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The Rolling Stones

San Francisco

Sebastian Krüger’s Amazing Paintings of The Rolling Stones

By Bonnie Chan on

This year marks the 50th year that The Rolling Stones have graced stages, album covers, T-shirts, and our collective consciousness the world over, thereby making them the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s band with the all-time greatest longevity on record. Fifty years is a long time to be in show business. And 50 years of mega-superstardom — in a business that is inherently already about stardom — is an experience that few of us mortals can imagine. … Read More

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Music

The Enduring Mysteries Behind 10 Great Love Songs

By Tom Hawking on

A few weeks back, we looked at the true stories behind some of our favorite love songs. It’s always fascinating to hear a definitive account of what inspired one of your favorite tunes, but it can be equally enthralling to try to puzzle it out on your own. And, of course, in some cases that’s all you can do, because it may well be that the songwriter in question isn’t providing any answers. So it goes with these tunes, which are all the more fascinating because of the mystery surrounding exactly who they’re about. … Read More

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Design

‘Panto’N'Roll’: Rock’s Most Colorful Songs Illustrated With Pantone Swatches

By Judy Berman on

“You know you enthrall me and yet you don’t call me / It’s making me blue, Pantone 292,” sing The Magnetic Fields on “Reno Dakota.” Of course, the relationship between music and Pantone’s increasingly fetishized pigments isn’t usually that literal. But Paris-based creative studio Chic & Artistic has united the two worlds once again, in a series called Panto’N'Roll, which uses Pantone swatches to represent classic songs like “Purple Rain” and “Yellow Submarine.” Click through to see the designs, which we discovered via It’s Nice That, and visit Chic & Artistic‘s website to learn more about their work. … Read More

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New York

Forget Karaoke: Here Are 10 of NYC's Best Live Tribute Bands

By Heidi Vanderlee on

You thought earnest, shameless tribute bands were just for Las Vegas, didn’t you? While New York obviously has a wealth of original music to offer, we’ve been thinking: singing along to live renditions of “Fat-Bottomed Girls” could in theory be a lot more fun than pretending to care about DIIV. It’s time to take a break from nodding to noise bands and take your pick from this fine array of tributes to the classic acts we all totally still listen to, even though we’ll only admit it at karaoke. … Read More

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Music

The Wackiest Conspiracy Theories from the World of Music

By Tom Hawking on

A couple of weeks back, we surveyed some fascinating conspiracy theories about literary characters. The idea has got us thinking about similar whisperings which hail from a place where truth is often stranger than fiction: the music industry! Click through and read some of the most weird and wonderful conspiracy theories the world of music has thrown up over the years, and let us know if you have any to… Read More

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Music

Musicians and Their Private Jets: A Timeline in Photos

By Jennifer Lewis on

Whenever we watch any sort of Rolling Stones documentary, there’s almost always footage of the band frolicking around their personalized private jet with a half dozen half-naked girls. Inspired by such a display, we’ve created a timeline of famous musicians who have been photographed with (and aboard) their very own private planes. Let it be known — as time progresses, the photos aren’t as cool (and neither are the musicians, really), but go ahead and check ‘em out anyway. Click through for our Flavorwire roundup of musicians and their private jets, then hit the comments to lend us your thoughts. … Read More

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Celebrity

Celebrities and the Countries From Which They’ve Been Banned

By Jennifer Lewis on

Once upon a time, two of your doting Flavorpill staffers were banned from a “ruin pub” in Hungary. The whole debacle was a bit of a silly misunderstanding, but hey — at least we weren’t banned from the entire country, eh? The same can’t be said for the following celebrities, who have somehow landed themselves on a handful of nations’ naughty lists. We’ve got everyone from drug addicts to human rights activists to drug rights activists. Check ‘em out after the jump, and hit the comments to tell us your thoughts and dreams. … Read More

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News

The Morning's Top 5 Pop Culture Stories

By Caroline Stanley on

1. In spite of 4chan’s best efforts, Time Magazine has named Barack Obama — and not North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un — its “Person of the Year”. [via Gawker]

2. Could Daft Punk, The Rolling Stones, and Yeah Yeah Yeahs be headlining Coachella 2013? This email sure seems to suggest so.

3. Here’s an interesting peek at what the New York Public Library’s controversial $300 million renovation of its Fifth Avenue flagship location will actually look like, as envisioned by starchitect Norman Foster. [via NYT] … Read More

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Music

10 Fascinating Early Demos by Famous Musicians

By Tom Hawking on

We do still read the NME, god help us, and as such we were interested to see this feature about dodgy demos of classic songs on their website a couple of days back. Setting aside the question of whether anything ever recorded by Muse can ever be considered a “classic” (spoiler: no), the piece did get us thinking about early demos from our favorite musicians, especially in light of the recent reissue of Interpol’s Turn on the Bright Lights, which comes with a bunch of studio outtakes and other rarities. Anyway, we thought we’d run with the idea and share some early demos by some of our other favorite bands, which we think make for pretty fascinating listening. Let us know if you have any you’d like to share. … Read More

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News

The Morning’s Top 5 Pop Culture Stories

By Caroline Stanley on

1. In case you’re curious, TVLine has the scoop on how Community writers plan to handle Chevy Chase’s departure from the show — including how they might work Pierce into the episodes that haven’t been shot yet.

2. Presented sans commentary: the woman who Lindsay Lohan punched in the eye was a psychic.… Read More

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