Back in December, we learned that James Murphy, released from his LCD Soundsystem voice-of-a-generation duties, has taken up acting. In some total no-brainer casting, he stars alongside Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim in The Comedy, a film about bored, aging Brooklyn hipster dudes. Although the movie doesn’t have a release date yet, director Rick Alverson has posted an early clip, giving us a chance to check out Murphy’s chops. Well, sort of. While Murphy is sitting between Tim and Eric in a cab as they mercilessly mock the driver, he doesn’t exactly say anything. He does do a pretty nice job chuckling along, though!
As soon as LCD Soundsystem’s break-up and final shows were announced, people started freaking out. Friends we didn’t even realize were into James Murphy and co. were lamenting the end of an era. Phrases like “the most important band of the 21st century” were thrown around. And the rush to buy tickets for that last Madison Square Garden performance was nothing short of Beatlemania, ca. 1964.
So it’s sort of inevitable that the most bittersweet night in hipster history would be immortalized on film. Shut Up and Play the Hits, directed by Dylan Southern and Will Lovelace (who you might remember as the team behind Blur’s No Distance Left to Run), chronicles the MSG show and the potentially generation-defining band’s demise. Judging by the trailer, the documentary will feature ample footage from the concert, some wistful interviews, critical input from Chuck Klosterman, lots of white people hugging, and more than one adorable shot of Murphy’s French bulldog.
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: everyone’s favorite hedonist, Dorian Gray.
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: Truman Capote’s “American Geisha,” Holly Golightly.
Not so long ago, we were listening to M83′s glorious Dead Cities, Red Seas and Lost Ghosts album. The album’s not heavy on lyrics, but its widescreen soundscapes definitely reflect its evocative, dramatic title, and it got us thinking about the manifold different ways the world’s great cities have been immortalized in song — and about how different cities have inspired very different musical tributes. In view of this, we figured that it’d be an interesting idea to do a semi-regular series wherein we choose our five favorite songs about a particular city. The first stop on our whistlestop world tour? Why, right here at Flavorpill central in New York City. Hop on board after the jump.
How time flies. It’s been over a year and a half since our own Judy Berman commemorated the end of a cold, bleak February by looking at some of her favorite EPs — short albums for a short month, and all that. As she noted at the time, “these minimalist, economical mini-albums have introduced us to countless new acts that couldn’t muster the cash or didn’t have the material to record a full-length [release].” But while most bands record a debut EP and move onto more weighty records as soon as they can, some musicians remain enamored of the shorter format. So to celebrate a month where cracking mid-career EPs seem to be coming thick and fast — there are EPs due out this month from Future of the Left, Brian Eno, and Kurt Vile amongst others — here are some of our favorite non-debut EPs. What are yours? Read More »
This week, VH1 released their list of the 100 Greatest Songs of the ’00s, and as you might imagine, we disagree. Unsurprisingly, the list is heavily skewed towards the pop end of the spectrum, but even in that world, we were confused by a few of the tracks that made the top 100. Mystikal’s “Shake Ya Ass”? That terrible Evanescence song? Creed? Miley Cyrus but no Radiohead? Luckily, VH1′s top 10 is relatively respectable (we totally accept “Crazy in Love” as the best pop song of the decade, at least on this list), but that doesn’t mean we’re satisfied with it. To quell our snobbish balking (and present another view of the last decade), we decided to put together an alternative top 10 songs of the ’00s, limiting ourselves to tracks that didn’t even make VH1′s 100. Click through to see our picks, and feel free to let us know which songs we totally should have chosen in the comments.
1. According to TMZ, Charlie Sheen’s people are in “deep negotiations” with a major network (we’re guessing it’s probably Fox) for a new sitcom that’s being written specifically for him and could air as early as next January. There aren’t many other details, but we’ll go ahead and guess that Chuck Lorre is not involved.
2. Vulture reports that Darren Aronofsky is trying to secure Christian Bale as the star of his film adaptation of Noah’s Ark, a move which should also help him secure financial backing for the project.
3. Among the notable winners at The 15th Annual Webby Awards, which was held last night at at Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City, were Watson (the computer that won on Jeopardy!) for Webby Person of the Year; LCD Soundsystem which was named Webby Artist of the Year; and Dan Savage, who was honored for his work on the “It Gets Better Project.” [via The Wrap]
4. “It’s strange how that character has been co-opted into the culture in a way that he absolutely wasn’t in 1991. Patrick Bateman seems to embody something about masculinity that was blooming at a certain point in the late ’80s to early ’90s. This kind of damnification of the male. This obsession with male narcissism and beauty. Men being looked at in a way that women had been looked at for decades. American Psycho was probably the first novel about a metrosexual. And of course that’s now everywhere.” – Bret Easton Ellistalks about American Psycho 20 years later
5. If you were as impressed by Neil Patrick Harris’ rap recap at the end of Sunday night’s Tony Awards as we were, then you might find this behind-the-scenes video of Lin-Manuel Miranda and Thomas Kail scrambling to get the closing number written in time interesting.
We rejoiced at the news, earlier this week, that VH1 is bringing back Pop-Up Video, which we’ve missed ever since it went off the air in 2002. In addition to the pop and rock videos the original provided fascinating factoids about, the new version of the show will feature hip-hop videos for the first time. After the jump, check out our list of wonderful, bizarre, and downright baffling post-Pop-Up- Video-era music videos that we hope to see the show explain — and be sure to leave your own suggestions in the comments.
There are few more apt pairings than LCD Soundsystem and Pitchfork. Not only are they two of the most influential forces in independent music, but we have to assume the band and the webzine’s fans overlap by nearly 100 percent. Most importantly, both LCD and Pitchfork are major music nerds, throwing down obscure references at every opportunity. That synergy has led to one our favorite infographics in a while, comparing artists James Murphy name-drops in “Losing My Edge” with those Pitchfork mentioned in their song-by-song LCD retrospective. The result is pleasing both for your obsessive list-maker types and those who find either entity somewhat worthy of ridicule — and, of course, the large group that would fall into the center of that Venn diagram. [via I Love Charts]
