Joik is a long-practiced musical tradition in Sápmi, a largely subarctic region spanning Finland, Norway, Sweden, and Russia. It stems from the indigenous Sámi people’s spiritual customs, conjuring images of the world through typically wordless vocables. Once condemned as heretical… Read More
One of the bright, albeit brief, marvels to have flashed upon the ’80s with a singular approach to rock music, JoBoxers filled a niche of their own creating. Bridging a nifty ’50s aesthetic with the urgency of new wave pop,… Read More
10. “Andy’s Chest” (Transformer, 1972) Lou Reed helped define a subgenre with this seminal glam rock record and yielded some of the most memorable hits of his career, such as “Perfect Day” and “Walk on the Wild Side”. Yet early in… Read More
From the start, it’s abundantly clear that the central mission of Siân Heder’s CODA—one of the opening films of this year’s virtual Sundance Film Festival—is to make a story that families within both the deaf and hearing communities can recognize… Read More
Given the way documentaries by and about celebrities are so often treated as a dumping ground for famous, inexperienced debutantes to get their first taste of filmmaking control behind the camera, you’d be forgiven for worrying that the directorial debut… Read More
When “Bipp” by SOPHIE first appeared on the scene around 2013, it was controversial for some pretty specious reasons. Certain segments of the dance community, already fed-up with the contortions and genre-bastardizations coming out of the ill-defined nu-grime scene associated… Read More
German indie rock band the Notwist have not released an album of new material since 2015. Although they have been around for more than 20 years with various members, the central trio of the group, Markus (guitar) and Micha Archer… Read More
James Oscar Smith, popularly known as Jimmy Smith, died in 2005 and is buried just outside Philadelphia under a headstone that proclaims him to be the “world’s greatest jazz organist”. Fellow jazz organists like Jimmy McGriff and Richard ‘Groove’ Holmes… Read More
Mouchette (1967), one of French master Robert Bresson’s many essential films, begins and ends with conspicuous absences. The opening credits roll over an image of an empty chair, out of which the title character’s mother (Marie Cardinal) has just risen… Read More
Before 2004, few people would classify Green Day’s music as particularly sophisticated, intellectual, or thematically mature. Sure, “Good Riddance (Time of Your Life),” with its poignancy, fragility, and beautiful orchestration, quickly became the introspective acoustic ballad of a generation, and… Read More