W hen the pandemic brought the live-music industry to a complete stop in 2020, Bruce Springsteen found himself at home with a lot of free time on his hands. He decided to make good use of it by poring over his massive vault of unreleased music, pulling out seven complete …
Read More »One Year Later, These L.A. Artists are Still Grateful for The Pop Out
A year ago today, Kendrick Lamar’s one-night-only The Pop Out: Ken & Friends concert shut down LA (and the rap world) on Juneteenth. And while so much of the attention centered on Kendrick performing the Drake diss “Not Like Us” a whopping five times, the Compton rhymer was also lauded …
Read More »Sabrina Carpenter Is Under Fire for a Spicy Album Cover. Tell It to Carly Simon
Almost 25 years before Sabrina Carpenter was born, Carly Simon was in a department store in New York and feeling pretty good. She’d just released her fifth album, Playing Possum, and the frisky single “Attitude Dancing” was looking to follow her hits “You’re So Vain,” “Haven’t Got Time for the …
Read More »Brian Wilson's Last Playlist
The last time I saw Brian Wilson was in March of this year. I’d been going to visit him every few months or so since his wife, Melinda, died in 2024. Brian had quit touring two years earlier, so he was pretty much in retirement mode. We spent time watching …
Read More »Clifton Chenier Was a Music Icon. The Rolling Stones and Lucinda Williams Want You to Know Why
A few months ago, Joel Savoy, the Louisiana Cajun musician and label owner, was at a local pressing plant looking over the cover art for a just-finished tribute album to zydeco legend Clifton Chenier. The record already had a high-end roster — from veterans Lucinda Williams and Steve Earle to …
Read More »Sabrina Carpenter Cold-Plunges Before Every Show and 16 Other Things That Didn't Make Our Cover Story
It shouldn’t come as a surprise that Sabrina Carpenter is a really good hang. “Most people who are friends with a pop star would be like, ‘People don’t know that she’s so funny,” says her best friend, Paloma Sandoval. “But actually, it’s this incredibly unique situation where everyone knows that. …
Read More »People Are Discovering NYC Mayoral Candidate Zohran Mamdani's Rap Past
Curious voters often dig deep into the archives to find out more about mayoral candidates, but it’s rare for those scavenger hunts to uncover rap songs. That’s the case for Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic Socialist vying to be the next mayor of New York City. Before he became a standout …
Read More »Sabrina Carpenter Cold-Plunges Before Every Show and 16 Other Things That Didn't Make Our Cover Story
It shouldn’t come as a surprise that Sabrina Carpenter is a really good hang. “Most people who are friends with a pop star would be like, ‘People don’t know that she’s so funny,” says her best friend, Paloma Sandoval. “But actually, it’s this incredibly unique situation where everyone knows that. …
Read More »How Babytron Rapped Over 45 Beats Covering the Span of Hip-Hop History
Last week, Babytron fans expected new music for his birthday. Despite the anticipation for Luka Troncic 2, which is now scheduled for July 7, he did give fans “Lord of the Multiverse,” an 11-minute track where he raps over a beat representing every year in hip-hop history, from 1980 onward. …
Read More »Dancehall Legend Vybz Kartel on Life in Prison and His Miraculous Return
I t’s New Year’s Eve, and the roads that lead to Jamaica’s National Stadium are filled with food vendors manning their oil-drum grills. Some sell orange bandannas like the pair Vybz Kartel wore when he walked out of the Tower Street Adult Correctional Centre five months earlier, on July 31, …
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