At age 13, I encountered my first bootleg: a murky cassette of a Nirvana performance from 1988, seemingly recorded from a toilet stall in the building next door. Over the years, I’ve counted myself fortunate to have had this early… Read More
In the summer of 2011 the Syrian civil war broke out. After struggling for four years to hold on in the capital of Damascus where they lived, the Al Khatib family – ranging in age from teens to grandparents –… Read More
Bassist and composer Charles Mingus used to be a figure of controversy for ten different reasons, some political, some personal, and—though this all seems silly in the new century—some musical. Mingus could be difficult with audiences, tough on fellow musicians,… Read More
Not much has changed for Kurt Wagner since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Nashville native spent most of his time in the house, anyway — listening to music, tinkering with songs for his long-running band Lambchop, and carrying… Read More
At the start of the century, in the UK at least, Travis were everywhere. Their brand of earnest, plangent indie rock was a soothing balm for the pre/post-millennium morass, which threatened to make airplanes crash from the skies and terminally… Read More
On the 28 March 1977, while This Heat were recording their first radio session with producer Tony Wilson and engineer Dave Dade, the Sex Pistols were over at London’s Notre Dame Hall ushering in their end of days with Sid… Read More
“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
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