Watching Steven Soderbergh’s film Contagion (2011), in light of a year of COVID-19, I was struck by the accuracy of much of the writers’ vision. A zoonotic disease crosses over from increasingly under pressure animal populations, trapped in the ever-shrinking… Read More
“I think the idea of the leather jacket-wearing, womanizing, drug-fuelled rock star should be burned,” Charlie Steen, the frontman for London’s Shame, told The Guardian back in 2018. It was just a few days before their debut, Songs of Praise… Read More
One of the first sequences in the documentary series City So Real shows the mayoral candidates in Chicago marching in the 2018 Bud Billiken Parade, a celebration for the start of the back-to-school season in the storied Black neighborhood of… Read More
Balothizer – Cretan Smash (Louvana) <a href=”https://balothizer.bandcamp.com/album/cretan-smash”>Cretan Smash by Balothizer</a> Full disclosure: I’m cheating a bit. Balothizer’s Cretan Smash was released back in November, but the album is such a gem that it deserves everyone’s attention. Three factors make this… Read More
Kevin Godley has been a vital part of some of the most innovative music of the last six decades. As a quarter of the original lineup of 10CC, he had hits worldwide but jumped ship with his long-time creative partner,… Read More
“A man alone always talks too much.” — Ferdinand Griffon Pierrot le fou (1965) was the tenth 10th feature film in five years from French enfant terrible Jean Luc-Godard, working at a blinding rate mostly unseen in contemporary cinema. Adapted… Read More
On 20 January 2021—in the shadows of the terrorist attack on the US Capitol just 14 days earlier—Amanda Gorman became the United States’ sixth inaugural poet. At 22-years-old, Gorman became the youngest inaugural poet, but more important than her age… Read More
It’s been ten years since Rhye began recording their debut album, Woman. Eventually released in 2013, the album caused a storm with the performers’ identity shrouded in mystery. The beautifully androgynous and seductive vocals caused debate as to the gender… Read More
American Head, the latest release from the Flaming Lips, stands as a marker of time. It’s wrapped in anxieties about the future, whether that future is distant or close, yet it provides the listener with a distinct sense of comfort.… Read More
Think about Buzzcocks for a moment. What did they look like? The image that popped into your head was probably from about 1978. Four stick-thin figures, brimming with angst and cheap speed and cocky with it. Hammering their instruments into… Read More