Celebrating Community
Too much paranoias. When in need of squeaky thin organ-driven new wave of late, I often turn to the endearing L.A. four-piece the Paranoyds. The fashionista four-piece (they call themselves an “eyebrow band”) is generally just the right mix of quirky, sarcastic and sick of it. Their first album, 2019’s Carnage Bargain, got some attention with the singles “Girlfriend Degree” […]
Lucifer on the dancefloor. A new of Montreal album is always a time of revelry—nobody does dark disco quite like Kevin Barnes. For a while, though, the albums have run thin fairly quickly for me. That’s not necessarily a problem; there’s far too much pop in the world for all of it to be permanent. But for a songwriter who […]
The Long Play festival, which ran in various venues around downtown Brooklyn from April 29 to May 1, was created to replace the previous Bang on a Can marathon, an annual single-stage daylong free presentation usually in Manhattan. Over three days at 10 venues, more than 60 acts represented a mix of contemporary composition, jazz-based improvisation and updatings of folk […]
Beauty runs deep. The surprise hit of the summer may turn out to be Kate Bush’s 1985 single “Running Up That Hill” which, after placement in an episode of the Netflix series Stranger Things, hit the top 10 in 14 countries and raced to the top of the Apple Music charts in the states. It’s not exactly a deep cut. […]
Résistance and futility. Ultravox! is remembered, and rightly so, as a progenitor of synthpop, but what gets missed out in that compact musicological truism is their remarkable 1977 debut. The band’s early incarnation—with singer and principal songwriter John Foxx and with the exclamation point in the name—was a remarkable amalgam of glam and bits of Brit blues revivalism with punk […]
Portrait of a lady in a world full of dirt. In hindsight, I’m not sure why I’ve been using this space in recent months to demand a new full-length from the voice of conscience for an angry, dying world known in her current form as Shilpa Ray, but I’m willing to take at least partial credit for her crucial, vital, […]
My favorite pop stars are all pop stores. Rumors continue to circulate about the next Warner Bros. Prince deluxe reissues in online communities. 2021 came and went without a new box (although the first issue of the shelved Welcome 2 America was a happy surprise). Diamonds & Pearls was a prime contender, the 30th anniversary of its release passing last […]
Stranger from paradise. Sarah La Puerta spent five years working on her first album, in the process moving from Austin, Texas, to upstate New York. The result, Strange Paradise (available on vinyl, cassette and download from Perpetual Doom), is a wonderful, personal, inviting, distancing, obscure, sweet, sappy, wistful set of simple songs rich with layered emotions. La Puerta performs most […]
ON DECK Velvet Underground overloaded. Todd Haynes’ new documentary The Velvet Underground is well worth watching, even if it falls off after John Cale leaves the band, giving only scant attention to the band’s remarkable, self-titled third album and then trickling away with the last one. But watching it got me to go back and dig out a couple of […]
ON DECK Melvins unapologetically unplugged. Way back in 2014, the mighty King Buzzo made his NYC solo debut with an acoustic set at Santos Party House, and it was even more epic than the album (This Machine Kills Artists) he was supporting. The guy is a solid rock star, from the hair to the unaffected vocals to the measured perfection […]