I can’t tell if 645AR is doing a bit or not. The 22-year-old South Bronx rapper writes songs about serious street shit delivered in a high-pitched squeal of a voice, flipping our expectations for how those stories are meant to be told and undercutting their darkness with humor. In January, his breakout song “4 Da […]
We are living in dark and uncertain times — some, perhaps, might consider this a “ghost story” — so let us offer a balm: the musician Moses Sumney, and his sublime music video for “Cut Me.” Released Tuesday, it serves as the perfect entry into the drug that is his voice: It whines and soars […]
CVS Bangers Volume Four is music to panic-shop to, down ravaged carpeted aisles that may or may not play host to stray little COVID cells in their synthetic fibers as you scramble with trembling hands for that last roll of Quilted Northern stashed behind the value-size shampoos. It’s so inane as to be haunting. It’s […]
The coronavirus pandemic has put indie musicians in a tougher spot than most have ever been in before, with no ability to tour traditionally — and, therefore, sell more merch in person — due to social distancing measures and bans on large gatherings. It’s also given fans a conundrum: What’s the best way to support […]
I used to spend a lot of time inside as a kid, reading, writing, watching television, and nerding out over video games and comic books and whatnot. So, “social distancing” feels like my default form. Left to my own devices, I fill my nights to the brim with indoor entertainment and activities. I don’t know […]
The worlds of opera and classical music have had plenty of experience preparing for the day when their public would vanish, though they did think it would happen more gradually. To forestall the End Times, many organizations jumped into streaming years ago, unearthing archived recordings and old radio and TV broadcasts, and pushing out those, […]
When the lights dim and someone tall and famous and glamorous opens the envelope for Best New Artist at the Grammys on Sunday night, they will probably twist their lips to say the name we all expect: the teenage sensation Billie Eilish, whose horny-emo thumping pop music has earned her many a trophy and the […]
I’ve got to be honest. When I first heard Tarriona “Tank” Ball sing with Tank and the Bangas on their 2017 NPR Tiny Desk concert, I had no idea what this girl was talking about. “Would have been fish / Would have been meat / Would have been eggs / Would have been fruit,” begins […]