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The imperial phase always ends. That period -- the time when an artist has such a firm grip on the zeitgeist that she can take the entire listening public wherever she wants -- can last for years, but it will never last forever. Every hugely popular artist in history has a dropoff point, a time when the world moves on to something else. That moment can be awkward and ugly and humiliating, and it can...
Last year, Charlie Puth was on the cover of Billboard and in the accompanying feature, it was reported that when Puth wanted lunch he told his driver, "I'm hungies." A detail like that is too good to pass up so, naturally, we here at Stereogum did a blog post about it, extrapolating from this encounter Puth's general use of the term "hungies." It resulted in an extremely popular tweet of ours. When...
One of the most fascinating things about avant-garde jazz and improvised music is the methods people use to impose structure, while still allowing plenty of room for players to run free. Last week, I went to the Jazz Gallery and watched a performance by trumpeter Taylor Ho Bynum's 9-Tette. They were premiering music from the album The Ambiguity Manifesto, which will be out next month. The group featured...
In The Number Ones, I'm reviewing every single #1 single in the history of the Billboard Hot 100, starting with the chart's beginning, in 1958, and working my way up into the present. *** Paul Simon - "50 Ways To Leave Your Lover" HIT #1: February 7, 1976 STAYED AT #1: 3 weeks Writing about his late friend David Berman in Rolling Stone a few weeks ago, Rob Sheffield mentioned that Berman had a great...
For many years, Bill Callahan and David Berman were friends and peers. They both came up writing dour, oblique, poetic songs and releasing those songs in early-'90s Drag City Records releases -- Callahan with Smog, Berman with the Silver Jews. And while both of their paths diverged over the years, both of them reemerged triumphantly in 2019 -- Callahan with his double album Shepherd In A Sheepskin...
The first time we glimpse Charles Manson's female followers in Quentin Tarantino's long-awaited Manson Family epic, Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, they don't exactly seem murderous. They look sweet and innocent -- a crew of barefoot hippie girls scavenging around a dumpster for food. They are giggling, and they are singing together, à cappella. It's an odd song. It sounds like a children's nursery...
Lana Del Rey is releasing a new album, Norman Fucking Rockwell, at the end of the month. The rollout has been quite the lengthy one. The first songs we heard from it, "Mariners Apartment Complex" and "Venice Bitch," came out way back in September of last year. At the beginning of this year, she shared "hope is a dangerous thing for a woman like me to have – but i have it," and more recently we've...
The 1975 are nothing if not ambitious. Sometimes, their creative aspirations are so lofty that they blow past the also-ambitious deadlines they set for themselves. To wit: Originally the plan was to follow up last November's massive A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships with another album called Notes On A Conditional Form in May. Spring came and went without a new LP. There was talk of a new single...
It’s hard to believe Great Grandpa’s newest album is by, well, Great Grandpa. It’s a drastic musical shift, the kind that has you questioning if you accidentally put on a different band’s record or missed a transitional EP along the way. Four Of Arrows, the Seattle band’s sophomore full-length — due out this October via…
Caroline White has been releasing hushed reveries as Infinity Crush for the better part of the decade. The musician and poet’s songs are consistently revelatory in how much they do with so little. They are suggestive, her words have a precious, unfiltered intimacy. They’re loaded with imagery that takes on a kind of dream logic,…
We’ve Got A File On You features interviews in which artists share the stories behind the extracurricular activities that dot their careers: acting gigs, guest appearances, random internet ephemera, etc.
There are some legacy artists that exist in a funny place. They became famous off a couple hits once upon a time, they…
Over the past year, Jake Ewald’s tastes have evolved, man. The Slaughter Beach, Dog mastermind has found himself drawn towards music with nuance and a little more space to breathe — things the 26-year-old can respect “now that my attention span’s gotten slightly longer.” His newfound appreciation for the slow build shows in the way…
Industry showcases are an odd thing. Some record company gathers together label people, media types and maybe some radio people together in a venue, and gets their artist to play their latest stuff live. Hopefully, you’ll buzz about it. I once had a job where it was all but mandated I attend these things, and…
“Pitchfork Condé Nast Music Festival!” JPEGMAFIA exclaimed. “Look at it. And they’re letting me up here with a live microphone. Mistake.”
There’s a song on Glitterer’s official debut album, Looking Through The Shades, called “The News.” Unlike the other 13 tracks on the record, which are all speckled with synths and/or propelled by a thumping drum machine, “The News” is just Ned Russin singing a simple melody over an equally rudimentary bassline. “Saw my face up…
In April of last year, Frightened Rabbit’s landmark, breakthrough sophomore album The Midnight Organ Fight turned 10. It was cause for celebration: This was the album on which the band came into its own, featuring some of Scott Hutchison’s most enduring songwriting, the album that fans would latch onto in their times of need and…
I have to constantly remind myself that Maxo Kream is a little less than two years older than me. Besides the black-and-green Supreme jersey, everything about the 29-year-old rapper emanates an OG persona. When he comes downstairs to a Flatiron District hotel lobby, he gives the type of hard handshake that makes you aware you’re…
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.…
The first time I saw Anthony Naples, he was shrouded in fog. He was DJing his residency at the Ridgewood, NY club Nowadays, lighting the misty dancefloor up with thorny techno and scrappy house. I saw an artist in full control of his craft as a DJ, unconcerned with appearances as a “performer.” Now, Naples…
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.…
“Where do you go when you just wanna go? Where do you go when you let it all go?” Emily Sprague asks on a song from Florist’s third album, which was written as an escape — from life’s external pressures, from the constant buzzing inside your own mind. It’s an album that’s constantly looking for…
“Method Man,” the lead single of Detroit-based rock musician Stef Chura’s new album, Midnight, paints a picture of a dude whose condescension is dreadfully magnetic. Driven by an fervor and fixation similar to that that fuels the type of relationship it describes, Chura’s vocals and the accompanying instrumentals speed up and intensify as the song…
Carlos Santana has a lot to celebrate in 2019. It’s the 50th anniversary of his band’s self-titled debut album, which was released on August 30, 1969. Two weeks before that, the band gave a legendary performance at the Woodstock festival in upstate New York. They’d been a popular live act in San Francisco, but their…
