When Elvis Costello crashed into the consciousness of rock fans in 1977 with his debut album, My Aim Is True, he seemed like the bastard son of Buddy Holly and Johnny Rotten, the personification of the angry young nerd inside… Read More
I first noticed Maxwell Stern from a pleasant, unassuming tweet that somehow snuck into my usually gloomy feed. Stern’s tweet said something about not really wanting fame but wanting that low-key 12:30 am talk show slot, and he said he’d… Read More
The worlds that the Shanghai Restoration Project create are unfailingly sublime. Soothing, the group intrigue with their intricacies rather than overwhelm. Over the last 15 years, the duo have moved from Shanghai’s streets as reimagined on their 1930s jazz-influenced eponymous… Read More
By now, creative music fans know Susan Alcorn for her feat in bringing the pedal steel guitar to New York’s downtown music scene, with guitarist Mary Halvorson’s Octet and with other knotty improvising collectives. But Alcorn hasn’t entirely forsaken her… Read More
After the implosion of the Lou Barlow/J Mascis partnership in the late 1980s, Mascis signed Dinosaur Jr to a major label subsidiary and executed a run of four outstanding albums in the 1990s. Cherry Red Records have followed up on… Read More
Although the emergence of the goth subculture is often cited as developing around the Batcave’s 1982 founding in London, cities in the north of England paved the way for this gloomy subset of post-punk years before. Leeds clubs like the… Read More
“This is sacred music written for my own personal practice. If it is at all utilitarian, I hope that it encourages you to create something for yourself.” – Dave Scanlon. Even the most casual appraisal of Dave Scanlon’s discography can… Read More
In December, we featured upcoming London neo-soul artist Kianja’s single “I Get By” on the PopMatters Picks playlist. It’s an upbeat piano-driven number born of fierce determination to succeed and overcoming life’s barriers. That track displayed Kianja’s tremendous vocal power… Read More
Christian Petzold’s lengthy collaboration with actress Nina Hoss, from Wolfsburg (2003) to Phoenix (2014), saw the pair become inseparable. With the back-to-back films of Transit (2018) and Undine, their collaboration has hit pause, and a new one has begun with… Read More
While the Bee Gees are most famous as the emissaries of disco thanks to the monstrous success of the soundtrack to the movie Saturday Night Fever, like other British Invasion acts (via Australia), they always had roots in American country… Read More