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'The Dead Don't Die' Confronts Climate Change with Deadpan Whimsicality

With The Dead Don't Die, Jim Jarmusch deliberately deprives his latest film of the propulsive terrors innate to most zombie films, instead using the genre to matter-of-factly rhapsodize about consumer culture and the inevitability of the apocalypse.

Film

The Beat Goes on with 'Kerouac on Record'

These essays explore the connection between Kerouac and the music he loved -- Charlie Parker, Lee Konitz, Chet Baker, Miles Davis and others -- and the musicians who loved him, in turn.

Books

Tom Waits: Preacher on a Pale Horse

A guide to nine songs for the faithful, the faithless, and the searchers.

Music

An Alternative Christmas Playlist for the Coming Ice Age

If the idea is that earth, water, fire, air and space constitute the core elements of life, then these five songs might seem as their equivalents to surviving the complications that come from embracing the good and enduring the ugly of the Christmas season.

Music

Tom Waits: Eluding the Authorities

However many smokes he’s inhaled since childhood, Waits' trademark growl is a choice -- his first step to direct listeners' attention to the work of musical performance.

Tim Scherman

Music

The 100 Greatest Alternative Singles of the '80s: Part 5: 20 - 1

Songs of anxiety, paranoia, freak-outs, chilling verses, feverish desire, harrowing lyrics -- they all make for damn good music.

Music

Chuck E. Weiss: Red Beans and Weiss

Cartoonish in nature, like an exploding cigar joke. No matter how smart one thinks he or she is, one always laughs to the groove at the moment of detonation.

Music

Robert Ellis: The Lights from the Chemical Plant

On this challenging and intimate album, Robert Ellis walks up to the brink of despair and calls it out to play.

Music

Juana Molina: Wed 21

Constructed from looping bass lines, whirring guitars and keyboards, and her enigmatic, murmuring voice, this latest collection of songs from Argentina's premiere electro-folk songstress is a glorious mess of sound.

Music

Saturday Night, Sunday Morning: Gospel Music in a Secular World

Critically, commercially and historically, gospel is the great overlooked American music, maybe because few genres of music force you to confront your beliefs so immediately.

Music

Various Artists: The Voice Project Presents Home Recordings Volume 1

Music as a tool for social change: An important cause highlighted in a simple, yet powerful way.

Music

Everyone Lost: Protest Art and the Iraq War

While people were killing and dying, what did it matter whether there were decent songs being sung, insightful films being produced, appropriate art being inspired? When did poetry ever stop a war?

Film

Counterbalance No. 114: Tom Waits' 'Rain Dogs'

Inside a broken clock, splashing the wine with the 114th Most Acclaimed Album of All Time. A 1985 cult classic is this week's Counterbalance. You'll never be going back home.

Music

Death's Head Lullabies: Tom Waits - "That Feel"

What better way is there to end a concept album about death than with a song that spits in Death’s face?

Music

Pop Ten

The 100 Greatest Alternative Singles of the '80s: Part 5: 20 - 1

The 100 Greatest Alternative Singles of the '80s: Part 1: 100 - 81

The 100 Greatest Alternative Singles of the '80s: Part 2: 80 - 61

The 100 Greatest Alternative Singles of the '80s: Part 3: 60 - 41

The 100 Greatest Alternative Singles of the '80s: Part 4: 40 - 21

Jackie Chan's 10 Best Films

Collapse Expand Pop Ten

Mixed Media

Collapse Expand Mixed Media

PM Picks

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'The Dead Don't Die' Confronts Climate Change with Deadpan Whimsicality

With The Dead Don't Die, Jim Jarmusch deliberately deprives his latest film of the propulsive terrors innate to most zombie films, instead using the genre to matter-of-factly rhapsodize about consumer culture and the inevitability of the apocalypse.

The Beat Goes on with 'Kerouac on Record'

These essays explore the connection between Kerouac and the music he loved -- Charlie Parker, Lee Konitz, Chet Baker, Miles Davis and others -- and the musicians who loved him, in turn.

Tom Waits: Preacher on a Pale Horse

A guide to nine songs for the faithful, the faithless, and the searchers.

An Alternative Christmas Playlist for the Coming Ice Age

If the idea is that earth, water, fire, air and space constitute the core elements of life, then these five songs might seem as their equivalents to surviving the complications that come from embracing the good and enduring the ugly of the Christmas season.

Tom Waits: Eluding the Authorities

However many smokes he’s inhaled since childhood, Waits' trademark growl is a choice -- his first step to direct listeners' attention to the work of musical performance.

Chuck E. Weiss: Red Beans and Weiss

Cartoonish in nature, like an exploding cigar joke. No matter how smart one thinks he or she is, one always laughs to the groove at the moment of detonation.

Robert Ellis: The Lights from the Chemical Plant

On this challenging and intimate album, Robert Ellis walks up to the brink of despair and calls it out to play.

Juana Molina: Wed 21

Constructed from looping bass lines, whirring guitars and keyboards, and her enigmatic, murmuring voice, this latest collection of songs from Argentina's premiere electro-folk songstress is a glorious mess of sound.

The Rolling Stones and Tom Waits Perform "Little Red Rooster" (video)

Tom Waits joins the Rolling Stones on a recent tour stop and the world rejoices (as it should).

Saturday Night, Sunday Morning: Gospel Music in a Secular World

Critically, commercially and historically, gospel is the great overlooked American music, maybe because few genres of music force you to confront your beliefs so immediately.

Various Artists: The Voice Project Presents Home Recordings Volume 1

Music as a tool for social change: An important cause highlighted in a simple, yet powerful way.

Everyone Lost: Protest Art and the Iraq War

While people were killing and dying, what did it matter whether there were decent songs being sung, insightful films being produced, appropriate art being inspired? When did poetry ever stop a war?

Counterbalance No. 114: Tom Waits' 'Rain Dogs'

Inside a broken clock, splashing the wine with the 114th Most Acclaimed Album of All Time. A 1985 cult classic is this week's Counterbalance. You'll never be going back home.

Death's Head Lullabies: Tom Waits - "That Feel"

What better way is there to end a concept album about death than with a song that spits in Death’s face?

Compelling Grotesquery in Graphic Novel 'Vivisectionary'

'Ascend' Is Illenium's Most Emo Album Yet

Power Pop's the Lilacs Endure with a New Song and Album (premiere + interview)

The Commonheart Share a Soulful Message of Love and Positivity on 'Pressure' (album stream + interview)

Japanese Soul Singer Nao Yoshioka Treks to Philly for New Single, "All in Me" (premiere)

The Good Graces Keep Their Loved Ones Close on "Snow Angels" (premiere)

Toronto's Bedouin Soundclash Cook Up a Ska-Pop Delight with "Salt Water" (premiere)

Marc Cohn and Blind Boys of Alabama Have "Work to Do" (album stream) (premiere)

Those Pretty Wrongs Remind Us "It's About Love" (premiere + interview)

Joshua Radin's "Going with You" is an Ode to Friendship (premiere)

Folkie Sofia Talvik's "Wrapped in Paper" Is Dedicated to the Love of Her Life (premiere)

With The Dead Don't Die, Jim Jarmusch deliberately deprives his latest film of the propulsive terrors innate to most zombie films, instead using the genre to matter-of-factly rhapsodize about consumer culture and the inevitability of the apocalypse.

These essays explore the connection between Kerouac and the music he loved -- Charlie Parker, Lee Konitz, Chet Baker, Miles Davis and others -- and the musicians who loved him, in turn.

A guide to nine songs for the faithful, the faithless, and the searchers.

If the idea is that earth, water, fire, air and space constitute the core elements of life, then these five songs might seem as their equivalents to surviving the complications that come from embracing the good and enduring the ugly of the Christmas season.

However many smokes he’s inhaled since childhood, Waits' trademark growl is a choice -- his first step to direct listeners' attention to the work of musical performance.

Songs of anxiety, paranoia, freak-outs, chilling verses, feverish desire, harrowing lyrics -- they all make for damn good music.

Cartoonish in nature, like an exploding cigar joke. No matter how smart one thinks he or she is, one always laughs to the groove at the moment of detonation.

On this challenging and intimate album, Robert Ellis walks up to the brink of despair and calls it out to play.

Constructed from looping bass lines, whirring guitars and keyboards, and her enigmatic, murmuring voice, this latest collection of songs from Argentina's premiere electro-folk songstress is a glorious mess of sound.

Tom Waits joins the Rolling Stones on a recent tour stop and the world rejoices (as it should).

Critically, commercially and historically, gospel is the great overlooked American music, maybe because few genres of music force you to confront your beliefs so immediately.

Music as a tool for social change: An important cause highlighted in a simple, yet powerful way.

While people were killing and dying, what did it matter whether there were decent songs being sung, insightful films being produced, appropriate art being inspired? When did poetry ever stop a war?

Inside a broken clock, splashing the wine with the 114th Most Acclaimed Album of All Time. A 1985 cult classic is this week's Counterbalance. You'll never be going back home.

From apocalyptic blues boasts to backwoods chant-alongs, here are 15 songs that encapsulate Tom Waits' incredibly varied career.

What better way is there to end a concept album about death than with a song that spits in Death’s face?