Every great album should come with a jumpscare. A moment that makes you stumble a little on a run, stop short on a walk, and jerk your head up when blasting it at home. On Anna von Hausswolff’s phenomenal new album ICONOCLASTS, that jumpscare comes in the form of Iggy Pop’s craggy, trembling bellow, loudly … Continue reading
Tinkling, angelic bells ushered in the most mournful rendition of the Lady in the Radiator’s ascension anthem, “In Heaven,” I’ve ever heard, like a warbling hymn sung at a gravesite scented with night-blooming jasmine. At the conclusion of Xiu Xiu’s live interpretation of Eraserhead’s minimalist whooshing score, performed last week at Brooklyn’s Elsewhere, Jamie Stewart’s … Continue reading
Is white lipstick the trashiest shade of lip color? Despite continually mulling over what belongs in the oozing dumpster of the trash aesthetic, I never really thought about it until the elongated scream of “Whiiiiiiiiiiiii-te lipstick!” that kickstarts the sonic tribute to this pasty lip on Hunx and His Punx’s new album Walk Out on … Continue reading
There is a tornado at the heart of Ethel Cain’s new album, Willoughby Tucker, I’ll Always Love You, a storm of such Southern Gothic biblical proportions that it rivals the foreboding flood that heralds the foretold birth of Elvis and his dead twin on Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds’ “Tupelo.” The tempest rolls in slowly … Continue reading
If I had to pick the absolute perfect song, tied up with a gun to my head, I’d be hard-pressed to come up with one better than Q Lazzarus’s “Goodbye Horses.” That sparse, sultry beat that slowly emerges as if from the clouds, combined with a strange, sci-fi keyboard do-dooing that somehow comes off as … Continue reading
I can’t be the only one who frequently fantasizes about what it must have been like to wander, either unknowingly or with a passing interest, into a Lower Manhattan club during the good-old/bad-old days of New York City and endure the sonic suckerpunch of Teenage Jesus and the Jerks with 16-year-old Lydia Lunch at the … Continue reading
The Weeknd’s Hurry Up Tomorrow features Giorgio Moroder. Those eight words alone might be enough of a gushing review, the shortest I’d ever write. Do you need to know anything else about the new album besides the presence of the pioneering heavenly father of disco who sent Donna Summer’s divine voice levitating into outer space? … Continue reading
Isn’t it about time that we feel bad about masturbating again? I mean, other than a few edging holdouts, how long has it been since jacking was taboo? That yanking your plug or flicking your bean or however you want to do it could risk a judgmental side eye and rejecting shake of the head … Continue reading
At some point in the middle of “Tupelo” on the second night of Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds’ two-nights-only stint in London for their Wild God Europe and UK tour, I thought Elvis Presley would rise from the dead, jumpsuit and all, to appear onstage at the cavernous O2 arena. Quite a feat given … Continue reading
Xiu Xiu is fun. I know fun isn’t likely the right word; playful is closer. Yet, I enjoy the cognitive dissonance of using the word “fun” to describe a band that has, since its aughts genesis, plumbed the depths of trauma, depravity, shame basements, and the morbid mixture of sheer abrasiveness and tightly wound near-nervous … Continue reading