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Great Bands That Made (Relatively) Forgettable Debut Records

By Tom Hawking on

In an interesting cosmic coincidence, this week marks notable anniversaries for two of the more significant debut albums in the world of rock ‘n’ roll: 25 years ago yesterday, the Pixies released Surfer Rosa, while 50 years ago today, the Beatles released Please Please Me. Perhaps the most interesting thing about this is the contrast between the quality of the records — Surfer Rosa was a fully realized artistic vision, while Please Please Me only hinted at what the Beatles would go on to achieve. Still, the Fab Four are in pretty good company as far as bands who overcame relatively unimpressive debut albums go. As these ten records prove, there’s hope for everyone! … Read More

Music

12 Notable Music Videos Directed by Famous Filmmakers

By Tom Hawking on

As we reported last week, Gaspar Noé — the man responsible for the French films Enter the Void and, shudder, Irreversible — has directed the video for the rather excellent new Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds single “We No Who U R.” The video is rather restrained by Noé’s standards, but it fits the song beautifully, and it got us thinking about other well-known directors who’ve moonlighted in making music videos. There have been plenty over the years, some triumphant, some rather less so — so here’s a selection for your viewing delectation! Marvel, giggle, shake your head in despair, and then let us know if we missed any. … Read More

Music

Ranking Rappers Turned Rockers from Best to Worst

By Tom Hawking on

The latest twist in the, um, unusual career of Lil B is his unlikely metamorphosis into a based rock god. The rapper unveiled his new guitar-toting incarnation earlier this week with the video to a new song called “California Boy,” in which he wanders around Guitar Center in LA and confesses his love for a terrified-looking passing lady. We have to be honest here: the song’s pretty terrible, making it the latest in a long line of ill-advised rap/rock crossover ventures. Not every rapper deciding to make a rock song/album has met with disaster, but plenty of them have — so we thought we’d make a handy primer of which such ventures to investigate, and which to avoid like threatening rabid animals. … Read More

Photography

Wonderful Photographs of Famous People Snapped By Their Famous Friends

By Emily Temple on

It’s well known that famous people often run in packs (rat, brat), and we’ve even heard rumors that they do normal things like hang out and take pictures of their friends. Since we’re obsessed with the ephemera of pop culture, we spent some time tracking down a few of those snapshots, whether staged or candid, rare or widely recognized, taken by everyone from Truman Capote to Lady Gaga. Click through to see our gallery of photographs of famous people snapped by their famous friends, and you may just begin evaluating your own photo albums for potential stars after you’re through. … Read More

Music

Watch the Beastie Boys Perform with Dave Chappelle in a Never-Before-Seen ‘Chappelle’s Show’ Clip

By Judy Berman on

The outpouring of affectionate tributes to Adam Yauch since the news of the Beastie Boys’ death broke has been touching — and also somewhat unprecedented. Everyone seems to have a kind word to say or a fond memory to share about MCA, a man whose quarter-century of artistic progress was matched only by his personal growth during that time. Chappelle’s Show co-creator Neal Brennan is no different; he’s uploaded an unaired clip of The Beastie Boys performing “The New Style” with an assist from Dave Chappelle back in 2004. The scene was shot for the show’s famously unfinished third season, and it is pretty great. It’s only fair to warn you, though, that like every other video clip of MCA you’ve seen in the past few days, this one might well make you tear up. Watch now before it gets taken down; apparently Viacom already removed another version that was floating around. … Read More

Books

Literary Mixtape: Randle McMurphy from ‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest’

By Emily Temple on

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 lovable rabble-rouser of Ken Kesey’s masterpiece, Randle McMurphy. … Read More

News

The Morning's Top 5 Pop Culture Stories

By Caroline Stanley on

1. Alec Baldwin was kicked off a plane at LAX yesterday because he wouldn’t stop playing Words With Friends during the flight’s departure. He later tweeted that American Airlines is “where Catholic school gym teachers from the 1950′s find jobs as flight attendants.” [via NYT]

2. Guns N’ Roses, The Beastie Boys, and… Read More

Web

What’s On at Flavorpill: The Links That Made the Rounds in Our Office

By Caroline Stanley on

Today at Flavorpill, we were thankful to Buzzfeed for rounding up some of the best Piegate-related tweets and Mental Floss for compiling this list of 10 other people who have been pied in the past. We were sad to hear that The Silent Barn, one of Flavorpill’s favorite DIY venues, … Read More

News

The Morning's Top 5 Pop Culture Stories

By Caroline Stanley on

1. The first photos of Brad Pitt on the set of the Marc Forster-directed film adaptation of the zombie thriller World War Z have surfaced. What do you think?

2. The Beastie Boys have reteamed with director Spike Jonze for the music video for “Don’t Play No Game That I Can’t Win,” their… Read More

Music

Artists Reinterpret Well-Known Album Covers

By Caroline Stanley on

33.3 is an art show of album covers that have been reimagined and reinterpreted by artists and designers, which we first spotted over on Boing Boing. Click through to view 12 of our favorites — which range from the Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds to Surfer Blood’s Astro Coast — and let us know in the comments if you think that they improved upon the original versions. … Read More