“Fucking around, I’m falling in love,” a distant, muffled Angel Olsen utters at the beginning of “True Blue,” the unexpected highlight from Mark Ronson‘s sparkling new record Late Night Feelings. The track has been ringing in minds since its release last week—its disco sludge smearing over summer windows like a …
Read More »Hear the Real Story of Bob Dylan's 'Rolling Thunder Revue'
Martin Scorsese’s new documentary on Bob Dylan‘s Rolling Thunder Revue is brilliant — and laced with deliberate, mischievous fiction, from Sharon Stone spinning imaginary tales of hanging out on the tour as a teenager to interview segments with a pretentious documentarian who doesn’t actually exist. On a new episode of …
Read More »R&B Has a Sampling Problem
R&B is wallowing in its past: It feels like nearly every commercially successful R&B single at the moment is built on a prominent sample or a conspicuous interpolation of an old hit. It’s not the act of sampling itself that’s troubling. The sampler is one of the more extraordinary inventions …
Read More »Counting Crows' Adam Duritz: 5 Songs That Blow Me Away
The Counting Crows aren’t touring this year beyond a handful of festival dates, but frontman Adam Duritz is keeping busy by co-hosting the podcast Underwater Sunshine with his buddy James Campion. Here are five songs he played on it recently that really blew his mind. Sunflower Bean, ”Come for Me” …
Read More »Unplugged: Is the Guitar Solo Finished?
About two minutes into “Outta My Head,” from the new album Free Spirit by pop-R&B star Khalid, a strange, foreign sound bubbles to the song’s shiny disco-pop surface. It’s a squiggly, pitchy thing that echoes the melody for about 15 seconds before receding into the background. Could it be … …
Read More »Will Hollywood Biopics Save Rock?
In its earliest days, rock got a boost from the movies, starting with 1955’s Blackboard Jungle. Now, in an era when guitar-based music has moved pretty far from the center of the culture, the movies just can’t quit the genre. In the wake of Bohemian Rhapsody, more and more rock-themed …
Read More »The Zombies' Rod Argent: 5 Songs That Inspired Me
When the Zombies were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on March 29th, keyboardist-songwriter Rod Argent spoke from the stage about growing up in England during the Fifties and first discovering American rock & roll. “Elvis himself was a God,” he said. “I was 11 and I …
Read More »When 'Nevermind' Changed Everything
When Danny Goldberg started managing Nirvana in 1991, the band was just a promising underground act from Seattle. But, as chronicled in Goldberg’s upcoming memoir, Serving the Servant: Remembering Kurt Cobain, things would change quickly and decisively. The book is a fascinating portrait of the life, music and inner workings …
Read More »Joe Walsh, Ringo Starr and the Mission to End America's Addiction Crisis
It was a foggy autumn night in New York’s Rainbow Room when Joe Walsh took center stage — no guitar in sight. So he addressed the elephant in the room: “I’m Joe, and I’m an alcoholic.” It’s a half-joke, meant to set the audience at ease while gently reminding the …
Read More »Drumming Great Hal Blaine: 5 Classic Performances
“Hal Blaine was such a great musician and friend that I can’t put it into words,” Brian Wilson wrote on Twitter Monday after news of the legendary session drummer’s death began to circulate. “Hal taught me a lot, and he had so much to do with our success — he …
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