Alice in Chains’ ‘MTV Unplugged’ Is a Grunge Staple and a Series Standout
Twenty-five years after its release, Alice in Chains’ MTV Unplugged is an essential grunge album and a career-high point for the band.
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AIDS Activism and Sarah Schulman’s Joyous Anger
Schulman’s Let the Record Show argues that AIDS continues to kill queer, drug-addicted, brown, black, undocumented, and uninsured people.
Director Jamila Wignot on the Importance of Cultural Memory and Her Documentary ‘Ailey’
Director Jamila Wignot adds to the cultural archive with Ailey, her documentary about innovative dance choreographer Alvin Ailey, a man ahead of his time.
Carly Kraft Is Off and Running As Coral Moons Shine on ‘Fieldcrest’ (premiere + interview)
As the frontwoman of Boston’s Coral Moons, Carly Kraft fires an opening salvo on the indie-rock quartet’s LP debut with “I Feel Alive”, a rock-hard statement for the pandemic era.
Still ‘KooKoo’ After 40 Years with Debbie Harry’s First Solo LP
Forty years later, Debbie Harry’s blend of Blondie and Chic remains a flawed but beguiling experiment that paved the way for Let’s Dance and Like a Virgin.
The Exoticized Gaze in Lawrence Durrell’s ‘The Alexandra Quartet’
Durrell’s unquestioned assumption of superior European culture paradoxically allows him to be keenly responsive to Alexandria’s multinational mix.
Jacques Deray’s Drama ‘La Piscine’ Is Hypnotic and Quietly Ruthless
Sultry, hypnotic, and quietly ruthless, Jacques Deray’s La Piscine is a slow-burner rife with impossible beauty and turbulent emotion.
Adam and the Ants ‘Ant Music’ from Subculture to Image Culture
Adam of Adam and the Ant’s original costume is in the Victoria and Albert Museum but you can get Ant-style highwayman and pirate costumes online if you want.
When the Satire Works and When it Doesn’t in Geto Boys Bio ‘Why Bushwick Bill Matters’
For a Geto Boys biography so concerned with Bushwick Bill’s status as a short person, Hughes’ book sure skirts the issue of embodiment.
‘Sweat’ Director von Horn Isn’t into Critiquing Social Media
Director Magnus von Horn didn’t make Sweat to be a critique about social media despite what everyone thinks.
Between the Grooves of Modest Mouse’s ‘The Lonesome Crowded West’
Modest Mouse’s Isaac Brock is a blue-collar poet in the best American tradition, and The Lonesome Crowded West is his opus. Our track-by-track analysis of the classic indie rock album shows its brilliance.