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Design

Storm Thorgerson’s Most Iconic Album Cover Designs

By Johnny Otis on

We were sad to hear of the death of British designer and artist Storm Thorgerson earlier this week. Thorgerson was a hugely influential and distinctive designer of album covers — he’s best known for his work with Pink Floyd, but he designed sleeves for all sorts of bands over the years. His style was instantly recognizable — heavily influenced by surrealism, and heavy on visual non-sequiturs that were both memorable and somehow disconcerting, presented with neither context nor explanation, apparently laden with meaning but defying simple interpretation. We’ve collected some of his most memorable designs here as a celebration of his life and work. … Read More

Music

Great Albums With Embarrassingly Bad Cover Art [NSFW]

By Tom Hawking on

The Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ Mosquito is officially on the shelves, and our first impressions of the record haven’t changed much: we rather like it. The cover art, though… well, that’s an entirely different matter. We’re sure there’s some reasoning behind adorning the sleeve with a lurid pink giant mosquito sinking its proboscis into the ass of a baby (a baby with green lipstick on, we hasten to add), but until we know what it is, the album is going straight to the top of our list of great albums saddled by awful cover art. Here are some of the… Read More

Music

Awe-Inspiring Music Based on Classic Fantasy Stories

By Tom Hawking on

Game of Thrones is back this week, and we’re celebrating its return by raising our pitchers of mead and embarking on a week-long feast of all things fantastic (which we mean, of course, in the traditional/geeky sense of “related to the fantasy genre”). Of course, it wouldn’t be a proper party without some music for the bards to play, so we’re commencing the week with a bumper selection of songs and albums inspired by classic fantasy stories. Join us as we put on our robe and wizard hat and set out on an epic quest to create the ultimate sword-and-sorcery playlist!
… Read More

New York

Forget Karaoke: Here Are 10 of NYC's Best Live Tribute Bands

By Heidi Vanderlee on

You thought earnest, shameless tribute bands were just for Las Vegas, didn’t you? While New York obviously has a wealth of original music to offer, we’ve been thinking: singing along to live renditions of “Fat-Bottomed Girls” could in theory be a lot more fun than pretending to care about DIIV. It’s time to take a break from nodding to noise bands and take your pick from this fine array of tributes to the classic acts we all totally still listen to, even though we’ll only admit it at karaoke. … Read More

Music

Musicians and Their Private Jets: A Timeline in Photos

By Jennifer Lewis on

Whenever we watch any sort of Rolling Stones documentary, there’s almost always footage of the band frolicking around their personalized private jet with a half dozen half-naked girls. Inspired by such a display, we’ve created a timeline of famous musicians who have been photographed with (and aboard) their very own private planes. Let it be known — as time progresses, the photos aren’t as cool (and neither are the musicians, really), but go ahead and check ‘em out anyway. Click through for our Flavorwire roundup of musicians and their private jets, then hit the comments to lend us your thoughts. … Read More

Music

15 Hilariously Negative Early Reviews of Classic Albums

By Tom Hawking on

Everybody likes reading a really nasty review every now and then, but sometimes critics get it wrong. Here’s a look at misguided reviews of albums that’d go on to be acclaimed as… Read More

Music

Rock Hits You Didn’t Realize Were Blues Songs

By Alison Nastasi on

A wildly energetic and gyrating Elvis Presley took to the stage on The Milton Berle Show in 1956 to sing the now legendary rock hit, “Hound Dog.” The controversial televised  performance — set to the swoons and giggles of excited female audience members — won the singer his nickname “Elvis the Pelvis.” The song topped the Billboard charts and remains one of the most-loved tunes in rock ‘n’ roll history — but it actually made its first appearance today in August, back in 1952. Rhythm and blues singer Ellie Mae “Big Mama” Thornton recorded her chart-topping original version in Los Angeles, produced by famed bandleader Johnny Otis (who also played drums).

You don’t have to be an expert to know that rock music evolved from several styles, including blues/rhythm and blues. The term “rock and roll” was early African American slang for sex, and Cleveland record store owner Leo Mintz employed the phrase to get white teens to buy rhythm and blues music without racial prejudice. Early blues recordings have influenced musicians throughout history, and we’ve highlighted several rock songs that borrowed from the genre past the break. Test your knowledge after the jump, and leave us your favorites in the comments below. … Read More

Web

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

By Alison Nastasi on

Today at Flavorpill, we read a few famous last texts. We enjoyed BuzzFeed’s response to McSweeney’s parody of their website. We read Silent Drape Runners’ text review of Katy Perry’s film Part of Me. We watched an opera performance where the libretto was created entirely from the captions of… Read More

Music

10 Bands That Would Make Great Cults

By Tom Hawking on

The new Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros record, entitled simply Here, came out last week. We’ve never been massive fans of the band, in all honesty — their touchy-feely but weirdly blank music, and Alex Ebert’s messianic “Edward Sharpe” personality, have always given us the creeps a little bit. There’s something almost… cultish about it. Although, if nothing else, this realization got us thinking about other bands that could well be cults, and/or musicians who’d do a fine job as cult leaders. Are there any musical cults you’d be up for joining? (No, Cults don’t count.) … Read More

Music

Readers’ Choice: 10 More Classic Rock Songs We Never Want to Hear Again

By Tom Hawking on

Occasionally a post at Flavorpill touches a nerve with readers, and our feature a couple of weeks back about classic rock songs that we never want to hear again was clearly one such post. We received a deluge of comments, and we have to admit to being a little surprised that very few of them were of the “quit hating h8rs”/”get off my lawn” variety — most of them were suggesting more fuel for the bonfire. We’ve sifted through the comments and picked out the best (or worst, depending on your point of view) nominations for more songs that need to be expunged from FM radio playlists — so, gentle readers, here’s the best of your very own suggestions as to classic rock songs you never want to hear again. … Read More