Among last week's many troubling accounts of entertainment-adjacent sexual misconduct was the news that guitarist Matt Mondanile was dismissed from Real Estate last year due to "unacceptable treatment of women" and not merely so he could focus on his solo project, Ducktails. Today SPIN has published a lengthier report detailing multiple specific allegations. In summary: These on-the-record accounts,...
William Patrick "Billy" Corgan now appears to be, among other things, a batshit conspiracy theorist, and during his appearance on the The Howard Stern Show today, he talked about a few of the supernatural events he's allegedly witnessed. He recounts a time that he apparently saw a shapeshifter -- "Let’s just say I was with somebody once and I saw a transformation that I can’t explain," he said...
Pop music is littered with the shattered remains of relationships. As the stereotype goes: Personal strife often makes for good art. And for many artists, nothing is more of a catalyst for a great song than romantic discord or destruction. The list of classic breakup songs and albums feels endless; some artists' whole catalogs seem to revolve around the ups and downs, the exhilarating beginnings and...
Earlier this week, LA beat producer William Benjamin Bensussen, better known as the Gaslamp Killer, was accused of drugging and raping two women in 2013. In the wake of the allegations, Brainfeeder, the record label founded by Flying Lotus that released some of the Gaslamp Killer's music, appeared to distance themselves from Bensussen, writing that they "did not have any knowledge of the alleged incidents...
The Pussycat Dolls were founded as a burlesque troop before becoming recording artists and scoring a string of hits in the mid-'00s. But according to a former member of the group, the group itself also doubled as a "prostitution ring," and members were abused and forced to sleep with various music-industry figures. As The Independent reports, Kaya Jones, who was a member of the group from 2003 to 2005,...
Following the allegations of sexual misconduct against Harvey Weinstein, Björk has shared a story of her own experiences with harassment in the film industry. "i am inspired by the women everywhere who are speaking up online to tell about my experience with a danish director," the musician wrote in a post on her Facebook today. "it was extremely clear to me when i walked into the actresses profession...
In the wake of the sexual harassment and assault allegations against Harvey Weinstein, it's become sickeningly clear just how much of an open secret his behavior was in Hollywood. Over 30 women have now come forward to accuse the producer of sexual misconduct, a "joke" that Seth MacFarlane made about Weinstein while hosting the Oscars in 2013 garnered nervous laughs from the audience, and now TMZ has...
I've always gotten the impression that Nimrod -- which turns 20 tomorrow -- is the Jan Brady of '90s Green Day albums. I don't have much to back this up other than a gut feeling and a lifetime of best-Green Day-album debates. But I have noticed that, over the course of said discussions, Nimrod conveniently fades into the background -- not unlike 2000's equally underrated Warning and the band's 2002...
Dive through the sea of sounds that emerged from of the 1980s and you’ll find the material that pulls on your senses the strongest. Maybe it’s metal or new wave or R&B. Perhaps you even quietly, unironically dig Huey Lewis And The News. But if there’s one act with the ability to unite all consumers…
During the epochal period when Belle And Sebastian were making albums such as If You’re Feeling Sinister, Tigermilk, The Boy With The Arab Strap and winning hearts for their wistful melodies and lovelorn character studies, the Scottish indie pop group were also releasing EPs like Lazy Line Painter Jane and Dog On Wheels that allowed…
John Carpenter, the director of such genre-defining shockers as Halloween, The Fog, The Thing, and Christine, permanently scarred our collective childhood with his knack for spooky storytelling. Now, at the age of 69, he’s not only experiencing a deserved career Renaissance, he’s also embracing his status as — plot twist! — a recording artist.
“Hello, baby, how are you doing,” Princess Nokia greets me on the phone. Her voice is tender and genuine. She has been touring for the last year and a half and remains ridiculously busy, but in this rare free moment she’s chatting about 1992 Deluxe, Rough Trade’s expanded re-release of last year’s breakout mixtape 1992.
In the relatively short amount of time they’ve been a band, Toronto four-piece Weaves have garnered a good amount of well-deserved acclaim. Last year, we named them a Band To Watch ahead of their self-titled debut, a collection of bright, frazzled art-rock that wound up earning Weaves a ton of buzz and a nomination for…
Ten years ago, when R.E.M.’s Automatic For The People turned 15, Stereogum released a compilation of artists covering each song from the album (Drive XV is still available here) and, at the time, we got Mike Mills to talk a little bit about every track. Today, Automatic For The People turns 25 — an extensive…
It’s hard to place Faris Badwan. There’s the fact that his name alone sounds exotic. There’s the fact that his demeanor is some improbable mix of stoned, moody detachment and wired, up-all-night intensity. He speaks in a wispy, wandering murmur that could equally signal boredom, mild frustration, aloofness, or reflection. And, obviously, there’s the way…
Welcome to the fourth installment of “Tracking Down,” a new Stereogum franchise in which we talk to artists who have been out of the spotlight for a minute.…
When Jessica Lea Mayfield moved from Ohio to Tennessee a few years ago, it was not merely a professional decision. The relocation put her at the heart of the music industry in Nashville, but more crucially it gave a new start after some incredibly traumatic events in her life. A singer with a gracefully laconic…
Strike one for an indie band forming in 2009: playing “really bad, wussy emo rock 10 years after it was relevant.” Strike two: doing so in Willimantic, Connecticut, a city commonly known as “Heroin Town” in a state whose most renowned rock band to that point was probably Hatebreed. Strike three: call yourself the World…
Lisa-Kaindé and Naomi Díaz are twin sisters who make up the aptly named duo Ibeyi, which translates to “Twins” in the Yoruban language of West Africa. When I met up with them in New York, the two had arrived in the city an hour before — Lisa-Kaindé flew in from London and Naomi from Paris.
Someone hands Joe Casey another drink. He leans back, a smile breaking his reddened face as he observes it, his fingers now cradling an empty whiskey glass and a new apple juice/whiskey concoction, which looks pretty much just like whiskey. An unlit cigarette — the who-knows-which installment in a seriously endless lineage of pre-show smokes…
Rick Antonoff looks like he’s second-guessing this. Wearing a T-shirt and shorts, he’s perched on a board in a dunk tank, surveying the crowd gathered to watch as people take their shot at hitting the target — which clangs with a sound that immediately conjures state fairs and old carnivals — to send him into…
Michael Cera tends to come off as a music fanatic that occasionally moonlights as an actor. He played with Sex Bob-Omb in the film Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World and the indie-rock supergroup Mister Heavenly (featuring his friend Nick Thorburn) in the real world, played on a Weezer album, and even released a lo-fi folk…
Nothing about Moses Sumney is ordinary. When you set out to solve for x in the equation of two strict Ghanaian parents who also happen to both be pastors, the solution is usually not one acclaimed singer-songwriter operating at an intersection of genres. Especially one that has a B.A. in Creative Writing, a circle of…
