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"The White Album" was a neat little concept. Actually, it was a sprawling mess that defies concept, but still: clever idea to roll this one out when they did. Fifty years ago this Thursday, in one of those left turns we've come to expect from history's game-changing rock bands, the Beatles followed up Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band -- widely viewed as the dawn of the album era, in which LPs...
Weezer didn't release an album in 2018, and yet this has still been one of the biggest Weezer years in recent memory, largely on the strength of the band's novelty-hit cover of Toto's "Africa." Next year, the band will release a new album, their Black Album. Last month, the band announced that the album would also be on the way, and they also shared the single "Can't Knock The Hustle," along with a...
The best rap feud in years isn't over yet. Pusha-T and Drake stopped making songs about one another months ago, and they reached the stage in their beef where they were conducting post-mortems in interviews. But last night, Pusha had a show in Toronto, Drake's hometown, and all hell broke loose. Last night, Pusha was performing a headlining set at Toronto's Danforth Music Hall. According to Billboard,...
Ween guitarist, Dean Ween, has put forth plans to establish a weed-friendly music venue in Denver. According to the Denver Post, the proposal was announced at a city meeting on Monday by the prospective venue’s COO, Michael Polansky. The venue, to be called Dean Ween’s Honeypot Lounge, would be located near Coors Field and would host music, comedy and film-related events. Dean Ween, who lives in...
Maybe it's Friday Night Lights. Maybe I'm conditioned. But there's a certain kind of ringing, sustained guitar chord that kicks me in the soul every time I hear it. It's pretty much Pavlovian. That guitar, all longing and crushed hope and delay, builds up into a note of turbulent triumph while the music around it rises along with it. It all swells up, a contemplative murmur that turns into a screaming...
A couple of weeks ago, Californian rap cult hero Earl Sweatshirt broke a long silence, releasing the new track "Nowhere2Go." The new song came after a performance at the all-star Mac Miller memorial concert and a short cameo on Vince Staples' FM! album. But if anyone thought Earl was staging a big commercial return, then the murky, stumbling "Nowhere2Go" would've corrected that notion. Today, Earl...
On Sunday night, federal agents arrested the New York rapper Tekashi 6ix9ine on racketeering and gun charges. At the time, many of us speculated that the arrest would probably lead to prison time for 6ix9ine, since he was already on probation after pleading guilty to using a minor in a sexual performance. But now, it looks like the possible probation violation is the least of 6ix9ine's problems. He's...
Swedish heavy metal outfit Ghost are headed to Midland, Texas, and the community isn't too pleased. On Friday, Midlanders joined together to pray and "plead the blood of Christ" in light of the Satanic band's arrival. They're performing tonight at the Wagner Noël Performing Arts Center. Friday's protest was led by local pastor Larry Long. “We’re not here to protest. We’re just simply here to...
Before she had no luck at all, Aimee Mann had beginner’s luck. She hit it big at the age of 24 with one of the first songs she ever wrote, “Voices Carry,” a top-10 hit for her band ‘Til Tuesday. Despite its superficial new-wave signifiers, “Voices Carry” wasn’t merely a vacuous byproduct of the Me…
The most influential emo bands are almost invariably mourned using the lexicon of incompletion and imperfection – they break up on the precipice of something bigger, are misunderstood or scorned by contemporary critics, leave a cruelly small recording legacy cited by more commercially successful peers as a primary influence. And since Algernon Cadwallader is a…
Tracking Down is a Stereogum franchise in which we talk to artists who have been out of the spotlight for a minute.…
“The Best Years Of My Life,” a standout from the Pistol Annies’ third album, Interstate Gospel, may have the best opening line of any song this year. After a short guitar intro that sounds like someone is X’ing out another day on the calendar, Ashley Monroe sings, “I picked a good day for a recreational…
Tracking Down is a Stereogum franchise in which we talk to artists who have been out of the spotlight for a minute.…
Linnea Siggelkow. L.S. Ellis. It’s as simple as that. And the Hamilton, Ontario musician’s songwriting is just as intuitive, a raw yet graceful breed of indie rock with a dream-pop splendor and a brooding slowcore soul.
For people of a certain age, Gary Busey is best known as a rapscallion of disputable ’00s television, popping up in programs such as Entourage, I’m With Busey, Dancing With The Stars, Celebrity Apprentice, and Celebrity Rehab With Dr. Drew to offer up loopy yet undeniably heartfelt exhortations to follow your dreams to anyone who…
Tracking Down is a Stereogum franchise in which we talk to artists who have been out of the spotlight for a minute.…
It’s late Wednesday evening in London and Danny Elfman is admittedly jet-lagged. “We’re right in the middle of scoring Dumbo,” says the iconic composer of the upcoming live-action adaptation of the classic story starring Danny DeVito and directed by his frequent collaborator Tim Burton. “All I can say right now about it is that the…
The first thing you’ll notice about Miya Folick is that voice. She’s just one of these people: There’s a natural gift there, and she has cultivated it, and she knows how to deploy it. Her vocals have an overwhelming power when she truly lets loose, the sound of a storm brewing within then erupting from…
Let’s just make something clear: While motorized scooters have infiltrated just about every major city in America to entertain drunks, endanger pedestrians, and undermine mass public transportation, watching kids throw Birds and Limes off a building or lighting them on fire is not funny. Nor is seeing a dog take a shit on these Uber-funded…
When Trent Reznor says he is excited about something he doesn’t actually sound excited at all. He speaks in a measured mutter, choosing his words carefully whenever he’s asked a question that could potentially lead to a headline-grabbing response. The press cycle for his most recent Nine Inch Nails release, Bad Witch, generated some notable…
Lorely Rodriguez writes about love in massive and minuscule ways. She measures it in the stars, she memorializes moments shared on a city stoop. Whether you’re speaking to her in person or listening to her lyrics, Rodriguez is considerate and direct. Both are attributes that she uses to write songs that feel universal and familiar…
Tracking Down is a Stereogum franchise in which we talk to artists who have been out of the spotlight for a minute.…
Sir Babygirl lives up to the excess of her name. Kelsie Hogue, the mastermind behind the fledgling project, admits that her music can be a lot. “I want to do pop escapism,” she tells me at a café in Brooklyn, where she’s recently moved from New Hampshire. She hasn’t really had time to settle into…
