Remember that festival line-up formula jpg that did the rounds a couple of years back? It sets out a hilarious generic line-up by categorizing the type of bands you find on every festival bill (“increasingly mainstream headliner,” “good headliner playing shitty latest album,” “fat bearded jam band,” “African tribal music everyone will clap politely for,” etc). Anyway, we got to thinking that a similar formula applies to end-of-year best album lists — and, specifically, that there’s always precisely one token hip-hop release lurking in or around pretty much every rock-centric top ten. Join us as we embark on a retrospective of the last ten years’ worth of such albums, and ponder what it all means. Read More »
1. An alleged photo of the Facebook Phone prototype has been leaked. Frankly, we’re underwhelmed. [via Laughing Squid]
2. Check out the latest free track from Kanye, “Lord Lord Lord,” a song which features a little help from Mos Def, Raekwon, Swizz Beatz, and former Gap Band singer Charlie Wilson. But be warned: It’s over seven and a half minutes long. [via P4K]
3. Welcome to your future: San Antonio says that it now has the first bookless library. [via Inside Higher Ed]
4. Ken Kwapis, the executive producer of NBC’s new workplace comedy Outsourced, defends his controversial portrayal of Indians on the show. [via THR]
5. In case you’ve been worried about Mad Men’s Elisabeth Moss post-breakup with husband Fred Armisen, don’t. She is reportedly looking good and in “single-girl mode.” [via NYP]
Now that they’ve subjected the world to some eye-blinding cover art, put out a cheesy promotional infomercial, and preemptively apologized for the song “Flash Delirium,” all that’s left for MGMT’s newest album Congratulations is the actual music (which is now streaming here). Amidst the oblique psychedelic meandering of their latest, the guys in MGMT felt compelled to saddle a pair of songs with some extra musical baggage: “Brian Eno” and “Song for Dan Treacy.”
In honor of MGMT bestowing their blessing on these two artists, we’ve compiled a list of songs about musicians/bands (the recent death of Alex Chilton is another unfortunate reason to examine this niche). After the jump, check out our choices, accompanied by some defining lyrics and ranging from self-referential jokiness to teary-eyed homages to a seriously pissed off Jay-Z. As always, let us know which songs we’ve left off.
The August drought of album releases is coming to a close. This week’s Viva la Mix is about the death of summer and the rebirth of new albums come 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 14 essential downloads from our latest Viva Radio show that we consider required listening at Flavorpill HQ. Enjoy! Read More »
Are your ears suffering from a case of acute boredom? Are you ailing from a dreary commute made only that much drearier by the same tired tunes? Flavorpill’s got the answer, a brand new round-up of the best new music from our weekly Viva Radio program. Click through for downloads from our last radio playlist and be sure to check back and listen to the show itself — we update every week.
