Music
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Song of the Day: “Fall On Me”
The pioneering alternative rock band R.E.M. officially disbanded in 2011, after more than 30 years making music that defied description. Allegedly, singer Michael Stipe chose the band’s name in 1980 by picking it at random from a dictionary. The reference…
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Song of the Day: “Never Over You”
Critics have described indie singer-songwriter Natalie Prass variously as “stunning,” “sublime,” “charmingly delicate,” and also, bizarrely, as a Disney princess. The Nashville-based former Berklee College of Music student offers up a heady melange of influences on her acclaimed new eponymous album.…
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Songs of Our Lives: A Certain Ratio’s “All Night Party”
Even the girl busted for drunk driving before she was even old enough to get her license seemed impressed: “You and your parties! You guys are just crazy.”
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The Rumpus Interview with Elisa Ambrogio and Naomi Yang
Renaissance women Elisa Ambrogio and Naomi Yang discuss stop motion music videos, the female mythology of rock-n-roll, and giving ourselves permission to be creative, make music, and explore art in an intuitive way.
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Sound & Vision: Shannon Conley
Hard-rocking artist Shannon Conley talks to Allyson McCabe about the exceptional more-than-a-tribute band Lez Zeppelin, her unconventional upbringing by Hindu Baptists, and her role as Yitzhak in Hedwig and the Angry Inch.
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Song of the Day: “One For My Baby”
The canon of drinking songs is long and storied, but no one sang about booze with quite as much acumen as legendary imbiber Frank Sinatra. At a seminal live performance at the Las Vegas Sands in 1966, Sinatra delivered an…
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Swinging Modern Sounds #62: Stillness as Metaphor
I am after a music that renders life as it is, and which invites in the intermittent pulsations of life.
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Song of the Day: “It Never Entered My Mind”
By now Miles Davis has become a cornerstone of modern music. We can’t get rid of him, which is good, because we would never want to. Miles Davis is inside us; he surrounds us, and permeates our collective consciousness. For that reason, it’s easy to…
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Songs of Our Lives: Look Blue Go Purple’s “Circumspect Penelope”
Distance always seduced me—distance from whatever was most familiar, especially myself—but the difficulties in achieving such remove vexed me.
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Song of the Day: “Zombie”
The genre known as “afrobeat” has a long history, thanks mostly to the visionary multi-instrumentalist Fela Kuti. When the Nigerian composer first came up with the name for his unique sound in the early ’70s, his music was moving thematically…
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Song of the Day: “The Prayer”
Black Messiah is an apt title for the long-awaited follow-up to contemporary soul master D’Angelo’s 2000 record, Voodoo. Fourteen years allows for plenty of anticipation. At times, the news from industry insiders made it seem like Black Messiah would never…
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Sound & Vision: Nathan East
Legendary bassist Nathan East talks about playing with the pros, from Barry White to Daft Punk, about his new solo album and documentary, and about teaching musicians to play the instrument he loves.