41 Essential Pop/Rock Songs with Accordion
No popular musical instrument has been more frequently maligned than the accordion. Despite gaining hipster cred in the 1990s, its role in pop remains underappreciated.
Features
Stereolab Debuted with the Fluorescent ‘Peng!’ 30 Years Ago
Three decades ago, the lucid yet obscure (and antiquated yet postmodern) first entry in Stereolab’s superabundant catalog foreshadowed greatness. Peng! is 30.
Pearl Jam Rise Above Adversity to Rock Oakland Righteously
It’s a cool evening in the East Bay, but the temperature promises to rise inside the Oakland Arena, where Pearl Jam will rock out for a two-night stand.
JazzMatters: Best New Jazz and Creative Music – May 2022
Critic Will Layman listens to jazz podcasts, muses on Charles Mingus, reads Jason Miles, and discusses the best new jazz recordings of May 2022.
The Smearing of Silent Film Star Mabel Normand
An accomplished silent film star, screenwriter, director, and producer, Mabel Normand’s career ended abruptly and tragically when she was deemed guilty by association.
Color Lines: 1930 Colonial Film ‘Mamba’ in Early Technicolor
Albert S. Rogell’s 1930 Technicolor film Mamba offers a colonial critique that’s sometimes explicit, sometimes implicit, and sometimes contradictory.
Queen Hit the Dance Floor on ‘Hot Space’ 40 Years Ago
Many Queen fans might not want to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Hot Space, but the album checks too many quirky boxes to ignore it.
Frank Sinatra on Top of the Heap: Revisiting ‘Sinatra at the Sands’
Sinatra at The Sands is my favorite Frank Sinatra performance – cocky, charming but not oily, warm but not soppy. Each listen lays bare the sheer “cuckoo calculation” of it all.
Alias’ Carl Lumbly and Michael Vartan on Its Legacy and Streaming Rebirth
Alias actors Carl Lumbly and Michael Vartan recall their work with J.J. Abrams, Jennifer Garner, and others on the spy/sci-fi action thriller, now airing on Disney+.
Dare You Enter Jennifer Egan’s Mind Palace ‘The Candy House’?
Jennifer Egan’s The Candy House is an EDM concert, a prestige drama, a mind palace – and a warning.
Criminal Subterfuge and Dark Desires in Chabrol’s Minimalist Murder-Mysteries
While murder and crime certainly run deep in Claude Chabrol’s world of subterfuge, the dark desires of human nature that provoke them run immeasurably deeper.