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The Kills

Music

The Flavorpill Mixtape: The Kills, Junior Boys, TV on the Radio

By Margaret Eby on

If you didn’t manage to make down to Austin this week, we have just the thing to fill the gap in your concert-marathon-free life. That’s right: a mixtape! But not just any mixtape. This week we’ve got some hotly anticipated songs from Lil B and Mac Miller, plus some delicious hints of albums to come from TV on the Radio and Junior Boys. Prepare yourself for the next Texas invasion, right click + “Save As” to download individual tracks, and, as always, scroll to the bottom of the post to snag the whole mixtape at once. Bon appetit! … Read More

Music

10 Acts That Will Save Rock in 2011

By Tom Hawking on

A couple of days back, The Guardian ran a piece declaring that rock ’n roll was dead, on the premise that only three rock songs had made the list of the 100 highest-selling songs in the UK in 2010. Plenty of articles have been written rebutting this idea – most notably at the excellent UK site The Quietus. But really, The Guardian article states a truism within the context of the premises it sets out: if rock ’n roll isn’t selling, it’s dying commercially, end of story. The more interesting question is what sort of state rock is in creatively: obviously, whether or not a genre is selling any records or not has never been a measure of its artistic worth or general utility.

Setting aside for a moment the issue of how much relevance the concept of genre even has in 2011, and looking beyond the FM radio bilge of Nickelback, Kings of Leon et. al., you’ll find that rock isn’t dead at all. In fact, it’s in fairly good health. Here we give you ten guitar-wielding bands – a mixture of respected veterans and up-and-coming types – who prove that whether or not rock music is past its apogee as a commercial force, it’s still home to plenty of creative impetus. … Read More

Daily Dose

Daily Dose Pick: Pioneer Sessions

By Doug Levy on

For its 2010 Revival Recordings project, Levi’s Pioneer Sessions roped in artists ranging from Dirty Projectors and Passion Pit to Bomba Estereo and the Roots to cover timeless tracks that influenced them.

It all kicked off with Nas’ take on Slick Rick’s “Hey Young World,” and has since seen She & Him, the Swell Season, the Shins, and others take on everyone from Rick Nelson to Smashing Pumpkins in a celebration of the lasting power of classic songs. There are still two more tracks to come, and all 13 covers are available to download for free. … Read More

Music

When to Listen to the New Dead Weather Album

By Aaron Gonsher on

The Dead Weather, Jack White’s third-best band, are pumping up their image as bluesy analog throwbacks with an unusual method of pre-release album streaming for Sea of Cowards. For the next 24 hours on the band’s website you can watch a live camera feed trained on the resolutely spinning new record, with someone popping into the frame every 15 minutes or so to flip sides. There are occasional technical snags; a brief error message simply read “There is some dust on the needle.” Of course, because it’s a constant stream, you also have to listen to the album all the way through or risk hearing cut off versions of the songs.

With a streaming method so intertwined with concepts of time, we’ve gone one step further and attempted to pinpoint the exact best times for listening to the individual songs on the album. Hopefully you’re nocturnal, because something about the sun being up and people walking in the streets doesn’t match up to the misanthropic murder fantasies and violent ideas belched up from the Dead Weather’s grimy underworld. Sea of Cowards isn’t exactly conducive to daylight. Or joy. Or sustained human interaction. … Read More