Lo! A Monster Is Born: “The Horror Show!” at London’s Somerset House Is Everything an Exhibition Should Be
Art / Film / Music

Lo! A Monster Is Born: “The Horror Show!” at London’s Somerset House Is Everything an Exhibition Should Be

“Everywhere I seem to go on this island seems to me I find degeneracy. There is brawling in bars. There is indecency in public places. And there is the corruption of the young. And now I see it all stems from here—it stems from the FILTH taught here in this very school room!” So spits … Continue reading

No Twerk Zones: Tirzah and Henrike Naumann at SculptureCenter
Art / Music

No Twerk Zones: Tirzah and Henrike Naumann at SculptureCenter

The Tirzah exhibition at SculptureCenter is as basic and enchanting as Tirzah’s music, which would perhaps be best described as mellow melancholia with spasms of grunge. If you weren’t already enamored with Tirzah, you’d probably walk into the exhibition, comprised of just two modestly scaled screens displaying music videos, all of which are readily available … Continue reading

Lana Del Rey’s New Song “Did you know that there’s a tunnel under Ocean Blvd” Just Might Be Her Masterpiece
Music

Lana Del Rey’s New Song “Did you know that there’s a tunnel under Ocean Blvd” Just Might Be Her Masterpiece

The first we hear from Lana Del Rey on her new song “Did you know that there’s a tunnel under Ocean Blvd” is a deep breath. Over a swell of strings, Lana takes a brief inhale, followed by an extended exhale as if she’s doing meditation. She’s preparing herself to sing one of the most … Continue reading

If I Stay All Night and Talk: Conversation as Corrective in Nick Cave and Seán O’Hagan’s “Faith, Hope and Carnage”
Books / Music

If I Stay All Night and Talk: Conversation as Corrective in Nick Cave and Seán O’Hagan’s “Faith, Hope and Carnage”

Does an artist need to believe—or at the very least consider—the existence of God (or the divine, a higher power, or whatever it is you want to call it) in order to create transcendent work? That’s the question I’ve been wrestling with ever since listening to an advanced copy of the audiobook for Nick Cave … Continue reading

If He Felt He Had To Direct You, Then Direct You Into My Arms: More Items I Would Steal From “Stranger Than Kindness: The Nick Cave Exhibition”
Art / Books / Music

If He Felt He Had To Direct You, Then Direct You Into My Arms: More Items I Would Steal From “Stranger Than Kindness: The Nick Cave Exhibition”

In his Last Will and Testament made in 1987, on view in the sprawling exhibition Stranger Than Kindness: The Nick Cave Exhibition, Nick Cave requested: “…money earned on records, both publishing and record sales, should be used to have and maintain a small but adequate room or rooms that will serve as the “Nick Cave … Continue reading

Man or Myth?: “Stranger Than Kindness” Is a Portrait of Nick Cave through His Many Obsessions and Influences
Art / Books / Music

Man or Myth?: “Stranger Than Kindness” Is a Portrait of Nick Cave through His Many Obsessions and Influences

In the nebulous period of 1983 and 1984 between the drug-fueled dissolution of the trash can-driving, six-inch-gold-blade-slicing, zoo-music-girl-lusting, junkyard royalty The Birthday Party and the official designation of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Nick Cave played a smattering of clubs under a few different titles. There was Nick Cave and the Cavemen, which is … Continue reading