Pop Culture

Music’s Mother Superior of Smut, Peaches, is back with a new album for the first time in more than a decade. Titled No Lube So Rude, the Canadian artist has called her latest album’s title a call for a socio-political smoothing rather than a direct reference to the kind of sticky substance that appears on

Soap operas are the most prominent form of dramatic narrative in which actors age in real time. François Truffaut’s sequence of films starring Jean-Pierre Léaud as the filmmaker’s alter ego, Antoine Doinel; Richard Linklater’s Boyhood (2014); and Jia Zhangke’s Caught by the Tides (2024) are films in which actors age onscreen in the same role, shot over a couple of decades. In the

Where are you tonight, Kyle Craft? Sailing the Mississippi River like Mark Twain? Or performing “Visions of Johanna” to any punter who gives him half a chance at the Bob Dylan Center? You tell me. After releasing three studio albums with Sub Pop, nothing has been publicly heard of him since 2019. It is as

Unless you’re Indigenous, you’re to some degree a child of empire. Actually, even if you’re Indigenous, unless you belong to an isolated tribe somehow untouched by the outside world, your personal and shared histories have been affected by imperialism.  Some of us are privileged enough not to think about how large forces, such as imperialism,

The Pinochet years keep returning to Chilean cinema because the dictatorship did not stay in the past. It was long and brutal, and its damage outlasted the regime that produced it. The 1973 military coup overthrew a government and remade the state. It destroyed the Popular Unity project led by Salvador Allende and inaugurated a

When asked about how he feels about UltraBomb’s latest, punk rock legend Greg Norton simply says, “This is one of the best recordings I’ve been a part of.” When Norton, who was one-third of Hüsker Dü, one of the most influential punk bands of all time, says his new record is a career highlight, it’s

In an influential and controversially sweeping formulation, cultural theorist Fredric Jameson argued 40 years ago that “the story of the private individual destiny is always an allegory of the embattled situation of the public third-world culture and society.” To tell stories from the decolonizing global South using forms and genres developed and disseminated within the

Weller at the BBC: Vol. 2 Paul Weller Warner / Parlophone 24 April 2026 Paul Weller may be something of a cult artist in the United States, but in his native UK and across Europe, he’s a well-deserved living legend. As a founding member of the Jam in the 1970s and the Style Council in

Electrical Field of Love Harriet Tubman and Georgia Anne Muldrow Pi 27 March 2026 The trio of Brandon Ross (electric guitar, banjo, soprano guitar), Melvin Gibbs (electric bass), and J.T. Lewis (drums) is named for the abolitionist Harriet Tubman. Their five albums across two decades (1998-2018) have always suggested freedom—they were largely improvised in the

British electronic collective Seefeel reappeared after a 13-year hiatus with two mini-albums in 2024 and now present Sol.hz, their first full-length release since the 2011 self-titled LP. The group’s claim to notoriety is as one of the first guitar-based groups signed to the fabled British electronic label Warp, with their 1995 sophomore album Succour. Rock listeners may

M.C. Taylor, the artist behind Hiss Golden Messenger, composed I’m People in New Mexico, California, and his home base of Durham, North Carolina. The tracks were recorded at Woodstock’s Dreamland Recording Studios with a team of like-minded musicians, including Josh Kaufman (who, along with Taylor, played stringed instruments and co-produced the album), JT Bates (drums and percussion), and

It often happens when a pop artist becomes so larger than life that they reach a point of no return: they either drown in darkness or hold on to light so tightly that the music has no other option but to channel it. That moment has arrived for Anitta, the superstar who redefined the limits of

Idealism is a tricky prospect in 2026. Just ask award-winning Australian songwriter Charley, whose debut album arrives at a juncture where, in her words, “the world’s gonna burn and burst into flames.” She has spent the past three years braced for impact, sifting through the wreckage of her relationships and redefining her identity. The result,

An outsider who, through sheer hard work, rose to the top of his industry and became a magical bringer of joy for thousands of children while giving tirelessly for charity and befriending all in high society…Only for the world to learn that his outlandish public image was a mask hiding someone who leveraged connections and

At this writing, media outlets have reported that President Donald J. Trump and the Department of Defense are preparing a $200 billion supplemental request for the conflict in Iran. Perhaps the ceasefire will alter that figure. It’s a convenient coincidence that $200 billion is essentially what Elon Musk, Vivek Ramaswamy, and the Department of Governmental

Sitting down one afternoon to catch up on Glastonbury highlights way back in 2016, Tom Rowlands, one-half of bona fide electronic legends, the Chemical Brothers, caught a set that stopped him dead. Hijacking the screen was diminutive Norwegian singer Aurora, who delivered a masterclass in otherworldly art-pop.  After leaving such a profound impression, Rowlands asked

Humanity speaks loud and clear in Johan Nayar’s intimate documentary, The Banjo Boys. Our humanity is deeply in question lately. Wars are breaking out all over the globe, headlines constantly speak of disasters, man-made and natural, human rights keep losing ground, and all the while, many prefer their phones to human interaction. Over five days

For Dale Watson, music started at home, not on a stage. It came from the next room, early in the morning, when his father picked up a guitar. “I would wake up to my dad playing,” Watson says. That introduction opened the door to a lifetime of listening. Records spun by George Jones, Hank Williams,

Peter Gabriel’s engagement with indigenous cultures and music became a defining moment in both his artistic trajectory and the broader musical landscape of the 1980s. Rooted within a more political and experimental approach, this fascination matured into a refined peak in So (1986), where diverse global influences were stylized and seamlessly integrated into a sophisticated pop

The Red Hangar (Hangar Rojo) narrows its focus to the first day of Chile’s 1973 coup and follows one man through the speed and confusion of institutional collapse. Directed by Juan Pablo Sallato and based on Fernando Villagrán’s autobiographical chronicle published in 2002, Disparen a la bandada (<em>Shoot the Flock</em>), it follows Air Force captain

The diverging black metal strands prevail in April. On one side, Black Hurst take up the mantle of Necromantia and Varathron, imbuing their sound with a classically metallic tinge. On the other hand, Evil Warriors continue to blossom from their proto-black/death dreams into an overarching, hallucinogenic extreme metal beast, their third full-length being their most

The Moss’ Tyke James has spent the better part of his youth refusing to stay in one place. Whether he is sleeping in a van parked along the Santa Cruz coast, working the dusty expanse of a Montana horse ranch, or chasing waves in Oahu, the frontman of the alternative rock outfit the Moss have

Frog have been on a roll these past couple of years. Following something of a comeback with 2023’s Grog, brothers Daniel and Steve Bateman released two albums last year (1000 Variations on the Same Song and The Count) and continue their streak with the somewhat more streamlined but still highly effective and enjoyable Frog for

A Yard of Jackals (Patio de Chacales) Diego Figueroa IndiePix 17 April 2026 (US) Latin American cinema has long tried to turn political trauma into dramatic form; most recently, in A Yard of Jackals (Patio de Chacales). One of the deepest scars left across the Southern Cone in the late 20th century was the rise

Indie rockers Hurray for the Riff Raff won widespread acclaim for 2024’s The Past Is Still Alive album, on top of earlier praise for 2022’s Life on Earth. Both albums featured heartfelt, personal songs that courageously dared to critique America’s troubling decline, with singer/songwriter Alynda Segarra’s socially conscious perspective striking a chord with fans and

Something Worth Waiting For Friko ATO 24 April 2026 Friko’s debut, Where We’ve Been, Where We Go from Here (2024), was the type of record that made many of us sit up and take notice. Their mix of shaggy, noisy guitars and melodies is an irresistible mix for my demographic, and I, too, fell under their

I get the cosiest feeling when I watch the old 1980s sitcom, Cheers (streaming on Hulu at this writing). There are several reasons for this. First, of course, is that it reminds me of being young: its run ended when I was 14. Second, it was part of the glorious 1990s Friday nights on British

I am a frenetic guy. I don’t nap much, and I prefer my days to be packed with projects, friends, and work. That’s why I was in the Knoxville Airport at 5:00 am on the Monday after the Big Ears Festival had ended. I wanted to get home to start my day after hearing so

Nu Metal Anomaly 1: Slipknot Slipknot’s rise wasn’t supposed to make sense, but it was undeniable. I’d seen them open for Coal Chamber on the Livin’ La Vida Loco tour, where they made quite an impression on my 13-year-old impressionable mind. Their feral energy was contagious, and they were contaminating Ozzfest-minded fans by the minute.

In the first 20 years of rock history, from 1955 to 1975, four songs have unique historical importance that transcends their chart positions and sales numbers. These are songs that mark the beginning of one era and the end of another style’s dominance. They are Elvis Presley’s “Hound Dog”, the Beatles’ “She Loves You”, Bob