Brian May, Coachella 2025, and Modern Music Festivals
Is a young person’s inability to recognize Queen’s guitarist, Brian May at Coachella, the cardinal music sin many believe it to be?
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The Hold Steady’s ‘Separation Sunday’ Remains a Dense and Brilliant Masterpiece
Twenty years ago, the Hold Steady fused bar rock with beat poetry for a simple tale of redemption that will forever be celebrated for its authenticity.
Colin Miller Discusses Losin’ and Honoring a Lost Friend
Powerful insight is typical of Colin Miller’s talent for relatable observation, and what drives his musical tribute to his lost mentor, Gary King.
Indie Pop’s Tennis Near the End Game As Doubles Team
It’s game-set-match for the husband-and-wife Tennis team. This isn’t a temporary hiatus. It’s a full-fledged farewell with a “0%” chance of changing their minds.
The 20 Essential Pavement Songs
These Pavement songs are a collection of Stephen Malkmus’ sharpest turns-of-phrases. It’s like a veritable Bartlett’s Famous Quotations for the indie set.
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MetalMatters: The Best Metal Albums of April 2025
In April’s best metal, Ancient Death tread into otherworldly death metal, Behölder stand firm on heavy ground, and Messa look beyond the doom confinements.
‘Lord of the Flies’ 2025 or: How the Empire Struck Inward
The lasting terror in Lord of the Flies isn’t that civilization breaks down: it’s that the tools of empire (dominance, ideology, forced conformity) remain alive and well, even in our children.
Rodeo Boys Discuss Rural Queer Blue Collar Life and ‘Junior’
Rodeo Boys show “the quiet rebellion of a queer, blue-collar heart”. Junior mixes revenge anthems and tales of queer love and identity.
The Safety Trap: Society’s Destructive Fear of Risk-Taking
In episodes from SpongeBob SquarePants and South Park, risk-taking is rejected, leading to psychosis and isolation, or it becomes an an ideology, leading to destruction and absurdity. A degree of risk-taking, however, is essential for a healthy society.
The 100 Most Memorable 1999 Albums
PopMatters recently turned 25, and these memorable 1999 albums celebrate the popular music that defined the year of our birth, for better or worse.
15 Albums to Help You Fall in Love With Poetry
Whether you’ve been a poetry lover for decades or never read a stanza in your life, you’re likely to find something to make you fall in love with poetry among the batch.
‘Clair Obscur: Expedition 33’ Studies the Power of Legacy
In Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, the characters don’t cling to cosmic promises or ordained fates; they find meaning in deliberate choices made in the shadow of annihilation.