One evening in the spring of 1985, as we were preparing our second issue (having, initially, seriously, forgotten we had to do that, so were now scrambling), I walked into Art Director George DuBois’s office and he was talking to a skinny, fresh-faced young man. “Look at these,” said George, handing me some paintings. I […]
As I pull up to Sunny War’s small, red and black Craftsman bungalow, the last remnants of the 4 inches of snow that fell earlier in the week are melting under the blue, cloudless sky over her historic Glenwood neighborhood in Chattanooga, Tennessee. She invites me in to sit at her small dining room table. […]
We all walk around with the burden that, at some point, we could get cancer. After all, roughly 1.9 million Americans will receive that bad news in 2022 alone. But most people are too busy living their lives to expect it. When John Ross was diagnosed in June 2021, at age 34, he was in […]
It took five years for Alvvays to release a follow-up to their critically acclaimed 2017 album Antisocialites, but the Toronto-based band didn’t intend to be away for quite so long. The odyssey to get to their third album, Blue Rev (out now via Polyvinyl and Transgressive), was rife with setbacks and challenges. In fact, Alvvays […]
Depeche Mode co-founder Martin Gore bursts into laughter, amused by the international flavor: a British band with a French name whose members live in the U.S. (frontman Dave Gahan in New York, Gore in Santa Barbara, Calif.) doing press from Germany about its upcoming Latin-titled record. “We’re multicultural!” Gore exclaims, throwing his hands in the […]
Real talk? The cumulative weight of changing trends, the major-label system and cruel fate have all failed to cushion Lamb of God’s blunt-force velocity. Their latest, Omens (out on Oct 7), is a throttled-out, high-decibel jetstream with a series of cautionary tales and psychic explorations couched inside its 10 songs. Whether addressing ecological ruin, psychological […]
After almost four months off the air, cult music guide Bandsplain is back with new episodes each Thursday. The show went on hiatus when its parent company, Spotify’s Studio 4, disbanded earlier this year. But host Yasi Salek wasn’t ready to quit just yet, so she revived the program via Ringer Podcast Network last week. […]
Freddie Gibbs realized his artistic appeal years ago. See the haunted closing lines from “BFK,” the title track of his 2012 mixtape Baby Face Killa: “Got a slug for the judge, bringin’ heat for police / And a book full of sins that I reap when I sleep / Then I wake up, and I […]
L.S. Dunes don’t sound like a supergroup, and they certainly don’t want to be called a supergroup. But when they took to the Rise Stage early on a Friday afternoon to effectively kick off Riot Fest, one could be forgiven for mistaking them for that. While other stages saw audiences in the dozens under the […]
With the breakthroughs of J Balvin, Maluma, and Karol G, Medellín, Colombia has become a hub for reggaeton music. Their frequent collaborator, Feid, has been keeping the world’s eyes on Medellín while putting his heartfelt touch on the genre that celebrates the city’s culture. After a year of performing around the world, Feid returned to […]