Ryan Dombal

Hudson Freeman Is the Indie-Rock Philosopher Who Happened to Go Viral The pensive singer-songwriter embodies a jumble of contradictions: He’s a Brooklyn leftist who was raised in the evangelical church. An indie boy with grand ambitions. A viral phenom with songs that a...

nothing quite like the feeling of writing a story you're proud of for a publication you run and own with your friends. highly recommend!

Our ‘Waste or Taste’ Podcast Is Back! The new season kicks off with an episode all about our most controversial favorite songs of the past year—the ones we’re kind of embarrassed to enjoy, but enjoy nonetheless.

our podcast returns w/ some controversial faves from the past year—and yes, i brought ian's "xxl freshman freestyle" to the table. disagreements were had!

Ryan’s Favorite Music of 2025 The sounds that struck me most this year, including subversive slowcore, deranged future-pop, apocalyptic techno, and more.

my year-end list includes a lot of life-changing music that is not on all those other lists! such is the power of independent media!

In Praise of the Most Perfect Podcast Theme Song Ever As heard on the show ‘Heavyweight,’ a track by the Weakerthans expresses the beauty of life’s smallest and most consequential moments.

wrote abt the one podcast i'm not ashamed to listen to, that time a kid called me tom from myspace, the tabby king of clinton avenue, and the weakerthans' "sun in an empty room"

thank u maria!

five years of umaw—lots of wins, and a lot that has yet to be won

members and organizers speak to me about their experiences battling the powers that be and why anyone who cares about music needs to take artists' rights seriously

i have to give the edge to caroline 2, which is among my faves of the year, but def appreciate the collectivism in action generally speaking!

it's always incredible when an artist exceeds your own sky-high expectations. dijon did that. i wrote about it.

This One Weird Email Helps Explain the Horrible State of Concert Ticketing On the secondary market, tickets are now going for as much as $20,000. Why hasn’t the government stepped in?

absolutely. we also have a great piece by andy about this topic! www.hearingthings.co/this-one-wei...

appreciate this insight. how much do you have to pay on apple music to get started?

Qobuz reveals how much it really pays per stream, and I want to see more of this transparency to help us spend money more ethically Streaming firms are famously secretive. Will Qobuz's honesty tempt you to switch?

definitely apprecaite qobuz's transparency www.techradar.com/audio/audio-...

it's a wrap

We’re Throwing a Summer Party Starring Infinity Knives & Brian Ennals Celebrate the sweaty season with the brilliantly unfiltered rap duo at Trans-Pecos in New York City on June 26.

guaranteed catharsis + camaraderie at our summer party w/ infinity knives & brian ennals this thursday. tune in & show up!

❤️

we write. we edit. we report. we listen. we decide.

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plz support us if you're able.

thx!

Yeule on the Music They Want to Soundtrack Their Funeral The cybergoth star waxes philosophical on death, drugs, and sobriety—and details how they want their life to be celebrated with a furry-filled battle royale.

spoke w/ the almighty yeule about the songs they want to soundtrack their funeral for our existential playlist series. (to be clear, we wish for all the artists featured in this series to live very long lives!)

With His New Book ‘Run the Song,’ Ben Ratliff Searches for an Eternal Music The professor and former ‘New York Times’ critic talks about how running and listening can be endless rituals that transcend our era of constant optimization.

spoke w/ one of my absolute favorite music critics, ben ratliff, about his new book 'run the song.' topics include listening as a superpower, describing as an act of faith, endlessness, Hendrix, Monk, and the aesthetic failures of jam bands

we need to put "realer than i had anticipated" to the HT press packet!

yr a guiding light for me and so many others. we need yr work.

How Much Charli XCX Is Too Much Charli XCX? The pop star grappled with that very 2025 question on stage at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center last night.

somewhere between what was, what is, and what will be, charli brought brat to brooklyn

Tune In, Drop Out The independent musicians and labels who are saying no to streaming.

a probing, of-the-times piece by @cushac.bsky.social about musicians who are opting out of streaming and finding other ways to share their art and commune with listeners

tried to put my embarrassing late-night TV consumption to good use

Bon Iver Was Never Just Sad On the project’s bifurcated fifth album, ‘Sable, Fable,’ Justin Vernon undercuts his music’s emotional complexity.

as it happens, i found the "happy" bon iver album to be kind of a bummer

clear-eyed, heartwarming, and just very real—an incredible personal essay by @jillmapes.bsky.social about music, and listening, as legacy

Jane Remover Takes Their Place as Hyperpop’s Vengeful Superhero on ‘Revengeseekerz’ A spectacular rupture of sound and vision, the album marks a new high for one of the decade’s most enthralling young artists.

i wrote abt the jane remover album, which is incredible

Destroyer’s Dan Bejar on the Lyrics That Changed His Life The wonderfully confounding indie-rock bard honors the pure poetry of Syd Barrett, Lou Reed, Jim Morrison, and more.

i really enjoy talking w/ dan bejar—even if he told me he was "very disturbed by having to do" this interview

it knocked me out!

How Wilco’s Massive ‘A Ghost Is Born’ Box Set Complicates the Album’s Harrowing Myth Jeff Tweedy thought he was going to die while making the 2004 art-rock masterpiece. But there’s more to this album’s story than tortured-artist tropes.

wrote about one of my all-time faves, tortured artists, near-death dramatics, fundamentals, permutations, and the eight versions of "spiders (kidsmoke)" on the a ghost is born super deluxe edition

We’re Throwing a Party and You’re Invited March 20, Hearing Things takes over Trans-Pecos with a live performance from Lollise and vinyl DJ sets from Edan and our own Andy Cush.

oh wow, we're throwing our first hearing things party! music and merriment, offline and in person. it's going to be great.

would love to see you there!

got a lil existential w/ magdalena bay for our new interview series abt funeral music—immortality, cremation, billy joel, we get to it all