All these decades later, it’s easy to take Tapestry for granted. Like other 1971 staples, from Led Zeppelin IV toJoni Mitchell’s Blue, Carole King‘s second solo LP — released 50 years ago today, and recently named the 25th greatest album of all time by Rolling Stone — has always seemed …
Read More »Don't Call Jenny Lewis and Serengeti an Unlikely Duo
Jenny Lewis first met David Cohn, a.k.a. Chicago rapper Serengeti, at a Berlin music festival in 2018. The two became fast friends, but their hectic schedules initially prevented them from working together. Once the pandemic took hold, that all changed: Their isolation became a catalyst for collaboration. Last spring, the …
Read More »Save Our Stages: How an Industry Hail Mary Became Live Music's $15 Billion Lifeline
For Dayna Frank, owner of First Avenue in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the feeling was completely indescribable. For Kerri Park, general manager at World Cafe Live in Philadelphia, there was a palpable shift towards positivity. For Christine Karayan, owner of the Troubadour in Los Angeles, there was still some understandable hesitancy. It …
Read More »Musicians on Musicians: Barry Gibb & Jason Isbell
L ast year, Jason Isbell came home to his wife and bandmate, Amanda Shires, and played her a duet he’d just recorded with Barry Gibb. “She said, ‘That’s the best I’ve heard you sing,’” Isbell says. “I said, ‘Well, I was singing with Barry Gibb. I had to do my …
Read More »Record Store Day 2020: 16 Great Exclusives From the Black Friday Drop
Right about now, you might find yourself asking: “Didn’t Record Store Day already happen this year?” Well, yes — three times. Those were the “drops” created to replace the original April 2020 Record Store Day, which was canceled for pandemic reasons. This Friday, the traditional post-Thanksgiving Record Store Day is …
Read More »Song You Need to Know: Dry Cleaning, 'Scratchcard Lanyard'
“I think of myself as a hardy banana, with a waxy surface and small, delicate flowers,” Florence Shaw observes coolly toward the midpoint of the London band Dry Cleaning’s new single. She follows this image with a more violent one, delivered in the same detached tone and repeated for good …
Read More »Butch Vig on Why 'Who's Next' 'Didn't Sound Like Any Other Record'
This piece is part of our ongoing coverage of Rolling Stone’s newly updated500 Greatest Albums of All Time list. The Who‘s Who’s Next topped Butch Vig‘s personal ballot and landed at number 77 on the overall list. Here, Vig reflects on the huge impression the album made on him as …
Read More »Teddy Geiger Wanted to Soothe Herself. So She Wrote an Album in Isolation
Teddy Geiger was already planning on spending some time alone before the Covid-19 pandemic hit. She had booked a house in Big Sur for March, with the hopes of finishing her upcoming album there. Instead, she was stuck in New York for months. “It was the same idea of what …
Read More »Anjimile's Joyful Becoming
Anjimile Chithambo has always tried to do right by his students. The Boston-based singer-songwriter teaches after-school music classes for kids in kindergarten through fifth grade, and amid games of musical chairs and craft projects involving homemade instruments, he’s tried to mold their young minds by playing artists ranging from Madonna …
Read More »Juvenile's 400 Degrees of Fine Furniture
I’m about to hang up my Zoom call with Juvenile when shock spreads across the rapper’s face. He needs to show me one last thing. “You know I gotta let you see these pieces,” he exclaims. Situated in his suburban St. Louis backyard, Juvenile grins with pride as he pans …
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