John Oliver drew a direct correlation between the “manufactured panic” about critical race theory and Rihanna‘s highly-publicized pregnancy during the ninth season premiere of Last Week Tonight With John Oliver. “When it comes to critical race theory, think of it like Rihanna’s pregnancy: Even if you think it has nothing …
Read More »Eddie Benjamin Confronts His 'Most Extreme Anxiety' on Single 'Weatherman'
Eddie Benjamin is tired of not feeling in control of his emotions. On Friday, the Australian singer dropped the piano-backed, personal single “Weatherman,” in which he lyrically faces his emotions and attempts to manifest happy, sun-kissed days. “When I was writing the song, I felt out of control and didn’t …
Read More »Why Receiving Gratitude Is Hard
The ancient stoic Lucius Annaeus Seneca once said in his book, De Beneficiis (or On Benefits), that one of the greatest plagues to Roman society was that they didn’t know how to give or receive benefits. In the present day, you likely grew up being told that it is more …
Read More »Goodbye P.J. O'Rourke, the Dry Conservative Wit Behind Rolling Stone's Foreign Affairs Desk
Almost fresh out of college and still fairly newly arrived to New York City, I spent the early 1990s working at what I called — when I puffed my chest out a bit — “an assistant editor on the national affairs and foreign affairs desks at Rolling Stone.” Here’s what …
Read More »Elvis Costello and the Imposters Plot Summer Tour
Elvis Costello and the Imposters are hitting the road this summer in support of their new album The Boy Named If. Nick Lowe and Los Straitjackets are special opening guests at select shows; it’s the first time longtime collaborators Costello and Lowe have toured together since 1989. Nicole Atkins will …
Read More »Breland Is a Streaming-Music Star. Amazon Music Is Making Him the Face of Its 'Breakthrough' Campaign
“I’ve been around for about two years now and I have yet to put out an album,” says Breland, calling from a tour stop in Boston on a 7 degree morning. “My momentum is a direct result of people discovering the music on their own time, checking out playlists, and …
Read More »After Amir Locke Killing, Is Police Reform Even the Solution?
In 2020, police reformers had many believing that Minneapolis was headed in the right direction. After Black Lives Matter protests demanded accountability following the murder of George Floyd, a Black man who was murdered by a white officer, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey proposed a series of reforms to address the …
Read More »Nicki Minaj and Lil Baby Reteam for 'Bussin'
Nicki Minaj and Lil Baby dropped their second team-up track in as many weeks with the new single, “Bussin.” Last week, they released the stylish, cinematic “Do We Have a Problem?” visual. Over staccato, foreboding production, Minaj and Lil Baby take turns on a verse: “I call Baby, ‘Yo, where …
Read More »'It Doesn't Matter. We Love Him': Fans Support Morgan Wallen at New York Tour Opener
Outside New York’s Madison Square Garden on Wednesday night, where Morgan Wallen was playing the first show of his 54-date Dangerous Tour, there were no protesters, no calls for cancelation, no noticeable sign of The Controversy that had surrounded the country singer since he was filmed using a racial slur …
Read More »'Lucifer on the Sofa' Might Be Spoon's Best Record Ever
Spoon are the most reliable great American rock band of the past 25 years. That might say more about American rock than it does about Spoon, but facts don’t lie. They’ve been at it since the mid-Nineties, and they’ve never made a dull record, thanks to leader Britt Daniel’s brilliant …
Read More »