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: the confused narrator of Jeffrey Eugenides’ family epic, Cal Stephanides.
Tumblr is apparently the best thing that’s happened to album covers since Andy Warhol. Last week, we were fascinated and depressed by a blog that Photoshops dead musicians out of classic record sleeves; today, we’re giggling through Clipart Covers, a Tumblr that recreates album covers using clip art and Comic Sans. Enjoy amusingly remixed art for everyone from Neutral Milk Hotel to NWA after the jump, and follow Clipart Covers to see more wonderful remakes and request some of your own.
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: Scheherazade, the Persian queen of a thousand stories. Read More »
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: Salinger’s number two angst man, Seymour Glass. Read More »
It’s strange to see Jeff Mangum in the middle of the first day of a music festival like All Tomorrow’s Parties — the kind of three-day dream event where you love half the bands playing and like most of the rest. The idea that he’ll take the stage sometime between Chavez (who also almost never perform) and Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy, as just one in a weekend full of performances, is so bizarre that I spend most of the day in denial.
But then, as we filter into the theater, what’s about to happen starts to become real. For Mangum’s set, and only his, festival goers have been issued separate tickets with assigned seats. I assume this is so the superfans don’t skip every band playing earlier in the evening to camp out in front of the venue in hopes of getting a front-row spot.
When the news broke that Neil Young is writing an all-encompassing memoir, it got us thinking about what other musicians — and specifically which of our favorite current indie rockers — we’d like to see compose tell-all autobiographies. Mysterious band break-ups, high-profile couplings gone awry, reclusive behavior, extensive touring, and cult childhoods exposed would all make for awesome, page-turning reads for those of us who have always been curious about the private goings-on behind the music. So, in hopes of giving our favorite potential memoirists a gentle push, we’ve complied a list of ten artists whose lives who we’d love to learn more about.
One Flavorpill staffer hopped a bus to Boston last weekend to see Jeff Mangum at an early stop on his long-awaited comeback tour and came back with a glowing report. We were already excited to see him at All Tomorrow’s Parties in Asbury Park at the end of the month, but now we’re practically counting down the minutes. So, while a Neutral Milk Hotel song that we’ve never heard before would always be a welcome surprise, it’s especially welcome at a time when the band is so much on our mind. Ostensibly in anticipation of the forthcoming NMH box set, Mangum has posted a previously unreleased, post-In the Aeroplane Over the Sea track called “Little Birds (Unfinished Version 2)” on the band’s official wesbite. Although it’s billed as “unfinished,” the song feels fairly complete, if not polished, and also seems to mark something of a departure from Aeroplane – it’s both angrier and more upbeat than most of that album. Listen to “Little Birds” here (scroll down to the ribbon that says “Play previously unreleased track” on the righthand side of the page) and let us know what you think. [via Stereogum]
We’ve been raving of late about the debut record by Wild Flag, the new band that features two-thirds of Sleater-Kinney (namely, Carrie Brownstein and Janet Weiss) along with Mary Timony of Helium and Rebecca Cole of The Minders. The album is great in its own right, and also because it’s the closest thing we’re likely to see for some time (and maybe ever) to a new Sleater-Kinney album. Anyway, as we were listening to it this week, we got to thinking about ’90s bands we’d like to see get a second shot — somehow it seems that in amongst the slew of cash-cow reunions of late, it’s never the bands we loved best who get back together. Of course, this refusal to cash in may well speak volumes in those bands’ favor. But still. Here goes.
In a quite unexpected turn of events, the heretofore super elusive Neutral Milk Hotel frontman Jeff Mangum has unveiled a brand new and super fancy website, something fans have been clamoring for for years while making do with this one. Even better, via said website, he has announced plans to release a vinyl-only box set which will include everything the band has ever recorded, including — hold yourselves back, now — fifteen previously unreleased tracks. He’s also selling one of a kind drawings (though at this moment they are predictably sold out) and streaming the unreleased “Oh Sister” / “Ferris Wheel on Fire” here. The box of joy will be available November 22, and all the children of the indie rock generation hold their breath in anticipation. [via Pitchfork]
