If you aren’t already, it’s time to follow The Mountain Goats’ John Darnielle on Tumblr — his blog is as witty and entertaining as one might expect, and he updates it fairly frequently. In particular, it was interesting to see him recently post a photo of a very young version of himself at a Nick Cave show. It turns out he’s quite the Cave fan, and that seeing The Bad Seeds play on the tour in question was quite the formative experience on both Darnielle himself and on his nascent musical project. He’s not the first musician to be inspired to form a band after seeing a hero play live, of course — so here are some other recollections of great musical… Read More
Kurt Cobain
20 Hilarious (And Often Adorable) Photos of Debauched Rock Stars With Cute Kids
Many awesome Stooges-related things have come out of the last week or so, not least the band’s new album (which is actually quite good) and their killer performance at New York’s Le Poisson Rouge. But perhaps most awesome of all is the photo that’s been making the rounds of Iggy clutching two kids in junior versions of his trademark sequined jeans. They look terrified, he looks delighted, and the whole thing is many kinds of awesome. So, in a similar spirit, here’s a selection of other debauched rock stars with cute kids. You’re… Read More
Fascinating Photos of Great Musicians’ Earliest Musical Endeavors
Everyone has to start somewhere, and all that. We’re always fascinated by the idea of looking into the history of our favorite artists, be they musicians, writers, filmmakers or whatever else, and as such we found ourselves seeking out the earliest musical endeavors of some of our favorite musicians. We thought we’d share some of the fruits of our searching with you — fascinating photographs of famous musicians in the earliest stages of their artistic… Read More
‘The Punk Singer’ Solves the Mystery — And Celebrates the History — Of Kathleen Hanna
AUSTIN, TX: Early in The Punk Singer, the terrific new documentary by Sini Anderson, Kathleen Hanna remembers being asked why she wanted to write. “Because nobody has ever listened to me, my entire life.” Her work burns with that kind of intensity, with an insistence that she — and the things she had to say — had importance, value, meaning. That same intensity is present in The Punk Singer, which is both a captivating personal story and a history of a moment — as the best rock documentaries are. … Read More
The Wackiest Conspiracy Theories from the World of Music
A couple of weeks back, we surveyed some fascinating conspiracy theories about literary characters. The idea has got us thinking about similar whisperings which hail from a place where truth is often stranger than fiction: the music industry! Click through and read some of the most weird and wonderful conspiracy theories the world of music has thrown up over the years, and let us know if you have any to… Read More
Pictures of Kurt Cobain Looking Happy
[Editor's note: In celebration of the holidays, we're spending the next two Tuesdays by counting down the top 12 Flavorwire features of 2012. This post, at #10, was originally published February 19th.] Tomorrow would have been the 45th birthday of legendary grunge hero Kurt Cobain, who committed suicide at age 27 to the despair of the world at large. Though we know there were many times in his life when he was a happy, goofy guy, he very publicly struggled with depression, addiction, and illness, and when you think of Cobain, you tend to think of a doleful guy barely looking out from behind his matted blond locks. So, to celebrate the good times in Cobain’s life, we’ve collected a series of photographs with family, friends, and bandmates, where the guy just looks really happy. Because that’s how we’d like to remember him. Click through to see Kurt Cobain smile a whole lot, and if we’ve missed your favorite photo, direct us to it in the comments! … Read More
Cultural Icons Dressed Up as Other Cultural Icons
Everybody loves to play dress up. Well, at least once in a while. But you know what sets our heads a-whirling? When pop culture icons dress up as other pop culture icons, whether it’s in professional photo shoots, at costume parties or just while hanging out in their own bedrooms. After all, there’s nothing more satisfying than a top-notch mashup. After the jump, we’ve collected twelve of our favorite cultural figures masquerading as twelve of what we can only assume are their favorite cultural figures, so click through to join the fun, and be sure to link us to any we’ve missed in the comment. … Read More
Famous Musicians’ Fascinating Self-Portraits
We were interested to see that a series of self-portraits by David Bowie had sold at auction for £6,500 earlier this week. The self-portraits in question date from the 1990s, a decade during which Bowie’s painting efforts were apparently particularly prolific, but he studied art in high school and has always moonlighted as a painter. He’s not the only one, of course — many musicians also pursue other artistic avenues, from Nick Zinner with his photography to Captain Beefheart and his weird, abstract paintings. We thought it’d be interesting to look at other musical self-portraits, so we’ve pulled together a gallery of such paintings after the jump. They’re rather fascinating insights into how some of our musicians see themselves — so if you’ve ever wanted to see Paul Simonon as a skeleton, or Nick Cave’s, um, equipment, then click on through. … Read More
Kurt Cobain’s Handwritten Top 50 Albums List
It won’t be new to anyone who owns a copy of Kurt Cobain’s Journals, but for the rest of us, the late Nirvana frontman’s hand-scrawled list of his all-time favorite albums is a sight to behold. In our era of obsessive and narcissistic list-making (see: Pitchfork’s People’s List; clearly, this site isn’t immune to the allure of the listicle, either), it’s nice to know that even Cobain succumbed to the compulsion to itemize and rank the music he loved. Titled “Top 50 by Nirvana,” it includes plenty of selections that will be familiar to the band’s fans: The Vaselines, Sonic Youth, The Raincoats, The Wipers, Leadbelly. But there are some fascinating surprises, too, from Public Enemy to Mazzy Star to Rites of Spring. We were particularly tickled by the inclusion of Swans. … Read More
The Morning’s Top 5 Pop Culture Stories
1. Would you like to own the bass guitar that Kurt Cobain smashed in Nirvana’s music video for “Smells Like Teen Spirit”? Well, you’re in luck! It’s going up for auction next month at Christie’s in London, where it’s expected to fetch between £15,000 and £25,000. [via NME]
2. “I may have to… Read More
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