One of the most interesting festivals every year is Iceland Airwaves. This year, following an obvious year away physically (the fest still existed virtually), will see the event return to downtown Reykjavík on Nov. 3-6. As usual, the tastemaking festival features a nice blend of international and Icelandic artists, including two of our favorites with Arlo […]
With most indie venues closed due to the pandemic and many record stores altering their business methods, it was a challenging year for music discovery. Luckily, we live in the internet age, where a glowing album review, trending social media post or intriguing Bandcamp tag can instantly connect fans to their next favorite band. As […]
For a year that made no sense, it’s only fitting that 2020’s best songs make strange neighbors on a mixtape. You can’t recap 2020 without mentioning Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion’s “WAP,” a sex song so dirty that even the edited version leans toward an R rating (“wet and gushy,” anyone?). But on this […]
After a deluge of canceled or delayed tours, drive-in experiments, Bandcamp Fridays and bedroom livestreams, we’re finally here. Yay? It’s hard to celebrate much of anything in 2020. But one encouraging sign from the music industry has been the number of artists innovating on the fly — figuring out ways to sustain their careers through […]
“If I died in a meadow, I don’t think they’d ever find me at all,” Bartees Strange belts on “Stone Meadows,” a cathartic indie-rock centerpiece from his debut LP, Live Forever. It’s a grim thought — but one that often crossed his mind as a young Black person in his native Oklahoma. “I knew people who […]