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. …

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 …

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 …

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. …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

I was diagnosed with a brain tumor in 2013, immediately following a summer tour with my band. It was a nightmare. I’m a full-time songwriter, and my specific type of tumor — an “acoustic neuroma,” which sits on one’s hearing nerve, causing terrible damage to the surrounding real estate — …