This week, we got news that R. Kelly was back in the songwriting business when he posted a new track to Twitter — a new track about his tonsils. Well, to each his own. In any event, R. Kelly’s new song inspired us to think of other strange and unusual inspirations and topics for popular songs, from the bizarrely mundane to the just completely random. Click through to listen to songs about body parts, fish, ice floes, and other things that, as far as we’re concerned, make pretty weird subjects for songs, and be sure to let us know your own favorite songs with bizarre inspirations. Read More »
Consistency is the watchword in the world of music criticism. We as listeners love it when a band is at its best, but we aren’t truly happy until the musicians prove their worth again and again and again. And then maybe just once more still, after the lead singer emerges from a nasty coke habit and the band hasn’t been in the same room for three years. Of course, we forgive our favorite bands for the blemishes in their legacies every single day, because the statistics majors inside all of us understand that consistency is no small feat. But what of the bands whose discographies are marked by the exact opposite — those alternating, dramatic peaks and valleys in album and even song quality? Why, we’re glad you asked! We’ve compiled eight musical wildcards that have kept us on our toes with each note they’ve produced they put out after the jump. Be sure to join us in some collective head-scratching by giving us your own suggested additions to the list in the comments.
Here at Flavorwire, we’re always up for new forms of artistic expression, particularly those that take traditional notions of genre and performance and turn them on their heads. We’ve been hearing whispers of Karen O’s new ‘psycho opera’ since July, but as more and more information has trickled in, we’ve gotten more and more excited, if only for the spectacle of it all. To tide ourselves over until the show arrives in NYC in October, we’ve taken a look at a few other wonderfully insane operas we’ve caught wind of over the years. Note: though we’re sure everyone has their own idea of what constitutes an opera, the first definition in the dictionary is “a dramatic work in one or more acts, set to music for singers and instrumentalists,” so we’re casting a wide net in terms of form — but strangeness is not optional.
1. Hot on the heels of the news that Google+ has reached the 10 million user mark, GOOD reports that Facebook has been allowing law enforcement officials to snoop around people’s accounts without their consent. Maybe it’s time to make the switch?
2. Edward Norton is currently in talks to play the villain in Tony Gilroy’s The Bourne Legacy. Considering that the film is already set to star Jeremy Renner, we’re suddenly finding it a lot easier to accept that Matt Damon will not be returning to the franchise. [via The Playlist]
3. Last night during the Foo Fighters set at the iTunes Festival in Camden, Dave Grohl stopped playing to eject a fan who had gotten too rowdy. Watch a video of the incident here.
4. After failing to make mortgage payments for more than a year, R. Kelly may lose his multimillion-dollar mansion in the suburbs of Chicago. Is it wrong that we kind of hope that he writes another operetta about this? [via Rolling Stone]
5. Ted Danson is going to be taking over for Laurence Fishburne on CSI. But have no fear, Bored to Death fans, he will reportedly remain a series regular on that show as well. [via E!]
We rejoiced at the news, earlier this week, that VH1 is bringing back Pop-Up Video, which we’ve missed ever since it went off the air in 2002. In addition to the pop and rock videos the original provided fascinating factoids about, the new version of the show will feature hip-hop videos for the first time. After the jump, check out our list of wonderful, bizarre, and downright baffling post-Pop-Up- Video-era music videos that we hope to see the show explain — and be sure to leave your own suggestions in the comments.
When OK Go dropped their new video for “This Too Shall Pass,” the Internet became abuzz — and rightfully so, as the clip is near-genius. (Go behind-the-scenes courtesy of Fast Company.) The band spent three months building what is essentially a giant, musical game of Mouse Trap, with the help of friends from NASA and Jet Propulsion Labs.
This isn’t the first time the band has grabbed our attention with a music video, as the infamous treadmill choreography of “Here It Goes Again” is also, admittedly, kind of brilliant. Unfortunately, OK Go have never quite caught up to the level of their visual aesthetic on the musical end of things. Of course, they’re not the only act that has been outshined by its own videos. The following clips exemplify just what happens when an unexceptional song gets trumped by an exceptional visual counterpart.
R.Kelly never really struck us as one to hold back. With 10 studio albums (most recently last week’s warmly received Untitled), a 22 chapter hip-hopera, and more sexcapades than we care to count, he’s taken us from the bedroom to the courtroom, from the basketball court to the barber shop, and from depths of the jungles to the far reaches of outer space. It’s hard to imagine that he has left much territory uncovered, and with his patented style of real talk, no less.
Sure, we’re unabashed Trapped in the Closet fans, but we still think R. Kelly is still kind of creepy. And it’s not helping that he continues to act like an alien (not to mention inch closer and closer to developing a Jacko-style menagerie of inexplicable items). News came today the Kelly is selling a Looney Tunes-themed home bar. The implications of such a juvenile dispensary of libations aside, shouldn’t a man who’s been accused of multiple underage liaisons avoid letting his name be linked with anything relating to kids cartoons? On the other hand, we can’t help but wonder, what might he own that’s worse? Your turn, dear reader (the comments section is just calling for your creepiness). [Via Daily Swarm]
