Our friends at The L Magazine were watching the college tournament on Jeopardy! last week, and were shocked when indie rock appeared as a category in the Double Jeopardy round. How would you have fared?
$400: Ben Gibbard is the lead singer of this band that sounds like a ride a hottie should turn down.
$800: Kingsizemaybe’s song “Dallas” recalls the day of this man’s assassination.
$1200: L.A.’s Silversun Pickups got their name from a store at the corner of Silver Lake Boulevard and this one with a famous “strip.”
$1600: As a child, Jenny Lewis appeared on “Baywatch”; now she fronts this “Portions for Foxes” band.
$2000: Think twice before kissing these “hot” Oklahoma indie stars who sang “Do You Realize?”
If you’re debating whether questions two and three really count, in this same round a question about Harry Potter surfaced in Comparative Lit category. Click over to the L’s site to find out if you did better than the college kids.
I was about to write the editors of Jezebel to get them to rant about this new Ben Lee track I unfortunately just discovered… But then I wrote a post-length rant myself in the email, and figured I might as well share it with y’all. Here’s hoping the Jezzies do still weigh in. The offense: a song entitled “I’m a Woman Too,” which you can find on Lee’s MySpace player, the 11th track, last I checked. In it, he saccharinely professes his solidarity with women around the world by casting off the oppressive shackles of, well, gonads, and proclaiming (over, and over — there are precious few other words in the tune) that he’s a woman, too. Read More »
Handsome Furs are a Montreal-based wife/husband duo whose sophomore album, Face Control, dropped this week to a round of applause. While hubby Dan Boeckner’s main gig at the helm of Wolf Parade has earned him a loud fanbase, we never really took to that group’s layered — and labored — sad-sack indie pop. Likewise, the first Handsome Furs record felt a little flat, its spare sound verging occasionally on the snoozy. Not so, this time around.
In a quaint bid to thwart the leak monster, the release date for Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ third full-length, It’s Blitz!, has been bumped up a month to March 10, and the album’s first video has just been released. The clip for “Zero” is a pretty good indicator for the band’s current direction: ’80s-obsessed post-punk posturing, served over a bed of icy disco. If this sounds way too cool for school, well, it is. But has anyone ever accused Karen O of NOT being hip as shit?
Here’s the deal: It’s Blitz! is going to be huge. At its best, the band has always been catchy. But this time around, longtime producer (and TV on the Radio mastermind) Dave Sitek has powerwashed away the grime, leaving the band’s shiny, metallic bones behind to thump alluringly over washes of vintage synth. We’re not quite sold, but we’re also pretty sure that several hundred thousand teenagers will be.
Unpopular Opinions is a weekly column written by Flavorpill’s resident music curmudgeon and esoteric record-bin enthusiast, the Beard. His opinions do not reflect those of Flavorpill, Flavorwire, or any of their affiliates…
It might make me unpopular, but i think… that indie rock is as rife with mediocrity and musician-as-commodity acts as anything else.
But, rather than wax on about Beard-abhorred bands like the National, Tapes ‘n Tapes, and others without any retort, perhaps its best to try and explore both sides of the “paint-by-numbers” indie-template argument. Sure, I think my follicly-challenged buddy Scruff is sadly misguided when it comes to defending indie kingpins the National (a band that pretty well embodies the crux of the argument), but when the time comes for a bona-fide IM throwdown, he does put up a good fight — despite the fact that he’s clearly wonting for whiskers…
Musicians like Obama: KANYE WEST and JAY-Z made a song about Obama’s win and leaked it yesterday. “WE MADE HISTORY” is supposed to appear on Jay-Z’s forthcoming album BLUEPRINT 3. THOM YORKE is also in on the post-election euphoria, remixing his 2006 “HARROWDOWN HILL” to celebrate the president-elect. As of last week, it’s been available for free download on his site, because RADIOHEAD likes to do that. [Gigwise, NME]
But they don’t like fur: Apparently BURBERRY makes more than just expensive plaid — they also make clothes using real fur. And apparently many indie rock bands don’t like this Furberry fiasco and have made their opinions known. LOS CAMPESINOS!, ART BRUT and aptly named groups like SUPER FURRY ANIMALS and THE WOMBATS are among the bands that have signed a PETA petition, and some musicians have released statements decrying the abuse of our furry friends by the label. Maybe they’ve all been watching too much Shiba Inu Puppy Cam. [NME]
Can you guess which indie band recently cried wolf?
Did someone tip off APOLLO SUNSHINE about the current economic crisis when they were writing songs during the summer of 2007 in the Catskill Mountains?
MAX KOEPKE (U2′s “Windows in the Sky”) directs the video for Boston-born band’s latest single, “Money” — which comes off of their third full-length album, SHALL NOISE UPON. The collection of clips and stills about the role of money in America is a timely, fitting visual accompaniment to the genre-bucking trio’s dreamy folk fantasy about a world with no currency.
While we’re glad that they’d still play guitars in this brave new utopia, you can bet that we wouldn’t be tied to this desk. Sorry people.
Check out the video after the jump and let us know if you found it entertaining in the comments.
We’re finally being rewarded for enduring the long, strange journey to Election Day — and because it’s America, what better way than with some fast food treats.
Ben & Jerry’s is giving voters free scoops of ice cream, Starbucks, free tall cups of brewed coffee. Krispy Kreme has gone all out and created a special star-shaped doughnut to commemorate the day.
We suggest you make yourself a nice little coffee float, dunk your doughnut, and then download and crank this tasty cover of ALICE COOPER’s “Elected” by beloved Brooklyn party band CHEESEBURGER while you wait…and wait…and wait…for the results to roll in.
And if you’re in New York, join us tonight at Tom & Jerry’s where the editors of Activate will be hosting a free Election Night party with complimentary hangovers Dewar’s from 6 to 8 p.m.
Trust that one of the members of a twee, glockenspiel-loving indie pop band from Wales with exclamation points littering their song titles and literary lyrics like “If only you would give your life to literature just/Don’t read Jane Eyre!” have strong, interesting opinions about what they read in their downtime.
To our point, this latest album contains a track called “The End Of The Asterisk.” Somewhere our high school English teacher is smiling.
After the jump hipster poster girl and ardent book worm Ellen Campesinos! (bass and vocals) takes time from the band’s European tour to reveal her favorite short story. If you’ve already read it, leave us your review in the comments.
It can be hard to keep track of all the bands who burble up in Brooklyn’s indie rock scene — the groups whose music you hear playing in the background of your favorite bar, like TV ON THE RADIO or YEASAYER, and kind of half-recognize.
Art punk trio VIVIAN GIRLS — who sound like a perfect blend of the BEACH BOYS and one of PHIL SPECTOR’s girl groups — is one such band to keep your eye on.
With the re-release of their self-titled debut album this fall music bloggers went crazy, but this low-budget video for their single “Tell the World” is what first caught our eye.
After the jump, all three Vivian Girls reveal their favorite road trip movie to Flavorwire. They’ve picked some goodies, but what classic flicks did they miss?
