A review of this week’s Fargo, “The Birthplace of Civilization,” coming up just as soon as I’m punctilious with my elocution… “Why would I fight for a country that wants me dead?” —Loy “The Birthplace of Civilization” gets its title from a conversation between Ethelrida Pearl Smutny and Deafy Wickware. …
Read More »Hear Elton John's Bluesy Early Demo of 'Here's to the Next Time'
Elton John has unearthed his bluesy early demo of “Here’s to the Next Time” — recorded in 1967 when the artist was still known as Reg Dwight — as the latest offering from John’s upcoming Elton: Jewel Box collection, due out November 13th. This solo rendition of “Here’s to the …
Read More »Has Covid Leveled Peak TV?
Last week on the TV’s Top 5 podcast, Star Trek producer Alex Kurtzman dropped some numbers that made hosts Lesley Goldberg and Dan Fienberg, two jaded, longtime television writers, stop in their tracks. As talk turned to the strange new world of Covid-19, Goldberg asked how much Kurtzman’s budget had …
Read More »The Kinks Ready Huge 'Lola Versus Powerman' 50th-Anniversary Reissue
The Kinks will mark the 50th anniversary of their music industry-satirizing 1970 album Lola Versus Powerman and the Moneygoround Part One with a massive reissue that pairs the remastered album with studio outtakes, demo recordings, BBC performances, and previously unreleased material. The Lola Versus Powerman reissue arrives on December 18th. …
Read More »Low Cut Connie Let It All Hang Out on 'Private Lives'
It must be painful for Low Cut Connie mastermind Adam Weiner to keep himself from going overboard. The group’s sixth and latest album, Private Lives, is a double album, featuring 17 songs that Weiner recorded with nearly 40 of his closest friends. They indulge gospel-choir sing-alongs, channel classic-sounding soul horn …
Read More »Portugal. the Man, 'Weird Al' Yankovic Team Up for 'Who's Gonna Stop Me'
Portugal. the Man have joined forces with “Weird Al” Yankovic for “Who’s Gonna Stop Me,” a new single in honor ofIndigenous Peoples Day. Featuring the Last Artful, Dodgr and directed by Aaron Brown and Josué Rivas, the video opens with the band sitting around a fire as indigenous artists and …
Read More »Music at Home: Seventies Soul Protest Classics
By the dawn of the Seventies, the protest song was considered as much a relic of the previous decade as the word “groovy,” with notable exceptions like Edwin Starr’s “War,” Neil Young’s “Ohio,” and Bob Dylan’s “George Jackson.” As Arlo Guthrie told Rolling Stone this summer, “The music business went …
Read More »New Bonkers Interview: Trump Says He Beat Biden in Second Debate, an Event That Has Yet to Happen
In his first live interview since announcing that he tested positive for the coronavirus, President Trump called into Maria Bartiromo’s Fox program on Thursday and wasted no time in proving that he is still an awful human being. The president, with guidance from the Trump sycophant Fox host, hit many …
Read More »21 Savage and Metro Boomin's 'Savage Mode II' is a Near-Perfect Sequel to a Trap Classic
In the 1810 Caspar David Friedrich painting “Abbey in the Oakwood,” a group of monks carries a coffin through the snow into the crumbling ruins of a gothic abbey. Beyond the abbey, a grove of bald, gnarled oak trees basks in the dim sunlight. Death lingers, but not its fresh …
Read More »Chaos and Cannabis: A Hemp Empire Brings Trouble to Navajo Land
This story was originally published by Searchlight New Mexico and is posted here as part of an ongoing collaboration with Rolling Stone. SHIPROCK, N.M. — In the fertile northeast corner of the Navajo Nation, fields that only months ago were traditional open-air corn farms are now stuffed with hundreds of …
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