Jack Name’s past work was exceptionally epic and wild. On Name’s first two albums, 2014’s Light Snow and 2015’s Weird Moons, songs were long, pitch-shifted, or just plain weird, and sometimes all of these things at once. There was a… Read More
The Creative Crisis of COVID For musicians, the pandemic and consequent closing of performance venues has been a crisis. In the new century, nearly every musician beyond the largest stars has been largely dependent on income from live performances, with… Read More
Psychobilly inhabits a space where some of rock’s oldest genres—rockabilly, garage, surf, country, and blues—cross-pollinate with punk rock. Despite looking back to look forward, this sub-genre of sub-genres has never stopped moving and mutating, such that today it ranks among… Read More
You won’t catch Martin Amis standing still, mucking about, or idling around. Amis, the British novelist and essayist about and for whom there is always something new, has been writing seriously since the 1970s. The Rachel Papers (1973), although a… Read More
“The reason American art is so good and holds one’s attention is that it is built on the underlying psychosis that results from truly fending for oneself,” said a guy I was talking with at a bar in Amsterdam a… Read More
15. Megan Thee Stallion – Good News [1501 Certified/300] When a rising rap personality graduates from the mixtapes to the event studio album, they often exchange their established and uncompromising street flow for easy pop hits, gaining mainstream success while… Read More
15. Dan Deacon – Mystic Familiar [Domino] Mystic Familiar, Dan Deacon’s latest record, fits right in with the composer’s catalog of shimmering, welcoming electropop. The product of meditation and Brian Eno’s creative-inspired card set, the album follows the titular character,… Read More
In 2019 I was targeted by Facebook ads; the algorithm knows I’m a sucker for a Netflix romantic comedy promo. I watched the trailers for two Netflix Christmas movies, The Knight Before Christmas, starring Vanessa Hudgens and Josh Whitehouse, and… Read More
Gracie Abrams Precocious, LA-based singer-songwriter Gracie Abrams came to the fore in 2020 with the shimmering, delicate heartbreak of her debut EP, Minor. It’s a cathartic slice of teen angst that demonstrated a keen ear for melody, a wellspring of… Read More
20. Iggy Pop and the Stooges – You Think You’re Bad Man: The Road Tapes ’73 – ’74 [Cherry Red] In 1969, the Stooges were a truth serum, forcing hippiedom to belch up the reality that flowers and hope had become just… Read More