“[There have been] few other cases in the history of civilized peoples where human suffering has been viewed with such peculiar indifference.” – W.E.B. Du Bois Sometimes the books delivering the most chilling message can be the most hopeful. These… Read More
2020 needed an album like Friend Ship. Part of an emerging wave of artwork informed by the COVID-19 pandemic, the seventh album from Kiwi sextet, the Phoenix Foundation takes sweet solace in the human condition in all its complexities and… Read More
The first sound you hear on Waylon Payne’s new album, Blue Eyes, The Harlot, The Queer, The Pusher & Me, is a young boy enthusiastically proclaiming, “OK, ready! 14, 22, 89, go!” That is followed by a single guitar chord,… Read More
Laura Veirs’ My Echo sounds like it was written and recorded during the recent pandemic because of its claustrophobic themes of confinement and disintegration. But that’s not true, according to Veirs in the Bandcamp album description. Instead, she was restricted… Read More
“Mr. De Shields is a tireless performer. His stylized, rhythmic patter keeps the momentum of the performance building, and his singing, in a voice that seems to relish every full syllable, runs the gamut of shadings,” raved New York Times… Read More
Lydia Loveless doesn’t wilt. The past few years have been at least as fun for her as they have been for the rest of us, with a divorce and a move and the joyful political landscape of the US. In… Read More
A few years ago, Kevin Morby bought a house. It didn’t come out of nowhere. Deerhunter’s Bradford Cox had handed down some wisdom he’d received from Kim Gordon: the best thing a working musician could do for themselves was own… Read More
Dustin Laurenzi is a busy man with a list of musical projects that would make the average artist cower in intimidation. But unlike many overachievers who tend to spread their musical talents too thin, virtually everything the Chicago-based tenor saxophonist… Read More
10. Kanye West – 808s & Heartbreak (2008) We should have known better than to underestimate Kanye West. After a multi-platinum trilogy of albums, 808s & Heartbreak was West’s first album not to receive universal acclaim. The use of Auto-Tune almost guaranteed… Read More
Buffalo, New York native Patrick Cowley is best known as a pioneering electronic dance music creator from the 1970s and early 1980s who used synthesizers and instrumental programming to create distinctive and infectious beats for artists like Sylvester and Paul… Read More