I’m not a religious person, but when I try to tell my kids why they really can’t bash each other’s heads in, why they should avoid the pull of materialism, or why evil and tragedy seem to flourish with no end in sight, I see why my own parents tried to raise me in faith. […]
Oy vey, my lady friends are a puddle of heartbreak and discontent this week. Between the prolonged adolescent fuckery of Tinder and your standard-issue commitment phobia, it’s a wonder anyone bothers looking for love of the lasting variety these days. I’d been reflecting on the pathetic state of the contemporary dating scene and the complexity […]
When you hear the title of this song, don’t think “Easter Island” as in giant, looming monolithic heads staring out to sea. Think “Easter” as in Peeps, chocolate eggs and pastel-colored baskets because it’s a bouncy, clappy, sweet little number that has nothing to do with scary statues standing lonely on the most isolated island in […]
In the young person’s game of indie rock, one advantage to having some years behind you is that you acquire the skills and the guts to be who you really are — to navigate through the Scylla of reinvent-the-wheel novelty and the Charybdis of herd-like “cool.” I hear that on “Heavenstay” by Shana Falana, who […]
I can’t think of a band that makes more consistently perfect pop songs than Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin. The band has literally grown up together; main songwriters Will and Philip met in high school and the rest of the band came together shortly thereafter, quickly garnering a committed following in hometown Springfield, MO […]
These fellows from Pittsburgh do not take themselves too seriously despite their serious punk rock cred based on having two members who were in the much respected band Kim Phuc, and that is SO refreshing. The members of The Gotobeds have made-up names that aren’t even clever, which is really charming. They make light-hearted and […]
OK, places everyone! Here’s the video concept for the new FKA Twigs single, “Glass & Patron”: a white van is parked in the middle of the piney woods and inside a pregnant FKA Twigs goes into labor and gives birth to a magician’s endless multicolored silk streamer that billows in the breeze … fade into […]
The more things change, the more they stay the same. Or so wrote a French critic named Alphonse Karr back in the 19th century, and damn if I don’t agree more and more every year that my life trips on. Personally, I hate change, so when something new comes around that takes me back to […]
Singer/songwriter Laura Gibson lost all of her stuff in yesterday’s terrifying fire in New York. There’s a GoFundMe campaign to help her get some money together to replace her belongings and get a new place to live. It’s hard enough to be an artist these days without having your things lit on fire, so please […]
This new Mas Ysa song is killing me. “Look Up” is a sneakily addictive piece of work, with quirky little sounds repeated in what I can only assume are mathematically-proven-to-be-pleasing patterns. This is from the mind of someone who clearly knows how to craft a song; I almost feel manipulated by how well this is put […]