Earlier this year, comedian John Mulaney appeared on Late Night With Seth Meyers to hysterically mock the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony, the annual event that “inducts half a dozen ungrateful bands” that “dress like John Varvatos pirates.” “Think of it like a wedding if every speech …
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“Real Life Rock Top Ten” is a monthly column by cultural critic and RS contributing editorGreil Marcus. 1. Fernando A. Flores, Death to the Bullshit Artists of South Texas (Host Publications). After reading the 10 singular tales in this book, Flores’ first, I have no idea who the bullshit artists …
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Popular musical rhythms are always skipping and skittering back and forth between Africa and its diasporic communities, from Jamaica to Brazil to Colombia and elsewhere. “That’s a process that’s been going on for a long, long time,” says musicologist Wayne Marshall, who teaches at Berklee College of Music. “What was …
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The rapper Yella Beezy was barely known outside of Dallas just six months ago, but when Beyoncé and Jay-Z’s On the Run II tour came to town in September, they invited the 26-year-old to open for them. That’s thanks to “That’s on Me,” which is both a great single and …
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Follow a long strip of one-lane blacktop through the woods off New York State Route 28 and you’ll find a spooky old estate called Big Indian Springs. A 20-bedroom Victorian hall perched on 37 acres of rolling Catskill foothills, it was once a summer camp for young women who worked …
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Listening to Austin-based singer-songwriter Molly Burch, you feel like you could be in a European nightclub in the 1930s or a Texas bar in the 1950s, or a retro-lounge in the last couple decades; there’s Buddy Holly in the way her vowels take joyfully wide-open anticipatory leaps, and some Marlene Dietrich in …
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On a cold day in February, Martin Luther King Jr. surprised Aretha in Detroit to present her with a special award on behalf of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference while she was in town to be honored with her own day, “Aretha Franklin Day”, by the mayor. Too sick to …
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Haley Heynderickx sings with warped-wood strength and radical tenderness. On her debut LP, released in March, she used that voice to give 2018 the war cry it needed, first singing, then howling, a statement that doubles as the album’s title:“I NEED TO START A GARDEN!” During a recent concert in …
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Quentin Miller became a household name for hip-hop fans back in the summer of 2015, when a reference track he recorded for Drake surfaced, proof for Meek Mill’s claim that the Canadian rapper used ghostwriters. Miller suddenly found himself on the front lines of a rap beef, the ammunition used …
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Maynard James Keenan travels light on the road. For the last 12 years, his main companion has been Miho, a tiny Yorkie currently asleep in his trailer backstage at Coachella, hours before A Perfect Circle hits the stage. Keenan’s history with the California desert music festival goes all the way …
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