Paste's PJ Mixtape: Our 25 Favorite Pearl Jam Songs
We understand the danger in attempting to crown the top 25 Best Pearl Jam Songs of All Time, especially before Backspacer is officially even released. The claims can be highly personal, comparable to playing favorites with your kids. Or, worse: trying to tell other parents who their favorites should be. ... read more
Ten Review Haiku
Follow @PasteHaiku/Submit a Haiku Review/Topic of your choice Are you following PasteHaiku on Twitter yet? Submit your own using the tag #pastehaiku. You can review anything you’d like—a record, a movie, a TV show episode, a product—and each day, we’ll name the best one Paste's Haiku Of The Day. Here are some examples to inspire you: ... read more
The 10 Most Iconic Opening Scenes in Cinema History
Our favorite opening scenes come in many forms. Some plunge readers into an action scene. Others crackle with dialogue. And one is driven by a thrilling cascade of, um, scrolling text. For one reason or another, these scenes have become iconic entities unto themselves, even apart from the movies they introduce.... read more
12 Funniest Hash Tags on Twitter
The Hash Tag is dead. Long live the Hash Tag.Sure they can make Tweets seem like some unreadable programming language, but for every hash tag claiming Monday for cats, declaring your love for GI Joe the Movie or starting a movement to bring every single pop star to Brazil, there's a truly funny hash tag meme. Turns out, the hive-mind can be clever. Searching the history of Twitter, we've come up with what he think are the 10 Funniest Hash Tags. Sadly, Twitter.com itself is a lousy place to go looking for older memes, but Google works just fine.... read more
10 Songs That Summon Sleep
There is a lot of road between Athens, Ga. and Decatur, Ga., and to keep from brooding over the gallons of gas that trickle off my gauge or the precious hours of life I spend hunched in the driver's seat during my commute, I rely on music as my one, true beacon of sanity (talk radio as my second). It is my trusty buoy for when I'm stuck in the ebb and flow of Atlanta traffic, or numbed in the limbo of bland highway expanses.... read more
Bookshelf to Screen: Seven Old Favorites Getting the Film Treatment This Fall (And Beyond)
Adapting literature into movies is nothing new, of course, but it sure feels like there's a lot of that going on this fall, doesn't it? Spike Jonze and Dave Eggers' Where The Wild Things Are is generating most of the buzz (check out Paste's September issue for more on that), but a slew of other much-beloved stories are getting the silver screen treatment, too—some for the first time, others not so much. Here's a look at the classics coming soon to a cinema near you, and check back soon for more peeps at upcoming book-to-film adaptations. ... read more
Michael Cera, Jack Black and Danny McBride Walk Into a Bar
All right, not exactly, but Drunk History is funnier than that joke probably would've been anyway. In this video series created in 2007 and 2008, various funny folks combined forces to present "history as it's never been told before: Drunk." It goes a little something like this:... read more
Seven Non-Headlining Bands We Can't Wait to See at Monolith this Weekend
The Monolith festival begins at Morrison, Colo.'s breathtakingly gorgeous Red Rocks Amphitheatre this Saturday. Paste will be on-site covering the event, which features a stellar lineup of artists including The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Girl Talk, Of Montreal, The Mars Volta, Method Man & Redman, M. Ward, The Walkmen, Phoenix, Passion Pit and Doom.But with Monolith's stacked, two-day, multiple-stage lineup, there's a whole lot going on in the daylight hours, too. Here are seven bands that'll have us to the festival grounds bright and early.... read more
The Best Worst Voices In Indie Rock
Last week we debated the best voices in indie rock. But there’s another kind of great voice out there—the kind that isn’t classically good, but its technical problems just make it more lovable. Here are my picks for the best worst voices—you can listen below. Feel free to add to the list in the comments section. ... read more
10 Bands That Prove Emo Wasn't Always for the Hot Topic Tween Set
The thought of "emo" not being followed with words like "sucks," "is lame" or "is for sissies who shop at Hot Topic and have asymmetrical haircuts" is a thought that truly seems lost in the labrynth of music history. For most folks today, those three letters simply refer to the leering 13-year-olds who hang out in the mall, paint their fingernails black and wear tight-fitting, also-black t-shirts with neon lettering flaunting the name of their new favorite band (which features, natch, a singer and a screamer). To top it all off, said band's name is usually something like Oh, My... read more
16 Albums To Look Forward To This Fall
We've already shared 25 Indie Films we're looking forward to this fall, but here are 16 albums coming out between now and the end of October that we think you should track down. They range from a little-known (in the U.S.) singer/songwriter named Frank Turner who releases a record today, to R.E.M., who has a live double-album coming out Oct. 26. At least three of these will likely end up among my 10 favorites of 2009, including my current Album of the Year.... read more
Paste Presents The Slowest Movies Of All Time, Pt. 2: The Meditative and Marvelous
Today we continue our exploration of slow movies, focusing on films that are worth savoring. MEDITATIVE AND MARVELOUS The Straight Story (1999): When you’re David Lynch, it’s pretty tough to make a wild left turn—your whole career is one giant left turn away from filmmaking convention. But the legendary avant-garde director shot straight on this G-rated picture about an old man driving cross-country on a lawn mower. The picture moves about as fast as a riding mower: not very. But it’s a sweet film, a radical bit of normalcy for Lynch, and a road movie well-acted enough to earn the late... read more
Paste Presents the Slowest Movies Of All Time, Pt. 1: The Tedious and Terrible
After you've finished this list, don't miss The Slowest Movies of All Time, Pt. 2: The Meditative and the Marvelous. --Interesting filmmakers often stretch time in unusual ways. Even in his first film, the uber-cool romantic caper Breathless (1960), Jean-Luc Godard told a story that skittered along like a needle skipping over an LP, then suddenly stopped to spend 30 minutes watching a couple hanging around idly in an apartment, in real time. This decision says something about what Godard considered important. By contrast, in 2006 the French, robotic dance-music duo released a film called Electroma that was painfully, ridiculously... read more
10 Unique, Funny or Useful Twitter Users You Should Follow Right Now
Oh, hello. I'm @austinlouisray, and I'm here to steal an idea from @joshjackson, editor-in-chief of @PasteMagazine. He's been doing a rather stand-up job of laying the groundwork of what will eventually become the all-encompassing, ridiculously-comprehensive and unendingly-entertaining Paste Guide to Twitter, so far covering musicians, charities, comedians and much more.... read more
The '60s & '70s Bands Rock Critics & Musicians Always Namecheck But That No One Else Really Ever Listens To 2009 Paste International Spelling Bee
Hello everyone, and welcome [applause]. Please be seated. On behalf of Paste, I'd like to thank all of you in the audience, and—of course—our six contestants, for attending the finals of this year's '60s & '70s Bands That Rock Critics and Musicians Always Namecheck But That No One Else Ever Really Listens To Paste International Spelling Bee. First, I'd like to clarify that a band's inclusion on this list does not mean we think people shouldn't listen to the band in question. In fact, in most cases, we feel many more people should listen to these bands. Nor do we... read more
Best Voices In Indie Rock
Photo by Jeremy Cowart.Brandi Carlile inspired this list. I’ve been listening to her fantastic new record nonstop lately—mainly because I’m addicted to her voice. But some folks prefer a calmer and steadier voice like Mark Kozelek’s, and others are partial to Neko Case’s clear-as-a-bell-ness or Chan Marshall’s sultriness. Here are my picks for the best voices in indie rock. Who did I miss? Enjoy the playlist below, and stay tuned for next week’s list of the Best Worst Voices. ... read more
Fifteen Favorite Animal Songs by Animal Bands
Today at 5 p.m. EST, I'll be popping into Etsy's incredibly cool Virtual Labs for an event called Shop Live. If you can snag one of the 150 spots in the room (registration is required, but so worth it) you can join me as I dish about Paste's picks for the very best animal-inspired goods on Etsy—mostly handmade stuff for ladies, guys and kids, but I'll throw in a few vintage picks, too. I'm so incredibly excited about the Etsy folks asking me to be a part of this, so I made of some of the best animal songs by... read more
20 More Musicians To Follow On Twitter
Since last we scanned the Twitterverse for our favorite musicians, Trent Reznor has given up the Twitter ghost, but plenty of other musicians have begun updating in his place. These are just some of my favorites. 1. Camera Obscura - camera_obscura_ This Scottish band has released one of my favorite albums this year. Best recent tweet: Just been to collect my bike. Sometimes, cycling in Glasgow is a lot like the escape scene at the start of Raiders of the Lost Ark. K Runner-up: Amsterdam to glasgow. 90 mins spent in full view of a filthy urchin feasting gleefully on... read more
Five Songs With Deceptive French Titles
To make a sweeping generalization, certain Americans have never been huge fans of the French. Things worsened after 9/11, and faster than you could say "freedom fries," many people were boycotting anything that even seemed even slightly related to the country. But this didn't deter some bands—from France, Montreal or the U.S.—from showing a little (deserved) francophone pride in their music. Below are five songs with French titles and English lyrics to help you support anglo-franco friendliness:... read more
Fifteen Songs About The Body Parts I Might Sell Just To Own Specimen's Little Horn Speakers
Right this minute, I am listening to music on my laptop's built-in speakers. I cycled through endless pairs of $10 Target earbuds until Santa Claus brought me a half-decent pair of Bose headphones a few years back, my iPod dock of choice was purchased at a store called Linens & Things, and I don't know my treble from a hole in the ground. Needless to say, I am not an audiophile. So why am I so transfixed by the Little Horn Speakers unveiled this week by Chicago-based custom guitar and amp shop Specimen? Well, just look at them. They're gorgeous.... read more
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