As we noted a while back in our roundup of albums you really should hear in November, Sigur Rós have a live album out this week. It’s called Inni, and if it’s anything like the other live recordings of the band we’ve heard (like the transcendent Live at the Icelandic Opera House from 1999), it’ll be worth laying your hands on. And it got us thinking: releasing a live album is something that bands do less and less these days. In some ways, this makes sense — it’s so easy to bootleg and distribute live recordings and videos these days that the market for official live releases just isn’t what it used to be. This means that pretty much every list of definitive live recordings you ever read relies on the same old ’60s and ’70s records. In an attempt to prove the genre’s not entirely dead and buried just yet, we’ve put together a selection of the best live albums of the past 15 years or so. What are your nominations? Read More »
Many adjectives have been used to describe heavy metal over the years, but “fashionable” has rarely been one of them. Metal has always been its own world, the province of long-haired dudes whose lack of engagement with what is or isn’t considered cool by everyone else probably forms a large part of the reason why they’re metalheads in the first place. It’s no doubt a little galling for such veteran metalheads that all of a sudden, it’s fashionable to like metal – everyone from Lady Gaga and Megan Fox to Kelly Clarkson and Miley Cyrus is turning up in metal T-shirts and proclaiming a love of all things heavy. There’ve also been a slew of non-metal songs about metal over the last few years, some good, some less so – we’ve rounded up a few below. We can’t help but wonder what Varg Vikernes thinks of it all.
If you’re still struggling with the whole idea of being back at work after the Memorial Day long weekend -– and if so, to be honest, we can definitely relate –- then allow Flavorpill to ease your transition back into reality with a selection of fine music that you can stream online for absolutely nothing. We offer you a choice of post-hardcore rock opera, snappy English lit-pop, pastoral psychedelia, resurgent alt-country goodness, and, um, Eddie Vedder with a ukulele. Get involved after the jump.
Step on down, ladies and gentlemen, for this week’s mixtape. We’ve got songs that will thrill you, chill you, and otherwise make you happy that your eardrums exist. This week, we have another from Fucked Up, a sample of the Black Lips’ upcoming album, and some pretty excellent synth-pop courtesy of Washed Out. Crack this mp3 piñata: right click + “Save As” on links to download each track, or grab the whole mix at the end of the post.
Exciting news: American Express just announced that Todd Haynes and My Morning Jacket will be the next filmmaker/band pairing in its Unstaged series, which has previously featured collaborations by Terry Gilliam/Arcade Fire, John Legend/Spike Lee, and Duran Duran/David Lynch. If the match seems a bit random, it’s worth noting that My Morning Jacket frontman Jim James appeared in Hayne’s 2007 Bob Dylan film, I’m Not There; he sang “Goin’ to Acapulco” with Calexico backing him up, and according to the director, they immediately hit it off.
As Haynes told ArtsBeat, this is will be his first time shooting a live concert, but his past experience, specifically his work on 1998′s Velvet Goldmine, should come in handy: “When you’re shooting concert scenes in films, we try to bring in, where appropriate, as much of a sense of live performance as possible. Once you set up those elements, you really let the live performance dictate it. Hopefully you’re working with great operators who are spontaneous and dexterous and versatile, and they can catch those moments that you can’t really ever completely plan.” Look for the online broadcast on May 31st.
Consider the acoustic change-of-pace. Sometimes, it comes from a desire to shift gears: a musician who’s worked primarily in an electric vein wanting to explore a different dynamic and all of the emotions that said dynamic can summon. At others, it can resemble an intentional artistic restraint: musicians or songwriters cutting themselves off from a previously essential part of their repertoire. Sometimes, entire genres can attract notice for turning off the amplifiers. Punk is a particular example, as seen on the 1991 compilation SST Acoustic, which collects work from the likes of Screaming Trees, Minutemen, and fIREHOSE.
This list of unexpected acoustic records covers albums made in the studio and recorded live; it encompasses punk and ambient work, cover songs and audio manipulations. These eight albums have little in common save their instrumentation and their relationship to the artist’s larger of body of work. Some fall into the camp of solo performers accompanied only by an unamplified guitar; others seek out a stranger space.
April showers are upon us, and we aren’t exactly seeing any flowers on the horizon. Mostly those gray skies make us want to hunker under some headphones for the duration of the month. If you’re feeling those pre-sunny day blues, we have just the right dose of noise to keep you going. This week’s mixtape has new ones from heavy hitters like the Beastie Boys and LCD Soundsystem (RIP), not to mention some great new tracks from Flavorpill favorites Chiddy Bang and Cults. Right click + save as to download some single-serving goodness, or scroll tot he bottom for the whole mix.
On her debut album, Mrs. Jack White and former supermodel Karen Elson offers a collection of dark, country-tinged tunes that belie the fact she was ever known for anything else.
Produced by White in his Nashville-based Third Man Studios, The Ghost Who Walks features murder ballads and tales of lost love reminiscent of everyone from Cat Power and Jenny Lewis to PJ Harvey. The record also includes two tracks originally written for Elson’s superb political cabaret troupe the Citizens Band, while her backing band counts members of My Morning Jacket and the Dead Weather among its ranks.
February brought the release of the Preservation Hall Jazz Band benefit album, a diverse homage to New Orleans sound that brought in high profile contributors ranging from Tom Waits and Ani DiFranco to Andrew Bird and Paolo Nutini (and if you missed our initial coverage, you can watch videos and stream the full album here).
Now, we’re giving away three prize packs featuring multiple albums from the artists who contributed to the project. To win, be one of the first three readers to tweet the correct answer to our trivia question @earplug. After the jump, view the albums included in each prize pack and read the question you’ll have to answer if you want all of this free music that’s up for grabs.
