Up until I picked up my wristband Friday, I didn’t really expect Bonnaroo to actually happen. My best guess here is that I was guarding myself after the very-very-late (read:…
For Samia Finnerty, Portland Brew is a sacred place. She’s canonized it, notably, namedropping the shop in the opening line of “As You Are.” When we last spoke, in March…
The early part of this year has provided somewhat of a saturated market for live music. We knew this was coming—last summer, new tour dates dropped daily, with the return…
Zac Farro’s HalfNoise is always going to have huge shoes to fill. The project, started during Farro’s hiatus from Paramore in 2012, has the unenviable task of standing out as…
There’s a uniquely sardonic quality about the way Atlanta singer-songwriter Faye Webster engages with the world. It’s listless and above-it-all in many ways—but never pretentious or off-putting. She’s cooler than…
I was more than a little drunk when Canadian underground rapper Tommy Genesis pulled me on stage to rap Charli XCX’s verse on her “100 Bad.” “Do you know the…
I don’t often talk earnestly about Taylor Swift. I’m not sure why, either; my bizarre parasocial relationship with this woman more often than not ends in me joking about her,…
Tonight’s Sham Jam headliner Samia Finnerty is on the rise. Her 2020 debut record The Baby brought her considerable buzz for her remarkably vulnerable songwriting and fresh take on the…
There’s something really visceral about a dance floor. It’s where Madonna’s Confessions were, where Sophie Ellis-Bextor iconically saw murder, and—lest we forget—where Sean Kingston had to call 911 as a…
As famously bad as 2020 was, this year saw one of the most stacked music release lineups in memory—largely due to increased creative activity during COVID-19 lockdown, part of what…
A track-by-track review. Well, friends, here we are. For the second time this year, Taylor Swift has surprise-released an album. Conceived as “folklore‘s sister record,” evermore—Swift’s ninth studio album—comes from…
If you’re anything like me (and if you’re reading this, I have reason to suspect you are), chances are you love listening to music on vinyl. Maybe you’re a regular…
Every part of that headline feels like a fever dream. It all started, as many things in the Phoebe Bridgers-verse do, with a tweet. Among the sea of “if Trump…
33 years into her career, she’s better than ever. The entire music industry is a bit fascinated with the genre of disco this year. Dua Lipa did disco on Future…
Yuh. Miss Cat Valentine is, uh, all grown up. Not that her past few albums haven’t been proof that Ariana Grande is a full-fledged adult capital-P-capital-S Pop Star, but positions…
Oh me, oh my! Last night, Rina Sawayama made her hotly-anticipated TV debut on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, performing single “XS” off her remarkable debut LP Sawayama. The…
People on Twitter do not like Dua Lipa & The Blessed Madonna’s Club Future Nostalgia. As in, they hate it. And there’s a thousand more where these came from; I…
Girls, you have done it again.
Get your cardigan; it’s Swiftie season.
Whatever you think she is, you’re wrong. Claire Boucher, known professionally as Grimes, is controversial, to say the least. Previously an indie darling after her major-label debut Visions and 2015’s…
The first words to come out of my mouth after Swedish pop singer Tove Lo finished her 24-song (!!) tour-opening set at Marathon Music Works were “she did the damn…