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Music

The 5 Best Music Videos of the Week

By Aaron Gonsher on

The Academy’s decision to cut the performances of all Best Original Song nominees was a misguided attempt to shorten the telecast. (They said the songs would be better served when put into context with their cinematic accompaniment.) This rational claim of expanding an aural experience with enhanced visual contrasts is legitimized by a long history of music videos (We looked to MTV for backup, but apparently they’ve forgotten about that whole “music television” thing). Artistically challenging and stimulating music videos are still constantly cranked out by any band with a video camera and a vision, pairing awesome music with some awesome eye-candy.

On the occasion of Vampire Weekend’s star-mashing, RZA-presiding premiere of the video for “Giving Up The Gun,” Flavorpill is launching a recurring feature where we’ll give you the best music video releases of the past week: lo-fi, high concept, NSFW, and everything in between. After the jump, watch the brand-new Vampire Weekend video and our other choices for this week. As always, let us know if we missed anything. … Read More

Earplug

The Top 10 Albums of 2009 That Didn’t Make Pitchfork’s Top 50

By Doug Levy on

Sure, there’s something to be said for pushing boundaries, constantly seeking out strange new sounds, and generally compiling the ephemera of the musical universe. But if there’s one thing any music fan with a taste for hooks knows, it’s that the folks at Pitchfork have a habit of often missing the forest for the trees. While the online indie-music kings at the site spend their days approaching music from a nigh-on scientific standpoint, some of the year’s best music can end up getting the shaft, simply because it isn’t weird or progressive enough. So, we weren’t all that surprised to see that a lot of our favorite albums of 2009 were omitted from Pitchfork’s top 10 albums of the year list. However, the fact that many of them not only also failed to appear in the site’s top 50, but even the honorable mentions, was a little too much to let slide. … Read More

Music

Video of the Day: Amanda Palmer Takes on Tegan and Sara, Lady Gaga, and Madonna

By Doug Levy on

Amanda Palmer is no stranger to what she has dubbed Karaoke Verité, or the art of the lip-sync video. In the past, the former Dresden Doll has tackled both Avril Lavigne and Cyndi Lauper via the format, but during a recent visit to NYC, she brought the concept a little closer to her own heart. Hitting the streets of downtown Manhattan, Palmer began accosting a number of unwitting passersby as she offered her own visual take on Tegan and Sara’s 2009 single… Read More

Daily Dose

Daily Dose Pick: Dragonette

By Doug Levy on

With their second album, Canadian electro-pop quartet Dragonette offer some of the hookiest dance-floor ready tunes of the year.

Led by frontwoman Martina Sorbara, the band trades in the oversexed focus of its debut for the more nuanced songwriting of Fixin to Thrill, evoking contemporaries such as Metric and La Roux, or a saucier take on fellow Canucks Tegan and Sara (whose new album also drops today). They even saved the best track, “Don’t Be Funny,” for… Read More

Earplug

Exclusive Q&A: Tiësto

By Bianca Merbaum on

Keeping up with the ever-changing world of dance music can be exhausting; creative energy burns out as quickly as fresh trends become stale hype. That’s why Tiësto, Dutch DJ and dance-music icon, is such a legend. He has topped DJ charts since he reached stardom in the early ’00s, and continues to max out venues with a 15,000+ capacity. He kicked off another Tiësto “era” on September 24, to launch his highly anticipated album Kaleidoscope, out… Read More