In the course of our morning reading today, we came across this article in Wired about San Francisco label and music blog offshoot Love Letters Ink. The article’s not helped by a silly headline (“hacking the record industry,” indeed) but the premise of looking at blog-related labels is worthy enough — the rise of labels built on music blogging foundations has been one of the more interesting developments of recent years. Unlike Wired, we’re not so sure that they are in any way altering the landscape of the record industry — they’re indie labels, basically — although their origins do raise some interesting questions about where criticism ends and publicity begins. Either way, they’re certainly home to some fascinating music, and after the jump we’ve pulled together ten more noteworthy blog-based labels. What are your favorites?
Things have been going well for Chiddy Bang. The Philadelphia hip-hop duo doesn’t even have a proper album yet, but Chidera “Chiddy” Anamege and Noah “Xaphoon Jones” Beresin have already developed a major following thanks to the success of their mixtapes, which build rap hits on indie-rock skeletons, sampling artists including MGMT, Passion Pit, Sufjan Stevens, and Matt & Kim. Their latest mixtape, Peanut Butter and Swelly, just dropped and is available to download for free; to celebrate its release, Chiddy did nothing less than break the world record for freestyling, rapping for over nine hours straight for MTV. As the duo preps for the release of its long-awaited debut album, Breakfast, we caught up with him for the latest in our interactive video series. Click through and control the questions yourself in our exclusive interview.
For those of you who are still getting over the death of All Points West, here’s some news that might cheer you up: This morning we got a press release about the first-ever Governors Ball Music Festival, “a massive mid-summer dance party of epic proportions” which is set to take place at Governors Island on June 18th. So far the confirmed lineup includes Girl Talk, Big Boi, Neon Indian, Pretty Lights, People Under the Stairs, Miami Horror, Reptar, Outasight, MAC Miller, and Passion Pit (DJ set). Additional acts will be announced in the coming weeks.
As our friends at Consequence of Sound point out, “New York City and music festivals have never really mixed… The reasons for this reality are many, ranging from transportation options to location to 1,400 other venues all competing for a limited pool of acts.” Agreed, but we’re rooting for this one to work out. With the exception of MIA’s HARD NYC Fest (which was arguably totally fine, except for MIA’s performance), we’ve always had a really good experience at concerts on the island.
Early bird tickets (which are $75) go on sale this Thursday at 10 am at govball.com.
[Editor's note: For the next two Fridays, Flavorwire will be counting down our 20 most popular features of 2010. This post, which originally ran on January 19, 2010, comes in at position number 16.] Inspired by Lauren Leto’s “Stereotyping People By Their Favorite Author,” we realized the incredible potential for a mercilessly judgmental list of indie band stereotypes. It is a common fact that Cormac McCarthy readers are men who don’t eat cream cheese, but what about those who listen to The XX on repeat and The Flaming Lips on hallucinogens? They need labels, too. After the jump, in collaboration with contributor Jeff Luppino-Esposito, we lay down the reckless assumptions.
This week, we globe-trot to Italy and France and lend an ear to genre-bending new material from acts big (of Montreal) and small (Wild Nothing). We also have Passion Pit covering the Smashing Pumpkins, Mates of State covering Belle & Sebastian, and six more songs you really need to hear. Don’t forget to Right Click + Save As after the cut.
For its 2010 Revival Recordings project, Levi’s Pioneer Sessions roped in artists ranging from Dirty Projectors and Passion Pit to Bomba Estereo and the Roots to cover timeless tracks that influenced them.
It all kicked off with Nas’ take on Slick Rick’s “Hey Young World,” and has since seen She & Him, the Swell Season, the Shins, and others take on everyone from Rick Nelson to Smashing Pumpkins in a celebration of the lasting power of classic songs. There are still two more tracks to come, and all 13 covers are available to download for free.
This week’s mix features artists with names that roll off the tongue. Rufus Wainwright has a great ring to it, as does Toro Y Moi or Freelance Whales. And how can you not fall in love with a girl who calls herself Kitten? OK, so maybe we judged these musicians a bit by their monikers, but that’s not to say that we weren’t satisfied with the content as well (we know, what an anti-April Fool’s thing to do). Check out our selections after the jump, and be sure to Right Click + Save As if you’re swayed.
Since next week is considered Spring Break by some and SXSW Week by others, this mix is fully stocked with airport jams, roadtrip jams, and for once you’ve reached your destination, chill jams. So to avoid silent awkward car rides or loud obnoxious passengers, don’t forget to right click + Save As — or save yourself some time and download the entire Flavorpill Mixtape here.
Analyze Words is a new and super useful tool for determining other people’s personalities via their posts on Twitter. Developed by James W. Pennebaker, a University of Texas Professor of Psychology, along with his daughter Teal, Roger Booth and Chris Wilson, the program analyzes tweets based on not the “content words” but rather the “style words” — like articles and prepositions — to determine the mental state of the author.
Basically this means that you can plug in anyone’s Twitter handle — including your own — and watch it ranked in Emotional Style, Social Style and Thinking Style. We’ve been playing with this for hours. After the jump, check out some of our favorite tweet analyses of famous people.
