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Song of the Week: boygenius Reunite on Julien Baker’s Confessional “Favor”
Song of the Week breaks down and talks about the song we just can’t get out of our head each week. Find these songs and more on our Spotify Top Songs playlist. For our favorite new songs from emerging artists, check out our Spotify New Sounds playlist. While several stories over the past few weeks have reminded us that the entertainment world can still be very much a boys’ club in the worst ways imaginable, on the artistic side of matters, we’ve seen an undeniable shift in the recognition women are finally beginning to receive within the music industry, especially in the rock genre. Studies have shown that young women are not only picking up guitars at the highest rates ever, but they’re actually learning to play them in larger numbers than their male counterparts. No doubt it’s been partl...
Underground Vibes | 062
“The Song 2.0“ – Elport & Aiden Myers Out via Nightblue Music, “The Song 2.0” finds producer Elport and vocalist Aiden Myers team up to create a stunning combination of pop and future bass. “One Night” – problem solved & ScoobE German producer problem solved and Dutch/Irish rapper ScoobE wish for just one night of normality and festivals in their new tune – a groovy and genre-bending gem. “Easier” – PAPER FACE Emerging duo PAPER FACE have struck gold once again with their latest single “Easier,” a lighthearted tropical pop tune. “Tik Tok” – Wasback Taking on Kesha’s 2009 smash hit, Wasback taps into our nostalgia by infusing the original with house drums and groovy basslines in this slap house cover. “Disappear” – Severin & Like Lio...
The Last Remaining Juke Joints in America
Ten years ago, some buddies and I made a film called We Juke Up in Here. It was an insiders’ journey into the underbelly of Mississippi’s surviving juke joint culture. Three years later, The New York Times showed up on my doorstep. “How many such places still exist?” the reporter asked. “With actual real, live blues music at least sporadically?” I clarified. “Maybe five.” I gave them the list to visit in a three-state region, centered by Mississippi. And they did. Red Paden outside Red’s Lounge (Clarksdale, MS, 2011) CREDIT: Lou Bopp The Great Migration In Reverse In the early 1990s, I often took a cheap Southwest Airlines flight from my native Dayton, Ohio to Chicago in search of down-home blues venues like Lee’s Unleaded and Rosa’s. Then, in 1995, my advertising career moved me to ...
How Randy Pobst Saved This Record-Setting Porsche 911 GT2 RS From the Crusher
But seriously, why crush cars? Well, in the case of those Vipers, they were pre-production models that can never be sold. Why not? Because if they ever somehow “get loose” and are involved in a road crash, the manufacturer is hosed—just ask your nearest lawyer, any lawyer. Fact is, it makes great economic sense for automakers to destroy certain cars. They would hurt themselves, shareholders, and future crash victims if they didn’t make sure certain cars were good and dead. Even cars you really like. But what about special cars? Or even really special cars? Like, say, the 2018 Porsche 991-series 911 GT2 RS Weissach Edition that set the production car lap record in July 2018 on the big track at Willow Springs International Raceway? The very car driven by our own Randy Pobst...
Conquer the Dakar Rally With This Collection of Bowler Land Rover Defenders
In nearly every single parameter, the new Land Rover Defender improves over the old warhorse Defender it replaced. While Land Rover’s O.G. Defender’s capability as an expeditionary lance and an agrarian implement is undeniable, the British brand worked extraordinarily hard to develop a new Defender that drives and performs like something from the 21st century, and not the 19th. However, with unibody construction and a suite of tech aimed at improving on-road manners, the new Defender isn’t quite the boulder-basher it used to be—especially if your needs include bombing through the Dakar dunes on a rally raid. For that, you turn to the mad minds at Bowler. The U.K.-based manufacturing workshop established itself as the premier name in making Defenders rally-raid-ready ...
Honor the Birth of House Music With 10 Influential Black Artists from Chicago
More than 40 years ago in Chicago’s underground club scene, the foundational wave of modern dance music was just starting to hit its stride. It was the 1980s, and house music was booming. Following the decline of disco fever, pioneering Black DJs like Frankie Knuckles and Ron Hardy were quickly thrust into the city’s spotlight as they experimented with drum machines and synths in music for the first time, especially the iconic Roland TR-808. Predominantly Black, Latinx and queer audiences flocked to their venues, the Warehouse and the Muzic Box, respectively, drawn in by the inclusive, sanctuary-like scene. It wasn’t long until fabled record labels like Gramaphone and Trax were founded, devoted to spreading the sound of house music across the country and the globe. ...
Overlanding in Supercars? What Has Top Gear America Done Now!?
Don’t worry, things have not gone completely off the rails at the MotorTrend offices, despite last year’s best efforts. As fun as it would be to watch, supercars are not built for overlanding (but maybe they are nowadays?), and even the Top Gear America hosts wouldn’t subject those rolling pinnacles of art and engineering to the rigors of the great outdoors. But what is a “supercar,” really, and how exactly are you supposed to drive one? And overlanding? Aren’t we all over land in some way or another all the time? We got to chat with Top Gear America co-host Jethro Bovingdon about these questions, meeting Dax Shepard and Rob Corddry for the first time, and generally living up to the legacy of the one of the greatest franchises in automotive m...
EDM.com Presents The Heat Check 001: Mersiv, Kumarion, Freddy Todd and More
In modern bass music, listeners and tastemakers consistently find themselves chasing the next big track to blow audiences away. EDM.com’s The Heat Check is a series that highlights the hottest tracks and brightest artists to emerge from the bass, dubstep and freeform scenes. “TALKIN BOUT” – MERSIV For his first drop of 2021, Mersiv delivered a short yet nasty dubstep banger. “Talkin Bout” displays his ability to forge robust energy and experiences through his experimental sound. “INSTINCT” – KUMARION After eclipsing a million streams on his breakout track “Want It,” Kumarion has re-upped on the new year with his latest drum & bass-infused tune. “Instinct” flushes out his chaotic style and marks his debut with the ...
No One Puts Enough Respect on the Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren’s Name
Cast your mind back to 2002. Covid-19 wasn’t anything to anyone, Elon Musk was only known for creating PayPal (and, after selling it, buying a McLaren F1), and Porsche, Ferrari, and Pagani were setting the automotive world alight with the Carrera GT, Enzo, and Zonda. It was one heck of a time to love cars, not least of which because the Chrysler PT Cruiser was MotorTrend’s reigning car of the year. But there’s another, oft-forgotten member of the early 2000s supercar aristocracy: the Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren. See all 15 photos Born out of a partnership between Mercedes-Benz and McLaren that started with their joint Formula 1 program, the SLR was both an homage to the old and an exploration of the new. The McLaren F1 had been out of production for several years, and the n...
Steven Wilson on Channeling Evil Spirits, Defying Expectations With New LP
Google Image search “Steven Wilson sadness meme,” and you’ll find plenty of hilarious results. His music rarely sounds depressing — despite the groans of the modern prog-rock community, he’s just as likely these days to channel Abba as Gentle Giant. But he does tend to explore the dark corners of the human psyche, from the ultra bleak conceptual framework of Porcupine Tree’s 2002 LP, In Absentia, to the tragic real-life story that inspired his 2015 solo LP, Hand. Cannot. Erase. If anyone could expertly channel the despair and division of the pandemic/Trump era, it’s this guy. And the songwriter’s perfectly titled new LP, The Future Bites, does traffic in the paranoia and general anxiety of our current dystopia. But Wilson finished writing the project in 2018 — it just happens to feel like ...
