Your old high school journals are probably full of thoughts you would rather burn than let the whole world read. For Tegan and Sara, the lyrics they wrote together between ages 15 and 17 prove to be worth a thrilling return and revamp. This is the basis of the twins’ …
Read More »Billie Eilish Talks World Tour, Plays 'True Confessions' on 'Fallon'
Ahead of her Saturday Night Live debut, Billie Eilish dropped by The Tonight Show to discuss her upcoming world tour and to play a game of “True Confessions” with Jimmy Fallon. After naming some of her musical influences – artists that range from Frank Sinatra to Tyler, the Creator – …
Read More »Sturgill Simpson's 'Sound and Fury' Is His Most Left-Field Record Yet
Ever since Sturgill Simpson was anointed the second coming of Seventies country with his 2014 release, Metamodern Sounds in Country Music, the 41-year-old Kentucky Navy vet has spent the past half-decade making a show of his discomfort with any such label. Simpson followed up that career-making record with 2016’s A …
Read More »Earth, Wind & Fire's 'September' is Having a Moment on Streaming
Do you remember? In the case of Earth, Wind & Fire’s “September,” it seems the answer is a resounding “yes.” The funk classic saw a massive spike in sales and streams over the weekend — enough for it to land at Number 73 on Wednesday’s daily Rolling Stone Top 100 …
Read More »The Unsolved Case of the Most Mysterious Song on the Internet
With its rigid beat and dry, monotone vocals, the song sounds like a synth-pop hit you would have heard in a dance club in the Eighties. (Or at least on an Eighties Spotify station.) Close your eyes and you can imagine a music video: awkwardly lip-synching musicians, exploding lightbulbs, foggy …
Read More »Why Madonna's Madame X Tour Is the Gloriously Insane Mess of Your Dreams
Madonna has never shied away from taking chances. Thirty years after she set fire to the Eighties with the disco basilica Like a Prayer, she’s as gloriously weird as ever. Hence her excellent new Madame X tour, a testament to the genius in her madness. Instead of a full-blown tour, …
Read More »The Existential Country-Soul Quest of Hiss Golden Messenger
M.C. Taylor has been singing about his kids since before they were even born. Before his eldest child, Elijah, arrived in 2009, Taylor — who for the past 10 years or so has made records with a revolving cast of musicians under the moniker Hiss Golden Messenger — wrote a …
Read More »Rolling Stones Prep Unreleased Concert Film 'Bridges to Buenos Aires'
The Rolling Stones will issue a previously unreleased live album and concert film, Bridges to Buenos Aires, November 8th. The set captures the Stones’ full April 5th, 1998 gig at the River Plate Stadium in Buenos Aires, Argentina, which capped off a five-night, sold-out run at the venue. The two-hour …
Read More »Watch Wilco Play Hide-and-Seek Around Chicago in 'Everyone Hides' Video
Wilco play hide-and-seek around their hometown of Chicago in the charming new video for “Everyone Hides.” The track is the second single off their eleventh LPOde to Joy, out October 4th via dBpm Records. The clip features frontman Jeff Tweedy singing the opening lines to the autumnal track — “If …
Read More »Ken Burns' 'Country Music': 10 Things We Learned From Week 1
“There was a saying: ‘The blues had a baby and they called it rock & roll.’ I always say, ‘Yeah, and I think the daddy was a hillbilly.” That’s Country Music Hall of Fame member Bobby Braddock, writer of songs including “He Stopped Loving Her Today,” on the genesis of …
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