ALBUMS OF OUR LIVES: STEVE EARLE’S GUITAR TOWN
Before someone spilled Hi-C on it during a hot Iowa summer and my car window fixed sunlight into its silky black innards, warping Steve Earle’s voice into that of a…
Music
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Writing on music at The Rumpus!
Free (and Legal) Rad Music Download Alert
What’s better than downloading kickass music? Downloading kickass free music legally. Motivated by last week’s free release of Brass Tactics, the new EP from David Byrne and St. Vincent, Flavorwire…
The Rumpus Interview with Missy Mazzoli
We talked to composer-performer Missy Mazzoli about the sometimes invisible world of new classical music, her relation to it, and what she’s doing to help to redefine what it means to be a composer in the 21st century.
Nick Cave Monday #38: “Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!”
Rest in peace. RIP. That’s what we say when someone dies. So this Jesus dude in the Bible resurrects some people according to the gospels. One of the privileged to…
Songs of Our Lives: “Angel from Montgomery”
If you chase a song from the tips of its branches down its broad trunk, you’ll eventually hit cold soil and muscular roots. Good songs lead somewhere. They are present…
The Rumpus Interview with Dawn Oberg
Dawn Oberg’s writing covers a range simultaneously comedic and biting, sad and sardonic. Her music finds a new way to twist the knife in, or maybe deliver an earnest compliment,…
Nick Cave Monday #37: “The Singer”
What does it all mean? Does it even matter that we are all Bad Seeders in this existence? Is the journey worth it? When we suck our last breath and…
Songs of Our Lives: Johnny Cash’s “Hurt” and the Stooges’ “Search and Destroy”
It’d be a stretch to say that Johnny Cash and Iggy Pop are connected in any meaningful way.
Deep Throat #4: On Being and Unbeing a Singer
It is not a coincidence that among the synonyms for “practice” is “ritual,” and for “ritual,” “practice.” When you do a thing over and over—even if it is only so…
The Rumpus Interview with Julianna Barwick
With her haunting voice looped in a wordless glossolalia over pianos, keyboards, and other instruments, Julianna Barwick makes music like no other artist working today.
Nick Cave Monday #36: “Dead Joe”
Even though we’re in the month of May, we can always use a little bit of Christmas spirit. The Birthday Party, Nick Cave’s pre–Bad Seeds band, gave us a song that…
ALBUMS OF OUR LIVES: BOB DYLAN’S BLONDE ON BLONDE
The album was the warm yellow window of someone else’s house as you walk by on a cold night. Listening to it was the feeling you get when you look into this stranger’s window and wish you lived there.