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Music

10 Things We Learned from Trent Reznor’s How to Destroy Angels Reddit AMA

By Tom Hawking on

All four members of Trent Reznor’s How to Destroy Angels project took to Reddit yesterday for an hour-long Ask Me Anything session, and the result was a wide-ranging and occasionally testy discussion about the band’s music, upcoming live shows and long-term plans. We’ve read the whole damn thing and pulled out the band’s most interesting and revealing responses. If you’re interested in knowing what HTDA’s live show is going to look like, or why they put an underscore after their name — or just why Reznor saw fit to call one of his fans the C-word — click through and all will be revealed. … Read More

Music

Rare Photos of Industrial Bands Looking Happy

By Tom Hawking on

This week is shaping up to be a good one for fans of industrial music — apart from the much-heralded return of Nine Inch Nails, which we reported this morning, there’s also a new album by ’80s industrial veterans KMFDM, the latest in a decade-long purple patch that followed their brief breakup and reformation under the moniker MDFMK. As a genre, industrial is rather known for its stony-faced seriousness, but occasionally its progenitors can be found cracking a smiling or even looking, y’know, happy. And so, to celebrate a week of good news, we thought we’d find some photos of genre icons looking cheery. It’s harder than it looks. … Read More

Music

How to Destroy Angels’ Debut Album Is Good — But Don’t Count on Trent Reznor Fans Admitting It

By Tom Hawking on

The debut album by Trent Reznor’s How to Destroy Angels, a band that also features his wife, Mariqueen Maandig, and longtime collaborator Atticus Ross, has been streaming all week at the band’s website – and it’s really quite good. If we sound surprised, well, that’s because we are; the public response to How to Destroy Angels has been pretty negative since the beginning. But could it be that the hate directed at Reznor’s collaboration with his wife has always had more to do with the personnel involved than the music itself? … Read More

Music

Just About Every ’90s Alternative Side Project Album Is Streaming for Free This Week

By Tom Hawking on

This week, it seems, is the week that the grand overlords of ’90s indie return to the land. This morning saw a bunch of new records by the decade’s alt-rock luminaries appearing on the Internet for advance streaming purposes, so we thought we’d do the decent thing and round them up in one place for you. The most prominent, of course, is the debut album by Thom Yorke’s Atoms for Peace, which appeared online overnight, but there’s also new work from Trent Reznor’s How to Destroy Angels, Thurston Moore’s Chelsea Light Moving, and a (very) belated solo debut from ’90s godfather Johnny Marr. Click through to have a listen. … Read More

Web

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

By Alison Nastasi on

Today at Flavorpill, we ranked every James Bond opening scene. We looked at the world’s ugliest buildings. We discovered why Robert Pattinson Hates His Life. We remembered 35 things that we’ll never see again, ever. We looked at a few all-time favorite “employee picks” of a… Read More

News

The Morning’s Top 5 Pop Culture Stories

By Judy Berman on

1. Surprise! Just when you got used to the idea of Community (and Whitney, whatever) moving to Fridays, NBC has decided the shows won’t premiere next Friday, October 19th. The decision was reportedly due to a lack of marketing resources. And while Community fans may fear the worst every time our show hits a snag,… Read More

Music

25 Great Songwriters on the Art of Songwriting

By Tom Hawking on

Thomas Edison’s famous and oft-abused quote about genius being 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration is one of the great truisms of our time. But is it actually, y’know, true? How creativity actually works — in terms of the nuts and bolts of actually getting things down on the page/tape/canvas/etc. — is perhaps the most mysterious aspect of art, a process that’s both romanticized and often misunderstood. And in view of this, we thought it might be interesting to see what some of our favorite songwriters had to say about how they approach the process of writing. Click through to read opinions from Leonard Cohen, Nick Cave, Björk, Patti Smith and a whole heap more. We hope they provide some measure of inspiration, interest, or insight. … Read More

Music

10 Musical Couples We Wish Would Reunite

By Russ Marshalek on

Music is a passionate occupation to pursue, and it makes sense that some of our favorite musicians have, well, hooked up with some of our other favorite musicians in fiery ways throughout the years. This is something we’ve been chewing on ever since we first got former Fleetwood Mac co-figurehead Lindsey Buckingham’s last solo record,… Read More

Music

10 of the Most Outrageously Talented Multi-Instrumentalists in Music Today

By Tom Hawking on

Andrew Bird’s new album Break It Yourself is out this week, and while we’ve never been huge fans of the whistlin’ violin-totin’ Midwesterner, we certainly appreciate the diversity of his talents. Bird is one of the most impressive multi-instrumentalists in music today, and with both he and another musician who can apparently play pretty much anything he picks up — namely Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood — releasing new music this week, we thought it’d be a fine time to survey a selection of similarly outrageous talents. We’ve tended to focus on contemporary musicians here — after all, it gets a little tiresome to hear about Paul McCartney, Stevie Wonder, and John Paul Jones all the time — so let us know if you have any other suggestions. … Read More

Activism

Read an Anti-SOPA Letter from Aziz Ansari, Trent Reznor, and Other Artists

By Judy Berman on

SOPA Blackout Day is in full swing, with Wikipedia, Reddit, BoingBoing, and other Internet giants blacking out entirely and thousands of other sites — including Flavorpill — creatively demonstrating their solidarity. (We hope you agree that censor bars aren’t a great look for us.) There’s also been something of a backlash against the online outpouring of opposition to SOPA and its Senate counterpart PIPA, from the usual suspects in Washington as well as groups like the MPAA, who sent this nasty note about the protests.

But not everyone in the entertainment industry supports SOPA. Stop the Wall, a site that you can also use to make a quick and easy phone call to your senator about the legislation, has posted an open letter to Washington from a group of artists that includes Aziz Ansari, Trent Reznor, The Lonely Island, MGMT, Neil Gaiman, Amanda Palmer, Troma honcho Lloyd Kaufman, and many others. “As creative professionals, we experience copyright infringement on a very personal level,” they write, but they don’t support SOPA because they “have benefited immensely from a free and open Internet.” Read the full letter after the jump, and then, if you haven’t already, get on the phone with your representatives to add your voice to the anti-SOPA chorus. … Read More