Just a couple weeks after their acclaimed performance at Chicago’s Pitchfork Music Festival, tUnE-yArDs made their national television debut (Monday, August 1) on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. With the addition of ?uestlove on drums and Black Thought even rapping a verse near the end of the tune, this song is brimming with unbridled energy. Let’s hope the spontaneity and utter joy of this performance will bring Merrill Garbus’ insanely creative music to a larger audience. It deserves to be heard by everyone.
Surreal Visions of a Girls' Boarding School in Jacqueline Audry's 'Olivia'
The world always has a reason why sex is wrong, so perhaps the most subversive element in Jacqueline Audry's Olivia is its refusing to condemn.
11 Dec 2019
Randall Bramblett's "Vibrating Strings" Is About Staying Alive (premiere + interview)
Randall Bramblett reissues his acclaimed, quiet masterpiece, The Meantime in 2020. "This was not an easy record technically to make," he recalls. "We were vulnerable." Listen to "Vibrating Strings".
Jedd Beaudoin
Music
11 Dec 2019
The Curmudgeonly King of Noir Chronicled in 'Notes From the Velvet Underground' The Life of Lou Reed'
Howard Sounes' Notes From the Velvet Underground is a beautifully considered book, with enough detail about the life and career of Lou Reed for the geeks, enough context for the historians, and just enough juicy stuff for everyone else.
11 Dec 2019
On the Raydio: An Interview with Ray Parker, Jr.
With a documentary and new album slated for 2020, GRAMMY-winning legend Ray Parker, Jr. reflects on his career from Motown to "Ghostbusters" and beyond.
11 Dec 2019
The 15 Best Avant-Garde and Experimental Albums of 2019
In an age when the personal is political feels as necessary as ever, we identify most with experimenters who transcend the throwing-shit-at-a-wall, banging-on-pots-and-cans approach. These artists occupy the earthly just as much as they occupy the mechanical and the celestial.
11 Dec 2019
The Power of Looking Compels 'Portrait of a Lady on Fire'
Set in 18th century France, Céline Sciamma's Portrait of a Lady on Fire applies ravishing historical details to the timeless poetry of forbidden love.
10 Dec 2019
Sharon Marcus Challenges Current Cultural Theories in 'The Drama of Celebrity'
Who decides who gets to be famous? What does it mean to be famous? Sharon Marcus offers insight.
10 Dec 2019
Music History, the Conspiracy Theory: On Ted Gioia's Music: A Subversive History
Although enjoyable in that sweeping big picture kind of way, there is nothing subversive to be found in Ted Gioia's Music: A Subversive History.
10 Dec 2019
The Best Jazz of 2019
Our jazz critics create four quartets of great creative music, demonstrating four trends that keep "jazz" relevant in a new century.
10 Dec 2019
MetalMatters: November 2019 - Winter Is Coming
Filled with everything from extreme doom/death and progressive death to experimental avant-garde jazz induced visions and screamo dreams, November does not disappoint.
10 Dec 2019
Venus as a Boy in Silent Film 'Little Old New York'
Sidney Olcott's silent film Little Old New York falls into a tradition of men who find themselves strangely attracted to boys that turn out to be girls in disguise.
09 Dec 2019
Jami Attenberg Explores Patriarchal Fallout in 'All This Could Be Yours'
Through a familial lens, Jami Attenberg offers a thoughtful and often darkly funny exploration of Trumpian patriarchy in All This Could Be Yours.
09 Dec 2019
Yeezus vs Jesus: Kanye West's Faith in 5 Songs
Kanye West's rap is rooted in gospel right from The College Dropout days. These five songs, which explore the relationship between Yeezus and Jesus, show that his recent album, Jesus Is King, isn't an aberration.
09 Dec 2019
The 70 Best Albums of 2019
From forward-looking electronic and experimental to new approaches in the ever-evolving R&B scene, from hip-hop and punk to rock and pop, 2019 bestowed an embarrassment of musical riches upon us.
09 Dec 2019
The Best Progressive Rock/Metal of 2019
This year in progressive rock and metal found genre mainstays continuing to impress while relative underdogs and newcomers finally seized some of the spotlight.
Jordan Blum
Music
06 Dec 2019
Friend Within Brings Sunshine to the Dancefloor on "Space Jam" (premiere)
Liverpool producer Friend Within's "Space Jam" is the kind of deliciously fun, deep house tune made for detonating those winter blues.
06 Dec 2019
A Pact to Be Tender When the World Is Coarse: Stewart Lupton and Jonathan Fire*Eater
With the release of the expanded edition of Tremble Under Boom Lights, the 45-page chapbook of the poetry of Stewart Lupton, and the re-release of Wolf Songs for Lambs, Jonathan Fire*Eater are ripe for reappraisal.
06 Dec 2019
The 20 Best Hip-Hop Albums of 2019
Following Stormzy's run up the charts, 2019 proved to be a banner year for British hip-hop with a trio of masterpieces. America's myriad hip-hop scenes delivered the goods, and African rap gave us many stellar releases.
06 Dec 2019
'Shapeshifters' and Other Trans-forming Humans
Supernatural Historian John Kachuba deftly demonstrates in Shapeshifters: A History that change is the only constant in life.
06 Dec 2019
With "Santa Baby", Emergency Tiara Updates a Classic Just in Time for the Holidays (premiere)
J-pop meets vintage girl group in Emergency Tiara's smart, sassy cover of the Eartha Kitt Christmas standard, "Santa Baby".
05 Dec 2019
Ambient Producer Steve Hauschildt Gets Glitchy on 'Nonlin'
Electronic artist Steve Hauschildt has made one of his most challenging records with Nonlin, but that makes it one of the most rewarding.
05 Dec 2019
The Book Every American Needs to Read: 'Open Season: Legalized Genocide of Colored People'
Award-winning lawyer Ben Crump's Open Season irrefutably documents how America's treatment of Black Americans and other minorities is indistinguishable from genocide.
05 Dec 2019
Pan American Expresse Powerful Emotions Through Guitar Instrumentals on 'A Son'
As Pan American, Mark Nelson sings for the first time since his magnum opus Quiet City, but his emotions are most powerfully expressed through his instrumental guitar compositions.
05 Dec 2019
The 10 Best Ambient Albums of 2019
Ambient music has grown with the birth of streaming, ushering in big audiences to sounds both challenging and relaxing. Here are ten best records of the year that say so much without saying a word.
05 Dec 2019
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