Pop Culture

Kris Kristofferson, who died September 28, might be my favorite country songwriter. He understood the beauty of language like perhaps no other lyricist in popular music, including Bob Dylan. His classic songs were filled with verbosely flowing lines that nonetheless made sense to millions of listeners, including awestruck fellow musicians. His storied life included stints

Giant Robot: Thirty Years of Defining Asian American Pop Culture Eric Nakamura, ed. Drawn & Quarterly October 2024 Identity in the United States (and some will argue, elsewhere, too) is a fraught labyrinth. These days, seemingly at every turn in America, you must negotiate who you are and where you fit in the “melting pot”.

“Volcano girls, we really can’t be beat/ Warm us up and watch us blow.” – Veruca Salt “Readers are often poorly served when an author writes as an act of catharsis,” wrote Jon Krakauer in Into Thin Air, his firsthand account of the 1996 Mount Everest climbing disaster. This quote kept popping into my head

The Night the Zombies Came Pixies BMG 25 October 2024 It’s hard to believe that with The Night the Zombies Came, Pixies have now released more albums without Kim Deal than with her legendary contributions. That is assuming we are not counting the debut mini-album Come on Pilgrim (1987), in which case, the math is

In pagan times, Halloween or “Samhain”, meaning “summer’s end” in Gaelic, marked the time of year when people believed the boundaries between the physical and supernatural worlds were at their thinnest. They built bonfires and wore masks to communicate with spirits and prepare for the coming winter. These days, while Halloween often means getting a

It’s a Friday night here on 4th October, and a new autumn tradition in the Bay Area is taking shape. Greensky Bluegrass are at the Fillmore, and tonight’s performance will feature a collaboration with local keyboard phenom Holly Bowling for the fourth year in a row. This follows sensational team-ups with Bowling at San Francisco’s

Though her home is in Austin, Texas, Kelley Mickwee’s heart is tied to her roots in Memphis, Tennessee. The singer-songwriter acknowledges this attachment in her second solo album, Everything Beautiful, a pulsating, irrepressibly good recording with a heavy emphasis on all aspects soulful, each song an object of spirit-driven affection. “Stylistically, I’ve always wanted to

There comes a time in any veteran artist’s career when she starts to assess her work and legacy and revisit some of her past. On her latest album, Key, Alison Moyet seems to be just in such a nostalgic mood. As the voice of the New Wave outfit Yazoo, Moyet’s voluptuously soulful voice brought warmth

Galaxie 500 have long presented an ideal blueprint for a college radio rock band: stylish, though relatable, in presentation; confident in musical tone but bearing elements of vulnerability; attentive to past influences, whether the Modern Lovers, Joy Division, or Yoko Ono; and, above all, songs that in their finished form still felt gorgeously unrefined, like

In the current cinematic landscape, the plethora of superhero movies, with their hackneyed plots and action sequences, let alone their dull scripts, have made the genre a synonym for banality and absence of creativity, leading to the infantilization of audiences worldwide. Some older superhero films, however, were willing to take risks and use these modern

Throughout the history of pop music, its artists have continuously pushed its musical boundaries. So when is pop music no longer pop? More specifically, but less intriguingly, when is rock music no longer rock? It might seem strange to ask this question of the down-to-earth Paul Weller, who, in the late 1970s, established himself as

Described in the press notes as “a collection of field notes exploring gratitude”, Clearwater Swimmers’ debut album shows a surprising and refreshing amount of maturity. It reaches into Neil Young‘s Crazy Horse files for ruminative, slow-motion riffs and the downbeat tunefulness of early R.E.M. You could even compare them favorably to more current artists like

New York’s Greenwich Village is a compact sanctuary that has attracted a legion of visionaries and non-conformists who had an outsized influence on 20th-century culture – on alternative lifestyles, progressive politics, and the arts, especially music. Within the maze of coffeehouses, nightclubs, and watering holes on its narrow streets, the legends-to-be of folk, jazz, and

Ever since childhood, we have been fascinated by different songs bearing the same title. There have been seven US Top 40 hits in the rock era named “Lady”, “Hold On”, “One”, or “You”, six titled “I Love You” or “Missing You”, and five named “I Believe”. Some were released within weeks of each other, some

. In 2007, my father and I visited the Czech Republic. There were many core memories during that trip, but the most meaningful were from the day we spent at Terezín. Known more widely by its German name, Theresienstadt was a World War II Nazi station where Jewish prisoners were sent before being transferred to

It shouldn’t be a shock that many of the New York psychics profiled by Lana Wilson in her fascinating and, at times, maddening documentary Look Into My Eyes are actors, writers, or artists. At the very least, they are fascinated by invented worlds. Mediums and other people who have claimed to communicate with the spirits of the

“You know this job is just a stepping stone for you, don’t you?” said a psychic medium, one of the patients at a cancer hospital in Manchester where Kelly Lee Owens worked as a nurse at 18. According to her prediction, the now-world-renowned Welsh-born DJ, singer, and producer would move to London and become a

One thing we have learned from the 2024 US presidential race is that pop music is the new gold dust – sought, treasured, and valued for the excitement, voters, and appeals it can generate for a party’s political brand. The recent Democratic National Convention at times appeared more like a music festival than a gathering

Born in Dallas, Texas, Frank LoCrasto grew up far away from an ocean, yet throughout his life, he’s been fascinated by the Caribbean and soulful rhythms that wouldn’t be out of place in any local tiki bar. While LoCrasto has built a career as both a solo jazz artist and a go-to session player (having

Manchester’s Pale Waves have enjoyed success since bursting onto the scene with their debut, 2018’s My Mind Makes Noises. Their brand of pop-rock and pop-punk drew comparisons to early Avril Lavigne; the trend continued on their follow-up, 2021’s Who Am I? The following year, they released Unwanted, carving out a sharper, more vengeful sound, aligning more

At the 2024 Paralympic Closing Ceremony in Paris, the event producers wanted to continue celebrating all things French culture. Thus, performances from regional singers and an epic multi-DJ set under the guiding light of the legendary Jean-Michel Jarre were included. Yet partway through, two blind musicians from Mali took the stage, and Amadou & Mariam,

In 1967, the Moody Blues were struggling. The band from Birmingham, England, had changed its line-up after moderate success as an R&B act, but with the advent of rock’s psychedelic era, they could not find a new winning sound. They were about to be dropped by their record label, Decca Records, and worse, they owed

Bo Ramsey is an Iowa City legend. If there were a Mount Rushmore of Iowa musicians, his face would be on it (as they say in the Hawkeye vernacular). In the land of Slipknot, Andy Williams, and where Buddy Holly died, Ramsey’s positive reputation is as solid as the rock he plays. Ramsey is best

The World Is on Fire Isaiah Collier & the Chosen Few Division 81 Records 18 October 2024 It’s a Saturday night in San Francisco here on 14th September, and there are a lot of choices in the regional music scene, as usual. The Black Cat Jazz Supper Club is one of the weekend’s hot spots,

The commercial success of the Lindsey Buckingham/Stevie Nicks version of Fleetwood Mac was so massive and meteoric that within just seven years, they became a greatest hits act. Yes, they produced new material. But they had amassed a group of songs they were expected to play each night, songs audiences expected to hear—enough to fill up a setlist. Even

Autonomy: Portrait of a Buzzcock Steve Diggle Omnibus Press August 2024 The release of Spiral Scratch, Buzzcocks’ debut EP, on 29 January 1977 was a watershed event in British punk rock and independent music. Recorded and mixed in about five hours at Manchester’s Indigo Sound Studios, the four-song EP epitomized early punk’s do-it-yourself (DIY) spirit.

For those who followed Wild Pink frontman John Ross’ cancer diagnosis in 2021, questions circulated about what direction his music would take. His band’s subsequent album, ILYSM (standing for “I love you so much”), was primarily shaped by his precarious experience, but it was also not expected to be taken literally. Sure, the songwriting had some sentimentality,

Drummer Zach Barocas might be best known for his work with punk scene legends Jawbox, but even though he credits that scene with lifelong friendships, he has always gravitated toward other genres as a listener. He is currently leading a supergroup of indie rock royalty, including Jawbox bandmate J. Robbins, Mark Cisneros of Hammered Hulls,

To express his grief for his wife, Shah Jahan commissioned the construction of the Taj Mahal in memory of Mumtaz Mahal. So great was his love for his late wife that he holed himself up for a week after her death and forsook frivolity, flamboyant dress, and music for two years. To this day, the

I vividly remember when Arcade Fire’s debut album, Funeral, came out 20 years ago. My college buddy was doing an internship at a Fortune 500 company, and his colleague just happened to be a former member of a seminal indie band. What are the odds? This individual regularly chatted with my friend about music, and