If the idea of a Daytrotter-style acoustic session in the back of a London taxi sounds like your idea of a good time, then you’re probably already familiar with The Black Cab Sessions. This British-based web video series has taken an unlikely idea and turned it into a hit, recording 99 episodes since May 2007 and featuring artists like Fleet Foxes, Grizzly Bear, Brian Wilson, and Jens Lekman (who performed, of course, “Black Cab”). In fact, the concept’s been such a success that a TV show is in the works, and it involves the series coming to the US. They’re bringing the taxi to tour Nashville, New Orleans, NYC and various other locations, and artists scheduled to perform include Kyp Malone, Lambchop, and Jack White. It looks way cool — check out the trailer after the jump.

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TV on the Radio’s David Andrew Sitek indulges his dancier side with Maximum Balloon, a collaborative project featuring vocals from Karen O, David Byrne, and Theophilus London.

The eponymous album also includes appearances by Sitek’s bandmates Tunde Adebimpe and Kyp Malone, but he keeps things clear of darker TVotR territory by lacing the tracks with bright, dance-floor ready beats and bleeps. As with most multi-vocalist undertakings, the results vary with the contributors themselves, but Sitek’s skill as a producer shines throughout.

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1. Our premature nomination for song of the summer: Auto Tuned Wolves. [via BuzzFeed]
2. Speaking of, what do you make of this new “tweens pretending to be wolves” trend? Creeptastic. [via HRO]
3. It’s a Talking Heads indie rock cover showdown between MGMT, Arcade Fire, and Kyp Malone. [via 24Bit]
4. A memo to bros traveling to Australia: you now have to declare your porn when you go through customs. [via AP]
5. Watch the entire series of Lost acted out by cats in just one minute. [via Vulture]
6. Do they do naked Fridays at your office? [via Daily Intel]
7. Killer asparagus. It’s real, and it’s deadly. [via Gawker]
8. Fifty vintage lunchboxes that we would have lusted over in elementary school. [via notcot]
9. Things we wish were real: The Baby-sitters Club & Zombies. [via The Daily What]
10. Is this the summer music festival lineup to end all summer music festival lineups? [via]

Today at Flavorpill, we spied some meatballs our gym teacher would have approved of, courtesy of London-based photographer David Sykes. We took a tour of Kyp Malone’s Greenpoint apartment. We discovered one of the best Phoenix remixes of the year, from Devendra Banhart. We wrote Grandmom a letter. We tried to imagine a conversation between Rivers Cuomo and Lil Wayne. We wished newlyweds Claire Danes and Hugh Dancy all the best (you say home-wrecker,  we say Angela Chase). We imagined getting spit on by an angry Lady Sovereign. We dug this pretty hand-painted film from the 19th century. And finally, we decided it was time to go home and walk our invisible dog. They’re apparently all the rage in Brooklyn.

Kyp Malone’s anticipated solo project Rain Machine is more experimental than anything his band TV on the Radio have put out. It’s an album that is personal and raw; it’s Malone at his most exposed. Gone is the sonic fuzz, leaving space for more melodic instrumentation and allowing more focus on his lyrical content. Lush, Astral Weeks-eqsue orchestration, stripped-down, bluesy acoustic guitar/banjo strums, tribal drum beats, and soulful gospel breakdowns are all tied together by Malone’s soulful croak. After catching his tour kick-off at Bell House earlier this week, we got together with Malone to learn a little more about the project. Read More »