Many of us know a “record nerd,” a subset of aficionados with encyclopedic knowledge of and acerbic opinions about some musical niche or other. Record nerds wax poetically on the merits of the recording console at Sunset Sound, or the natural reverb in Abbey Road’s studio two. But many…

The airborne toxic event in Don DeLillo’s 1985 postmodern novel White Noise, from which the band The Airborne Toxic Event derives its name, involves a chemical spill that forces the book’s characters to grapple with their own mortality—while enjoying unnaturally beautiful sunsets. So while the timing of the release of…

Florian Schneider with Kraftwerk. Courtesy. Influential band Kraftwerk on Wednesday announced that pioneering electronic musician Florian Schneider died of cancer a few days after his 73rd birthday in early April. Schneider founded the German group with Ralf Hütter in 1970. The innovative band emerged from West Germany’s Krautrock scene and…

For nearly a century and a half, scholars and fans have puzzled over a mysterious line in Richard Wagner’s 1882 opera, “Parsifal.” During the first act, a wise knight named Gurnemanz describes the Grail castle to the fool Parsifal: “You see son, here time becomes space.” There’s a Quora…

John Prine performs at the Grand Ole Opry House in Nashville on Dec. 31, 2016. Photo: Amiee Stubbs. John Prine, one of America’s greatest homespun songwriters, died Tuesday at Nashville’s Vanderbilt University Medical Center from complications arising from a battle with COVID-19. Prine was hospitalized in late March after…

In 1920 poet T.S. Eliot wrote, “immature poets imitate; mature poets steal; bad poets deface what they take, and good poets make it into something better, or at least something different.” In the 1960s this passage should have been amended with the clause, “Great capitalists cash in.” When The…

Swedish electro-pop quartet Little Dragon‘s sixth studio LP, New Me, Same Us, delivers a polished collection of synthesized pop that draws heavily on both classic soul and contemporary R&B. New Me, Same Us Little Dragon Ninja Tunes Records, March 27 New Me, Same Us provides ample evidence that some things get…

The Technicolor Dream Coat. Photo by Quinn Gill. David Gill. Original art: Julia Kovaleva. “It’s more than a feeling (more than a feeling) When I hear that old song they used to play (more than a feeling) I begin dreaming (more than a feeling)” – “More Than a Feeling”…

Childish Gambino performs at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco during the Outside Lands Music Festival on Aug. 10, 2019. Joaquin Cabello/STAFF. Donald Glover, also known as Childish Gambino released what looks to be his new album Saturday night on the site DonaldGloverPresents.com. The link, which was later tweeted…

The morning after Donald Trump was elected president, I cried in my car like many others with a knowledge of history and a functioning ability to empathize, listening to The Flaming Lips “Waiting for Superman.” I was sad and, looking back, probably a little naive, wondering how the political…