“Would you believe me now,” Maggie Rogers sings over a gently-strummed guitar line in the opening to her new single “Light On,” “If I told you I got caught up in a wave?” Rogers’ latest is her most promising since appearing, seemingly out of nowhere, with her electro folk-pop viral …
Read More »Review: St. Vincent Sits Down At the Piano on 'Masseducation'
Last year, Annie Clark, d.b.a. St. Vincent, released Masseduction, a jittery portrait of 21st-century angst that straddled the gap between her neurotic, intricate art-rock and alt-pop’s big hooks and intricate textures. Produced by maximalist du jour Jack Antonoff, the album was a thicket of ideas, a cri de coeur about modern …
Read More »Steely Dan Fans Detail Walter Becker Street Naming Ceremony
Steely Dan fans detailed the upcoming street renaming ceremony honoring late Steely Dan co-founder Walter Becker. The event –which will unveil a “Walter Becker Way” sign in the Forest Hills neighborhood of Queens, New York, where the musician grew up –will take place Sunday, October 28th at noon ET, at …
Read More »Watch French Montana, Drake Team for Fashion-Forward 'No Stylist' Video
Drake joins French Montana for the glitzy, star-studded new video for “No Stylist.” Glenn Michael and Christo directed the video, which centers around the preparations for a glamorous fashion show. Footage of models prepping and walking is interspersed with gritty scenes of New York City, including a cheeky green-screen sequence …
Read More »Song You Need to Know: Ray Angry, 'It Might Be Gold'
One, the new first album from Ray Angry, isn’t like most debuts. That’s probably because the pianist isn’t exactly an up-and-comer: He’s got a huge list of playing, writing and producing credits dating back to the Nineties, including work with everyone from Mick Jagger to Joss Stone, Christina Aguilera, the …
Read More »Flashback: Neil Young Records 'Alabama' in His Barn
By the fall of 1970, after the enormous success of After the Gold Rush and CSNY’s Déjà Vu, Neil Young finally had enough money to buy his dream home: a 140-acre ranch in La Honda, California that he paid for with $340,000 cash. “I just poured all my money into …
Read More »Lake Street Dive Expand Tour With New 2019 Shows
Lake Street Dive is gearing up to close its year with a string of sold-out shows, including one in November at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, Tennessee, and now the group’s tour schedule is set to carry over into 2019 with a selection of newly announced dates with supporting performer …
Read More »Lil Wayne's 'Tha Carter V' Took 5 Years to Make. Why It Still Hits Hard in 2018
The long, convoluted road to Lil Wayne‘s Tha Carter V can be demonstrated by the contrasting trajectories of two songs on the album, “Famous” and “Demon.” “Famous” is an oldie: This sentimental rap ballad was produced by Lasanna “Ace” Harris and Shama Joseph in 2014. That year, the two beat-makers …
Read More »Review: The Tom Petty Archival Set 'American Treasure' Offers a New Way to Hear the Rock Legend
It’s difficult to offer a different perspective on an artist whose songs you know by heart. It’s even harder with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. The group’s 1993 Greatest Hits album is 12-times platinum, and more than half of his albums were Top 10 sellers. By the time of his …
Read More »Cam Indicts Country Music Gatekeepers at Superstar Ryman Show
Near the end of her living-room-intimate headlining show at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium on Wednesday night, Cam delivered a defiant soliloquy on country music in 2018, relaying how some question if the increasingly homogenized genre has lost its edge. “I don’t think country music got soft. I don’t think country music …
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