Five SXSW Acts I'm Sadly Going to Miss Today
Help me out, dear readers. Due to circumstances that are out of my control, I'll be heading back on a plane from Austin (not me) to Atlanta today in the early afternoon. Below are merely five acts I'm sad to miss. Please make it your job to go see them. There are many others, of course. Click here if you're having a tough time trying to decide how to spend your SXSaturday. But seriously, don't miss these: ... read more
Seven things about The Decemberists' debut performance of The Hazards of Love at SXSW
SXSW is great for discovering new bands, so I try not to see many acts I've seen before. But not only did I check out The Decemberists' set Tuesday night at the IFC party with Gomez, I caught their full concert at Stubbs the next night. But Wednesday night's show marked the band's first public performance of their new concept album, The Hazards of Love. It was like watching an indie rock musical based on some long-lost Shakespearean tragedy. Here are seven random things about the show:1. Playing the whole album without a break left the usually talkative Colin Meloy... read more
The Best Places to Drink in Austin
Full disclosure: We’ve never been here, a bar that’s the consensus choice for drinkers who want a great view. And we’ve never been here, a bar that’s the consensus choice for First Daughters looking to get busted for underage boozing. But we’ve enjoyed our visits to the following five places, and we would gladly recommend them to our friends. To paraphrase golf pro Harvey Penick, if you read Paste you’re our friend. So please enjoy, and save us a seat at the bar. ... read more
SXSW 2009: Where to Eat in Austin, Texas
Since I started at Paste in June 2003, I've been to all but one of the SXSW Music Conferences. Austin, Texas, where the event is held is an amazing town—one of my favorite to visit, and probably a really cool place to live. What makes Austin so great? 1. The Music2. The FoodToday, we talk about the food. If you're going to be in Austin for SXSW this week, or if you plan on going there soon, there are countless excellent places to chow down. Texas cooking—first and foremost—is about beef (mostly in the form of barbecued brisket) and the regional... read more
Eight Survival Tips for Your First SXSW
While the goals of SXSW Music attendees are pretty much universal (cram in as many musical experiences as humanly possible in one four-day span of time, with a lot of beer and very little sleep thrown in on the side), there are about as many strategies for maximum SXSW enjoyment as there are people striving for it. But if this week finds you heading down to Austin for the very first time, here are a few things some Paste staffers have learned from experience that might help you navigate the wilds of Sixth Street. Seasoned veterans, feel free to share... read more
The Best Bionic Characters
As we recently reported, one-eyed filmmaker Rob Spence will be the next Bionic Man. The Canadian film whiz has crafted a prosthetic eye-masked camera to go undercover for a documentary about surveillance cameras he'll be filming. Spence's stroke of mad genius was partly inspired by the '70s drama The Six Million Dollar Man, in which Steve Austin, a brutally injured astronaut, is restored to life with the help of mechanical body parts.... read more
Wale's 10 Reasons Why You Should Go See Wale Live
When I found out the other day that Wale would be playing Atlanta soon (with Decatur's own B.O.B., no less!), I got pretty excited. I've made no bones about my Wale fandom in the pages of this publication and its website, assigning news items, explaining why he qualifies as the "Best of What's Next," and touching on my two favorite of his mixtapes in List of the Day posts past. (Incidentally, I'm making a vow while writing this to not cover Wale in another LOTD for a very long time.)... read more
Eight Songs to Soundtrack this Morning's Michael Phelps Interview on NBC's Today
At 7 a.m. this morning, NBC's Today will run Matt Lauer's exclusive interview with twentysomething Olympic swimmer and multiple gold medalist Michael Phelps, during which Phelps will hilariously pretend to apologize for smoking a bong at a party (or at least for being stoned enough to get photographed smoking a bong at a party). But while he's being all penitent and fielding the hard questions from Lauer about his "bad mistake" so he can re-score that Wheaties contract, this is the music that'll likely be playing in Phelps' head—and on my home stereo system, as I provide my own personal soundtrack to... read more
Ten Reasons Why Elvis Presley is Overrated
1. The movies. Elvis was not a good actor, and his movies are horrible. Take, for example, Harum Scarum (1965). He plays a movie star (naturally) who’s kidnapped and taken to a Middle Eastern country where he’s enlisted by—get this—the Lord of Assassins to kill an Arabian king. Oh, and he falls in love with the king’s daughter. Check out the film’s trailer, which we thought was a parody until we noticed it was posted by Warner Bros. ... read more
Even More Great Art About the Midwest
Last week, I posted a list of the Greatest Art Ever Made About the Midwest, and invited your submissions for stuff I left out. Here, then—based on your comments, and on other stuff that popped into my head—is a follow-up list of more Midwestern goodness. ... read more
Five Reasons Why You Should Start Watching Battlestar Galactica Even Though You Don't Like Sci-Fi
It's almost become a cliché—Battlestar Galactica is a sci-fi show that even non-sci-fi geeks will love. But you need more than a cliché. You need actual, compelling reasons to commit to the 70-odd-episodes (not including the miniseries) that, however good, are still about robots at war with humans, first on a dozen far-off planets and then on the few human spaceships that survive. Not only is the premise as sci-fi as it gets, but the show is a remake of cheesy sci-fi. If ever there were a show that could clear those hurdles for people who won't be in costume... read more
A Smattering of Cringeworthy Album Covers from the Paste Mail Bins
Paste receives a lot of CDs. And by a lot, I mean a lot. Everyday the interns haul in crates of manilla envelopes from the mid-morning post office run and get to work labeling and filing each album. This means, for better or for worse, we interns see most of what comes through these doors. And let me tell you, some of it is not pretty (aesthetically speaking). Here are my picks for the most cringeworthy album covers I've discovered in the depths of Paste's cache of CDs thus far.(Note: This has nothing to do with the music on the albums, most... read more
Lions and Tigers and Bears, Beware: Nine New Band-Name Trends on the Rise at SXSW
[Above: Ox.Eagle.Lion.Man., the past and future of trendy band names.]Around this time last year, Paste's marketing director (now-emeritus) Caren Kelleher compiled a pretty freakishly extensive blog post detailing statistical trends among bands playing at the 2008 SXSW Music Conference. It seemed, then, that animal band names were actually on the wane, but judging from this year's schedule, they've definitely made a comeback; there are more than 60 animal bands slated to play the 2009 conference (including associate editor Kate Kiefer's favorite, Kittens Ablaze).... read more
Raposauria, He: First-Listen Thoughts on DOOM's Born Like This
A couple weeks back, word came down that that tricky masked villain would be dropping a new album. MF Doom, now unfortunately rechristened DOOM ("All big letters, but it isn't no acronym," as he says on "Ballskin."), will release Born Like This on March 23 via Lex Records. For a guy with so much allegedly on his plate (a new Madvillain record? a collaboration album with Ghostface? other various stuff?), it's nice to see him get around to releasing something.We'll have a proper review of the full album, but in the meantime, take a stroll with me through the Born... read more
The Six Greatest Things That Happened This Week to Paste Staffers Not on the Cayamo Cruise
As you may have read, a few Paste staff members were out sailing the high seas on Cayamo this week. Sounds like they're having a pretty great time, but while they're soaking up all the Caribbean sunshine, fancy mixed drinks and excellent roots music, a few of us are holding down the fort back at Paste HQ in good old landlocked Decatur, Ga. We weren't bitter about this arrangement (personally, I'm still recovering from last year's Mayercraft experience), but none of us stragglers had very high expectations for the excitement level of our office-bound week. However, though there wasn't a... read more
Valentino's Steps to Good Style
Legendary designer Valentino, who has a fantastic film coming out this month, shared with Paste his steps to good style. Take it for what it’s worth—fantastic advice from one of the most sophisticated clothing designers in the world! ... read more
The Greatest Art Ever Made About the Midwest
The new Cam’ron single “Get It In Ohio” is, amongst other things, an ode to the Midwest. In the grainy video, Cam and friends drive through slushy streets and complete business transactions in parking lots—and even if this doesn’t conform to your personal Midwestern experience, there’s a shock of recognition in seeing the heartland represented so proudly in a rap song. As someone who spent a fair amount of time in the Midwest myself, this got me thinking about other memorable songs, albums, movies and literature about the oft-ignored expanse of real estate known pejoratively as “flyover country.” Here are my... read more
Five Movies That Make Us Crazy
From double-checking a locked door five times before walking away to seeing imaginary government agents that hired them to crack codes, actors that portray mental-illness characters in these movies take it to the next level. Characters that suck you in into their complex personalities and get themselves into trouble.... read more
Rubber Chicken Crossing the Road: Poultry Humor from Geoffrey Chaucer to Will Arnett
If there's one thing the Bluths and Fünkes of Fox's tragically-cancelled Arrested Development can do well, it's a chicken dance. Although reports of the clan's foray into movie-land have resembled an adolescent relationship (on one day, off the next), a 2010 film seems to be in order, and we're dying to see how chicken noises "Chee-Cha," "A-coodle-doodle-ooh" and "Coo-Coo-Ca-Cha," translate to the big screen.... read more
The Ten Cutest Babies On Album Covers Ever
Weird smells, non-verbal communication and other peoples' feces kind of freak me out, so I'm not the biggest fan of babies. Babies' one redeeming quality, so far as I can see, is their collective capacity for unbridled cuteness. If I don't have to hold them while such cuteness is happening, all the better! This makes album covers featuring babies especially ideal: You get the best part of the babies without actually having to be in the same room as them! And you get music! Bonus. There are a whole lot of album covers featuring babies (here is an incredibly comprehensive... read more
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