“Rockit” by Herbie Hancock, an unlikely sound track in 1983, arrived as a completely tangential entry into the world of pop. But besides reaching the Billboard #1 dance hit that summer, it broke a number of other thresholds as well.… Read More
At one time in the distant-seeming past, DOC NYC was one of the highlights of any self-respecting nonfiction movie geek’s calendar. Sure, American Film Institute and Hot Docs clue people in to some highlights of the year’s offerings. But if… Read More
These days it seems that all you hear in the news is about how America is divided. Understandably many see nothing but doom at the end of the road, but singer/songwriter Joan Osborne can’t help but choose hope. In Trouble… Read More
I can’t help but marvel that one of the United States’ most prominent unofficial film ambassadors had once broken his directorial chops working for B movie maestro Roger Corman and consumed enough cocaine in his youth to send him hurtling… Read More
If you were happening to wonder who the breakup songs are about on Little Mix’s new studio album, they aren’t so much about a romance. Confetti is the group’s first record to be released under a new deal with RCA,… Read More
In Minsk, the bust of Felix Dzerzhinsky — founder of the KGB — still stands. On the Island of Tears, the deaths of 771 Belarusian soldiers in Afghanistan are commemorated by a crying angel and grieving women. An obelisk hails… Read More
Electropop has many iterations, but possibly the most over-obsessed and tediously written about is the type that evokes the FM pop of the 1980s. Its revival started innocent and fun, but the critical reaction has started to turn towards vitriol.… Read More
Compared to the relatively capacious archival revelations of Can, a band with roughly comparable working practices, the posthumous pickings from This Heat have been cautiously selected and exceedingly sparse. In 1993 a three-song CD emerged – including a 33 1/3… Read More
If you’ve spent money on merchandise promoting your favorite sports team, logged hours discussing the summer blockbuster remake of a movie you and several other people on the same Internet message board liked when you were kids, or written a… Read More
London’s Tunng are the best band you still haven’t listened to, as since their 2003 inception, this collective have continued to build and folk and pop templates to create a sound that is experimental, ever-shifting, and always compelling. No two… Read More