Credit: Omar Vega/Invision/AP
In the history of classic rock, few big names have had a career quite like Peter Gabriel's. After all, it's hard to even make sense of his arc: This is a guy who went from '70s prog to an art-rock tinged with '80s new wave and post-punk to experimental pop auteurism to becoming an elder statesman who goes a decade or more without releasing much in the way of new music. Along the way, he's existed as...
Former Dave Matthews Band violinist Boyd Tinsley is denying allegations of sexual harassment filed against him in a lawsuit on Thursday, promising to defend himself and fight the claims in and out of court. Boyd was accused by trumpeter James Frost-Winn of making frequent sexual comments to him over the course of their professional relationship as a member of the band Crystal Garden, which Boyd formed,...
Move over, Post Malone: Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are here to break some streaming records. Within hours of the ceremony, which is taking place in Windsor at St George's Chapel tomorrow, a recording of the entire thing from Decca will be up on streaming services like Spotify and Apple Music, with a vinyl version of the festivities to come next week. "Capturing the words and music of this Royal...
For as long as there's been a recording industry and a movie business in America, actors have been making albums. In plenty of cases, especially in the decades when pop musicians were looked at as entertainers more often than as artists, there was just too much opportunity for synergy -- if you had a popular show, why not cash-in elsewhere with a popular song? Of course, there's the other version,...
If Grimes and Elon Musk broke the internet, Yanny and Laurel are here to absolutely demolish the remains. Those seemingly meaningless names took the internet by storm yesterday and will likely linger until the next meme circulation cycle. The question of "Yanny or Laurel" is kind of like the audio version of "the dress" meme, which appeared black-and-blue to some and gold-and-white to others. Similarly,...
When you're an old man, sometimes it takes time to learn how to hear music -- music that teenagers can understand immediately and instinctively. Case in point: Playboi Carti. Last year, the young Atlanta rapper released his hugely popular self-titled album, and I had no idea what to even think of it. It sounded like chaos. Carti wasn't rapping, at least not in the way that I understand the term. He...
For a very brief moment, Stephen Malkmus is spooning me. He leans over me, puts his right hand over my right hand, and guides me through a proper tennis swing. I'd been losing too much power during our match and not hitting the ball correctly. So he's taken matters into his own hands to demonstrate what an unhurried and fluid form feels like. He does this a few times, until it seems like I maybe sort...
The iconic 1959 Martin D-18E guitar that Kurt Cobain played on Nirvana's MTV Unplugged has been at the center of a two-year legal battle as a result of Frances Bean Cobain's divorce from Isaiah Silva. The former couple officially divorced last November, but they only just recently reached a property settlement agreement and part of its terms is that Silva was allowed to keep the guitar. Last year,...
For a very brief moment, Stephen Malkmus is spooning me.
Ben Gibbard is hesitant to talk about Death Cab For Cutie’s new album, knowing that whatever he says will probably be misconstrued. He learned this lesson in 2008, when bandmate and producer Chris Walla described their then-forthcoming Narrow Stairs as “bloody” with notes of “synth punk,” thus giving critics plenty of fodder to twist once…
When Gang Gang Dance emerged from New York City in the early 2000s, the band’s sound was raw, ragged, and raga’d — a percussion-powered swirl of elephantine hooks and dizzying chants. On dispatches like 2005’s God’s Money LP and 2007’s Rawwar EP — both via the Social Registry label — the ululations of lead singer…
“I was not made to be a Lower East Side model,” Ryley Walker cracks as I force him, for the purposes of splashy journalistic representation, to act like a Lower East Side model. We are walking around the Manhattan neighborhood in question, Walker a rapid-fire mixture of rapt observations on the city around him, jocular…
Music towns like Brighton often come with a set of contrasts. They’re inspiring, because there are tons of artists milling around, collaborating, figuring out their voices alongside each other as they jump from band to band. You’ll always find one gig or another to go check out. But on the flipside, that means there’s that…
Like many of us, Harriette Pilbeam loves Carly Rae Jepsen. She cites her as an influence, admiring her talent for writing smart pop music. Under the moniker Hatchie, Pilbeam makes a cosmic concoction of dream-pop and shoegaze injected with the DNA of a Top 40 melody. While it’s easy to compare her music to that…
Like many of us, Sadie Dupuis thought Hillary was going to win.
Ever hear a new band that’s so truly, madly, and deeply your shit that it immediately seems like a prank?
Meg Remy is moving very, very quickly. She’s just rushed offstage after soundcheck, introduces herself out of breath with a quick handshake, and then immediately collects herself to do a rapid lap around the block for a photoshoot. She has to move quickly: Her band, U.S. Girls, is about to undertake the daunting and frenetic…
There are great bands that reinvent themselves with each new album, others that hit a sweet spot and stick with what works, and then there’s Beach House. Over their decade-plus career, some might argue that the Baltimore-based band has largely adhered to a formula, but with 7 — their excellent seventh album, which is out…
Two weeks before her band released their debut EP, Avery Springer found herself on family vacation at Universal Studios dealing with a crisis. The new band she formed a few months prior had just been served a cease-and-desist notice from another band that was also using their name. Springer and her bandmates were in a…
Hanging out with Forth Wanderers feels like infiltrating a club house. Ava Trilling, Ben Guterl, Zach Lorelli, Duke Greene, and Noah Schifrin have known one another since they were kids, and when I meet them all for a very late lunch in Midtown Manhattan, inside jokes abound. It can be hard to keep up as…
This place used to be a big part of Nandi Rose Plunkett’s life. This is where her life happened. Nearby, that’s where she lived as a young, hungry artist, fresh out of college and newly transplanted to the city. We pass a giant enclosed lot crammed with the tour buses you see crawling the streets…
Flatbush Zombies’ Meechy Darko contains multitudes. On April’s first Friday at their album release concert in Rough Trade’s Brooklyn shop, he’s shirtless rapping in a gravelly voice alongside his two other crewmates — rapper-producer swingman Erick The Architect and long-bearded fast-spitter Zombie Juice. It’s a crowd that ranges from the Rawkus Records generation to Pro…
Ben Schneider, as is his tendency, is trying to remember the night we met. The Lord Huron mastermind believes it took place after a show where his fledgling band opened for Avi Buffalo. I always assumed it was Abe Vigoda. Either way, this is definitely an “LA indie rock in 2010″ story. That’s the world…
