Ric Ocasek, the lead singer and founder of the legendary new wave band the Cars, died today at the age of 75. According to NBC 4 New York, police received a call around 4 PM for an unconscious male at a townhouse on East 19th. He was pronounced dead at the scene. Law enforcement sources later confirmed the man was Ocasek. Ocasek released seven albums with the Cars from 1978 to 2011. He also released...
David Berman, who founded the legendary indie band Silver Jews and relaunched his career this year with a new project called Purple Mountains, died by suicide last month. Since then, a number of admirers have covered Berman's songs in tribute, including his longtime Drag City labelmate Bill Callahan, Animal Collective, First Aid Kit, and Nothing's Dominic Palermo. Last night in Glasgow, a particularly...
There's a moment three episodes into Ken Burns' new eight-episode/16-hour binge-doc Country Music when I had to hit pause. Ernest Tubb, an up-and-coming country crooner who loves to sing but hates his voice, visits the widow of his hero, Jimmie Rodgers, popularly known as the Singing Brakeman and generally considered the first superstar in country music. She loans him her late husband's signature guitar,...
Tired: a Post Malone posse cut with Meek Mill and Lil Baby. Wired: a Post Malone posse cut featuring Halsey and Future. Inspired: a Post Malone posse cut aligning Ozzy Osbourne with Travis Scott. The blessing and the curse of Hollywood's Bleeding is that it contains all three pairings and more. Every level of the galaxy brain is present here; to listen is to cycle through all of them yourself, constantly...
Last month, Travis Scott released Look Mom I Can Fly, a documentary centered around his blockbuster 2018 album Astroworld. The film spends a good deal of its time at Scott's concerts, where he's gained a reputation as a raucous performer who sends his youthful audiences into frenzies. The stage diving, the circle-pit-baiting, the shirtless dudes, the hypebeast attire -- that's all set dressing you'd...
Finally, we get to hear the long-awaited, yet anomalous, Ariana Grande, Miley Cyrus, and Lana Del Rey collaboration! And it's being shared along with video, which Miley hinted at earlier this week via Twitter. When we learned that Charlie’s Angels reboot had recruited some of the biggest names in pop music for its theme song back in June via the preview, I speculated that because of the rather...
Angel Olsen, an artist who has not yet released a less-than-great album, is about to hit us with a new one. Next month, Olsen will release All Mirrors, the follow-up to the 2016 stunner My Woman. Olsen recorded two different versions of the new album, and the one that we're going to hear is the one that she made with Burn Your Fire For No Witness producer John Congleton and a 14-piece orchestra. We've...
A few weeks ago, Charli XCX had a bit of a rough time. She took to social media to air out her feelings. "Sometimes I just want to quit everything," she wrote in an Instagram post. "Sometimes I wish I was only a songwriter, not an artist -- so I could give my songs to other artists to sing. And then maybe more people would hear them and connect with them. I don't really understand how music works,...
The music of Lower Dens has always been dense and to some extent difficult, even when cathartic or hypnotizing. Across their first two albums, 2010’s Twin-Hand Movement and 2012’s Nootropics, the band perfected a kind of shadowy then nervy rock sound — exemplified by the albums’ respective highlights, “I Get Nervous” and “Brains.” Then, on…
Britons have a complex relationship with the Monarchy. Though adored by older generations and millions around the world, the Royal Family are almost exclusively met with scorn and contempt from younger Brits, and especially those who are left-leaning and in the music community. That makes “Magic Of Meghan,” the debut single from southeast London four-piece…
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.…
Of the many reasons artists have missed interviews — schedule conflicts, illness, feigned illness — childbirth is among the most reasonable. The original plan was to Skype with both members of the Oslo duo Konradsen, but vocalist and pianist Jenny Marie Sabel was unavailable due to the strong likelihood of induced labor. Fortunately, multi-instrumentalist Eirik…
Vagabon makes music for outcasts. Laetitia Tamko writes quietly luminous songs that help the listener feel less alone. Her work often meditates on how we find a sense of belonging within a community and what it means to feel truly at home. But it also grapples with what it feels like to be alienated, to…
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.…
