“RealLife Rock Top Ten” is a monthly column by cultural critic and RS contributing editorGreil Marcus. 1. Nobody’s Baby, “Life of a Thousand Girls” (Bandcamp). “All the ingredients to an American classic, the Teenage Death Song,” says this San Francisco foursome of itself. “Noboby’s Baby formed around the idea of …
Read More »Will Michael Cohen Deliver the Goods on Trump?
Do you believe Michael Cohen? Several outlets reported on Tuesday that Trump’s former lawyer and fixer is prepared to offer damning testimony concerning his former boss, including that he engaged in criminal conduct while in office. The revelations will come Wednesday, when Cohen is scheduled to testify publicly before the …
Read More »Music's Big Three Labels Make $19 Million a Day From Streaming
There’s a fresh flow of cash in the record business these days. For an idea of how and why, look no further than the amounts that Sony, Universal and Warner pulled in from streaming services alone in 2018: a combined $6.93 billion in wholesale revenue, as reported in recent investor …
Read More »Sen. Dianne Feinstein Condescends to Kid Activists Touting Green New Deal
Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) met with a group of child climate activists from Youth vs. Apocalypse in her regional senate office on Friday. The children were there to hand Feinstein a letter they had written urging her to support the Green New Deal, an aggressive climate change bill spearheaded by …
Read More »Peter Frampton Announces Farewell Tour
Peter Frampton is the latest classic rock icon to announce that his next tour will be his last. A extensive arena and amphitheater farewell tour – which will feature Jason Bonham’s Led Zeppelin Evening as the opening act most nights – kicks off June 18th at the Hard Rock Hotel …
Read More »Harmonies Are Out of Style. This Soul Group Is Trying to Change That
When Durand Jones & the Indications released their self-titled debut album in 2016, it didn’t take long for them to notice that fans were gravitating to a particular track: “Is It Any Wonder,” a lolling, pretty soul ballad, with sharp rim-shots puncturing long lines of prepubescent falsetto from drummer Aaron …
Read More »L.A. Police Ordered to Unseal Details of Shootings, Misconduct
For decades, law enforcement officers in California could rest assured that their personnel records — including civilian complaints, use of force reports and disciplinary measures — would never face public scrutiny, shielded, as they had been since the 1970s, by the state’s strict police privacy laws. That all changed last …
Read More »See Michael Jackson's Accusers Talk Alleged Abuse in 'Leaving Neverland' Trailer
The trailer for the upcoming documentary, Leaving Neverland, shows the story of two men who claim Michael Jackson sexually abused them as children. The two-part film tells the stories of James Safechuck and Wade Robson, who claim Jackson molested them and swore them to secrecy. The first episode will air …
Read More »Oscars 2019: Who Should Win, Who Will Win
There’s a crisis at the Oscars this year — and it’s not about #OscarsSoWhite or #TimesUp, though those inclusion issues still deserve attention. Let’s call this catastrophe #OscarsSoMoney. It’s a year in which the Academy seems less interested in the quality of films than in the numbers they can attract …
Read More »Review: Avril Lavigne Goes the Breakup-Album Route on 'Head Above Water'
Avril Lavigne’s first record since the beginning of Barack Obama’s second term (in other words, seemingly centuries ago) finds everyone’s favorite arrested-development case emerging from a physically and emotionally debilitating time. She divorced husband number two, Nickelback’s Chad Kroeger, and was diagnosed with Lyme disease so severe that she was …
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