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Why Fred again.. Is Exactly What Electronic Dance Music Needed
Fred again.. is inescapable these days. But unlike other names hyped ad nauseam into oblivion this year, his is one you’d be smart to emotionally invest in. For some reason, musicians are still expected to masquerade as doppelgängers of themselves—cringey caricatures sharing manufactured moments through the vacuous engines of TikTok. Content culture is the music industry’s newest and most vicious plague, and it corrodes the mental health of its most authentic artists. But as social media continues to dig its crooked claws into the sincerity of musicians, Fred again.. is fracturing its nefarious nature by being his most genuine self. Fred again.. performs live at Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival 2022. Julian Bajsel There’s a sad sense of attrition in the wearisome ...
The Reissue Section: Blondie Rolls The Dice With Against the Odds
Few acts from the original punk era are more deserving of a comprehensive box set than Blondie. And the hype is well-earned with Against The Odds 1974-1982, a historical juggernaut documenting the first eight years of CBGB’s most successful export. This 8-CD (or 10-LP) collection documents the band’s sonic evolution as it happened — how they molded a literal building block of New Wave by combining girl group melodies, disco riddims and power-pop crunch. The pair of bonus discs bookending the box also contain revelatory moments, namely the embryonic versions of the band’s hit single “Heart of Glass” (one called “Once I Had a Love,” the other “The Disco Song”) on the eight-track Out in the Streets disc, along with guitarist Chris Stein‘s instrumental synth reworkings of “Heart of Glass,” “Ca...
Yeah Yeah Yeahs Complete Comeback with Triumphant New York City Show: Review, Photos and Setlist
“We’re the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and we’re back!” So screamed Karen O at the start of Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ hometown comeback concert at Queens’ Forest Hills Stadium on Saturday, October 1st. There was unrestrained joy in her declaration, something the sold-out audience returned tenfold in screams of their own, both sides of the exchange clearly thrilled to have the New York band back on stage. It started the night’s energy at a triumphant 10, and it never lowered over the course of an 18-song setlist. Last month, I dug into my most-played records of the last 15 years, noting that YYYs’ It’s Blitz! struck me because “you could feel every bit of joy being pumped into” the songs. I’m happy to say that nine years after their last LP, that fact still holds. No matter that their new record, Cool It ...
Googoosh: Daughter of the Revolution
On a Tuesday afternoon, during the lunchtime rush at Los Angeles’ über-trendy Highly Likely Café, the strains of Iranian singer Googoosh’s song “Talagh” come through the speakers. The song, whose title means “divorce,” is sung in Farsi. It slips in between modern-day songs that would be found on NPR’s New Music Friday playlist and the city’s tastemaker station KCRW’s hand-picked selections. Its saucy rhythms and hard-hitting dance beats fit in seamlessly. Googoosh’s singularly rich voice surges over the café’s patrons. “Talagh” doesn’t stand out to this lunch crowd, partially because it blends so well into the playlist. I glance around to see if there’s any reaction to the song, and then I interrupt my lunch companion to bring her attention to its infectious grooves. The reason...
SNL Kicks Off a New Era with Season 48 Premiere: Review
Saturday Night Live opened its 48th season with its biggest cast changes in decades. With eight cast members departing at various stages of their SNL tenure, and a ninth missing in action but supposedly returning later (Cecily Strong is doing a play in Los Angeles, and—unlike past temporary absences—wasn’t shown in the opening credits), the show is close to peak overhaul level (11 cast members left between seasons 20 and 21). Thee changeover was notable enough to warrant a cold-open sketch all about it, with Peyton Manning (host Miles Teller) and his brother Eli (Andrew Dismukes) offering live commentary on the season’s supposed kickoff: a self-consciously hacky sketch about Donald Trump (James Justin Johnson) and, well, whatever zany characters the writers decide to throw at him in an att...
Underpinning SA’s BPO Explosion
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Till Digs Into a Deeply Shameful, Deeply American Tragedy: Review
This review is part of our coverage of the 2022 New York Film Festival. The Pitch: The horrific, deeply shameful, and deeply American story of Emmett Till galvanized the civil rights movement with its tragedy: A 14-year-old Black boy from Chicago, visiting relatives in Mississippi, was kidnapped, tortured, and murdered for having the temerity to interact with a white woman, and Emmett’s mother Mamie Till-Mobley (then known as Mamie Till-Bradley) made the momentous decision to have an open-coffin funeral for her son, displaying his body, mutilated by his killers and bloated from being dumped into a river. These images, heavily circulated in Black publications, brought attention to the evils and injustice of U.S. racism — though they were not enough for Till’s killers (who admitted to the cr...
Paul Schrader’s Master Gardener Treads Very Familiar Soil: Review
This review is part of our coverage of the 2022 New York Film Festival. The Pitch: So there’s this stoic-looking man, sitting at a desk in a dark, spartan room, writing in his journal as we hear his thoughts in voiceover. That’s the set-up for Paul Schrader’s Master Gardener, as it was for his previous two films, The Card Counter and First Reformed. This was also the spirit, at least, of many other movies he has written and/or directed over the years, but his most recent unofficial trilogy takes on a ritualistic quality, as if Schrader is performing his version of stations of the cross, on progressively skimpier budgets. The newest iteration stars Joel Edgerton as Narvel Roth, head horticulturist at Gracewood Gardens, and though his routines appear regimented, he also seems closer to peace...
Why Gen Xers & Boomers are Embracing Cryptocurrency
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The Nostalgia of Hocus Pocus 2 Only Serves Itself
Hocus Pocus 2, the long-awaited-by-some sequel to the 1993 fantasy comedy horror film rocking the same name, is best summed up with a stray fart joke. A newly resurrected Mary Sanderson (Kathy Najimy), one of the three nefarious Sanderson sisters (Salem witches whose 1600s reign of terror over the town ended by the noose) stumbles into a Walgreens. She and her siblings, Sarah (Sarah Jessica Parker) and Winifred (Bette Midler), are in search of provisions, and lured into entering the pharmacy by the film’s teen heroes. One by one they walk in. Mary, awed by the automatic doors, steps through and immediately, casually, unwarrantedly trumpets her flatulence. End scene. Farts are funny when they have a point. Hocus Pocus 2’s fart has no point. Mary farts because the filmmakers, producers, and ...
The Greatest Beer Run Ever Is a Pretty Likeable Movie, and That’s a Huge Problem: Review
The Pitch: Peter Farrelly is back with his first film since Green Book, a biopic about an average white guy from New York in the 1960s who learned a lot about the world by stepping outside of his comfort zone in the American South, whilst simultaneously charming the more worldly people around him. His new one, The Greatest Beer Run Ever, is a little different: it’s a biopic about an average white guy from New York in the 1960s who learns a lot about the world by stepping outside of his comfort zone in the Vietnam War, whilst simultaneously charming the more worldly people around him. This time, Zac Efron stars as Chickie Donahue, a shiftless merchant mariner who has a lot of friends serving in Vietnam. Chickie resents the cynical attitude the American media and youth culture have towards t...
Rap Song of the Week: Smino and J. Cole Light It Up on “90 Proof”
Rap Song of the Week runs down all the hip-hop tracks you need to hear every Friday. Check out the full playlist here. This week, Smino gears up for his upcoming album Luv 4 Rent with “90 Proof” featuring J. Cole. Since dropping “24-8” earlier this month, Smino’s been teasing his next album, Luv 4 Rent, with the hashtag “droptober.” To close out September, the St. Louis native has reunited with J. Cole for his confessional new single, “90 Proof.” Over a soulful groove co-produced by frequent collaborator monte booker and Groove, Smino uses a singsong flow to plead patience from a woman he hasn’t been able to commit to. Admitting he’s not “great at relationships,” Smino expresses his feelings the best way he knows how. In addition to opening up with lyrics like, “My heart start be...
