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Op-Ed: White Privilege and Black Lives in the Baltimore Music Scene
Photo by Frank HamiltonI moved to Baltimore seven or eight years ago. The city I’d lived in for many years started to feel stagnant, and I felt myself stagnating with it. Friends began selling me on...
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Playlist: Songs about PMS and Periods
Given the spectrum of emotions and stereotypes associated with PMS, menstruation has historically provided ample lyrical fodder for all manner of artists. Here are some of the most notable tunes that...
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The Making of the Video for Bell Biv DeVoe's "Poison"
When Lionel C. Martin’s career as a music video director began in the 1980s, he was still mostly known as “Vid Kid,” the co-host of "Video Music Box"—the New York City public access show that gave fans...
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Op-Ed: It's Time To Put Our Cameras Away
Photo by Matt Lief AndersonLast week I watched Purity Ring perform to a capacity crowd in Melbourne, Australia. If you want to see some photos of their show (or 15-second videos) then open up Instagram...
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The Tawdry Tale of 2 Live Crew’s Luther Campbell in The Book of Luke
Years back, a friend was visiting her boyfriend at his college. She came back from that trip horrified, recounting how her boyfriend took her to a 2 Live Crew concert on campus, where the entire...
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Who Said It: Father or Father John Misty?
Folk singer-songwriter and former Fleet Foxes drummer Joshua Tillman is a musician who, as Father John Misty, writes cynically but passionately about love. Father, the de facto leader of Atlanta’s...
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We Need to Talk About Amy Winehouse’s Eating Disorder and Its Role In Her Death
There is a tacitly accepted set of rules that our culture follows when it comes to women in the spotlight. They are required to be thin. They do not eat a normal diet and that in and of itself is seen...
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Op-Ed: I'm Breaking Up With Drake
Photo by Pooneh GhanaI used to be a Drake fan. Not so much in the mixtape days—that stuff always seemed self-evidently embarrassing—but something clicked on Thank Me Later, and I was completely sold. I...
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Matthew Dear Discusses His Installation at the New Museum
Photo by Jonnie CraigMatthew Dear wants you to pull his music apart.The inventive Detroit electro artist’s new project, DELQA, skews somewhere between EP and obstacle course. A sprawling installation...
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I Wasn't Brought Here, I Was Born: Surviving Punk Rock Long Enough To Find...
Photo by Erez AvissarI don’t remember the first time I heard a racist joke at a punk rock show. Rather, I don’t remember the first time I was grabbed into a sweaty half-hug by one of the laughing white...
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Total Control Finally Tour: A Special Report
Before Typical System came out last year, Total Control's Daniel Stewart made it clear that the group wouldn’t be touring anytime soon. This decision was both one of practicality—the band’s members...
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Sean Price, Rest In Power
Photo via Duck Down RecordsSean Price, the highly-respected Duck Down Records rapper, one half of groundbreaking duo Heltah Skeltah, died suddenly in his Brooklyn apartment Saturday morning. He was 43....
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Drexciya, Lamin Fofana, and What Techno Can Teach Us About the Migrant Crisis
In song, the ocean is often—usually?—a metaphor. It can represent a bunch of things: distance, eternity, fathomless emotion. But metaphor is also a luxury, one that many people—reduced by circumstance...
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Op-Ed: What Does the White Rapper Owe #BlackLivesMatter?
Photo via FacebookIn 1991, Vanilla Ice appeared on the "Arsenio Hall Show" for a now infamous interview. From the moment his guest’s emerald green jumpsuit touched the couch, Arsenio’s demeanor was...
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The Return of the Ultimate Music-Obsessive Comic, Phonogram
Music is magic. The premise of Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie’s comic Phonogram sounds simple. But over 10 years and three volumes, it’s proved an elegant, flexible, and amusing metaphor for fandom,...
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The Hits and Misses of Marvel Comics Movie Soundtracks
For a company as obsessed with creating a singular vision as Marvel, the films of the Marvel Cinematic Universe should have a more coherent musical identity. After all, most iconic film franchises have...
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Shake Appeal's Best of Summer 2015 List
In the latest installment of Shake Appeal, Evan Minsker shares some of his favorite garage/punk/etc. records of the summer. Not included are picks covered in the previous installment. The Negative...
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Op-Ed: Why Are the LAPD Threatened by a Great Rap Biopic?
Seriously? Why are the LAPD beefing up security at private movie theaters? Do they think the F. Gary Gray-directed biopic Straight Outta Compton is so good that it'll make otherwise civilized Angelenos...
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Inside Canada’s Indigenous Hip-Hop Scene With The First Ladies Crew
On the chorus of her new track, "Sisterz", JB the First Lady, aka Jerilynn Webster, doesn’t restrain the rage in her voice. "I wanna walk the whole damn world," she cries, "my stolen sisters, where did...
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How to Sustain Yourself Between Fiona Apple Albums
Photo by Benjamin LozovskyThere is a certain masochism to being a diehard Fiona Apple fan. It means learning to love at a different tempo than the fans of other musicians; it requires a...
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