Bluegrass favorite Billy Strings has announced the Streaming Strings 2020 Tour, which will take him to the stages of several Nashville venues during the month of July. The flatpicking ace’s shows will be streamed on a variety of online platforms, depending on the date. Performances get underway July 16th with …
Read More »Rufus Wainwright Drops Vintage 'You Ain't Big' Video
Rufus Wainwright released the video for the charming, folksy “You Ain’t Big,” the latest single off his upcoming album Unfollow the Rules, slated for July 10th. The clip opens in the style of an old film, complete with a scene in an editorial office as a man discusses how he …
Read More »'The Last Days of American Crime' Review: No. Nope. Nuh-Uh. Wrong
In the not-so-distant future, the U.S, government has developed the “American Peace Initiative,” commonly known as A.P.I. It’s essentially a piercing signal that, when deployed, prohibits a person’s thoughts regarding the practice of criminal behaviors — unleashing “the cop within,” according to its slogan. Announcers and electronic billboards count down …
Read More »Spare Us Your 'Mad Dog' Mattis Worship
Here come the generals. A procession of decorated former U.S. military leaders has spoken out in recent days to gravely denounce President Trump and his unmistakably authoritarian response to the demonstrations against police violence and racial injustice sparked by the death of George Floyd. James Mattis, a retired Marine Corps …
Read More »Protests and Plague in the Lone Star State
Interstate 35 is a six-lane scar that runs through the middle of Austin. To the south, the highway runs all the way down to the Mexican border. To the North, it zig-zags up to Minneapolis, where, on May 25th, Derek Chauvin, a white police officer, handcuffed and asphyxiated a black …
Read More »'In My Room' With the Indigo Girls
The Indigo Girls played a handful of songs from their manager’s office in Atlanta for In My Room, our IGTV series in which musicians perform while in quarantine during the COVID-19 pandemic. Seated at a safe distance from each other and in front of a couch covered with vinyl copies …
Read More »Trump Expresses Condolences to Family of George Floyd: 'I Understand the Hurt. I Understand the Pain'
Update: Later on Friday afternoon the president spoke to the media in the White House and said he reached out to the Floyd family and expressed sympathies and condolences. Related:Global Protests Begin After Police Killing of George Floyd “I want to express our nation’s deepest condolences and most heartfelt sympathies …
Read More »Smashy Smashy: When Property Destruction Works
Editor’s note: This story was originally published in October 2014, in the wake of civil unrest in Ferguson, Missouri, after Officer Darren Wilson shot 18-year-old Michael Brown to death. Weeks of protests ensued, in which destruction of property was called a “violent” act by those on the right. In the …
Read More »Flashback: Neil Young and Phish Play an Epic, Weed-Fueled 'Down by the River'
Phish have been dropping Neil Young covers into their live set ever since they first played “Cinnamon Girl” at Gallagher’s Bar & Grill in their native Vermont back in 1989. Over the years, they added “Albuquerque” and “Come On Baby Let’s Go Downtown” into the mix, but they never got …
Read More »Laughter, Tears, and Harmony: How Phoebe Bridgers Made 'Punisher'
Being Phoebe Bridgers is a pretty sweet gig. “I fucking love my life,” says the 25-year-old Californian. “My mom occasionally gets, ‘Are you related to Phoebe Bridgers?’ She fucking eats it up. And then she’ll be like, ‘I promised this couple that you would play their prom,’ and I’m like, …
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