The raid on Prince’s long-sealed vault officially begins today, with Piano and a Microphone 1983, a collection of songs recorded at the artist’s Kiowa Trail home studio a year before Purple Rain. It is, inevitably, a slightly uncomfortable listen. Whether you’re a casual … Continue reading Eavesdropping on Prince
Seven years ago, a scrawny half-Jewish kid-rapper from Pittsburgh had the best-selling record in America. He earned it by gurning and grinning his way through verses that made sense to the underage drinkers who packed out his shows on college … Continue reading Mac Miller Wasn’t Done
Kyle Thomas recently purchased a yellow coat. It’s a Swedish military snow parka, and he loves it. “Just having the yellow on me, man,” he says. “It’s so good.” He got some suits made too, which make him feel like … Continue reading King Tuff Was Dead, but Now He Feels Like a Kid Again
“Me and Willow are scientists,” a 17-year-old Jaden Smith told GQ‘s Zach Baron in 2015, “so everything for us is a scientific test upon humanity. And luckily we’re put in a position where we can affect large groups of human beings at … Continue reading The Strange Conspiracy Theory Behind Jaden Smith’s New Album
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Outside the 3500-capacity AGP Arena in the modest suburban town of Billericay, Essex, a 100-foot-long, 20-foot-high mural depicts Glenn Tamplin’s dream. It begins with the Mayflower setting sail for the New World, jumps ahead somewhat to the formation of Billericay … Continue reading How One Rich Man’s Weird Dream Transformed A British Pro Soccer Team
There’s a rumor out there that Frank Ocean and director Tyrone Lebon were both tripping on acid when they shot the video for “Nikes” in 2016. It adds up. There are those shots of Ocean sitting on the dirt, surrounded … Continue reading The Psychedelic Connection Between Kacey Musgraves and Frank Ocean
Lil Wayne: The Dedication 6 The sixth installment in Lil Wayne and DJ Drama’s Dedication series, and the first in four years, came out on Christmas Day, and it had everything you’d expect from a stocking-filler, down to the DatPiff … Continue reading Album Reviews: 2018
In a slim-fitting, sequined black jacket, a pair of mirrored Aviators around his eyes, his blonde hair draped over his collarbones, William Basinski walks onto the small stage at National Sawdust in Williamsburg—a few hundred feet from the roof above … Continue reading An Hour of Watching William Basinski, Blacking Out, and Realizing that Nothing Ever Dies
Elliott Smith had been playing “King’s Crossing” sporadically at his shows for four years before he recorded it in late 2003. But it was only in his last few months, in a streak of sets that ran from transcendent to … Continue reading You Won’t But You Might: On Elliott Smith’s Suspended, Hopeful ‘Either/Or’
Dylan Baldi, the lead singer and auteur of Cloud Nothings, was happy to meet me in New York City on election night—he said that he wanted to “compare the vibe” of the city to the atmosphere of his hometown of … Continue reading Watching the World Fall Apart with Cloud Nothings’ Dylan Baldi
In one sense, this is a story about Dan Wham. Dan Wham deals with “all of the real estate in Delaware.” Dan Wham likes “all types of music.” Dan Wham splits a cab with me and my girlfriend after Florida … Continue reading Saying Goodbye to America at a Florida Georgia Line and Nelly Concert
Danny Brown, as he tends to do in his music, moves through different registers in the span of a sentence. He settles into a low drawl when he tries to explain an idea and rises to an ecstatic, high-pitched cackle … Continue reading Up and Down with Danny Brown and His New Documentary ‘Live at the Majestic’
It’s lunchtime and Nicholas Krgovich has consumed nothing but coffee today. He wrestles a mint-flavored toothpick around his mouth with his tongue and looks out of the window towards the damp South London side-street, the garbage piled up in the … Continue reading Nicholas Krgovich’s ‘In an Open Field’ Is Very Chill and Kinda Scary
When Shannon Shaw and Cody Blanchard of Shannon & the Clams sat down, separately, to write songs for their band’s fifth LP in October 2016, they felt compelled to interrogate themselves. Shaw had always treated songwriting as a form of … Continue reading Shannon & the Clams’ ‘Onion’ Is Joyful, Grief-Stricken
The first three songs on The Road Dissolved the View, Kyle Wall’s fourth LP as Wharfer, are a study in frustrated claustrophobia. Over a desolate piano, a thrumming organ, then a gentle guitar, he meanders east and west to Dublin, Alabama, … Continue reading Wharfer’s Kyle Wall Falls Backwards in Time on ‘The Road Dissolved the View’
