Tortoise has done a lot in their 30+ years as a band. In the ‘90s, they became standard-bearers of the Chicago scene, their unusual instrumentation (three percussionists, two bassists) and eclectic palette (jazz, dub, EDM, prog) helping define a major wing of the instrumental post-rock genre. Their expansive 1998 album, TNT, with its cover doodle […]
With their first proper tour in 17 years now underway, the reunited Shudder to Think are also unveiling some new music for the first time since Bill Clinton’s second term as president. Per an Instagram post, the group is selling a seven-inch vinyl single with the songs “Thirst Walk” and “Playback” at the shows, which […]
While in the midst of a world tour in support of their spring album RUSHMERE, Mumford & Sons have treated fans to a new song, “Rubber Band Man,” which features a first-time studio collaboration with Hozier. The track was produced by the National’s Aaron Dessner at this Long Pond Studio in Hudson, N.Y. Mumford recorded […]
Rafael Toral’s most recent album, 2024’s Spectral Evolution, consisted of a single 42-minute track, divided into loose, flowing movements, but based on the chord changes of the Gershwin chestnut “I Got Rhythm.” On his follow-up, Traveling Light (October 24), the Portuguese guitarist works smaller, refashioning six jazz standards using his “space instruments”— electronic contraptions of […]
Marcus King is the guest on the newest installment of the Lipps Service podcast, speaking with host Scott Lipps about his new Republic album, Darling Blue, and the challenges of mental health and sobriety amid life in the music industry. King also gets into his upbringing in South Carolina and playing music with his family members from […]
Name Slim Jim Phantom Best known for Drummer for the Stray Cats, DJ “Little Steven’s Underground Garage,” Owner of the Cat Club at 8911 Sunset Blvd., and providing a place to play for 5,000 bands you’ve never heard of. Current City Los Angeles, CA. Really want to be in Jamaica At Goldeneye with my beautiful and rocking wife Jennie Vee. […]
For a lot of years, Vera Brandes couldn’t listen. Not once had she heard the bestselling solo jazz album of all time—Keith Jarrett’s passionate and sublime The Köln Concert—though she’d been essential to making it happen in 1975 as an 18-year-old music promoter in Cologne, West Germany. It wasn’t the first show organized by the […]
Each week, SPIN digs into the catalogs of great artists and highlights songs you might not know for our Deep Cut Friday series. Bruce Springsteen’s sixth album Nebraska was a pivot away from the spotlight, released in between two hit-filled blockbuster albums, 1980’s The River and 1984’s Born in the U.S.A. Living in relative seclusion […]
Friday, October 17 I arrived as the sun set. Erika De Casier’s “Two Thieves” rang out softly as I rushed past the guards toward the Mind Melt stage. A small crowd of alt-kids was gathered as close to the front as possible. Erika swayed to a gentle trip-hop drone. “Is Nick León present,” she asks, […]
"A bridge between the seen and unseen." Ayahuasca is brewed. (Photo by: Giulio Paletta/Education Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images) “Music can heal, if life is put into it.” Those are the words of a holy man named Inayat Khan, plucked from his treatise, The Mysticism of Sound and Music. A renowned musicologist, philosopher and […]