@willhermes.bsky.social
Writer, music usually. https://newmusicoldmusic.substack.com/ Contributing Editor @rollingstone.com @nytimes.com @pitchfork.com @npr.org Books: Love Goes To Buildings On Fire 🔥 Lou Reed: The King of New York 👑 https://linktr.ee/willhermes
New songs from the UK speaking to the moment and beyond. Sault. Cleo Sol. The brilliant and spirited Joshua Idehen. Billy Bragg. Arlo Parks. A potent new single from Peter Gabriel.
From the US: María Zardoya (of the Marias). Mitski. Ratboys. Lucinda Williams. Bruce Springsteen.
🫡 🔊 🔊
28.01.2026 19:46 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0Thanks John 🫡 souls are in need of tonic
24.01.2026 04:24 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0this is a wonderful writeup with playlists in several diff formats linked at the end. Pictured is Eve Goodman and SERA whose harmonies are a tonic for the spirit
23.01.2026 13:46 — 👍 70 🔁 1 💬 1 📌 0
I spent last week in Belfast. It was beautiful and powerful — the people, the music, the living history. I posted at length about it on my Substack today (music included). Enjoy.
20.01.2026 20:16 — 👍 7 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 1
David Bowie's Blackstar came out 10 years ago. He died two days later. Tomorrow's the anniversary of his death, so I’m reposting this — a look at the final box set in his reissue series, plus the essay I wrote about Blackstar (and ars moriendi) for the NYT Magazine. open.substack.com/pub/newmusic...
09.01.2026 15:42 — 👍 3 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
HBD Patti Smith!!!
Picking up Bob's Nobel: youtu.be/941PHEJHCwU
More
@janetmaslin.bsky.social: www.nytimes.com/2010/01/18/b...
@jaygabler.com: www.thecurrent.org/feature/2021...
w/David Remnick: www.newyorker.com/podcast/the-...
@willhermes.bsky.social: newmusicoldmusic.substack.com/p/patti-smit...
Via @willhermes.bsky.social, this 1977 Dutch doc about L.A. rock features, @ 4:30, Linda Rondstadt, in plain language, nicely and not at all unkindly, demolishing every macho rock shibboleth in sight in about two minutes. I cannot stop laughing. www.youtube.com/watch?v=IXTH...
02.01.2026 07:36 — 👍 27 🔁 6 💬 1 📌 2
Parting shots and shout-outs, the Yo La Tengo Chanukah shows (Jeff Tweedy, Bonnie “Prince” Billy), young Geese footage 2021 + more. Happy New Year, y’all. We made it.
29.12.2025 15:14 — 👍 4 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0Thanks Scott 🙏🏽
11.11.2025 18:48 — 👍 12 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0That Molly et al track must be sick in the club, I love the floaty groove and the Afrobeats - dancehall crosstalk.
19.12.2025 14:42 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
A 150+ song cherry-picked best-of-year playlist (in all streaming formats) w/ footnotes and an ode to the beauty of handmade mixes.
Happy holidays, and here's to a hopeful 2026 ❤️
It’s very good — a grower for sure.
15.12.2025 02:57 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
I’ll be talking about The Year in Music 2025 with the brilliant Mark Richardson (Pitchfork/WSJ) on Substack in an hour — that's 11AM ET / 4PM GMT / 8AM PT
There will be talk of Geese, Rosalía, and much more. Let us know if there’s anything you’d like us to riff on!
Cover versions = my comfort food.
Here's a playlist stream w/ 11+ months worth:
The Pretenders by Sharon Van Etten
Brewer & Shipley by Pavement
Clairo by Olivia Dean
Blink 182 by Madi Diaz
Gillian Welch by Mavis Staples
Clifton Chenier by Lucinda Williams
Lucinda Williams by Margaret Glaspy
etc.
Thanks!
21.11.2025 03:59 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
I wrote about Patti Smith's incandescent new memoir for
@theguardian.com — and yes, as a fan of Just Kids and M Train, I too said "what, another one?" It's totally gorgeous.
Thanks Scott 🙏🏽
11.11.2025 18:48 — 👍 12 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
RESCHEDULED: Next Sunday Nov 16 at 8pm ET/ 5pm PT I’m teaching a biographical writing class on Zoom via Five Things. My Lou Reed biography will be a touchstone, as will "Love Goes To Buildings On Fire" and my magazine work. Excited for this one — join me.
08.11.2025 20:51 — 👍 5 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0Congrats, Tricia! Such a great book. ❤️
04.11.2025 12:51 — 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
It was indeed a perfect day with @willhermes.bsky.social and a fun reading and event at the @goldennotebkbooks.bsky.social in Woodstock. Great to see old friends and meet new ones, including @joehagantv.bsky.social who took the first photo and had blurbed the book!
03.11.2025 21:16 — 👍 10 🔁 2 💬 2 📌 0
My cherry-picked playlist — 90 songs formatted for most streaming platforms. Every song has something special.
Plus my notes and album reviews, of Tortoise and the surprise Waxahatchee side project, Snocaps (Katie and Allison Crutchfield).
Autumnal sounds. Music for hibernation and heading south.
The quality of this woman's music over the past 5 years has been astonishing. Here's more proof.
27.10.2025 00:59 — 👍 8 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Backstories of Springsteen's best LP and its indie-rock ripple effects — via the new film & box set, with a selective dip into the vast online archive of bootlegs. This one was very satisfying to write & research. You’re welcome.
26.10.2025 01:26 — 👍 11 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0Trish! Can’t wait.
25.10.2025 03:42 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
In just over a week, I will be in upstate New York talking to @willhermes.bsky.social at @goldennotebkbooks.bsky.social. He is the author of the excellent Lou Reed biography King of New York. Please stop by!
goldennotebook.com/e...
Paperback out Nov 4 from @PublicAffairsBooks.
RIP producer/ringmaster Hal Wilner.
20.10.2025 12:19 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0Nice one. Thanks Kirk!
16.10.2025 12:24 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0I think the main thing is people think the product newspapers and magazines sell is a generic "content," when really it's trust.
14.10.2025 14:34 — 👍 7 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 1
