If you’ve ever wondered what your favorite literary characters might be listening to while they save the world/contemplate existence/get into trouble, or hallucinated a soundtrack to go along with your favorite novels, well, us too. But wonder no more! Here, we sneak a look at the hypothetical iPods of some of literature’s most interesting characters. What would be on the personal playlists of Holden Caulfield or Elizabeth Bennett, Huck Finn or Harry Potter, Tintin or Humbert Humbert? Something revealing, we bet. Or at least something danceable. Read on for a cozy reading soundtrack, character study, or yet another way to emulate your favorite literary hero. This week: the woman pulling the strings — but dirtying her hands — Lady Macbeth.
So Halloween is coming up, and if you’re like us, you’re probably starting to think about putting together a mixtape for a Halloween party. If so, you’ve come to the right place, because we’ve put together a selection of some of the gore-filled masterworks that’ll be vying for a place on our playlist in a couple of weeks’ time. (Note: as much as we’re all for blood and gore, we’re generally less enchanted by songs that involve misogyny, rape, and/or other such unpleasantness — and anyway, these are party songs, and we don’t figure the likes of Mayhem’s “Chainsaw Gutsfuck” or Cannibal Corpse’s “Fucked with a Knife” are particularly laden with festive spirit. Sorry, death metal fans.) But anyway, disclaimers aside, here’s what we’ve come up with — what’s gonna be playing at your party?
Every Monday we bring you a selection of five noteworthy and hopefully stereo-worthy albums that are streaming for free across the web. This week sees the debut of albums by Evanescence, Ben Lee, and William Shatner, plus a Ben Folds best-of… but don’t worry, there’s none of that here, because we’ve found some good music this week, too. Most notably, the M83 album is back online, and this time it’s not a dodgy Grooveshark upload. There’s also the new My Brightest Diamond, a soundtrack from Andrew Bird, neo-classical weirdness from Nils Frahm, and Johnny Cash singing “A Boy Named Sue” for Richard Nixon. Click through for a piece of the action!
A few days ago we shared adorable pictures from the early years of some of our favorite writers with you, including an amazing photo of Ernest Hemingway in a dress. Today, we thought it might be fun to revisit the concept, but this time turning our focus on the music world. We don’t know about you, but we never really picture rock ‘n’ roll stars as having childhoods; wearing clothes that your parents have picked out for you and going through an awkward stage is the opposite of bad-ass. So, if you’re curious as to what Courtney Love looked like decades before she ever met Kurt — or you’d like to see how freaking cute he was as a little kid — click through to check out our roundup now.
Some people rely on notes to keep their lives organized and Johnny Cash was definitely one of these people. Recently, a few of these notes surfaced, providing us with a little more insight into Mr. Cash, his romance with June and how the singer organized his days.
In the first note, Cash writes to his beloved wife, ending the note by saying, “The fire and excitement may be gone now that we don’t go out there and sing them anymore, but the ring of fire still burns around you and I, keeping our love hotter than a pepper sprout.” Yes, he used his own song lyrics to write to his wife, but hey, they’re classics for a reason. Read one of his to-do lists and see the note to June after the jump.
This week saw the release of the music video for “Otis,” Kanye West and Jay-Z’s Otis Redding-sampling single from their new album Watch the Throne, and all their jocular tomfoolery got us to thinking about the other gents we know who have teamed up to bring us great duets, bro-on-bro style. Because after all, no girl will ever love you as well as your homeboy, right? Right. From the wonderfully cheesy to the just plain wonderful, we’ve collected some of our favorite all-man duets in music history here (you can also check out our feature on classic lady-on-lady musical collaborations, if we’ve gotten you in the mood). Click through to take a listen to our picks, and let us know which of your favorites we’ve missed after the jump!
Say what you want about fancy equipment or an expensive studio setting — a lot of what makes a photograph memorable is all about having an interesting subject to work with and being at the right place at the right time. Case in point, Baron Wolman, who was Rolling Stone‘s first chief photographer back in the late ’60s, during the magazine’s first three years. Now, over 200 of the iconic images that he captured during this incredibly important period of music history are being released in a new coffee-table book.
“I enjoyed shooting every musician I ever photographed, each in a different way but each with respect for him or her, with great joy in the moment,” he explains. “When I was shooting a concert I didn’t ‘hear’ the music, I ‘saw’ the music. Through the lens I was looking for single visual moments which would reflect the essence of the performance in the pages of Rolling Stone.” Click through to preview some of our favorite photos in the iconic collection, from a pic of Ike and Tina sharing a San Francisco stage back in 1967 to Pete Townshend grinning at the piano in 1968 London.
Had he lived, Tupac Shakur would have celebrated his 40th birthday this summer. It’s interesting to contemplate what a grizzled Tupac would sound like; The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory, Shakur’s first posthumously released album, introduced his darker side, a sinister, new sound that, unfortunately, never got the chance to evolve. While the rapper is now notorious for his posthumous albums, having released nine since his death in 1996, The Don Killuminati puts most of Shakur’s early discography to shame.
While it’s true that posthumous albums can be exploitative, pushed onto the market by opportunistic handlers and record labels (ahem, Michael), they can also can be legitimate contributions to an artist’s discography and true gifts to their fans. Now, in hopes that chatter about new material from the late Amy Winehouse will add up to more than just an attempt to cash in, we’ve collected 15 great records that gave dearly departed musicians new life.
The faces we put on America’s currency say a lot about our cultural values: There are founding fathers (Washington, Jefferson, Franklin) and presidents who led the country through adversity (Lincoln, FDR), along with a few boundary-breaking women (Sacagewea, Susan B. Anthony). In a series of portraits drawn directly on real US bills, James Charles creates remarkably believable currency featuring both pop-culture heroes — Jimi Hendrix, Johnny Cash, Frida Kahlo, Joey Ramone — and darker figures — Charles Manson, Willy Wonka and an Oompa-Loompa minion, an aging Captain America who “needs Viagra” — that satire America’s excesses. Click through for a gallery of our favorite portraits from the series, and visit Shooting Gallery to see more.
Here’s the deal: It’s the Wednesday before Father’s Day. You need to get your present to dad in the mail stat, but you haven’t even found out yet. Since it’s probably too late to order one of the items from our gift guide, why not go down to the music store and thoughtfully pick out an album you think your old man might like? Instead of resorting to yet another Beatles box set, we think it’s high time to get Dad interested in something new. So, after the jump, we’ve put together a quick guide to finding a current indie-rock band your father will enjoy, based on the ’60s and ’70s acts he loves best.
