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10 of Rock and Roll’s Most Spectacular Crash-And-Burn Albums

By Tom Hawking on

Last week the Guardian ran an interesting piece about “band collapse syndrome,” the disconcerting phenomenon whereby a band’s hitherto loyal fanbase abandons it in droves. They cited a number of UK acts whose record sales have decline precipitously of late — Glasvegas, Kaiser Chiefs, and Duffy, amongst others. This seems to be something you see more and more these days, which we guess makes sense when you consider it in the context of a general decline in album sales and a public who seem to have a shorter collective attention span than ever. But it’s not a new phenomenon — there have been some pretty spectacular crash-and-burn albums over the years. Some of these have been genuinely terrible, others hamstrung by inter-band wrangling or emotional breakdowns, and others just in the wrong place at the wrong time. We’ve collected 10 of ‘em after the jump. … Read More

Music

5 Albums to Stream for Free This Week: Tom Waits, Justice

By Tom Hawking on

Rejoice, because we’ve conquered our CMJ hangovers and got down to the serious business of our regular Monday roundup of albums streaming for free over the course of the coming week. And there’s a particularly exciting link to share this time around: the new Tom Waits album, Bad As Me, which is now available for your listening pleasure via NPR. Clearly, everything else that’s streaming this week is going to pale in comparison somewhat, but there’s still plenty of other goodness to be had: the new Justice album, along with upcoming releases from Florence & the Machine, and Joker. And, um, the Lou Reed/Metallica album. It’s all after the jump, so click through and get listening! … Read More

Music

Watch the Muppets “Cover” Lou Reed/Metallica’s “Pumping Blood”

By Emily Temple on

For anyone who’s been waiting on the new Lou Reed/Metallica collaboration album Lulu, well, you’re in luck. Just a few days ago, and well in advance of the November 1 drop date, the band(s) made the full album available to stream on their website. Which is all very well and good, if you don’t know yet that the album isn’t very well or very good. However, we can wholeheartedly recommend this video that we spied over at Gothamist of the muppets performing (that is, manipulated to look like they’re performing) the album’s “Pumping Blood”, featuring Beaker as a very convincing Lou Reed. It’s just about as weird as Lulu is, and that’s saying something. … Read More

News

The Morning’s Top 5 Pop Culture Stories

By Caroline Stanley on

1. Should you care to spend your morning listening to the full version of the Lou Reed and Metallica collaboration album Lulu before its official release on November 1, it’s now streaming at their official website. [via NME]

2. Justin Timberlake has a new music video you guys! Before you get… Read More

Music

Watch Lou Reed and Metallica Talk About ‘Lulu’

By Judy Berman on

As loyal Lou Reed fans, we’re used to having him throw us for a loop regularly — his entire mid-’70s oeuvre is basically one big mind fuck, and it’s anyone’s guess as to how tongue-in-cheek the intentions behind many of his silliest post-Velvet Underground lyrics were. But his collaboration with Metallica crossed over from provocative to embarrassing around the time we heard the first single, “The View.” Now, Old Uncle Lou has humiliated his admirers yet again with the trailer for the album, Lulu. The clip consists mostly of an interview with Reed, Lars Ulrich, and James Hetfield that might as well be a Saturday Night Live parody of the project. Ulrich admits, “We don’t really know where it’s going,” and Hetfield declares, ”We got to stamp ‘tallica on it!” Finally, Reed opines, “It pushed me to the best I’ve ever been.” Oh, Lou. Once again, we can’t tell whether you’re joking or just batty. … Read More

News

The Morning’s Top 5 Pop Culture Stories

By Caroline Stanley on

1. A surprising new twist in the ever-continuing Netflix saga: Dreamworks has decided to ditch its current deal with HBO and offer the streaming service the exclusive rights to its output, at about $30 million per movie — a $10 million increase in revenue. [via NYT]

2. Goodnight, sweet prince: Arch West, the… Read More

News

The Morning’s Top 5 Pop Culture Stories

By Caroline Stanley on

1. Here is your first look at the artwork for Lulu, that joint album by Lou Reed and Metallica. The collaboration, which is based on a 1913 play by Frank Wedekind about the life of an abused dancer, is due out in the US on November 1.

2. As the new pricing… Read More

Design

A Field Guide to Musical Typography

By Tom Hawking on

Regular readers of Flavorpill will no doubt have noticed that we are suckers for anything typography-related, so it’s really only been a matter of time until we found a way to combine our typographic geekdom with our love for music. And, indeed, the two fields aren’t as disconnected as one might think at first glance — there’ve been a number of interesting design- and typography-based trends in music over the decades since bands started putting out albums that needed accompanying artwork and lettering. After the jump, we give you a potted history of ten of music’s most interesting typographic movements and moments. Did we miss anything? … Read More

News

The Morning’s Top 5 Pop Culture Stories

By Caroline Stanley on

1. The Daily reports that Dave Chappelle — who walked away from a $50 million Comedy Central deal back in 2005 — is working on a new TV show that will be for a paid subscription service.

2. After performing a crowd-pleasing duet of “Sweet Jane” at a Rock and Roll Hall… Read More

Film

Metallica Drummer Lars Ulrich Cast in Hemingway Biopic

By Emily Temple on

The multifarious bell is certainly tolling for Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich these days. Ulrich, last seen playing himself in a cameo role in Get Him to the Greek, has been cast in an HBO drama entitled Hemingway and Gellhorn, a film, unsurprisingly, about “the romance between Ernest Hemingway and WWII correspondent Martha Gellhorn, Hemingway’s inspiration for ”For Whom… Read More