November is the cruelest month, breeding Nickelback albums out of the dead land, mixing memory and desire for something good to listen to, stirring dull releases with autumn snow. But never fear, because we’ve negotiated the waste land of the November release schedule, avoiding Bieber Christmas records and a slew of holiday season reissues to bring you 10 new albums that you really should be listening to over the next four weeks or so. You’re more than welcome.
We’re not usually big readers of the UK’s Daily Telegraph, but we did read with interest a recent report that UK band Marconi Union’s song “Weightless” has been proclaimed “the most relaxing tune ever.” The article claims that “scientists played the song to 40 women and found it to be more effective at helping them relax than songs by Enya, Mozart and Coldplay.” This doesn’t exactly sound like scientific proof to us, and although the song is certainly a pleasant, Eno-influenced piece of atmospheric ambience, it’s nothing revolutionary (if you want to hear it, you can head to another UK newspaper site, where it’s streaming). Either way, we were more concerned by the fact that the Torygraph claims it’s “more relaxing than Enya, Mozart and Coldplay,” as if those three artists were the yardstick by which a piece of music’s relaxing qualities should be measured. We’re not standing for any such nonsense, so here’s a Flavorpill relaxation playlist — next time you’re having trouble sleeping, give some of these tracks a spin and see if they help any!
When the advertisement for Dell’s new laptop started airing last week, it came accompanied by a song that was kind of like Broken Bells, only shittier. Unfortunately, this is far from the first time a band has had its music “borrowed” for a commercial — the sound-alike has a long and ignominious history, and since suing for music-related copyright infringement is notoriously difficult, it’s unlikely to stop any time soon. After the jump, we’ve collated some of the more notorious examples from years gone by. Read on and shake your head in disbelief. (We also can’t help but be amused that several of the most shameless examples have been quickly dragged off YouTube by the companies involved on the basis of, yes, copyright infringement. Ha.)
If you’ve ever wondered what your favorite literary characters might be listening to while they save the world/contemplate existence/get into trouble, or hallucinated a soundtrack to go along with your favorite novels, well, us too. But wonder no more! Here, we sneak a look at the hypothetical iPods of some of literature’s most interesting characters. What would be on the personal playlists of Holden Caulfield or Elizabeth Bennett, Huck Finn or Harry Potter, Tintin or Humbert Humbert? Something revealing, we bet. Or at least something danceable. Read on for a cozy reading soundtrack, character study, or yet another way to emulate your favorite literary hero. This week: the spunky heroine of the His Dark Materials trilogy, Lyra Belacqua.
French music site La Blogothèque’s self-produced Take Away Shows feature exclusive, unedited footage of top indie artists performing in public places.
Shooting bands on the street, in the subway, or in a restaurant, auteurs like Vincent Moon (also a co-founder of the site) capture the devil-may-care nature of impromptu performances by artists such as Phoenix, Fleet Foxes, Arcade Fire, St. Vincent, and even R.E.M.
The Tribeca Film Festival kicked off yesterday with the premiere of the fourth and supposedly final Shrek movie. But you don’t care about that. You want to hear about the films that you’ll actually want to see. With nearly 200 of them screening, there is a dizzying array of choices sure to send any serious movie buff into an existential panic. It would be impossible to catch everything, but we’ve sussed out the five flicks you definitely don’t want to miss. Check them out and watch accompanying trailers after the jump.
As you may have heard, Erykah Badu has dropped a buzzy new music video for “Window Seat” from her new album New Amerykah Part Two: Return of the Ankh
But as quickly as it surfaced, the video was taken down from YouTube by Universal Music Group, and we were left feeling slightly pervy for craving more naked music videos. We’ve done the dirty work so that you don’t have to, and rounded up 10 of our all-time favorites after the jump. We’ve come a long way since Duran Duran’s “Girls on Film.”
This week’s mix features a remix (that “Home” song), reworkings (Metric, Jónsi of Sigur Rós), remixables (Wye Oak, Flight Facilities), and songs so damn catchy they already sound remixed (The Black Keys, Penguin Prison, New Young Pony Club). So if you’re like us, constantly starving for new tunes, digest the next ten piecemeal or all in one sitting after the jump.
Musicians are by no means monogamous. Often their loyalty is not to the single entity of a band, but rather to the grander scheme of the things, the music itself. Take Gorillaz (by way of Blur) frontman Damon Albarn, who just announced that he’s going solo again on the side under the guise of Prince Barry. Or Thom Yorke branching out from Radiohead with his once anonymous band who we now know as Atoms for Peace. After the jump, we’ve compiled a playlist of our favorite tracks from some recent indie side projects. As always, leave a comment and let us know who we left out.
Combining lush instrumentation and choral flourishes with electro drum beats, Swedish duo Fredrik create a complex sound that continues to unfold itself upon repeat listens.
Their just-released sophomore album, Trilogi, is a haunting meditation on the darkness winter brings. The gloom is balanced with impeccably constructed melodies that recall the early ambition of Air’s Moon Safari, while the rhythmic strumming of “Vinterbarn” (winter children) evokes Sigur Rós. A recent esoteric tweet sums up Fredrik’s modus operandi: “Unreasoning all the way to wintering is bliss.”
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