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Music

10 of Music’s Most Bizarre Alter Egos

By Tom Hawking on

This week sees the release of the utilitarianly titled Banks, the first solo release under his own name by Interpol singer Paul Banks. It’s not his first solo release, though — Banks has already put out an album and an EP under the pseudonym Julian Plenti. He appears to have retired the alter ego now, which only makes the whole thing more bizarre — despite the fact that Julian Plenti’s records sounded awfully like Interpol, Banks even insisted on being interviewed in character, reputedly refusing to answer questions that weren’t addressed to “Julian.” In memory of Julian Plenti, then, here are a selection of music’s most strangest and most memorable alter… Read More

Music

10 Notoriously Disastrous Musical Performances

By Matthew Bower on

Musicians make mistakes, too. They’re only human, after all. But that doesn’t stop us from delighting in a bit of good-natured Schadenfreude when a performance devolves into a total train wreck. This week has seen its share of disappointment when it comes to live music, including an abrupt end to Jack White’s concert at Radio City Music Hall and the Biebs losing his lunch in the middle of a 105-minute-long set. In light of such mishaps, we’ve put together a list of some of the most notoriously awful, embarrassing, or otherwise disastrous live performances in recent history. … Read More

Music

Did Kings of Leon Rip Off No Age’s T-Shirts?

By Judy Berman on

Here are two names we didn’t expect to see in the same headline: arena-rock stars Kings of Leon and lo-fi LA punks No Age. We imagine they have somewhere around zero fans in common, but as Marc Hogan at Spin points out, they do kind of share a T-shirt design. In a blog post last night, No Age posted a few photos of a Kings of Leon tee with the caption, “t shirt designs by the kings of originality… looking good.” Indeed, the shirt bears some resemblance to No Age’s signature design, which seems to pre-date KoL’s by a few years: Both feature big, bright, all-caps, multicolored text on a plain, white background. Then again, the T-shirts are also pretty simple, and, as much as we hate to defend Kings of Leon, it’s just as believable to us that their designer came up with the look independently as that he spotted a No Age tee and decided to rip it off. See larger version of both shirts after the jump, and let us know whether you think it’s a copy in the comments. … Read More

News

The Morning’s Top 5 Pop Culture Stories

By Caroline Stanley on

1. Spike Jonze has reportedly teamed up with Kanye West and Jay-Z to direct the music video for “Otis,” the first official track to be released off of their forthcoming joint LP Watch the Throne. While there aren’t many details to be had, you can check out a photo from the shoot in Los Angeles… Read More

Music

10 Rock ‘n’ Roll Remixes That Are Better Than the Original

By Tom Hawking on

We were intrigued to hear the news last week that Radiohead are planning on releasing a series of 12″ remixes of the songs from The King of Limbs, handing over the album tracks to producers like Flying Lotus and Caribou to cut up and reinterpret. Perhaps unsurprisingly, given their love of all things electronic, Radiohead have always been enlightened when it comes to having their tracks reworked, so much so that there are a couple of Radiohead remixes out there that arguably improve on the original versions. These got us thinking about other guitar-based or otherwise rock-inflected tracks that have been improved by remixing – they’re surprisingly few and far between, perhaps because writers of rock songs have been loath to let producers deconstruct them over the years. We’ve collected ten of our favorites; additional suggestions are, as ever, welcome. … Read More

Music

A Brief History of Bands Who Stuck It to the Man, 1990-Present

By Christine Jordan on

A band that sells out is never cool. Well, that probably depends on how you define “cool” — swimming in a pool filled with gold coins or leaning back against a chain link fence, cursing at everything that moves. When it comes to the music industry, we tend to be more impressed with the latter, despite how nice doing the backstroke in a pool of money sounds.

From refusing to be a cog in the record company machine wheel to straight-up verbal take-downs of the industries pop-music cash cows, we’ve compiled a brief history of bands who flipped the commercial world and its minions the bird, 1990-present. These guys make Dave Grohl’s refusal to license the Foo Fighters’ music for Glee look like child’s play. (Still, we won’t lie: refusing the glorified Kidz Bop treatment the show’s peddling is undoubtedly a noble decision.) … Read More

Music

10 Spectacularly Inappropriate Songs to Have Sex To

By Tom Hawking on

Over a beer recently, a friend told us the story of, um, getting busy with a new acquaintance. Apparently, all was going well until the lady in question got up to put a song on the stereo. Her choice? Pink Floyd’s “Mother.” Unsurprisingly, our friend’s mind quickly switched from getting jiggy to getting out of there as quickly as possible, and the whole incident got us thinking about amusingly inappropriate music to soundtrack having sex. So to celebrate Valentine’s Day, here’s 10 of our choices – awkward, hilarious, or just plain wrong. … Read More

News

The Morning’s Top 5 Pop Culture Stories

By Caroline Stanley on

1. For your consideration: This year’s 2011 Coachella lineup, which features headliners Kanye West, Kings of Leon, Arcade Fire, and The Strokes.

2. The critics have spoken and Kanye West’s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy has topped this year’s Village Voice Pazz and Jop list, followed by LCD Soundsystem’s This Is… Read More

Web

What’s on at Flavorpill: The Links That Made the Rounds in Our Office

By Caroline Stanley on

Today at Flavorpill, we wished that we had the endurance (and money!) to party like Iron Maiden. We crossed our fingers for a possible Pinkerton tour from Weezer to help promote the reissue. We wondered if eating a sandwich containing five layers of fried chicken skin could make you drop dead… Read More

News

The Morning’s Top 5 Pop Culture Stories

By Caroline Stanley on

1. Kings of Leon will launch a collection of jackets, jeans, shirts and accessories with French designers Surface To Air next month in Denmark. [via Xfm]
2. The co-hosts of the 82nd Academy Awards will be Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin; Martin previously hosted in 2001. [via Awards Daily]
3. James Franco will follow up his current gig on General Hospital with a guest appearance on 30 Rock. He’ll be playing Jenna’s love interest. [via EW]
4. Pulitzer Prize-winning author Annie Proulx (The Shipping News, “Brokeback Mountain”) is donating her diaries and manuscripts to the New York Public Library. [via BBC]
5. Flight of the Conchords may not be coming back for a third season because “it requires so much work.” [via… Read More