Wilco’s new video for “Dawned on Me” combines some of the things dearest to our hearts: Jeff Tweedy and old black-and-white Popeye shorts. It’s a clip that’s both fun and visually interesting, not to mention the first hand-drawn Popeye cartoon that’s appeared in the last 30-something years. But Wilco is far from the first band to hit upon the idea of including animation in their music videos. Cartoons in videos stretch back from the days of a-ha’s “Take On Me” through Björk and Radiohead. After the jump, check out ten of the best animated music videos we’ve ever seen — tell us about your personal favorites in the comments.
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It seems unlikely that Wilco frontman Jeff Tweedy and teen fashion blogger-turned-media empress Tavi Gevinson travel in the same social circles. And yet, here is Tavi, starring in the music video for “Whole Love.” The link between the two turns out to be Tweedy’s teenage son, Spencer, who directed the clip and cast the Rookie editor in it along with some other friends and his younger brother. The gold-tinged, and occasionally black-and-white, video has a Super 8 vibe, and is replete with gleeful, childish goofing. Olds (and by that we mean 20-somethings), beware — the 21st-century, indie-rock Brat Pack is coming for you.
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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: Salinger’s number two angst man, Seymour Glass. Read More »
Every Monday morning, we sit down with our good friend Google and search diligently for the best and/or most notable albums that are streaming for free this week. There’s a good haul to be had this week — the line-up is led by the spectacularly good new Zola Jesus album, which has had the Flavorpill office very excited indeed ever since we got a copy of it. There’s also the new Wilco album, surf-rocky goodness from Dum Dum Girls, a new record for synthpop survivors Erasure, and the return of Ryan Adams. All this awaits you after the jump, so click through and start listening!
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1. Bravo has announced the new cast for the ninth season of Top Chef, along with the show’s premiere date (November 2) and guest stars (Pee-wee Herman!, Charlize Theron, Patti LaBelle). [via Pop Candy]
2. Watch the hour-long set that Wilco played for David Letterman last night here. The band’s eighth studio album (and the first album for its homemade label), The Whole Love, hits stores next Tuesday.
3. So much for riding Mad Men’s coattails: Last night’s premiere of NBC’s new show The Playboy Clubtotally bombed, bringing in just five million viewers and finishing in last at its timeslot. [via The Daily Beast]
4. Arnold Schwarzenegger has made a deal with Simon & Schuster to release his memoir, tentatively titled Total Recall: My Unbelievably True Life Story, next October, but according to a source, “Partial Recall: Shit I Feel Like Telling You,” would be a much better name for the book. [via Gawker]
5. Say hello to my little friend again: Universal plans to release a new version of Scarface, but it won’t be a remake of or a sequel to either of the two previous versions of the classic film. [via Deadline]
Bonus Buzz: Really Fat Keyboard Cat
Better cancel those Labor Day weekend plans. Starting right now (that is, noon Central Time), you can stream Wilco’s long-awaited new album, The Whole Love, in its entirety over at Wilcoworld. But be warned: the stream is only good for 24 hours, after which you will be again plunged into a dark, new-Wilco-less existence until the album officially drops September 27th.
Check it out, and if you’re so inspired, now’s probably a good time to snag tickets to one of their many upcoming US shows. You can also preorder the album at Wilcoworld if you just can’t wait a second longer.
[via Consequence of Sound]
Today at Flavorpill, we wished that the world had more adorable skydiving grannies like 82-year-old birthday girl/lifelong daredevil Judy Wade. We discovered that Mad Men screenshots and Arrested Development dialogue go surprisingly well together. We couldn’t believe that ABC thinks that they can replace Roseanne Barr with the likes of Kirstie Alley. We supported public broadcasting by downloading a free mixtape of Anti- artists including Wilco, Tom Waits, Neko Case, Mavis Staples, and Dr. Dog. We liked Andy Rash’s 8-bit take on the cast of Breaking Bad. We wondered how long it took Bronx Zoo staffers to assemble these life-sized LEGO versions of various wild animals. We decided that Bruce Springsteen’s “Dancing in the Dark” definitely needs the gyrating Courtney Cox after watching the original video. We were excited to read that Norman Mailer’s son wants to direct Joan Didion and John Gregory Dunne’s screenplay adaptation of his father’s novel The Deer Park. We found out which New York City kitchens are literally the hottest. And finally, we got a good chuckle out of this flowchart that details the do’s and don’ts of being mad on the Internet.
Today at Flavorpill, we wanted to take a bite out of this incredibly tiny gay wedding cake by food artist Jessica Hlavac. We couldn’t believe the news that MySpace just sold for $35 million after News Corp. paid $580 million for the site back in 2005. We learned more details on Wilco’s forthcoming album, The Whole Love. We judged Lenny Kravitz and his cell phone. We were totally amused by this photo of the Pope using his iPad. We enjoyed watching The Fug Girls take on the Julia Roberts canon. We were impressed by James Brown’s performance of “Miso Up” in this ramen noodles commercial from the early ’90s. We saw two more images from the set of The Hobbit. And finally, we decided that we fully endorse the idea of pedal-powered school buses, as spotted in the Netherlands.
You may have noticed that we’re big fans of obsessive and obscure personal art projects here at Flavorpill — and that’s probably why our eyes bugged out when Dangerous Minds pointed us to Jacket Lunch Box, the blog of a Japanese gent who’s devoting quite a bit of time to precisely recreating album covers in the form of bento box lunches. He’s done a whopping 221 of them so far. The edible playlist includes everyone from Radiohead to The Clash to The Beatles, but our favorite is most definitely a certain iconic (in some circles) Jim O’Rourke cover. Check out ten bentos we loved after the jump, and be sure to page through Jacket Lunch Box to see a couple hundred more.
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A band that sells out is never cool. Well, that probably depends on how you define “cool” — swimming in a pool filled with gold coins or leaning back against a chain link fence, cursing at everything that moves. When it comes to the music industry, we tend to be more impressed with the latter, despite how nice doing the backstroke in a pool of money sounds.
From refusing to be a cog in the record company machine wheel to straight-up verbal take-downs of the industries pop-music cash cows, we’ve compiled a brief history of bands who flipped the commercial world and its minions the bird, 1990-present. These guys make Dave Grohl’s refusal to license the Foo Fighters’ music for Glee look like child’s play. (Still, we won’t lie: refusing the glorified Kidz Bop treatment the show’s peddling is undoubtedly a noble decision.) Read More »
