Recycled Cassette Tape Necktie (Awesome of the Day)
Alyce Santoro and Julio Cesar have found a use for all those old cassettes taking up space in our attics—turn the magnetic into fabric and make lovely neckties. This half-thread/half-tape combination is “actually audible if you run a tape head over it,” according to Santoro, the founder of the Center for the Improbable & (Im)permacultural Research, and the recording on the tie is off her album of found street sounds called Between Stations she recorded in New York before moving to West Texas.... read more
TV Soundtrack Award: Stargate Universe Episode 107 ("Earth")
The latest show in the Stargate franchise is starting to really find its footing, as tensions rise between the castaways aboard the Destiny, and their bosses back on Earth. But the real highlight in the show’s latest episode was an appearance from Paste favorite and Atlanta rising star Janelle Monáe. Two of the ships’ younger passengers, Chloe and Eli, made a virtual trip back to earth that included one of Monáe’s stunning concerts. It’s fitting since her debut EP Metropolis featured a futuristic cyborg on the run.... read more
The Low Anthem: "Charlie Darwin" Video (Awesome of the Day)
I’ve talked about my love for The Low Anthem here on a few occasions, but I had to share their brand new video for the lovely song, “Charlie Darwin.” It’s done with stop-motion animation from Simon Taffe And Glenn Taunton, part of the design team behind The End of the Road Festival. With the help of a small team of painters, carpenters and handymen, the duo filmed the video at a studio in Sussex. Enjoy.... read more
Feist+Arcade Fire+Beck+David Cross Halloween Video (Awesome of the Day)
Back in October 2005, Vice Records released a song called “Do They Know It’s Hallowe’en?” to benefit UNICEF (and to poke fun at the patronizing attitude of “Do They Know It’s Christmas?”). The band that recorded it was called the “North American Hallowe’en Prevention Initiative,” and its list of members from the U.S. and Canada included:... read more
The Mumlers "Coffin Factory" Video (Awesome of the Day)
We may have lost Michael Jackson earlier this year, but fortunately the zombie music video lives on. Its most recent incarnation (reincarnation?) accompanies “Coffin Factory,” a song off Don’t Throw Me Away, the debut album from San Jose, Calif., six-piece The Mumlers.... read more
The Mumlers "Coffin Factory" Video (Awesome of the Day)
We may have lost Michael Jackson earlier this year, but fortunately the zombie music video lives on. Its most recent incarnation (reincarnation?) accompanies “Coffin Factory,” a song off Don’t Throw Me Away, the debut album from San Jose, Calif., six-piece The Mumlers.... read more
The Wild Things On My Pumpkin
I’m not a particularly good visual artist—my paintings are fairly primitive, and Paste certainly doesn’t miss my design skills. But when October rolls around, it’s pumpkin-carving time, and the endless supply of stencils online make the job a lot easier. Last year it was the Obama pumpkin:... read more
Brandi Carlile "Dreams" Video (Awesome of the Day)
If you haven’t figured out by now, I’m a fan of Brandi Carlile, and I love her new album. I love that my daughters are fans. I also love her new video for “Dreams.”... read more
Let Them Sing It For You (Awesome of the Day)
From the “How Did I Miss This Before Now?” files: The mission of Sweden’s Sveriges Radio is “to provide high-quality programmes for the Swedish population.” And, apparently, to turn the words of everyone in the world into song. In 2003, the sr.se site launched a little app that will translate whatever text you input into spliced-together bits of popular songs. Whenever it encounters an “I,” you hear Chris Isaak, and “one” is sung by Michael Jackson. You can email the resulting song to a friend.... read more
Leonard Cohen Live (Awesome of the Day)
Who’s the Boss? Seventy-five-year-old Leonard Cohen did everything he could to steal Bruce Springsteen’s moniker last night at Atlanta’s Fox Theatre, playing for over three hours, skipping on and off the stage and dropping to his knees whenever a song reached an emotional climax. It’s a good thing, too, with ticket prices topping $200 for a rare performance from the Sixth Best Living Songwriter. More than I can remember at a concert, I hung on every lyric, and the spoken-word pieces were as good as the songs. When a guy writes lines like, “There is a crack in everything /... read more
"A Political Song for Michael Jackson to Sing" Video (Awesome of the Day)
Chicago cellist Alison Chesley has recorded with artists like Bob Mould, Disturbed, Anthrax and Broken Social Scene, so it’s no surprise that she’s tackled a Minutemen classic like “A Political Song For Michael Jackson to Sing” under her moniker Helen Money.... read more
A Few More Thoughts about Where The Wild Things Are
After work on Friday, I took my kids to Where the Wild Things Are. I’d read effusive reviews, like the one from New York Times critic Manohla Dargis, who wrote, “Jonze has made a work of art that stands up to its source and, in some instances, surpasses it.” I’d read pans like the one from Paste‘s Andy Beta, who wrote, “we find ourselves burdened with mopey, emotionally needy, and temper tantrum-prone creatures, both human and monstrous.” It’s interesting that of the 36 reviews on Metacritic today, a dozen are 50 or below and a dozen are 88 and above.... read more
Unibroue's La Fin du Monde (Awesome of the Day)
A few of my beer-geek friends were sitting around drinking beer (of course), and talking about some of our favorites. The question came up about which beer we choose if we could only have one beer for the rest of our lives. Being a malt-fiend, I chose some huge dark beer like St. Bernardus Abt. 12, but three folks—without hearing each other—independently came up with La Fin du Monde from Canadian brewer Unibroue. I thought that was an odd response, but I had one for the first time since that conversation—in Montreal with a giant plate of poutine, no less—and... read more
EOS Wireless Speakers (Awesome of the Day)
Part of the fall ritual when I was in college was running 100-foot wires to three-foot-tall speakers in various rooms of the apartment so you could play music throughout the house. That’s starting to feel as antiquated as the dorm-room CD player, VCR and answering machine. Wireless audio systems like one from EOS are just going to spoil today’s kids.... read more
Mandolin Cover of "Just Like Heaven" (Awesome of the Day)
There’s something wonderful about Damion Suomi and David Fountain’s rough and downhome take on the classic Cure song, “Just Like Heaven.” It helps that, despite the impromptu nature of the performance and the shaky camera, Suomi (guitar) is having so much fun that he can’t hardly stay in his stool. It also helps that Suomi is just a fine fella who helps out with the amazing To Write Love On Her Arms Campaign. You can watch his Live From Paste performance here.... read more
Cornhole All-Stars iPhone App (Awesome of the Day)
If you're not familiar with the game of cornhole, it's the best (if most unfortunately named) of the lawn sports, just nudging out ladder golf and bocce ball. Two teams of two take turns tossing bean bags at a sloped board with a hole in it. A bag on the board is worth one point and a bag in the hole is worth three. Part of the fun is knocking the other players bags off the board and knocking your own into the hole. I've found that my tosses are much more accurate when I have a bottle of beer... read more
Modest Mouse "The Whale Song" Video (Awesome of the Day)
Five years ago, Modest Mouse helped indie rock start fighting its way out of the musical ghetto with "Float On" playing just about every time MTV decided to show music videos—which seemed mostly to coincide with the 2am feeding for my then-infant son. The band's latest video for a brand new track called "Whale Song" might even be cooler. Created by Nando Costa and Bent Image Lab in Portland, Ore., the highlight is the giant snails crawling all over the amps. I also love how Isaac Brock seems to be floating as he performs, since that's how we captured the... read more
Two Great Pumpkin Ales (Awesome of the Day)
Forget what you know about pumpkin ale. I'm sure, like me, the first time you tried one, it tasted like someone had melted candy corn pumpkins into a Michelob Light. But two of America's finest breweries have crafted unique, delicious beers that will make this perfect October weather even more enjoyable (apologies to those living in Florida or Alaska).... read more
New Doctor Who Logo Unveiled
The BBC just unveiled the new Doctor Who logo, which will debut—along with Matt Smith, the latest actor to play the good doctor—in spring 2010. The show's final three episodes with David Tennant are set to air later this year with the old logo, and while I'll miss Tennant's exuberance, I dig the new look. The "D" and the "W" looking like a little blue police box—one of the coolest spaceships around.... read more
The Low Anthem Covers Bob Dylan (Awesome of the Day)
Doing their best to ensure that my list of the 50 Best Dylan Covers is out of date, The Low Anthem are giving away a free mp3 of their cover of "Dignity" to anyone who signs up for the band's mailing list. Ben Knox Miller has the appropriate gravitas in his voice, wondering what "it's going to take to find dignity," but it's Jocie Adams' clarinet that makes this song work so well. The trio recorded the song in Amsterdam's Studio Le Roy, and it's yours all in exchange for occasional emails they promise to fill with "a bastion of... read more
The 50 Best Movies on Netflix Instant
The 25 Best Movies of 2012 (So…
The 50 Best Movies of 2011
The 30 Best TV Shows on Netflix…
The 50 Best Movies of the Decade…
