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You always have to watch out for the quiet ones. Sleater-Kinney probably never wrote a quieter song than "The Size Of Our Love," a hesitant and tender and devastated ballad that appears near the the end of their album The Hot Rock. "The Size Of Our Love" is about being in love with someone who is probably dying. It's about sitting in a hospital room, waiting around for that person to die or not die,...
Many people only know the Roots as Jimmy Fallon’s band on The Tonight Show. While that should be a criminal offense, it exemplifies how underrated and underappreciated the Roots’ legacy in hip-hop (and all of music) is. There are no prodigious sales numbers to boast. There is no pile of Grammys. Yet solely from an undeniable catalogue of politically minded, incredibly forward-thinking music, they...
There have been many ways to hear Jimmy Eat World's Clarity: your favorite streaming service; the 2007 reissue that included the original demo of "Sweetness"; the 2xLP vinyl; the 10th anniversary tour. And I can say that I've probably blown a couple hundred dollars on all of them combined. But there's only one way to truly experience it as intended, and according to Discogs, it'll run you no more than...
"How the fuck can I be white? I don't even exist." I could write a term paper about a line like that. In fact, I did. I wrote two or three of them. That's what you did when you were a college English major when The Slim Shady Album came out. Those term papers were, in retrospect, largely bullshit. Most of the papers I wrote in college were bullshit. Being an English major mostly involves learning how...
Avril Lavigne is back, and as usual, it's complicated. When Lavigne hit big with 2002 debut Let Go, the world knew her as the teen pop star with a mall-punk ethos. Here was a TRL staple who unleashed her air-raid siren soprano over crunchy electric guitars, rocked a necktie over a tank top, and shredded at least as well as the "Sk8er Boi" in her monster hit. Her persona was undoubtedly smart marketing...
Weezer have released two new songs, "High As A Kite" and "Living In LA," that'll appear on their forthcoming The Black Album, which is due out next week. Last fall, they released two singles from it -- "Can't Knock The Hustle" and "Zombie Bastards" -- but took a break in the rollout to put out a surprise covers album known as The Teal Album. The two songs were produced by TV On The Radio's Dave Sitek,...
Nickelback frontman Chad Kroeger provided us with some of the juiciest, most unexpected beef of 2017 when he dissed former Roadrunner Records labelmates Slipknot: “How good can your music be if you’ve gotta beat each other up onstage, throw up in your own mask every night?” In response, Slipknot singer Corey Taylor said that Kroeger has “a face like a foot” and that Nickelback “is to rock...
We’ve Got A File On You is a new reboot of an old-school Stereogum franchise. Once called Annotated Media Guide, these are interviews in which artists share the stories behind the extracurricular activities that dot their careers: acting gigs, guest appearances, random internet ephemera, etc. When an artist gets 40 years in, chances are they've settled into a groove. They have figured out what works...
We’ve Got A File On You is a new reboot of an old-school Stereogum franchise. Once called Annotated Media Guide, these are interviews in which artists share the stories behind the extracurricular activities that dot their careers: acting gigs, guest appearances, random internet ephemera, etc.
When an artist gets 40 years in, chances…
Mercury Rev had a pretty good 2018, mostly because they had a great 1998. Though the band hadn’t released any music in a couple of years, in 2018 they became the beneficiaries of a free promotional campaign, thanks to the 20-year nostalgia cycle that inevitably spawns think pieces and retrospective listicles. And no…
When Noah Lennox began writing his new solo album, Buoys, he started with just a guitar. Though previous Panda Bear albums have emerged this way, they’ve resulted in increasingly widescreen visions such as 2011’s Tomboy and the euphoric glow of 2015’s Panda Bear Meets The Grim Reaper. But Buoys feels different because its skeletal framework…
Playing minimal metal at maximum volume, sound wave masseurs Sunn O))) are now entering their 21st year as the ne plus ultra of suffocating drone. Still searching for the most accurate representation of their famed, body-vibrating live performances, their upcoming eighth album — Life Metal, due in April — was recorded to tape with famed…
Jon Simmons admits he’s trying to be more direct in 2019, but it doesn’t come naturally. The Balance And Composure frontman carefully admits to the one criticism he’s taken to heart over the years — that his lyrics can run a bit vague compared to the stylish, slegdehammer alt-rock of his band.
Decidedly, Cherry Glazerr’s Clementine Creevy and I are not tea connoisseurs. But on a peculiarly warm day in January, we’re learning a lot about the aromatic beverage.
Kim Gordon has long been one of our most intimidating rock stars. From her work with the legendary Sonic Youth to her side gig Free Kitten and current project Body/Head, she’s always been able to wield harsh noise, anti-patriarchal vitriol, and rock star cool with ease. But even though she can summon the feedback to…
There’s been something happening in Dublin. Across 2014 and 2015, a group called Girl Band started to generate international buzz thanks to their idiosyncratic blend of noise-rock, post-punk, and techno-inspired rhythms. Here was a new sound, one nobody associated with a specific generation or scene in Ireland. Girl Band then went silent for several years,…
We’ve Got A File On You is a new reboot of an old-school Stereogum franchise. Once called Annotated Media Guide, these are interviews in which artists share the stories behind the extracurricular activities that dot their careers: acting gigs, guest appearances, random internet ephemera, etc.
Almost 10 years ago, Sharon Van Etten released…
For someone who can be so verbose, Bradford Cox is the first person to admit he doesn’t have all the answers — at this point, he’s not even pretending to.
Chris Simpson doesn’t think he’s ever met a casual Mineral fan, but the potential for millions of them briefly existed in the minds of people like Sylvia Rhone, Jimmy Iovine, and Clive Davis. Even your parents can probably name the careers shepherded by these legendary A&Rs: Santana, Bruce Springsteen, 2Pac, Eminem, Billy Joel, Aerosmith, Metallica,…
Sasami Ashworth is determined to make it. In a sense, she already has. She’s scored short films and commercials, taught in an elementary school, and collaborated in the studio with artists like Vagabon, Hand Habits, and Wild Nothing. And for two-and-a-half years she was a member of Cherry Glazerr, playing the synths that leveled out…
Tracking Down is a Stereogum franchise in which we talk to artists who have been out of the spotlight for a minute.…
Wayne Coyne is always busy. Whether working on official albums or a smattering of side projects, the Flaming Lips — the band he’s now been a part of for 35 years — never seem to stop moving. “With us, it’s always like five things at one time,” he says from his home in Oklahoma City,…
Phoebe Bridgers won a lot of people over quickly. Amidst releasing her debut Stranger In The Alps last year, she immediately made her presence known: A gifted singer-songwriter often diving into confessional, melancholic depths while maintaining a sometimes-dry, sometimes-quirky sense of humor online and elsewhere. She was gifted, and she was interesting. We wound up…
