The craft beer market has gotten crowded these days, with all manner of IPAs and double bocks vying for space on the grocery store shelves. Breweries have begun differentiated themselves not only with zany ingredients — passion fruit! coffee! saffron! — but also with clever names and interesting pop culture referring titles. Recently, there’s been a wave of music-inspired suds, giving the nod to storied jazz greats or amping up a favorite new indie band. From Wilco to Frank Zappa to Outkast, seems like everyone has a beer these days. We’ve rounded up fifteen music inspired microbrews for your perusal, after the jump.
[Editor's note: For the next two Fridays, Flavorwire will be counting down our 20 most popular features of 2010. This post, which originally ran on January 19, 2010, comes in at position number 16.] Inspired by Lauren Leto’s “Stereotyping People By Their Favorite Author,” we realized the incredible potential for a mercilessly judgmental list of indie band stereotypes. It is a common fact that Cormac McCarthy readers are men who don’t eat cream cheese, but what about those who listen to The XX on repeat and The Flaming Lips on hallucinogens? They need labels, too. After the jump, in collaboration with contributor Jeff Luppino-Esposito, we lay down the reckless assumptions.
Artist Ed Ruscha, musician Nels Cline, and poet David Breskin combine creative disciplines in Dirty Baby, an art book that’s also a multimedia work of art.
Reminiscent of a record album (complete with A and B sides) and packaged with four CDs, Dirty Baby isn’t meant to be read as much as it’s meant to be experienced: the pictures, music, and words are best when they’re absorbed as one. Ruscha’s haunting images provide a visual counterpoint to Breskin’s ghazals — lyric poems with a repeated rhyme, set to music composed and arranged by Wilco guitarist Cline.
North Adams, Massachusetts isn’t the most accessible location for a music festival, and our six-hour bus ride robbed us of the opening festivities, but Wilco’s Solid Sound Festival at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art more than made up for its far-flung locale. Steeling ourselves for the usual festival gripes, we were pleasantly surprised by two days of laid-back tunes and comfortable surroundings in the gorgeous Berkshires, with affordable, local eats and drinks, short lines, and (gasp) indoor bathrooms. Jeff Tweedy himself hinted at a round two for next summer, so here’s hoping the inaugural Solid Sound was the first of many more to come.
1. The 2010 Emmy nominations are in, with two of our favorite shows, Mad Men and Glee, leading the pack. [via EW]
2. According to Wilco guitarist Nels Cline, the band is leaving Nonesuch Records and starting its own label. [via Pitchfork]
3. National Public Radio is officially changing its name to NPR, which “is more modern, streamlined,” says Vivian Schiller, NPR’s chief executive. [via WaPo]
4. Lifetime is adapting Reviving Ophelia, a nonfiction favorite of mothers with daughters going through puberty, into a made-for-TV movie that will star Jane Kaczmarek. [via Variety]
5. Proof that it’s not just womyn who rock whose ticket sales are hurting, it has been announced that this year’s American Idol Live! Tour will end eight shows early. Sorry tweens. [via Vulture]
While Lollapalooza no longer tours the country, spreading its alt-rock far and wide, it remains one of the granddaddies of summer music festivals, hosting acts like Lady Gaga, Green Day, and Soundgarden in its 2010 incarnation. However, if you’d prefer not to feel like an American Idiot, languishing in a heat-soaked crowd of thousands, we’ve got you covered. After the jump, we bring you up to speed on a baker’s dozen of smaller, more diverse and, in most cases, less overwhelming fests coming up across the country this summer.
Music nerds who are also beer nerds, prepare yourselves for a total geekgasm: The Asheville Brewing Company is teaming up with the Bob Moog Foundation to create Moog Filtered Ale. Yes, you read that right. There is going to be a beer named after the dude who invented the Moog synthesizer. Want to taste it? You’ll have to make your way to North Carolina between May 27th and July 31st.
But how about those of us who don’t happen to live in or near North Carolina? What are our musical brew options? After the jump, check out six more past and present beers distributed or inspired by musicians, just in time for barbecue season.
It’s no surprise (pun intended) that everyone loves Radiohead. Because the Oxfordshire four-piece takes so notoriously long to produce new material under the Radiohead moniker, and with individual band members constantly fussing over side projects (Thom Yorke supergrouping, Jonny Greenwood soundtracking, Phil Selway and the drum kit solo tour), we’re grateful for any covers we can get our hands on — even if it’s just Coco in a faux-Yorke accent jamming along to our Rock Band guilty pleasure, “Creep.” After the jump, our twelve favorite love letters to the band, inspired by Regina Spektor’s March 23rd Irving Plaza performance of “No Surprises.”
Now that they’ve subjected the world to some eye-blinding cover art, put out a cheesy promotional infomercial, and preemptively apologized for the song “Flash Delirium,” all that’s left for MGMT’s newest album Congratulations is the actual music (which is now streaming here). Amidst the oblique psychedelic meandering of their latest, the guys in MGMT felt compelled to saddle a pair of songs with some extra musical baggage: “Brian Eno” and “Song for Dan Treacy.”
In honor of MGMT bestowing their blessing on these two artists, we’ve compiled a list of songs about musicians/bands (the recent death of Alex Chilton is another unfortunate reason to examine this niche). After the jump, check out our choices, accompanied by some defining lyrics and ranging from self-referential jokiness to teary-eyed homages to a seriously pissed off Jay-Z. As always, let us know which songs we’ve left off.
