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The 10 Best Songs We Heard This Week: The National, Solange

By Tom Hawking on

It’s Friday, which means we’re preparing for the inaugural Flavorwire staff trivia contest (really), and also that we are, as ever, rounding up the best songs we’ve heard this week. This week we adored new tracks from Liars, Julianna Barwick, and Scott & Charlene’s Wedding, marveled at the fact that Giorgio Moroder is soundtracking a Google Chrome racing game, enjoyed atmospheric goodness from oOoOO and When Saints Go Machine, got all morose with another new track from The National, and plenty more. All this goodness is streaming now, and it all awaits you after the jump. … Read More

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Music

10 Great Rock Albums Produced by Electronic Musicians

By Tom Hawking on

It’s nice to be pleasantly surprised once in a while, and Free Reign, the new album by UK band Clinic, has been on high rotation here at Flavorpill of late. We’ve always rather liked Clinic’s work, but we’ll be honest — we didn’t expect to enjoy this record nearly as much as we have been. Perhaps the most notable thing about Free Reign in comparison to Clinic’s other records is just how interesting its production and general sound is, which is perhaps not surprising since Oneohtrix Point Never assumed production duties. There have been plenty of examples of electronic artists producing songs for rock-inclined types over the years, everything from Giorgio Moroder working with Blondie on “Call Me” to Alec Empire collaborating with the John Spencer Blues Explosion and, um, Chris Cornell working with Timbaland on the ill-fated Scream. Here are some of our favorites. Did we miss any? … Read More

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Music

The 10 Best Rock ‘n’ Roll Bands To Dance To

By Tom Hawking on

Lonerism, the new album by the most excellent and hyper-talented Australian psych band Tame Impala is out today, and we’ve been enjoying it immensely. Perhaps the best thing about the band is that their music is as danceable as it is psychedelically wigged-out — something that’s perhaps more surprising than it should be. Happily, the dance music/rock music divide is far less pronounced than it used to be, but still, we go to far too many rock shows where everyone but us is just kinda standing and nodding their heads. So to celebrate Lonerism, we’ve selected some of our other favorite guitar-focused bands for jumping around like a lunatic to. Who are your choices? … Read More

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Music

10 MP3s You Need to Download for Free This Week: Death Grips, Bat for Lashes

By Tom Hawking on

It’s Friday, which means another installment of our regular roundup of downloadable MP3 goodness from around the web. This week there’s a new Death Grips track as the finale of Adult Swim’s Singles Program, plus instrumental angst from Xiu Xiu, Liars remixing The Twilight Sad, Flaming Lips covering King Crimson, new tracks from The Soft Moon and Bat for Lashes, and a whopping great free Ghostly Records sampler. And more! Since all this action costs precisely nothing, what are you waiting for? All the download links await after the jump. … Read More

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Music

10 MP3s You Need to Download for Free This Week: Liars, Marissa Nadler

By Tom Hawking on

It’s Friday, which means another installment of our regular roundup of downloadable MP3 goodness from around the web. This week we get all excited about the arrival of a new Liars track via Adult Swim’s Singles Program — and there’s also an unreleased Marissa Nadler song, a free track from Dan Deacon’s new album, the return of Jean Grae and Efterklang, How to Dress Well going for full-fledged pop R&B thrills, and plenty more. Since all this action costs precisely nothing, what are you waiting for? All the download links await after the jump. … Read More

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Music

Famous Bands and the Indie Musicians Who Should Open for Them

By Tom Hawking on

You may or may not have seen that new show called Opening Act last night, wherein a team of “industry judges” – viz. Mary J Blige, Olivia Lee, and that unpleasant English guy from Popstars and So You Think You Can Dance – judge various hapless bands for the right to support huge stars like, um, LMFAO or Jason Mrazzzzzzzzzzz. Still, the show did get us thinking about how plenty of great bands have started their careers by playing some support slots that seem hilarious in retrospect, from Radiohead opening for Alanis Morrissette to Jimi Hendrix opening for the Monkees. And that, in turn, got us thinking about support slots we’d love to see some of our favorite bands play. In view of this, we thought we’d amuse ourselves by looking at some dream hypothetical line-ups, featuring some big-name (or biggish-name, at least) headline acts, past and present, along with the indie bands we’d love to have seen open for them. … Read More

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Music

A Selection of Musicians Who Reliably Defy Expectations

By Tom Hawking on

Music lovers, rejoice — the new Liars album is out! If you’ve missed our earlier raves about it, suffice it to say that WIXIW (it’s pronounced “wish you,” incidentally) is one of the best things we’ve heard all year, and we’re very, very excited about it. It’s also the latest creative left turn for a band whose history has been full of them — if Liars’ career has been characterized by anything, it’s unpredictability. This is, of course, one of the reason we like them so much — bands whose sound varies radically from record to record are few and far between, but there are some great such groups operating today. Here’s a selection of our favorites. … Read More

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Music

10 Albums You Need to Hear in June

By Tom Hawking on

Summer is here, and June is shaping up as a bumper month for album releases. As ever, we’ve pored over release schedules and reviewed our own personal wish list and come up with a list of the ten records we reckon will be worth hearing (and hopefully worth repeated listening) over the coming weeks. They include everything from cerebral 4AD-approved hip hop to the return of Patti Smith, along with something that we’d really, really like for our birthday. What’s on your shopping list this month? Let us know in the comments. … Read More

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Music

5 Albums to Stream for Free This Week: Liars, Japandroids

By Tom Hawking on

Welcome to another edition of our regular Monday stream-a-thon (delayed for a day because, like you, we were busy getting drunk yesterday). Happily, the extra day’s wait has allowed for the arrival of the new Liars album, which is the best thing we’ve heard in ages and which we’re thus vary happy to be able to share with you. There’s also the new Scissor Sisters album, which is perhaps not the musical extravaganza that the Liars record is, but is a bit of fun nonetheless. Elsewhere, there’s Neil Young and Crazy Horse exploring the history of Americana, Marissa Nadler being suitably mellow for a hazy Tuesday, and Japandroids being all shouty. Click through and get in on the action! … Read More

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Music

10 of the Most Unfairly Maligned Albums in Music

By Tom Hawking on

Conventional music wisdom is a tedious business. Given that rock ‘n’ roll was supposed to be about self-expression and individualism, it’s rather sad that such an orthodoxy has arisen around music criticism over the years — there’s the albums that you’re absolutely not allowed to dislike (our distaste for Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band always gets us in trouble here), and conversely, there’s the albums that it’s pretty much taken as read that everyone hates. This can be a pretty dirty business — while there are certain albums that absolutely deserve all the vitriol that has been poured upon them, there’s also those that have been unfairly maligned. Here’s a selection of ten albums that we think have got a raw deal from the critics. What are your suggestions? … Read More

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