Charlie Hall, “Invisible Ink.” Charlie Hall has spent most of his music career making other people sound good. Hall is a multi-instrumentalist, but he’s best-known as the drummer for Grammy-winning band The War On Drugs. He has a reputation among other musicians as a generous support player. Now, Hall…

Rachel Goodman’s favorite shows of 2022 include Wu-Tang Clan, LCD Soundsystem, Bikini Kill, Girl Talk, The House of Love, Trace Mountains, The Airborne Toxic Event and The War On Drugs. I was convinced I didn’t see many shows this year, but looking back I was dead wrong! So after…

Rachel Goodman’s top alt-rock and alt-pop songs of 2021. L to R; Row 1: Paul McCartney and Phoebe Bridgers; Maxïmo Park; Kings of Leon; Black Country, New Road; Wet Leg, The War on Drugs. Row 2: BC Camplight, Cannons, Strand of Oaks, Hovvdy, Ladyhawke, Fences, Sea Wolf, Courtney Barnett.…

The best albums of 2021 include Doja Cat, Poppy, Desperate Journalist, Demi Lovato, Garbage, James McMurtry, Deafheaven, Parquet Courts and Polo G. Best of 2021 We’re in the top 30 now! You’ve hopefully been waiting on the edge of your seat for a full week to get to this…

For its fifth album, The War On Drugs looked inward for musical and lyrical inspiration. While the songs weren’t specifically written for post-pandemic times, the lyrical messages of hope, fear and uncertainty resonate for many right now. Coming off a Grammy for A Deeper Understanding, the sextet was entering a…

Ernest Hemingway’s 1927 short story “The Killers” is an understated, subtle and tense tale of two hitmen in a diner. Most of the story’s simmering emotion is buried in lines of clipped dialog coming from men with unreadable faces. Imploding the Mirage, the new album from The Killers, is…

Yeah Yeah Yeahs perform at the Fox Theater in Oakland on Oct. 30, 2017. For me, this year proved that “Rocktober” really is the month to see some great concerts. My editors asked me to write about the shows I enjoyed most this year. While I don’t usually pick a hands-down…