Editorials
Rage Against the Machine’s Evil Empire Still Burns with Indignation 25 Years Later
<span class="localtime" data-ltformat="F j, Y | g:ia" data-lttime="2021-04-16T21:10:08+00:00“>April 16, 2021 | 5:10pm ET Editor’s Note: Rage Against the Machine’s Evil Empire came out 25 years ago this week. Contributing writer Robert Dean looks back at how the album not only stirred his social conscience as a teenager but also how the music’s messages and, dare we say, rage feel as powerful and poignant as ever a quarter-century later. When you’re 15, there’s a ton of developmental burden. You take things at face value. There’s subtext everywhere and within everything – all of the time. Fifteen-year-olds are walking sponges. They feel things. When we were that young, we poured over lyrics, read into a band’s value system, and adopted their morals and i...
Modest Mouse’s This Is a Long Drive for Someone with Nothing to Think About Distilled Suburban Angst into an Indie Rock Tour de Force
<span class="localtime" data-ltformat="F j, Y | g:ia" data-lttime="2021-04-16T12:45:29+00:00“>April 16, 2021 | 8:45am ET Editor’s Note: Modest Mouse’s first album — that one with the really long title — came out 25 years ago this week and changed the landscape of indie rock forever. We welcome author Bryan C. Parker in his Consequence debut as he looks back at the sad, angsty beginnings of Isaac Brock’s Issaquah, Washington, outfit. Modest Mouse’s 1996 debut album, This Is a Long Drive for Someone with Nothing to Think About, mapped a blueprint for one of the most successful careers in indie rock. The wandering guitar line, woozy note bends, and staggering drums that announce the record, combined with frontman Isaac Brock’s gravelly bark, forged an inim...
Foo Fighters’ Wasting Light Remains a Late-Career Statement 10 Years Later
<span class="localtime" data-ltformat="F j, Y | g:ia" data-lttime="2021-04-12T15:15:35+00:00“>April 12, 2021 | 11:15am ET Editor’s Note: On April 12th, 2011, Foo Fighters put out their seventh album, Wasting Light. At the time, Dave Grohl saw it as a chance for the band to get back to the project’s humble garage roots. Now, a full decade later, Grant Sharples examines just how successful the band were in achieving Grohl’s aim and what the record ultimately meant for the veteran band and their fans. Starting with 2005’s In Your Honor, alt-rock icons Foo Fighters have adhered to certain underlying concepts for their records. These aren’t narrative concepts but musical ideas by which Dave Grohl and co. creatively orient themselves. On their fifth reco...
Too Soon Gone: How the Life and Music of DMX Tell a Tragically Familiar Story for Black Men
<span class="localtime" data-ltformat="F j, Y | g:ia" data-lttime="2021-04-11T15:15:47+00:00“>April 11, 2021 | 11:15am ET “I want Black men to grow old.” While scaling out to the larger population, away from the complexities of rapper Earl “DMX” Simmons’ untimely death, television writer Camilla Blackett simultaneously managed to home in on a core understanding. For Blackett and many others, the premature loss of Simmons labors as a frightening reminder that we, Black men, do not grow old, at least not nearly enough of us. Chadwick Boseman, Charlie Murphy, Bernie Mac, Nipsey Hussle, Prince, Heavy D, George Floyd, Gerald LeVert, Tupac Shakur, Notorious BIG, Prodigy (of Mobb Deep), J Dilla, Bernard Tyson, Fred the Godson. MF DOOM. These are an exceedingly...
Our Hate-Love-Hate Relationship with the New Captain America
<span class="localtime" data-ltformat="F j, Y | g:ia" data-lttime="2021-04-10T14:25:29+00:00“>April 10, 2021 | 10:25am ET Warning: Major spoilers for The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. He didn’t have to do anything for us to hate him. All John Walker (Wyatt Russell) had to do to earn our ill will was not be Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie). Falcon relinquished the shield Steve Rogers gave to him out of an abiding respect for his friend, a sense that what the original Captain America accomplished was unique and personal. Handing that symbol of Steve’s accomplishments over to the Smithsonian was a sign that Sam intended to honor his friend’s legacy without taking on his mantle. So, when some random new guy assumes that mantle, replete with the shield Falcon re...
We Need to Talk About the Cat in the Loki Trailer
Warning: Spoilers ahead for Captain Marvel. By now, we’re all familiar with the new trailer for Disney+’s next Marvel spinoff series Loki. But what we haven’t talked about enough is its surprise introduction of … a cat. Or, “cat.” As we see in the trailer, Loki (Tom Hiddleston) is immediately confronted by a noticeably chill tabby cat upon being released into an office after meeting with Owen Wilson’s Mobius. The cat even begins purring when Loki drops into the adjacent chair. Now, anyone who’s had the good fortune to interact with a cat would find this suspicious: What pet on Earth would be that content when next to an empty bowl, or that calm when a fugitive God of Mischief interrupts their afternoon? But that’s exactly it: They’re not on Earth. Loki is a prisoner of the Time Variance Au...
Queen Latifah’s Anthem “U.N.I.T.Y.” Still Spells Out a Critical Message About Women’s Rights
Editor’s Note: As Women’s History Month draws to a close, arts critic Okla Jones looks back at the indelible legacy of Queen Latifah and the long-lasting influence her anthem “U.N.I.T.Y.” had on women’s rights, especially in the hip-hop world. The contributions of women to the arts have often been overlooked throughout history. In music (specifically hip-hop), the female artist has been held to an unfair critical standard. The industry requires women to be both talented and desirable, only to allow them to be negated by public opinion if they come across as overtly “sexy” or if their content doesn’t fit some status quo. For quite some time, the music business has served as a microcosm for society’s treatment of women overall: including the verbal and physical abuse, lack of appreciat...
Stone Temple Pilots’ Tiny Music… Songs from the Vatican Gift Shop Remains a Prized Relic of the Grunge Era
In the 1992 comedy Wayne’s World, titular protagonist and lay philosopher Wayne Campbell tells his best friend and hockey partner, Garth Algar, “Led Zeppelin didn’t write tunes that everyone liked. They left that to the Bee Gees.” Apply that sage wisdom to the hard rock landscape of the mid-1990s, and you can make a convincing case for Stone Temple Pilots being their generation’s Led Zeppelin while the Bee Gees in this case were, well, any of the myriad contemporary grunge titans that critics accused STP of mimicking. Just as critics learned to worship Jimmy Page’s monolithic riffing and Robert Plant’s banshee wail, they slowly came around to Stone Temple Pilots’ effortless pop savvy and staggering musicality on their third album, Tiny Music… Songs from the Vatican Gift Shop, which turns 2...
10 Years Ago, The Strokes Triumphed Through Adversity to Create Angles
Throughout the 2000s, New York quintet The Strokes were considered the kings of post-punk revival. Drawing from artists like The Doors, Jane’s Addiction, Pearl Jam, Bob Marley, and most notably, The Velvet Underground, their charming indie/garage rock raucousness was virtually everywhere for several years. Of course, it all started when they inspired their own set of peers and protégées — including LCD Soundsystem, The Killers, and Kings of Leon — while skyrocketing into critical and commercial favor with 2001’s debut LP, Is This It, which topped our list of “The Top 100 Albums of the Decade” in November 2009. Although 2003’s Room on Fire and 2005’s First Impressions of Earth weren’t as widely celebrated by the press — due mainly to a perceived lack of newness and a penchant for safe...
Grammys 2021: Music’s Biggest Night Finally Makes Music the Focus
The 2021 Grammy Awards in Los Angeles and the pop culture landscape both look vastly different from years past. The show, which has often overlooked contributions from women and people of color, is working on course correction, and this year’s program certainly reflected these efforts. While band-aids on gaping wounds aren’t always enough, the choice to focus on the reason for gathering — the music — was a wise one and paid off due in part to the “in the round” stage setups that recalled Jools Holland’s BBC format. Executive producer Ben Winston pulled off one of the cleanest, smoothest awards shows of this era, working to create some of the moments that make shows like this memorable. As always, though, the Grammys are a frustrating paradox. They correctly spotlighted some of the best art...
The Pioneering Women of Philly Soul
Fifty years ago, the sound of Philly Soul was born out of the legendary Philadelphia International Records. With the talents of The O’Jays, Patti LaBelle, Teddy Pendergrass, The Three Degrees, McFadden & Whitehead, and others, the label rewrote the standards of soul music by blending in R&B, funk, and doo-wop with massive orchestral arrangements. To celebrate all P.I.R. contributed to the world of music, we’re giving away a Best of Philadelphia International Records prize pack, which includes vinyl, turntables, and headphones. Click here for more information on these prizes and how to enter this exclusive giveaway. The face of soul music as we know it might have been completely different if not for the ambition and drive of a Columbia imprint, once housed in the vacant offices of C...
The Artist-Superfan’s Brave New Superstore
Primary Wave, run by long-time music executive Larry Mestel, may steal the headlines. His company uses billions to buy the music publishing and masters of mega-artists like Fleetwood Mac’s Stevie Nicks, Bob Marley, Prince, and Whitney Houston. But Twitter shaman Jack Dorsey’s recent acquisition of Jay-Z’s streaming service, Tidal, by his company, Square, is equally tantalizing. And it points to something that is bubbling up in the business right now that is still early, but ultimately will build into a huge, new movement of massively monetizing direct artist-fan connection and engagement. Dorsey’s rationale for buying Tidal is to give artists a direct path to easily transact with their fans (think merchandise, for example), much like retailers use Square to cut out the credit card middlema...
