My Favorite Things

Midnight Oil’s Time Has Come Again

Midnight Oil’s Time Has Come Again

Midnight Oil taught me that citizens not only need a soundtrack for resistance, but we also need to resist.
Jon Brion’s Meaningless: An Appreciation

Jon Brion’s Meaningless: An Appreciation

Jon Brion is well known as a successful composer of film scores, but his 2001 self-released album, Meaningless, a lost power-pop classic, should be better known.
We’re Not Groupies, We’re Band Aids: How the Fans Loved and Destroyed One Direction

We’re Not Groupies, We’re Band Aids: How the Fans Loved and Destroyed One Direction

The millions of young women in One Direction’s fan base made the band – and made sure that they would never be artists in their own right.

The Beatles ‘Abbey Road’ — But Oh, That Magic Feeling, Nowhere to Go

The Beatles ‘Abbey Road’ — But Oh, That Magic Feeling, Nowhere to Go

Abbey Road still fills me with the sense of wonder and fascination it did when listening to it over and over on my dad’s turntable.

What We Lost When We Lost Philip Seymour Hoffman

Beware Soaring Yarmulkes! Jon Madof and Zion8 Are Making World Music for a New World

Beware Soaring Yarmulkes! Jon Madof and Zion8 Are Making World Music for a New World

With Zion80, Jon Madof is not making a departure so much as a logical, if inspired, continuation of the ground he’s covered the past decade.

Smoke Up, Johnny: The Breakfast Club, Still Gloriously Poignant 25 Years Later

All the Faith in the World: Holiday

Shriekback and Me

Bob & Ray: The Two and Only

Let Me Into Your Mind: How J.Ralph Changed My Life

Scud Mountain Boys: How to Burn a Silo