Glorious Noise

New Bonnie “Prince” Billy: Hey Little Video: Bonnie “Prince” Billy – “Hey Little” Directed by by Brent Stewart and Maya Stewart. From We Are Together Again, out on March 6 on Domino / No Quarter. Not long …

New Bonnie “Prince” Billy: Hey Little. By Derek Phillips.

Threefer Thursday: All On A Mardis Gras Day New Orleans. Where it all began. Musical ground zero for America. Where the American approach to music came to be defined by personalization, interpretation, and improvisation – definitively …

Threefer Thursday: All On A Mardis Gras Day. By Mike V.

New Ratboys: Penny in the Lake Video: Ratboys – “Penny in the Lake” Directed by Bobby Butterscotch. From Singin’ to an Empty Chair, out February 6 via New West. I love Uncle Tupelo. There was a time where…

New Ratboys: Penny in the Lake. By Derek Phillips.

Battle of the Bands “And right now. . .right now. . .right now it’s time to. . .kick out the jams, motherfuckers!” –MC5, “Kick Out the Jams” (1969) In photographs of and posters for the MC5 the American flag is …

Battle of the Bands. By Stephen Macaulay.

Twenty-Five Years: How’d That Happen? Twenty-five years. What the fuck? Time flies. It’s a cliche but it’s true. The older you get, the faster it goes. You blink and you’re old. I was still in my twenties when we star…

Twenty-Five Years: How’d That Happen?

Threefer Thursday: Symphonic PFunk at the Detroit Opera House Funk is a style of music that can move you to the core of your being if you let it. It’s got groove, it’s musically sophisticated, it feels good, and it embodies a certain kind of musical hope for …

Threefer Thursday: Symphonic PFunk at the Detroit Opera House. By Mike V.

Tune in, Turn on, Unsubscribe There’s a minor cultural movement right now where the kids are throwing it back to 2016, back to when they were…kids. It seems nobody is particular happy to be in 2026 and nostalgia has some …

Tune in, Turn on, Unsubscribe. By Derek Phillips.

A History of Violence On August 7, 1964, the “Gulf of Tonkin Resolution” was signed into law by Lyndon B. Johnson. The reasons for the passage were because on August 2 a destroyer, the USS Maddox, was attacked by North …

A History of Violence. By Stephen Macaulay.

New Courtney Barnett: Site Unseen Video: Courtney Barnett – “Site Unseen” (ft. Waxahatchee) Directed by Juliana and Nicola Giraffe. From Creature of Habit, out March 27 on Mom+Pop. In some circles I am known as An…

New Courtney Barnett: Site Unseen. By Derek Phillips.

Threefer Thursday: Why You Should Know Susan Tedeschi A lot of people know Susan Tedeschi. You can tell by the 1.7 million views on one of the videos below. But MORE people should know Susan Tedeschi’s work. She is one of the hardest working women in …

Threefer Thursday: Why You Should Know Susan Tedeschi. By Mike V.

New Sharp Pins: Popafangout Video: Sharp Pins – “Popafangout” Directed by Grace Bader Conrad and Kai Slater. From Balloon Balloon Balloon, out now on Perennial/K Records. A friend in New York just recommende…

New Sharp Pins: Popafangout

Beatles v. Stones When the Beatles and the Stones appeared on the scene in the US there was quickly a debate-cum-argument that occurred throughout high schools on the subject of who was “better.” “Quickly” is a rela…

Beatles v. Stones. By Stephen Macaulay.

New Snail Mail: Dead End Video: Snail Mail – “Dead End” Directed by Elsie Richter and Lindsey Jordan. From Ricochet, out March 27 on Matador. I watch a lot of “Jeopardy” and it was amusing to …

New Snail Mail: Dead End

Threefer Thursday: Top Three Hip Hop Tiny Desk Concerts There are tons of great Tiny Desk Concerts out there, across many different artists, musical generations, and genres. There are hundreds and hundreds of them available to watch on YouTube, and I ce…

Threefer Thursday: Top Three Hip Hop Tiny Desk Concerts. By Mike V.

New Souled American: Boom Boom Video: Souled American – “Boom Boom” Directed by Jeff Economy. From Sanctions, out April 17 on Jealous Butcher. I first heard Souled American in a most preposterous way: on a Germ…

New Souled American: Boom Boom

Listening to the Long Tail Back in 2004, Chris Anderson, then editor of Wired magazine, developed a concept he called the “long tail.” Essentially, the idea is that there are extremely popular items of any type—whether we ar…

Listening to the Long Tail. By Stephen Macaulay.

Data: 2025 Total Music Sales and Streams The data is out! Luminate (formerly Soundscan and briefly Nielsen Music and MRC Data) has released its year-end music report, which summarizes sales and streaming data for the previous year. The in…

Data: 2025 Total Music Sales and Streams

Threefer Thursday: My Musical Journey with Bob Weir This is a big loss, folks. I’m sure we’re all still feeling it. Bobby was doing shows and bringing joy to people’s lives for 60 years. 60 years! An amazing run, but it still feels like it’s over to…

Threefer Thursday: My Musical Journey with Bob Weir. By Mike V.

Music, Mind & Body Music has existed for millennia. Longer than can be proven due to its ephemeral nature. Hum a tune right now and it is gone. Scribble a stickman or a few words on a piece of paper and it is there f…

Music, Mind & Body. By Stephen Macaulay.

New Joyce Manor: I Know Where Mark Chen Lives Video: Joyce Manor – “I Know Where Mark Chen Lives” Directed by Jason Link and Rowan Daly. From I Used To Go To This Bar, out on January 30 on Epitaph. I like short songs. I like …

New Joyce Manor: I Know Where Mark Chen Lives

Threefer Thursday: Why Prince Is the Greatest Performer of All Time I’ve been giving this a lot of thought over the years since Prince died. Watched a lot of live music, from him and others, on YouTube. Been to a lot of concerts myself. And I’ve come to…

Threefer Thursday: Why Prince Is the Greatest Performer of All Time. By Mike V.

Wrapping up 2025 I didn’t write one of these last year. I just couldn’t bring myself to do it. The election had something to do with it, of course, but I just couldn’t rouse the ambition or inspir…

Wrapping up 2025

New Amy Grant: The 6th Of January (Yasgur’s Farm) Video: Amy Grant – “The 6th Of January (Yasgur’s Farm)” Single out now on Thirty Tigers. Buckle up, motherfuckers, it’s going to be another bumpy year. I’ve been…

New Amy Grant: The 6th Of January (Yasgur’s Farm)

The “Sportive Element” On April 6, 1962, the New Your Philharmonic, under the direction of Leonard Bernstein, performed at Carnegie Hall. One of the selections was the Piano Concerto No. 1 in D minor, Op. 15, by Johannes…

The “Sportive Element”. By Stephen Macaulay.

I Love the Nightlife. . . Let me tell you how it will be There’s one for you, nineteen for me. . . .   As New Year’s Eve is upon us, and as many people are undoubtedly going out to parties, clubs, bars, and other venue…

I Love the Nightlife. . .. By Stephen Macaulay.

De-Toured Keith Richards turned 82 last week. Two days before his birthday the announcement came that the Rolling Stones’ anticipated European tour was being canceled. Apparently Richards’ arthritis, which h…

De-Toured. By Stephen Macaulay.

Road Wear As the year is coming to a close, Billboard has been compiling various and sundry lists, which makes more sense for it than for other outlets (e.g., Rolling Stone) for the simple reason that Billbo…

Road Wear. By Stephen Macaulay.

Mr. Simmons Goes to Washington “Gene Simmons”—the moniker of the guy with the prehensile tongue and face painted so that he is supposed to be the “Demon”—is the stage name of Eugene Klein, who was born Chaim Witz. He borrowed th…

Mr. Simmons Goes to Washington. By Stephen Macaulay.

Live: The Lemonheads in Kalamazoo Jeez, has it really been over twenty years since I saw Evan Dando in Chicago at the Taste of Randolph Street? Yes, yes it has. I wondered back then if his newfound sobriety would lead to more good …

Live: The Lemonheads in Kalamazoo

Tilly Norwood Meets Madonna “For performers, their voice and likeness are the foundations of a finely cultivated personal brand that’s been developed through years of dedication to craft.”—SAG-AFTRA “On April 12, SAG-AFTRA an…

Tilly Norwood Meets Madonna. By Stephen Macaulay.