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Every R.E.M. Album Ranked From Worst to Best
This definitive ranking of R.E.M.’s discography first appeared in 2017, several years after the band called it quits. It will remain not only to commemorate all the great music R.E.M. has given us over the years but also to burn like a candle — and keep vigil — just in case we one day get to add to it. Either way, we’ll keep going back to Rockville until it truly is the end of the world. It’s been over 40 years since R.E.M. played their first show, a friend’s birthday party in an abandoned church in Athens, Georgia, on April 5th, 1980. It’s hard to believe that a band with a catalog we kept holstered, cocked, and ready throughout our adolescences have turned such an advanced age. (We also must acknowledge that we’ve been drifting through a slightly emptier world for some time now without A...
How Iranians Influence EDM: Meet Rezz and Other Transformative Artists of Iranian Descent
Stereotypes often box Iranians into the fields of doctor, engineer or realtor, but they sure know how to have a good time. It isn’t unusual for family gatherings—ones that often welcome dozens of guests—to transform from dinner to dance party in the blink of an eye. Guests wield various instruments seemingly pulled from the ether, a circle forms in the center of the room and a party ensues. So it should come as no surprise that vivacious spirit has found its way to electronic dance music. Iranian ingenuity courses through every level of the genre. There are artists approaching the EDM apex, rising DJs blossoming on the festival circuit and enduring veterans, all of whom share Iranian heritage. For months, Iranians have protested the alleged killing of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini at the h...
10 Rock Albums IDLES Thinks Every Fan Should Own
Crate Digging is a recurring feature in which we take a deep dive into a genre and turn up several albums all music fans should know about. In this edition, IDLES guitarist Mark Bowen shares his exclusive picks. 2022 was as good of a year for IDLES as it could have been. After their stunning 2021 album Crawler found them touring the world with a loaded schedule, they played Coachella, Glastonbury, toured the US twice, and, most recently, nabbed a Grammy nomination for Best Rock Album. Since their breakthrough in 2018 with Joy as an Act of Resistance, IDLES have been a leader among their post-punk contemporaries, and their dominance both in their native England and beyond is a testament to their position as one of the biggest rock bands of the last decade. Guitarist Mark Bowen is ...
The best (and worst) stories from 3 years of Cointelegraph Magazine
On Oct. 1, 2019, Cointelegraph Magazine’s founding editor, Jon Rice, pressed publish on the first-ever feature story for the publication — a story by Swedish fintech writer Jinia Shawdagor about the country’s embrace of a cashless economy. The brainchild of former Cointelegraph CEO Jay Cassano — who was managing editor at the time — Magazine was designed to fill a major gap in crypto media with in-depth features exploring all angles of the issues in a thoughtful, considered way. While it’s easier to get traffic writing breathless stories about Bitcoin price predictions, Magazine is an attempt to give readers and the industry a more intelligent approach. I came on board after meeting the team at Cointelegraph’s conference in Singapore. Due to an amusing mix-up between “Austria” (where a sto...
What Is Kaleidoscope? Creator Eric Garcia Explains Netflix’s New Heist Series With a Twist
Netflix’s newest heist drama has a fun, technologically-assisted twist to it — one that leads to over 5,000 different possible experiences for the viewer watching. Kaleidoscope, starring Giancarlo Esposito, Rufus Sewell, Jai Courtney, Paz Vega, Tati Gabrielle, and more, tells the story of daring thieves attempting to steal billions from one of the world’s most advanced safes. But the story is not told chronologically — instead, the show’s eight episodes are designed to be watched in any order, capturing specific time periods in relation to the heist, from 24 years beforehand to six months afterward. It’s a complicated concept, but creator Eric Garcia tells Consequence that “I think there’s a lot of fun in mixing it up,” especially when married to a well-loved genre. “People love heist stuf...
Here Are All of the Performers and Presenters at the 2023 Grammy Awards
The Grammy Awards are often called Music’s Biggest Night, and in 2023 that could be true for the performers and presenters as much as the nominees. The Recording Academy’s annual showcase isn’t just about padding out the trophy case, it’s also a chance for artists to elevate their profile with show-stopping musical numbers, eye-catching outfits, and perhaps the occasional joke — good or otherwise. This year’s nominees are led by Kendrick Lamar, Adele, Harry Styles, and Beyoncé, who has tied with husband JAY-Z for the record for most Grammy nominations of all time. Notably, The Recording Academy added five new categories this year, for Songwriter of the Year, Non-Classical; Best Alternative Music Performance; Best Americana Music Performance; Best Score Soundtrack for Video Games and O...
Every Neko Case Album Ranked From Worst to Best
This article was originally published in 2015 and has been updated. Welcome to Dissected, where we disassemble a band’s catalog, a director’s filmography, or some other critical pop-culture collection in the abstract. It’s exact science by way of a few beers. This time, we sort through the best and worst of the at-times New Pornographer. Of all the artists who began the new millennium straddling the alt-country world and indie-rock stardom, none have proved themselves more talented or hardworking than Neko Case. Born in Virginia, she grew up in Tacoma, Washington, where she began her musical career drumming in a handful of bands before moving to Vancouver in 1994. She furthered her musical career playing drums for Canadian twee pop group Cub and singing for the punk band Maow in the mid ‘9...
Every Album by The Replacements Ranked From Worst to Best
This feature originally ran in August 2013, but we’re dusting it off in celebration of Paul Westerberg’s birthday on December 31st. Welcome to Dissected, where we disassemble a band’s catalog, a director’s filmography, or some other critical pop-culture collection in the abstract. It’s exact science by way of a few beers. This time, we sort through the best and worst of everyone’s favorite Trouble Boys. “Whose side are you on?” That’s the age-old question Paul Westerberg asks on “Left of the Dial” off of Tim. While he wasn’t exactly talking to his fans, he just as well could have been. At the time, the Minneapolis bard was already one foot in the door of another new era for The Replacements, a polarizing chapter that would see the band wave goodbye to their blitzkrieg of boozy basement pun...
5 Absurd But True Stories That Captivated the EDM World In 2022
2022 was another banner year for electronic dance music history as festivals returned en masse, the scene’s biggest artists released albums and live music records were broken. But then there were times when things got… weird. From head-scratching revelations on social media to dance music veterans taking the genre where it hasn’t gone before, read on to discover just a handful of the stories that had us doing double-takes in 2022. Bizarre Reddit sex confession spikes Hudson Mohawke’s “Cbat” on the charts There’s no manual to achieving a chart topping hit—but having your music be the subject of an embarrassing sex confession may be one of the most absurd paths possible. On the “Today I Fucked Up” subreddit, a Redditor confessed to the wo...
Glass Onion Isn’t Mocking Elon Musk — It’s Mocking the World That Created Him
[Editor’s note: The following contains spoilers for Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery.] Central to Glass Onion is the character of tech billionaire Miles Bron (Edward Norton), whose invitation to a small Greek island is what kicks off Rian Johnson’s new whodunnit. When Miles’s friends — his “beautiful disruptors” — arrive at Miles’ island with an unexpected plus-one in the form of legendary detective Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig), all they’re expecting is a long weekend of relaxation, with a promised murder-mystery game to keep things lively. But the real murder mystery to be solved isn’t the Gillian Flynn-penned romp that Miles has planned, but the unexpected death of MRA lunkhead Duke Cody (Dave Bautista). There’s also the reveal that days earlier, Miles’ former business partner Andi Brand...
5 Things to Know About Tobe Nwigwe, Best New Artist Nominee at 2023 Grammys
With an already-extensive catalog under his belt since starting out in 2016, rapper and singer Tobe Nwigwe is one of the more established entries in the Best New Artist category at the 2023 Grammy Awards. Also up for the Big Four award are Anitta, Domi & JD Beck, Latto, Omar Apollo, Samara Joy, Muni Long, Tobe Måneskin, Molly Tuttle, and Wet Leg. Hailing from Houston, Nwigwe has released a series of acclaimed projects over the years. 2022 saw the artist drop a live album, numerous singles, and his latest full-length, moMINTs. Nwigwe has also collaborated with artists like Duckwrth, Big K.R.I.T., Black Thought, and Royce Da 5’9″, and counts Erykah Badu, Beyoncé, and Michelle Obama as fans. Here are five things to know about Tobe Nwigwe ahead of Music’s Biggest Night on February 5th, 202...
Paul T. Goldman Is Hard to Describe, Impossible to Forget, and One Wild Ride: Review
The Pitch: “In 2012, a man named Paul T. Goldman tweeted at me,” is how director Jason Woliner (Borat Subsequent Moviefilm, Nathan for You) begins a note to the press about his new Peacock series. “He said that he had an incredible story to tell and had written a book – and a screenplay – about it. He asked for my help bringing it to the screen.” Ten years later, Woliner has done exactly that — though the form this story has taken probably wasn’t what Paul T. Goldman anticipated. Instead, the series is less a shocking tale of sex and crime and more a fascinating portrait of a man and his ambitions: his desire for fame, for revenge, or maybe just being seen. And seen he is, through a lens that is alternately dark, strange, bizarre, and, more often than not, very funny. Pieces of a Man: In t...
