Can you listen to ear torturer/noise master Glenn Branca’s auditory assault “Symphony no. 13 (Hallucination City) for 100 Guitars” without macabrely dwelling on the horrors of 9/11 and, well, everything that came after? I know I couldn’t when attending the experimental symphony on a whim last Friday at Lincoln Center’s David Geffen Hall. The concert, … Continue reading
I cried in disbelief listening to Madonna’s “I Feel So Free.” Not at first. When I initially sampled the rip of the old-school radio (yes, radio!) premiere of the first track from her upcoming album Confessions II, “I Feel So Free” came off to me as generic gay bar fare, perfect for a Hell’s Kitchen … Continue reading
An idiotic U.S. president launches a disastrous, poorly considered, escalating war in the Middle East that neocon sickos have been dreaming about since 1996’s Clean Break memo got Bibi Netanyahu all hot and bothered for Greater Israel. The United States’ hubris, short-sighted stupidity, and limitless taste for con artistry plunge the entire globe into economic … Continue reading
Lick on my clit! Make this pussy cream! Do this motherfucker how you do them Russian creams… These deliriously depraved opening lines, whispered close to my ear by Xiu Xiu’s Jamie Stewart over halfway through their new cover album, Xiu Mutha Fuckin’ Xiu: Vol. 1, released today by Polyvinyl Records, made me stop short mid-run. … Continue reading
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