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The 50 Albums Everyone Needs to Own, 1963-2013

By Tom Hawking on

No one buys albums anymore, goes the music industry truism. And yet, for all that the format’s commercial viability may or may not be on the wane, sitting and listening to a great album from start to finish is one of the greatest pleasures that music can bring. Flavorwire recently got to thinking about how one might build a record collection if you really only did buy one record a year. So here’s the result of our thought exercise: 50 albums you really should own, one a year from 1963 until the present… Read More

Music

Coachella 2013: The Good, The Bad, The Bros

By Leah Taylor on

Our intrepid, heat-resistant reporters spanned both weekends of this year’s Coachella to bring you a look at the (no exaggeration) epic music festival from the comfort of your own laptop. While the bros and the… let’s say “overmedicated” crowds can sometimes be deterrents to enjoying the weekend, ultimately, you’re there for the music. And there is something for everyone. Here are our highlights, with special thanks to Doug Levy, Liat Kriegel, and Dan Busta. … Read More

Music

Great Albums With Embarrassingly Bad Cover Art [NSFW]

By Tom Hawking on

The Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ Mosquito is officially on the shelves, and our first impressions of the record haven’t changed much: we rather like it. The cover art, though… well, that’s an entirely different matter. We’re sure there’s some reasoning behind adorning the sleeve with a lurid pink giant mosquito sinking its proboscis into the ass of a baby (a baby with green lipstick on, we hasten to add), but until we know what it is, the album is going straight to the top of our list of great albums saddled by awful cover art. Here are some of the… Read More

Music

In Search of Christian Music That Doesn’t Suck

By Tom Hawking on

We surely can’t be the only ones who suppressed a shudder when we saw the title of My Morning Jacket songwriter Jim James’ new solo album: Regions of Light and Sound of God. As it turns out, the title doesn’t necessarily mean that James has gone born-again on our hellbound asses, but either way, we have to admit that our reaction did rather have us reassessing our own prejudices: would James going all Christian necessarily mean that the resultant album would suck massively? We have to say that the answer is probably no — some of our favorite songwriters have addressed matters of faith over the years, after all. And so in payment for our, ahem, sins, we’ve put together a collection of Christian music that doesn’t suck. (Spoiler: sorry Creed and Christian hardcore fans, our charity only goes so far.) … Read More

Music

The Real-Life Stories Behind 10 Famous Love Songs

By Tom Hawking on

This week sees the release of the new solo album from Christopher Owens, formerly of Girls and now of lovelorn solo balladeering endeavors. The album’s called Lysandre and is particularly notable for being based around a narrative thread about Owens’ love affair with the girl of the same name. The story behind the record is an interesting one, and it got us thinking about the real-life stories behind some of our other favorite love songs, and we’ve related a selection of the best of them… Read More

Music

15 Hilariously Negative Early Reviews of Classic Albums

By Tom Hawking on

Everybody likes reading a really nasty review every now and then, but sometimes critics get it wrong. Here’s a look at misguided reviews of albums that’d go on to be acclaimed as… Read More

Music

10 ’90s Bands That Are Still Worth Your Time

By Tom Hawking on

It’s one of the great truisms of the music industry that music moves in 20-year cycles, and sure enough, ’90s nostalgia is in full swing — just this year, The Stone Roses have re-formed, Chris Cornell abandoned his ill-fated Timbaland experiment for a Soundgarden reunion… and even Everclear and Gin Blossoms did a tour together, for Chrissakes. We’re not sold on all such ’90s revivalism — it’s difficult to remain together and relevant for two decades, after all — but while some of the decade’s best bands sadly no longer exist, there remain plenty of ’90s bands that are still around and still worth your time. With the new Dinosaur Jr. album I Bet on Sky out this week (and currently available to stream at NPR), we thought we’d look at a selection of such acts. Our picks await you after the jump. … Read More

Music

A Longish List of Long Songs That Are Totally Worth Your Time

By Tom Hawking on

As you might have read yesterday, we’re going quietly bananas over the new Swans record, which is definitely our favorite album of August and quite possibly our favorite thus far of 2012. It’s also home to two tracks that clock in at above 20 minutes long, one other that’s just over 19 minutes, and a couple more that push 10 minutes. Songs that long are always a risky proposition — the whole idea of the ultra-lengthy epic is often associated with prog and its multitude of sins, but the realms of a 10-minute-plus song are also home to some of our absolute favorites. Here’s a nice long selection to get the discussion started — what did we miss? (If you say “Stairway to Heaven” we reserve the right to trace your IP and throw fish food at your window.) … Read More

Design

Beautifully Designed Posters for Dream Concerts That Never Happened

By Judy Berman on

David Bowie, Missy Elliott, and Lightning Bolt. Lady Gaga, Kraftwerk, and Neutral Milk Hotel. We imagine most music fans have spent idle hours daydreaming about the totally improbable — and sometimes even impossible — concert lineups of their dreams. But have any of us taken the time to create posters for them, as the artists, illustrators, and designers who contributed to A Famous Night have done? In eight posters billed as commemorating “the greatest gigs that never happened,” they fantasize about a night where Black Sabbath and Rage Against the Machine open for Nirvana on the moon, and Spiritualized, Broadcast, and Boards of Canada all share the stage. Even Katy Perry and Justin Bieber get their very own (albeit demonic) tribute. Check out the excellent posters below, which we spotted via The Fox Is Black, and visit A Famous Night to buy prints. … Read More

Music

Music’s Greatest Lessons About Growing Up and How to Live Your Life

By Tom Hawking on

It’s graduation week, and we guess that means at least some of you are preparing to leave college behind for good. If you’ll allow us to get a little misty-eyed for a minute, we remember when we were in the same position, and it’s both exhilarating and frightening — suddenly the future is a big empty space, just waiting to be filled in. Happily, as ever, there’s at least some solace to be found in music, and there’ve been plenty of great songs written over the years about life and how to live it. So here’s a playlist of some of our favorite tracks with something to say on what life’s all about, and how you go about negotiating your way through it. Let us know if there are any lessons you’d like to share, too. … Read More