of events, the heretofore super elusive Neutral Milk Hotel frontman Jeff Mangum has unveiled a brand new and super fancy website, something fans have been clamoring for for years while making do with this one. Even better, via said website, he has announced plans to release a vinyl-only box set which will include everything the band has ever recorded, including — hold yourselves back, now — fifteen previously unreleased tracks. He’s also selling one of a kind drawings (though at this moment they are predictably sold out) and streaming the unreleased “Oh Sister” / “Ferris Wheel on Fire” here. The box of joy will be available November 22, and all the children of the indie rock generation hold their breath in anticipation. [via Pitchfork]
Now that Jeff Mangum is touring again — and sounding great — it’s time for all the obsessive Neutral Milk Hotel fans to come out of the woodwork. Take, for example, the apparently anonymous soul who has created an NMH-themed video game called In the Time Machine Over the Sea. The 16-bit-style diversion features characters from throughout the band’s mythology, from Anne Frank and, erm, Adolf Hitler to Mangum himself. Opinion seems to be split among the devotees at Elephant 6′s message board; while some fans enjoy the game, others complain that because it came out of 4chan, “It’s less about Aeroplane and more about… 4chan.” Luckily, trying it out and deciding for yourself will cost you nothing: You can watch the trailer after the jump and download it for free here.
We’ve seen Jeff Mangum get onstage and sing a few choruses at his Elephant 6 pals’ shows over the past few years, and even caught some grainy video of him performing Neutral Milk Hotel songs at a benefit last May. If anything, those brief glimpses make us even more grateful to Stereogum for pointing us to a downloadable, high-quality recording of Mangum’s recent performance in Toronto. Thanks to Southern Souls, you can hear him singing most of NMH’s best songs, including about half of In the Aeroplane Over the Sea, “Song Against Sex,” a Roky Erickson, and even amusing the crowd with banter. Most importantly, Mangum sounds fantastic — confident, strong, and with a voice just as textured and emotive as we remember it. Do yourself a favor and stream or download the set here. [Image via]
Today at Flavorpill, we wondered if this newly-married couple took the Christopher Nolan love a little too far with their Inception-inspired wedding video. We were frightened by Rob Zombie’s new Woolite commercial — which was almost as scary this footage of an expectant Rachel Zoe from the upcoming season of her Bravo reality show. We watched a video on the science behind hangovers. We were underwhelmed by Tavi’s first post over on xoJane.com that’s all about what’s in her locker, but maybe it has just been way too long since we’ve had one. We were happy to hear that Jeff Mangum has finally embraced pants — granted, they are some of the craziest pants that we’ve ever seen. We were glad that the new trailer for season four of Breaking Bad showed us a little more than that earlier teaser did. And finally, we couldn’t believe that Marilyn Monroe’s signature white dress was auctioned off for almost $6 million — we’re big fans of The Seven Year Itch too, but in this economy, that’s absolutely nuts.
We recently learned that Bethenny Frankel, of Real Housewives and resultant spin-off fame, has teamed up with Ellen DeGeneres to start working on a pilot for her very own talk show. Though available details are few, Frankel told the Hollywood Reporter, “I want to be on TV in a format where I can have a longer conversation with my fans rather than 140 characters on Twitter.” Now, we’re not too sure what we think of this — does the world really need more Bethenny Frankel? Since we’ve yet to try the Skinnygirl margarita, we’re not at liberty to say. But we can think of several celebs whose talk shows we would watch without a doubt, especially if they turn out the fantasy talk shows we imagine for them. And don’t worry — we’re not about to suggest James Franco. That kid does enough. Click through to see our list of ten celebrities that should definitely have their own talk shows, and to check out our predictions as to what those gab fests might look like. And of course, let us know who else you’re dying to see in a maroon armchair in the comments!
