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This Year’s Essential Record Store Day Exclusives

By Tom Hawking on

Yes, this Saturday is 4/20, but if you can detach yourself from the bucket bong, it’s also Record Store Day. The annual celebration of independent record stores has grown into quite an industry, and as ever, there’s a heap of awesome-looking releases to trawl through once you’ve fought your way through the crowds and thrown enough judicious elbows to make your ways to the crates of vinyl — so much so, in fact, that the selection can be somewhat overwhelming. Never fear, though, because we’ve sifted through the list of this year’s RSD exclusives to bring you the best of the best. What’s on your shopping list? … Read More

Music

The Fascinating Untold Stories Behind Some of Our Favorite Songs

By Tom Hawking on

Sure, everyone knows that Eric Clapton’s “Tears in Heaven” is about about his son falling from a window, Carly Simon’s “You’re So Vain” may or may not be about Warren Beatty, and “In the Air Tonight” is not about watching someone drown. But there are plenty of other less well-documented backstories behind popular songs — like the one that surfaced over the weekend about The Beatles’ “Get Back” starting its life as a dubious satire called “No Pakistanis.” Wisely, the band rewrote the lyrics before releasing the song, but it remains a pretty fascinating piece of history, and our cue to discuss the less-documented stories lurking behind some of the songs in our iTunes collection. … Read More

Music

“We Were Spectacular”: The Art of the Band Breakup Statement

By Tom Hawking on

As you’ve probably read, My Chemical Romance announced earlier this week that they were going their separate ways, and this morning singer Gerard Way published a lengthy missive explaining the reasons behind the split, along with a whole bunch of other stuff about coffee, birds, talking amplifiers, and acting on stage. As far as these kinds of statements go, it’s really pretty great — honest, funny, and heartfelt — and it got us thinking about some of the more notable breakup announcements of our time. Some of these are funny, some of them gloriously bitchy, and all thoroughly memorable. … Read More

Pop Culture

10 Music Videos That “Borrow” from Famous Artists

By Marina Galperina on

Last week, there was a piece on Hyperallergic on pop music’s love affair with contemporary art that inspired us to do some digging. Yayoi Kusama à la Nicky Minaj specifically made us optimistic that modern pop music cares enough about art to stage such elaborate recreations — although, a little credit where credit is due would be nice. That said, down the rabbit hole we went. Here are a few of the standout music videos doing that pay homage to visual artists, with various aesthetic and legal results. What did we miss? … Read More

Music

Songs That Sound Like Love Songs But Aren’t

By Tom Hawking on

A while back, we did a feature on some of the most misunderstood songs in music, and it’s a topic we’ve been meaning to revisit ever since. Specifically, we’re always interested in the realm of the faux love song, tracks that sound all lovey-dovey at first listen but either conceal deeper meanings or aren’t in fact love songs at all (or, at least, not love songs about people). Whether they’re rude and risqué, sinister, or just plain weird, there are some great songs that fall into this category, and we’ve amused ourselves selecting 10 of them for this feature. If you’ve any to add, the comments section is your friend. … Read More

Music

Ranking Musician Tribute Songs from Best to Worst

By Tom Hawking on

We were intrigued to hear that Patti Smith’s new record Banga contains a track called “This Is the Girl,” which is apparently a tribute to none other than Amy Winehouse. We haven’t heard the song yet — if you have, do feel free to let us know in the comments whether it’s any good or not — but either way, it’s the latest in a music industry tradition: that of musicians writing songs for their deceased counterparts. Of course, some such songs are more successful than others — and so, here’s a selection that spans the spectrum of good to bad. Guess which end “I’ll Be Missing You” comes at! … Read More

Music

10 of Indie Rock’s Finest Summer Anthems

By Tom Hawking on

The new Beach House record is out this week, and while we’ve always thought the band’s name was more wry irony than genuine summeriness — Victoria Legrand and Alex Scally’s music evokes the atmosphere of boarded-up resorts and empty beaches, as far as we’re concerned — we’ve got no doubt that Bloom is gonna be the soundtrack to many, many people’s summers. And, indeed, every summer needs a good soundtrack, so we thought we’d take this opportunity to take a look at some of our favorite indie summer anthems — songs that celebrate the sun, or just do a fine job of capturing the atmosphere of the season in all its complex, sweaty glory. … Read More

Music

The 30 Best Kiss-Offs in Musical History

By Tom Hawking on

Face it, we all like a good lyrical smackdown, and the art of the kiss-off line (or, indeed, entire kiss-off song) is one of the most time-honored and enduring in music. Good kiss-offs can take many forms — they can be subtle and sarcastic, or blunt and brutal, or just flat-out hilarious. Either way, there have been many, many good ones committed to tape over the years, and we’ve always had an ear for a biting turn of phrase — so we’re counting down 30 of the best after the jump. As ever, we’re open to suggestions, so let us know your favorites! … Read More

Music

Songs to Change Your Life To: A Mixtape for New Year’s Resolution-Making

By Tom Hawking on

Whether or not you buy into the whole idea of New Year’s resolutions, sticking a new calendar up on the wall does provide a convenient starting point for new endeavors. We’ve probably all got something in our lives we’d like to do more or less of (in our case, it’s less drinking, especially with today’s monster hangover). Plenty of musicians have committed similar feelings to song over the years, which probably isn’t surprising considering that the music industry isn’t exactly a place whose denizens are known for their restraint or self-control. So let us aid your transition to the new year with a selection of songs about making changes — hopefully, for the better. … Read More

Music

Christmas Gifts for the Music Geek In Your Life

By Tom Hawking on

‘Tis the season to be spending money you don’t have on consumer items, and spending the rest of the next year paying off your credit card bills. Merry Christmas, everyone! But if there’s a music lover on your list of people to get gifts for, you can at least rest happily in the knowledge that some of your cash has gone toward buying something you’d want for yourself. Or, of course, you can eschew the whole gifting thing and just buy some of this stuff for yourself. Either way, here are some of the things that hit the shelves this year that’d totally be on our Christmas list if someone was buying for us. Hint, hint. … Read More