‘The Ultimate Goal Is to Rock the Mic’: Ice Cube and the Strength of Street Knowledge
Ice Cube popped up at our virtual meeting wearing an Ice Cube hat with the name of his new album, Man Down, emblazoned on the front. A framed poster for…
The Professor Will Now Unpack — Player’s ‘Baby Come Back’
Tom Zoellner is a tenured Professor of English at Chapman University, the author of numerous distinguished works of non-fiction, and an editor-at-large of the Los Angeles Review of Books. Professor…
Why Ariana Grande Refused to Change This Song in ‘Wicked’
A Wicked fan favorite almost received a modern upgrade for the movie adaptation. In an interview with the Los Angeles Times published on Monday, November 25, Stephen Schwartz, who composed the music…
How ‘Demure’ Became 2024’s Word of the Year
The word “demure” has been named Dictionary.com’s 2024 Word of the Year, largely due to the creativity of TikToker Jools LeBron. According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, some of the earliest…
Michael Stipe, Flea, Kim Gordon To Salute Patti Smith At Carnegie Hall
R.E.M.’s Michael Stipe, the National’s Matt Berninger, Kim Gordon, Angel Olsen and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ Karen O will assemble March 26 at New York’s Carnegie Hall for The Music…
The Fab Four Conquer America With Gusto In ‘Beatles ’64’ Doc
For millions of American teenagers, the Beatles‘ Feb. 9, 1964, debut American television performance on The Ed Sullivan Show was the equivalent of an atomic bomb. Indeed, nothing would ever…
Flipturn Is Shining Light On a Personal Subject
The latest single from indie rockers flipturn has it both ways: “Sunlight” is an alluring, catchy track that builds on the band’s successful sonic character. But it’s also a deeply…
Every Mary J. Blige Album, Ranked
One of the most apt and unquestioned honorific nicknames in popular music is the Queen of Hip-Hop Soul. Mary J. Blige was born in the Bronx in the early ’70s,…
The Struts’ Luke Spiller ‘Can’t Stop Talking’
Luke Spiller, lead vocalist for British rock band the Struts, remembers the first time he saw the video for Michael Jackson’s “Smooth Criminal.” “I remember seeing the coin flip into…
COUNTRY GIRL: Lainey Wilson
Lainey Wilson misses her horse. Back home in Baskin, Louisiana, she keeps a brown quarter horse on the family farm, Tex, and he’s one of her oldest and dearest friends.…