Music
-
Movies, Briefly: The Kids Are Alright (1979)
“Rock and roll’s never ever stood dissecting and inspecting it at close range. It doesn’t stand up. So shut up.” Jeff Stein’s documentary, The Kids are Alright, lives up to that statement from The Who frontman Roger Daltrey, who shares it…
-
RUMPUS RADIO #1: Interview with K.Flay
Introducing the Rumpus—now in audio! What is your pun threshold? Are you ready for a pun battle between K.Flay and the International Pun Champion, Joe Sabia?
-
Indie Bands Take Back the Internet
Tomo Nakayama is small, almost hidden completely by the beautiful guitar in his lap and the Jameson on the rocks he holds in front of his face. Instead of a stage, he is sitting in the corner of a cozy…
-
Notable San Francisco, This Week: 3/29-4/4
This Week, Get ready for next week’s Monthly Rumpus with a Yellow Dress show, check out emerging writers at USF and established ones at Grow the F*ck Up! at the Hemlock, get your nerd on at Wondercon, and celebrate a…
-
Is Music Less Sacred?
“But for all the joys of such wizardry, I’ve been experiencing a creeping sense of dread recently when it comes to iTunes, a dark hunch that technology has impoverished the actual experience of listening to music.” Rumpus contributor Steve Almond…
-
Notable New York, This Week 3/29 – 4/4
This week in New York Mr. Beller’s Neighborhood holds a reading series, Threepenny Review celebrates its thirtieth birthday, A Public Space throws a launch party for Issue 10, Paris Review holds a Fiction Salon, Meghan O’Rourke reads, Ryan McGinley shows…
-
Hootie Populism: Darius Rucker Is Country Music’s Newest Hit-Maker
Editor’s Note: We realize this breaks our “no pop” rule, but this essay was too good to pass up. Darius Rucker is not Hootie. Instead, he’s Darius, the former lead singer of Hootie and the Blowfish, a band that since…
-
Steve Almond on Music Criticism
“Am I suggesting that music criticism is a pointless exercise? Yeah, I guess I am. In many cases it’s even worse than that. Because critics are, by their very job description, charged with being hypercritical. I certainly was. It was…
-
I’m Still an Animal
I was actually glad to hear “Animal” on the new 90210 last week. The second most luscious (“Sans Soleil” wins that prize) and first most catchy track on Miike Snow‘s self-titled 2009 debut, fit perfectly with the elevated high school…