The Speedy Ortiz interview experience, at least for this interviewer, is very much like their music: challenging. Angular and jarring moments frame and punctuate the more melodic chit-chat. Their approach, from the start is one of neutral restraint. Don’t get me wrong – they’re not impolite, or particularly guarded, but they’re also quite content to […]
Beyoncé’s Lemonade released initially as a surprise hour long video album, has generated tidal waves ofcommentary, the larger part of it being incredibly shallow. Whether it centered on the Jay-Z infedelity / who is Becky with the good hair themes, or took the format of privileged media figures (most notoriously Piers Morgan) reminding Beyoncé that […]
Machinehead’s Rob Flynn has opened a much needed and public discussion on racism in the metal community, calling out ex-Pantera front man Phil Anselmo for his chant of ‘White Pride’
How do you begin to describe the soul and funk legend that was / is James Brown? Well, if you’re Rolling Stone you choose one of America’s best contemporary novelists, Jonathan Lethem, and send him to spend time around Brown (who dubbed him ‘Mr Rolling Stone’ – going so far as to sing, off the […]
Iggy Pop’s John Peel Lecture, entitled ‘Free Music in a Capitalist Society’ grapples with notions of art, exploitation, file-sharing and – as has been widely publicised – U2’s free Apple-sponsored download. Using his lifetime’s experience in the music ‘industry’, Pop (a.k.a James Newell Osterberg, Jr.) talks about artistic ambitions, binary-code, and the relationship between money […]
