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No Age

Music

Did Kings of Leon Rip Off No Age’s T-Shirts?

By Judy Berman on

Here are two names we didn’t expect to see in the same headline: arena-rock stars Kings of Leon and lo-fi LA punks No Age. We imagine they have somewhere around zero fans in common, but as Marc Hogan at Spin points out, they do kind of share a T-shirt design. In a blog post last night, No Age posted a few photos of a Kings of Leon tee with the caption, “t shirt designs by the kings of originality… looking good.” Indeed, the shirt bears some resemblance to No Age’s signature design, which seems to pre-date KoL’s by a few years: Both feature big, bright, all-caps, multicolored text on a plain, white background. Then again, the T-shirts are also pretty simple, and, as much as we hate to defend Kings of Leon, it’s just as believable to us that their designer came up with the look independently as that he spotted a No Age tee and decided to rip it off. See larger version of both shirts after the jump, and let us know whether you think it’s a copy in the comments. … Read More

Music

The Flavorpill Mixtape XLI: Gang of Four, No Age, Duck Sauce

By Margaret Eby on

September has already been a great month for new music. The offerings in its final week are no exception, and that makes this the perfect moment to bring your regular Flavorpill Mixtape back from hiatus. The new edition features big meaty hooks, future dance anthems, and willowy, whispery songs for fall days — not to mention new offerings from old favorites Gang of Four and No Age — all coming up after the jump. Don’t forget: You can download each track by employing the classic combination of Right Click + Save As or scroll to the bottom of the post to listen to the mix straight through. … Read More

News

The Morning’s Top 5 Pop Culture Stories

By Caroline Stanley on

1. Gary Numan (along with a slew of other British musicians), might not make it to Coachella because of the volcanic eruption. [via Brooklyn Vegan]
2. HBO has snagged the rights for three new docs from Oscar-winning director Alex Gibney: Freakonomics, My Trip To Al-Qaeda, and his untitled Eliot Spitzer project. [via The… Read More

Earplug

Breaking the Hype Cycle: 10 Buzz Bands That Avoided the Sophomore Slump

By Judy Berman on

By now, the psychedelic Brooklynites in Yeasayer are probably sick of being compared to Animal Collective. So we hope they don’t mind us saying that listening to their second full-length, Odd Blood, this January reminds us of playing AnCo’s Merriweather Post Pavilion at the same time last year — which is to say, as far as we’re concerned, Odd Blood has set the bar for 2010. A 2007 buzz band with the release of debut All Hour Cymbals, Yeasayer have massively overhauled their sound on the new record, trading the devotional and hypnotic for something that’s more upbeat and darkly revelatory.

This reinvention has saved Yeasayer from the sad fate of so many former critical darlings, from Clap Your Hands Say Yeah! to Tapes ‘N Tapes to (dare we say it?) Vampire Weekend: that disappointment we call the “sophomore slump.” So, in celebration of Odd Blood, we offer 10 blog-age artists whose second full-lengths lived up to (or surpassed) the promise of their predecessors. … Read More

Web

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

By Caroline Stanley on

Today at Flavorpill, we were jealous of these six child media prodigies. We wished we’d been the proud owners of the $100,000 comic book — the very first issue of X-Men #1. We looked at some rather impressive face painting art. We wanted to buy some Fight Club soap. We drooled over two Princess Leias sunbathing in gold bikinis. We were frightened by the prospect of Eminem starring in a 3-D horror movie. We wanted to meet Alec Baldwin’s ass double. We were too lazy to download the new No Age song, “In Peril.” We walked around the office in bread slippers. We read some old mags and some notes from a chef’s book tour. And finally, we made some gourmet office snacks. Who knew that shrimp ramen and Mounds went so well… Read More

Web

What’s on at Flavorpill: Links That Made the Rounds in our Office

By Caroline Stanley on

Today at Flavorpill, we wanted to write our blog posts using 22 of the world’s most creative alphabets. We wandered into the studio of Flavorpill favorite Marilyn Minter. We were excited to hear that Jonathan Demme plans to make an animated adaption of Dave Eggers’ Katrina book, Zeitoun. We were intrigued by… Read More

Music

No Age’s New York Take Over

By Zara Golden on

Dean Spunt and Randy Randall jump started No Age in 2007 with five EPs on five labels. These fed Weirdo Rippers, their first full-length release. At just over thirty minutes, in many aspects Weirdo Rippers may well have been just another EP, but critical acclaim suggested it was something more. It played as a succinct introduction, a primer to the L.A. drums and guitar duo who these days, we can’t get stop hearing… Read More

Music

Viva la Mix #19: Downloads From No Age, Karen O, YACHT, and Vega

By Stelios Phili on

Today’s mix will give you a taste of what music will sound like in the near future a.k.a. September. So give your fingers a little warm-up stretch and get ready to “Right Click, Save Link As,” because after the jump we present 10 essential downloads from our latest Viva Radio show that we consider required listening at Flavorpill HQ.… Read More

Music

Lollapalooza 2009: From Perry Farrell to Passion Pit

By Karsten Lund on

Total bedlam with a good soundtrack, that’s Lollapalooza. The last time I was in Chicago’s Grant Park with this many people — estimates show 200,000 bought tickets — we’d all just voted out a malevolent Washington administration that was past its expiration date. This time though, rather than packing in politely to hear a presidential victory speech, the masses and I were there to see as many different bands as humanly possible during a three-day free-for-all. People may not have been crying tears of joy in this case, but spirits were definitely high. It would be nice to think that the world is a gentler place now than it was last November, but it’s not exactly true. Instead, the Midwest’s main music festival just seemed to prove that we’re pretty good at ignoring hard times. As Perry Ferrell himself said, Lollapalooza is recession… Read More

Music

Exclusive: Fragility, Mayhem, and Crystal Antlers’ Sound

By Jennifer Kelly on

Live at the Yard in Brooklyn, on a sticky summer day, Crystal Antlers is cranking out a sludgy 1960s groove; bassist, singer, and songwriter Jonny Bell in shorts, bobs in time with the heavy beat, his long hair flying. Victor Rodriguez flails at an old Farfisa, his body locked in an up and down motion as he pounds the keys, while guitarist Andrew King is bent over his amps, wheedling a high, space-echo’d feedback out of the sound system. Shirtless drummer Kevin Stuart pounds a relentless cadence of toms and cymbals, and somewhere auxiliary percussionist Sexual Chocolate (Damian Edwards to his mom) is slapping a set of well-worn bongos, nailing a cymbal occasionally for emphasis. There’s a wild centripetal swirl to the band’s performance, as parts seem to fly off in all directions, yet also an undeniable, rock-steady… Read More