Feist’s new album Metals is out this week, and although it’s already getting a slew of good reviews, as we confessed earlier this week, we’ve never been massive fans of the Canadian singer/songwriter. We don’t think she’s terrible, but we do think there are plenty of other great female singer/songwriters out there who are deserving of your attention. In view of this, we’ve taken it upon ourselves to bring together a selection of our favorites — if you like Feist, we reckon you’ll enjoy the work of the artists after the jump. On a related note: what do they put in the water in Sweden?!
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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.
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The title of She & Him’s latest music video may be “Don’t Look Back,” but the clip itself is all about nostalgia for the ’60s. Just when we thought Zooey and M. Ward couldn’t get any more adorable right? From the bright, Technicolor-like tones to the mid-century sets and wardrobe to the retro narration, “Don’t Look Back” is a quick and comforting vacation to a simpler time. After the jump, check out the She & Him clip, plus nine more music videos that will transport you back to the swingin’ ’60s.
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This week’s installment of our regular mixtape series brings brilliant tidings from established artists experimenting with new sounds (Cut Copy, M.I.A.) or returning with their signature masterwork (Ra Ra Riot, Jenny Lewis) and new bands we’re falling deeply in love with (The Naked and Famous, Rai Knight). There’s also a Drake cover. Right Click + Save As to find the one you love (or download the entire collection) after the jump.
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1. Despite horrible reviews, Sex and the City 2 is poised to make even more money than the original. [via THR]
2. How cute: Jenny Lewis and her boyfriend/backing band member Johnathan Rice will team up for her next full-length album as Jenny and Johnny. [via 24Bit]
3. Paramount and Nickelodeon have hired Michael Bay to produce a live action Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles flick that they’re hoping will relaunch the franchise. [via Deadline]
4. Gary Coleman — who had two seizures earlier this year — is currently in critical condition in a Utah hospital; he reportedly suffered an intracranial hemorrhage after a fall. [via TMZ]
5. The New York Subway system is getting a new map that is “resized, recolored and simplified.” Manhattan will grow 30 percent wider, while Staten Island will shrink. [via NYT]
Bonus link: Mischievous Prankster Tragically Stuck In 2003
1. Have a problem with Facebook‘s recent privacy changes? Then you’re probably over the age of 35. [via Wired]
2. So this is interesting: Jenny Lewis is helping Killers frontman Brandon Flowers out with a few of the songs on his solo debut. They’re also working on a duet called “Hard Enough.” [via 24Bit]
3. Brad Pitt will star in The Tiger, a Darren Aronofsky–directed drama about an animal activist in a small town in Siberia written by Babel scribe Guillermo Arriaga. [via THR]
4. The new Band of Horses album, Infinite Arms, is streaming over on their website. It officially drops on May 18th.
5. To be filed under awkward things that we’d probably do: mistaking a costumed Sir Ian McKellen for a homeless person and giving him a dollar. [via Daily Mail]
Bonus link: The World’s Ugliest Statues
Given that Tim Robbins founded the Actors Gang in response to a lack of opportunities for independent writers and actors to produce socially and politically salient new work, it’s no surprise that his response to the threat of a paralyzing budget crunch was to curate an ambitious ten-week festival of theatre, dance, music, conversation, performance, and education. The WTF?! Festival brings together scores of voices as diverse as those of Tom Morello, Naomi Klein, Gore Vidal, John Doe, Sarah Silverman, anti-war Veterans, and members of Cirque du Soleil — all in the name of saving one of the country’s bravest voices for progressive art by raising not only money, but awareness.
Flavorpill’s Shana Nys Dambrot caught up with Robbins on the eve of the LA festival to talk politics, art, and record collections. Read More »
Our friends at The L Magazine were watching the college tournament on Jeopardy! last week, and were shocked when indie rock appeared as a category in the Double Jeopardy round. How would you have fared?
$400: Ben Gibbard is the lead singer of this band that sounds like a ride a hottie should turn down.
$800: Kingsizemaybe’s song “Dallas” recalls the day of this man’s assassination.
$1200: L.A.’s Silversun Pickups got their name from a store at the corner of Silver Lake Boulevard and this one with a famous “strip.”
$1600: As a child, Jenny Lewis appeared on “Baywatch”; now she fronts this “Portions for Foxes” band.
$2000: Think twice before kissing these “hot” Oklahoma indie stars who sang “Do You Realize?”
If you’re debating whether questions two and three really count, in this same round a question about Harry Potter surfaced in Comparative Lit category. Click over to the L’s site to find out if you did better than the college kids.
Previously the term “wanderlust” evoked one image in our mind: mushrooms. And, Bjork’s amazing 3-D music video for the track “Wanderlust” directed by Encyclopedia Pictura… which absolutely involved mushrooms. But now it’s our favorite new music festival, too. According to its website, Wanderlust is a new kind of fest that marries yoga and rock n’ roll. Situated in Lake Tahoe in a lush part of Northern California, there were tons of opportunities for eating fruit, shopping for hippie accessories, and going on a hike or two in spite of the surprisingly sweltering weather. Read More »
Before he was creating popular TV series like The O.C. and Gossip Girl, Josh Schwartz used to perform stand-up comedy as a student at USC. You know him as the force behind Star Trek, Alias, and Lost, but J.J. Abrams also composes music. Jenny Lewis had her artistic debut in a Jell-O commercial, and Beck works on collages and drawings with his grandpa, Al Hansen. Michel Gondry was the drummer in a band called Oui Oui back in the ’80s, and Stephen Colbert once fronted a Rolling Stones cover band. Read More »
