This if f*cking INCREDIBLE! Arguably the greatest music video since “This Is America.” The 5-minute short film, made at the Brooklyn-based experimental studio Art Camp, is set in a dream world inspired by fragments of Thom Yorke and Stanley Donwood’s imagination and made up of over 3,000 hand-illustrated frames. […] Art Camp commented on their process interpreting the latest track from Thom’s current album ANIMA: “Our first and last goal was to serve the feelings of the song and the record. Thom shared a list of visions with us, disconnected images from his dreams, and we expanded on it with […]
Win Tix To See Roseanne Cash & Ry Cooder Perform The Songs Of Johnny Cash @ The Met On Sunday
Not sure what I can tell you about Johnny Cash that Joaquin Phoenix hasn’t already taught you. Presumably, at this late date, there is no need to run down The Man In Black’s CV — walked the line, shot a man in Reno just to watch him die, swallowed enough trucker speed to stay five feet high and rising for the better part of the 20th Century, fell into a burning ring of fire, woke up Sunday morning with no way to hold his head that didn’t hurt, etc. — but let us be clear: Johnny Cash remains a […]
NPR 4 THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When U Can’t
FRESH AIR: Dan Piepenbring was a 29-year-old editor of the literary magazine The Paris Review in 2016 when he met Prince for the first time — and agreed to help the musical icon pen a memoir. It was the assignment of a lifetime for a writer who had not yet published a book, but Prince wanted someone he could open up to — and Piepenbring fit the bill. “If there was any advantage to the kind of guilelessness that I brought to our conversations, it was that it let me listen to him very openly and without judgment,” Piepenbring says. […]
TAYLOR HAWKINS: Middle Child
From Get The Money, due out November 8th on Shanabelle/RCA Records.
BEING THERE: Sleater-Kinney @ The Fillmore
Photo by JOSH PELTA-HELLER Dressed in black, Sleater-Kinney kicked off their set at the Fillmore last night with the slow futuristic dirge of “The Center Won’t Hold,” the title track of their latest album. Here was the new, layered, and organized sound of Sleater-Kinney, sweethearts of the 90’s riot grrrl movement, almost 25 years after their debut. The songs from The Center Won’t Hold aren’t bad by any means, but next to the electric charge of Dig Me Out or The Hot Rock, they sound sort of tame and jaded — at least on the studio versions. After the ominous […]
NEO SOUL SURVIVOR: Q&A W/ Macy Gray
Photo by GIULIANO BEKOR BY LARA MICKLE It’s been 18 years since she won a Grammy for “I Try,” but Macy Gray is a neo soul survivor. Over the course of the last two decades, Gray has released 10 studio albums, embarked on countless world tours and racked up dozens of film, television and video game credits. Concurrently, she has weathered multiple micro-controversies, all of which have proven, in the fullness of time, to be proverbial tempests in a TMZ teapot. Through it all, one thing has remained above reproach: that voice. Like honey on sandpaper, Gray’s voice signals both […]
FRANCES QUINLAN: Rare Thing
Hop Along’s Frances Quinlan has made a name for herself as one of the most prominent songwriters with one of the most distinct and inimitable voices in the indie rock space over the past decade. Today the Philadelphia-based musician announces her stunning solo album Likewise, which will be released on January 31st on Saddle Creek. While Hop Along began as Quinlan’s solo project (originally titled Hop Along, Queen Ansleis), Likewise is Quinlan’s debut under her own name. Recorded with bandmate Joe Reinhart at The Headroom, Likewise sees Quinlan tap into new sounds. “Working with Joe on this made me able […]
DESTROYER: Crimson Tide
The lead-off single from Have We Met, the new Destroyer album due out January 31st. Destroyer plays Underground Arts March 8th with Nap Eyes. Tickets go on sale Thursday October 24th at 10 AM.
NPR 4 THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When You Can’t
FRESH AIR: In the 1960s, Janis Joplin was an icon of the counterculture, a female rock star at a time when rock was an all-boys’ club. “At that point in time there weren’t too many women taking center stage,” biographer Holly George-Warren says. “Janis created this incredible image that went along with her amazing vocal ability. … [She] was very, very different than most of the women that came before.” On stage, Joplin oozed confidence, sexuality and exuberance. It all seemed so effortless, but George-Warren describes Joplin as a bookworm who worked hard to create her “blues feelin’ mama” musical […]
ALBUM REVIEW: Danny Brown Uknowhatimsayin¿
For those unaware of Detroit rapper Danny Brown, who has just returned after a three-year hiatus with a new album called uknowhatimsayin¿, I would like to give a brief test. Play five seconds of his song “Downward Spiral,” the opener to his 2016 album Atrocity Exhibition. I predict you will either close the tab immediately, or be sickly fascinated. The double punch of the dark, looming instrumental and Danny’s yelpy delivery will either immediately turn you off or pull you in. Or better yet, do the same test with his song “Ain’t it Funny,” probably one of the wildest songs […]
AOIFE NESSA FRANCES: Blow Up
From Land of No Junction due out January 17, 2020, on Ba Da Bing.
BEING THERE: IDLES @ Union Transfer
Photo by MATT SHAVER Bristol post-punk outfit IDLES is not the heaviest band out there, and they certainly aren’t the edgiest. They are, however, indubitably one of the angriest bands around. The fundamental rebelliousness that is the driving force of punk rock music, in the case of IDLES, manifests itself through a twisted (though profoundly humane) depiction of love. You heard me right: the thematic heart of IDLES’ punk-ness is a kind of re-imagined Flower Power. Their two debut full-length records, Brutalism and Joy as an Act of Resistance are both unashamedly anti-fascism and an unconditionally inclusive call for community. […]