It is tempting to think America, and the world, lost something precious on 17 July 2020, with the passing of Rep. John Lewis and Rev. C.T. Vivian on the same day. Both of them were stalwarts of the Civil Rights… Read More
10. Battles – La Di Da Di [Warp] It seems like just yesterday Battles released their striking debut Mirrored. In the mid-2000s, Battles spearheaded a new generation of math rock, highly groovy music that tests the bounds of rhythm and meter using… Read More
“Imagine in the 21st century, in a supposedly secular country, you have cases where people are killed, simply because they are homosexual…” —David Isteev, LGBTQ+ Activist Meet Anya. Anya finds herself in an ultimatum: Either she has sex with her… Read More
The gradual emergence of more and better low-barrier tools for the creation and dissemination of media has reached unprecedented heights in recent years, and the impact on popular music has been substantial. Who could have imagined the rise of Soundcloud… Read More
Alex Pavesi’s debut novel, The Eighth Detective, posits mathematical rules defining ‘detective fiction’ and serves up a fresh and multi-layered homage to that well-worn genre. Pavesi, who has a Ph.D. in mathematics, creates a protagonist, Grant McAllister, who is also… Read More
Aaron Turner has been a staple of the Boston metal and hardcore scene throughout the 1990s and early 2000s as a musician and entrepreneur. He founded the prolific independent label, Hydra Head Records, which he used to help shape the… Read More
“The desert is a spiritual place and the sea the mere playground of our hedonism.” These words are from Land’s Edge: A Coastal Memoir, a book in which Tim Winton describes how South-West Australia’s landscape shaped the life and mind… Read More
Are we in the midst of a trombone renaissance in creative music? Young and not-so-young voices on the instrument suggest so—with recordings from Ryan Keberle and Joe Fiedler hanging around the top of many lists, certainly mine. Nick Finzer is… Read More
Look Alive, the latest release from Oklahoma instrumental rock outfit Unwed Sailor, finds the veteran band in fine form more than 20 years into their career. It’s part of a career renaissance that the outfit, led by Johnathon Ford, is… Read More
Webb Wilder’s latest album is Night Without Love. Released in April 2020, the collection captures the Mississippi native in fine form, including on the titular track, a tune he has known for many decades now. “It was written by one… Read More